| Nowadays academic publications are a critical focus for all scholars,academicians,and researchers.However,an opportunity to get published is rather difficult for those who aim to publish in the high-profiled journals(Chiswick,2004;Hyland,2012;Derntl,2014).Thus,it is important for the researchers to get involved actively with each particular journal and their discourse community especially when considering publishing research articles(Cheung,2010).Regarding the current situation,it is clearly evident that publications significantly play an important role in scholars’ lives,such as getting professional promotions(Rosenfeldt et al.,2000;Hyland,2012;Sombatsompop et al.,2012;Martin et al.,2014;Bardi,2015),being visible in the domestic and international academic communities(Rosenfeldt et al.,2000;Kanoksilapatham,2007;Sombatsompop et al.,2012;Martin et al.,2014;Bardi,2015)and contributing to the development of disciplines and the society.Hence,this study aims to provide wider opportunities for improving academic writings in order to get published.The author of this dissertation hopes that the outcomes of this study will play a crucial role in providing an alternative way to improve academic writings or the publication language and to offer suggestions to those who are interested in publishing in the journals related to the environmental field,especially in Applied Environmental Research(TCI tier 1)and the Journal of Environment&Development(SSCI).The alternative way that this current study offers is to consider the use of grammar in the research articles(RAs)of these particular journals because grammar is not just only a regulation to prescribe and describe,but it also reflects the language users’ background knowledge and experiences they have obtained,because as remarked by Halliday and Martin(1993),the systemic functional linguists,that people ultimately use grammar as a resource to reinterpret their knowledge in a particular science.Fontaine(2013)also posits that doing grammar analysis helps the language users to become knowledgeable of that target language.This study investigates the use of clause complexes(CCs)and its logico-semantic relations in the TCI(tier 1)and SSCI research articles,especially in the field of environmental studies.The analytical framework for supporting this study is adapted from’An Introduction to Functional Grammar’(IFG)2014(Halliday&Matthiessen,2014).This study employs the social semiotic textual analysis which includes a corpus analysis by AntConc(Anthorny,2018)and a manual analysis by the researcher.90 research articles from the two academic journals,including 45 research articles from the TCI journal,Applied Environmental Research and other 45 from the SSCI journal,the Journal of Environment&Development are purposively selected.The findings reveal that the hypotactic clause type is more frequently used(SSCI,90.67%;TCI,67.84%)than the paratactic one(SSCI,9.28%;TCI,32.15%).However,the percentage also leads to the fact that the SSCI writers mostly use the hypotactic clause type;likewise,the TCI writers seem to use both types with slight differences.In terms of the logico-semantic relations,the TCI writers use the enhancement(28.28%),elaboration(18.96%),and extension(11.07%)relational types respectively with the single taxis of the hypotactic clause type.For the paratactic clause type,the TCI writers mostly use the extension relations(24.85%),followed by the enhancement(2.24%)and the elaboration(1.17%).The projection relations have been used most frequently with the hypotactic clause type(9.54%);while the frequency of use of paratactic projection is only 3.89%.For the SSCI writers,the enhancement relations are the most preferred(35.34%),followed by the elaboration(26.40%)and the extension(25.09%).In relation to the paratactic clause type,it has been used frequently with the extension relations(7.04%),followed by the enhancement(1.20%)and the elaboration relations(0.52%).The projection relations have been used mostly with the hypotactic clause type(3.89%);while it is rarely used with the paratactic one(0.52%).The results of this research can be beneficial for the Thai and Non-Thai writers who are interested in improving their academic writings to get published in the field of environment-related studies.The findings can also help to raise the awareness of researchers of the importance of publications in Thailand and international contexts.Another remarkable point is that the findings of the study can be taken into classroom teaching and learning materials.In terms of the theoretical contribution,the current study presents a practical model,which is developed or modified from the originai concept of the clause complexes in the SFL perspective,to analyze the research articles from different disciplines. |
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