A Comparative Study On Global Conjunctives In Both English And Chinese Expository Writings

This thesis aims to explore the essential role of global conjunctives as an indispensable cohesive device in the construction of textual coherence. The premises of this study do not come about in a vacuum. The early work of many linguists' renders precious inspiration for my current study. Based on the previous achievements, the following three hypotheses are raised in the thesis. 1) Both English and Chinese expository writings contain a hierarchical pattern created by global conjunctives; 2) The average number of global conjunctives used in standard English expository writings is larger than that in the Chinese counterparts; 3) The density of the global conjunctives varies with different subgenres of expository texts.For the purpose of certifying those hypotheses, 36 Chinese and English expository writings covering three subgenres, i.e. essay, speech and academic paper, have been analyzed in the current research and the results turn out like this: firstly, most Chinese and English expository texts exhibit a hierarchical pattern of conjunction. Secondly, in contradiction to the second hypothesis, it is proved that Chinese expository writings actually carry more global conjunctives than those in the English counterparts. Finally, the research reveals that variation in subgenres imposes no significant influence on the density of English and Chinese global conjunctives in expository texts except for the obvious statistical distinction between the numbers of global conjunctives in Chinese essay and speech. Thus, on the whole, the first hypothesis is proved. The second is totally nullified. The third is rejected as well with one exception of the distinction between Chinese essay and speech in the number of global conjunctives.The above discoveries play a significant role in discourse analysis as well as language teaching and learning. Teachers should help language learners in raising the awareness of the hierarchical pattern of conjunction in both English and Chinese expository texts which may facilitate students in text comprehension and writing. Besides, in order to cultivate such awareness, language learners need much training in understanding the explicit markings of the logical-semantic relationships among different textual units at variouslevels. Another fact they should be aware is that only when conjunctives are applied to mark implicit or less explicit logical-semantic relations among textual components or to achieve rhetoric goals such as foregrounding and emphasis can the presence of conjunctives be cohesively significant. Otherwise, the utilization of conjunctives will appear redundant which may even do harm to textual coherence to a certain degree.