Logical Operators in Local and International English Research Articles in Applied Linguistics

This corpus-based study provides a contrastive insight into the interactive influence of logical operators on clause complexing in local and international English journals in applied linguistics from the systemic functional linguistic perspective. The data comprised 320 method sections of research articles in international and local journals from 2016 to 2022. Following Halliday’s clause complexing pattern, the logico-semantic relations between clause nexuses were coded as simplex, paratactic, or hypotactic clauses and were contrastively analyzed. The results revealed a distinct difference between local and international authors in applying logical operators in simplex and complex clauses and navigating readers’ interpretation patterns. The qualitative analysis attributed this distinct difference to complex, explicit, and reader-oriented information structure which contributed to the fact that maintaining coherence through discourse markers requires the application of adept interactive clause complexing strategies. The cognitive and interactive functions of logical operators shape the systemic selection of clause complexes to optimize the presentation of information for a specific, non-present audience. The findings of this study may assist academic writing teachers in explicitly instructing novice academic authors to employ logical operators proficiently in simplex and complex clauses and manage interactive information structure.