Contributing to the academic conversation: A study of new knowledge claims in economics and linguistics

Abstract: This paper attempts to identify knowledge claims in the introduction section of 50 English research articles in economics and linguistics. The articles are part of the KIAP Corpus. My analysis reveals that the introductions in both disciplines typically state claims. The construction of the claims is quite complex, with text sequences containing so-called preview sentences as well as claim sentences proper; in linguistics, preview and actual claim may even be combined within the same sentence. Claims in both disciplines tend to be unhedged, but with slightly more hedging in linguistics than in economics. Claims in both disciplines may be signalled by expression such as The key message is…, but this feature is most prominent in economics. It is argued that the reason for this is that economics is a more competitive field than linguistics, encouraging explicit signalling of new claims in order to attract the attention of the research community. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]