A Contrastive Study On Signaling Nouns In International And Chinese English Journal Papers In Linguistics

The present study focuses on one specific type of abstract nouns"signaling nouns"such as idea, assumption, case, result, and belief etc. These nouns frequently occur in professional and academic discourse, because they possess the ability to discourse construction and management. Since 1970s, studies on signaling nouns emerge endlessly, but most of these studies are concerned with constructing the theory of definition, functions, and patterns of signaling nouns. Less focuses on contrastive studies of signaling nouns let alone those corpus-based researches.In current research, the author attaches more attention on that what are there differences of signaling nouns in terms of frequency, pattern and function between international English journal papers and Chinese English journal papers. On the basis of a combination of studies abroad and at home, the present author chooses a model of classification of patterns and functions about signaling nouns introduced by Flowerdew. Thirty-seven articles (international English: 23 articles; Chinese English: 14 articles) are respectively selected from two English linguistics journal papers, that is, English Language Teaching and Teaching English in china-CELEA journal. Two small corpuses are constructed with the overall 209,859 words. At the start, all these articles are transferred from PDF form into WORD form and marked out all the phenomena about signaling nouns. After that, the statistical data include frequency, function, and pattern of signaling nouns are worked out. By means of a quantitative analysis approach, the author makes attempt to explore the overall situation in respect of frequency, function, pattern of signaling noun in both two corpuses. The purpose of the present study is to conduct a discussion about different usage of signaling nouns by way of a quantitative analysis approach.The findings of this study indicate that there are some differences in international English journal papers and Chinese English journal papers. The results of quantitative analysis show 1) In terms of the numbers of words, international English writers enjoy more signaling nouns than that of Chinese English writers, and there is a significant difference between them. 2) In the case of various types of signaling nouns, international English writers are prone to use more types than that of their peers, but the number of a given types'uses are less than that of Chinese writers'uses. 3) In terms of patterns of signaling nouns, all the types of patterns have been found out in each corpus, just different occurrences only. Chinese English Writers prefer expressions that approximate to their mother language, Chinese. 4) In respect of functions of signaling nouns, international English writers use more across clause function than that of Chinese English writers, (anaphoric 50% higher, cataphoric 30% higher) and there is a significant difference between two corpuses. However, with regard to in clause function, international English writers use this function a slightly higher than that of Chinese writers, but there is no significant difference between the two corpuses. All abovementioned findings show that Chinese English writers behind international English writers in respect of the ability to select proper signaling nouns and express various forms of signaling nouns.To this end, this research that not only could provide a good suggestion for Chinese English writers to select and express signaling nouns rightly when writing their English journal papers but also could give guidance for the teaching of Chinese English writing especially for journal papers, which is of great importance for academic English writing.