Citations in Research Article Sections: Integrating Forms and Functions

Chih-Wei Kuo ； Stephanie W. Cheng ； Chih-Hua Kuo

《Taiwan Journal of TESOL》 8卷1期 (2011/03) Pp. 67-94

https://doi.org/10.30397/TJTESOL.201103_8(1).0003

並列摘要

Making citations, or referring to others' studies, is regarded as an important academic convention. Previous studies have created various typologies for citations; however, most of them have focused on the forms of citations or on the reporting verbs used in citations. Only a few recent studies have investigated the discourse functions of citations. This study attempts to explore both the forms and functions of citations in IMRD sections, using a corpus of 36 research articles in applied linguistics. The form-based analysis reveals that all rhetorical sections except Results show a preference for non-integral citations. The function-based analysis indicates that ”providing views or findings” of the cited study is the most prevalent function. It is also found many citations perform the functions characteristic of the specific communicative purposes of individual sections. For example, the function of ”providing background information for a research topic” is found to occur exclusively in Introduction, and ”providing a comparison” is more frequently used in Results and Discussion than in the other sections. This study provides empirical evidence that citations can perform a wide range of discourse functions in research articles other than reviewing literature. These findings provide insightful pedagogical implications.

並列關鍵字

citation analysis ； citation forms ； citation functions ； research article ； functional typology

參考文獻

Bavelas, J. B.(1978).The social psychology of citations.Canadian Psychological Review.19(2),158-163.

Bazerman, C.(1988).Shaping written knowledge: The genre and activity of the experimental article in science.Madison, Wisconsin:The University of Wisconsin Press.

Brett, P.(1994).A genre analysis of the results section of Sociology articles.English for Specific Purposes.13(1),47-59.

Kroll, B.(ed.)(1990).Second language writing: Research insights for the classroom.Cambridge, MA:Cambridge University Press.

Chang, Y. Y.(2006).How do well-established scholars cite themselves over their academic careers?: Stories of six senior professors.Conference in Honor of John Swales.(Conference in Honor of John Swales).: