Elemental Genre Combining Strategies in Linguistics Research Articles

Abstract

Various genres are used in the creation of research articles. However, this phenomenon is underexplored. This paper reports on a study designed to examine how elemental genres in the major stages of research articles are combined to form macrogenres. Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)-based genre theory, the elemental linking patterns between two adjacent elemental genres were analyzed in 35 research articles in the field of linguistics. Findings indicated that extension was most frequently used in the formation of macrogenres. Moreover, the most common type of elemental genre extension was a factorial explanation combined with a descriptive report. Additionally, the most common patterns for elaboration and enhancement in the elemental genre were descriptive report = descriptive report and descriptive report × factorial explanation, respectively. In addition, the corpus also revealed instances of elemental genre projection and overt elemental genre embedding. The findings are highly relevant for teaching students specific strategies for linking elemental genres in research articles.