A Contrastive Analysis Of The Evidential Markers In Chinese And Overseas English Sports Discourse From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Evidentiality is the expression of the source of information and speaker's commitment to the reliability of the information.As a linguistic phenomenon,evidentiality is pervasive in various discourses.Evidential markers/evidentials,as the representations of discourse evidentiality at the lexical and grammatical level,have been the focal point of evidentiality study.In the early 20~thh century,studies on evidential markers aroused the attention of many linguists both at home and abroad.They have focused on different aspects and ranges of evidential markers so far in both English and Chinese language.According to the researches,the recent studies on evidentiality are not all-inclusive and systematic,which has created room for further improvement in theoretical framework and types of discourse.In terms of theoretical framework,most of the previous studies are based on typology,cognitive pragmatics and systemic functional perspectives,etc.Analyses from Adaptation Theory are rare.In the types of discourse,most scholars have generally analyzed academic discourses,news reports,political discourses,etc.However,the analyses on sports discourse are far from enough.In recent years,researches on evidentiality in media discourses have become increasingly rich because it is one of the most significant characteristics in this kind of discourse,with the important pragmatic function representing the extent to which the writer intervenes in the information.In addition,most of the previous studies on evidential markers are comparisons between English and Chinese discourses,while the comparison only in the English language is rarely seen.Based on Verschueren's Adaptation Theory,this thesis collected 80 pieces of Chinese and overseas English sports texts from the mainstream English publications between the years of 2018 and 2019,and built two corpora of Chinese and overseas English sports texts.It adopted the quantitative and qualitative methods and compared the use of evidential markers in Chinese and overseas English sports texts in order to determine the frequency and distribution of the evidential markers in Chinese and overseas English sports texts,the similarities and differences of the adaptive use of the evidential markers in Chinese and overseas English sports texts,and the possible causes for the similarities and differences in the use of evidential markers.The findings of the analysis indicate that similarities and differences exist in evidential use in domestic and overseas English sports texts.For the similarities,both domestic and overseas writers use evidential markres widely,but the specific choices are different:the inferred and reported evidential markers are used most frequently,while the sensory and belief are the least.For the differences,domestic inferred tone is stronger than overseas inferred tone;domestic evidential markers are usually common expressions,while the evidential markers in the overseas English sports texts are rich in number and variety of forms.This thesis tentatively interprets the influence of discourse features,language abilities and ways of thinking,etc.on choice of evidential markers.The results of this study are favorable for further understanding of language use from the adaptation perspective.Meanwhile,it has also furthered the analysis of discourses in evidentiality realm.Hopefully,this will also pose some pedagogical implications for the teaching and learning of the English.