Accounting for the great divide: Features of clarity in analytic philosophy journal articles

•Philosophy texts among the most difficult to learn to write.•Analytic philosophers see their task as similar to scientific inquiry.•Value placed on clarity in analytic philosophy results in distinctive features.•AP limits lexical richness, uses shorter sentences, self-mention, and imperative directives.

While some limited studies exist examining philosophy texts (Bloor, 1996; Hyland, 2005), these focus exclusively on the analytic tradition. This study makes explicit the ‘great divide’ between analytic and continental philosophy by examining how the importance of clarity in analytic philosophy, largely connected to its alignment with scientific inquiry, influences use of certain linguistic features and distinguishes analytic from continental journal articles. Using a one-million word corpus along with input from disciplinary experts, findings include analytic philosophy's tendency to limit lexical richness and use shorter sentences, self-mention, and imperative directives to a much greater extent than continental philosophy. This study has implications for further research on philosophy texts, students entering the discipline, and those who enable them to become members of this community.