Metadiscursive Nouns in Iranian Scholars' Research Articles: Disciplinary and Gender-based Variations

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of English Language and Literature, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran

Abstract

Academic discourse is the collaborative interaction within academic communities, primarily aimed at convincing readers that the writers' arguments are valid. Despite the fact that nouns are frequently used in academic writing, the rhetorical functions of nouns have received limited attention in academic writing analysis. This research sets out to: (1) investigate the frequency of Metadiscursive Nouns (MNs) in Iranian scholars' research articles, and (2) compare MN usage across academic disciplines and genders. In this corpus-based study, 40 articles from the fields of Applied Linguistics, Psychology, Medicine, and Chemistry were carefully selected and analyzed based on Jiang and Hyland's (2016) MNs taxonomy. Chi-square analyses revealed significant differences across disciplines and genders, with generally weak effect sizes. The findings revealed gender-based disparities, with male scholars using MNs more frequently in soft disciplines (78.4%) compared to female scholars (69.6%), while female scholars (30.4%) exceeded male researchers (21.6%) in MN usage in hard disciplines. The results also indicated that MN usage differed significantly across disciplines, with the highest frequencies observed in Linguistics and Psychology, despite the relatively small effect size. This research underscores the impact of disciplinary norms and gender on MNs' selection and usage in academic writing, providing valuable insights for teaching academic writing skills, developing instructional materials, and conducting academic discourse analysis.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Teaching English as a Second Language Quarterly
Volume 45, Issue 2
March 2026
Pages 77-96

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History

  • Receive Date: 04 June 2025
  • Revise Date: 06 September 2025
  • Accept Date: 24 September 2025

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