英语学术论文中的遁言研究

Hedging in English Academic Writing

学术论文写作并非是不受作者主观影响的就事论事的客观陈述 ,成功的学术英语写作需要借助遁言运用以达到特定的交际目的。对遁言的运用和分布的研究结果表明 :遁言是学术语篇社团成员广泛使用的一种修辞手段 ,学术英语中的遁言现象不仅是作者、读者、语篇三者交互的结果 ,也是用语言形式体现作者心理取向的产物 ,是一种认知情态。遁言研究对学术英语具有重要意义。

Academic writing is rich in hedged propositions. Although it has long been associated with a series of objective and impersonal statements of fact, effective academic writing depends on hedging to achieve the intended communicative purpose. This paper analyses 20 research articles selected from two leading scientific periodicals in an attempt to explore the use of hedges in academic writing. The result indicates that hedging in English academic writing is a rhetoric means widely employed by relevant academic discourse community members, and an outcome of interaction between author, reader and text. Hedging is not only used to avoid absolute statements that might put the author into an embarrassing situation, but also used to negotiate the right representation of the state of the knowledge under discussion. Therefore, hedging is also the product of a mental attitude that looks for prototypical linguistic realization, and thus an epistemic modal by nature. Hedging study is of great significance to academic English, and plays an important role in assisting learners to develop an awareness of the correct use of hedges.