Corpus-Based Development of a Kazakh Academic Word List (AWL) in the Field of Linguistics

The article attempts to identify frequently used linguistic expressions characteristic of the contemporary organizational prototype of scientific style as represented in academic writing texts, including grammatical devices and lexico-grammatical constructions typical of academic texts in linguistics, using quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis. A list of words characteristic of general academic texts, let alone those specific to individual disciplines, has not yet been published in Kazakhstani scholarship. This issue determined the aim of our study as follows: the aim of the research is to identify the core vocabulary characteristic of academic texts in the Kazakh language, including research articles in the field of linguistics. To achieve this aim, fundamental domestic and international studies and practices aimed at compiling word lists for academic writing texts were reviewed. As the research material, the “Linguistic Research Corpus” was developed, comprising 236 research articles selected from 30 issues of 6 journals recommended by the Committee for Quality Assurance in Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of linguistics. The total size of the corpus is 1,057,000 word tokens. Using corpus and frequency analysis methods, the 1,000, 200, and 50 most frequently occurring linguistic units included in the word list were identified. These linguistic units were subsequently analyzed to determine what characteristics and features of Kazakh academic writing texts they reflect and which principles of academic writing they contribute to fulfilling. Based on the selected linguistic units, a frequency word list of academic writing texts was compiled. Such a word list makes it possible to identify the specific features of academic texts in the field of linguistics and to determine the functions and semantic variations of these linguistic units in use. Furthermore, the study seeks to demonstrate, through concrete linguistic evidence, that “the Kazakh language is a language of science.” The scientific novelty of the study lies in the development of a specialized disciplinary corpus based on research articles in Kazakh linguistics, as well as in the quantitative and qualitative description of linguistic units frequently used in academic discourse and their recurrent combinations. The practical significance of the study is also evident: the findings can be used in teaching academic writing, in developing a Kazakh academic word list based on the AWL/AVL model, and in natural language processing (NLP) tasks.

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