whythisisimportantinacademicenglishandwhyitisimportant

1、The role of this in Academic and Research English The struggles of an EAP PractitionerJohn M Swales ()Some cohesive ties in EnglishI hate the rain. So do I/I do too/me also.I hate the rain, but I guess its necessaryI hate the rain; however, the farmers need itThe rain is heavy. This

2、 may cause floods.The rain is very heavy. This development surprised the meteorologists.Some Basic Frequency DataIn Hyland corpus of 240 research articles:This is the 15th most frequent word (these is 32nd)In the written BNC this falls to # 30In Hyland, #14 is by; #16 is onWhy is “this” so common in

3、 academic prose?The Longman Grammar: (Biber et al. 1999)“the high frequency of this/these both as determiners and pronouns in academic prose is due to their use in marking immediate text reference”Anna Mauranen (1993)“One rhetorical effect that this produces is an impression of closeness and solidar

4、ity between reader and writer. It has the effect of bringing the reader round to the writers orientation, or point of view, by implying that the writer as well as the reader are both “here”, on the same side, looking at things from the same perspective”A first complexity: this v. it1) The temperatur

5、e will fall below freezing tonight.1a) It will be as low as -5 C in some areas.1b) This may cause frost damage. Larger EntitiesThis article has argued that time-travel is feasible.This research tradition (as described in the first three chapters) has a long history.“text reference” (Halliday & Hasan

6、 1976); “situational reference” (Petch-Tyson, 2000)Hinkel (2004)“A singular demonstrative pronoun has a limited referential capacityand cannot be used to refer to entire contexts or implied referents”.For Hinkel, capturing multiple reference points requires a demonstrative determiner followed by an

7、appropriate noun. Her example:“Senator Smith called members of his party useless, and this gaffe is likely to lead to his resignation.”A Second ComplexitySo when to use a simple this and when to follow this immediately with a noun?A slew of terminology: “attended” this (Geisler et al. 1985); “suppor

8、ted” this (several authors); this + “associated nominal” (Huckin & Olsen, 1991); this + summary word (Swales & Feak, 1994).Little discussed in major GrammarsBut of course The Grammar Book:a) Strauss (1993) 40% in speech unattendedb) “demonstrative usage might be quite genre specific in written disco

9、urse” (p. 308) since use was constrained in book-notice genre, but not in essay genre (where stylistic and rhetorical effects could come into play).First DecisionsThe choice of “attended” and “unattended” thisRestriction to subject position, even though other options are, of course, possible:“Some a

10、uthors argue that people of similar background will share similar beliefs. Others, however, question this proposition.This alone, and the problem of ambiguity“Many phrasal verbs in English have both literal and idiomatic meanings, and are used in both general and specialized contexts. This causes pr

11、oblems for learners.What does? The problem of “broad reference” (Kolln 1999)Geisler et al: judicious economy v. potentially ponderous clarification.A third ComplexityRepetition of previous noun or something more?Each chapter ends with a summary of the main points.A) This summary is primarily designe

12、d to help students studying on their own.B) This strategy is primarily designed to help students studying on their own.The body of this talk1) My struggles with this topic, especially in terms of teaching materials2) Corpus linguistics; the data from Hyland3) Overzealous teaching and the case of Mei

13、lan Zhang4) Re-examination of Hinkels and Geislers usage distinctions5) General reflectionsWriting Scientific English (1971)In some parts of the world sulphur deposits lie too deep to be mined in the ordinary way. However, in about 1900 an American engineer called Herman Frasch developed a process f

14、or the extraction of this deep-lying sulphur. The Frasch process depends on the fact that the boiling point of sulphur is only a little above the boiling point of water. The process consists of three basic operations. First, large amounts of water are super-heated; in other words, the water is heate

15、d under pressure to above its normal boiling point. Secondly, this super-heated water is pumped down the well so that it melts the sulphur. Finally, this molten sulphur is pumped to the surface.Central positionVerb phrase carries the information:S1 Sulphur deposits lie too deepS3 Herman Frasch devel

16、oped a processS5 Large amounts of water are super-heatedS6 so that it melts the sulphurNon-central positionNoun phrase carries the information:S2 This deep-lying sulphurS4 The Frasch processS6 This super-heated waterS7 This molten sulphur(Notice also the use of this to refer back to something alread

17、y mentioned.)David Charles (Aston, c. 1981)The students said they wanted more tests. a) This surprised the instructor. b) This request surprised the instructor.c) This request for more tests surprised the instructor.The students said they wanted more tests. a) This statement surprised the instructor

18、.b) This demand surprised the instructor.c) This ultimatum surprised the instructor.d) This hope surprised the instructor.Swales & Feak (1994)Opening unit: “flow”, i.e. “moving from one statement in the text to the next” (p.21)1) sentence connectors; 2) This + summary word.on 2) short discussion + 3

19、 pages of exercisesChoose an appropriate summary word to fill the gap.5) Early in September each year, the population of Ann Arbor, Michigan, suddenly increases by about 20,000 as students arrive for the new academic year.This _ changes the character of the town in a number of ways.a) influx b) incr

20、ease c) invasion d) rise e) jumpSwales & Feak (2000)Discussion and exercises expanded to 6 pages, but no indication (after 30 years!) of situations where unattended “this” may be quite appropriate.c.f. Giesler et al. 1985:“Out of control, the unattended this points everywhere and nowhere; under cont

21、rol, it is the languages routine for creating a topic out of a central predication, pointing to it, bringing it into focus, and discussing it; all done in one stroke, gracefully, economically, and without names”. (p. 153)Meilan Zhang (2004) ELI 630: One of five investigations of her own corpus and t

22、hat of one in her field (Ed. Tech.)Her use of unattended this = 3% of the total (N =144)RA use of unattended this = 25% of the total (N = 202)Her typical summary words: group, unit, site, reviewRA typical summary words: methodology, approach, attribute, processCorpus Evidence (2005)a) 4 MICASE disse

23、rtation defenses:46% of this unattended (similar to Strauss)b) Fall 2005 620 class: one of their own papersabout 30% of this unattended.c) Hyland Corpus of 240 research articles + in house corpora of 50 dental and 50 medical research papers(Jennifer McCormick, my undergrad RA) Investigative question

24、sIn each sub-corpus:a) where did this occur in the frequency list?b) how frequent per 1000 words?c) How frequent in clause-initial position?d) of CI instances, percentage unattended?e) If attended, most common NPs? Word ranking and frequency per 1000 wordsFieldWord-rankingper1000Applied linguistics1

25、16.8Physics137.0Sociology146.3Elec. Engineering146.7Mech. Engineering155.7Marketing156.3Philosophy157.4Dentistry165.1Medicine174.9Cell Biology243.8Field% CIOf these % UNATT.DDentistry5925Medicine5126Cell Biology5031Applied Linguistics4333Elec. Engineering5334Mech. Engineering5645Marketing5438Sociolo

26、gy4638Physics5042Philosophy4356Most Frequent Nouns attending “this”Dentistrystudyfindingresult patient processElec. Engin.approach algorithm method paper techniquePhysicseffect approach behavior contribution figureSociologyarticle model paper process groupPhilosophyaccount article argument conclusio

27、n claim Some (rare) complex NPS with “this”(Dent.) This atypical behavior of poloxamer 407(Mech) This underflow withdrawal flux(Phil.) The problem with this austere version of Platonism.(Soc.) One path around this apparent theoretical impasse.Unattended this: Looking for explanations60 examples in t

28、he Physics sub-corpusA)One of the main restrictions limitingof the experiment is the rise-time of the field gradient pulse. This is typically several hundred millisecondsA)This limitation can be partly avoided byB)This reduction in the stored energyis therefore 31%.This is comparable with the reduct

29、ion found by others. C) the width of this peak will decrease as the numbers of oscillators and energy units increase. This is already apparent in comparing Figs. 1 and 3. These explanations account for about 2/3 of the cases. But:D) very high accuracy is required in evaluating the integrals in Eq. 3

30、3, if reliable numbers of the Langrage multipliers are to be obtained. This is especially true if, as in our case, a large number of target points are used.E) The third term of Eq. 21, i.e. Ahkl, is an inherent parameter and was first pointed out By Kasuya and leCraw 24. This is determined by the processesGeislers the central predication is “in focus”Corpus findings:Unattended “this” is more likely when followed by:a) a simple copula (“is”) or a simple modal (“may be”)b) Pre