L2 영어 에세이에 나타난 완화표지 사용 양상 : 견지 부사구와 서법조동사를 중심으로

Abstract

The current study explores L2 learners’ linguistic behavior on hedges used in English academic prose. Focusing on stance adverbials and modals, hedging devices used by L2 learners were examined and compared with those by native English speakers(NES). First, this study starts reviewing definitions and taxonomies on hedges, according to which the written corpora are analyzed. The analysis reveals a strong propensity to use modals much more than stance adverbials as hedging devices in all the corpora. In the learner corpora, can was most frequently observed, while would in NES. Especially, it is observed that NES often use would several times with other stance expressions within one sentence, which means they vigorously use hedging as various strategies to express their stance in details. On the contrary, there were few times multiple stance expressions were used in one sentence in the learner corpus, showing the repeated use of a limited set of stance expressions. However, double hedging devices were often employed by advanced learners although they are somewhat limited patterns, such as ‘can be+p.p~’. The result reveals that epistemic stance expressing reality or a degree of certainty is the most frequently used semantic category in all corpora. When it comes to style adverbials, a clear inclination to express objectiveness other than personal feeling was observed. Such findings can be interpreted that L2 learners are actively developing their awareness of hedging in their academic prose despite somewhat limited and less formal use of hedges at intermediate level. As their English proficiency is getting advanced, they tend to employ more various and multiple rhetorical devices simultaneously to carry their stance in more attentive and objective ways, achieving sophisticated writing skills in English. The implication of these findings suggests the need for instructing discourse markers such as hedges explicitly to accelerate L2 learners’ discourse comprehension levels in an efficient manner.