The Wax and Wane of the Authorial Stance in Applied Linguistics Articles over the Course of Two Decades

Stance has been examined extensively in the past few decades. However, the majority of the studies have been synchronic, with the few exceptions being snapshot diachronic studies without trend-related inferential statistics. This study adopted a trend-related inferential statistical measure and a more continuous diachronic dataset to examine the changes in using stance in the research articles of English applied linguistics from ۲۰۰۰ to ۲۰۲۰. To this end, ۴۱۶ articles were randomly selected from ۱۰ applied linguistics journals indexed in the first quartile of Scopus and probed using LancsBox for normalized frequency of Hyland’s (۲۰۰۵b) list of stance markers. Results were then analyzed for trends using the Jonckheere-Terpstra test. The results showed significant decreases for the overall stance markers (J=۳۷۱۶۸, z= -۲.۸۵, d= -.۲۸, p= .۰۰۴)), hedges (J=۳۷۰۱۴, z= -۲.۹۶, d= -.۲۹۳, p=۰.۰۰۳), boosters (J=۳۶۲۹۸, z= -۳.۴۷, d= -.۳۴۵, p=.۰۰۱), and attitude markers (J=۳۶۶۴۷, z= -۳.۲۲, d= -.۳۲, p=۰.۰۰۱), while self-mention markers were found to have experienced a slight, non-significant increase (J=۴۲۵۲۷.۵, z= .۹۴, d= .۰۹۶, p=۰.۳۴۹). The functional analysis of the selected excerpts showed that the quantitative decrease in the use of stance markers has been compensated for, with an increase in the modification range and strength of the used stance markers as the two ways we could discover. After discussing the findings, the paper ends with some suggestions for further research.

Keywords:

stance , Corpus Analysis , Interaction Theory , Applied Linguistics , Metadiscourse