The Birth of the Academic Article

Focusing on linguistic features of early academic periodicals, this study analyzes the Journal des Sçavans and Philosophical Transactions from 1665 to the late 17th century using Systemic Functional Linguistics. It examines thematic structure, process types, modality, and nominalized processes across selected issues, highlighting differences influenced by editorial choices and historical context. With over 66,000 words from the Journal and 77,000 from the Transactions, the research contextualizes the texts and elucidates their linguistic evolution during this formative period.