Notes on investigating the native vs non-native distinction in written academic English

Texts written in English by non-native speakers can be considered instances of mediated language, where the mediation takes place between a writer’s native language and English, seen, respectively, as the “source” and “target” poles. In investigating such texts, the methods of analysis can thus draw on some assumptions and approaches used in translation studies, starting from the idea that in mediated communication the target product always shows traces of interference from features and traits associated with the source material. This chapter reports on an investigation of written academic language in English. The investigation is corpus-based and the texts included in the corpus include research papers in two different academic disciplines written by either native speakers or non-native speakers of English. Initial findings of the investigation are discussed in relation to two specific aspects: part-of-speech distribution and preference for pre- or post-modification in noun groups.