Semantic Denotations of Non-Restrictive Relative Clauses in English Clinical Anatomy Textbooks

Authors

  • Abhinan Wongkittiporn College of Liberal Arts, Rangsit University

Keywords:

Semantic denotations, Non-restrictiverelative clauses(NRRCs), Englishclinical anatomy textbooks

Abstract

This study investigated the semantic denotations of non-restrictive relative clauses (NRRCs) in English clinical anatomy textbooks. While previous studies focused on NRRCs in different text varieties (i.e., novels, international corpus), this study fills the gap by contributing something new to the field by studying NRRCs in English clinical anatomy textbooks. The materials were collected from Netter’s Clinical Anatomy (2019) and Gray’s Anatomy for Students (2020). Not only are they best-selling textbooks (amazon.com), but the writers of these textbooks are also professionally qualified concerning their educational qualifications and clinical work experience. Approximately 268,600 words, containing 184 tokens of NRRCs, were extracted from these textbooks. NRRCs were analyzed via the keywords of wh-relativizer who, whom, whose and which used with comma(s). The results showed that 98.91 percent of NRRCs in the English clinical anatomy textbooks occurred with the relativizer which. The semantic denotations of NRRCs in English clinical anatomy are components, formation and liquid movement at nearly 60 percent. The use of NRRCs in English anatomy textbooks allows us to see different semantic denotations, specifically used with this syntactic structure. It is hoped that the results of this study will be beneficial to the field of medical English. Moreover, it would be helpful for learners of English as a foreign language.

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Published

2021-11-24

How to Cite

Wongkittiporn, A. (2021). Semantic Denotations of Non-Restrictive Relative Clauses in English Clinical Anatomy Textbooks. Liberal Arts Review, 16(2), 39–62. Retrieved from https://so04.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/larhcu/article/view/251882

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Research Articles