Evidentiality is a linguistic coding of the sources of information stated and the attitude towards the information. Based on a comparative analysis of the evidentials and their language presentations in 90 empirical MA graduation theses in China and the USA, the study finds: (1) graduates in both countries make use of sensory evidential, reporting evidential, belief evidential and inferring evidential with similarity and imbalance; (2) research method adopted by the theses may influence the frequency of evidentials; (3) the Chinese MA students overuse sensory evidential and underuse inferring evidential and reporting evidential, indicating the feature of Chinese reader responsible discourse pattern; (4) there is difference in language presentations and variety in both graduation theses and the Chinese MA students show the tendency of interlanguage. The findings may have some pedagogical implications for MA education and academic English writing as well as its teaching in China.
WANG Shuwen
. A Study of Evidentiality in Master's Graduation Theses by Chinese and American MA Students[J]. Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies, 2016
, 16(02)
: 21
-27
.
DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2016.02.004
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