Dirk Siepmann isProfessor of English at Osnabrück University. His research interests are translation, contrastive linguistics, corpus linguistics, and language teaching.

Contents

Preamble

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction: academic language today

2. Academic grammar

2.1 Number and countability: making abstractions concrete

2.2 Determiner use: using fewer articles

2.2.1 English zero article

2.2.2 German zero article

2.3 Phrasal complexity: packing information into word groups

2.3.1 Predicative nouns and their complementation

2.3.2 Non-predicative nouns

2.3.3 Compounds and multi-word expressions

2.3.4 Nominal compounds

2.3.5 Adjectival compounds

2.3.6 Complex postmodification in English and German

2.3.7 German premodification vs. English postmodification

2.4 Clausal complexity: making information flow

2.4.1 Basic word order rules and clause-initial framing

2.4.2 Countervailing tendencies in clause structure

2.4.3 Elaboration: Relative clauses and supplements

3. Academic vocabulary

3.1 General-language items

3.1.1 Nouns

3.1.2 Verbs

3.1.3 Adjectives

3.1.4 Small words: adverbs and particles

3.1.5 Informal words and expressions

3.2 Learned words (Bildungssprache)

3.3 General academic words and phraseology

3.3.1 Simplexes

3.3.2 Compounds

3.3.3 Particle constructions and spatial metaphor

3.4 Sub-technical vocabulary used in one or more disciplines

3.5 Subject-specific terminology

3.6 Subject-specific phraseology

4. Vocabulary and grammar: constructions

4.1 Lexicon and grammar vs. constructicon

4.1.1 Constructions and creativity

4.1.2 Nominal vs. verbal constructions

4.2 Constructions and word combining

4.3 Common constructions in academic text

5. Communicative purpose and linguistic form

6. Language use in the disciplines

6.1 Literary and cultural studies, art and art history: research proposal (abstract), talk

6.2 History: monograph

6.3 Sociology: journal article and monograph

6.4 Economics: textbook and research report

6.5 Philosophy: popularizing book

6.6 Geography: journal article

6.7 Musicology: journal article and abstract

Appendix I

Index