A cross cultural analysis of conjuncts as indicators of the interaction and negotiation of meaning in research articles

Abstract

The role of English as a global lingua franca of academia has become indisputable in the on-going process of internationalization of all scholarship, even though the majority of writers and readers of academic texts are non-native speakers of English. Thus it is questionable whether there is any justification for imposing on international academic communication written in English the style conventions typical of the dominant Anglophone discourse community. Recommendations usually comprise qualities such as clarity, economy, linearity and precision in communication (cf. Bennett, 2015), which can be achieved, among other means, by certain overt guiding signals including conjuncts (Quirk et al., 1985).

Keywords

• cross-cultural analysis
• conjuncts
• interaction
• negotiation of meaning
• written academic discourse
• style conventions
• anglophone writers
• czech and slovak writers