Abstract:
Several studies have employed the theme-rheme construct to examine the generic profile of research articles (RAs). However, they have mostly focused on the subject matter and nature of disciplines, and other disciplinary characteristics as contextual factors which can impact the genre realization have not been considered in the discourse analysis research. This work, therefore, investigates thematic choices and thematic progression patterns in the RA in relation to the status of disciplines as well-established or emerging fields. To this end, a corpus of 240 RAs of mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, horticulture, and environmental science were analyzed using Halliday’s (1994) framework of thematicity and McCabe’s (1999) model of thematic progression (TP). The results showed significant differences in the distributions of unmarked and marked themes as well as the patterns of thematic progression between the well-established and emerging disciplines. Based on the findings of this study, we suggest further consideration of the status of disciplines in discourse studies which can serve disciplinary research and contribute to the body of research on science.
Machine summary:
"More specifically, the study was an attempt to see how authors have used Theme choices and thematic progression (TP) patterns in the research articles of the two well-established disciplines of mechanical engineering and horticulture and two emerging disciplines of biomedical engineering and environmental science to shed light on the language of science, the construct of discipline, and the profile of RA as a scientific genre.
(رجوع شود به تصویر صفحه) Table 2 Adjusted frequencies of unmarked and marked themes in the RAs (per 10000 T- units) (رجوع شود به تصویر صفحه) Yet, testing the first hypothesis of the study by running a chi-square test (Tables 3 & 4), we found out that there is a significant difference in the Theme status between the well-established disciplines of mechanical engineering and horticulture and the emerging disciplines of biomedical engineering and environmental science.
The mentioned commonalities among the RAs of four disciplines can be partly explained with reference to the genre itself as the theme-rheme analysis, including both thematic choices and thematic patterns, can be a means of genre identification helpful for both finding distinguishing features among genres and establishing the features of a genre (Eiler, 1986; Francis, 1989; McCabe, 1999; Vande Kopple, 1991).
Given the findings of this study about this factor in relation to thematic choices and thematic patterns in RAs, we suggest that the status and establishment of disciplines deserves more attention in discourse studies and further research into it in different disciplinary analyses of the theme-rheme construct would go farther in providing valuable insights."