Analysing Local Grammar Of Comparison And Contrast In English And Chinese Research Articles:A Contrastive Study

Comparison and contrast,a discourse act particularly prevalent in research articles(RAs),refers to the verbalisation of identifying similarities and differences,comparing empirical results with research hypotheses,and establishing causal links between variables in academic writing.Because the opinions and arguments put forward by writers are always based on previous research evidence,comparison and contrast has been customarily performed in identifying research gap,discussing research results and highlighting research value.Through comparison and contrast,writers can rhetorically manage the information flow and counter the alternative voices in academic writing,contributing to text organisation or dialogic contraction.Extant studies have accounted for comparison and contrast at the lexicogrammatical level.However,they have not adequately explored it at the discourse-semantic level.The study of discourse acts from the perspective of local grammar provides a new approach to exploring the form-meaning features of academic discourse.The current contrastive local grammar research on RAs has primarily concentrated on the discussion of similarities and differences in discourse act performance during different historical periods,among various English-writing groups or across different disciplines,while the cross-language comparison of discourse acts is rare.At the same time,the relevant research mainly covers exemplification,and there is a lack of particular exploration of comparison and contrast.Based on the previous discussions on discourse acts,the current study identifies a list of lexical markers of comparison and contrast,and creates a set of terminologies for local grammar analysis,attempting to do local grammar research on comparison and contrast in English and Chinese RAs in the field of linguistics.This study also explores the local grammar patterns of high frequency in English and Chinese RAs and analyses the features of local grammar patterns of comparison and contrast in English and Chinese RAs.To this end,this study is aimed at answering the following questions:(1)What are the frequency and distribution features of local grammar patterns of comparison and contrast in English RAs in the field of linguistics?(2)What are the frequency and distribution features of local grammar patterns of comparison and contrast in Chinese RAs in the field of linguistics?(3)What are the similarities/differences in the performance of comparison and contrast between English and Chinese RAs in the field of linguistics?This study involved the compilation of two corpora,each containing 200 RAs sampled from widely recognized English-and Chinese-medium journals in the field of linguistics.The corpora comprised over 2,000,000 words in total,extracted from the Web of Science and CNKI(China National Knowledge Infrastructure)databases.In Sketch Engine,lexical markers of comparison and contrast were retrieved,and the instances of comparison and contrast were extracted.Ten terminologies for local grammar analysis were created based on the careful observation of instances.From the four semantic categories of comparison and contrast(i.e.DIFFERENT,SAME,SIMILAR and NEUTRAL),this study made a local grammar analysis of comparison and contrast in English and Chinese RAs.Meanwhile,it compared the performance of comparison and contrast between English and Chinese RAs from three aspects: the distribution of local grammar patterns,the assignment of lexical markers and the linguistic realisations of terminologies for local grammar analysis.It has been conclusively demonstrated that there are both similarities and differences in the local grammar patterns,semantic preference of lexical markers,and linguistic realisations of terminologies that English and Chinese RAs employ to perform comparison and contrast.Significant findings are summarised as follows:In terms of the distribution of local grammar patterns,English and Chinese RAs share at least three local grammar patterns of comparison and contrast,i.e.“Indicator+ CO + CS + Result”,“CS + Indicator + CO” and “Comparer + Indicator + CS +Hinge + CO”.It is also found that it is more likely to achieve the correspondence of meaning and pattern between English and Chinese on the preposition markers or the more conventionalised markers,which is determined by the objective differences between English and Chinese.With respect to the assignment of lexical markers,the distribution ratio of lexical markers in English and Chinese RAs is close in DIFFERENT,SAME and SIMILAR,indicating that the choice of lexical markers in different semantic categories may not be greatly affected by the target language.At the same time,both English and Chinese RAs use more markers that signal the differences between comparison items than other semantic categories,indicating that RAs in linguistics may pay more attention to the discussion of the differences between comparison items.It is also found that lexical markers of comparison and contrast frequently appear in the results and discussion sections of English and Chinese RAs,indicating the convergence of research topics and writing paradigms of English and Chinese RAs in linguistics.In addition,unlike English RAs,Chinese RAs may be influenced by classical Chinese,which can potentially pose challenges for language learners in comprehending comparison and contrast.Concerning the linguistic realisations of terminologies for local grammar analysis,the Comparer is typically the writer who performs the act of comparison and contrast,while the writer is usually implicit in the context,suggesting that English and Chinese RAs should adhere to the traditional requirement of “writer’s absence” in academic writing.It is also found that the explicit Comparer in English and Chinese RAs can be realised in the first person,indicating writers’ desire to convey their voice more directly,establish their identity and promote their academic achievements.In addition,the linguistic realisations of comparison items in English and Chinese RAs can be categorised into four types: entity,event,cognition and discourse,implying that English and Chinese writers share a common understanding of comparison and contrast.To sum up,it is found that local grammar is effective in describing comparison and contrast,as well as achieving rhetorical persuasion.In addition,comparison and contrast is a valuable rhetorical device that can help to clarify the research topic,accredit knowledge from a previously established base using empirical methods,and construct an authorial stance through the interplay between academic discourse and context.The present study could have both theoretical and pedagogical implications for the EAP and CAP literature.Theoretically,it adds to a relatively new but useful research line by applying local grammar to a contrastive study of English and Chinese,in particular that it provides a reference for applying local grammar to Chinese.Practically,it has pedagogical implications for EAP,CAP teaching and learning,which could not only ensure writers’ effective knowledge creation and rhetorical persuasion to readers but also contribute to the compilation of academic writing textbooks.Further,it may provide insights for translation studies of English and Chinese academic discourse.