Qualitative Adjectives in Education Research Articles: The Case of Lifelong Learning and Adult Education

Year 2021, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 132 - 146, 30.04.2021

Tanju Deveci

Abstract

Language is often the determining factor in authors’ success in publishing their papers. Among various language features authors utilize is adjectives. There is a lack of consensus about their use in academic writing. This study investigated qualitative adjective use in research articles in one sub-discipline of educational sciences. The corpus was comprised of 30 journal articles. Online software was used to describe the adjective profile. A scheme was borrowed from the literature to classify adjectives according to their semantic use. Results showed that adjectives accounted for 7.9% of the corpus. A significant number of adjectives belonged to the Academic Words List and the Off-list Words (50.9%). Results also showed that the Abstract included the biggest percentage of adjectives (10.4%), which was followed by the Conclusion and Recommendations (8.9%) and the Introduction and Literature Review (8.8%). Adjectives occurred in Methods and Results less frequently. The most common semantic use of adjectives was related to the sub-domain of descriptors. Evaluative adjectives were also used frequently. The second sub-domain of classifiers included topical (8.3%) and relational adjectives (2.4%). Results are discussed and recommendations are made future studies.

Keywords

Adjectives, Academic writing, Adult education, Lifelong learning, Research article

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