University of Helsinki - A Leading European University

News of the week

Week 47/2010: Different disciplines are indicated by language use

Both the vocabulary and grammatical structures of language used in literature studies is different from the language used in natural sciences. Language indicates the way a discipline carries out research,” says Philologist Turo Hiltunen who defended his doctoral dissertation on this topic.

Research reports dealing with natural science have a well-defined structure, and their vocabulary conveys a higher degree of certainty. The vocabulary of “softer” sciences often indicates the fact that the interpretations are subjective.

“Hard sciences carry out research with a clearly specified scope and report its results. Soft sciences have a more open way of presentation, and the articles are also often longer,” says Hiltunen.

The difference is highlighted in Hiltunen’s dissertation in English Philology, entitled Grammar and disciplinary culture, comparing the way how specific grammatical structures are used in research into medicine, physics, law, and literature use. Hiltunen finds that the articles of different disciplines are ultimately quite different text types.

The research data consisted of a two-million-word text corpus compiled from various scientific articles. Three kinds of structures were searched for in the data: declarative “that” subordinate clauses, indirect question clauses and “as” complement structures. Said structures usually occur when an author refers to their own results or to other authors.

In medicine and physics, the structures under review are primarily used when an author presents their own new results. In law and literature research, the same structures are rather used when referring to previous studies, and the structures occur more frequently.

“Results in this field have not been applied that much yet. My aim is that my material could be applied to teaching, for example,” says Hiltunen.

The results of Hiltunen’s dissertation are based on a data set which is more extensive than before, and thus provide further information about language use in different disciplines.

Text: Simo Raittila
Photo:Flickr by Tuija
Translation: AAC Global

www.helsinki.fi/magazines
Research news archive >>