Soledad Hernndez, Alejandra Alonso, Juan Garca, Gabia Aleknaite & Pedro

Arenas

Characteristics of Academic
Prose English through figures
To start with, Academic prose English is a register used for specific
purposes which relate to academic activities. Among its circumstances, we
see that its mode is written and there is neither interactiveness and real-
time production nor any shared situation. Besides, its main communicative
purpose content is argumentation and explanation as we can see in figure
1.1. Finally, it has a specialist audience. In order to achieve its purpose,
there are some characteristics which make it possible.

Dealing with the distribution of lexical word classes across registers,

we can see in graphic 2.1 that in academic prose the lexical word class with
more frequency are nouns followed by adjectives, considering the modify
nouns. Verbs are less used and adverbs are found in the last position with
the lowest density. Moreover, in frequency of function word classes we see a
great difference among them, with prepositions being the most frequent,
determiners and primary auxiliaries for complex informational phrases to be
formed and the less frequent are adverbs particles, subordinators and
modals regarding the graphic 2.3.

To continue, considering the distribution of definite and indefinite

articles, we find a great number of times when the article the appears,
being more frequent that the indefinite article a/an in the graphic 4.1. The
main reason is because we need in this register more specification; and
consequently, there are more nouns which need to be accompanied by
articles as determiners. In addition to that, the definite noun phrases have
different uses of reference patterns such as anaphoric, cataphoric,
situational and other. According to figure 4.2, the more frequent patterns in
academic register are anaphoric and cataphoric, this one being the most
used among registers because, as we know, here, definite reference is
established by something following later in the text, especially some
modifier of the noun.

Lexical verbs are much more common than primary verbs or modal
verbs. There are hundreds of different lexical verbs, and most clauses occur
with lexical verb as main verb. When the verb be is used as a main verb it is
termed the copula, because of its special linking function. So we observe in
the figure 5.1 that is less used in comparison with the rest tipes of verbs,
but is the single most common verb occuring as a main verb. The copula be
as we can see in the grafic 5.2 is more common in academic prose than in
the rest.

From a grammatical point of view, tense and modals belong to a

single system. As seen in figure 6.2, tensed verb phrases are much more
common than verb phrases with modals. When modals are used express
Soledad Hernndez, Alejandra Alonso, Juan Garca, Gabia Aleknaite & Pedro
Arenas

stance but we can also find stance adverbials with tensed verbs. Present
tense is more common because its range of meanings is bigger, it express:
present, past and future. In academic prose is used to show that a
preposition is true regardless of time. E.g.: the analysis reveals the logical
connections. It is expressing the truth at any time. The verb aspects shown
by the graphic 6.3 can be expressed in simple, perfect and progressive
mode. On one hand, in academic prose the simple aspect has the main
function; On the other hand, the progressive one has the lowest density. In
addition to this, in figure 6.5 the frequency of passive voice is much more
common in academic prose than in the other registers, especially in many
expository prose texts, such as academic research articles. The passive
voice is useful in order to reduce the importance of the agent and making
the rest of the content more important. Also, in academic prose the
frequency of semi-modals has the lowest density. There is a big difference
between the use of modals and semi-modals because modals are more
common. The modals more used in academic prose are can and may
and the less frequent are be going to, (had) better and (have) got.

Dealing with adjectives, we can see in figure 7.1, attributive

adjectives are much more common than predicative adjectives since they
are part of noun phrases and modify the head noun. Their importance
relates to their function of adding information to noun phrases. Specific
adjectives have a strong preference for predicative or attributive position
and adjectives which end in al show preference for attributive position and
adjectives which end in al show preference for attributive position. As seen
in the graphic 7.2, Derived adjectives are the most common in academic
prose. Adjectives formed with suffix al are more common than any other
adjectives formed with any other suffix; as a consequence, that suffix is
extremely productive in Academic Prose. It is used to form new adjectives,
though these rarely occur. Most of those al ending adjectives are very
specialized words such as: adrenocortical or capopedal. In figure 7.3, we can
see that in academic English there is the preference for ly ending verbs as
well as simple adverbs. The ly ending adverbs derived from adjectives are
commonly used in Academic prose. Many function as stance adverbials,
others are used as adverbials in the description of processes and conditions,
or as modifiers.

Focusing on figures 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8 and 8.9, we can see that
there are three major coordinators: And, or and but. And is much more
common than or or but. Coordinators can link more than two elements. We
can see the differences between the last two, but is more related to
conversation and or in academic writing. They occur more as a phrase-level
link than a clause level link because it helps to build up complex embedded
structures. Negation is used more than twice as common in conversation as
it is in written registers; the not/nt negation is more commonly used than
the no-negation. In the graphic 8.7, the frequency of the verbs be/have, and
modals will/would are represented in their contracted form. There is almost
no contraction in the academic writing. In 8.8, the negative contractions are
Soledad Hernndez, Alejandra Alonso, Juan Garca, Gabia Aleknaite & Pedro
Arenas

shown. They appear when not is reduced and attached to a preceding

primary verb, or modal auxiliary verb. Similarities between this figure and
the preceding one are easy to see, there are few cases of negative
contractions, approximately a 5 per cent. In 8.9 no negation is not very
useful, normally in conversation is used as a collocation, and in academic
has a few presence, but, again, not-negation wins overall.

As we can see in the figure 11.1 which deals with frecuency of

adverbial classes across registers, adverbials are actually slightly more
common than lexical verbs in academic prose. Adverbials are ussually
grammatically optional, they often contain information cental to the
message. In contrast, stance and linking adverbials are much less common,
accounting for the less than 10 per cent of all adverbials. Linking adverbials
are most common in academic prose to form complex sentences. However,
they serve a connecting function, rather than adding information to a
clause. They show the relationship between two units of discourse. As we
can see in the graphic 11.2, prepositional phrases are the most common
form of adverbial. Single adverbs are also common and the other types are
rarely used. The figure 11.3 shows that place, time and process are
generally the three most common categories of circumstance adverbials.
Academic prose has a high proportion of purpose adverbials. For instance: in
order to help such children[]. In the graphic 11.5, it is shown that there is
a high frequency of purpose/condition, reason/cause and other types of
semantic categories of circumstance adverbial clauses in Academic English.
Purpose clauses are notably common in this register, where they help to
explain procedures or recommendations. Adverbials are slightly more
common than lexical verbs in Academic Prose. Figure 11.6 shows in all
registers, finite clauses are more common than non finite clauses. Finite
clauses generally have subordinators, which allow having a variety of
semantic relationships. Non finite clauses have more limited range of
meaning. Finite adverbial clauses have the advantage of being more explicit
and versatile, non finite adverbial clauses have the advantage of being more
expicit and versatile, nonfinte adverbial clauses have the advantage of
condensing the adverbial meaning into fewer words. The use of non finite
clauses shows some strong preferences for semantic category and register.
To-clauses are mostly used for purpose, an especially important meaning in
academic prose.

Dealing with adverbials, in the frecuency of stance adverbials across

registers, which are adverbials that overtly mark a speakers or writers
attitude to a clause or comment about its content, as figure 11.7 shows,
epistemic adverbials appear much more than the rest which are style and
attitude adverbials. Finally, the graphic 11.9 shows the frecuency of linking
adverbials. Academic prose has the most common use of linking adverbials
apart from showing the most diversity in their meaning. These linking
adverbials are (named by their order of amount): result/inference,
apposition, contrast/concession and other. The graphic 11.9 shows the
frecuency of linking adverbials across registers. Academic prose not only
Soledad Hernndez, Alejandra Alonso, Juan Garca, Gabia Aleknaite & Pedro
Arenas

has the most common use of linking adverbials, it also shows the most
diversity in their meaning. An important aspect of academic prose is
presenting supporting explanations and arguments, ideas often need to be
overtly connected. The most common types of linking adverbials in
academic prose are result interference, apposition and contrast concessive
adverbials all these help to structure arguments and explanations.

In figure 9.1, we see the distribution of noun phrases with

premodifiers and postmodifiers across registers. In academic writing, noun
phrases usually have premodifiers or postmodifiers (or both). There a
majority of all noun phrases have some modification. In fact, much of the
new information in academic texts occurs in the modifiers in noun phrases,
resulting in a very high density of information. As figure 9.2 shows, the
premodifier types in academic register are of different amount: weve got a
great number of common adjectives, followed by a big amount of nouns as
premodifier, and, however, a little number of ed- and ing- adjectives. Later,
weve got in the graphic 9.3 two different types of postmodifier:
prepositional phrases and other postmodifiers. The former are especially
common in academic prose. These structures often occur in extremely
dense, embedded sequences. Prepositional phrases allow a very dense
packaging of information in a text. They are more compact than relative
clauses. Among the other postmodifier types we find, named depending
on their amount from the most common to the less one, relative clauses, ed-
clauses, appositives, ing-clauses and to-clauses, as it is showed in the
graphic 9.4.

In conclusion, Academic Prose English requires a number of

characteristics to fulfill its aim; which is the argumentation and explanation
of facts about a new discovery or phenomena regarding any academic field.
Thus, it needs the specification and elaboration of meaning by making a
good use of certain elements. Those elements may consist of complicated
sentences that may use the passive voice, purpose semantic category of an
adverbial, more definite articles, more nouns, and more specific words like
al ending adjectives.