“Establish a niche” via negation: A corpus-based study of negation within the Move 2 sections of PhD thesis introductions

Abstract The past few decades have witnessed an upsurge of scholarly interest in the generic descriptions of PhD theses following Swales’ seminal Genre Analysis. Fitted within the Create A Research Space (CARS) model, the thesis introduction plays a key role in justifying research originality/significance, where novice writers engage with academic communities through “establishing a research territory” (Move 1), “establishing a niche” (Move 2), and “occupying the niche” (Move 3). As the hinge of the CARS model, Move 2 (hereinafter EN) is of strategic importance as it enables writers to “sell” their ideas by pointing to the gap/niche in the “marketplace” of previous research, which is typically realized through the co-occurrences of negation alongside other interpersonal language resources. Negation, as a disclaim marker within Martin and White’s appraisal framework, is a prominent linguistic indicator of EN. Nevertheless, little research has systematically examined the use of negation in ENs of PhD thesis introductions. Accordingly, the study investigated negation via the appraisal framework addressing subtypes of negation (disalignment, cautious detachment, unfulfilled expectation) within ENs in the introduction sections of 120 PhD theses. The results showed that disalignment is the most frequent subtype of negation, while “not” and “no” are commonly used as indicators of negation. Our findings also revealed intriguing co-occurrences of negation sub-categories alongside other relevant appraisal resources. The corpus-informed results are expected to shed light on the nature and practice of PhD theses that educators may take into account during thesis writing instruction.