Interdisciplinary Citation Practices and Reporting Verbs: A Corpus-Based Study of Turkish Research Articles

Abstract

One of the most important and distinctive features of academic texts is the appropriate referencing of other studies. Citation not only increases the reliability of the study by showing the source of the information used but also provides a resource for those who want to do more research on the relevant topic. The present study investigates the distribution of citation types and reporting verbs across five disciplines in a 270,000-word corpus of 34 research articles in linguistics, history, economics, architecture, and engineering. The results revealed both remarkable similarities and differences in citation types as well as in the number and type of reporting verbs used across disciplines. Except for history articles, it has been found that soft disciplines use integral citation, whereas the hard disciplines use non-integral referencing more frequently. Although the disciplines differ in integral citation types, they display a homogeneous pattern in their use of non-integral citations. While reporting verbs such as “state, express, say” and “use” are employed frequently in all disciplines, some fields also have a significant number of verbs that are particular to themselves. Writers often prefer verbs that demonstrate a neutral stance towards the source they cite. The findings are expected to contribute to studies aimed at improving students' citation awareness in academic writing courses.

Keywords

• Citation types
• reporting verbs
• interdisciplinary differences
• academic writing
• Turkish research articles.

Türkçe Araştırma Makalelerinde Atıf Türleri ve Eylemleri

Abstract

Akademik metinlerin en önemli ve ayırt edici özelliklerinden biri, diğer araştırmalara uygun biçimde atıfta bulunmaktır. Atıf yapıldığında okuyucuya hem bilginin kaynağı gösterilerek araştırmanın güvenirliliği artırılmış hem de ilgili konuda daha fazla araştırma yapmak isteyenlere hazır bir kaynak sunulmuş olmaktadır. Bu çalışma; dilbilim, tarih, iktisat, mimarlık ve mühendislik alanlarındaki 34 araştırma makalesinden oluşan 270.000 kelimelik bir derlemde, atıf türleri ile eylemlerinin beş farklı disiplindeki dağılımını incelemektedir. Bulgular hem atıf türlerinde hem de disiplinler arası kullanılan atıf eylemlerinin sayısı ve türünde dikkat çekici benzerlik ve farklılıkların olduğunu ortaya koymuştur. Tarih makaleleri hariç tutulduğunda, genel bir eğilim olarak sosyal bilimlere ait makalelerde bütünleşik atıfların, sayısal bölümlerdekilerde ise bütünleşik olmayan atıf türlerinin daha sık kullanıldığı belirlenmiştir. Bölümler, bütünleşik atıf türlerinde ayrışmasına rağmen bütünleşik olmayan atıf kullanımlarında homojen bir görüntü sergilemektedir. “Belirt-, ifade et-, söyle-” ve “kullan-” gibi atıf eylemleri tüm bölümlerde sıkça kullanılırken disiplinlere özgü belirli eylemlerin de öne çıktığı saptanmıştır. Yazarlar, çoğunlukla, alıntı yaptıkları kaynağa karşı tarafsız bir duruş gösteren atıf eylemlerini tercih etmektir. Elde edilen bulguların, akademik yazma derslerinde öğrencilerin atıf farkındalıklarını geliştirmeye yönelik çalışmalara katkı sağlaması beklenmektedir.

Keywords

• Atıf türleri
• atıf eylemleri
• disiplinler arası farklılık
• akademik yazma
• Türkçe araştırma makaleleri

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