Decoding Metadiscourse Markers in Estonian Academic Texts: A Language-Specific Perspective

This article presents the development of a specialized data set for analyzing Estonian metadiscourse markers in academic usage, extending Hyland's interpersonal metadiscourse model to a non–Indo-European language. Our goal is to show how metadiscourse, as a feature of a writing tradition, can r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Written communication 2025-01, Vol.42 (1), p.152-192
Main Authors: Hint, Helen, Lemendik, Helena, Johansson, Christer, Leijen, Djuddah A. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Language
Discourse analysis
Discourse markers
Estonian language
Finno Ugric Languages
Indo European Languages
Language Research
Language usage
Text structure
Writing
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Summary:This article presents the development of a specialized data set for analyzing Estonian metadiscourse markers in academic usage, extending Hyland's interpersonal metadiscourse model to a non–Indo-European language. Our goal is to show how metadiscourse, as a feature of a writing tradition, can reveal aspects of writing in languages other than English, complementing the traditionally Anglo-centric perspective in metadiscourse research. By analyzing 21 Estonian linguistics research articles, we offer a transparent procedure to address methodological issues in metadiscourse studies and demonstrate the need for language-specific adjustments in the framework. We introduce statistical methods for analyzing multidimensional associations among marker categories, linguistic level, and rhetorical text structure. The findings suggest that Hyland’s metadiscourse model can be adjusted for specific languages, highlighting the influence of language structure on metadiscourse category variation and linguistic expression levels. The study reinforces that the distribution and manifestation of metadiscourse are shaped, among other factors, by unique writing traditions.
ISSN:0741-0883
1552-8472
DOI:10.1177/07410883241286901