| Introductions to research articles are important parts of academic research discourses.Learners are able to know the main contents of a thesis in a short period of time and decide whether to continue their reading or not.It not only improves the reading efficiency,but also poses a challenge to the writers on how to attract readers.As a subsystem of Appraisal Theory,Engagement system focus on the source of attitude,which provides a new perspective on how authors build alliances with readers in introductions of academic papers.Based on Engagement system of Martin's Appraisal Theory and Swales' CARS Model,this paper collected 200 introductions to academic research articles of language research published in recent five years from http://www.cnki.net and http://www.sciencedirect.com.In this paper,a corpus analytic software of UAM Corpus Tool is used to analyze and study the distribution features and semantic features of the Engagement resources in the research materials.Manual annotation is conducted to avoid unnecessary errors caused by formal familiarity.The research questions are as follows: 1.What are the similarities and differences in the use of the Engagement resources between English and Chinese research article introductions? 2.How do Chinese and English scholars deploy these Engagement resources to align with their readers and researchers in the same research field? 3.What are the factors contributing to the use of engagement resources?The results of the present study are shown as follows: firstly,there are both similarities and differences between Engagement resources in Chinese and English introductions in the aspects of variety,quantity and formal variations.The Engagement resources of Chinese introductions are featured as comparatively less variety,low average quantity and low variation of language form while English Engagement resources are characterized as abundant variety,high average quantity and complex variation of language form.Secondly,writers of Chinese and English introductions apply Engagement resources strategically to arrange different sources of attitudes and stances in order to persuade readers and achieve their writing objectives of establishing writer-reader relationship.The main strategies are as follows: 1)to make explanations for some terms and present relevant background information,some Monoglossic resources are utilized to unite different voices and stances;2)Expansion resources are abundantly used to broaden the dialogic space and allow different stances and attitudes of various participants when previous researches and writers' personal stance are quoted and presented,lessening the responsibility of writers and establishing harmonious relationship;3)a few Contraction resources are employed to narrow dialogic space andexclude different stances and opinions,making innovation point prominent and establishing the research field.Thirdly,many factors account for the utilization of Engagement resources,including the academic writing standard followed by writers,thinking patterns and culture background and so on.Based on the analysis of distribution features and semantic features of Engagement resource in introductions,this paper make distinctions for some vague resources,narrowing the study of Engagement resources.For another,the present paper explored the reasons for the differences utilization of Engagement resources in Chinese and English introductions,broadening the range of research on academic research discourse.It is hoped that the study will be helpful for the development of Engagement system and the improvement of consciousness in writing Chinese and English academic paper. |
PDF Full Text Request