A Comparative Study Of The Moves In Discussion Sections Of Research Articles By Chinese And English Scholars

The discussion section is one of the main parts of research article,while its writing is challengeable for Chinese scholars all the time.Recent years have witnessed researches on move analysis of discussion sections of research articles,and some fruits have been presented on some world-famous journals and monographs.However,there are some differences of the move structures of discussion sections of research articles among different disciplines.At present,the move model for the discussion sections of research articles has been proposed in Linguistic field,but there are few researches focusing on the move analysis of the discussion sections of research articles in Science and Engineering.Based on move model for discussion section in English research article proposed by Dudley-Evans(1994),employing corpus facilitated move analysis method,the author collects 200 discussion sections from optical English research articles in 6 English academic journals included in SCI at home and abroad and establish two corpora(RA1 and RA2).After the collecting of data,the author explores the differences of the move models in the discussion sections,verifies the applicability of Dudley-Evans'(1994)move model in optical field and conducts comparative analyses on the use of moves and linguistic features in the discussion sections of English research articles in optical field.Firstly,the results show that Dudley-Evans'(1994)move model conforms to the discussion sections of optical English research articles,but the framework of move cycles proposed by Dudley-Evans(1994)needs modification.Basically,discussion sections of English research articles in optical field at home and abroad contain nine moves.However,phenomena of missing and overuse of some moves appear in two corpora.The moves mainly omitted by Chinese scholars and English scholars include Move 4,Move 6,Move8 and Move 9,while the overused ones include Move 1,Move 2,Move 3,Move 5 and Move 7.Secondly,in RA1,the most-used move is Move 1(Background Information);while in RA2,the most-used one is Move 2(Statement of Result).Generally speaking,Chinese scholars usually start their discussion sections with the use of Move 1,while English scholars prefer to begin with Move 2 to present research results directly.Thirdly,there is no Obligatory move in the two corpora.In RA1,Conventional moves cover Move1,Move 3 and Move 7,and Optional moves include Move 2,Move 4,Move 5,Move 6,Move 8 and Move 9.While in RA2,Conventional moves cover Move 1,Move 2,Move 3,Move 5 and Move 7 and Optional moves include Move 4,Move 6,Move 8 and Move 9.Fourthly,the framework of move cycles proposed by Dudley-Evans(1994)is suited for discussion sections of optical English research articles,but some commonly-used move cycles like “Move 7+Move 9” and “Move 3+ Move 2” are not predicted.With regard to specific linguistic features of discussion sections of optical English research articles written by Chinese and English scholars,the differences and similaritiesare mainly presented as follows:(1)The simple present tense,the simple past tense and the present perfect tense are used the most frequently in two corpora,but English scholars utilize the simple present tense much more than Chinese scholars do.(2)Compared with Chinese scholars,English scholars use much more passive voice to guarantee the objectivity of research.(3)Chinese scholars use more modal verbs than English scholars do.Among these modal verbs,“can” is the most-used one,but Chinese scholars are prone to use modal verbs like “might” and “could”.(4)The use of the first-person pronouns are all in plural forms by Chinese and English scholars,especially “we” and “our” are used mostly.English scholars use more first-person pronouns than Chinese scholars do.(5)English scholars are inclined to use more It-extraposition constructions to realize pragmatic functions of evaluation and summarization.To sum up,there are differences in the use of moves and realization characteristics of moves between Chinese scholars and English scholars in writing the discussion sections of optical English research articles.The research results in the study provide some references and suggestions for Chinese scholars in the writing of discussion sections of optical English research articles.