A Corpus-Based Comparative Study On Stance Verbs In Chinese And American MA Theses Of English Linguistics

Stance is the attitude and viewpoint of the researcher to his research.In recent years,stance expression has attracted more and more attention in academic works.Many scholars have found that researchers should not only report their own research objectively,but also use appropriate words to express their own views,attitudes and opinions,namely stance.At present,however,there are few researches from the aspect of verbs to study stance expressions.Therefore,based on the self-built corpora of master's theses of Chinese and American English linguistics majors(20 papers each),this study analyzes how Chinese English learners and English native learners use verbs to express their stance in academic writings.In this study,three aspects of stance verbs:the frequency distribution,colligation and collocation,tense and voice,which are rarely explored in previous studies,will be studied to compare the similarities and differences of the stance verb expressions in academic papers written by Chinese and American postgraduates majoring in English linguistics.The possible causes will also be analyzed.The main findings are as follows:(1)In terms of the overall frequency distribution of the stance verbs,there is a significant difference between the two corpora.Specifically speaking,there is a significant difference as for the frequency of modal and semi-modal,stance verbs,boosting stance verbs and hedging stance verbs,and only attitudinal stance verbs are used with no significant difference.(2)In the aspect of colligation,it is obvious that in the master's theses of Chinese postgraduates majoring in English linguistics,there is a coexisting condition of overusing,underusing and misusing.While in the master's theses of their American counterparts,the colligation patterns are more diversified.As for the collocations under certain colligations,there is also a significant difference between the two corpora.(3)With regard to tense and voice of the stance verbs,Chinese postgraduates of English linguistics seldom use distinct phrasal verb forms in different tenses and voices to express their stance,while American native learners can use them more flexibly.The results indicate that Chinese English learners still have some deficiencies in the use of verbs to express stance,mainly due to the influence of language transfer and non-English thinking mode.