Intertextual relationships in academic texts and production of polyphony: A descriptive analysis of citations using the example of Turkish and German business management research articles

Abstract

There are several linguistic studies which demonstrate that academic writing is not only characterized by impersonal driven features but also carries traces of text producer in academic texts. Writers present themselves in their academic texts using significant linguistic expressions. In addition to the voice of the author, other voices are present in academic texts too. This leads to a polyphonic structure. The most explicit way of this appearance is in the use of citations. They help the writer build intertextual relations by giving reference to previous literature and certainly to members of scientific community. In this article, the citational practices are investigated using the example of a bilingual corpus consisting of Turkish and German business management research articles. The functions culture-bound or common points of citational practices are brought into focus.