A Corpus Assisted Comparative Study of Metadiscourse Markers in Opinion Articles of American and Pakistani Newspapers

Abstract

Writers often use metadiscourse markers to express their messages compellingly and persuasively. The current research explores the frequency of metadiscourse markers in Pakistani and American Newspapers using corpus linguistics methods. Opinion articles from both The News and The USA Today were collected, cleaned, and analyzed using the AntConc software. The primary focus of the research was on two interpersonal features: hedges and boosters. The findings of the study suggest that American writers tend to use more metadiscourse markers than Pakistani writers do. The findings also suggest that the frequency of hedges is higher than that of boosters in both Pakistani and American articles. The findings also suggest that writers prefer to use hedges to convey doubt, uncertainty, and lack of confidence. On the other hand, writers prefer to use boosters when writing about facts that make their writing style more confident and assertive.