A Corpus-based Contrastive Study On Modal Verbs In English Academic Papers Written By Chinese And Native English Scholars

The academic paper is the main channel of human knowledge production and dissemination,the core value of which lies in the promotion of the research findings and new knowledge claims.The modality strategies adopted in the academic promotion will facilitate the understanding and reception of the articles by the fellow scholars as well as the potential readers.As the important expression of modality and the main carrier of modal meanings,the modal verb is an important resource for writers to present research results,to express doubts and certainty,to carry through deduction and judgement,and to construct interpersonal meanings in academic papers.Meanwhile,the modal verb is the entry point for readers to infer and to judge the author’s opinion,attitude and stance.Recent years have witnessed abundant achievements in the study of modal verbs at home and abroad.However,the researches mainly focus on the modal verbs in the area of the general English or the daily used expressions,thus the examination of them in some specific fields and specialized genres is under-researched.Besides,most present studies keep an eye on the modal verbs in the abstract or certain part of the academic articles,and the researches observing the use of modal verbs in entire article are scarce.What’s more,most studies in China repetitively follow the trends prevalent in the West,lacking empirical analyses.The gaps in current studies offer the room for the present research,which will have significance in both theory-building and practical application in the related field.The present research adopts a contrast analysis on the basis of corpus to observe the using features of nine central modal verbs in the English experimental papers,aiming to answer the following questions:(1)What are the features in the employment of modal verbs between the Chinese scholars and native English scholars in the English experimental papers on oil and gas?(2)What are the features in the choice of modal values for the two academic groups in the English experimental papers on oil and gas?(3)What are the features in the application of modal sequences by the two academic communities in the English experimental papers on oil and gas?Data resources of this research are collected from four influential SCI journals:Journal of Natural Gas and Engineering,Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering,Petroleum Exploration and Development,Fuel.The self-built corpus of English Papers on Oil and Gas Corpus(hereafter EPOG in short)includes 300 English experimental papers published from 2016 to 2017.Among them 150 are randomly selected from the papers by Chinese scholars,the other 150 from those by the native English scholars.According to the data on nine central modal verbs retrieved from the corpus with the aid of Antconc3.2.0w,this thesis carries out a preliminary investigation into modal verbs,modal values and modal sequences in the academic discourses so as to find out the features of modal verbs by the Chinese scholars and the native English scholars.The research finds that:As to the distribution of modal verbs,Chinese scholars and native English scholars have a high use of modal verbs in frequency and a wide choice of modal verbs in range.Then they have roughly the same tendency in the use of high-frequency and low-frequency modal verbs.However,there still exist some differences in the use of modal verbs between the two academic groups.Generally,the native English scholars have a higher usage frequency and wider choice of modal verbs than the Chinese scholars,and there exist significant differences in the use of some individual modal verbs between the two academic groups.From the aspect of modal values,the two academic groups tend to choose the median and low value modal verbs,especially the modals attached to low values.However,compared with the native English scholars,the Chinese scholars have the tendency of overusing low value modal verbs,and underusing median and high value modal verbs.With regard to modal sequences,the two academic groups have a various choice of modal sequences,and the modal sequences have different matching rates with the modal verbs.There is similar tendency in the choice of some modal sequences for the two groups,but the Chinese scholars still have an overuse or underuse of some modal sequences.This research conducts a corpus-based contrastive study on the modal verbs in academic papers from a multidimensional perspective,which is of significance for Chinese scholars to write experimental papers.Thereupon,their academic claims can be easily accepted by other scholars in the international academic exchanges.