INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH ARTICLE ABSTRACTS a GENRE BASED STUDY OF LINGUISTIC FEATURES AND MOVE STRUCTURE

It will be valuable fornovice writers such as graduate students, especially those from non-Englishcountries, who want to submit articles for publication, to know both thelexico-grammatic

A number of people helped me when this thesis was on its ways My grateful thanks in particular are to Assoc Prof Ton Nu My Nhat, my supervisor, who has supported me a lot during the time I work on my thesis Thanks for her kind encouragements, her endless patience, her critical comments and her valuable materials Her invaluable reading of the drafts as well as her useful feedback have contributed to the final form of this thesis My sincere thanks are also to my family members for their cooking and doing the chores so as to help me save time to do this thesis Special thanks are to my parents for their love and kind support during the time I was engaged in this work I am also grateful to my friends and classmates for their warm encouragements, help and valuable materials; I will not name here for fear I might inadvertently leave someone out This thesis would not be possible without their contributions.

Thank you all!

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

This thesis represents my own work and due acknowledgment is givenwhenever information is derived from other sources No material which hasbeen or is being concurrently submitted for any other qualification at anyuniversity is found, except where due reference has been made in the text

Quy Nhon, 2019

PHAN THI MY HAO

infrequent As regards move structure, obligatory moves are Presenting the research (M2), Describing the methodology (M3), Summarizing the results (M4) and Discussing the research (M5) Moreover, there is a close relationship

between lexico-semantic features and the moves identified The results of thisstudy can serve as data for further studies and contribute to methodologicaladvancements in the field of Genre analysis; it also holds pedagogicalimplications for teaching English for Academic Purposes

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1.1 RATIONALE

Research articles (RAs) is produced to communicate new knowledge tomembers of the academic community and thus persuading them to accept theclaims (Hyland, 2000) Of which, one of the key parts is the abstract Theabstract is considered as the point of departure of most research articles Asopined by Pho (2008, p 231), it is the first section to be read, and it more orless “sells” the article Also, Hartley (2003) says that the abstract tends to bethe first part of a journal article to be read because it captures the essence ofthe whole article For Martín (2003), very few journals would not require anabstract to be submitted with the main research article Due to the importance

of the communicative appeal of an abstract, many journals that are published

in languages other than English also need the submission of an Englishversion of the abstract (Lorés, 2004)

Therefore, abstract is an important genre that needs to be studied, forboth writing and reading purposes More than 25 years ago, Graetz (1982)pointed out that the abstract greatly improved the journal comprehension ifreaders could recognize the linguistic signals of the different functions of anabstract Thanks to the signals which provide a clear guidance to readers,writers can communicate their ideas more effectively It will be valuable fornovice writers such as graduate students, especially those from non-Englishcountries, who want to submit articles for publication, to know both thelexico-grammatical features of the abstract and its rhetorical organization.Recognizing the importance of having a good abstract, I decide to carryout an analysis of lexico-grammatical features and move structure of RAAs inthe field of ELT This study is conducted with the hope that its result will

provide some useful knowledge in terms of lexico-grammatical features aswell as the move structure of this genre.

1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

1.2.1.Aim of the study

This study is a genre analysis of the abstract section of RAs Theoverarching aim of this study is to provide an in-depth description of lexico-grammatical and textual features of RAAs in the field of ELT from theperspectives of the Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) of Halliday andMatthiessen (2004), and move structure of Swales (1990)

1.2.2.Objectives of the study

To achieve this aim, the research addresses the following objectives:

- To describe lexico-grammatical features representing transitivity,modality and thematic structure of RAAs in the fields of applied linguistics;

- To describe the move structure of RAAs in the field of applied linguistics;

- To describe the correlation of lexico-grammatical features and the move structure of RAAs in the field of applied linguistics

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

- What is the distribution of lexico-grammatical features concerningtransitivity, modality and thematic structure of RAAs in fields of appliedlinguistics?

- What are the move patterns of RAAs in fields of applied linguistics?

- What are the characteristic features of the moves in RAAs in fields of applied linguistics?

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Due to the limited time and the scale of an MA thesis, only 30 RAAs inthe fields of applied linguistics serve as the data for this exploration Of therange of professional journals published in English the world over, I decided

to choose only two, which are especially prestigious and widely circulated.They are English for Specific Purposes Journal (ESPJ) and TESOL QuarterlyJournal (TSQJ)

In addition, of multiple lexico-grammatical dimensions representing thethree lines of meaning in SFG, this investigation focuses on only one

dimension in each meaning, namely transitivity to explore the experiential meaning, modality to explore the interpersonal meaning, and thematic structure to explore the textual meaning.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Practically, this study contributes to the literature on genre-basedanalyses of RAA in particular and RA in general Particularly, the studyprovides a description of the lexico-grammatical features and move structure

of RAAs Practically, it is a useful source for not only teachers of writingacademic English but also novice writers who are interested in submittingarticles for international publication In particular, based on the basis of theprominent linguistic features of the genre, the teachers can orient students towhat must be included in RAAs to have a successful publication

Theoretically, this study is a contribution to the methodology of based research on RAAs Firmly based on SFG, this study extends the previousstudies on RAAs in general and RAAs in particular Whereas the previousstudies investigated the linguistic features separately in traditional terms, it is

move-in this present study that the three lmove-ines of meanmove-ings are brought together andsystematically interpreted as characteristic features of individual moves.

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

This paper is organized as follows:

Chapter 1, Introduction, introduces the rationale, the aim and objectives,

the scope of the study, research questions, the significance of the study andthe organization

Chapter 2, Literature Review, presents brief accounts on the literature of

Genre analysis, SFG, abstracts in academic writing as well as a review ofprevious studies related to this study

Chapter 3, Methodology, describes the research methods, research

procedures, description of data collection and analysis

Chapter 4, Findings and Discussion, presents the results, describing the

lexico-grammatical features of transitivity, modality, the thematic structure,and the move structure of RAAs in ELT The results are also interpreted inlight of the relevant literature

Chapter 5, Conclusion and Implications, provides a summary of the

major findings, pedagogical implications and limitations and puts forwardsome suggestions for further research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides an overview of the theories closely related to theexploration How “genre” is technically defined and how genre has beenapproached in the literature are first dealt with The second main ground lieswith the theory of SFG, where only the three aspects in focus are taken intoaccount The chapter will close with a review of the previous studies relevant

to this study

2.1 GENRE ANALYSIS

2.1.1.Genre defined

Discourse analysis is a new branch of linguistics that grew out of work

in various areas during the late 1960s and early 1970s It has been extensivelyexplored by researchers from different disciplines due to its huge practicalapplicability in different fields of our daily life Discourse analysis gives usdeep views into various aspects of language in use By learning discourseanalysis, we know how texts are structured beyond sentence level; how talksfollows regular patterns in different circumstances Moreover, it has manypractical applications in language teaching

Then the late 1980s and early 1990s, witnessed a preoccupation withtexts concerning socially relevant domains This gave rise to a new trend in

discourse analysis called Genre Analysis.

Genre analysis is one of the most important approaches to text-levelanalysis that has attracted significantly large numbers of investigations indifferent fields According to Bhatia (1993), genre analysis is known as study

of situated linguistic behavior in institutionalized academic or professionalcontext Because of its significant pedagogical implications for ESP and EAP

practitioners, genre analysis is considered as one of the important approaches

to RA analysis

Swales and Feak (2009) defined genre as a type of discourse or text that

is designed to achieve a set of communicative purposes It can be seen in very

simple terms as register plus communication purpose It tends to give a

grounded description of language in use rather than a surface analysis oflinguistic form According to Swales (1990, p 58), “a genre comprises a class

of communicative events” He states that “a communicative event is one inwhich language plays both a significant and an indispensable role” (Swales,

1990, p 45) He also claims that the communicative event is a complexnotion, including not only the discourse itself but also the role of the discourseand the environment and culture surrounding it

As defined by Holmes (1997), the communicative purposes reflected incertain structural patterns are both the most important and the most commonfeatures differentiating one genre from another Yearley (1981) noted thatresearch article is considered as one of the most applicable genres in academicresearch writing which has been broadly surveyed and generated abundantpedagogical implications

Recent years have seen increased attention being given to the notion ofgenre in the area of English language teaching This is especially the case inthe teaching of English for specific purposes (ESP), the teaching of English inAustralia, and the teaching of composition studies in North America

2.1.2 Approaches to Genre Analysis.

The main approaches to the analysis of genres are English for Specific Purposes (ESP), Rhetorical Genre Studies (RGS) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL).

Most generally, ESP views genre as a communicative event

characterised by their communicative purposes as well as rhetorical featureswhere the discourse community acts as one which recognises and sanctions

the acceptance of a genre SFL perceives genre as the cultural purpose of

texts, achieved through a genre’s structural and realisational patterns where

meanings are made within the genre RGS considers genre as a form of social

action involving analysis of genre through detailed accounts of the social andcultural contexts with an emphasis on how a genre fulfills its social purposeand actions A more detailed account of each approach will be given below

2.1.2.1.ESP approach.

According to Hyland (2002), the ESP approach adopts the Bakhtiniannotions of intertextuality and dialogism and draws on the Systemic Functionalunderstandings of text structure Swales (1990) and Bhatia (1993) stated thatthe central focus of the ESP approach lies in the analysis of thecommunicative purpose and formal language features of a genre in its context

of use, aimed at providing language learners appropriate language resourcesand skills in their attempt to gain access to the English language demands thatthey encounter in their studies or professions In this approach, genres areunderstood as communicative tools situated within the social context It aims

at examining the discourse community’s goals and how genre features interms of their structure and lexicogrammar help to embody and assistmembers of the discourse community to serve their communicative goals

The key concepts within the ESP approach are the interrelated concepts

of discourse community and communicative purpose.

Regarding discourse community, Swales (1990, p 24-27) perceived it ashaving six defining characteristics that help to identify a group of individuals

as a discourse community: a set of common public goals, establishedmechanisms of intercommunication, information and feedback through aparticipatory mechanism, one or more genres to further the community’saims, specific lexis, and membership includes both apprentices and expertswith suitable degree of relevant expertise From the ESP approachperspective, genres are seen to be serving both as a means of achieving andfurthering discourse communities’ goals as well as a way of assisting newmembers of discourse communities in acquiring and initiating into discoursecommunities’ shared goals

Swales (1990, p 46) argued that “a collection of communicative events areturned into a genre by a shared set of communicative purposes” By this way thefocus of genre is put on “shared purpose rather than on similarities of form orsome other criterion” Swales believed that communicative purpose is the keyfactor that leads us to decide whether a text is an instance of a particular genre ornot and it is the most important aspect of a genre Similarly, Bhatia (1993, p 13)maintained the nature of a genre “is primarily characterized by thecommunicative purpose(s) that it is intended to fulfill” The communicativepurpose will determine the structure of the genre It is this communicativepurpose that is a fairly reliable criterion to identify and distinguish sub-genres

2.1.2.2.RGS approach

RGS is also known as the North American Genre Theory RGS approach

to genre studies is affected by the developmental psychology and cognitive science which emphasizes the social purposes of genre

meta-The primary focus of the RGS approach is to understand how genre

“mediates situated practices, interactions, symbolic realities and congruentmeanings” (Bazerman, 2003, p 380) This aims at gaining insights intogenres’ dynamic relationship to exigencies, situations and social motives inthe way people construct, interpret and act within particular situations throughthe study of the society Therefore, RGS is concerned with the investigation

of contexts Miller (1984) stated that genre cannot be studied without studyingthe community in which particular genre is found and that it is ethnographic

in nature She also asserted that defining genres as rhetorical actions meansrecognising genres as forms of social interpretation that make certain actionspossible

The key concept within the RGS approach is the concept of typification.

According to Bazerman (1994, p 18), “typifications of situations, goals andtasks can be crystallised in recognisable textual forms, deployed in recognisablecircumstances […] The textual features of genres serve as well-knownrhetorical problems arising in well-known rhetorical situations” Miller (1984)asserted that genre must be defined by the substantive and formal features thatgenres embody as well as by the social actions they help produce Her notion ofgenre has shaped the field of RGS which allows the platform for researchers whoare interested in studying cultural patterns and practices within genres whilesimultaneously challenges those to take into account how genres

might be beneficial for those interested in understanding and participating inparticular social actions.

Hyon (1996) stated that RGS analysis of genre focuses more onsituational context in which genre occurs rather than on linguistic forms.Sharing the same view, Flowerdew and Wan (2010) asserted that the centralfocus of RGS is to understand the culture of the discourse communityincluding probing into the activities, attitudes, beliefs, values and patterns ofbehaviour Therefore, understanding genres involves not only describing theirlexicogrammatical forms and rhetorical patterns, but also investigating theirsocial, cultural, and institutional contexts Hyland (2004, p 36) summarizesthe contribution of this movement in his observation that "through thesecontexts, we can understand the circumstances in which creativity isemployed in writing and how meanings are negotiated" Textual regularitiesare not ignored, but they are regarded as evidence of how people respond toroutine situations in ways that differ by culture and by community

2.1.2.3.SFL approach

The SFL school of genre is often known as the Sydney school It hasdeveloped mainly independently of RGS and ESP and draws mostly on thetheoretical work of SFL of Michael Halliday (1978)

In this approach, the concept of genre can be known as an enhancement

of Halliday’s theory of the relationship between form, function and context Inthe SFL approach, genre is seen as a goal-oriented social activity Martin, J

R (1984, p 25) regards genres as staged, goal-oriented and purposeful socialactivities that people engage in as members of their culture Eggins (2004)posits that genre is the cultural purpose of texts and expressed within textsthrough its structural and realisational patterns

The key concept in the SFL approach is realisation SFL considers this

concept as a key notion which helps to describe the dynamic relationship betweenlanguage that realises social purposes and contexts Simutaneously, socialpurposes and contexts also help to realise language In this approach, languageplays a role in assisting people to become socialised and performing meaningfulactions Halliday (1978) described this as ‘context of situation’ labeled as

‘register’ Martin (1984) claims that register function at the level of ‘context ofsituation’ whereas genre functions at the level of ‘context of culture’

Moreover, this approach focuses on the hierarchical relation betweenlanguage and culture, and considers genre to be representation of the culturalcontext This cultural context determines the schematic or organizationalstructure of the text Genres therefore vary from culture to culture We canrecognize genres because they are social activities that are familiar in ourculture

However, the context of culture is an abstract and general concept andcannot be directly identified in the language Its realization is mediated in twoways Firstly, the mediation is realized by specifying schematic structure.Secondly, it is mediated by the second level of context called register Eggins(2004) expresses the relation between genre, register and language in thefollowing terms:

- Language is used with a function or purpose, and this use is connected with a given situation and a specific culture

- The context of situation (register) is less abstract, less general than the context of culture (genre)

- Genres are realised through languages, and this process of realising genres in language is mediated through the realization of register

In addition, associations between a particular genre and particularsemantic features of textual, interpersonal and ideational meanings are alsointensively described in SFL Registers are reflected in the kinds of linguistic

choices that typically realise three aspects of a text, including: Field, Mode and Tenor Each of these situational variables has a systemic and predictable

relation with lexico-grammatical patterns

FIELD refers to the topic of the situation and is realised via thetransitivity system in language Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, p 22)defined field of discourse as “the total event, in which the text is functioning,together with the purposive activity of the speaker of writer; it thus includesthe subject-matter as one element in it” Field is not the same as subject Insome cases, field is characterized by various subject matters It is realizedthrough transitivity and logico-semantic structures

TENOR relays the social relations between the participants It describes thepeople taking part in an event as well as their relationships and roles to thesituation These roles include the speech roles that are brought into existence viathe exchange of verbal meanings On the other hand, tenor is also discussed interms of the interactants’ status which focuses on power relations Tenor isrealized through the grammatical use of the mood system and modality

MODE refers to the role of language in an interaction Firstly, modedifferences distinguish the different organisation of spoken and writtensituations Secondly, mode variation also affects the degree of grammaticalcomplexity and lexical density of the language chosen Mode is realizedthrough the linguistic choice of information structure, thematic structure, andcohesion

In the SFL approach, register contextualises language and is in turncontextualised by genre This approach acknowledges the purposeful, interactiveand sequential character of different genres and the ways in which language issystematically linked to context Therefore, genre analysis within this approachsets out to examine the distinctive stages or moves evident within genres alongwith the patterns of lexical, grammatical and cohesive choices which ‘constructthe function of the stages of the genres’ (Rothery, 1996, p 93)

2.1.3.Move Structure

According to Swales (2004, p 228), Move is defined as “a discoursal orrhetorical unit that performs a coherent communicative function in a written

or spoken discourse” Furthermore, “a Move, at one extreme, can be realized

by a clause; at the other by several sentences It is a functional, not a formalunit” (Swales, 2004, p 228) Pho (2009) stated “each move has its owncommunicative purpose, which, together with other moves, contributes to thegeneral communicative purpose of the text” Samraj (2009, cited in Darabad,2016) indicated that each rhetorical move can be realized by one or moresteps, but not all moves comprise constituent steps In general, when moves orsteps occur regularly in a genre, they are considered obligatory

The identification of moves is a key step in a rhetorical structure analysis

As one of the pioneers, Swales (1981) conducted a move-step analysis on thestructure of RA introductions He analyzed the RA introductions across a range

of fields, and claimed that there was a basic four-move structure in the RAintroduction: 1 Establishing the research field, 2 Reporting previous research,

3 Preparing for present research, and 4 Introducing present research In

1990, he revised the structure to a three-move pattern, called the space model (CARS model), summarized as Table 2.1

create-a-research-Table 2.1 Swales’ (1990) CARS model MOVE 1 ESTABLISHING A TERRITORY

Step 1-1 Claiming centrality and/or Step 1-2 Making topic generalizations and/or Step 1-3 Reviewing items of previous research MOVE 2 ESTABLISHING A NICHE

Step 2-1A Indicating a gap or Step 2-2B Adding to what is known Step 2-2 Presenting positive justifications MOVE 3 PRESENTING THE PRESENT WORK

Step 3-1 Announcing present research descriptively and/or

purposively Step 3-2 Presenting RQs or hypotheses Step 3-3 Definitional clarifications Step 3-4 Summarizing methods Step 3-5 Announcing principal outcomes Step 3-6 Stating the value of the present research Step 3-7 Outlining the structure of the paper

A very large number of move-based studies of the RA have been carriedout over the past four decades, as reviewed in Nhat (2019) Take Samraj(2002) and Santos (1996) as examples

Samraj (2002) analysed the RA introduction section in two disciplines _conversation biology and wildlife behavior, by using the CARS model ofSwales She revealed that one further step “the discussion of previous

research” was found It occurred not only in Move 1, establishing a territory, but also in the other two moves establishing a niche and occupying the niche.

She named this element a “freestanding sub-step”

Santos (1996) analysed the move structure of RAAs at two levels The firstwas the features at the macro-level of textual organization The second one wasthe features at the micro-level of sentence organization He collected 94 abstracts

in the field of applied linguistics and his analysis revealed a structure of fivemain moves (M) He stated that the RAAs include: situating the research (M1),presenting the research (M2), describing the methodology (M3),

summarizing the results (M4), and discussing the research (M5) This modelwill be discussed in more details in section 2.4 as it serves as the theoreticalframework for this present study.

2.2 SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR (SFG)

SFG is a social, descriptive theory of language It is part of a socialsemiotic approach to language called systemic functional linguistics (SFL) It

is not a set of rules for specifying grammatical structures; it is a resource forcreating meanings by means of wording

Halliday (1970) stated three basic metafunctions of language The first

function is called the ideational function which serves for the expression of

content It refers to meaning or human experience of the world, including theworlds in minds, to describe events and states, and the entities that are

involved in them The second function is the interpersonal function This

refers to the set of communication roles created and maintained by language

itself The textual meaning uses language to organize human’s experiential,

logical and interpersonal meaning into a coherent whole By this function,language allows us to produce coherent pieces of discourse

In SFL, each metafunction is realized through choices from varioussystems in the lexicogrammar of a language The ideational metafunction isrealized through different process types and logico-semantic types; theinterpersonal one through mood and modality, and the textual one throughthematic structure, information structure and cohesion The correlationbetween context, functions and wordings can be seen in the followingdiagram, as summarized by Eggins (2004)

Figure 2.1 Context, semantics and lexico-grammar (Eggins, 2004, p 112)

The transitivity, modality and thematisation, which are the threedimensions that this study is focused on are presented in details below Theaccount is heavily withdrawn from the widely circulated works on SFL,namely Downing and Locke (1995), Eggins (2004), Halliday and Matthiessen(2004), and Martin, Matthiessen, and Painter (1997)

- Material process is the process of doing and happening It might be action

or event such as kicking, beating, running, walking, etc For example,

(1) We are all eating now.

Process: material

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 179)

(2) The lion caught the tourist.

process: material

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.180)

- Behavioural process is the process of physiological and psychological

behaviour such as breathing, crying, drinking, etc For example,

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.251)

- Mental process is the process of sensing such as thinking, loving,

wanting, hoping, etc It is concerned with our experience of the world of our ownconsciousness For example,

Process: mental

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.208)

(6) Mary liked the gift.

Process: mental

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.201)

- Verbal process is the process of saying such as saying, telling, speaking,

talking, etc

(7) John said ‘I’m hungry’.

Process: verbal

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.253)

(8) They praised her to her parents.

Process: verbal

(Martin et al., 1997, p 126)

- Relational process is the process of being, having, becoming, in which a

participant is characterized, identified, or situated circumstantially There are three

main types of relation: intensive, possessive and circumstantial For example,

(9) Pat is the richest.

Process: intensive relational

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 236)

(10) A bikeway also circles the village.

Process: circumstantial relational

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 243)

(11) Peter has a piano.

Process: possessive relational

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 245)

- Existential process is the process of existing, indicating that something

or some natural force exists For example,

(12) There was a storm.

Process: existential

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 259)

(13) On the wall there hangs a picture.

Process: existential

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p 259)

The process types can be summarised in the Table 2.2 below

Table 2.2 Summary of the process types (Source: Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.

143)

Circumstances are almost always optional augmentations of the clause

rather than obligatory components and typically occur freely in all types ofprocess They are realized by adverbial groups or prepositional phrases.Circumstantial element serves as an expansion of the experiential content ofthe text instead of standing on its own The circumstantials consist of nine

types including Extent, Location, Manner, Cause, Contingency, Accompaniment, Role, Matter and Angle.

According to Halliday & Matthiessen (2004), extent construes the

distance in space over which the process unfolds or the duration in time

during which the process unfolds, location construes the place where it

unfolds or the time when it unfolds For example,

(14) Jack was building a house throughout the year near the river…

Extent: time Location: place

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.261) The circumstantial element of Manner construes the way in which the process is actualized Manner comprises four subcategories: Means, Quality, Comparison and Degree For example,

(15) Can you hop on your hind leg?

Manner: means

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.267)

(16) We know it well.

Manner: quality

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.268)

(17) We sometimes work like the devil with them.

is actualized It is divided into Reason, Purpose and Behalf.

(19) Assad died of heart failure.

Cause: reason

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.270)

(20) He has thus always worked for an interdisciplinary environment…

Cause: purpose

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.270)

(21) Do any of your characters ever speak for you?

Cause: behalf

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.270) Contingency specifies an element on which the actualization of the process depends There are three sub-types: Condition, Concession and Default For example,

(22) In the event of a typhoon , open all windows.

Contingency: condition

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.272)

(23) In spite of its beacon , many ships have been wrecked

Contingency: concession

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.272)

(24) In the absence of any prior agreement between the parties as to the rate

of salvage payable, the amount is assessed, as a rule, by the Admiralty

Court Contingency: default

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.272) Accompaniment is a form of joint participation in the process and

represents the meanings ‘and’, ‘or’, ‘not’ as circumstantial It is expressed by

prepositional phrases with prepositions such as with, without, besides, etc.

(25) Fred came without Tom Accompaniment

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.273) Role construes the meanings ‘be’ and ‘become’ circumstantially It

includes the subcategories of Guise (‘be’) and Product (‘become’)

(26) They leave the place untidy by way of protest.

Role: guise

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.274)

(27) Proteins are first broken down into amino acids.

Role: product

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.275) Matter is related to verbal processes It is the circumstantial equivalent

of the Verbiage, which is described, referred to or narrated, etc

(28) Tell me about the Paris Review.

Angle: source

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.276)

(30) Philip’s not tall – Everybody’s tall to me.

There are four main kinds of modality: probability, usuality, obligationand readiness It is referred to as Modalization when used to argue about theprobability or usuality of propositions When it is used to argue about theobligation or readiness of proposals, it is referred to as Modulation

Meanings of modulation and modalization can be expressed in various

ways The most obvious is through the choice of modal verbal operator and/or

a mood adjunct in the main clause Beside that, metaphorical realizations are

also found for modality by adding a pseudo-clause, which may be phrasedobjectively or subjectively Moreover, we can use passive forms such as

supposed to, obliged to, etc with a seperate non-modal finite to express

modality

There is difference in the degree to which the speaker seems to be takingresponsibility for the assessment or the pressure on the other person Thespeaker may express his/her subjective view point clearly; or he/she may do it

in an objective way by making it appear to be a quality of the event itself

Table 2.3 Realizations of modality in English (Source: Martin et al., 1997, p 70)

Kind of of Congruent realizations metaphorical realizations Modality Finite Adjunct Predicator Mental Attributive

Implicitly Implicitly Implicitly Explicitly Explicitly subjective objective objective subjective Objective probability can/could possibly [cognitive:] it is possible

will/would certainly I think, it is certain

obligation necessarily be allowed to [affective:] it is permitted

be supposed I’m willing it is expected

be obliged to I expect (for him to

I want leave)

readiness: willingly, be willing to [verbal group it’d be lovely to

determined to leave

leave

Besides, the speaker may also signal a higher or lower degree ofcertainty about the validity of a proposition, or of pressure on the other person

to make them carry out his/her command It is possible to establish three basic

values on the scale: high (must, certainly, always), median (may, probably, usually), or low (might, possibly, sometimes) Table 2.3 illustrates briefly the

main categories of modalization and modulation

2.2.3.Thematisation

Thematisation is concerned with the organization of information withinindividual clauses, and through this, with the organization of the larger text,given its purpose and context

The system of Theme is realized via a structure in which the clause fallsinto two main constituents – a THEME and a RHEME Halliday andMatthiessen (2004) defines the point of departure of the message as THEME,and the remainder of the message as RHEME In other words, Theme isrealized by initial position in the clause and Rheme follows Theme is theelement coming first in the clause, while Rheme is the one providingadditional information to the starting point The theme may be realized by anominal group, a prepositional phrase, an adverbial group, or even a clause.Theme may be single or multiple, marked or unmarked

A Single Theme is one that contains only an experiential element (topical

theme) Topical themes are divided into unmarked topical theme and markedtopical theme If the first topical element of a declarative clause is the Subject,

it is called unmarked theme; non-subject themes are marked For example,

(31) The Walrus and the Carpenter were walking close at hand.

Unmarked theme

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.68)

(32) On the ground or in the air small creatures live and breathe.

Marked theme

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.68)

There are also other elements preceding the topical theme which areeither textual or interpersonal in function, playing no part in the experiential

meaning in the clause When there is a topical theme plus textual theme and/or interpersonal themes in a clause, the clause has Multiple theme.

The Textual Theme almost always constitutes the first part of the Theme.

It gives thematic prominence to textual elements with a linking function Itcan be recognised by conjunctions, relative pronouns, conjunctives andcontinuatives For examples,

(33) We heard Professor Smith’s lecturer, which was a great

disappointment.

(Martin et al, 1997, p.26)

The Interpersonal Theme represents the interpersonal element with which the speaker or writer acts on the listener or reader It can be a vocative,

a modal or a comment adjunct, a finite verbal operator, Wh-element or interpersonal metaphors of modality.

(34) Do you think I should take an early play like the Prometheus?

(Martin et al, 1997, p.25)

Besides, when the speakers/writers wish to give emphasis to a

constituent, they can make use of Predicated Theme The typical structure of

this theme begins with “It is/was ” This process involves introducing what istechnically a second clause which has its own Mood structure For example,

(35) It was Jane that started it.

(Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p.95)

The system network of Theme choices in the clause is summarized in Fig.2.2

Figure 2.2 The system of Theme (Source: Eggins, 2004, p 299)

We now move to the genre of research paper abstracts, the genre to which

we will apply these above analytic systemic tools to investigate in this study

2.3. ABSTRACTS IN ACADEMIC WRITINGS

In academic writing, it will almost always have to include an abstractwhen writing a thesis, dissertation, research paper, or submitting an article to

an academic journal Researching and reporting research are often thought of

as different activities Actually, they cannot be split apart It cannot completethe research cycle until the results have been communicated A complete

research paper articles consists of many sections such as abstract, introduction, methodology, findings and discussions and conclusion.

The first section in an RA is the abstract Being an important part inRAs, the abstract has roused wide concerns from genre analysts A well-written abstract can attract more readers and increase the chances of having an

RA being indexed and cited (Li, 2011)

Swales (1990) stated that the abstract is both a summary and a ‘purified’reflection of the entire article Similarly, Bhatia (1993) highlighted theinformative function of abstracts, claiming that they present a faithful andaccurate summary, which is representative of the whole article In addition tobeing informative, abstracts have an important role in promoting researchreports Hyland (2009) maintained that it provides a decision making point ofreaders to judge whether the entire article merits further attention or not.Martín (2003, p 26) considered a RAA as a ‘time-saving device’ whichallows readers to decide on whether the whole article is worth reading.Therefore, it is necessary to have a well-written abstract in order to broadenthe possibility of citation.

The abstract is a short summary of an article with a maximum length of250-300 words Most readers first scan the abstract in order to decide whetherreading the rest of the article would be worthwhile Feldman (2004) claimedthat the abstract serves as an important “window display” or “advertisement”for your work and provides an opportunity to impress the reader

Perry, Carson, and Gilmore (2003, p 658) recommended that an abstractshould include the following elements:

- Element 1: The abstract has to start with a brief theme sentence

to orientate the reader about the overall issue addressed in the article This sentenceshould grab the reader’s attention

- Element 2: The abstract should then indicate the main aim or purpose of the study

- Element 3: Next, the academic and/or practical importance of the study should be explained

- Element 4: The methodology used in the study should also be briefly described

- Element 5: The main findings of the study should be

- Since the abstract is a summary of the article, nothing should

be in it that it not also included in the main text

- An abstract is not an introduction The article should be completewithout the abstract One way to ensure this is to write the abstract after you havecompleted the rest of the article

- The abstract is normally written as a single paragraph It isself-contained (i.e., it should be understandable without requiring the reader toread something else)

- The abstract should not contain any figures, tables or in-textreferences, just normal text In-text references may, however, be included whenone is replicating a previous study and this is specifically mentioned in theabstract

2.4 PREVIOUS STUDIES

Many studies have been carried out on RAAs There have been multiplestudies investigating abstracts from different disciplines, as regards differentaspects

Graetz (1982) work is considered as one of the first analyses of abstracts.She reported on a research of abstracts in the field of health sciences, socialsciences, humanities and education with the aim of gaining insights into theirlinguistic properties By doing research, she hoped to improve teachingpractices to students of English as a foreign language upon analysing a corpus

of 87 RAAs She stated that the purpose of abstracts was to “ give the reader

an exact and concise knowledge of the total content of the very much morelengthy original, a factual summary which is both an elaboration of the titleand a condensation of the report” (Graetz, 1982) However, her work has beencriticized as being “a little bold” (Swales, 1990, p 180)

By using a five-move model of Santos (1996), Ge and Yang (2005) haveinvestigated 150 English abstracts in three disciplines, namely engineering,finance and surgery The results showed that most of the abstracts followedthe same move sequence, but there was a significant difference in thefrequency of moves in relation to disciplinary characteristics That is, only45% of the surgery abstracts had a method move as an obligatory one, butonly 14% of the finance abstracts had this move

Can, Karabacak, and Qin (2016) examined the move structures of 50abstracts from a single Applied Linguistics journal, the English for SpecificPurposes The finding shows that the authors discuss results, purpose, andmethodology in their abstracts more than implications of the findings orbackground information

Another study in the field of experimental social science is Martín (2003)

He compared 160 RAAs written in English and Spanish in order to figure out themacrostructure of these texts The main differences found were the variation inthe frequency of occurrence of the results section, and move 2 in the abstractintroductions in Spanish He identified three moves in the introduction section byusing CARS model Establishing a niche (Move 2) was not present in theintroduction section by Spanish writers The result also showed that the generalstructures of the introduction were similar to those written in English He moved

to the conclusion that socio-cultural factors lead to the differences in

communities, and that the source of the rhetorical variation was from therelationship between writers and discourse community Although his studyhelps to improve writing journal of non-native speakers by comparing RAabstracts written in English and Spanish, it just focuses on a specificdiscipline, namely the field of experimental social science.

Samraj (2005) compared RAAs in two disciplines: conservation biologyand wildlife behavior She analyzed a total of 24 RAAs randomly selectedfrom two journals The result showed that the overall layout of the RAAs wassimilar It consists of Purpose-Methods-Results-Conclusions However, whenshe examined aspects of the abstracts beyond the traditional moves,differences stood out The rhetorical structure of conservative biologyabstracts included some moves which were ascribed to RA introductions, andthey were not showed in wildlife behavior abstsracts

Li (2011) conducted a genre analysis of 40 abstracts written in twolanguages, English and Chinese from two unrelated disciplines - Linguistics and

Chemistry By adapting a five-move structure of Hyland (2000) – introduction (M1), purpose (M2), method (M3), product (M4), and conclusion (M5), she

found that Linguistics RAAs follow a four-move structure (purpose, method,product, conclusion), but such a structure was not identified in Chemistry RAAs.Instead, Chemistry RAAs in English included two moves (purpose, method)while Chemistry RAAs in Chinese included three moves (method, product,conclusion) The method was found to be the only obligatory move in bothdisciplines She also found that presenting the authors’ position in the article can

be achieved by using the first person pronouns In chemistry, writers do not oftenshow their attitude in the study They try to present

procedures, materials and instruments of the study By contrast in linguistics,writers try to express their own ideas in the study.

As regards studies of RAAs in the field of Applied Linguistics, Santos(1996) explored the textual organization of RAAs at two levels - the macro-level of textual organization and the micro-level of sentence organization Hisdata was 94 abstracts in the field of applied linguistics He stated that theRAAs include: situating the research (M1), presenting the research (M2),describing the methodology (M3), summarizing the results (M4), anddiscussing the research (M5) For him, M1 situates the research, and is

divided into submoves, including submove 1A stating current research and/or, submove 1B citing previous research, submove 1C extend previous research, submove 2 stating a problem M2 presents the research and makes a kind of announcement by describing the key features or presenting the

purpose Similar to M1, M2 is also devided into submoves, namely submove

1A indicating main features, submove 1B indicating main purpose and submove 2 hypothesis raising M3 describes the methodology It gives a

description of how the research was actually carried out, indicating the design

of the study in terms of subjects, procedures, materials, instruments.Summarizing the results is the function of M4 It summarizes briefly the mainfindings of the research M5 discusses the research by making claims relative

to the value or implication of the results obtained It consists of submove 1

drawing conclusion and/or, submove 2 giving recommendations.

Lorés (2004) conducted a genre analysis on a corpus of 36 abstracts in thefield of linguistics By using the CARS and the IMRD (Introduction, Methods,Results and Discussion) model, she found that about 61% of RAAs followed theIMRD structure, 31% of them followed the CARS structure and 8%

displayed the two structures These three types fulfill three different functions,including: the informative, the indicative and the information-indicativefunction Based on this result, she can explain why previous studies did notagree on the rhetorical organization of abstracts.

Pho (2008) explored the rhetorical moves, the linguistic realizations ofmoves and authorial stance of 30 abstracts selected from three journals in thefield of applied linguistics and educational technology - The ModernLanguage Journal, TESOL Quarterly Journal and Computers & Education.She stated that there were existence of three moves in almost all the abstracts,named Presenting the research (M2), Describing the methodology (M3) andSummarizing the results (M4) She also pointed out that the combination ofcertain linguistic features, such as the grammatical subjects, verb tense andvoice, would help distinguish moves She maintained that move identificationshould be based on the semantic meanings of each move rather than linguisticfeatures For her, this will help to avoid the circularity of move identification

In general, the above-mentioned studies show that there have been manyinvestigations into move structure and linguistic features of RAAs in thedisciplines of applied linguistics However, in all the studies focusing onlinguistic realizations, their treatment is largely traditional and separated Pho(2008) explores only the interpersonal aspect which is confined to theauthorial stance Lorés (2004) describes only the textual dimension regardingthematic progression and thematic development Santos (1996) provides adetailed picture of each move associated with the characteristic linguisticexponents, but they are unsystematically and broadly described in terms oftense, voice, ‘diectic item’, ‘reporting verb’, modals, ‘preparatory phrase’,

‘non-finite clause’, and ‘lexical item’

The following Table 2.4 summarizes studies on RAAs in terms of time,

corpus size, discipline and main findings

Table 2.4 Summary of studies on RAAs across various disciplines

(abstracts) investigated

Graetz 1982 87 -Health The purpose of abstracts was to “give

Sciences the reader an exact and concise -Social knowledge of the total content of the sciences very much more lengthy original, a -Humanities factual summary which is both an -Education elaboration of the title and a

condensation of the report.

Martín 2003 160 Experimental -Establishing a niche (Move 2) was

Social not present in the introduction section Science by Spanish writers.

-The general structures of the Spanish abstract introduction section were similar to those written in English.

Ge and 2005 150 -Engineering A significant difference in the

-Surgery disciplinary characteristics:

-45% surgery abstracts had method move.

-14% finance abstracts had method move.

Conservation similar Biology conclusions).

(purpose-methods-results Wildlife -The rhetorical structure in Behavior conservative biology includes some

move ascribed to RA introductions.

Li 2011 40 -Linguistics -Linguistics RAAs follow a

four Chemistry move structure (purpose, method,

product, conclusion).

-Chemistry RAAs in English included two moves (purpose, method) while Chemistry RAAs in Chinese included three moves (method, product, conclusion).

-The method was the obligatory move

in both disciplines.

Linguistics Situating the research (M1),

Describing the methodology (M3), Summarizing the results (M4) and Discussing the research (M5) in which M2, M3, M4 and M5 are obligatory moves.

Lorés 2004 36 Linguistics -61% of RAAs followed the IMRD

- The combination of certain linguistic features, such as the grammatical subjects, verb tense and voice, would help distinguish moves.

As Pho (2008, p 246) concluded from her study, “the identification of moves should thus be based on a cluster of features rather than on any single linguistic feature.”, it is therefore in the present study, via the SFG tool, that

the combination of features is systematically addressed

In summary, this chapter has covered the literature on theories relating toGenre analysis Besides, key notions in SFG, the framework to analyzetransitivity, modality and thematic structure in RAAS are also reviewed Thischapter is also concerned with a brief overview of previous studies closelyrelated to this present study It is based on these theories that our data wasanalyzed and will be described in details in Chapter 4

In the next chapter, the data for the study and the procedures of dataanalysis are described

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides an account of the research methods employed tocarry out the study Then, how the data was collected and analyzed are alsoaddressed

lexico-Then the quantitative method was used to find out the occurrencefrequency of both the lexico-grammatical features realizing the meta-functions and the moves of the generic structure of this genre

3.2 DATA COLLECTION

Data for the present study was a total of 30 RAAs selected from twojournals in the area of ELT – 15 RAAs in English for Specific Purposes Journal(ESPJ) and 15 RAAs in TESOL Quarterly Journal (TSQJ) Fifteen abstractsfrom each journal were coded from 1 to 15 These two journals were chosen asthey are prestigious, widely circulated and publish articles in the field of Englishteaching and learning The RAAs chosen as data for this study were confined tothe latest issues up to the time when this study began, namely those published in

2018 The second factor which impacted the selection was whether the article is

a review of literature or an empirical study; only the abstracts of the paperswhich report empirical studies were chosen

Then, Santos’ (1996) model (Table 3.1) was referred to as the analyticalframework for the rhetorical structure of the abstracts in the present study forthis model is about generic structure and in more detail, including both movesand submoves, as reviewed in 2.4 The product of this stage is the description

of the generic structure of the RAAs

Table 3.1 A framework for abstract analysis (source: Santos, 1996)

-Submove 1A: Stating current knowledge and/or -Submove 1B: Citing previous research and/or -Submove 1C: Extended previous research and/or -Submove 2 : Stating a problem

-Submove 1A: Indicating main features and/or -Submove 1B: Indicating main purpose and/or -Submove 2 : Hypothesis raising

-Submove 1: Drawing conclusions and/or -Submove 2: Giving recommendations

3.4 PROCEDURES

The procedures for carrying out the study are as follows:

- Thoroughly reviewing previous studies which relate to the aim of the study and synthesizing the literature;

- Downloading the RAAs from two well-known journals, ESPJ and TSQJ

to form the corpus;

- Analyzing each RAA in terms of transitivity, modality and thematisation basing on Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) SFG framework;

- Identifying steps and moves in each RAA basing on Santos’(1996) move structure;

- Presenting and discussing the findings from the analysis with illustrations extracted from the data to withdraw tentative conclusions and implications;

- Making some suggestions for further research

To sum up, this chapter presents the methods manipulated to carry outthe study Moreover, the data collection, data analysis and researchprocedures are also described