A FUNCTION-FIRST APPROACH TO VERB TENSE USAGE IN RESEARCH ARTICLE
INTRODUCTIONS IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS Cover Image

A FUNCTION-FIRST APPROACH TO VERB TENSE USAGE IN RESEARCH ARTICLE INTRODUCTIONS IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS
A FUNCTION-FIRST APPROACH TO VERB TENSE USAGE IN RESEARCH ARTICLE INTRODUCTIONS IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS

Author(s): İsmet Öztürk
Subject(s): Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Methodology and research technology
Published by: Ankara Üniversitesi TÖMER
Keywords: Research Articles; Introductions; Function-first Approach; Verb Tense Usage; Applied Linguistics;

Summary/Abstract: The study aims to investigate verb tense usage in research article introductions in the field of Applied Linguistics by adopting a ‘function-first’ approach. The corpus used in the study consists of 50 research article introductions published in five prominent journals of the field. The communicative function of the sentences was determined on the basis Swales’ (1990; 2004) CARS (Create a Research Space) model. In the coding of data Maxqda 11 was used. The results show that each function is associated with particular verb tense. For instance, in ‘claiming centrality’ the present perfect tense, in ‘making topic generalisations’ the simple present and in ‘reviewing items of previous research’ the simple past tense is predominant. The results suggest that the ‘function-first' approach provides a more accurate description of verb tense usage in writing research article introductions than the ‘formfirst’ approach. The findings have implications for teaching academic writing.

  • Issue Year: 170/2019
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 31-53
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: English