The Role of the English It-Cleft and the French C’est-Cleft in Research Discourse
Despite extensive work on cleft constructions, little attention has been given to their functions in specialised discourse. Using a collection of 40 research articles from the KIAP corpus, this study aims at establishing the role of clefts in English and French research discourse. The quantitative a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Presses universitaires de Caen
2017-12-01
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| Series: | Discours |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/discours/9366 |
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| author | Charlotte Bourgoin |
| author_facet | Charlotte Bourgoin |
| author_sort | Charlotte Bourgoin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Despite extensive work on cleft constructions, little attention has been given to their functions in specialised discourse. Using a collection of 40 research articles from the KIAP corpus, this study aims at establishing the role of clefts in English and French research discourse. The quantitative analysis reveals a higher frequency of clefts in French. The study also shows that clefts can help authors increase semantic continuity, reinforce the structure of articles and increase discursive coherence. Clefts thus facilitate the readership’s understanding of the argumentation. From a contrastive viewpoint, the study of the different authorial roles – writer, researcher, arguer, quoter, presenter – reveals that English-speaking researchers tend to be more reader-oriented than French-speaking ones. This study thus gives new insight into the way argumentation is built in research articles and paves the way for further research on the differences between French and English research discourse. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b62d6642249549e49813979c0c9e07cc |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1963-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2017-12-01 |
| publisher | Presses universitaires de Caen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Discours |
| spelling | doaj-art-b62d6642249549e49813979c0c9e07cc2025-01-30T09:53:03ZengPresses universitaires de CaenDiscours1963-17232017-12-012110.4000/discours.9366The Role of the English It-Cleft and the French C’est-Cleft in Research DiscourseCharlotte BourgoinDespite extensive work on cleft constructions, little attention has been given to their functions in specialised discourse. Using a collection of 40 research articles from the KIAP corpus, this study aims at establishing the role of clefts in English and French research discourse. The quantitative analysis reveals a higher frequency of clefts in French. The study also shows that clefts can help authors increase semantic continuity, reinforce the structure of articles and increase discursive coherence. Clefts thus facilitate the readership’s understanding of the argumentation. From a contrastive viewpoint, the study of the different authorial roles – writer, researcher, arguer, quoter, presenter – reveals that English-speaking researchers tend to be more reader-oriented than French-speaking ones. This study thus gives new insight into the way argumentation is built in research articles and paves the way for further research on the differences between French and English research discourse.https://journals.openedition.org/discours/9366information structurescientific discoursecleftscontrastive study French-English |
| spellingShingle | Charlotte Bourgoin The Role of the English It-Cleft and the French C’est-Cleft in Research Discourse Discours information structure scientific discourse clefts contrastive study French-English |
| title | The Role of the English It-Cleft and the French C’est-Cleft in Research Discourse |
| title_full | The Role of the English It-Cleft and the French C’est-Cleft in Research Discourse |
| title_fullStr | The Role of the English It-Cleft and the French C’est-Cleft in Research Discourse |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Role of the English It-Cleft and the French C’est-Cleft in Research Discourse |
| title_short | The Role of the English It-Cleft and the French C’est-Cleft in Research Discourse |
| title_sort | role of the english it cleft and the french c est cleft in research discourse |
| topic | information structure scientific discourse clefts contrastive study French-English |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/discours/9366 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT charlottebourgoin theroleoftheenglishitcleftandthefrenchcestcleftinresearchdiscourse AT charlottebourgoin roleoftheenglishitcleftandthefrenchcestcleftinresearchdiscourse |