Negation in academic abstracts: a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary study

Academic knowledge is usually built by persuading peers to adopt specific perspectives and beliefs, and because this involves presenting solid evidence or logical results, it is commonly assumed that negative statements play little role in this environment. In this article, we aimed to explore the extent to which these negative forms are used as promotional strategies in 600 abstracts of research articles written by Chinese and English L1 and authors in six disciplines representing the so-called soft and hard sciences based on the interpersonal model of negation provided by Hyland and Jiang. The findings revealed an unexpected scenario where, contrary to existing literature on distinct disciplinary differences in academic writing, there were no significant variations between hard and soft disciplines. Instead, the differences were observed primarily between cultural groups. English authors used negation significantly more than their Chinese counterparts, especially in hard sciences like biology and physics. This study underscores that abstracts serve as tools for researchers to promote and differentiate their work in a competitive environment, utilizing negative statements as rhetorical and promotional tools. This trend highlights an evolving aspect of academic discourse that EAP educators should critically engage with and understand. This study examines the use of negation as a rhetorical and promotional strategy in 600 academic abstracts written by Chinese and English L1 authors across six disciplines in the hard and soft sciences. The findings reveal that cultural background plays a more significant role than disciplinary differences in shaping the use of negation, with English L1 authors employing negative forms significantly more frequently than Chinese authors. By challenging assumptions about disciplinary variation in academic writing, this study advances understanding of the sociocultural influences on scholarly communication. Its findings also have practical implications for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) instruction, highlighting the importance of helping researchers use negation effectively to establish research significance, distinguish their contributions from previous work, and communicate their findings persuasively.