A corpus-based comparative study of exemplification in hard and soft sciences research articles: a case of Chinese and English authors

Exemplification, an essential part of argumentation in academic writing, helps authors to support general ideas with specific examples. This corpus-based investigation is a preliminary comparative study on the use of exemplification by Chinese and English native authors in research articles (R...

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Main Authors: Yuanyuan, Yang, Noor Mala Ibrahim,
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2023
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22967/1/Gema_23_4_12.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22967/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1621
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spelling my-ukm.journal.229672024-02-06T03:37:02Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22967/ A corpus-based comparative study of exemplification in hard and soft sciences research articles: a case of Chinese and English authors Yuanyuan, Yang Noor Mala Ibrahim, Exemplification, an essential part of argumentation in academic writing, helps authors to support general ideas with specific examples. This corpus-based investigation is a preliminary comparative study on the use of exemplification by Chinese and English native authors in research articles (RAs) of hard sciences and soft sciences covering six different disciplines. The study focuses primarily on three aspects: Exemplifying Markers (EMs), exemplifying units, and functions of exemplification. A corpus of twelve RAs with a total number of 143,604 words across six disciplines was built with six articles each from the hard sciences and the soft sciences. Triki’s (2021) model of exemplification was used as the analytical framework. The exemplification theory serves as the theoretical basis for the study and K-means clustering and Welch Two Sample t-tests are employed as the research methods. Findings show that diverse categories of EMs are used by authors from these two different linguistic backgrounds and in different disciplines. It is also revealed that the authors from the two linguistic backgrounds use EMs more similarly in hard sciences than in soft sciences, even though EMs are usually used more frequently in the soft sciences. In addition, there are significant differences in the use of EMs between the two groups of authors and different disciplines. More exemplifying groups than exemplifying clauses are employed across linguistic backgrounds and disciplines. Various categories of functions are performed by exemplification. The findings may be valuable in guiding exemplification instruction and learning in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) environments. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2023-11 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22967/1/Gema_23_4_12.pdf Yuanyuan, Yang and Noor Mala Ibrahim, (2023) A corpus-based comparative study of exemplification in hard and soft sciences research articles: a case of Chinese and English authors. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 23 (4). pp. 184-206. ISSN 1675-8021 https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1621
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
building Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/
language English
description Exemplification, an essential part of argumentation in academic writing, helps authors to support general ideas with specific examples. This corpus-based investigation is a preliminary comparative study on the use of exemplification by Chinese and English native authors in research articles (RAs) of hard sciences and soft sciences covering six different disciplines. The study focuses primarily on three aspects: Exemplifying Markers (EMs), exemplifying units, and functions of exemplification. A corpus of twelve RAs with a total number of 143,604 words across six disciplines was built with six articles each from the hard sciences and the soft sciences. Triki’s (2021) model of exemplification was used as the analytical framework. The exemplification theory serves as the theoretical basis for the study and K-means clustering and Welch Two Sample t-tests are employed as the research methods. Findings show that diverse categories of EMs are used by authors from these two different linguistic backgrounds and in different disciplines. It is also revealed that the authors from the two linguistic backgrounds use EMs more similarly in hard sciences than in soft sciences, even though EMs are usually used more frequently in the soft sciences. In addition, there are significant differences in the use of EMs between the two groups of authors and different disciplines. More exemplifying groups than exemplifying clauses are employed across linguistic backgrounds and disciplines. Various categories of functions are performed by exemplification. The findings may be valuable in guiding exemplification instruction and learning in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) environments.
format Article
author Yuanyuan, Yang
Noor Mala Ibrahim,
spellingShingle Yuanyuan, Yang
Noor Mala Ibrahim,
A corpus-based comparative study of exemplification in hard and soft sciences research articles: a case of Chinese and English authors
author_facet Yuanyuan, Yang
Noor Mala Ibrahim,
author_sort Yuanyuan, Yang
title A corpus-based comparative study of exemplification in hard and soft sciences research articles: a case of Chinese and English authors
title_short A corpus-based comparative study of exemplification in hard and soft sciences research articles: a case of Chinese and English authors
title_full A corpus-based comparative study of exemplification in hard and soft sciences research articles: a case of Chinese and English authors
title_fullStr A corpus-based comparative study of exemplification in hard and soft sciences research articles: a case of Chinese and English authors
title_full_unstemmed A corpus-based comparative study of exemplification in hard and soft sciences research articles: a case of Chinese and English authors
title_sort corpus-based comparative study of exemplification in hard and soft sciences research articles: a case of chinese and english authors
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2023
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22967/1/Gema_23_4_12.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22967/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1621
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score 13.211869