Looking through corpora into writing practices





Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong, Ken Hyland focuses on what is gained when writing practices are informed by Corpus Linguistics. Based on his studies, Hyland discusses the styles of specific community of writers. In fact, he addresses issues which lie at the heart of the university setting, such as academic literacy, social construction of knowledge, and interpersonal features. While most of his examples refer to academia, some other spheres of life also find a place in his interview. In a thought-provoking way, he offers a distinction between ‘consolidating’ and ‘innovative’ research when writing about the future of Corpus Linguistics, arguing that it has been seeing too much of the former. He holds that ground-breaking investigations are needed to make sure that the field will continue to evolve and draw the attention of newcomers.