Metadiscourse Markers in Technical Texts
Metadiscourse Markers in Technical Texts

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this research is to analyse metadiscourse marker usage in English texts of various areas (Informatics, Energy and Civil Engineering) in pursuance to reveal the aspects of metadiscourse usage. This research is aimed to determine if metadiscourse markers are a frequent occurence in technical language and what category markers can be found in such texts. This study also pursues to define usage peculiarities of interdisciplinary metadiscourse markers. The usage of markers of interactive and interactional categories is analysed. Employing descriptive and comparative research methods and qualitative calculations it was determined that the usage of interactive category markers dominates in all researched technical areas. It was noted that such texts are characterised by visual means, consequently it explains the usage abundance of endophoric markers and code glosses as the author seeks to ensure that the information provided is properly interpreted. The analysis of interactional category markers indicated that technical texts are not so objective as they were considered to be, i.e. the expression of the author‘s attitude and emphatic evaluation can be envisaged. It was observed that the area of Civil Engineering was the most objective and least personalised, the field of Informatics distinguishes by the abundance of code glosses and hedging markers whereas the sphere of Energy stands out by examples of all categories of metadiscourse markers.

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