Metadiscursive Nouns In Literature Review Of L1 And L2 Master Theses Of Linguistics

In recent years,research on metadiscursive nouns has attracted considerable attention.As a type of abstract nouns,metadiscursive nouns can be used to express the author’s attitude and reflect the relationship between discourse,the reader,and the author.It has properties and dual rhetoric functions,as similar with metadiscourse,namely,interactive function and interactive function.This thesis investigates the metadiscursive nouns in Literature Review of English M.A.theses and that of the native speakers.Based on the analytical framework of metadiscourse proposed by Hyland(2005a),this research makes quantitative and qualitative analyses of the metadiscursive nouns through a self-built corpus.Firstly,the study investigates the features of metadiscursive nouns in the corpus,focusing on the overall frequency distribution,the stance expression and frequent wordlist features.The analyses show that(1)Metadiscursive nouns are widespread in the Literature Review section of English M.A.theses;(2)Metadiscursive nouns are most frequently realized in the lexical-grammatical structures by the determiner + N construction and the N + post-nominal clause pattern and are the least frequently used in there be + N construction;(3)The stance expressions of the cognitive,discourse,and event classes are most widely used in the Review section.While the relation and quality classes are the least frequently used.Second,the study makes a comparative study of the frequency distribution and frequent wordlist in each corpus respectively,concluding that the two corpora appear to be no conspicuous differences in general while subtle differences exist.The result indicates whether the author is a native speaker or not does not make a substantial difference in the use of the metadiscursive nouns in the Review section.The two corpora are consistent with the overall features in general:(1)Metadiscursive nouns are widespread in not only the CEMTC(Chinese English-Major Theses Corpus)but also in the NSTC(Native Speakers’ Theses Corpus);(2)In the CEMTC and the NSTC,the determiner + N construction and the N + post-nominal clause pattern are the most frequently used lexical-grammatical constructions,and the the there be + N construction is the least frequently used one;(3)In terms of the stance expressions,the cognitive,discourse,and event classes are the most widely used ones in the CEMTC and the NSTC.While,the relation and quality classes are the least frequently used.Although native speakers and Chinese students are generally alike in the use of metadiscursive nouns,discrepancies also exist.First,the internal use in three of the lexical-grammatical patterns is significantly different.Second,there are also differences in the realization forms of the specific nouns in the stance expression.This research enables us to better understand the use of metadiscursive nouns in the Literature Review section,and provides some enlightenment for pedagogical work related to the master’s degree thesis.