WOULD IN ACADEMIC RESEARCH ARTICLE ABSTRACTS ACROSS THREE DISCIPLINES
This chapter presents a computer-assisted study that seeks to investigate the frequency and use of the modal verb would in research article (further – RA) abstracts in three cognate disciplines, namely i) applied linguistics, ii) applied psycholinguistics, and iii) English literature. The exclusive
focus on would in the study was explained by its important role as a hedging device in the genre of academic writing in English (Fløttum, Kinn, and Dahl 2006; Hyland 1994; Jiang and Hyland 2020; Russell 2014). In concord with Hyland (2005), hedging was operationalised as an academic writer’s presentation of the argument and/or research findings in
a cautious and tentative manner. Grounded in Hyland’s (2005) approach to hedging in academic writing, the study set out to examine the frequency of would in a corpus of RA abstracts in applied linguistics, applied psycholinguistics, and English literature that were published by the
prestigious peer-reviewed outlets in the United Kingdom from 2011 to 2021. To that end, the computer program AntConc version 4.0.11 (Anthony 2022) was applied to the corpus. The results of the quantitative investigation indicated that the frequency of would was low in the RA abstracts in all disciplines, i.e. applied linguistics, applied
psycholinguistics, and English literature. The quantitative computer-assisted analysis was followed by a qualitative investigation that aimed to discover the pragma-communicative roles associated with would in the corpus. As far as the qualitative findings were concerned, it was
established that would was associated, predominantly, with hedging in the RA abstracts in applied linguistics and English literature, whilst in applied
psychology would was involved in the reference to the future planned procedure in the past (e.g., the formulation and/or validation of the hypothesis). The findings and their implications were further discussed in the chapter.
focus on would in the study was explained by its important role as a hedging device in the genre of academic writing in English (Fløttum, Kinn, and Dahl 2006; Hyland 1994; Jiang and Hyland 2020; Russell 2014). In concord with Hyland (2005), hedging was operationalised as an academic writer’s presentation of the argument and/or research findings in
a cautious and tentative manner. Grounded in Hyland’s (2005) approach to hedging in academic writing, the study set out to examine the frequency of would in a corpus of RA abstracts in applied linguistics, applied psycholinguistics, and English literature that were published by the
prestigious peer-reviewed outlets in the United Kingdom from 2011 to 2021. To that end, the computer program AntConc version 4.0.11 (Anthony 2022) was applied to the corpus. The results of the quantitative investigation indicated that the frequency of would was low in the RA abstracts in all disciplines, i.e. applied linguistics, applied
psycholinguistics, and English literature. The quantitative computer-assisted analysis was followed by a qualitative investigation that aimed to discover the pragma-communicative roles associated with would in the corpus. As far as the qualitative findings were concerned, it was
established that would was associated, predominantly, with hedging in the RA abstracts in applied linguistics and English literature, whilst in applied
psychology would was involved in the reference to the future planned procedure in the past (e.g., the formulation and/or validation of the hypothesis). The findings and their implications were further discussed in the chapter.
Publisert i 2023
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