Grammatical Metaphor in Academic Writing: Functional Diversity of Process Nominalisation in Research Article Abstracts Across Disciplines

Abstract

In the past few decades, studies on research article (RA) abstracts have, largely, focused on their rhetorical organisation, with little attention paid to their linguistic features. The present study, therefore, investigates the use of process nominalisations as grammatical metaphor in Applied Linguistics, Economics, and Biology RA abstracts. Data for the study comprised 120 RA abstracts, 40 from each of the selected disciplines, published in a period of five years (2014-2018), and collected from the websites of six prestigious journals, two each from the disciplines investigated. Employing qualitative content analysis, specifically the directed and summative approaches, as its research design, the study revealed that, in Applied Linguistics and Economics, nominalised creative material processes have presumed human actors, suggesting that in these two disciplines, coming into existence is explained as happening through human agency. This contrasts with the use of such nominalisations in Biology, where creation is seen as happening as a result of some natural processes. Another interesting finding is the high use of nominalised verbal processes in Applied Linguistics, compared to the other disciplines studied. Concerning the functions of process nominalisations, the study revealed that process nominalisations are used, ideationally, to create taxonomy, interpersonally, to appraise, and, textually, to achieve cohesion. While the study provides empirical support to SFL theory, it also has implications for studies on nominalisation, disciplinary variation studies, and writing pedagogy.