A Contrastive Analysis Of Metadiscourse In English And Chinese News Reports Of G20 (Hangzhou Summit)

Metadiscourse plays a significant role in organizing and producing persuasive writing texts.Metadiscourse used in the writing and speaking indicates that it is not merely the communication of ideas and the expression of ideational function,but also is identified as a social behavior of the interaction between the author and the reader,the speaker and the listener.Therefore,metadiscourse is a language feature of communication.Since in the process of communicating and writing,for the purpose of writing and communicating availably and efficaciously,we need to assess the reader's and listener's understanding of the text and the response they may give.On the basis of Hyland's theory and classification of metadiscourse,this study was conducted to compare and contrast the metadiscourse markers in the two self-made corpora,the aim is to investigate whether these markers function identically in the two different languages within the same genre,and also to find out if there are any significant differences between the two languages news texts in terms of the number and types of metadiscourse markers.The findings show that both similarities and differences are existed in the employment of metadiscourse devices in the two corpora.The similarities are,both corpora use the larger number of interactive devices than interactional devices.Transitions markers and evidentials markers are heavy used by the two groups of writers similarly.Rather,the self-mentions markers and the engagements markers are least used.As for the differences,metadiscourse markers in English news writers are more used than Chinese in terms of quantity,and the two groups ranked differently in terms of the sub-categories and the frequency of metadiscourse devices.The possible reasons that cause the similarities and differences can be attributed to the genre and cultural differences.This thesis puts forward some improvement suggestions in view of the findings above,such as improving the awareness of using metadiscourse markers and avoiding the absence of metadiscourse markers during producing the news writing.In this way,the readers can understand the writer's stance and opinions.For the metadiscourse markers make the reader believe that the writer's views are reasonable and persuasive,which can satisfy the reader's expectations and thereby create an effective and stable interaction with the reader.