Shell-nounhood in academic discourse

A critical state-of-the-art review

Bibliographic Data

ID12621522
AuthorsMiguel-Ángel Benítez-Castro (0000-0001-8514-5943, Universidad de Granada, corresponding author), Paul Thompson (0000-0003-2476-2803, University of Birmingham)
Year2015
Volume20
Issue3
Pages378-404
Publication date2015-08-28
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Corpus Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1384-6655 • E-ISSN: 1569-9811
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/ijcl.20.3.05ben
OpenAlexW2324068124
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited26

Numerous studies to date have investigated the cohesive, evaluative and formal features of semantically unspecific abstract nouns such as objective or assumption. These nouns share the property of ‘shell-nounhood’, associated with their ability to package and characterise complex discourse segments. One broad genre where this ability is widely exploited is academic discourse, which favours a markedly nominal cohesive style. Despite the extensive use of academic corpora in the study of shell-nounhood, the research focus has been primarily on specific sub-genres, formal patterns and rhetorical functions. This paper critically reviews the available evidence on this genre, using the corpora from which such evidence was obtained as its basic organising principle. In so doing, it uncovers some of the gaps to be addressed by future research, thereby setting the stage for more comprehensive descriptions that may usher in new pedagogies for the teaching of this crucial aspect of lexical cohesion in academic discourse

Art · Cohesion (chemistry · Corpus linguistics · Focus (optics · Linguistics · Literature · Noun · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Style (visual arts · Subject (documents · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Psychology · Second Language Acquisition and Learning

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