Stance Markers Research Articles

Performing positive politeness: political rhetoric in state dinner speeches by US-American presidents

Abstract In state dinner speeches, US-American presidents address international partners with the communicative goal of consolidating and improving bilateral political relations. The present paper aims to investigate the ways in which positive politeness strategies are employed in this epideictic genre to establish a good rapport with other heads of state. The study is based on a dataset of 32 dinner speeches covering a period of 32 years from George H. W. Bush to Joseph R. Biden. It adopts a qualitative approach that combines politeness theory with move structure analysis, identifying characteristic rhetorical moves that create familiarity by referring to common past events, shared values, and joint activities. As is shown, politeness in dinner speeches relies on recurring discursive techniques such as displaying strong interest in the international partner, seeking agreement regarding political agendas, paying compliments, and conveying optimism about the bilateral alliance. These politeness strategies are realized by a variety of linguistic devices such as inclusive first-person pronouns, illustrative metaphors, positively connoted stance markers, superlatives, adverbial amplifiers, and quotations from eminent writers of the partner country. Such genre-dependent positive politeness dominantly fulfils a face-enhancing function and helps the orators to construct engaging identities of the interactants.

Publishers and Authorial Voice in Applied Linguistics Research Articles: A Corpus-Based Study

Although various studies have been done on authorial voice, none has focused on the possible differences among the articles published by different publishers. To shed light on this issue, this article sought to find the different levels of the use of stance-driven authorial voice in applied linguistics articles published by three international publishers. To this end, 248 applied linguistics articles published from 2000 to 2020 by three intentional publishers were selected through stratified random sampling. After trimming them, a corpus of 1.5 million words was achieved. Then, the normalized frequencies of Hyland’s proposed list of stance markers were extracted using the LancsBox corpus analysis toolbox. The obtained data were analysed using the Kruskal–Wallis test in SPSS 26. The results showed that there are significant differences in the use of overall stance markers, attitude markers, and self-mention markers in the articles published by different publishers, while the results were not significant for hedges and boosters. Our findings can inform the research article writers, academic writing course instructors, and the publishing staff.

“Guided by the science”: a keyword analysis of government ministers’ and scientists’ stance in the UK government’s COVID-19 press briefings

Abstract During the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government used TV press briefings, involving government ministers as well as scientific and medical experts to update the public on the spread of the virus, advances in understanding the disease, and preventive measures. These briefings provide a valuable linguistic resource to study how science is disseminated and used by scientists and politicians in emergency risk communication. To this end, a corpus has been compiled, consisting of transcripts of 150 briefings of approximately 100 h, with a total of 996,040 words. This study uses text dispersion keyness to derive keywords that characterize the discourse of scientists and politicians, respectively. Focusing on stance markers, the study reveals different rhetorical strategies for persuasion used by the two parties in public health emergency communication. Specifically, the scientists employ cautious reasoning and restrained confidence, while the ministers use a war-on-coronavirus narrative with unrestrained confidence, in the framing of the disease and scientific development.

Emerging engineering scholars’ stance in citations

Abstract This paper presents a mixed-method study that integrates genre-based corpus analysis and discourse-based interviews to examine the form- and stance-related citation patterns in the research articles of ten first- and second-year engineering doctoral students. The corpus analysis reveals strong preferences for stance-marked citations and the proclaim and entertain devices in particular, suggesting that writers use authorial stance to endorse cited propositions or provide likelihood- or evidence-based judgments in citations. Interview results indicate a discordance between writers’ intentions and their stance-related linguistic choices, as well as varied perceptions of authorial stance. Despite the frequent use of stance markers in citations, most writers claimed to be neutral reporters of knowledge. Only a few acknowledged their strategic stance choices and demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of the rhetorical roles citations play in their claim-making practices. The findings suggest that students with developing citation expertise lacked the academic and disciplinary expertise to understand the interplay among citations, authorial stance, and rhetorical move/step structures in their research writing. These writers could benefit from explicit feedback that raises their awareness of the strategic use of citations and stance, to facilitate the realization of rhetorical goals in research writing.

The Use of Stance Markers in Chinese and International Journal Abstracts in Aerospace

The Use of Stance Markers in Chinese and International Journal Abstracts in Aerospace

Review on the Comparative Analysis of Stance Markers in Academic Discourse

Stance is related to the author’s evaluative attitude towards the knowledge conveyed in academic discourse, which is an important criterion for judging the objectivity of knowledge expression. At present, previous reviews on stance markers in academic discourse have mainly focused on analyzing the current state of relevant research from multiple perspectives at a macro level, and there are few reviews of a particular research methodology. In view of this, this paper synthesizes the current research trends with a focus on the comparative study of stance markers in academic discourse so as to find out the research gap and then shed light on possible future research.

Stance markers in forestry research articles: Indicators of authoritative voice

Stance markers, serving as the primary discursive category of interactional metadiscourse, function as a reliable measure for evaluating how authors of research articles authoritatively foreground their research within disciplinary communities. Stance research primarily focuses on how authors or speakers adjust the certainty level of their assertions, both epistemically and emotionally. This study examined the occurrences of stance markers in each rhetorical move within the Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion sections of forestry research articles. The corpus comprised 40 research articles randomly selected from five ISI journals in the forestry discipline. This study utilized Hyland’s (2005) model of academic interactions and Kanoksilapatham’s (2005) framework as analytical tools for identifying stance markers and the rhetorical structure of forestry research articles. The findings revealed differences in the distribution of these markers across the different sections and constituent rhetorical moves within the research articles. Overall, hedges and self-mentions emerged as the most prevalent stance markers in this study. Across sections, attitude markers and hedges predominated in the Introductions, while self-mentions and hedges were pervasively applied in the Methods sections. Boosters and attitude markers were common in the Results, and boosters along with self- mentions were notable in the Discussions. Finally, stance markers appear to play a fundamental role in shaping distinct argumentations across discourse communities, while effectively reflecting disciplinary voices.

Expressions of epistemic stance in computer-mediated L2 speaking assessment

Abstract Learner and L2 user corpora are increasingly valued in language testing and assessment as they can inform test design, revision, and validation. This paper illustrates the benefits of using an L2 corpus to explore patterns of epistemic stance marking in computer-mediated speaking tests with no live human interlocutor. Drawing on the British Council-Lancaster Aptis Corpus – comprising over 630,000 words of L2 speech – we explored the frequency of epistemic stance markers (adverbial, adjectival and verbal) across proficiency levels and speaking task types. The analysis revealed that epistemic stance was prevalent in test-taker discourse and that frequency was influenced by L2 proficiency and task type. The findings demonstrate that computer-mediated speaking tests can elicit expressions of epistemic stance in a comparable way to tests which involve human-human interaction. Implications are drawn for examiner training, test preparation, and an enriched understanding of the elements of pragmatic competence that can be elicited in computer-mediated speaking assessment.

Whose stance is it, anyway? A corpus-based study of stance expressions in science news articles

Communicating scientific research to the public is as important as ever. Several studies have investigated the ways that science writers communicate personal feelings and assessments, otherwise known as stance, in their writing, reporting somewhat mixed results. In this study, I examine the grammatical stance marking of science news articles. I compare the ways that writers and the researchers that they quote uniquely contribute to the overall expression of stance in these articles. Results reveal that the researchers’ talk substantially contribute to the overall stance of science news articles compared to their writers, indicated by a greater use of modal verbs, stance verbs and adjectives controlling that complement clauses, and stance adverbials, including a greater use of ‘boosters’. This study suggests that researchers’ talk in science news articles co-participate in the newsworthiness of science and offer an alternative perspective on academic research uncommon in research writing.

Authoritative and epistemic stance in the construction of conspiracy theories: A case study

What is central to conspiracy theories is the revelation of a hidden or manipulated truth. In addition, the speaker/writer who believes in a conspiracy theory and shares their views on it also seeks the listener’s/reader’s adhesion to the theory. As a result, the speaker/writer must solve two problems: first, the version in which they believe has to be perceived as plausible by the audience and, second, the speaker/writer must have, or gain, credit in order to appear credible. These two aspects are somewhat subsumed under what Biber and Hyland, among others, refer to as stance and stance-taking, which correspond to the positioning of a locutor towards viewpoints and interlocutors. In order to analyze these aspects and the relations between the linguistic markers and the discursive strategies (pragmatic, argumentative, or rhetoric), this study is based on a corpus analysis of online articles written by Jon Rappoport, an unequivocal conspiracy theorist. I only focus on plausibility hedges and certainty boosters so as to study the marking of authoritative and epistemic stance in his discourses and the function(s) they perform. The results show that both plausibility hedges and certainty are used to legitimize Rappoport’s theories and strengthen his authority in various ways, depending on the devices used. Plausibility hedges are mainly used to voice a dissenting interpretation of reality, presented as a possibility that cannot be ruled out, and downplay the elite’s viewpoints. Certainty boosters are used to express the author’s confidence and commitment towards his theories, by presenting his interpretation of reality as unquestionable, self-evident or consensual. Finally, the use of first-person pronouns and booster or hedge verbs are also used to strengthen the legitimacy of the theories and the authority of the author by explicitly indicating his contribution to the construction of conspiracy theories or to introduce and support a dissident viewpoint.

A Visual Analysis of Stance Markers Research in China and Abroad Based on Citespace

A Visual Analysis of Stance Markers Research in China and Abroad Based on Citespace

Экспликация авторской позиции в англоязычных аннотациях к научным статьям: сопоставительный анализ

This paper, inspired by interest in semantics and pragmatics of academic discourse, focuses on English-medium research article abstracts by authors with native languages other than English. The study assumes that in order to convey an authorial stance and establish an effective relationship with the reader, representatives of different cultures use a repertoire of metadiscourse devices varying in terms of quality and quantity. The theoretical basis of the research is K. Hyland’s taxonomy of stance markers. Hedging and boosting devices found in the corpus were analysed using the terminology proposed by K. Hyland and H. Zou. The analysis showed that hedges and boosters are important elements of academic discourse. They play a crucial role in authorial efforts to make claims tentative and avoid categorical statements or persuade readers of certainty and accuracy of research results. The study found that academic article abstracts by Latin American authors contain considerably more hedges than those written by their Russian counterparts, who make extensive use of boosters. Anticipating and acknowledging alternative points of view, Latin American authors are more careful when making claims, which is in compliance with the internationally accepted academic writing norms. The findings suggest that Russian novice academic writers should be taught stancetaking strategies in line with the academic writing norms.

Sustaining vocabulary knowledge growth through corpus-generated lists of lexical bundles and keywords in the law of contracts

Non-native English-speaking law students and international legal practitioners who speak English as an additional language face significant challenges while pursuing legal studies at English-only institutions, participating in professional training or catering to the legal needs of an increasingly diverse clientele. One of the most difficult challenges is sustaining adequate lexical knowledge to initiate and maintain communication regarding legal subject matter. This study aims to address this issue by presenting two short lists of lexical bundles and keywords (KWs) of the Law of Contracts. Through a combination of corpus analysis and linguistics methodology, these lists are designed to provide a pedagogically useful and subject-focused source for learning academic vocabulary. Bundles are functionally classified into referentials, discourse organisers and stance markers, and their structural forms are filtered into distinct nominal, prepositional and verbal categories. KWs are POS-tagged to allow for direct instructional intervention. This research discusses the pedagogical implications of the research for teaching English for legal purposes.

Stance expressions in applied linguistics research articles: A corpus-based contrastive study

Stance, a crucial aspect of academic writing, is complex and vital for both beginner and advanced writers. However, L2 English learners and experienced writers frequently struggle with using stance markers effectively. Currently, there remains a scarcity of research comparing the utilisation of stance markers in applied linguistics research articles between native English professional writers and L1 Indonesian speakers. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating similarities and differences in the deployment of stance markers in applied linguistics research articles by authors with L1 Indonesian and L1 English backgrounds and discussing the educational implications derived from the analysis results. The analysis involves two corpora: the Indonesian academic corpus (IAC), comprising articles authored by L1 Indonesians, and the English academic corpus (EAC), consisting of articles by native English speakers. The study investigates various types of stance markers and their distribution across the corpora, revealing significant differences in their usage. L2 English authors employ more boosters and attitude markers, while L1 English writers use more hedges and self-mentions, with the most notable disparities observed in the usage of self-references. These findings underscore the necessity for educators, particularly within the Indonesian context, to sensitise learners to the discursive norms surrounding the use of stance markers in applied linguistics research articles and provide targeted instruction to enhance English learners’ proficiency in employing stance markers effectively.

Well, maybe you shouldn’t go around shaving poodles: collostructional semantic and discursive prosody in the go (a)round Ving and go (a)round and V constructions

Abstract This article presents a corpus-based study of the go (a)round Ving- and go (a)round and V-constructions in American English. More specifically, it addresses the possibility of the constructions serving as pragmatic markers of stance through the collocational phenomenon of semantic prosody. It is argued that the notions of internal and external constructional properties from the early days of construction grammar as well as the corpus-linguistic idea of association patterns would be beneficial to usage-based construction grammatical descriptions of phenomena such as semantic prosody. Drawing on a 248,145,425-word portion of the Corpus of Contemporary American English, both simple collexeme analysis and distinctive collexeme analysis are applied to generate output that feeds into semantic-prosodic analysis. Moreover, standard distinctive collexeme analysis and multiple distinctive collexeme analysis are applied at the level of semantic prosodies in the collexemic fields (i.e., distinctive semantic-prosodic analysis), at the level of verbal category colligations (i.e., distinctive colligational analysis), and at the level of speech act functions of usage-events of the two constructions (i.e., distinctive speech act analysis) as a type of trial balloon. The purpose is to expand semantic-prosodic analysis from focusing merely on lexemes to exploring how other linguistic and pragmatic phenomena may be at play.

A Corpus-Based Study of Adverbial Hedges in Pakistani English Newspaper Editorials

This study aimed to explore adverbial hedges as stance markers in Pakistani English Newspaper Editorials. For this purpose, the data was collected from four different newspapers. After this data was tagged with the help of TagAnt Tagger. AntConc (3.5.9 window) software was used for the manipulation of the data. The corpus was designed from different Pakistani English Newspaper Editorials which were selected randomly from online sources from 2016 to 2021. The purpose of this study was to inspect hedges in Pakistani English Newspaper Editorials. List of adverbial hedges proposed after categorizing of hedging types. The results depicted frequencies of adverbial hedges from the newspapers of each of the years. The literature review of this research study explained the importance of adverbial hedges in previous research. Moreover, the results were presented in the form of tables and charts for an in-depth understanding of adverbial hedges in Pakistani English Newspaper Editorials. This study found that hedges in the Pakistan English Newspaper Editorials made changes according to the style, frequency, and location of the content to make it more comprehensible and didactic. Adverbial hedges were frequently used in Pakistani English newspaper editorials. The events were typically viewed to connect with the text to generate cohesion and coherence in Pakistani English Newspaper Editorials, based on their criteria of choice for adverbial hedges. Furthermore, the research questions were answered but this study also objects to future research. The objectives of this study were also claimed to be interpreted.

A corpus-based comparison of linguistic markers of stance and genre in the academic writing of novice and advanced engineering learners

AbstractStance-taking in academic writing plays a crucial role in enabling tertiary academic writers to express their positions about their topics and other voices. Based on a corpus linguistic analysis of academic reports by civil and environmental engineering (CEE) undergraduate students and student papers in the Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers (MICUSP), this article investigates the use of stance markers in the genres of persuasive and argumentative writing as well as analytical explanatory writing. This study compares the stance markers used by L2 engineering students (Hong Kong University) and native engineering students (U.S. University) to investigate the genre-specific lexical stance patterns used by academic writers. This study found that stance within the CEE reports and MICUSP was expressed through approximative hedges and boosters, code glosses, and adversative and contrast connections, pointing to a specific developmental trajectory as academic writers. Non-native engineering students were found to use a significantly smaller number of approximative, self-mention, and evidential verb hedges. In addition, they tend to use a more significant number of modal hedges compared to native English speakers. The CEE students’ reports also tended to be characterized by the underuse of boosters, contrastive connectors, emphasis, and counter-expectancy markers. However, the study found no significant difference in the use of exemplification markers between the CEE and MICUSP. The findings of this study support the construction of the academic stance as a process of delimiting one’s perspective. This is achieved by deploying selected stance features to account for other scholarly perspectives.

Gender Similarities and Differences in the Usage of Stance Markers: A Study Based on Twenty TED Speeches

The past few decades have witnessed the hot discussion concerning language and gender from various aspects, with the use of stance markers as one of the most vital angles. To find out the gender similarities and differences in the use of stance markers under the classification by Hyland, figure out the gender features and summarize the behind reasons, this article combines the qualitative and quantitative analysis together, conducts a detailed analysis on twenty TED speeches delivered by ten male and ten female lecturers, respectively. Finally, the study finds that firstly, there are no distinctive differences in the use of stance markers in the primary class proposed by Hyland named hedges, boosters, attitude markers and self-mention. But the female lecturers use stance makers more frequently on the whole. Secondly, in terms of secondary class which complemented by other scholars, still no obvious differences are found in terms of hedges and attitude markers. Then, for the use of boosters, the males prefer fact-asserting while the females tend to use certainty-indicating. As for the employment of self-mention markers, words indicating authority such as I are more frequently used by males and those contributing to solidarity between the speaker and audience such as we are more commonly applied by females. The discovery of gender similarities and differences involves various reasons, and it provides important implications for the study of oral English.

Research on the Stance Markers by Comparing the International Websites of Universities between China and the United Kingdom

Research on the Stance Markers by Comparing the International Websites of Universities between China and the United Kingdom

Exploring patterns of lexical variation in the use of epistemic stance markers in written L2 English across task types and levels of proficiency

Abstract The present study examines the lexical patterning of altogether 4,022 instances of epistemic stance markers (EDs) across four levels of L2 proficiency (B1–C2) and three types of writing tasks (‘opinion’, ‘complaint’, and ‘letter’) by using the exploratory technique of Multiple Correspondence Analysis. The data stem from a Finnish learner English corpus, comprising of 1,773 texts. The results of the study showed that while the lexical patterns of EDs in the data seemed to be mostly related to task type, some proficiency-related patterns of ED use were observed across all tasks. In some cases, proficiency-related patterns could also only be observed in some of the tasks, suggesting task type and proficiency are, to some extent, interrelated when examining the use of EDs. The results thus suggest that both task- and proficiency-related constraints of EDs should be considered in both foreign language teaching and assessment.