Additive Discourse Markers in English Journal Articles Written by Kurdish and English Native Speakers: A Corpus-Based Study

Abstract

This paper reports a study that examines the use of additive discourse markers written by Kurdish scholars of English and compares their use with English native speakers. In this study, five discourse markers of 'and, or, for example, for instance, thus' are specifically analyzed. It aimed to investigate functions, frequency, and sentence positions of additive discourse markers. To achieve this, the researchers utilized two language corpora of 34 research articles published by Kurdish scholars in different journals of Iraqi Kurdistan Region Universities and international journals, and a corpus of 27 research articles published by English native scholars in different English Journals. Quantitative as well as qualitative research methods were employed. The results of this study showed that Kurdish scholars overused 'and' and 'for instance' in their writing; however, they underused 'or, for example, and thus'. Moreover, it showed that in both types of writings, there is a similarity in the frequent use of the medial position of additive discourse markers.