As we mentioned earlier in this chapter, morphosyntax is a science because it follows the scientific method. When we write about morphology and syntax, we use a genre of scientific writing. However, not all scientific fields follow the same conventions. In this section, we will learn about the genre of scientific writing used in morphology and syntax.

The structure of a morphosyntax paper

A lot of scientific fields use a formulaic structure known as the IMRaD structure, which stands for “Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion.” Although all of those components show up in a morphosyntax paper, we rarely use that structure in morphosyntax. The IMRaD structure is used for papers that discuss formal experiments and analyze their results using statistics. Although morphologists and syntacticians sometimes publish papers about formal experiments in the IMRaD format, the vast majority of morphology and syntax papers follow a less formulaic structure. Papers should still begin with an introduction and end with a conclusion, but the body of the paper typically weaves together description of data, analysis of data, and discussion of the implications of the data throughout.

The introduction and conclusion

The introduction of a paper should typically be less than a fifth of the total length of the paper. In it, you should clearly state the main claim of your paper and summarize your main arguments. You should also contextualize your main claim, explaining why it is important and what theories or frameworks you are working with.

Because the structure of each morphology and syntax paper is unique, most papers end the introduction with a description of the structure of the paper. This is often called the overview, outline, or roadmap. Here’s an example from Alhailawani (2023):

Your conclusion should repeat most of the same information as the introduction, except perhaps in a briefer format. You should re-state your main claim and re-summarize your main arguments. You should also return to the contextualization of your paper, restating why it is important and how your paper contributes to the field. Sometimes, a conclusion can also suggest areas for further study.

Here’s the conclusion from the same paper about Jordanian Arabic (Alhailawani 2023):

Remember that you’re not writing a mystery novel! It can be tempting to make a big reveal at the end with your final analysis, or describe all the false paths you went down when trying to complete your analysis, but doing so will typically be frustrating and confusing to your reader. Instead, present it simply: say what you’re going to do in your paper, do it, and then say what you’ve done.

It may feel repetitive to write like that, but remember that you’ve (hopefully) thought about the subject of your paper for a while and are very familiar with it, but your reader is probably learning about it for the first time and does not know your thinking process. Good, clear writing often feels repetitive to the author. For example, notice how the example outline from the introduction and the conclusion from Alhailawani (2023) repeat many of the same points.

If you are reading someone else’s paper, it is often a good idea to read the abstract, the introduction, and the conclusion of the paper first. This will help you decide if this is the right paper for you to read right now, and if so, which sections will be the most important or relevant for you. You should also usually be able to get an idea of the main point of the paper, which can help you to understand the paper as a whole.

The body

Before you start writing the body of a morphology or syntax paper, I would recommend making a list of the topics you are going to discuss in your paper and then deciding what order they should go in. Think about what your reader needs to already know in order to understand each part of your paper. Sometimes one argument builds on another argument, which determines which order they should go in.

The body of your paper should be divided into several sections with headers, especially if your paper is longer than about four pages. Each section should also be structured kind of like a whole paper: every section should have an introduction and conclusion that explains the main idea of the section and connects the content of the section back to the topic of the paper. This is recursive, so for even longer papers, your sections should be divided into subsections, and so on.

The headers for each section should be numbered and should have titles that clearly indicate what the section is about. Some papers number the introduction as section 1, but others number it as section 0 or give it no number at all.

Style in morphology and syntax papers

Sometimes when students begin to write university-level papers, they try to use complex vocabulary and sentence structure to look more sophisticated. But the best papers take complex ideas and explain them in simple language. You want to be as clear and concise as you are able. Do not use a more complex vocabulary when simpler terms will do.

One of the biggest obstacles to writing clearly and concisely in academic writing is that we are trying to explain intricate ideas. Academic writing often turns out complex because the ideas that the author is trying to convey are complex. On the other hand, it is very impressive if you manage to explain a complex idea in simple language, without simplifying the concept.

Another big obstacle to writing clearly and concisely in academic writing is that we are trying to be very precise. We use technical terms as appropriate because technical terms have precise definitions in our academic community. Our sentences may also become complex when we try to accurately convey exactly what we mean. When we aren’t sure about our conclusions, or if our conclusions only apply in some cases, we try to be very clear about how sure we are and how our understanding is limited. For example, don’t say always unless you’re sure it actually happens always. Instead, write usually or often or maybe even just sometimes.

Keep in mind that many academics are actually not very good writers. If you find a paper that is hard to read, try to figure out if it’s because the writing is not clear or because the ideas are difficult. There are some papers that you should not be imitating. Instead, what you should learn from those papers is what not to do.

Academics also tend to use abbreviations, as you no doubt observed in the two examples above from Alhailawani (2023). Try not to use too many abbreviations; it can become very overwhelming for the reader. But it is alright to use a few. However, when you introduce an abbreviation for the first time, make sure you specify what the abbreviation means. This is usually done by writing out the term in full the first time, with the abbreviation afterwards in parentheses, as shown below (Alhailawani 2023):

The reverse can also be done, with the portion that does not appear in the abbreviation in parentheses, as with the following example from Alhailawani (2023):

Word choice in scientific and linguistics writing

In scientific writing, we need to be very precise with our language. In this section, I will describe some of the words that we need to be especially careful with.

Proof, evidence, and fact

You should very rarely claim that you have proved something or that some piece of evidence is proof of something. The scientific definition of proof means you can show that it holds in all cases. There is no possible scenario where it could be wrong, not even a very unlikely scenario. Most often, proof is used for logical proofs, which is a formal way of demonstrating that certain base assumptions logically lead to particular conclusions.

When students use the words proof or prove, usually evidence or provides evidence for is more appropriate wording.

When scientists use the word fact, they mean something that has been observed and confirmed repeatedly, to the point that we accept it as true; however, even when it has been observed hundreds or even thousands of times, it has still not been considered proven!

Theory, hypothesis, and model

As we went through the scientific method demonstration in Section 2.1, you may have noticed that we tried to stay skeptical about our conclusions. Because of this, and because we want to be very precise about how sure we are, some words are used differently in everyday speech than they are used in scientific discourse.

For example, in everyday usage, theory might mean a hunch, idea, or speculation, but in scientific writing, theory means a set of hypotheses about the cause of some event or phenomenon that have been scientifically tested. In some cases, a scientific theory might still be under debate, but in other cases, it might be generally accepted by the scientific community, although ultimately unprovable.

In everyday speech, a hypothesis might mean any guess, but in scientific writing, it means an educated guess or an informed prediction, based on observation of data.

When scientists are trying to describe how a complex system works, they might make a series of hypotheses known as a model. For example, Figure 1 shows a model of a carbon atom. This is not what a carbon atom actually looks like if you look at it through a very powerful microscope. Instead, it is a schematic representation of the parts of a carbon atom and their relationships to each other.

In this textbook, we will create and test models of language known as grammars. They will also be schematic representations of the structure of language, rather than a “picture” of what is happening in our brains.

Significant

In everyday speech, significant just means important. However, in scientific writing, significant is short for statistically significant, which means that there is at least a 95 percent chance that, if you repeat the experiment, you will get results that are the same or more extreme results. In other words, there is a five percent chance or less that your results were a fluke due to random chance. This value is known as the p-value, and the 95% threshold is often described in decimals as p-value ≤ 0.05 ‘a p-value less than or equal to 0.05’.

To avoid confusion, it is best to reserve the word significant for its statistical meaning in scientific writing. Instead, you can use words like crucial, important, or critical.

Clearly, obvious, and without doubt

Sometimes writers will write that something is clearly the case, or that an argument is obvious, or that we can know something without doubt. Even experienced writers do this! Unfortunately, if something is obvious or clear to you, it does not mean it is obvious or clear to everyone. It can be very frustrating as a reader when an author says something is obvious instead of explaining it. If it is so clear and obvious, then it should be easy for you to take a few lines and explain it!

Check yourself!

References and further resources

For students

Batchelor, LaRoyce. 2024. Growing a writing practice: Non-extractive writing. Pressbooks. https://pressbooks.openedmb.ca/nonextractivewriting/

🔍📑 Macaulay, Monica. 2011. Surviving linguistics: A guide for graduate students, 2nd edition. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

Sources for examples

Alhailawani, Mohammad. 2023 The syntax of silent directional prepositions in Jordanian Arabic. Canadian Journal of Linguistics. 68 (2): 229–249.