Evidentiality In English Research Articles

This dissertation aims to examine evidentiality in English Research Articles (henceforth RAs) from the interpersonal perspective.In spite of the recent surge for evidential studies and the achievements made in previous researches, the study is still in its infancy. There are many aspects waiting to be explored. Generally speaking, the previous studies have the following characteristics. First, some researchers still put emphasis on grammatical descriptions of the evidential systems in some highly-inflectional languages. Second, the researches seem to be confined to the lexis and clausal level, and the study of evidentiality at discourse and genre level is much less than enough. In addition, the review of the research on English RAs has shown that few systematic researches on evidentiality in academic discourse have been conducted. Third, there are few researches on what evidentiality can do for language users and especially on the interpersonal functions of evidentiality.Considering the inadequacy of the previous studies, this dissertation widens the study to the genre of RAs and the interpersonal perspective. It agrees that genre and interpersonal functions are the two most important factors influencing evidential choices, including the choices of evidential types and their respective linguistic realizations.The dissertation adopts a functional approach. It takes Systemic Functional Linguistics (henceforth SFL) as its main theoretical basis and also adopts some other notions in linguistic studies, such as epistemological stance, genre and metadiscourse. It establishes an analytical framework and a multi-dimensional three-element interpersonal model. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted in this study.The dissertation includes the following aspects.First, based on the previous classifications of evidentiality and considering the specific generic characteristics of RAs, the dissertation offers its own classification of evidentiality and examines the potential lexicogrammatical realizations. The study correlates evidentiality with the generic structure of RAs. Actually, in every part of RAs, evidentiality occurs. The only difference lies in the fact that different generic structures prefer particular types of evidentials, and some types of evidentials tend to occur more frequently in certain parts than in others. This interdependent relationship between evidentials and the generic structure reveals that the communicative purpose of every part will determine the use of evidentiality and the use of evidentiality will in turn strengthen the communicative purpose.Second, the dissertation holds that evidential choice is first of all an epistemological stance-taking process, which is influenced by many factors other than the information source itself. The dissertation focuses on two of the factors: genre and interpersonal functions. It examines the interpersonal functions of evidentiality in RAs under a three-element interpersonal model: evidentiality as evaluation; evidentiality as metadiscourse; evidentiality as writer identity indexing. It shows the bilaterally motivating and conditioning relationship between evidentiality and interpersonal functions.Third, a comparative study is made concerning evidential use in RAs by Native Speakers (henceforth NS) and Chinese writers. This task is theoretically and pedagogically significant. The similarities reveal the universal nature of the semantics of evidentiality in the genre of RAs. The differences indicate that the cultural backgrounds influence and condition the writer's evidential choice. This comparative study can help to raise the writer's awareness of the functions of evidentiality in RAs.The dissertation is significant both in theory and in practice. In theory, the dissertation gives a comprehensive picture of evidentiality in RAs, which is a significant widening of evidential studies in academic discourse. The dissertation adopts an integrated working model to examine the interpersonal functions, which helps to understand what evidentiality can do for the RA writer to negotiate with the reader, the information source, and so on. In practice, the analytical framework to examine the interpersonal functions of evidentiality in RAs will shed light on other genres, especially on academic discourse. The findings from the comparative study will have pedagogical significances, which will help the RA writer to understand the importance of appropriate choice of evidentials in the persuasion and argumentation of RAs.