A Corpus-based Study of Reformulation Markers across Different Disciplines

Abstract

This study presents a corpus-based study of reformulation markers as a common metadiscourse device in research articles of three different disciplines, namely, applied linguistics, computer engineering, and physics. Toward this end, qualitative and quantitative analyses of reformulation devices were conducted. Three sub-corpora were compiled by downloading articles from academic journals of each discipline selected via convenience sampling. Each corpus included approximately one million words. All the analyses were conducted through employing Murillo’s (2004, 2007) classification which consists of three broad categories: explicit meaning functions (identification, specification, and explanation), conceptual meaning functions (definition and denomination), and implicit meaning functions (conclusion and mathematical operation). Chi-square tests were performed to determine whether the results found in the analysis were statistically significant. The results revealed that there were differences between the functions of reformulation markers (RMs) across different disciplines. In particular, the three disciplines differ in terms of their types, and functions, and writers of physics research articles (RAs) use RMs much more frequently than writers of applied linguistics and computer engineering RAs. In light of the findings, recommendations are made for EAP classes.