A Corpus-based Investigation Into The Use Of Reporting Verbs In Accounting Journals

In academic writing,citing or reporting others' finding or opinion is an necessary part.There are various ways playing the role of this function,and the important way is to use reporting verb.Reporting verb is used to convey other source of information,which is usually employed to report other researchers' results.The importance of reporting verb used not only lies in citing the reported information,and the purpose of reporting others' arguments is to incorporate others' ideas into the current study to enhance the persuasiveness by displaying the academic knowledge or try to find the research gap by documenting the research findings or literature review.The function of reporting verb in academic writing is self-evident,and suitable choice of reporting verb also to an extent reflects academic writing and academic English standard.Studies from home and abroad on reporting verbs have attracted more and more attention.Domestic related studies have also achieved great results,which are found mainly concentrating on English applied linguistics,with less attention on other subjects,such as accounting.Related studies on accounting in China have achieved great improvement and development,and widely communication with international accounting field has also been carried out.Therefore,learning from the international accounting experience can help China accounting study go forward.In the current study,40 papers from the accounting journal subject are selected respectively to build a small corpora--China Journal of Accounting Research Sub-corpus(shorten as CRC)and Accounting Review Corpus Sub-corpus(shorten as ARC),and the total tokens of the two sub-corpora are 101,319 and 105,674.Both quantitative and qualitative methods are combined to explore the features of reporting verbs used in the two sub-corpora,including semantic distribution,evaluative distribution,reporting pattern and the tense and voice.In terms of reporting verbs used in the two sub-corpora,some practical guidance of English accounting writing are afforded and the possible deficiencies in China accounting writing are also pointed out.The findings can be summarized as follows:Firstly,the total frequency of reporting verbs in the CRC is much higher than that in the ARC,but the types employed by writers in the CRC are fewer than that in the ARC.This indicates that the writers in the CRC tend to use more reporting verbs but yet the use of reporting verbs lacks diversity in types.Secondly,as for the distribution of reporting verbs based on type of activity,both research and discourse categories account for a high percentage,and the cognition category takes a smaller percentage in the two sub-corpora.Besides,there is a statistical difference in terms of the research category,which is overused by the writers in the CRC.Thirdly,in terms of the classification of reporting verbs based on evaluation,the writers in both sub-corpora are likely to choose the positive category to support or prove their studies.Further analysis also identifies that there is a significant difference in the use of the positive category,and the positive category is overused by writers in the CRC.The findings also show that a small proportion of negative verbs are also employed by taking small percentage in both sub-corpora.Fourthly,the study of the top ten high frequently used reporting verbs also demonstrates that writers in the two sub-corpora tend to choose the research and discourse categories and the positive expression.Besides,it also finds that the writers in both sub-corpora tend to choose common high frequent reporting verbs,such as find,suggest,and conclude.However,it is also found that the verb,find,is overused by writers in the CRC.Fifthly,as for reporting patterns,writers in both CRC and ARC are likely to use more integral patterns.In addition,there is a statistical difference in terms of the integral pattern in the two sub-corpora,which is also overused by writers in the CRC.Sixthly,as for the tense and voice of reporting verbs,the writers in the two sub-corpora prefer to choose the simple present and the active voice.The current study also finds that in the CRC,the simple present and the active voice are overused by the writers in the CRC.Seventhly,in comparison with the subject of applied linguistics,there exist differences and similarities between the accounting subject and the applied linguistics.The average reporting verbs(per 1,000)used in the accounting subject are fewer than that in the applied linguistics.In terms of the classification of reporting verbs,the research category accounts for the highest percentage in the accounting subject,but,in the applied linguistics,the discourse category is the most frequently used.Different from the stance expression in the applied linguistics,the neutral category is the first choice with fewer uses or even no use of the negative category.In the accounting subject,the positive category is the highest frequently used,and the negative reporting verbs are also employed.In line with the results of choice of reporting pattern,tense and voice in the applied linguistics,the accounting subject also tends to employ integral reporting pattern,simple present and active voice.In conclusion,this study aims to explore the features of reporting verbs used in the self-built accounting corpus,and also compares the accounting subject with the applied linguistics.The findings could provide practical guidance for English accounting writing in China.