2008年10月16日 星期四

DBPIA - Mi-Lim Ryoo(류미림) 저, Metadiscourse in Computer-mediated Communication in a Culturally Diverse Group

DBPIA - Mi-Lim Ryoo(류미림) 저, Metadiscourse in Computer-mediated Communication in a Culturally Diverse Group: "The present study attempts to shed light on meta discourse (textual context) in computer-mediated communication (CMC). The purpose of the study is to explore how one constructs metadiscourse in CMC, what roles metadiscourse plays in a text, and whether people of different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds construct metadiscourse in CMC differently. In tackling these matters, the study analyzes the data from a Usenet discussion group in which the members of the group were ethnically diverse. The descriptive framework adopted for this study is Halliday's metafunction analysis of language in relation to metadiscourse. In order to observe participants' ethnic differences in formulating texts in CMC, a comparative analysis of each participant's messages is implemented with type/token ratios and the use of pronouns, modalities, frame markers, sentence length, and paralinguistic devices, namely metadiscourse markers. The findings include: NSs use more function words in a sentence than NNSs do; NSs employ modals more diversely and frequently than do NNSs; NSs construct the text to be more 'reader-friendly' and informal using alternatives like emotions, than do NNSs; finally, NSs' CMC discourse style is similar to spoken discourse rather than written, whereas NNSs' shows a typical written discourse."

SpringerLink - 期刊文章

SpringerLink - 期刊文章: "The recent trend in institutional communication research seems to foster the image of the University as a private organization significantly oriented towards a policy of customer satisfaction. Following the concept of organizational culture, institutional settings too are conceived as organizational contexts, where discourse is a privileged vehicle to convey and spread values, traditions and artifacts, both through internal and external communication practices. Thus, within academic discourse organizational culture is shaped and perpetuated by specific devices of rhetorical argumentation. The corpus of data consists of two different examples of academic discourse: the self promotional endorsement letters of the academic candidates to the chancellor’s position on occasion of the elections and the inaugural speeches proclaimed by the chancellors in charge during the opening celebration of the academic year. The first kind of academic discourse could be meant as an example of political discourse since the candidates use communication strategically and manipulate their academic membership as a rhetorical device to support their aims. On the other hand, the second example is a mere celebration of academic culture which through linguistic rituals recalls and perpetuates the basic values of this microcosm. The data have been analysed with the critical discourse analysis and diatextual analysis which pay particular attention to the context of speech. Moreover, attention has been focused on the metaphors and on the meta-discursive cues. The results show that although with different purposes academic discourse use similar discursive and rhetorical strategies as both belong to the same organization."

ScienceDirect - English for Specific Purposes : The use of higher level metatext in Ph.D theses

ScienceDirect - English for Specific Purposes : The use of higher level metatext in Ph.D theses: "This article investigates the way in which 13 Hong Kong research students use metatext to orient and guide their readers through their Ph.D theses. It uses a corpus of over 3000 pages and 0.6 million words. It proposes that the level of metatextual references can be determined by their scope (i.e. the amount of text referred to) and by the distance over which they operate. It argues that higher level metatextual references (i.e. referring to larger amounts of text or operating over greater distances) play a more powerful role in text cohesion and coherence than lower level ones (i.e. referring to smaller amounts of text or operating over shorter distances), especially in long texts.
The article reports on the extent to which the 13 Ph.D writers use higher level metatext, at chapter or thesis levels, keeping the reader in touch with how the current subject matter relates to the text as a whole. It finds that there is considerable variation in the proportion of each thesis that is taken up with chapter and thesis level metatext, ranging from 2–16.5%, and some inconsistency in the way student writers use it, particularly at chapter level."

ScienceDirect - Journal of Pragmatics : Persuasion and advertising English: Metadiscourse in slogans and headlines*1

ScienceDirect - Journal of Pragmatics : Persuasion and advertising English: Metadiscourse in slogans and headlines*1: "Metadiscourse plays a vital role both in organising the discourse and in engaging the audience, thus becoming an important aspect of persuasive writing. Assuming that metadiscourse is context-dependent and that it is linked to the norms and expectations of a particular setting and genre, this article studies the metadiscourse devices typically used by copywriters to construct their slogans and/or headlines. Our analysis starts from the assumption that advertising English should be represented as a continuum of text functions fluctuating between ‘informing’ and ‘manipulating’ in accordance with the idea that advertising is an example of covert communication. Examples selected from a typical women's magazine show that both textual and interpersonal metadiscourse help copywriters to convey a persuasive message under an informative mask."

ScienceDirect - Journal of Pragmatics : Persuasion and context: The pragmatics of academic metadiscourse

ScienceDirect - Journal of Pragmatics : Persuasion and context: The pragmatics of academic metadiscourse: "Metadiscourse refers to aspects of a text which explicitly organise the discourse, engage the audience and signal the writer's attitude. Its use by writers to guide readers and display an appropriate professional persona is an important aspect of persuasive writing. Its role in establishing and maintaining contact between the writer and the reader and between the writer and the message also makes it a central pragmatic concept. Based on a textual analysis of 28 research articles in four academic disciplines, this paper seeks to show how the appropriate use of metadiscourse crucially depends on rhetorical context. The study identifies a taxonomy of metadiscourse functions and suggests that metadiscourse reflects one way in which context and linguistic meaning are integrated to allow readers to derive intended interpretations. It is argued that metadiscourse provides writers with a means of constructing appropriate contexts and alluding to shared disciplinary assumptions. The study of academic metadiscourse can therefore offer insights into our understanding of this concept and illuminate an important dimension of rhetorical variation among disciplinary communities."

Reading in a Foreign Language: Metadiscourse and ESP reading comprehension: An exploratory study

Reading in a Foreign Language: Metadiscourse and ESP reading comprehension: An exploratory study

Recent trends in the study of written texts reflect a growing interest in interaction between readers and writers. Several studies have focused on metadiscourse as an important interactive feature that is believed to facilitate the reading process. While several authors have studied metadiscourse from the descriptive and contrastive perspectives, there is a lack of experimental work on this topic. This paper describes exploratory classroom research with a group of Italian university students to gain further insight into the effect of metadiscourse on ESP reading comprehension. Two groups of students read selected extracts from two versions of the same text differing according to quantity and type of metadiscourse. Each group then took a reading comprehension test and their mean scores were compared. The findings suggest that a more pronounced use of metadiscourse may be associated with improved comprehension in some cases. A post-reading questionnaire showed that students had substantially no awareness of metadiscourse. The results provide useful indications for further research and also highlight the need for targeted instruction on metadiscourse in ESP reading courses.

DBPIA - Mi-Lim Ryoo(류미림) 저, Metadiscourse in Computer-mediated Communication in a Culturally Diverse Group

DBPIA - Mi-Lim Ryoo(류미림) 저, Metadiscourse in Computer-mediated Communication in a Culturally Diverse Group

The present study attempts to shed light on meta discourse (textual context) in computer-mediated communication (CMC). The purpose of the study is to explore how one constructs metadiscourse in CMC, what roles metadiscourse plays in a text, and whether people of different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds construct metadiscourse in CMC differently. In tackling these matters, the study analyzes the data from a Usenet discussion group in which the members of the group were ethnically diverse. The descriptive framework adopted for this study is Halliday's metafunction analysis of language in relation to metadiscourse. In order to observe participants' ethnic differences in formulating texts in CMC, a comparative analysis of each participant's messages is implemented with type/token ratios and the use of pronouns, modalities, frame markers, sentence length, and paralinguistic devices, namely metadiscourse markers. The findings include: NSs use more function words in a sentence than NNSs do; NSs employ modals more diversely and frequently than do NNSs; NSs construct the text to be more "reader-friendly" and informal using alternatives like emotions, than do NNSs; finally, NSs' CMC discourse style is similar to spoken discourse rather than written, whereas NNSs' shows a typical written discourse.

2008年10月6日 星期一

JSTOR: Sociology of EducationVol. 76, No. 3 (Jul., 2003), pp. 193-208

JSTOR: Sociology of EducationVol. 76, No. 3 (Jul., 2003), pp. 193-208

Children's Word Play: Resisting and accommodating Confucian values in a Taiwanese kindergarten classroom

ScienceDirect - English for Specific Purposes : Discourse strategies of Italian and English sales promotion letters

ScienceDirect - English for Specific Purposes : Discourse strategies of Italian and English sales promotion letters

This article describes a contrastive study on rhetorical differences between Italian and English sales promotion letters. It is assumed that cultural differences affect discourse genres traditionally considered as standardized, ritual or even formulaic, written business communication being a case in point. It was our goal to investigate how information is presented and what rhetorical strategies are used in order to obtain compliance by a given readership in a given culture. To answer these questions of an essentially pragmatic and ethnolinguistic nature, research focused on analyzing contrastively a corpus of authentic Italian and English business letters. Of course, within the genre ‘business letter’ it is possible to distinguish sub-genres or repertoires (chasing money, requesting, offering, sales promotion, etc.). The letters in the corpus were classified according to these repertoires, defined on the basis of their prototypical discourse features as well as the specific social action within the business organization that they were meant to perform. Once classified, they were analysed according to two criteria. At the macro-textual level the analysis focused on rhetorical structure, mainly drawing on the notion of move. At the micro textual level the analysis concentrated on the pragmatic use of mood, modality, reference system and metadiscourse. This paper, in reporting the findings of the research project, will focus on the cultural preferences that Italian and English writers show—both at the macro- and micro-textual level—when engaged in sales promotion letter writing. It will be shown that there are differences in the ways in which discourse patterns are organized as well as in the use of mood and modality for the expression of politeness.

ScienceDirect - English for Specific Purposes : Discourse strategies of Italian and English sales promotion letters

ScienceDirect - English for Specific Purposes : Discourse strategies of Italian and English sales promotion letters

This article describes a contrastive study on rhetorical differences between Italian and English sales promotion letters. It is assumed that cultural differences affect discourse genres traditionally considered as standardized, ritual or even formulaic, written business communication being a case in point. It was our goal to investigate how information is presented and what rhetorical strategies are used in order to obtain compliance by a given readership in a given culture. To answer these questions of an essentially pragmatic and ethnolinguistic nature, research focused on analyzing contrastively a corpus of authentic Italian and English business letters. Of course, within the genre ‘business letter’ it is possible to distinguish sub-genres or repertoires (chasing money, requesting, offering, sales promotion, etc.). The letters in the corpus were classified according to these repertoires, defined on the basis of their prototypical discourse features as well as the specific social action within the business organization that they were meant to perform. Once classified, they were analysed according to two criteria. At the macro-textual level the analysis focused on rhetorical structure, mainly drawing on the notion of move. At the micro textual level the analysis concentrated on the pragmatic use of mood, modality, reference system and metadiscourse. This paper, in reporting the findings of the research project, will focus on the cultural preferences that Italian and English writers show—both at the macro- and micro-textual level—when engaged in sales promotion letter writing. It will be shown that there are differences in the ways in which discourse patterns are organized as well as in the use of mood and modality for the expression of politeness.

Writing Without Conviction? Hedging in Science Research Articles -- HYLAND 17 (4): 433 -- Applied Linguistics

Writing Without Conviction? Hedging in Science Research Articles -- HYLAND 17 (4): 433 -- Applied Linguistics

Writing Without Conviction? Hedging in Science Research Articles KEN HYLAND

English Department, City University of Hong Kong

Hedging is a well-documented feature of spoken discourse as a result of its role in qualifying categorical commitment and facilitating discussion Its use in academic writing has received less attention, however, and we know little about the functions it serves in different research fields and particular genres Hedging is a significant communicative resource for academics since it both confirms the individual's professional persona and represents a critical element in the rhetorical means of gaining acceptance of claims Hedges allow writers to anticipate possible opposition to claims by expressing statements with precision, caution, and diplomatic deference to the views of colleagues Based on a contextual analysis of 26 articles in molecular biology, this paper argues that hedging in scientific research writing cannot be fully understood in isolation from social and institutional contexts and suggests a pragmatic framework which reflects this interpretive environment

ScienceDirect - Journal of Pragmatics : Indirectness in L1 and L2 academic writing

ScienceDirect - Journal of Pragmatics : Indirectness in L1 and L2 academic writing:
"Abstract
Indirectness strategies and markers have been identified in written discourse in many languages, including English. However, in Anglo-American academic writing, explicit points and direct support are expected. In the view of specialists and ESL instructors alike, indirectness seems to characterize the writing of students raised in Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist societies. The reasons that non-native speaker (NNS) second language writing appears vague and indirect may lie in the specific and contextual uses of indirectness devices in English writing rather than in the fact that they are used. This study, based on corpus analysis, compares specific indirectness devices employed in native speaker (NS) and NNS student essays and focuses on NS and NNS uses of twenty-one rhetorical, lexical, referential (deictic), and syntactic indirectness devices. The results of the study indicate that speakers of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Indonesian utilized rhetorical questions and tags, disclaimers and denials, vagueness and ambiguity, repetition, several types of hedges, ambiguous pronouns, and the passive voice in greater frequencies than NSs did. However, NSs and NNSs did not differ significantly in their use of other types of indirectness devices and markers, such as point of view distancing, downtoners, diminutives, discourse particles, and understatements, as well as nominalization and conditional tenses."

Interpersonal metadiscourse: an indicator of interaction and identity -- Abdi 4 (2): 139 -- Discourse Studies

By using genre analysis, this study investigates the way writers use interpersonal metadiscourse to partly reveal their identity and examines their selected mode of interaction in two major academic fields: the social sciences (SS) and natural sciences (NS). A total of 55 academic research articles from the SS and NS were selected as the corpus of this study. A comparison of the two disciplines was made, based on the use of interpersonal metadiscourse through 'hedges', 'emphatics' and 'attitude markers'. The analysis showed that the SS writers employed interpersonal metadiscourse more frequently than the NS writers. One-to-one comparison further showed that they varied significantly in their use of hedges and attitude markers but there was little difference in their use of emphatics. However, the use of hedges and emphatics was significantly different within each discipline. A qualitative in-depth analysis revealed that the choice of validity markers was closely related to the type of article being studied.

Interpersonal metadiscourse: an indicator of interaction and identity -- Abdi 4 (2): 139 -- Discourse Studies

The Role of Different Markers of Linguistic Powerlessness in Persuasion -- Blankenship and Holtgraves 24 (1): 3 -- Journal of Language and Social Psychology

This research examined the unique effects of different markers of linguistic powerlessness (hedges, hesitations, and tag questions) on persuasion. Participants read (Experiment 1) or listened to (Experiment 2) a communication advocating comprehensive exams. Under high message relevance, messages containing powerless markers resulted in less favorable attitudes and more negative perceptions of the message and source than did the control message. This effect occurred in both experiments and was a result of these markers lessening the impact of strong arguments; in Experiment 2, strong arguments were no more persuasive than weak arguments when the message contained any of these markers. Under low message relevance, tag questions improved the persuasiveness of message arguments relative to the control condition. These results demonstrate that the effects of linguistic markers of powerlessness are complex and depend on marker type and processing depth.

The Role of Different Markers of Linguistic Powerlessness in Persuasion -- Blankenship and Holtgraves 24 (1): 3 -- Journal of Language and Social Psychology

The Effects of Hedges in Persuasive Arguments: A Nuanced Analysis of Language -- Durik et al. 27 (3): 217 -- Journal of Language and Social Psychology

Drawing together research on persuasion and text comprehension, two experiments test the effects of hedge placement (Experiment 1) and hedge type (Experiment 2) on attitudes, source evaluations, and perceptions of argument strength. Participants read an editorial in support of implementing comprehensive exams at their university. Experiment 1 shows that hedges placed on data statements (and not interpretation statements) lead to negative perceptions of the policy, source, and argument. This is especially pronounced on source evaluations among individuals with more scientific training. Experiment 2 reveals that colloquial, but not professional, hedges placed on interpretation statements lead to more negative evaluations relative to no hedges. Data related to perceptions of the source are moderated by individual differences in scientific reasoning. This research suggests that hedges describing data statements and/or that use colloquial language can, but do not always, undermine persuasive attempts.

The Effects of Hedges in Persuasive Arguments: A Nuanced Analysis of Language -- Durik et al. 27 (3): 217 -- Journal of Language and Social Psychology

ScienceDirect - Journal of Pragmatics : The pragmatic role of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse markers in the construction and attainment of persuasion: A cross-linguistic study of newspaper discourse

Abstract
This paper seeks to explore the role that metadiscourse markers play in the construction and attainment of persuasion. In a cross-linguistic perspective, two elite newspapers, the British The Times and the Spanish El País have been chosen, both because of their status and because of the political and rhetorical influence they exert in their respective national cultures. Based on the analysis of the textual and interpersonal markers found in a corpus of 40 opinion columns, 20 written in English and 20 in Spanish, this study aims to identify which metadiscourse categories predominate in this type of newspaper discourse and how they are distributed according to cross-cultural or cross-linguistic preferences. In addition, using a group of informants, this research has attempted to discover how metadiscourse operates as a persuasive mechanism in texts.
Findings suggest that both textual and interpersonal metadiscourse markers are present in English and Spanish newspaper columns, but that there are variations as to the distribution and composition of such markers, specifically in the case of certain textual categories (i.e. logical markers and code glosses). Regarding the persuasive effect of metadiscourse, informants were in agreement that a balanced number of both textual and interpersonal markers was necessary to render the text persuasive and reader-oriented.

ScienceDirect - Journal of Pragmatics : The pragmatic role of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse markers in the construction and attainment of persuasion: A cross-linguistic study of newspaper discourse