Resumen de Comparison-and-contrast in research articles of applied linguistics: a frame-based analysis
This article reports on a corpus-based study that examined the comparison-and-contrast markers in research articles of applied linguistics. The main argument is that comparison-and-contrast in academic writing functions as a rhetorical act that realises text organisation or dialogic contraction and as a cognitive act that fulfils representational changes and knowledge creation. Drawing upon the methodologies developed in the FrameNet project, this study retrieved and analysed comparison-and-contrast markers in a corpus of 30 research articles. A total of 1285 markers in the corpus were found to evoke nine interrelated semantic frames defined in FrameNet. Altogether, these nine frames contained 12 conceptually distinct elements. Based on their semantic overlap and conceptual necessity, we identified three core (Comparative_item, Dimension and Agent) and two non-core (Evaluation and Indication) frame elements and generated a comparison-and-contrast frame for research articles of applied linguistics. This frame serves as a cognitive device for understanding how comparison-and-contrast, shaped by disciplinary norms and epistemological assumptions, contributes to the creation and dissemination of scientific knowledge in applied linguistics. Recommendations are made about how this frame can serve as a basis for future research.
