Asian Research Thesis Index

Abstract

Academic English has its own register in terms of its diction, structure and layout. This  register is mandatory for writing dissertations. Yet, academic English also entails  specificity of written language that is strictly social, cultural and research bound. The  current study has described the specificity of academic English used in dissertations in  the field of English studies in Pakistan. By adopting corpus based research approach the  study has illustrated the specificity of academic English by identifying the frequency of  the use and functions of content words like verbs and nouns in PhD dissertations in  English Linguistics, English Literature and English Language Teaching. By using  software Antconc, verbal structures of the different types and categories of verbs were  analyzed in terms of the frequency of occurrence and their functions in encoding research  in the different sections of dissertation i.e. introduction, literature review, research  methodology, analysis/discussion and conclusion. Whereas, the processes of  nominalization via suffixation was also analyzed via software Antconc in terms of  specifying the categorical use of the patterns of different suffixes and their functions in  encoding research in dissertations. The study is significant in facilitating the scholars and  researchers in understanding the categorical use and functions of verbs and processes of  nominalization in encoding research in dissertation in English studies in Pakistan.

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