The Pronoun “This” in Civil Engineering Research Articles

Mallaki, Azadeh; Ebrahimi, Seyed Foad

doi:10.22034/ijpie.2024.461451.1021

The Pronoun “This” in Civil Engineering Research Articles

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Azadeh Mallaki ¹

Seyed Foad Ebrahimi ²

¹ Department of English Language, Bushehr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, Iran.

² Department of English Language, Shadegan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shadegan, Iran.

10.22034/ijpie.2024.461451.1021

Abstract

Cohesion, particularly through sentence boundaries, makes up the principal semantic features providing the text with the required unity. Cohesive relation is both helpful in the text unity and the readers’ textual interpretation. Among the different cohesive relations, encapsulation contributes significantly to developing the text, by which textual segments, including clauses, sentences, sequences of sentences, and paragraphs, are condensed and synthesized using cohesive markers. This study aimed to identify the frequency, textual segments encapsulated, and syntactic structure of encapsulated segments by the demonstrative pronoun “this”. Hence, 20 research articles from the discipline of Civil Engineering from five top journals published by Elsevier were selected and analyzed. Results showed that a) “This” was more frequent in the sentence-initial compared to other positions; b) “This” was utilized more to serve the function of “Encapsulation” than point-to-point cohesion; and c) “This” was used to encapsulate two syntactic structures, namely one sentence and one clause structures. The results of this study could provide a practical guide for writers (especially novice writers) of research articles in Civil Engineering and disciplines close to it about how to use the pronoun “this” to serve the function of encapsulation.

Keywords

Civil Engineering

Encapsulation

Pronoun “This”

Research Article

Semantic Cohesion

Subjects

Alvarez, I., & Rego, M. (2001). Encapsulation and prospection in written scientific English. Estudios ingleses de la Universidad Complutense, 9, 81-101.‏

Barbieri, F., & Eckhardt, S. E. (2007). Applying corpus-based findings to form-focused instruction: The case of reported speech. Language Teaching Research, 11(3), 319-346.‏

Charles, M. (2003). ‘This mystery. . .’: A corpus-based study of the use of nouns to construct stance in theses from two contrasting disciplines. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2, 313-326.

Flowerdew, J., & Forest, R. W. (2015). Signalling nouns in academic English. Cambridge University Press.‏

Fries, P. H. (2002). On theme, rheme and discourse goals. In Advances in written text analysis (pp. 243-263). Routledge.‏

Fries, P. H. (1995). A personal view of theme. In M. Ghadessy (Ed.), Thematic development in English texts (pp. 1e19). London: Pinter.

Gardner, D., & Davies, M. (2007). Pointing out frequent phrasal verbs: A corpus‐based analysis. TESOL quarterly, 41(2), 339-359.‏

Geisler, C., Kaufer, D. S., & Steinberg, E. R. (1985). The unattended anaphoric “this” when should writers use it?. Written Communication, 2(2), 129-155.‏

Gosden, H. (1992). Discourse functions of marked theme in scientific research articles. English for specific purposes, 11(3), 207-224.‏

Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a second language: Moving from theory to practice. Ernst Klett Sprachen.‏

Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. L. (2012). Teaching Reading: Foundations and Practices. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, 1-9.‏

Gray, B. (2006). This and these as pronouns and determiners: A corpus-based study of published academic research articles. Iowa: Iowa State University (Unpublished Master of Arts thesis).

Gray, B., & Cortes, V. (2011). Perception vs. evidence: An analysis of this and these in academic prose. English for Specific Purposes, 30(1), 31-43.‏

Hinkel, E. (2001). Matters of cohesion in L2 academic texts. Applied language learning, 12(2), 111-132.‏

Hyland, K. (2003). Genre-based pedagogies: A social response to process. Journal of second language writing, 12(1), 17-29.‏

Hyland, K. (2008). Genre and academic writing in the disciplines. Language Teaching, 41(4), 543-562.‏

Jiang, F., & Wang, F. (2018). ‘This is because…’: Authorial practice of (un) attending this in academic prose across disciplines. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 38(2), 162-182.

Jin, H. (2019). On the anaphoric use of demonstratives this/these in L2 academic writing. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 38, 62-74.‏

Koester, A. (2010). Workplace discourse. A&C Black.‏

Lee, J. J., Tytko, T., & Larkin, R. (2021). (Un) attended this/these in undergraduate student writing: A corpus analysis of high-and low-rated L2 writers. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 50, 100967.‏

Mahlberg, M. (2006). Lexical cohesion: Corpus linguistic theory and its application in English language teaching. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 11(3), 363-383.‏

Muñoz, V. L. (2015). The vocabulary of agriculture semi-popularization articles in English: A corpus-based study. English for Specific Purposes, 39, 26-44.‏

Murcia, M. C., & Freeman, D. L. (1999). The grammar book.‏

Padula, M., Panza, C., & Muñoz, V. L. (2020). The pronoun this as a cohesive encapsulator in engineering semi-popularization articles written in English. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 44, 100828.‏

Pecorari, F. (2014). Anaphoric encapsulation and presupposition: Persuasive and stereotypical uses of a cohesive strategy. Cadernos de Letras da UFF, 24(49).‏

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.

Roberts, P. (1952). Pronominal 'This': A Quantitative Analysis. American Speech, 27(3), 171-178.‏

Sinclair, J. (2001). Preface.–Ghadessy M., Henry A., Rosberry RL. Small corpus studies and ELT–theory and practice, 57-81.‏

Swales, J. M. (2005). Attended and unattended “this” in academic writing: A long and unfinished story. ESP Malaysia, 11(1), 1-15.‏

Tadayon, F., Zohoorian, Z., & Hooshmand, A. (2023). Interrelationships among Teacher Effectiveness, Teacher Empathy and Emotional Intelligence: The Employment of Structural Equation Modeling. International Journal of Practical and Pedagogical Issues in English Education, 1(4), 16-29.

Tyma, D. (1981). Anaphoric functions of some demonstrative noun phrases in EST. In L. Selinker, E. Tarone, & V. Hanzeli (Eds.), English for academic and technical purposes: Studies in Honor of Louis Trimble (pp. 65–75). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Whittaker, R. (1995). Theme, processes and the realization of meanings in academic articles. Thematic development in English texts, 105-128.‏

Wulff, S., Römer, U., & Swales, J. (2012). Attended/unattended this in academic student writing: Quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 8(1), 129-157.