K vývoji českého odborného diskurzu: proměny struktury časopiseckých statí v průběhu osmdesáti let
On the development of Czech academic discourse: The development of the structure of journal articles over 80 years

Summary/Abstract: The aim of a current project at the Czech Language Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, is to specify the characteristics of contemporary academic discourse with a focus on the structure of journal articles, i.e., the main components of the article (introduction – central part – conclusion) which are filled by more or less standardised steps and procedures. For example, in the introduction, the aims and topic are established, research questions are posed, the relevant literature is referred to, gaps in the previous research are indicated, and the like; and at the same time, prototypical metatextual phrases used to mark individual steps can be captured. Phrases, such as “Cílem našeho článku je upozornit na...” (The aim of our article is to draw attention to…), “Tomuto problému nebyla dosud věnována dostatečná pozornost” (This problem has thus far not received sufficient attention) will be the subject of a search using a corpus of journal articles, a comparison between Czech and English will be undertaken, and the results (in the form of a “phrasebank”) will be used in the teaching of academic writing to students at various levels. This contribution should add at least a partial historical dimension to the research – the main Czech linguistics journals “Naše řeč” and “Slovo a slovesnost” have been published since 1917 and 1935, respectively. It is thus possible to compare the structure of the articles published and the phrases used in them, e.g., during the period 1935–1940 and 80 years later, during 2015–2020. This comparison reveals some aspects of Czech academic discourse and, in the case of the most recent years, the degree to which it is influenced by English-language academic discourse.

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