| Journal research articles(RAs)are one of the main channels for human knowledge production and dissemination.The core value of RAs lies in the creation of new knowledge reported in the articles.On the whole,the more attention is placed on promoting strategies for new knowledge claims,the more likely it is to facilitate the understanding and reception of the articles by potential readers in the discourse community.Recent years have witnessed an increasing attention given to the study of RAs mainly in the field of applied linguistics within the theoretical framework of genre analysis.However,the selling or promotion process of new knowledge claims made in RAs is still under-researched,lacking in a mutli-perspective exploration in particular.Researches available in this area mainly focus on isolated parts of RA genre texts and touch upon promoting strategies in an indirect manner,for example,the use of meta-discourse and evaluative resources in RAs.Studies in this area at home are mostly repetitive following the trends prevalent in the West,and empirical analyses are scarce.These gaps in current research provide room for the present study,which has considerable significance in both theory-building and practical application in the field.For the purpose of the present dissertation,three specialized corpora for the study were constructed consisting of 250 data-based RAs with a macro-structure of IMRD(i.e.Introduction-Methodology-Results-Discussion structure generally recognized by academic circles).These RAs were selected from five international journals in the field of applied linguistics(2009-2013).Based upon the genre theory,both textual and social-critical perspectives are adopted to analyze the data with a broad question as to how an interactive space is constructed among authors,potential readers and RA genre texts to promote new knowledge claims made in the articles.Begun with a discussion of definitions of strategies for promotion,the dissertation chooses three aspects as a focus of study,which includes RA titles,the modal sequences and the co-citations in the introduction and discussion parts of the RAs.The three specific questions addressed in this study are:(1)What linguistic features,professionalism and discourse functions do article titles exhibit?(2)What linguistic features and discourse functions do modal sequences exhibit in the introduction and discussion parts of the RA genre texts?(3)What linguistic features and discourse functions do co-citations exhibit in the introduction and discussion parts of the RA genre texts?Drawing on methods and techniques from corpus linguistics,raw data were collected and cleaned for annotation with Wmatrix;the target data were then retrieved and checked with the help of AntConc3.3.5w,Python2.7.11 and manual work.Textual analyses are combined with social-critical discourse analyses in the study of the data.The main findings are listed as follows:1.Article titles,a carrier for explicit and implicit interaction between authors and readers,adhere to the principles of naming,i.e.conciseness of structure,appropriateness of expression and conspicuousness of topic.It is believed that new knowledge claims in titles per se can generally be perceived by readers but not fully expressed,because the main function of titles with limited words is to "lure" readers to read on to learn more about authors’ new knowledge claims.Details of the findings are listed as follows:(1)Linguistic features.By comparing with studies of the same kind,there exist intra-and inter-disciplinary differences in the length of titles,and the use of punctuation marks.The notable feature of economy and individuality shown in the data are mono and compound structures,among which noun groups are dominant,especially in uni-head noun groups.Other prominent features include a high frequency of prepositional phrases functioning as modifiers of noun phrases,a high frequency of gerunds,and the scarcity of "waste words".(2)Professionalism.By comparing with studies of the same kind,it is found that in terms of conceptual density and mixed genre phenomena,there are intra-and inter-disciplinary differences as well as a close relationship between mean conceptual density of article titles per journal and journal’s impact factor per year.The findings reflect authors’ efforts to promote new knowledge claims and their prediction of readers’ expectations and possible citation of RAs by other scholars.Mixed genre phenomena in compound constructions are low in frequency,and they fulfill the function of appealing to potential readers while showing flexibility in highlighting authors’ achievements.(3)Discourse functions.With the help of the 20 high-frequency word list,eight discourse functions of titles are identified,namely,the indications of research subject,scope,questions,perspectives,purposes,methodology,findings and duration of time.Besides the similarities and differences of discourse functions in mono and compound constructions,mono constructions contain much less information than compound ones in which the first part often focuses on research questions with the second part on research perspectives or methodology.2.Modal sequences,a carrier of semantic meaning of modal verbs,reflect authors’ efforts to keep a balance between authority and affinity with intertextuality and interdiscursivity.By doing so,authors attempt to construct an interactive space with potential readers and to express their attitudes to and confidence in their new knowledge claims.The favorite modal sequences in introduction and discussion parts of RAs are different in terms of distinctive functions of the two parts.The main and secondary meanings of modal verbs as well as the contextual constraints also account for the differences.The details of the findings are listed as follows:(1)Linguistic features.There is a marked difference in the distribution of modal verbs with a high frequency of the use of "can" and "may".The most frequently used modal verbs from high to low are verbs expressing epistemic,dynamic,evidential or deontic meanings.An analysis of modal sequences includes the study of main verbs,subjects and related modifiers,the result of which indicates that there exists significant differences in the subjects of sequences in terms of animate subjects,inanimate subjects,and subjects like it,this,as,V-ing,and who.The first two kinds of modal sequences reflect authors’ understanding of animacy with syntactic structures like "VM+do","VM+be done","VM+have done" and "VM+be adj.".(2)Semantic functions.In accordance with the classification of four semantic meanings of modal sequences,differences in frequency from top to bottom are:"VM+do","VM+be done","VM+have done","VM+be adj." and "VM+be n.".The complexity of modal sequences is affected by syntactic structures and the sematics of modifiers such as adverbials,conjunctions and insertions to such an extent that the meaning of the sequences might be intensified,weakened,or even changed in some contexts.3.Co-citations are the "go-between" for the marriage of new knowledge claims and other previous research findings recognized by the specific discourse community.To create an effective interactive space between authors and potential readers,the strategy of "different priorities in evaluating the same source" observed in the RAs not only reflects authors’ full awareness of previous research in the area and their confidence in their own achievements,but also support authors’ new knowledge claims expessed in the articles.The details of the findings are listed as follows:(1)Overview of co-citations.Although the number of co-citations is not significant compared to total citations,there exist big differences in the introduction and discussion parts.Most RA texts contain co-citations in these two parts but place emphasis on different aspects of citations.Taking potential readers’ cognition into consideration,authors attempt to use different strategies for evaluation and explanation aiming to facilitate readers’ understanding about the value of their own achievements.(2)Linguistic features.By contrast,non-integral and verb controlling integral citations occupy most in the introduction and discussion parts,whereas there are not many integral and naming integral citations in these two parts.In addition,the "past tense + active voice" in the"verb controlling integral" type and the "By agent" in the "naming integral" type rank first in those types respectively.(3)Discourse functions.The functions of co-citations are in line with general functions of citations,serving mainly as "supporting" and "testifying" devices.Nevertheless,to promote new knowledge claims,authors are inclined to make a distinction in the use of "cognition verbs","procedural verbs and finding verbs of real word/experimental verbs",and"informing/recording verbs of discourse verbs",as well as to apply more modal verbs like "can","may","might" and "should" in order to keep different relationships between co-citations and promotion purposes,semantics of modality,and different functions of introduction and discussion parts.With the central focus on RAs published in international scholarly journals as data,this dissertation attempts to explore the use of interactive promotion strategies for making new knowledge claims by RA authors.Textual and social-critical discourse analyses are carried out to examine the data.The originality of the work is reflected in the following four aspects:(1)In accordance with the purpose of exploring the interactive promotion strategies in RAs,this study combines titles,introduction and discussion parts of the articles to form data for the analysis.This is done to avoid fragmentary studies of discrete parts of RAs.(2)Emphasis is placed on the interactive nature of promotion strategies.Efforts are made to scrutinize the constructive process of communicative space between authors,potential readers and RAs.(3)A combined exploration of linguistic features and discourse functions in titles,modal sequences and co-citations of RAs contribute to a more valid analysis of strategies for promotion.(4)Python2.7.11 combined with other corpus linguistic tools is used to retrieve and process the target data,which is able to enhance the validity and reliability of the study as a whole.On the whole,in this research work,the distinctions in linguistic features and discourse functions are explored from a micro perspective,whereas the social-cultural factors affecting the use of promotion strategies are examined from a macro perspective.The combination of the two perspectives is more capable of throwing new light on the interactive nature of strategies for promoting new knowledge claims in journal research articles. |
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