Metadiscourse Markers in Iraqi Academia: A Corpus-Based Study of Research Articles in Pragmatics Using AntConc

Hammash (Ph. D.), Lect. Sufyan Mahdi Hammood

doi:10.25130/Lang.10.2.P1.11

Metadiscourse Markers in Iraqi Academia: A Corpus-Based Study of Research Articles in Pragmatics Using AntConc

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Lect. Sufyan Mahdi Hammood Hammash (Ph. D.)

Department of English, College of Education for Humanities, Tikrit University, Tikrit, Iraq

https://doi.org/10.25130/Lang.10.2.P1.11

Abstract

In this study, metadiscourse markers in Iraqi academic articles within the field of pragmatics are analysed. The main objective of the study is to examine the types and frequency of metadiscourse markers and their employment in Iraqi research articles written in English. This research poses the question of ‘how Iraqi authors reach a level of engagement with their readers by using metadiscourse markers?’. Relying on Hyland’s (2005) framework to determine the types of metadiscourse markers, both types interactive and interactional in a self-constructed corpus of 106 articles. These articles are authored by Iraqi researchers and published in local journals. AntConc -‘a tool for analysis’- is used to check the frequency and distribution for each marker. Logical connectors are the frequent ones such as "and" (18,881 times) and ‘but’ (1,077 timess). Strategies for exemplification like, ‘for example’ and ‘such as,’ are used to fit things together. The aforementioned findings show how English academic writing among Iraqi researchers is organized.

Keywords

antconc

corpus

metadiscourse

pragmatics

research article