A Corpus-based Study On The Stance Construction Of Shell Nouns In Corporate Annual Reports

Shell nouns,as a kind of abstract nouns,can be used to construct writers’ stances in English writing.However,compared with researches on cohesive functions of shell nouns,relatively fewer researches on stances of shell nouns have been made by scholars.Therefore,this exploratory study,based on Schmid’s definition as well as Jiang Feng and Hyland’s classification on shell nouns,exploits the frequencies,the stances constructions and functions of shell nouns in the self-built corporate annual reports corpus(CARC)through a variety of quantitative and qualitative analyses.The results are as follows:1)shell nouns in CARC are unevenly distributed.Shell nouns indicating attribute dominates in the frequency of shell nouns in CARC.The number of shell nouns indicating entity is in the second place.The frequencies of these two categories are remarkably higher than shell nouns indicating relation.Among all subcategories,shell nouns indicating status and cognition are most frequently used.2)writers prefer to use shell nouns with positive meanings to show companies’ effort,ability and sense of responsibility;shell nouns with certainty meanings are used to give readers’ confidence;shell nouns with negative meanings are used to inform risks in advance;by using negative words before shell nouns,writers try to reduce the risks of criticism;when it comes to shell nouns with objective meanings,writers strengthen the stances by using pre-modifications.3)the functions of shell nouns from the perspective of stance construction are summarized in three aspects:shaping favorable corporate images,minimizing the risk of criticism and establishing interpersonal rapport with readers.This research possesses theoretical and practical significance.On one hand,it adds a new research perspective for shell nouns in corporate annual reports.On the other hand,the findings of this research,practically,can provide some suggestions to newly listed companies on how to write communicative annual reports and express stances by choosing different shell nouns.