Post-predicate that-clauses controlled by verbs in native and non-native academic writing: A corpus-based study

Abstract

Post-predicate that clauses are one of the indicators of evaluative language which shows the attitude, position, and personal evaluation of the writers in academic discourse. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the distribution and frequently used controlling verbs of post-predicate that clauses controlled by verb (VTHAT) in academic writings of Turkish learners of English and to compare them with those of native English students and expert writers. For this purpose, a specialized research corpus with three main sub-corpora was compiled: MA and PhD theses written by L2 students and native English students and published research articles written by native experienced writers. The results of the study showed that both L2 and native English students significantly overused VTHAT structures compared to the native experienced writers; however, Turkish students used VTHAT structures more frequently than their native peers in academic discourse. The analysis of the controlling verbs in VTHAT constructions showed that eight out of the 10 top frequent verbs in the Turkish students’ theses were common across either three or two sub-corpora. However, there were various significant differences in the frequencies of these controlling verbs between the subcorpora, which can imply that Turkish students use such constructions to have a low authoritative presence in terms of their authorial stance in academic writing. The findings were discussed with reference to the previous findings, and pedagogical implications were offered.