| The primary goals of this dissertation are to compare certain structural aspects of comparable English and Japanese expository texts which are thought to be coherence markers, and to ascertain the degree to which native speakers of both languages are able to access appropriate formal schemata in reordering scrambled paragraphs of these texts.; The data consist of ten Japanese texts and the English translations of these same texts, and five English texts. The coherence features measured or described are: thematic continuity, paragraph linking, rhetorical patterns, literary conventions, reader/writer responsibility, and cultural values/attitudes. In the experimental portion of the study, 30 bilingual native Japanese speakers and 23 monolingual native English speakers ordered the scrambled paragraphs of the texts and also provided titles and summaries. Rank order correlations (rho) and interrater reliability scores (r) were calculated, and between group comparisons of means were made.; Analysis of the texts revealed cross-linguistic similarities in the relative frequency of cohesion (lexical, referential, conjunctive) markers, and differences in the relative use of paragraph linking devices, transition statements, and topical focus markers. Differences were noted in the relative use of various rhetorical types (Meyer, 1985); certain rhetorical patterns were identified which are particular to Japanese, and other patterns were identified which occur in both languages.; Results from the paragraph re-ordering experiment provide evidence that certain rhetorical patterns are familiar to both native English speakers and native Japanese speakers, while other patterns are familiar only to native Japanese speakers. It was also found that bilingual native Japanese speakers apparently access formal schemata appropriate for English expository prose when reading English translations of Japanese texts.; Analysis of titles and summaries provided by consultants revealed no correlation between consultants' ability to correctly re-order the scrambled paragraphs and their understanding of the main point of the text. |
