In this book, a solid and emerging group of international researchers contributes to the theory of metadiscourse and to our understanding of the role metadiscourse and related ‘meta’ phenomena may play in digital forms of communication. Providing examples of new research methods and approaches, the authors investigate progressively hybridized academic and non-academic genres that have migrated from analogue to digital format. The book offers valuable insights on how digital communication has changed today’s communication environments and provides examples of research methods needed to capture that change. This volume will be appreciated by scholars and graduate students interested in linguistics, corpus linguistics and metadiscourse.
"This book combines a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to metadiscourse and offers new conceptual tools and frameworks for analysing written, spoken and multimodal discourse. The studies included in the volume offer new perspectives on the role of metadiscourse in building and maintaining interaction between individuals and within different communities. Importantly, the studies are not restricted to academic and professional domains, as several authors explore new research avenues, such as communication on social media platforms." -Maria Kuteeva, Professor of English Linguistics, Stockholm University In this book, a solid and emerging group of international researchers contributes to the theory of metadiscourse and to our understanding of the role metadiscourse and related 'meta' phenomena may play in digital forms of communication. Providing examples of new research methods and approaches, the authors investigate progressively hybridized academic and non-academic genres that have migrated from analogue to digital format. The book offers valuable insights on how digital communication has changed today's communication environments and provides examples of research methods needed to capture that change. This volume will be appreciated by scholars and graduate students interested in linguistics, corpus linguistics and metadiscourse. Larissa D'Angelo is Associate Professor of English Language at the University of Bergamo, Italy. She is an active member of CERLIS (Research Centre on Specialized Languages) and her main research interests deal with biometric analyses, multimodality, audiovisual translation, corpus linguistics and metadiscourse. Anna Mauranen is Professor and Research Director at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research and publications include those on ELF, academic discourses, corpus linguistics, translation studies, and theoretical modelling of speech. She is co-editor of Applied Linguistics and formerly founding co-editor of the Journal of English as a Lingua Franca. Stefania Maci is Full Professor of English Language, pro Vice-Chancellor of Education, Director of CERLIS at the University of Bergamo and serves on the Board of AIA (Associazione Italiana di Anglistica). Her research is focused on the study of the English language in academic and professional contexts, with particular regard to the analysis of tourism and medical discourses.
This collection sheds light on the ways in which corpus linguistics and the use of learner corpora might be applied to the study of academic discourse, revealing linguistic and rhetorical patterns and insights into variation across a range of disciplinary genres. Organized into three sections, the book highlights key tools and methodologies in corpus analysis to study such features as discourse markers, lexical bundles, linguistic complexity, lexico-grammatical conventions, and modality in case studies in studies of academic discourse, both in a second language and in English for specific purposes. The volume features examples from disciplinary genres not often covered in the existing literature, including MA theses, academic book reviews, and online student forums. Taken together with the study of learner corpora, the book demonstrates the impact of corpus linguistic tools in better understanding linguistic patterns of specific languages and language use and in turn, their role in helping to identify the needs of language learners. The book will be of interest to students and scholars in corpus linguistics, applied linguistics, and English for Specific Purposes.
The pervasive phenomenon of metadiscourse – commentary on the ongoing discourse – is beginning to take its rightful place among the major topics of discourse studies. This book makes simultaneous contributions to the theory of metadiscourse, corpus-based methods of studying such phenomena, and our knowledge of metadiscourse use in written English. After comprehensively reviewing previous research, it introduces a more rigorous and empirical approach to metadiscourse studies. Ädel presents a new model of metadiscourse based on Jakobson’s functions of language, and other conceptual tools, including explicit features for defining metadiscourse, a taxonomy of the functions it serves, and maps of the boundaries between it and related phenomena. A large-scale study of writing by L1 and L2 university students is presented, in which the L2 speakers’ overuse of metadiscourse strongly marks them as lacking in communicative competence. This work is of interest both to linguists and to educators concerned with writing in English.
Routledge Introductions to Applied Linguistics is a series of introductory level textbooks covering the core topics in Applied Linguistics, primarily designed for those beginning postgraduate studies or taking an introductory MA course, as well as advanced undergraduates. Titles in the series are also ideal for language professionals returning to academic study. The books take an innovative ‘practice to theory’ approach, with a ‘back-to-front’ structure. This leads the reader from real-world problems and issues, through a discussion of intervention and how to engage with these concerns, before finally relating these practical issues to theoretical foundations. Exploring Digital Communication aims to discuss real-world issues pertaining to digital communication, and to explore how linguistic research addresses these challenges. The text is divided into three sections (Problems and practices; Interventions; and Theory), each of which is further divided into two subsections which reflect linguistic issues relating to digital communication. The author seeks to demystify any perceived divide between online and offline communication, arguing that issues raised in relation to digital communication throw light on language use and practices in general, and thus linguistic interventions in this area have implications not only for users of digital communication but for linguists’ general understanding of language and society. Including relevant research examples, tasks and a glossary, this textbook is an invaluable resource for postgraduate and upper undergraduate students taking New Media or Communication Studies modules within Applied Linguistics and English Language courses.
Metadata such as the hashtag is an important dimension of social media communication. Despite its important role in practices such as curating, tagging, and searching content, there has been little research into how meanings are made with social metadata. This book considers how hashtags have expanded their reach from an information-locating resource to an interpersonal resource for coordinating social relationships and expressing solidarity, affinity, and affiliation. It adopts a social semiotic perspective to investigate the communicative functions of hashtags in relation to both language and images. This book is a follow up to Zappavigna's 2012 model of ambient affiliation, providing an extended analytical framework for exploring how affiliation occurs, bond by bond, in online discourse. It focuses in particular on the communing function of hashtags in metacommentary and ridicule, using recent Twitter discourse about US President Donald Trump as a case study. It is essential reading for researchers as well as undergraduates studying social media on any academic course.
First released in 2005, Ken Hyland's Metadiscourse has become a canonical account of how language is used in written communication. 'Metadiscourse' is defined as the ways that writers reflect on their texts to refer to themselves, their readers or the text itself. It is a key resource in language as it allows the writer to engage with readers in familiar and expected ways and as such it is an important tool for students of academic writing in both the L1 and L2 context. This book achieves for main goals: - to provide an accessible introduction to metadiscourse, discussing its role and importance in written communication and reviewing current thinking on the topic - to explore examples of metadiscourse in a range of texts from business, academic, journalistic, and student writing - to offer a new theory of metadiscourse - to show the relevance of this theory to students, academics and language teachers The book shows how writers use the devices of metadiscourse to adjust the level of personality in their texts, to offer a representation of themselves and their arguments. It shows how these tools help the reader organise, interpret and evaluate the information presented in the text. Knowing how to identify metadiscourse as a reader is a key skill to be learnt by students of discourse analysis and this book makes this a central goal.
This series welcomes book proposals detailing innovative and cutting edge research and theorisation in the field of English as a lingua franca (ELF). The purpose of the series is to offer a wide forum for work on ELF, including aspects such as descriptions and analyses of ELF; ELF use in a range of domains including education (primary, secondary and tertiary), business, tourism; conceptual works challenging current assumptions about English use and usage; works exploring the implications of ELF for English language policy, pedagogy, and practice; and ELF in relation to global multilingualism.
