A Comparative Study Of The Interpersonal Function Of English Thesis Abstracts Written By Native And Chinese Postgraduates

Using language to communicate is a kind of social activities, in which we use language not only to convey information, but also to interact with the other people, and to establish and maintain relations with them through lexical or/and syntactical choices. This function of language is the interpersonal function, which has become one of the most important topics in modern linguistics. The abstract is the essence of the thesis or paper and plays an increasingly important role in the academic community; scholars at home and abroad have studied different types of abstracts from different perspectives. However, little has been done on the interpersonal function of thesis abstracts. Therefore, the present thesis makes a comparative study of the thesis abstracts written by native and Chinese postgraduates.The present thesis will concentrate on the following four aspects. (1) the linguistic realizations of the interpersonal function in the English thesis abstracts; (2) the interpersonal similarities and differences of the English thesis abstracts written by native and non-native (Chinese) postgraduates; (3) the cultural factors that influence the expression of interpersonal function; (4) the characteristics of the interlanguage competence of Chinese postgraduates.The thesis makes a comparative study of the interpersonal function of the English thesis abstracts written by native and Chinese postgraduates of science. I have thirty English thesis abstracts from each group. The study of interpersonal function analyzes the four major exponents, namely, mood, modality, evaluation and person. Research findings reveal that the interpersonal realizations of the data are mainly through the above mentioned four elements, and the abstracts collected from the two groups share some similarities as well as some differences. In the mood system, both Chinese and native postgraduates tend to use declarative clause; there are some exceptions in the English thesis abstracts written by Chinese postgraduates. For the subjects concerned in the thesis abstracts, they are mainly the impersonal subjects related to the study or research, which exceed the personal pronoun by a big margin. Modality is mainly realized through the modal auxiliaries and metaphors of modality in the English thesis abstracts of both groups and modal auxiliaries with low values are preferred in both groups; it is also found that the Chinese postgraduates tend to use more median-value modal auxiliaries. In the evaluation system, students of both groups adopt valuation, entertain,endorse, counter and grading words frequently. In the person system, there exists great difference. The native postgraduates use I and We as the subject and tend to use I directly as the self-reference; the Chinese postgraduates use We far more frequently than the native postgraduates and they sometimes choose self-reference terms such as"the author","the researcher", or"the writer"rather than I.The study not only reveals the similarity and the difference of the interpersonal features between the two groups, but also analyzes the existing problems as well as the interlanguage competence of the Chinese postgraduates. The social and cultural factors are also explored in the thesis.The present thesis enriches the research domain of the interpersonal function and may offer some help in further understanding of Chinese and English culture and facilitate the teaching and translation of abstracts. Additionally, it may shed light on interlanguage study.