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Caplletra 64 (Primavera, 2018), pp. 153-178. ISSN 0214-8188, ISSN versió electrònica 2386-7159
Rebut: 25/06/2017. Acceptat: 30/10/2017. DOI: 10.7203/Caplletra.64.11372
ABSTRACT NOUNS AS METADISCURSIVE
SHELLS IN ACADEMIC DISCOURSE
ELS NOMS ABSTRACTES COM A ENCAPSULADORS
METADISCURSIUS EN EL DISCURS ACADÈMIC
M D P
University of Alcalá
mercedes.diez@uah.es
Abstract: Academic discourse is characterized by an abundance of abstract nouns such as analysis,
research, process, concept, approach or role. ese nouns are considered cohesive devices since
their full content is determined by referring to their context and they have received numerous
denominations (anaphoric, signaling, carrier, shell or metadiscursive nouns). is paper explores
the metadiscursive role of shell nouns in a corpus of academic abstracts written by university
students for their Senior eses, based on Schmid’s () and Jiang and Hyland’s (, )
proposals. e rhetorical, persuasive potential of these abstract nouns in this type of academic
discourse is also addressed. e results show that advanced EFL writers deploy a wide range
of abstract nouns in patterns that resemble those of scholars (Jiang & Hyland ). Dierent
moves in the text seem to inuence the type of noun employed. All in all, advanced English
Studies majors are aware of academic disciplinary conventions but would benet from training
in abstract writing, particularly in the distribution of the text’s moves.
Key words: metadiscursive nouns, shell nouns, cohesion, persuasion, academic discourse.
Resum: El discurs acadèmic es caracteritza per l’abundància de noms abstractes, com ara anàlisi,
recerca, procés, concepte, aproximació o rol. Considerats mecanismes cohesius, atès que el seu signi-
cat discursiu es determina per referència al context en què apareixen, han rebut denominacions
diverses en la bibliograa anglosaxona (anaphoric, signaling, carrier, shell o metadiscursive nouns).
A partir de les propostes de Schmid () i Jiang i Hyland (, ), aquest article explora
la funció metadiscursiva d’aquests noms com a encapsuladors d’informacions complexes en un
corpus de resums acadèmics elaborats per estudiants universitaris per als seus Treballs de Final
de Grau. El treball aborda també el potencial retòric i persuasiu d’aquests noms abstractes en
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Abstract nouns as metadiscursive shells in academic discourse
aquest gènere acadèmic. Els resultats palesen que els estudiants de nivell avançat d’anglès com a
llengua estrangera utilitzen una àmplia gamma de substantius abstractes i segueixen patrons d’ús
que s’assemblen als dels experts acadèmics (Jiang i Hyland ). Les diferents parts l’estructura
textual semblen condicionar el tipus de nom emprat. En denitiva, tot i que els estudiants
quasigraduats d’Estudis Anglesos mostren que coneixen les convencions del gènere, els resultats
millorarien si, durant el desenvolupament del grau, s’incidís en l’elaboració de resums de treballs
acadèmics (abstracts), sobretot pel que fa a l’organització de la informació.
Paraules clau: noms metadiscursius, noms encapsuladors, cohesió, persuasió, discurs acadèmic.
1. INTRODUCTION
Abstract nouns such as analysis, characteristic, fact or aim are broad-meaning
and multifunctional nouns that have attracted the attention of scholars for decades,
having received various names: general nouns (Halliday & Hasan ), carrier nouns
(Ivanič ), anaphoric nouns (Francis ), labels (Francis ), encapsulators,
signaling nouns (Flowerdew ), and, more recently, metadiscursive nouns (Tahara
; Jiang & Hyland , ).
Since Halliday and Hasan’s () term general noun seems too general and
fuzzy to delimit the category, each new term is an attempt to focus on an outstan-
ding feature of these nouns. For instance, anaphoric noun (Francis’s term) refers to
the textual situation of the noun’s propositional content, carrier noun (Ivanič’s) was
coined to encompass clause and exophoric uses, and signaling noun (Flowerdew’s)
allows reference to be situated anaphorically, cataphorically, or even exophorically;
the term shell noun (Schmid ) highlights the cognitive function of these nouns,
where the content referenced to is considered to be a mental construct, although
based on a textual chunk of discourse. e last term coined, metadiscursive noun, is,
according to Jiang and Hyland (: ), an attempt by Tahara () to include all
dimensions of previous studies; however, Jiang and Hyland (, ) believe that
Tahara’s treatment does not do full justice to these nouns’ functions; while adopting
the term, they provide it with additional rhetorical functions by covering textual
and interpersonal features. ese dimensions are named, respectively, interactive and
interactional; the former refers to the construction of cohesion and the latter to the
expression of stance.
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Abstract nouns as metadiscursive shells in academic discourse
e methodological framework adopted in this study incorporates the metadis-
cursive approach proposed in the most recent publications by Jiang and Hyland (,
) and is merged with one of the two «large-scale studies of this type of noun»
(Jiang & Hyland : ), Schmid’s () English Abstract Nouns as Conceptual Shells.1
Since the abstract nouns analyzed in this article belong to the academic disciplinary
discourse, the shorthand label academic abstract noun will be used, together with the
merged denomination of metadiscursive shell noun.
Making adequate rhetorical choices in academic discourse contributes to achie-
ving eective persuasion, which is particularly the case in the academic genre chosen
for analysis: the research abstract, specically when written as part of undergraduate
senior theses; this type of speech act is socially situated in a disciplinary or institutional
context (Hyland a: ). To be convincing and, thus, to be evaluated positively by
the reader, a member of the academic committee who assesses these research papers,
one needs to connect with a discursive communal ideology or value system. e use
of metadiscursive shell nouns is one type of rhetorical tool to fulll this requirement.
Focusing on the use of abstract nouns in academic discourse, this study is guided
by the following research questions:
(a) What types of metadiscursive shell nouns are used by writers in the abstracts
analyzed? What is the frequency of occurrence of metadiscursive shell nouns in abs-
tracts written by university students (i.e. novice research writers)?
(b) What are the most frequent lexico-grammatical patterns in which these
nouns are used? Are the results comparable with those from a study by expert research
writers (Jiang and Hyland )?
(c) How do metadiscursive nouns organize cohesion in the text?
(d) Do abstracts follow the IMRD (i.e. Introduction-Method-Results-Discussion)
pattern and what is the role of metadiscursive nouns in the pattern moves?
In order to answer these questions, a multidimensional analysis will be carried
out, addressing the issues raised in each question:
(a) Identication and classication of metadiscursive shell nouns, following
Jiang and Hyland’s (, ) categorization, and resorting to Schmid’s () and
. e other large-scale study pointed out by these authors (Jiang & Hyland : ) is
Flowerdew and Forest’s ().
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Abstract nouns as metadiscursive shells in academic discourse
Flowerdew’s () classications. is analysis addresses what Jiang and Hyland
() denominate the interactional dimension.
(b) Identication of the lexico-grammatical patterns in which the nouns are
used, expanding Schmid’s () and Jiang and Hyland’s (, ) taxonomy to
include all patterns found.
(c) Identication of cohesive relations established by the academic abstract nouns
found, according to Jiang and Hyland’s () interactive dimension.
(d) Identication of the rhetorical moves (i.e. Introduction-Purpose-Methods-
Results-Conclusion) in the abstracts selected, following Jiang and Hyland’s ()
study, focusing on the role academic abstract nouns play in each move.
e next section presents and explains the concept of «metadiscursive shell
noun» and is followed by a section devoted to the theoretical framework adopted.
Section justies the persuasive function played by the genre chosen for analysis,
the academic abstract. Section discusses the details of the empirical study: corpus,
participants and analytical method employed; and Section presents and interprets
the results focusing on the four analyses carried out: ) interactional dimension, )
lexico-grammatical patterns, ) interactive dimension (i.e. cohesion), and ) rhetorical
moves. Finally, Section provides the conclusions for the present study.
2. ACADEMIC ABSTRACT NOUNS AS METADISCURSIVE SHELLS
Shell nouns are dened by Schmid (: ) as an open class of nouns that
are recognized by their functional potential rather than by their inherent properties.
He considers them «conceptual shells» because their main function is to supply and
conceptualize the information contained in propositions. Although called by Francis
() anaphoric nouns (A-nouns for short), this type of noun can advance informa-
tion that comes later in the text, functioning cataphorically. Apart from this textual
cohesive function attributed to shell nouns, they have the potential to conceptualize
complex ideas into manageable notions (i.e. gestalt formation, Schmid : ) and
can even have an interactional dimension (Jiang & Hyland ).
Metadiscursive nouns are a subset of abstract nouns and are dened «as those
which refer to the [i.e. interactive dimension] or the -
’ [i.e. interactional dimension] [emphases and explanations
added]» (Jiang & Hyland : -). According to these authors, such nouns have an
invariable lexical meaning and a variable, context-dependent, pragmatic one. Jiang
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Abstract nouns as metadiscursive shells in academic discourse
and Hyland (: ) mention that theirs is a more pragmatic, functional approach
than others, like Schmid’s () or Flowerdew and Forest’s (), who give greater
prominence to the semantic meaning of these nouns. Even if a pragmatic classication
is desirable because it allows the context to be taken into account, this approach is not
feasible in large-scale studies like the ones previously mentioned, since large corpora
must be analyzed with retrieval software that enables generic searches but is limited
with regards to contextual analyses.
e present corpus can be coded manually for its manageable proportions
( words); however, semantic approaches like Schmid’s () provide the ne-
cessary scaolding for contextually based analyses like the present one. Furthermore,
Schmid () is fully aware of the pragmatic dimension of these abstract nouns, as
he devotes a whole chapter to the pragmatic, rhetorical and textual functions of these
nouns, as well as mentioning their pragmatic function elsewhere in his book. Not only
Schmid () but also Jiang and Hyland () mention the rhetorical potential for
persuasion of shell or metadiscursive nouns (or, merging both, metadiscursive shell
nouns). According to Schmid (: ), «shell nouns provide speakers with powerful
tools for the characterization, perspectivization, and indeed even manipulation, of
their own and other speakers’ ideas» and, in Jiang and Hyland’s words (: ), «these
nouns help writers organize their arguments and persuade disciplinary peers of their
claims». For Jiang and Hyland (: ), their persuasive function relies mainly on
their potential to express stance and engagement in Hyland’s (a, b) terms,
the two manifestations of evaluation. Stance refers to the expression of judgements,
opinions and commitments by means of hedges, boosters, attitude markers and self-
mention, while engagement involves the alignment of writers/speakers with readers/
hearers via reader/speaker pronouns, directives, questions, appeals to shared knowledge
and personal asides (Hyland a).
Metadiscursive nouns are called so because they «perform evaluative and engage-
ment roles, either expressing the writer’s stance to the message or involving readers as
discourse participants through appeal to shared knowledge and awareness of rhetorical
practices» (Jiang & Hyland : ). e present study addresses the latter dimension
of shell nouns, that is, their use as rhetorical tools for persuasion.
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3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE ANALYSIS OF ACADEMIC
ABSTRACT NOUNS
ere are certain correspondences between Jiang and Hyland’s (, )
categories and Schmid’s () types of abstract nouns that allow complementa-
tion of models: Relation in Jiang and Hyland’s is somewhat equivalent to Factual
in Schmid, Discourse to Linguistic, Cognition to Mental, Status to Modal, Manner to
Circumstantial and Event to Eventive; Object (called Text in Jiang & Hyland : )
can be subsumed within Linguistic and Quality with Factual. Another classication of
nouns that can be taken as a point of reference is Flowerdew’s () list of academic
nouns. table includes Jiang and Hyland’s () classication, which is the one used
in the present study.
Category Denition Examples
Entity
Object Concrete metatext article, paper, study
Event Events, processes and evidential cases change, case, observation
Discourse Verbal propositions and speech acts argument, claim, conclusion
Cognition Cognitive beliefs and attitudes decision, idea, notion, aim
Attribute
Quality Traits that are admired or criticized, valued
or depreciated. Advantage, diculty, failure
Manner Circumstances of actions and states of aairs. Time, method, way, extent
Status Epistemic, deontic and dynamic modality. Possibility, trend, choice, ability
Relation
Cause-eect,
dierence, etc. Cause-eect, dierence, relevance. Reason, result, dierence
Table . Jiang and Hyland’s () categorization of metadiscursive nouns
Jiang and Hyland (, ) closely follow Schmid () not only in their
categorization of abstract nouns but also in the identication of the lexico-grammatical
patterns in which these nouns most typically appear (see Table ).
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Abstract nouns as metadiscursive shells in academic discourse
Patterns and examples in Schmid (: ) Patterns and examples in Jiang & Hyland
(: )
-N (But what does it all mean? […] the full
answer to that question)*
Determiner + N (these opposing tendencies […]
strong dissipation. is insight motivates […])
-be-N ([…] it has […] introduced the idea
that people should …. that is a crucial point)
Determiner + be + N ([…] our intuition about
skepticism. is is the hard problem for indirect
sensitivity accounts.)
N-cl ([…] his belief that intervention could
draw the UN into […])
N + post-nominal clause (is research examines
the notion that guilt, the negative emotion stem-
ming from […])
N-be-cl ([…] the eventual aim is to set up a new
discipline […])
N + be + complement clause (e aim of this
study was to determine if dierences in coronary
endothelial function […])
* Bold: shell noun. Underlined: shell content.
Table . Lexico-grammatical patterns in Schmid () and Jiang & Hyland ()
e types of clauses that tend to follow the shell noun are established by Schmid
as that-clauses, innitive clauses and wh-clauses. Although Jiang and Hyland (: )
refer to Schmid () when identifying the «four most frequent lexico-grammatical
patterns in which metadiscursive nouns are used», in fact, the patterns are not totally
identical, as can be seen in table .
An unclear area in Jiang and Hyland’s treatment of lexico-grammatical patterns
is whether all determiners should be included in the patterns or just demonstratives,
since they use the latter term in a previous publication (Jiang & Hyland ). Guided
by the examples collected from both publications, the broader category of Determiner
has been adopted: […] supported by the observation (Jiang & Hyland : ) and
According to the traditional view […] (Jiang & Hyland : , : ).
e identication and categorization of abstract metadiscursive nouns in my
study corresponds to the interactional dimension highlighted in Jiang and Hyland’s
(, ) model; this function is justied because they are used «to express the
writer’s stance or engage readers in the argument» (Jiang & Hyland : ). ese
nouns are classied by these authors according to their stance function (see table
), which corresponds fairly closely, as explained above, with Schmid’s six-category
semantic model (factual, linguistic, mental, modal, eventive and circumstantial).
e interactional dimension is complemented by an interactive dimension,
which addresses cohesive relations (cf. Jiang & Hyland , ). e concept of
cohesion that Halliday and Hasan () developed in their seminal study Cohesion
in English only considers as cohesive devices reference within the text (i.e. endophoric
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reference); thus, exophoric reference is not cohesive. Although this is the approach
adopted in previous studies (Díez Prados , ; Díez, Halbach & Rivas ;
Díez Prados & Cabrejas Peñuelas ; Cabrejas Peñuelas & Díez Prados ), the
present one does not constrain cohesion to the relations within the textual world, like
other scholars do (Brown & Yule ; Christiansen ).
Jiang and Hyland (: ) believe that «in all cases the metadiscursive noun
provides a link with additional information, whether inside or outside the text
[which] helps writers move ideas along cohesively and to assist readers to gain a better
comprehension of the connected information». us, it seemed advisable to adopt
this theoretical conception here. An example of exophoric reference they mention is
«according to the traditional view», and they explain that, in order to provide content
to the noun, readers must summon «a referent from their background knowledge
outside the current text» (Jiang & Hyland : ). erefore, examples like these
have been included and analyzed as exophoric in the present corpus.
A further justication for considering both endophoric and exophoric cohesion
is found in Schmid (: ), who claims that the location of referents is not always
unambiguous, bearing in mind that readers may be resorting to a mental representation
of referents. In that case, all coreferentiality would be exophoric and «activation of
components of a cognitive model [emphasis in the original] solves the problem inherent
in the claim that shell nouns and the linguistic elements expressing the shell content
have to do with the same thing» (Schmid : ).
Schmid’s work () is the rst large-scale attempt to regulate and classify an
extensive and not easily delimiting group of nouns that are prevalent across discipli-
nary discourses. However, when deciding on which methodological framework to
use, Jiang and Hyland’s () notion of metadiscursive noun was adopted for two
main reasons: (a) the discourse genre to be analyzed, the abstract, coincides with the
one in these author’s study; and (b) their multidimensional analysis (rhetorical moves,
interactive and interactional dimensions) seemed suitable for focusing on the rhetorical
function of these nouns. e equivalence in the methodological framework between
their study and the present one adds one more advantage: allowing the comparison
of results between novice and expert research writers.
In the present study, the label shell noun has been maintained following Schmid’s
treatment of these nouns, which have three encompassing characteristics:
(a) Considering nouns as conceptual constructs allows the inclusion of all previous
notions of containment, signaling, pointing and encapsulating (Schmid : ).
(b) Schmid’s () study encompasses the use of these nouns in a broad range
of dierent text types and, thus, provides a picture of their use in an interdisciplinary
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Abstract nouns as metadiscursive shells in academic discourse
fashion. His list of shell nouns is the result of a systematic analysis of a wide-ranging
corpus (COBUILD’s Bank of English, million words) and includes lexemes
(the list is available in the Appendix, pp. -), which are categorized and explained
according to their six dierent uses. is characteristic confers on Schmid’s ()
publication the nature of a manual for research purposes.
(c) Schmid’s treatment of reference as a cognitive phenomenon (: .) ins-
tead of a textual one subsumes all types of reference (anaphora, cataphora and deixis
or exophora), since the relation between the referential expression and its referent is
established in the mind. For him, «items with referring potential are seen as being
related neither to the text itself nor to the world outside the text but to the cognitive
models that are created in the minds of language users» (Schmid : ). is solves
the arduous task, at times, of deciding the exact location of the shell noun’s content.
e aforementioned considerations justify the adoption of a theoretical framework
resulting from the merge of Schmid’s and Jiang and Hyland’s model, together with
the coinage of a new term for this type of academic abstract noun: metadiscursive
shell nouns. In the following section, the promotional function of academic abstracts
is explained and their relevance justied.
4. ACADEMIC ABSTRACTS AS PROMOTIONAL PERSUASIVE DISCOURSE
Academic abstracts may be considered a type of promotional persuasive discourse;
due to their main function of «selling» an idea to a potential «client», they somehow
resemble entrepreneurial pitches since they are both examples of brief self-promotional
text. e entrepreneurial pitch is an up to three-minute oral presentation to defend
a project, idea, product, service or organization, mainly to obtain nancial support;
likewise, the function of academic abstracts is to promote the author’s research and
to help readers judge the relevance and interest of a given study to decide whether
to continue reading or reject the article altogether (Jiang & Hyland : ). In that
sense, both promotional genres try to highlight the special contribution or personal
brand of the persuader: in the case of the entrepreneurial pitch, its unique selling point
(USP), and in academic abstracts, a proposal for how to ll a research gap.
e purpose of abstracts is, therefore, persuasion, and, as such, they have
to inuence somehow the reader’s value system (García-Gómez ) or faltering
beliefs (Jae ). To do so, writers in an academic discourse community have to
adapt their discourse to their readers’ expectations to convince them of their value as
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members of the community. If expert and novice writers are not fully aware of the
promotional value of abstracts, they may not devote enough time and eort to their
design. Furthermore, writing an appropriate abstract is not an easy task, due to its
synthetic nature; one needs to extract what is most important and worth highlighting
from the paper and, at the same time, it should form a coherent whole.
Persuasion is a communicative function that pervades most discourse types.
Although the main function of academic abstracts may not be persuasive per se, the
role they fulll with respect to the expectations of the reader that is to evaluate the
paper credits this academic genre as a sort of cover letter that may predispose the actual
addressee (un)favorably. Despite its importance, abstract writing is often disregarded
as an unimportant and somehow tedious task by students. However, metadiscursive
nouns in abstracts help the writer to meet this rhetorical challenge because they are
versatile and functional; hence, these nouns play a relevant role in EFL academic
writing. As Jiang and Hyland () show, abstracts contain a profusion of metadis-
cursive abstract nouns and both Ivanič () and Flowerdew () point out the
importance of learners being acquainted with these nouns when they try to meet the
requirements of the academic discourse community. is fact highlights the relevance
of studies like the present one.
5. EMPIRICAL STUDY: ABSTRACT NOUNS IN UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC
DISCOURSE
e Spanish university education system (Royal Decree /, October)
establishes the requirement to write a Senior esis (called in Spanish Trabajo de Fin de
Grado, or TFG for short, which can be literally translated as Final Degree Paper) to obtain
an undergraduate degree, whose main aim is to evaluate the competences associated
with the corresponding degree. In the Modern Languages Department at the University
of Alcalá (Spain), the degree in English Studies allows students to write a Senior esis
either in the eld of the literature and culture of English-speaking countries, or in the
eld of linguistics and the English language (applied linguistics, mainly, but within a
broad range of approaches, such as Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis, Cognitive Linguistics,
Corpus Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, EFL, etc.). e students who decide to write
their paper on linguistics are advised to structure their project according to the general
IMRD (Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion, Swales and Feak ) pattern.
e corpus collected for the present study consists of Senior esis abstracts
(about words each, a total of words) written in English as their foreign
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Abstract nouns as metadiscursive shells in academic discourse
language by undergraduates ( females and males) of the degree of English
Studies from the University of Alcalá (Spain); the main focus of study is their use of
metadiscursive shell nouns, which allows for some comparison with Jiang and Hyland’s
() results for abstracts written by well-established scholars in dierent academic
disciplines in high-impact journals.
Following Jiang and Hyland’s () study, the abstracts were analyzed in a
multilayered fashion, which involved the following steps:
Step . Identication and classication of metadiscursive abstract nouns in the
following phases:
(a) e metadiscursive abstract nouns identied were assigned to Jiang and
Hyland’s categorization, if included on their list (Jiang & Hyland ).
(b) If absent, the noun was searched for in Schmid’s Index of Shell Nouns
(Schmid : -) and, if found, assigned to one of Jiang and Hyland’s (,
) categories. Comparisons among nouns helped establish the category to which
the noun might belong.
(c) If the noun was absent in both classications but was present in Flowerdew’s
(: ) list of the most common nouns in academic English, it was assigned
to Jiang and Hyland’s categorization (e.g. term was assigned the label «entity/discour-
se» by comparison with statement and proposition, i.e. to a class referred to linguistic
entities stricto sensu).
(d) Finally, if the noun was not present in any classication but still seemed a
feasible candidate to be classied as a metadiscursive shell noun, it was categorized in
a group according to its meaning and function (e.g. enumeration was included within
the group entity/object due to its resemblance to explanation or description from Jiang
and Hyland’s () list).
e list of nouns found in the corpus analyzed, together with their categoriza-
tion, has been included in table below.
Step . Identication of the lexico-grammatical pattern in which the noun is
used. In the present study, the ranges of determiners and clauses have been extended
to include all the types found: Determiner + noun includes demonstratives (e.g. this
case), (in)denite articles (e.g. e traditional stereotypes; a determining factor), zero
articles (e.g. more accurate Ø conclusions, where no article is required), possessive
adjectives (e.g. their experience); indenite adjectives (e.g. some examples), interroga-
tive pronouns (e.g. which situation) and numerals (e.g. one situation).
e types of post-nominal clauses found in the Noun + clause structure were:
Nominal that clause (e.g. evidence that L2 is indeed built upon the native language),
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to-innitive clause (e.g. an attempt to persuade others), wh-clause (e.g. the reasons
why early after-perfect instances had a prospective tense), past participle clause (e.g. the
information gathered), prepositional clause (e.g. a way of creating) and relative clause
(e.g. a notion that needs further study); relative clauses are considered here although
not included by Schmid () because they help conceptualize the shell content
or referent of the abstract noun. In the pattern Noun + be + clause, the only clause
found was to-innitive (e.g. my aim was to expose).
Step . Identication of cohesive relations: ree types of cohesive relations were
taken into account: (a) Anaphoric (e.g. […] whether romantic homosexual partners
[…] In order to address this question […]), (b) cataphoric (e.g. A further aim of this
study is to compare […]), and exophoric or deictic (e.g. […] how traditional gender
roles and stereotypes).
Step . Identication of rhetorical moves: the pattern Introduction-Purpose-
Methods-Results-Conclusion suggested by Jiang and Hyland (: ) was searched
for in the abstracts.
e ,-word corpus ( abstracts) was uploaded in text format and manually
coded with the aid of UAM Corpus Tools, a freeware program developed by Mick
O’Donnell.2 is software is, in fact, a set of tools to annotate the text(s), make
searches in the corpus and run descriptive and inferential statistics. For the present
study, four layers of analytical schemes were included in the program: Metadiscursive
nouns, Lexico-grammatical patterns, Interactive cohesion and Rhetorical moves.
6. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
is section presents and interprets the results gathered from the quantitative
and qualitative analyses of metadiscursive shell nouns. It is subdivided into four parts,
corresponding to the four analyses carried out and explained in the previous section.
. e program can be downloaded for free from the web page: <http://www.wagsoft.com/
CorpusTool/>.
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.
Table includes the general results for metadiscursive nouns found, a total
of tokens. e most frequent category was Entity (. ), particularly of the
Cognition type (. ) like hypothesis, aim, concept, theory, intention, knowledge, etc.
(see table ), followed by the Object type (. ), which is a limited but frequent
set of terms that refer to the work done (e.g. paper, research, study, thesis, project, dis-
sertation). e types Discourse (e.g. expression, explanation, message, etc.) and Event
(evidence, example, fact, nding, etc.) display similar frequencies (. and . ,
respectively). All the dierences among categories and among types within categories
are statistically signicant ( signicance level).
Feature N Percent
METADISCURSIVE_NOUNTYPE N=
Entity .
Attribute .
Relation .
ENTITY-TYPE N=
Object .
Event .
Discourse .
Cognition .
ATTRIBUTE-TYPE N=
Quality .
Manner .
Status .
RELATION-TYPE N=
Cause-eect__dierence__etc. .
Table . Frequencies of metadiscursive nouns (tokens)
Nouns relating to Entities refer to the writer’s judgement of texts, events, dis-
courses or issues linked to cognition (Jiang & Hyland : ). Within this class, the
present corpus gives prominence to mental reasoning, beliefs or attitudes (i.e. Cogni-
tion type) and to the metatext (i.e. Object type), while verbal propositions and speech
acts (i.e. Discourse type), and actions, processes or evidential cases (i.e. Event type)
are less addressed. is prominence of Entities was also found in Jiang and Hyland
(: ), although the percentages are not that high (. ).
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Nouns referring to Attributes constitute . of the text, and, when broken
into groups, Status lexemes (i.e. expressions of modality) are scarce (. ), both in
number and in range; in fact, opportunity is the only lexeme found. Quality (. )
doubles Status (. ); these are terms that evaluate positively or negatively (e.g.
advantage, challenge, idea, importance, problem or stereotype). Within the category of
Attribute, the most frequent type of all is Manner (. ), a term that describes
circumstances of actions or states of aairs, and has a wide variety of lexemes: area,
characteristic, context, condition, method, pattern, technique or way.
Table displays all the types of dierent nouns found, a total of . Within
categories, Entity shows more variety of nouns () than Attribute () or Relation ().
Of all subtypes, the largest variety of nouns is found in Cognition ( dierent terms).
Cognitive nouns are, thus, the most frequent (see table ) and the most varied (see table ).
Category Types of nouns Total
Entity
Object Investigation, work, dissertation, enumeration, essay, paper, project, research,
study, thesis
Event Attempt, case, criterion, evidence, example, experience, fact, factor, nding,
manifestation, phenomenon, process
Discourse Answer, appeal, conclusion, explanation, expression, information, message,
question, term
Cognition Aim, analysis, attitude, concept, conception, examination, focus, function, goal,
hypothesis, image, impression, insight, intention, issue, knowledge, notion,
objective, opinion, perception, perspective, position, prejudice, presupposition,
purpose, strategy, theory, topic, understanding
Attribute
Quality Advantage, challenge, idea, importance, problem, stereotype, success
Manner Approach, situation, area, aspect, attribute, characteristic, condition, context,
distinction, factor, feature, framework, means, method, methodology, pattern,
structure, technique, tool, variable, way
Status Opportunity, capacity, choice, possibility, preference, requirement, role
Relation
Cause-eect,
dierence, etc.
Basis, comparison, connection, dierence, dierentiation, eect, eectiveness,
inuence, outcome, reason, relation, relationship, result, similarity
TOTAL TYPES OF DIFFERENT NOUNS
Table . Academic abstract nouns (types)
In table the use of nouns distributed among the dierent rhetorical moves
can be seen.
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Introduction Purpose Methods Results Conclusion
Feature N Percent N Percent N Percent N Percent N Percent
METADISCURSIVE_NOUN-
TYPE N= N= N= N= N=
Entity . . . . .
Attribute . . . . .
Relation . . . . .
ENTITY-TYPE N= N= N= N= N=
Object . . . . .
Event . . . . .
Discourse . . . . .
Cognition . . . . .
ATTRIBUTE-TYPE N= N= N= N= N=
Quality . . . . .
Manner . . . . .
Status . . . . .
RELATION-TYPE N= N= N= N= N=
Cause-eect__dierence__etc. . . . . .
Table . Frequencies of metadiscursive nouns within rhetorical moves
With regard to the frequency of nouns within rhetorical moves, the Introduc-
tion and the Conclusion sections behave in similar ways since the only statistically
signicant dierence between them is in the use of Entity/Discourse (nouns like answer,
appeal, conclusion, explanation, etc.; see table ). Most of these words are found in the
Conclusion, where the results are interpreted (. in the Conclusion and only .
in the Introduction). On the other hand, the Purpose, Methods and Results sections
contain similar frequencies in terms of their use of Entity nouns (Purpose . ,
Methods . and Results . ) and Attribute nouns (Purpose . , Methods
. and Results ); in fact, these dierences are not statistically signicant.
Although Relation seems more frequently used in the Results section (. ), the
dierence among the rhetorical moves is only statistically signicant (p<.) when
compared with Introduction (. ).
erefore, the core part of the abstracts (Purpose-Methods-Results) seems to
behave similarly, and is in contrast to the beginning (Introduction) and the end of
the abstracts (Conclusion). Specically, the use of Entity is lower in the Introduction
( ) and in the Conclusion (. ) sections than in the Purpose (. ), Methods
(. ) and Results (. ) sections, whereas the use of Attribute is signicantly
higher in the Introduction (. ) and in the Conclusion (. ) than in the other
three rhetorical moves (. in Purpose, . in Methods and in Results).
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Within subtypes, Discourse is higher in the Conclusion (. ) than in the rest of the
moves (except when compared with Purpose, where the dierence is not signicant).
In order to determine what may be considered an adequate concentration of
academic abstract nouns in short texts like abstracts, the measure academic abstract
nouns index (AANI) is proposed. is index is the result of dividing the number of
abstract nouns identied by the number of words in the text (expressed in percentages).
at way the ratio obtained uncovers the density of academic abstract nouns used
in relation to the total number of words. An excessive number of abstract words can
tinge the text with a high degree of abstraction, which may result in a highly vague
text, dicult to process and lacking specicity.
Text Total
words
M-S
Nouns
AANI Text Total
words
M-S
Nouns
AANI
TFG_Eng_ . TFG_Eng_ .
TFG_Eng_ . TFG_Eng_ .
TFG_Eng_ . TFG_Eng_ .
TFG_Eng_ . TFG_Eng_ .
TFG_Eng_ . TFG_Eng_ .
TFG_Eng_ . TFG_Eng_ .
TFG_Eng_ . TFG_Eng_ .
TFG_Eng_ . TFG_Eng_ .
TFG_Eng_ . TFG_Eng_ .
TFG_Eng_ . TFG_Eng_ .
TFG_Eng_ . TFG_Eng_ .
TFG_Eng_ . TFG_Eng_ .
Words Nouns AANI Words Nouns AANI
TOTALS , . MEANS . . .
Table . Academic abstract noun indexes
As can be seen in Table , TFG , for example, has words, of which
are academic abstract nouns. is lexical density of academic abstract nouns implies
that . of the words in the text are metadiscursive nouns, when the mean for
the whole corpus is half of that, . . When TFG is closely examined, that high
degree of abstraction signaled by the AANI is ostensive:
[is study consists of the enumeration and analysis of several second language learning
factors of inuence together with the comparison of rst and second language learning or acqui-
ring processes. ose factors are related to the process of production and perception of language
and are mainly based on three works of linguists that study the language learning phenomena
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Abstract nouns as metadiscursive shells in academic discourse
from dierent perspectives.] INTRODUCTION [e key words that constantly appear in
the investigation include: neurological, environmental and aective inuences and variables,
rst language inuence and learning strategies. Input and intake are also quite important. e
term of individuality is present through the whole essay and results very important in the nal
conclusions together with the dierentiation between acquisition and learning.] RESULTS
[e analysis consists in this information gathered being tested on seven from twenty
to fty year-old individuals that have been interviewed with several questions about their
experience with language learning. All of those individuals know more than one language, ne-
vertheless, the dierences among them and the usage of the dierent languages is noticeable.]
METHODS [e analysis of the interviews carried out depending on the age, personality and
amount of languages those individuals know, provided answers to the main research questions
that appear during the essay together with interesting ndings that compare the knowledge
that common people have about language learning and the experience they have had with it
with the academic information wrote from to .] RESULTS [e main objectives
include to give a clear picture of the problems that common people face in language learning
and to break with the prejudices and presuppositions that common people normally have about
language learning and use it as an excuse to not to put enough eort in it]; PURPOSE [fact
noticeable by comparing the interviews to the information gathered.] METHODS [ose
objectives were achieved together with the answers to the research questions that are included
in the nal sections of the essay.] CONCLUSION (TFG )
An overabundance of abstract nouns (underlined in the example) makes infor-
mation processing dicult. is abstract is also faulty in terms of format ( paragraphs)
and distribution of rhetorical moves: the Results section is divided by the Methods
section, which is broken into two as well; and the Purpose section, which should
come after the Introduction because it establishes the aims of the paper, comes after
the Results and the Methods.
e last frequency worth mentioning is the type/token ratio of academic abstract
nouns used. A total of dierent nouns (see Table ) were found, which, divided
into the total number of metadiscursive nouns (), makes a type/token ratio of .,
that is, of the abstract nouns used are dierent (i.e. every abstract nouns).
. -
As can be seen in table , the overwhelmingly used pattern in this corpus is De-
terminer + N (. of the cases), and, within this type, the most frequent pattern is
when the noun is specied by a denite article (. ). is pattern was also the most
frequent in Jiang and Hyland’s (: ) study of abstracts written by scholars from
six dierent disciplines (. ). Likewise, the second most frequent pattern was N +
post-nominal clause (. in this study and . in Jiang & Hyland’s ). e
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Abstract nouns as metadiscursive shells in academic discourse
post-nominal that-clause, although profusely found in Schmid’s large corpus (),
was barely used here (only . ); the to-innitive clause is the second most frequent
(. ) and the Relative clause is even more frequent (. ); this latter pattern is not
considered in the models adopted as reference, thereby not allowing comparisons of results.
Feature N Percent
LEXICO-GRAMMATICAL_PATTERNS-TYPE N=
Determiner_n .
N_post-nominal_clause .
N_be_complement_clause .
Demonstrative_be_n .
DETERMINER_N-TYPE N=
Demonstrative_n .
Def_article_n .
Indef_article_n .
Zero_article_n .
Possessive_n .
Indenite_n .
Interrogative_n .
Numeral_n .
N_POST-NOMINAL_CLAUSE-TYPE N=
N_that-clause .
N_innitive .
N_wh-clause .
N_pp-clause .
N_prep-clause .
N_relative-clause .
N_BE_COMPLEMENT_CLAUSE-TYPE N=
Be_innitive .
Be_that-clause .
Be_wh-clause .
Be_pp-clause .
Be_prep-clause .
Table . Frequency of lexico-grammatical patterns
e rhetorical reason for the use of simpler patterns (Det + N and few that-
clauses) may be the one pointed out by Jiang and Hyland (: ) of «limited textual
space» in abstracts and could also be motivated by the fact that the abstracts analyzed
here were written by novice researchers.
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. :
As can be seen in table , exophoric reference ( tokens) is more prevalent than
anaphoric, although less frequent than endophoric reference, considering anaphoric
( tokens) and cataphoric ( tokens).
Feature N Percent
INTERACTIVE_COHESION-TYPE N=
Anaphoric .
Cataphoric .
Deictic-exophoric .
Table . Interactive dimension: cohesion
e most common interactive type was cataphoric cohesion (. ), which
may be partly conditioned by how it was analyzed. e pattern N + postmodifying
of-prepositional phrases was considered cataphoric, as in the following example:
() rough the analysis of the lyrics, it will be studied to what extent the musicians rely on
patriarchal constructs and gender stereotypes to depict her or his signicant other and
how they represent a certain model of romantic heterosexual relationships (TFG_Eng_)
Schmid (: ) thinks that, although the referent of the noun in this type
of constructions seems to be the Prepositional Phrase, «such equations are not entirely
correct, since the head nouns are not conceptually identical with the information
expressed as postmodiers. Rather, the nouns refer to mental representations of this».
If this is so, the referent would be exophoric, because it would be in the writer’s mind,
not in the text (i.e. endophoric). However, the full specication of the noun in bold
(analysis) seems to rely partly on the text and partly outside: the postmodifying prepo-
sitional phrase (of the lyrics) contributes to part of the content of the noun analysis by
restricting the scope of the activity carried out to a concrete entity. According Luzón
Marco (: , in Jiang & Hyland : ), words like analysis are more function
words than content words in that they require specication. A dierent issue, however,
is whether that specication lies within the text or outside it. Consequently, it does
not always seem feasible to identify an undeniable referent in the text. e referent of
stereotypes in example has been identied cataphorically as well in the post-nominal
clause, following Jiang and Hyland’s (: ) example ([…] due to their abilities
to perform some redundant functions in RNA editing and/or stability).
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A very common pattern found is Det + (modier) + N + past participle reduced-
relative clause:
() After-perfect is generally understood as a perfective structure used in English (TFG_Eng_)
In this case, the noun structure refers to the previous Noun Group subject un-
derlined. Examples like () raise the issue of whether these are cases of hyponymy or
of metadiscursive nouns. ey are not labels, encapsulators or shell nouns, for that
matter, since they do not strictly refer to a proposition in the text, i.e. to a clausal
antecedent, at least. ey are rather hyponyms (or even general nouns), which name a
class or group of entities. Nonetheless, Jiang and Hyland (: ) include the noun
structure as an example of a typical metadiscursive noun. In fact, this noun ts the
denition of metadiscursive noun since it oers «writers a way of organizing discourse
into a cohesive ow of information and of constructing a stance towards it» (Jiang
& Hyland : ). Consequently, the metadiscursive noun concept seems to refer to
a pragmatic function of some abstract nouns that are rhetorically used in academic
interactions, regardless of their cohesive function. Whether they are categorized as
hyponyms, because they belong to a particular class of nouns, shell nouns (in Schmid’s
terms) or label nouns (in López Samaniego’s terms) seems irrelevant when con-
sidering their role as unspecic abstract nouns referring to propositional entities. In
other words, these nouns can be better understood when adopting the perspective
that they refer to complex cognitively relational entities (either endophoric or shared
knowledge), far away from the level of «things» but proling these entities as if they
were «things».
It is not always easy to locate exactly the referent for the metadiscursive noun.
e same clause, or even the same phrase, tends to be the most common location for
the noun’s referent; however, at times, the referent is deictic (exophoric), signaling the
work being done. In these cases, the denite article or the demonstrative this is used
(the/this paper/research/study/thesis). Both determiners imply known information, but
the propositional content that provides them with meaning has not been mentioned
in the immediate co-text; in fact, the text often starts with this nominal phrase, which
makes it impossible to have an anaphoric referent.
Other expressions such as the ndings/results also display the same denite article,
implying shared knowledge among researchers. is implication may be echoing the
conventional structure of empirical research papers, which have an IMRD structure
that is mirrored in academic abstracts (Jiang & Hyland : ). us, readers expect
writers to make reference to these research entities and, therefore, they do not need
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Abstract nouns as metadiscursive shells in academic discourse
to be previously presented as new information (e.g. A study has been conducted…).
is appeal to shared knowledge is an engagement marker in Hyland’s metadiscourse
model (a, b), since the audience is asked to recognize something as familiar
or accepted. It is also a sign of the taken-for-grantedness mentioned Martin and White
(: ): «a projection onto the intended readership of an established likemin-
dedness with the author’s position». is likemindedness favors persuasion. When
used by students in their Senior esis abstracts, they are adopting a convention
that responds to an academic disciplinary discourse. Students, in their eagerness to
please their tutors and the committee that will read their work, attempt «to present
themselves as competent academics immersed in the ideologies and practices of their
elds» (Hyland : ).
.
Table displays the total number of moves in abstracts. e numbers show that
they do not precisely match the ve-move structure the convention establishes. If so,
there should be cases for each move, but they either fall short ( abstracts lack a
conclusion and a mention of the main results) or repeat moves.
N Percent
RHETORICAL_MOVES-TYPE N=
Introduction .
Purpose .
Methods .
Results .
Conclusion .
Table . Rhetorical moves
An example of an abstract with an odd distribution of moves would be TFG_
ENG_ below):
[Discourse is a means for transmitting ideologies values and identities. In this paper
I have analysed discourse in three of the versions of the popular fairy tale Little Red Riding
Hood written by Charles Perrault, e Grimm Brothers and James Finn.] INTRODUCTION
[rough the discourse of the tale, the authors represent their intentions as well as some ideologies
or values that they want to show society either as praise or as criticism. To understand the reason of
the authors in each time it was necessary to analyse the socio-historical context in which the tales
were written.] METHODS [In this paper I have wanted to prove the intentions of the authors
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Abstract nouns as metadiscursive shells in academic discourse
and to show the message that they wanted to transmit.] PURPOSE [To do this, I have analysed
the texts according to the Critical Discourse Analysis discipline. As well as analysing pragmatic
aspects such as speech acts, politeness strategies or Grice’s maxims; I have also analysed their symbolism
and the relations between language and gender.] METHODS [e paper is mainly focused on
the analysis of language and gender, above all in the construction of women’s identity through
discourse.] INTRODUCTION [e results have proved that there is still a clear distinction
between discourse to represent and refer to women’s and men’s behaviors,] RESULTS [which
is closely linked to gender inequality.] CONCLUSION (TFG )
e Introduction is splitted up into two and the second sentence placed very
late in the abstract. e Purpose is moved to third position and the Methods (design,
procedures, etc.) is broken into two and interrupted by the Purpose (I have wanted
to prove). e Results occupies only one clause that is followed by a brief Conclusion
expressed in a nonrestrictive relative clause. Another example of an odd distribution
of moves is TFG_ seen above.
erefore, in some abstracts, more than one stretch of text fullls the same
communicative function. e overabundance of Methods may be interpreted as the
prominence writers give to the model they used for analysis. Not including Results or
Conclusion may respond to a desire to not reveal the outcomes of their research too soon.
Graph displays the percentages of each abstract noun category in relation
to the total number of metadiscursive nouns in the abstracts, in an attempt to show
their rhetorical function:
Graph . Distribution of types of academic nouns in rhetorical moves
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Abstract nouns as metadiscursive shells in academic discourse
e Introduction fullls a descriptive function both referring to the object of
study (Entity) and contextualizing the state of aairs (Attribute, mainly by Manner).
It also holds a prominent persuasive function in trying to hook the reader into rea-
ding the rest of the paper. In the Purpose section, the intention of the researchers is
made explicit and, consequently, Entity, mainly Cognition (beliefs and attitudes), is
the most outstanding feature. Methods (explanatory of research design) and Results
(evidential data) are also prominent in Cognition (Entity) and low in stance markers
(Attribute). Relation is also most likely found in the Results section, since those nouns
refer to the similarities and dierences found in the Data. In Conclusions, references
to entities are more balanced with attributes; like the Introduction, the conclusion
intends to be persuasive in an intention to leave the reader with an overall positive
impression of the research done.
7. CONCLUSIONS
In order to draw the general conclusions, the initial research questions will be
tackled. As regards the types and frequencies of use of metadiscursive shell nouns, the
quantitative analysis shows that more than half the nouns found (. ) refer to
entities, concerning the paper itself (Object, . of the examples) or the writer’s
beliefs and attitudes (Cognition, . of the cases). Entity was also the most frequent
type of noun used by expert writers in Jiang and Hyland’s study (). Attribute
(writers’ stance towards the research circumstances, their positive or negative evaluation
of ndings or their potential and abilities) is less frequently used (. ) but more
abundant than Relation (. ), which is the least frequently found overall, being
slightly more present (low signicance level) in the Results section (. ). When
distributed among the rhetorical moves (Introduction-Purpose-Methods-Results-
Conclusion), the tendencies of use are reversed: more Entity is found in the three
middle moves, and more Attribute in the rst (Introduction) and last (Conclusion)
moves, which are more prone to persuasion (to hook the readers and to clinch them,
respectively). e abstracts analyzed contain a total of dierent nouns (see table
), which, divided into the total number of metadiscursive nouns found (), makes
a type/token ratio of ..
When observing the most frequent lexico-grammatical patterns in which these
nouns are used, the overtly profuse lexico-grammatical pattern (. ) for meta-
discursive nouns is the simplest one: Determiner + Noun, and, within Determiners,
the denite article is the most frequent (. ). When a clause is involved, the
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pattern N + post-nominal clause is much more frequent (. ) than when the
noun and the clause is interposed by the verb to be (only . of the cases). ese
results overall match the ones found in Jiang and Hyland () in texts written by
well-established scholars.
In terms of the way in which metadiscursive nouns organize cohesion in the text,
we see that cataphora is the most frequent cohesive relation, since the shell content
or referent is often immediately after the noun. e constraints in the length of the
text (about words) may be the reason for such compaction. Exophoric reference
is also profusely used to refer, at times, to the readers’ shared knowledge (i.e. a sign
of engagement) and also to other parts of the text or genre conventions (i.e. heteroglossia).
Finally, when checking whether novice research writers follow the IMRD pattern,
we can conclude that, in general terms, undergraduate novice researchers are aware of
the rhetorical structure of abstracts, although they give prominence (even to the extent
of its overuse) to the Methods section, in an eagerness to show their acquaintance with
the analytical and theoretical frameworks used. Results and Conclusions (particularly
this last move) are not always present, which may decrease interest, and, consequently,
debilitate the persuasive function of abstracts, because expert readers (i.e. the examin-
ing committee) are particularly eager to know the research outcomes (Results) and the
general vision the student gathers from the research conducted (Conclusion). Never-
theless, some students may prefer to omit them in order to avoid revealing surprising
information or simply because they are unaware of the need to include them.
Metadiscursive shell nouns fulll the rhetorical functions of engagement and
stance: in the Introduction and Conclusion by including more evaluation (Attribute)
and in the middle moves by highlighting evidence, ideas, beliefs, attitudes and, very
frequently, referring to the work itself (this Senior esis, project, paper, etc.). All in all,
this study has some teaching implications for academic discourse in English: it intends
to highlight the importance of abstract nouns and their metadiscursive function, to
enhance the use of more elaborate lexico-grammatical patterns (e.g. N + that-clause)
and to underline the rhetorical conventions for abstract writing.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
is study has been funded by the research project EMO-FUDETT-ProPer
(reference code FFI--C--P), granted by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía
y Competitividad (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness).
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