A Multi-dimensional Analysis Of Register Features Of English Economics Journal Articles Written By Chinese And Western Scholars

Academic discourse is an important way for scholars to construct and spread scientific knowledge.In recent years,the multi-dimensional analysis method has been used to analyze a certain type of language resource or the disciplinary variation in academic discourse,but few studies have focused on the differences of the register features of journal articles written by Chinese and Western scholars,let alone the register features in terms of a specific discipline.Using the multi-dimensional analysis,this paper identifies the functional dimensions and investigates the register similarities and differences of the economics journal articles written by Chinese and Western scholars.The main research questions are as follows:(1)What are the functional register dimensions in economics journal articles written by Chinese and Western scholars?(2)What are the similarities and differences in the light of register dimensions and specific linguistic features between economics journal articles written by Chinese and Western scholars?(3)What factors result in the observed similarities and differences,if any? In order to address the above research questions,a total of 191 economics journal articles are selected and analyzed with the aid of the corpus tool MAT(Multi-dimensional Analysis Tagger)as well as statistical software SPSS.The results show that(1)Through factor analysis,five functional dimensions are quantitatively extracted and qualitatively interpreted as: Interpersonal interaction vs.information packaging;Procedural narration vs.description;Academic stance expression;Elaboration of information;Negotiation of opinion.(2)Chinese and Western scholars’ economics articles share some common features in register dimensions compared with general texts.Both of them are formal and information-intensive,non-narrative,elaborated in information integration,actively expressing academic stance and less negotiating opinion with readers.However,Chinese and Western scholars’ economics articles have significant differences in four functional dimensions: dimension 1,dimension 2,dimension 4 and dimension 5(p<0.05);Chinese scholars’ articles are weaker in interpersonal interaction and procedural narration,less elaborated in information expression and with a lower degree in negotiation of opinion than Western scholars’ articles.The register differences on interactiveness and narration are illustrated by the different frequency in the use of personal pronouns,nominalizations and the choice of past tense and present tense.Meanwhile,the differences on academic stance expression and negotiation of opinion are manifested in the different approaches of information integration including existential there,that relative clauses on subject position,hedges and contractions.(3)The generic features of journal articles and the epistemology of economics lead to the observed register similarities;the differences in the cultural dimensions,the literacy traditions rooted in the Chinese and Western sociocultural contexts as well as the language proficiency of Chinese and Western scholars contribute to the observed register differences.This study provides more objective and pertinent suggestions for Chinese scholars in the crafting of economics journal articles as well as some pedagogical implications for economics class and the development of discipline of economics.