A Contrastive Study on Metadiscourse Elements Used in Humanities vs. Non Humanities across Persian and English

Abstract

The present study studied contrastively the use of metadiscourse in two disciplines (applied linguistics vs. computer engineering) across two languages (Persian and English). The selected corpus was analyzed through the model suggested by Hyland and Tse (2004). The results revealed the metadiscursive resources are used differently both within and between the two languages. As for the two courses, applied linguistics representing humanities relied heavily on interactive elements rather than interactional ones, compared with computer engineering representing non humanities. The analysis attests that humanities focus on the textuality at the expense of reader involvement. As indicated by the result, the idea of disciplinary prominence of metadiscourse across different languages needs to be cautiously taken into account.