| This dissertation is designed to examine the evidential markers in English academic papers(henceforth APs), from a cognitive-pragmatic perspective, with a particular focus on the indexcial function of these evidential markers at the discourse level.Since the term "evidential" was first introduced into linguistic study by Boas in 1947, researchers from both home and abroad have studied evidentiality from various perspectives, including the typological perspective, the cognitive perspective, the pragmatic perspective, and the systemic-functional perspective. So far, although an agreement on the interpersonal function and subjectivity of evidentiality has been reached, there still remains some inadequacy. First, regarding research content, despite the fact that there are many studies on evidentiality, studies specifying the indexical function of evidentiality are very rare, and have been mostly limited to the descriptions of the grammaticalized evidential systems in the narrative discourses of some highly inflectional languages in America. Second, in terms of genre type, although researchers have widened their studies from lexical and clausal levels to discourse and genre levels, most studies are confined to the evidentiality in advertisement discourse and news discourse. The study on academic discourse is far from enough. Third, as for theoretical framework, most studies are conducted within single frameworks of linguistics, and few researches have been done from integrating multiple perspectives. Besides, most studies carried out by Chinese researchers are imitative and repetitive in nature. Fourth, concerning research methodology, most studies on English evidentiality are centered on quantitative and contrastive analyses of the use of evidential markers, focusing too much on the description but neglecting the higher level of interpretation. Last but not the least, in terms of academic discourse, studies on how the writer achieves his/her communicative intentions utilizing the indexical functions of evidential markers are still rare. Western researchers have made substantial attempts in this direction, while it still has not attracted the attention of Chinese researchers.Regarding the present research background, this study aims to explore the function of the evidential markers in English APs from a cognitive-pragmatic perspective. Integrating the gist of epistemological stance, Mental Spaces Theory and perspective-taking, subjectivity and intersubjectivity, deixis theory and metapragmatic awareness within Verschueren’s pragmatic perspective, in conjunction with the characteristics of academic discourse, the present study puts forward a cognitive-pragmatic perspective. Besides, it establishes a three-dimensional model of indexicality and an analytical framework. It argues that as a semantic category shared by almost all the languages in the world, evidentiality is not only a cognitive phenomenon, but also a pragmatic and metapragmatic phenomenon. Evidential markers are indexical in nature. The indexicality of evidential markers is realized on two levels. The first level concerns their basic meaning indicating the source of information, which has been revealed in the studies of the evidentiality in some highly inflectional languages. The second level is about their indexical function at the discourse level, which is the concern of this study hypothesizing that the function of the evidential markers in English APs is also indexical in nature, and can be interpreted from subjectivity, intersubjectivity and intertextuality. The cognitive-pragmatic perspective is strongly opposed to studying linguistic representations of evidentiality in isolation. Instead it advocates examining their functional and cognitive-pragmatic motivations at the discourse level.Based on this cognitive-pragmatic perspective, the present study is to explore, both in theory and practice, the function of the evidential markers in English APs. The goals are twofold: the first is the specific forms of the evidential markers and the general function of these markers in English APs; the second is the realizations of the general function of these evidential markers at the discourse level. This study has created its working definition and classification of evidentiality. According to the experiential nature of human cognition, this dissertation agrees to classify evidentiality into direct evidence and indirect evidence. Direct evidence includes the information acquired via personal perceptual experience and belief. Indirect evidence encompasses the information obtained through reporting and inference. Different types of evidential markers are important linguistic devices representing evidentiality.This study is basically qualitative regarding its methodology, and thus is theory-driven. Based on the theoretical integration and the analyses of the use of evidential markers in 40 English APs, this study has reached three conclusions. First, the motivation for using evidential markers in academic discourse lies in the writer’s need to realize three basic properties of language use in APs: subjectivity, intersubjectivity and intertextuality. Evidential markers play the role of an interface between evidentiality and these three basic properties. Second, the general function of the evidential markers in English APs is indexical. Both subjectivity and intersubjectivity can be indexed by evidential markers from all the four types of evidental markers, while intertextuality can be indexed by reportive evidential markers. Third, the indexical function of the evidential markers in English APs is non-canonical. This means that, in addition to the primary semantic value of evidential markers indicating sources of information, their indexical function is also realized at the discourse level. This function does not only reflect the writer’s attitude towards the reliability of the information, and the writer’s subjective epistemological perspective and stance, it also represents the writer’s awareness of intersubjectivity as well as the designation of intertextuality in discourse construction. Therefore, evidential markers, with their indexical function, indicate the writer’s subjective addition to the propositional meaning for a certain communicative purpose, which implies the interrelationship of the law of human cognition, language use, communicative intention, and linguistic representation.The present study has made five contributions. They are as follows: First, this study has established a cognitive-pragmatic perspective of evidentiality, which has provided a new framework for evidentiality study in academic discourse. Second, starting from the cognitive-pragmatic perspective combined with the basic characteristics of academic discourse, this study has revealed the indexical function of evidential markers at the discourse level through examining the mechanism and motivations for the use of evidential markers. This has also enriched the theory of deixis as the theory can be extended to explain a deictic phenomenon that is non-canonical. Third, this study has proposed a new definition and its own taxonomy of evidentiality. Fourth, this study has placed the study of evidential markers in English academic discourse, and has systematically explored and proved the indexical function of its evidential markers, which has thus deepened our understanding of the nature of evidentiality. Moreover, using natural linguistic data and methods of quantitative analyses and descriptions, this study has interpreted how writers of English APs utilize the indexical function of evidential markers to realize their communicative intentions. The result of the analyses has therefore provided valuable insights for academic writing and teaching. |
PDF Full Text Request