A Contrastive Analysis Of Metadiscourse In Chinese And English Commencement Speeches

This paper, based on previous studies, discusses certain similarities and differencesin the use of metadiscourse devices by the contrastive analysis of metadiscourse inChinese and English commencement speeches delivered by40distinguished addressersfrom the year of2004to2013with total of99005words.Under the theoretical frameworks of Hyland’s Interpersonal Model ofMetadiscourse and their three key principles, the ten subcategories of metadiscoursemarkers are manually marked according to their primary function in given context, thenthe frequencies are calculated. A comparison of metadiscourse use in Chinese andEnglish speeches is made with the help of SPSS11.5. Moreover, the features andpatterns of using metadiscourse are investigated in this study.The study presents that similarities and differences in metadiscoure use exist inChinese and English commencement speech. The former includes:1. Metadiscoursesare widely adopted by both Chinese and English speakers.2. Interactional resources andself mention are Chinese and English addressers’ two favorite devices to realizeinterpersonal function of their text (Chinese：41.21%, English：31.97%).3. Two groupaddressers frequently use sequencing frame markers to structure their speech textlogically and neatly. Use differences of metadiscourse evidently exist in the data:1.Interactive (t=-6.428, df=38, Sig.(2-tailed)=0.000(<0.05)) and interactional resources(t=-11.371, df=38, Sig.(2-tailed)=0.000(<0.05)) are more frequently used in Englishtexts.2. English addressers tend to use more transitions, code glosses, hedges, boosters,attitude markers, self mention and engagement markers than Chinese addressers. On thecontrary, to Chinese addressers, endophoric markers (t=3.496, df=38, Sig.(2-tailed)=0.001(<0.05)) is their favorite choice.3. Both Chinese and English textspresent certain variations which are norm–violating metadiscourse devices.The result implies that metadiscourse use is genre driven and context dependent.The application of interactional resources make speech more persuasive, the device ofself mention is widely used to establish harmonious relationship with addresses. Thedifferences between the language of English and Chinese, between the thinking patternsof Chinese and English addressers and their addressees and between two differentcultural background are the main reasons leading to the use differences ofmetadiscourse. Chinese is a parataxis-prominent language while English ahypotaxis-prominent one, that explains why more metadiscourse are used by Englishaddressers. Chinese culture is high-contextual and reader-responsible which contributeto less use of transitions and other subcategory devices of metadiscourse in Chinesetexts. Furthermore, Chinese’s non-linear thinking pattern is not the same withAmericans’ linear thinking pattern, this explains why different metadiscourse variationsare applied by Chinese and English addressers.