A Study On Metadiscourse In Dissertation Defense Disagreement From Metapragmatic Perspective

Metadiscourse is a self-reflective language expression with negotiated and interactive significance,which has widely been used in academic written discourse.However,there is few researches on the use of metadiscourse in academic spoken discourse,especially in academic defense disagreement.The purpose orientation of institutional discourse determines that the expression of academic disagreement not only achieves the institutional purpose of academic communication,but also manages interpersonal relationships and avoids damaging the face of the other party and causing interpersonal conflicts.Metadiscourse in academic disagreement is the speaker’s conscious reflection and choice of the forms of disagreement for the dual communicative purposes of institutional discourse,reflecting the speaker’s metapragmatic awareness.In view of the deficiencies of existing research,this study uses the Antconc 3.4.4software,adopts quantitative and qualitative research methods and takes metapragmatics as the theoretical perspective based on the Chen’s（2020）metadiscourse classification.It explores the metadiscourse and metapragmatic awareness when defense experts express disagreement during the question-and-answer session in dissertation defense from the MICASE（Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English）corpus.This study aims to answer the following two questions:（1）What are the representational forms and distribution characteristics of metadiscourse in dissertation defense disagreement?（2）What metapragmatic awareness is reflected in the metadiscourse in dissertation defense disagreement?The research results show that:（1）There are three main types of metadiscourse in dissertation defense disagreement,namely,metadiscourse about the speaker,metadiscourse about the listener and metadiscourse about discourse.These three types of metadiscourse are evenly distributed in each stage of disagreement discourse.Experts prefer to use metadiscourse about discourse to organize disagreement information,and the frequency of use of metadiscourse about the speaker and metadiscourse about the listener is almost the same.Metadiscourse forms in dissertation defense disagreement include adverbs,prepositional phrases,modal particles,clauses and so on,and defense experts usually use multiple metadiscourse to jointly control the expression of disagreement.（2）From the perspective of metapragmatics,metadiscourse embodies the defense experts’ metapragmatic awareness such as effectively managing and regulating disagreement information,inviting the respondent to interact,sharing knowledge with the respondent,and demonstrating the defense expert’s institutional responsibilities for expressing disagreement from three dimensions of the speaker,the listener and the discourse.It is intended to dynamically adjust the relationship between the expert and the respondent to ensure the smooth development of the defense.This study provides important implications for metadiscourse research and related academic discourse research: theoretically,this research expands the breadth and depth of metadiscourse and metapragmatic research,and enriches the understanding of disagreement speech acts.In practice,scholars who participate in highly interactive academic activities infer speakers’ communication intentions through metadiscourse,which can accurately capture the implication while ensuring the validity of information transmission so as to build academic alliances.