A Genre Analysis of English Economics Research Articles and the Use of Personal Pronouns

1、a genre analysis of english economics research articles and the use of personal pronouns 摘要本篇论文是对十篇金融学英文科技论文结论部分人称代词的使用情况及体裁分析的研究。本文主要研究该类论文结论部分的语步结构和不同语步中人称代词的不同作用。本文采用了ian a. williams的语步分析模式，根据该模式，筛选出的十篇金融学英文科技论文的结论部分都基本符合该理论，但并不完全满足williams提出的十七语步。我们还发现了另外三个语步模式：语步缺失、非常规语步插入和语步倒序结构。另外，不难发现，第一人称代词

2、的复数形式比其他人称代词的使用频率更高。对第一人称代词的复数形式的进一步研究表明，它们能够在金融学英文科技论文结论部分中包含各种语意所指和文体功能。我们还发现，筛选出的十篇金融学英文科技论文结论部分中几乎没有出现第二人称代词（“你”、“你的”）和第三人称代词（“他”、“她”、“他们”等）。总之：金融学英文科技论文的结论部分并未严格按照十七语步结构进行分析；人称代词的使用频度也有很大的不同。其中第一人称代词的使用比其它人称代词更为频繁，此外，它们还有句意指代功能。此论文是对前人相关研究的一个补充，对esp学习者来说也有一定的指导意义。关键词：体裁分析，语步结构，金融学论文结论部分，人称代词abs

3、tractthis paper reports a genre study of 10 english research article (ra) results sections and the use of personal pronouns in financial economics. the focus is the research of move structures of results sections of them and the variation of personal pronouns which appear in different moves of an re

4、sult section to perform different functions. the move identification of the present study followed the ian a. williams modified version of bretts (1994) model of communicative categories of results sections. according to the above theory, the ten selected results sections of english ras for financia

5、l economics cover these three categories, but do not follow his seventeen-move structure completely. besides the seventeen moves, we find three more move patterns: missing of move(s), insertion of unconventional moves and reoccurrence of move structure(s). in addition, it is not difficult to find th

6、at first-person plural pronouns are used far more frequently than other personal pronouns. after a further study of first-person plural pronouns, we learn that they could perform certain various semantic references and discourse functions in english ra results sections for financial economics. in th

7、e study of personal pronouns in ten selected results sections, it is also found that second-person form (you and your) and third-person form (he, she, them, etc.) barely occur in the english ra result sections for financial economics. in conclusion, results sections of english ras for financial econ

8、omics do not follow williams seventeen-move stucture thoroughly. and the frequency of personal pronouns use varies considerably. first-person plural pronouns are used far more frequently than other types of pronouns in the ten samples, and they could perform certain semantic references and discourse

9、 functions. this paper could be regarded as the supplement to the previous study, and it is meaning available for esp students.keywords: genre analysis, move structure, ra results sections, personal pronounscontentschapter one introduction11.1 objectives of the study11.2 significance of the study1ch

10、apter two literature review22.1 development of discourse analysis22.2 related studies22.2.1 move stuctures of results sections22.2.2 linguistic features of the english ra results sectionspersonal pronouns4chapter three methodology63.1 general principles and procedures of data collection63.1.1 the se

11、lection of english journals63.1.2 the selection of ra results sections63.2 move analysis7chapter four results and discussion94.1 move stucture94.2 linguistic features of the results sectionspersonal pronouns124.2.1 frequency of personal pronouns124.2.2 semantic references and discourse functions of

12、we, us and our13chapter five conclusion175.1 issues discussed in the thesis175.2 implications17references19appendix20chapter one introduction1.1 objectives of the studythe objectives of the present study are to analyse the move structures of the english ra results sections for financial economics. i

13、n addition, it studies linguistic features of them with the focus on the use of personal pronouns and how the frequency and variation of personal pronouns may appear in different moves of results sections to perform different functions. in particular, we examine possible semantic functions and refer

14、ences of personal pronounce in different contexts of a result section in relation to the discourse functions they perform. moreover, we also study move structures in different results sections.1.2 significance of the studythis paper presents an empirical study of move structures and personal pronoun

15、s in the genre study of english research article results sections for financial economics. since financial discipline is much less studied before, this study in this discipline is a supplement to previous genre-based research. furthermore, analyzing the english ra results sections for financial econ

16、omics is helpful to the teaching and learning of esp and eap. second language teachers and researchers can read, write and teach the results sections of english ras correctly and effciently with the help of this study. viewing written text as interaction, this study investigates move structures and

17、linguistic features of english ra results sections for financial economics and how the frequency and variation of personal pronouns may appear in different moves of a result section to perform different functions. this study provides a way of analyzing move structure and linguistic featurepersonal p

18、ronouns.chapter two literature review2.1 development of discourse analysis genre analysis is a type of discourse analysis, so if we want to know the situation of genre analysis, it is necessary to review the history and development of discourse analysis. in this respect, bhatia has a great achieveme

19、nt and contribution. through bhatias (1993: 3-5) study on history and development of applied discourse analyses in the last thirty years, he found that it had progressed through 4 levels of linguistic description. hallidays register analysis which focuses on the identification of statistically signi

20、ficant lexico-grammatical features of a linguistic variety is a surface level linguistics description. the second level is grammatical-rhetorical analysis which interprets the relationship between grammatical choice and rhetorical function in written english for science and technolog (est). the inte

21、ractional analysis is the third level which interprets discourse reader or listener. the fourth level is language description as explanation, i.e. genre analysis, which is the deepest description in applied discourse analysis in the past thirty years. 2.2 related studies 2.2.1 move stuctures of resu

22、lts sections in aspect of move structures, the study by brett (1994) represents a considerable and welcome step forward. in an analysis of 20 sociology ras, brett presented a “provisional, pedagogically usable description of the communicative categories” found in the results sections (brett, 1994).

23、the 16 categories (moves) identified fell into three broad classes: metatextual, presentation and comment. metatextual categories refer to offering figures and tables or describing how subsequent text is organised. presentation categories objectively report results. and comment categories subjective

24、 statements not directly suggested by the data. as in the dudley-evans (1988) study of discussion sections, bretts analysis revealed a cyclical pattern in which the statement of finding/result (sor) was the only obligatory category. the most usual pattern was one metatextual and two presentation cat

25、egories (the core). and the comment categories were usually located after the core. ian a. williams (1999) represent a modified version of the 16-move structures proposed by brett (1994) for the results section of ras. the analysis revealed that the statement of finding category represented 77% of s

26、entences and occurred in both cyclical and linear patterns. additional categories are suggested to cover layering (successive shifts of level) and conflicts between chronological and hierarchical order. these findings provide additional evidence of greater disciplinary variation in this section than

27、 in the introduction and discussion sections (ian williams, 1999). according to williams theory (1999), there are 17 move structures in a result section: metatetual categories0.1 pointer: indicates which data are to be discussed.0.2 structure of section: indicates the order and content of the text w

28、hich follows.presentational categories0.3 procedural: explains how and why data have been produced.1.1 statement of finding: (a) comparison(b) time-related change(c) relation between variables(d) numerical2.1 substantiation of finding(a) other finding(b) same topic2.2 non-validation of finding: addi

29、tional results that do not support, or contradict, the finding presented in category 1.1.comment categories3.0 explanation of finding: suggests reasons for the finding3.1 comparison of finding with literature(a) same(b) neither the same nor different(c) different3.2 evaluation of finding re hypothes

30、is(a) same(b) different3.3 implications of finding: author provides his/her ideas about the implications and present/future consequences of the finding.2.2 .2 linguistic features of the english ra results sectionspersonal pronounsthere is increasing interest in exploring interaction in discourse. so

31、me studies have exploited interaction in discourse of written text. for example, smith demonstrates the importance of global text function and audience level as contextual variables determining text structure. thompson & thetela (1995) point out how interaction in advertisements is managed to influe

32、nce readers behaviour. myers (1994) proposes a pragmatic view of interaction in scientific articles on the basis of the use of politeness strategies. brown & levinsons (1987) framework of politeness focuses on the dynamic readerwriter relationship.the use of personal pronouns is central to face-to-f

33、ace interaction. they usually define or reveal interpersonal relationships between or among the individuals involved in interaction. for example, rounds (1987) finds that teachers avoid third-person pronouns and they redefine first-person pronouns to include third-person and indefinite reference. in

34、sights from such communication pragmatics can be helpful in the analysis of written text. as hyland (1994:240) indicates, “rather than being factual and impersonal, effective academic writing actually depends on interactional elements which supplement propositional information in the text and alert

35、readers to the writers opinion.” we believe that the choice of a certain personal pronoun for a given context, or even the presence or non-presence of a personal pronoun in journal articles, and particularly in scientific journal articles, can often reveal how writers view themselves, their relation

36、ship with readers, and their relationship with the discourse community they belong to.this paper is concerned with the use of personal pronouns both quantitatively and qualitatively in english ras results sections for financial economics. in particular, we explore how the occurrences of various pers

37、onal pronouns reveal writers perceptions of their own role in research, of their relationship with expected readers. frequency analysis is to be conducted to provide quantitative data for the interpretation of the relative prominence of various personal pronouns in the articles. moreover, we examine

38、 possible semantic references and discourse functions of personal pronouns qualitatively in the different discourse contexts of a results section of financial economic journals in relation to the discourse functions they perform.chapter three methodology 3.1 general principles and procedures of data

39、 collectionsince sampling play a decisive role in research, we should collect data scientifically to avoid bias which might influence the results of analysis. the objective of the research is to conduct a genre study and the use of personal pronouns in english ra results sections for financial econo

40、mics, therefore, it is necessary to select the results sections which are representative and clear structurally from a variety of resources to ensure the reliability of the whole study.3.1.1 the selection of english journalsthe process of sampling in our study is complicated for numerous ras in engl

41、ish published in financial economics annually home and abroad. we adopt nwogus (1997) three principles for the selection of journalsrepresentatively, reputation, accessibility. following these principles, the english ras published in 2009 by elsevier science () were chosen. they are as follows: acco

42、unting and business research, global financial journal, international review of financial analysis, journal of banking and finance, journal of finance, journal of financial economics, journal of financial market, journal of financial research, journal of international money and finance, the review o

43、f financial studies.3.1.2 the selection of ra results sectionsin order to select up-to-date samples, the selection aimes at the journals published in the year 2008 and 2009 as the source of the results sections. firstlly, ten core publications are given in the website, and then we narrow down the se

44、lection by choosing ten research articles from each of the ten core publications by a stratified random sampling, in which way 100 corpus for analysis in all are selected. the next step is analyzing the structures of the results sections of these corpus roughly. since the objective of this study is

45、the genre analysis of a particular section, it is essential to choose the structurally clear results sections with result and discussion section separated in the typical imrd pattern. in this way, we find that there are ten ras which meet the requirement. so these ten results sections of english ras

46、 for financial economics become the final sources of our study.3.2 move analysisthis section presents the procedures and principles to analyze the generic structure of the results sections, which are largely based on the frameworks from ian a. williams (1999) modified version of bretts (1994) model

47、of communicative categories of results sections.in genre analysis on ras, a large number of linguists focuses their studies on the macro-structure of ras and structure of each section (swales, 1990; bhatia, 1993; brett, 1994; nwogu, 1997). and disciplinary variation of genres, as brett (1994) and sw

48、ales (1990) have pointed out, may be greater in results sections than in the introduction and discussion sections. brett (1994) proposed rhetorical categories (moves) for the results section of sociology articles. i.a. williams study arose from the application of a modified version of bretts rhetori

49、cal categories to biomedical articles for classroom analysis and discussion. he believes that the results sections within some other field appear to show greater variety than in bretts social science corpus. an analytical model must be sensitive enough to account for this variety, and simple enough

50、to be used by readers who are not applied linguists. in actual application of bretts rhetorical categories, williams have some problems. first, most substantiation of finding (2.1) statements have the same form as the sor (1.1) category and the dividing line between a substantiating result and an ad

51、ditional sor is unclear. a second related problem is that bretts model is not sensitive to changes in the level of overview within the paragraph or subsection. a third problem was the classification of hybrid statements. in view of these problems, a more comprehensive analysis is carried out on the

52、results sections of eight research reports by i.a. williams. according to williams (1999) modified version of bretts (1994) rhetorical categories of ras results sections, the most important modification is to extend the three subtypes of the 1.1 statement of finding/result (sor) by adding a fourth n

53、umerical subtype. this is necessary to account for statements expressing quantity but found not to fall into any of the three original categories of brett (1994). in addition, the procedural category hypothesis restated (0.4) and the comment categories further questions raised by finding (3.3) and s

54、ummarizing (3.5) should be eliminated. the move identification of the present study follows williams (1999) modified brett model.chapter four results and discussion4.1 move structureaccording to williams (1999) modified version of bretts rhetorical categories of ra results sections, as far as the te

55、n result sections are concerned, we find that all of the ten results sections cover the three main categories (metatextual categories, presentation categories and comment categories), but all of the ten results sections do not follow williams (1999) order thoroughly. this section will present the re

56、sult of our analysis. we examine the moves in all the samplings and put down the results in table 4.1. table 4.1move structures of ra results sections for financial economicsm 1m2m3m 4m5m6m 7m 8m9m10m 11m 12m 13m 14m 15m 16m 17f1f2f3f4f5f6f7f8f9f10 + : presence of the move: absence of the moveafter the analysis, we find that there are three more move patterns: missing of moves, insertion of unconventional moves, and reoccurrence of moves according to williams (1999) model. table 4.1 clearly shows that, among the ten results sections, ther