A Contrastive Study On The Promotion Strategies In English Sci-tech Journal Papers From The Perspective Of Stance

Aiming to disseminate scientific and technological knowledge and showcase research results are an important part of promoting scientific development,a bridge for academic exchanges.Scholars explore research interests through exchanges,inspire innovative thinking,and stimulate innovative energy through an academic communication.In order to convince readers and academic societies to accept and recognize their research results,and to integrate into the corresponding academic community,scholars inevitably use some strategies or means to “promote” their research results,which is also the communicative purpose of academic discourse.In this study,we investigate the different academic promoting discourse strategies of Chinese and American scholars in scientific and technical journal papers from a stance perspective.This study used the lexico-grammatical analysis framework of stance proposed by Biber(2006),combined with Hyland's(2005)metadiscourse theory,two small self-built comparative corpora were constructed,aiming to address the following three questions:(1)Are there any differences in the use of modal verbs and stance adverbs between the Chinese and American scholars?(2)How is the use of different modal verbs,and stance adverbs related to promotion?(3)What is the difference between the promotion strategies of the two?The study found that Chinese scholars used significantly fewer modal verbs than American scholars,especially in the categories of necessity/obligation and prediction/volition.In terms of the total use of stance adverbials,Chinese scholars used more than American scholars,and there was significant difference in stance adverbials indicating certainty an attitude.Chinese scholars also differed significantly from American scholars in the use of stance adverbs.Chinese scholars used significantly fewer cognitive stance adverbs indicating likelihood than American scholars.This shows that Chinese scholars use fewer modal verbs and stance adverbs with likelihood meaning and more stance adverbials expressing certainty compared to American scholars.The fact that Chinese scholars use modal verbs and likelihood stance adverbs less frequently than American scholars indicate that they ignore the modal meaning and interpersonal function of modal verbs,as well as the fact that likelihood stance adverbs can make the tone more euphemistic,resulting in absolute language use and leaving no room for communication with readers.The use of more certainty stance adverbs and positive attitude adverbs than American scholars indicate that Chinese scholars use too many certainty stance adverbs to express their certainty about what they are stating.It tends to give people a sense of lack of objectivity.They also use positive attitude words to express confidence in their research results,so as to convince readers to approve and accept their research results and achieve self-promotion.American scholars,on the other hand,are good at using various types of modal verbs to maintain interpersonal interaction with readers,and flexibly use stance adverbs indicating certainty and possibility.It shows that their confidence in their research,is expressed euphemistically and politely,which can create a discourse space for communication and interaction with readers,and are less self-promoted.By comparing the differences in the use of modal verbs and stance adverbials(mostly stance adverbs)between Chinese scholars and American scholars,this paper aims to reveal their different promotion discourse strategies towards their research results and provide some suggestions for Chinese scholars in their future paper writing.It implies that it is important for them to correctly grasp the difference in the modal meaning of modal verbs and the interpersonal function they are intended to express.In the use of the adverb of stance,they should also know the “degree” of its use,in order to persuade readers to accept their research results,but also to make their study more objective,and to have good communication and interaction with the international academic discourse community,so as to achieve the purpose of paper publication,knowledge dissemination and identity construction.