چکیده:
This study intends to scrutinize the realizations and discourse functions of context frames in
research article abstracts written by native and non-native writers of English from four
disciplines namely: Applied Linguistics, Economics, Biology, and Mechanical Engineering.
To this end, 200 research article abstracts (50 from each discipline) were selected for
analysis. From the 50 research article abstracts of each discipline, 25 were written by native
writers of English and 25 written by Iranian non-native writers of English. The corpora,
then, were analyzed based on the analytical framework proposed by Ebrahimi (2014).
Based on the findings obtained, it can be concluded that the context frame’s selection,
frequency and discourse functions are affected and imposed by the nature of discipline and
genre of RA abstracts. The result also indicated that there is a difference between native
and Iranian non-native writers of English in dealing with these elements. In addition, the
findings stress the fact that writing is restricted by the disciplinary conventions and writers’
background knowledge of English language.
خلاصه ماشینی:
A Cross-Disciplinary and Linguistic Study of Context Frames in Research Article Abstracts <H3>Seyed Foad Ebrahimi*</H3> Department of English, Shadegan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shadegan, Iran seyedfoade@yahoo.
com Abstract This study intends to scrutinize the realizations and discourse functions of context frames in research article abstracts written by native and non-native writers of English from four disciplines namely: Applied Linguistics, Economics, Biology, and Mechanical Engineering.
Introduction</H3> Recently, a number of researchers have studied research article (RA) abstracts across disciplines and languages for the rhetorical structure and/or linguistic features (Cross &amp; Oppenheim, 2006; Gillaerts &amp; Van de Velde, 2010; Hu &amp; Cao, 2011; Hyland &amp; Tse, 2005; Khedri, Chan &amp; Ebrahimi, 2013; Kanoksilapatham, 2013; Lores, 2004; Pho, 2008; Salager-Meyer, 1992; Santos, 1996; Sauperl, Klasinc &amp; Luzar, 2008; Stotesbury, 2003).
To explore the discourse function of context frames (Marked theme) used in research articles, Gosden (1992) analyzed 36 RAs written by native speakers of English.
The studies reviewed in literature motivated this study to scrutinize the realizations and discourse functions of context frames (CF), linguistic elements that precede the grammatical subject, in RA abstracts written by native and Iranian non- native writers from four disciplines namely: Applied Linguistics, Economics, Biology, and Mechanical Engineering.
In relation to the disciplinary differences, it could be said that in Bio and ME RA abstracts, writers relied on the standard based nature of their studies and stated the reason for the arguments, findings, research process, and claims explicitly.
(Eco/Non/10) The second discourse function in the list is validating the results gained in the study (Example 19-22).