Table Of ContentThe Semiperiphery of Academic Writing
Also by Karen Bennett
ACADEMIC WRITING IN PORTUGAL I: Discourses in Conflict
ENGLISH ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: Hegemonic Status and Implications for
Translation
The Semiperiphery of
Academic Writing
Discourses, Communities and Practices
Edited by
Karen Bennett
University of Lisbon, Centre for English Studies (ULICES), Portugal
Selection, introduction, conclusion and editorial content
© Karen Bennett 2014
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First published 2014 by
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bennett, Karen, author.
The semiperiphery of academic writing : discourses, communities and
practices / Karen Bennett, University of Lisbon, Portugal.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–1–137–35118–0
1. Academic writing—Cross-cultural studies. I. Title.
P301.5.A27B46 2014
808'.042—dc23 2014022906
Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
Acknowledgements ix
Notes on Contributors x
List of Abbreviations xiv
Introduction: The Political and Economic Infrastructure
of Academic Practice: The ‘Semiperiphery’ as a Category
for Social and Linguistic Analysis 1
Karen Bennett
Part I Discourses in Tension
1 The Erosion of Portuguese Historiographic Discourse 13
Karen Bennett
2 The Changing Face of Czech Academic Discourse 39
Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova
3 Academic Discourse Practices in Greece: Exploring
the ‘International Conference of Greek Linguistics’ 62
Dimitra Vladimirou
4 Teaching Academic Writing for the Global World
in Poland: The ELF Perspective 75
Anna Gonerko-Frej
Part II Communities in Conflict
5 Centre–Periphery Relations in the Spanish Context:
Temporal and Cross-Disciplinary Variation 93
Sally Burgess
6 Portuguese Academics’ Attitudes to English as
the Academic Lingua Franca: A Case-Study 105
Rita Queiroz de Barros
7 Changing Research Writing Practices in Romania:
Perceptions and Attitudes 121
Mirela Bardi and Laura-Mihaela Muresan
v
vi Contents
8 Looking Back from the Centre: Experiences of Italian
Humanities Scholars Living and Writing Abroad 148
Raffaella Negretti
Part III Publication Practices
9 Turkish Academic Culture in Transition: Centre-Based
State Policies and Semiperipheral Practices of Research,
Publishing and Promotion 165
Hacer Hande Uysal
10 English-Medium Journals in Serbia: Editors’ Perspectives 189
Bojana Petric´
11 The Croatian Medical Journal: Success and Consequences 210
Matko Marušic´ and Ana Marušic´
12 The Academic Weblog as a Semiperipheral Genre 221
Małgorzata Sokół
Conclusion: Combating the Centripetal Pull in
Academic Writing 240
Karen Bennett
Bibliography 247
Index 273
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
3.1 The International Conference of Greek Linguistics:
language choice and SpaceTime 67
6.1 Publications in the database of Faculty of Letters,
University of Lisbon, by area (%) (2000–2009) 111
6.2 Publications in English in the database of Faculty of
Letters, University of Lisbon, by area (%) (2000–2009) 113
6.3 Publications in database of Faculty of Letters, University
of Lisbon, by area and language (%) (2000–2009) 114
6.4 Opinions of staff at the Faculty of Letters, University of
Lisbon, in response to the question: does the spread of
English in the academic world pose a threat to the status
of Portuguese as a language of culture 118
9.1 International publications by 115 Turkish academics
before and after 2000 (by university) 173
9.2 International publications in the hard and social sciences
by 115 Turkish academics before and after 2000 174
Tables
2.1 Academic discourse traditions: Czech versus English 42
2.2 Categorization of Czech linguists included in corpus
according to academic experience, position and publications 45
2.3 Bibliographic references in English-medium works of
Czech linguists according to language, publication type
and recency 50
2.4 Frequency of author-reference pronouns in English-medium
works of Czech linguists (normalized per 10,000 words) 54
3.1 The International Conference of Greek Linguistics:
location and l anguage choice 67
3.2 Person reference choices of Greek-speaking linguists:
‘I’ versus ‘we’ 69
vii
viii List of Figures and Tables
6.1 Publications in the database of Faculty of Letters,
University of Lisbon, by language (2000–2009) 112
6.2 Self-assessed proficiency in English among staff of
Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon 115
6.3 Opinions among staff of Faculty of Letters, University
of Lisbon, about English as the academic lingua franca 116
7.1 Challenges faced by Romanian economics
researchers writing in English (questionnaire data) 127
7.2 Subcategories and examples of referential and
discourse-organizing lexis in English-medium
research articles by Romanian economics researchers 143
7.3 Reference and discourse-organizing lexical bundles
in English-medium research articles by Romanian
economics researchers 144
7.4 Examples of lexis expressing author stance in the
discussion and conclusion sections of English-medium
research articles by Romanian economics researchers 146
7.5 Examples of stance lexical bundles in the discussion
and conclusion sections of English-medium research
articles by Romanian economics researchers 146
9.1 International publications by 115 Turkish academics
before and after 2000 (by university) 173
9.2 International publications in the hard and social
sciences by 115 Turkish academics before and after 2000 174
12.1 The functions of academic weblog posts determined
on the basis of the communicative purposes identified
in sub-corpus A (blogs run by humanities scholars) 231
12.2 The functions of academic weblog posts determined
on the basis of the communicative purposes identified
in sub-corpus B (blogs run by non-humanities scholars) 232
12.3 The visual-structural properties of the blogs from
sub-corpus A (run by humanities scholars) 234
12.4 The visual-structural properties of the blogs from
sub-corpus B (run by non-humanities scholars) 235
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the people who participated in the inter-
views reported in Chapters 7, 8 and 9 for their time and efforts, without
which those chapters would not have been possible. Thanks too to the
authors of the extracts and blogs reproduced in Chapters 1 and 12,
respectively, for giving permission to use their material.
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