In this study, we identify the systematic language varieties and discourse characteristics that are indicative of the academic writings of Chinese and American scientists. We conduct a Contrastive Corpus Analysis using the computational tool, the Gramulator, to identify indicative features in Chinese science journal abstracts as compared to American science abstracts. The results suggest that the Chinese scientists tend to employ different linguistic features from their American counterparts. Specifically, Chinese science abstracts can be characterized as non-standard varieties of English by the choice of the three items: the agent, the tense, and two major types of reporting verbs. We conclude that the results may account for the interpretation of Chinese academic writings of English as non-prototypical in terms of discourse style. This study sheds light on language varieties and methodology that may be helpful to English Language Learners as well as materials developers in countries such as China.
This study presents the systematic language varieties and discourse characteristics that are indicative of the academic writings of Chinese and American scientists. We conduct a Contrastive Corpus Analysis using the computational tool, Coh-Metrix, to identify indicative linguistic features in Chinese science journal abstracts as compared to American science abstracts. The results suggest that Chinese scientists tend to employ different linguistic features from their American counterparts. Specifically, the science abstracts written by Chinese scientists are at a greater level of cohesion, more syntactically difficult, but less abstract in the structure of lexicon compared with those written by American scientists. We conclude that the results may account for the interpretation of Chinese academic writings of English as non-prototypical or Outsiders as opposed to the prototypical model of Insiders in terms of discourse style. This study sheds light on language varieties and methodology that may be helpful to English as a Second Language Learners as well as materials developers in non-English-speaking countries such as China.
As the subjects to create and construct coherence in discourses, human beings should become the focus of coherence study. This paper points out the linguistic philosophical nature of discourse coherence and discusses the existence, dynamicity, and plasticity of dialogicity among subjects in coherence based on Bakhtin’s Theory of Dialogue. We demonstrate the construction of coherence on the basis of intentional space, which consists of theme, subject, and the whole context (or TSW structure). This paper analyzes two poems, one a Chinese poem and the other an English poem, as examples to verify the existence, dynamicity, and plasticity of dialogicity among subjects in the coherence space construction process. We also apply the TSW structure to the analysis of these two poems. This study provides discourse subjects with helpful tips and enhances comprehension of the discourse.
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