Patterns and meanings of hedging verbs in English-medium research articles by Chinese and Western scholars
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Yuesen Yang
Abstract
The present research is a corpus-based contrastive analysis of patterns and meanings of hedging verbs in English-medium research articles written by Chinese and Western scholars. We use data from two self-built corpora, the Chinese Scholars Academic English Corpus (CSAEC) and the Western Scholars Academic English Corpus (WSAEC) for analysis. The results show that frequently occurring lexical sequences of hedging verbs have 36 hedging patterns of use, which perform five discourse acts in the academic texts under study, namely, interpreting data, formulating claims, validating models/theories, reasoning and reporting, and also realize four strategic meanings: the accurate representation strategy, consensus-seeking strategy, claim commitment strategy and reader- engaging strategy. Chinese and Western scholars tend to have different preferences for patterns to realize meanings/functions. The findings of this study have provided insights into the features and nature of hedging patterns in association with academic discourse acts and strategies. They are of potential value for improving academic writing pedagogy.
Abstract
The present research is a corpus-based contrastive analysis of patterns and meanings of hedging verbs in English-medium research articles written by Chinese and Western scholars. We use data from two self-built corpora, the Chinese Scholars Academic English Corpus (CSAEC) and the Western Scholars Academic English Corpus (WSAEC) for analysis. The results show that frequently occurring lexical sequences of hedging verbs have 36 hedging patterns of use, which perform five discourse acts in the academic texts under study, namely, interpreting data, formulating claims, validating models/theories, reasoning and reporting, and also realize four strategic meanings: the accurate representation strategy, consensus-seeking strategy, claim commitment strategy and reader- engaging strategy. Chinese and Western scholars tend to have different preferences for patterns to realize meanings/functions. The findings of this study have provided insights into the features and nature of hedging patterns in association with academic discourse acts and strategies. They are of potential value for improving academic writing pedagogy.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
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I Meaning in time and space
- Digital discourse and its discontents 9
- Text, intertext and meaning 37
- Hic sunt dracones 65
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II Variation in time
- Presenting knowledge of the world 89
- Interpreting the world of late modern English medical writing 113
- A corpus-based analysis of grammarians’ references in 19th-century British grammars 133
- Construing justice 173
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III Variation in space
- Variation in the complementiser choice between if and whether 203
- Using intensifier-adjective collocations to investigate mechanisms of change 231
- There’s different types 257
- Academic prose across countries 283
- A corpus-based study of metadiscoursal boosters in applied linguistics dissertations written in Thailand and in the United States 321
- Patterns and meanings of hedging verbs in English-medium research articles by Chinese and Western scholars 351
- The EMI campus as site and source for a multimodal corpus 377
- Index 403
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Introduction 1
-
I Meaning in time and space
- Digital discourse and its discontents 9
- Text, intertext and meaning 37
- Hic sunt dracones 65
-
II Variation in time
- Presenting knowledge of the world 89
- Interpreting the world of late modern English medical writing 113
- A corpus-based analysis of grammarians’ references in 19th-century British grammars 133
- Construing justice 173
-
III Variation in space
- Variation in the complementiser choice between if and whether 203
- Using intensifier-adjective collocations to investigate mechanisms of change 231
- There’s different types 257
- Academic prose across countries 283
- A corpus-based study of metadiscoursal boosters in applied linguistics dissertations written in Thailand and in the United States 321
- Patterns and meanings of hedging verbs in English-medium research articles by Chinese and Western scholars 351
- The EMI campus as site and source for a multimodal corpus 377
- Index 403
