A Study On Generic Features In Dissertation Conclsions Of English-majored Postgraduates

In the 1980 s,the concept of "genre" was introduced into the field of linguistics.Since then,genre research has received extensive attention from scholars.In the past 40 years,the analysis of genre features,especially the analysis of genre features of dissertation,has always been a hot spot in the genre research of linguistics.Up to now,many experts and scholars have done many researches on different types of dissertations,but these researches mostly focus on journal papers,and the researches of postgraduates’ dissertations are less,in particular,the researches of English-majored postgraduates’ dissertations are even more rarer.Moreover,from the perspective of research on the structural components of dissertations,these studies mostly focus on abstract,introduction,and literature review.Therefore,the studies on conclusion are not sufficient.Conclusion,as a summary of the results of the entire research,reflects the theoretical and practical value of the research,and is of great significance for guiding follow-up research.Therefore,it plays an irreplaceable role in dissertation.In addition,when writing the dissertation conclusion,English-majored postgraduates have problems such as confusion in the structure of the conclusion and non-standard use of language.Therefore,in order to enrich the research perspective and content of the conclusion genre,and in order to improve the writing level of the dissertation conclusion of the English-majored postgraduates,the author will proceed from the perspective of generic features,and will take an in-depth analysis of the dissertation conclusions of English-majored postgraduates from the perspective of generic structural features and linguistic features.This research is on the account of excellent master’s dissertations in CNKI full-text database.In accordance with the results of the fourth round of subject evaluation in2017,45 masters’ dissertation conclusions of foreign linguistics and applied linguistics postgraduates were randomly selected from normal universities with the ranking of grades A,B,and C.Then the study based on the theory of systemic-functional grammar and genre analysis,and adopts textual analysis method and contrastive analysis method,according to Yang & Allison’s(2003)conclusion move model and Hyland’s(1998)theory of hedges,analyzes the generic structural features and linguistic features of these textual conclusions.Finally,this study analyzes the reasons for the formation of these features.This research mainly revolves around three questions: 1.What are the generic structural features of the English-majored postgraduates’ dissertation conclusions? What is the difference of generic structure in the three grades of A,B and C textual conclusions ? 2.What are the characteristics of hedges used in the dissertation conclusions of English-majored postgraduates? What are the differences in the use of hedges in three grades of A,B and C textual conclusions? 3.From the perspective of generic structural features and hedges,how to improve the writing ability of English-majored postgraduates’ dissertation conclusions?The study found that the generic structure of the dissertation conclusions of English-majored postgraduates is basically the same as that of Yang & Allison(2003).However,it shows particularity in the combination mode of moves.The author summarizes it as four-move mode of "M1-M3-M2-M3".More than 50% of the textual conclusions use this combination mode of moves,so it is considered a regular combination mode of moves.This shows to a certain extent that the genre structure of the dissertation conclusions of English-majored postgraduates shows obvious regular characteristics.According to the research results,the author has supplemented the steps of M1,namely "brief statements about research purpose" and "statements about the research results".Grade A contains more S1 than B and C grades.The number of M2 in the three-grade conclusions does not constitute a significant difference.The number of S1 in M3 is smaller in the B and C grades.It shows that the students of grade A have the best generic structure consciousness.In addition,the grade A’s conclusion move content is the most abundant.In terms of the characteristics of the use of hedges,postgraduates of English-majored use hedges in a large number,but showing greater differences in the tendency to use categories.modal verbs are used the most by postgraduates,and cognitive nouns are used the least by postgraduates.The hedges of grade A are more in type and quantity than B and C grades.It shows that English-majored postgraduates students have the awareness of using hedges,but lack diversity in the categories of hedges.In addition,on the basis of Yang & Allison’s(2003)move analysis model of conclusion,and according to the generic structural features of the English-majored postgraduates’ dissertation conclusions,this research tried to put forward a framework for the conclusion of English-majored postgraduates’ dissertations,hoping to guide the writing of the dissertation conclusions of English-majored postgraduates.This research has carried out a detailed study on the generic features of the dissertation conclusions of English-majored postgraduates,enriched the application of scope of the systemic-functional grammar theory and genre analysis theory,and has a guiding significance for the teaching of academic paper writing.However,this research only selected corpus from the major of foreign linguistics and applied linguistics,and the number of conclusions is limited.What’s more,due to the large number of hedges,this research cannot exhaust all hedges.Therefore,the number and types of hedges in this research are limited.Therefore,future research can select corpus across disciplines and analyze more types of hedges to enrich the genre research of conclusions.