TJTESOL has published special issues on Corpus and Technology in English Language Studies(Vol. 11, No. 1), Constructing Identity in Language Education in Taiwan (Vol. 14, No. 2) and English(es) as (a) Semiotic Resource(s)/Repertoire(s): (Imagine) A Multilingual/Multimodal TESOL(Vol. 19, No. 1).

 

Chun-Chun Yeh

National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan

 

Abstract

Hedging, or the mitigation of claims, is often regarded as a significant rhetorical strategy in academic writing. Writers’ inability to make claims at an appropriate level may result in a failure to be accepted in the academic discourse community. The current study compiled a corpus of student writing and investigated graduate student writers’ hedging behavior, with a specific focus on epistemic modality markers. A comparison of graduate student and expert writers’ hedging practices shows that students use a greater number of hedging devices than expert writers. In addition, they rely on a limited range of epistemic items to hedge their writing, while epistemic nouns are noticeably under-used. In terms of epistemic commitment, these graduate student writers use more certainty than tentative markers. The results may imply a need for awareness raising among graduate students about hedging functions in academic writing.

 

Key Words: academic writing, epistemic modality, graduate student writing, hedging

 

研究生的規避詞使用

 

葉純純

國立中正大學外國語文學系

 

摘要

規避詞(或是論點的緩和)經常被認為在學術寫作中是一個重要的修辭技巧。寫作者不能適切地發表主張,或許也就無法受到學術論述社群所接受。此研究蒐集了學生寫作的語料,並且探究研究生們的規避詞使用行為,尤其是認知情態詞標記。透過比較研究生以及專業作家的規避詞使用,顯示了學生比專業作家使用較多的規避詞。此外,他/她們使用有限的認知詞來使語氣上更婉轉,而認知名詞是最少使用到的。就認知投入而言,這些研究生使用了較多確定標記更甚於假設標記。研究結果建議有必須提升研究生們在學術寫作中規避功能的認識。

 

關鍵字: 學術寫作、認知情態詞、研究生寫作、規避詞

 

attachment:
Download this file (2.pdf)Graduate Students’ Use of Hedging Devices[4-2-2]187 kB