A Study On Interpersonal Meaning In The Discourses Of Internet Academic Forum

BISC is a world-leading academic center in the study of the basic theories and applied theories of soft computing. It is an e-mail linked community consisting of individuals and organizations worldwide exchanging their interest in soft computing and its application.Based on a corpus of 48 e-mails among Zadeh and other members of the BISC group which amounts to 10,000 words and by means of Concord Tool of Wordsmith, under the framework of interpersonal meaning discussed in functional linguistics, in association with Martin’s appraisal system, this study conducts a functional genre analysis of academic forum. It sets out to carry out a genre analysis of academic forum, with its genre features and communicative purposes described and move structure identified. Then a functional dimension is added, the author carries out an investigation into the expressions,distributions and functions of the linguistic resources for realizing interpersonal meaning in this academic context, aiming at revealing the linguistic pattern with respect to the expression of interpersonal meaning in academic forum and providing valuable theoretical and practical implications for international academic exchange as well as the teaching of academic writing.After describing the genre features and communicative purposes of the academic forum, the following move structure is identified. The forum data mainly adopt the pattern:M1M2M3 with Move 1 being the topic of the discussion, Move 2 the development of the discussion and Move 3 the closure of the discussion. Then the thesis analyzes the realization of interpersonal meaning from the following six aspects: passive voice,nominalization, interpersonal metaphor, modality, hedge and appraisal system. The research indicates: first, passive voice is usually discussed under the framework of ideational function, however, this study shows that while exchanging it can help scholars in the forum get rid of responsibility, show objectivity and show politeness and respect for the goal, thus realizing interpersonal meaning; second, nominalization is generally held to realize ideational function, however, this study indicates that it also realizes interpersonalmeaning since the effect of objectification brought about by nominalization conforms to the convention observed by people within this community; third, epistemic modality is a typical means of realizing interpersonal meaning. In this academic forum, it is adopted to express tentativity in cognition, to fulfill requirements of the Politeness Principle and to enhance the possibility of negotiation between different positions; fourth, metaphor of modality helps scholars either highlight the subjective nature of their assessment or create a sense of objectivity, thereby realizing interpersonal function; fifth, accuracy-based hedges allow writers to present a claim with greater precision, writer-based hedges indicate the writer’s anticipation of possible opposition and enable writers to avoid responsibility for claims and reader-motivated hedges allow writers to offer recognition and deference to peers’ views, all of which enable authors to adopt a pragmatically cautious position; sixth, the heteroglossic backdrop construed by the various engagement resources under the appraisal system is crucial to argumentation and claim acceptance and allows the author to enter into a dialogue with other members of the BISC group.