A Study Of The Construction Of Intersubjectivity Through Metadiscourse In Academic Discourse

It is true that language is firstly used by our human beings to realize the need of communication. And in philosophical study, language is also a medium that is used by people to realize the function of coordination between subjects and to reach the goal of understanding each other via dialogues. Among their dialogues, it is found that two kinds of discourses are used: primary discourse and metadiscourse. The choice of language is based on the understanding between subjects, so the use of metadiscourse can reflect intersubjectivity.As for the study on the construction of intersubjectivity in this study, Jwergrn Habemas theory is employed because of the fact that his theory of intersubjectivity focuses on the theory of communicational behavior. He points out the necessity of language for constructing intersubjectivity. This thesis aims to analyze, according to Habermas s theory, the functions of metadiscourse for constructing intersubjectivity in academic discourse and then further explore why and how metadiscourse can construct it.The thesis starts with the introduction to the background of research and subjects of discussions, in which the relationship between intersubjectivity and language is reviewed roughly. And then reviewing the related literature of the formation and developing of intersubjectivity is in process with looking back the researches on the characteristics, functions and classifications, etc. of metadiscourse. After that, the thesis continues to state the methodology which mainly connects the quantitative analysis with qualitative analysis. Here qualitative analysis is the main method of the research. The data employed in this thesis is from the website Sage journals online from which 10 English research articles and 10 Chinese research articles are chosen respectively to analyze how metadiscourse resources are used. In order to base the study on a range of representative academic discourse, these articles are selected by considering their writers are native speakers of the language they use. Specifically, the research is designed to reveal these following questions: 1. Does metadiscourse construct the intersubjectivity in academic discourses? 2. Why can metadiscourse be used to build the internsubjectivity in academic discourses? 3. How does metadiscourse construct the intersubjectivity in academic metadiscourses? In the following qualitative study, the findings are analyzed to reveal that the metadiscourse has the intersubjective functions, according to the validity claims of Habermas s, and then the understanding between people is formed. Finally, the writer argues about the implications and limitations of the research.