Analyzing The Evaluative Meaning Of Genitive Constructions In Academic Discourses

Citation,an indispensable feature of academic English writing,is often regarded as an indication of the degree of sophistication in academic writing.As such,strategies and techniques of appropriate citing – citations with proper linguistic and formal structures become important in any academic and research writings.However,previous studies paid much attention to the differences in the function and use of integral citations and non-integral citations(the integral citation is used as a way of highlighting the authority of the cited person),but studies on the subcategories of integral citation are less common(except for Swales 2014).This thesis focuses on one of the subcategories of integral citation: genitive citation(e.g.,Hyland’s study),attempting to explore its distribution and evaluative function in academic discourse.In traditional grammar,possessive constructions are composed by two nouns with the connection of ’s(i.e.,A’s B),representing a possession relationship between A and B.According to cognitive grammar,the possessor A(i.e.,the modifier in the possessive construction)functions as the reference point to facilitate the identification of the possessee B(i.e.,the head noun in the possessive construction).Taylor(1991)compared the differences of the usage of possessive genitives in spoken and written texts,but in his study,the written texts were the non-academic style and no attention had been paid to academic discourses.Following the “cue validity” property of possessor nominals in possessive constructions proposed in Taylor’s(1994b,p.225)study,the present study gives a cognitive semantic analysis of the possessee nominals in genitive constructions.Based on the specificity of their semantic feature,three types of possessee norminals are identified: 1)Research-as-a-whole possesseenominals;2)Ideological possessee nominals;and 3)Methodological possessee nominals.In order to verify the use of genitive citations in academic writing,experts’ and learners’ articles are investigated in the current study.A total of 82 texts from the applied linguistics are analyzed,including 41 research articles published in leading international journals written by experts and 41 term papers from MICUSP linguistics sub-corpus written by college students.It is shown that genitive citations are commonly used in both experts’ and students’ academic writings with the use of s-genitives significantly outnumbering that of the of-genitives.At the same time,differential preferences between experts’ and students’ writings in the selection and usage of possessee nominals are found,with experts preferring possessee nominals with specific meanings in contrast with students’ opting for words with less specificity,especially in the selection of the methodological possessee nominals.Demonstrating a similar trend,in terms of the evaluative function,the experts’ writings employment of the s-genitives is of much more sophisticated usage of engagement and attitude resources than that by student writers,though both groups use this structure in abundance.This study presents a comparative look at the formation of integral citations in academic writing by both experts in published journal articles and college students in their academic papers.Based on this investigation,a semantic classification framework of possessee nominals in s-genitives is established,which sheds light on and warrants further studies of this important feature in English academic writing.