| In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to the study of genre analysis.Studies concerning genre analysis of various discourses emerge one after another.However, limited researches have been conducted concerning the functional genreanalysis of conclusions of research articles (RAs). Conclusion is the summarization of theessence of a whole paper and it is an important part of a complete research article.Taking50conclusions of RAs in natural science and30conclusions of RAs in socialscience as the research object, two corpora are established for this study. Based onHalliday’s theory on three metafunctions in System Functional Grammar (SFG) andSwales and Bhatia’s genre analysis theory, this study is intended to make a functionalgenre analysis of conclusions of these RAs. The aim is to summarize the genre features ofconclusions of RAs, find out how the three metafunctions are realized in this genre andreveal the discrepancies and similarities between conclusions of RAs in the field of naturalscience and conclusions of RAs in the field of social science.Research results show that as a whole, conclusions of both natural science andsocial science tend to be of a four move structure pattern with each move consisting of3steps: Move1Summary (research background and/or contents of the study and/or resultsof the study); Move2Commenting on results (comparing results with literature and/orevaluating results and/or interpreting results); Move3Evaluation (indicating limitationand/or indicating significance and/or evaluating methodology); Move4Application(making suggestions for future study and/or application of the study and/or drawingpedagogic implication). Each move or step has its own particular functions and purposesand the frequencies of Move1and Move4are higher than that of the other two moves inthis genre. Based on the obtained move patterns of conclusions, the ways of realization ofthe three metafunctions are investigated from the perspectives of transitivity system, voice,modality system and the thematic progression patterns. Analysis shows that this particulargenre mainly employs material process and relational process to realize its ideationalfunction. The abundant use of low value modal verbs is to realize the interpersonalfunction which is accordance with the objectiveness and seriousness of RAs. The realization of textual function is through the abundant use of the linear progression patternand the independent progression pattern. The comparison between conclusions in the twofields indicates:(1) modal verbs used in conclusions of RAs in natural science are fewerthan those in social science;(2) authors in natural science pay more attention to theapplication of the results, while authors in social science emphasize more the pedagogicimplication of the study.Results of the research are useful to the writing and reading of conclusions in RAs. Inaddition, the findings also serve as reference in the teaching and researching of genrewriting. |
