Wissenschaftliches Schreiben- universell oder kulturabhängig? Eine kontrastive Analyse der Schlussteile deutscher und litauischer Zeitschriftenartike
Academic Writing: Universal or Culture-bound Phenomenon?

Summary/Abstract: The present article focuses on the conclusion of an academic article. The object of analysis were the conclusions of 100 randomly selected linguistic texts, half of which were written in Lithuanian and the other half in German. On the basis of these texts an attempt has been made to determine whether academic writing is a universal or a culture-bound phenomenon. Apparently, conclusions differ in their structure as well as in their linguistic manifestation. The Lithuanian texts are usually confined to a brief summary of the results of the investigation, and therefore also titled as conclusions. The German authors are inclined to discuss and estimate the results of their research, to emphasize its advantage, and to foresee its prospects. Even bigger are the differences on the grammatical level. Around 38% of the German authors use the personal resp. possessive pronoun “I”, “mine”, whereas the Lithuanian authors issue no personal statements at all and prefer impersonal constructions. Thus it can be concluded that the established discrepancies are determined by certain cultural standards and traditions. Hence scientific discourse is erroneously attributed to universal phenomena. The article could be of interest not only to teachers and students of functional German, but also to Lithuanian linguists who write in German.

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