摘要
Authorial stance has attracted increasing attention in the study of second language writing. Many studies have focused on certainty in students’ academic writing, but little attention has been paid to generality in students’ academic stance. Employing a corpus-based approach, this study investigates features of generality in Chinese EFL students’ stance in academic writing through comparison with the writing of international scholars. Results show that the Chinese EFL students employed significantly more generalization markers than international scholars in their academic writing, while the international scholars used more qualified generalizations. Moreover, clear differences in the focus of generalization markers and in the distribution of qualified generalizations were found, though the two groups exhibit similar tendencies in the functions of these generalization features. The findings suggest that Chinese EFL students tend to generalize their claims to a larger scope in order to make their academic writing more persuasive, leaving an impression of exaggeration and overstatement, whereas international scholars are more likely to restrict the use of generality markers in their academic writing, making more circumscribed claims. The results have practical and pedagogical implications for second language academic writing instruction.
作者立场方面的研究大多聚焦于学生学术写作的确定性特点,但鲜有研究关注学生学术立场中的概括性特征。本研究采用语料库研究方法,通过与国际学者对比,旨在探讨中国学生学术写作立场中的概括性特征。研究发现,中国学生在学术写作中使用的概括性标记显著多于国际学者,而国际学者明显使用了更多的限制性概括标记。此外,尽管对概括性特征的功能偏好相似,中国学生和国际学者在概括性标记的关注点和限制性概括标记的分布方面存在明显差异。研究结果表明:中国学生倾向于将主张概括至更大的范围以增强说服力,从而给人留下夸张的印象;而国际学者更倾向于限制学术写作的概括性,从而在学术立场方面建立起一种客观谨慎的形象。
基金
funded by the National Social Science Fund of China(No.19BYY229)
