چکیده:
This study is a quantitative and functional corpus-based study of self-mention in soft science Master theses. One important purpose of this study was to find out the functions of self-mention in soft science Master theses. For this purpose, 20 soft science Master theses in four disciplines (Applied linguistics, Psychology, Geography, and Political sciences), were randomly selected out of the library of four American universities. Five Master theses were selected in each discipline, in a period of seven years (2007-2014). The present study analyzed only the discussion section of these Master theses. The quantitative analysis of the corpus showed that the frequency of the various forms of self-mention in soft science Master theses is quite different. Among the analyzed resources, “I” with the frequency of 49 was the most frequently used first person pronouns. Based on Tang and John’s (1999) taxonomy of the discourse roles of personal pronouns, self- mentions were functionally analyzed. The findings of the functional dimension of the present study showed that the most frequent discoursal role of self-mentions in the corpus was the recounter of research process, whereas the least frequent role was originator.
خلاصه ماشینی:
"Keywords: interpersonal resource, master thesis, metadiscourse, self-mention, soft science Introduction Academic writing is not simply a linguistic practice but also a socio- political one (Casanave, 2003) in which writers strive for acknowledgement in the community they write for.
This study intends to investigate the frequency and functions of the self-mention in soft science Master theses due to the significance of this genre in the academic life of postgraduate students.
This study only investigated soft science Master theses written by native writers of four American Universities, in order to give a model for non-native writers and EFL learners in the use of self-mention references in their texts.
Frequency of Use of the Roles in Discussion Section of Soft Science Master Theses Roles recounter of Category Representative Guide Architect research Ohpoilndioern- Originator Overall process liAngpupilsiteidcs 8 17 11 37 12 1 86 Psychology 6 2 0 12 5 1 26 Geography 6 6 2 9 6 1 30 sPcoileitnicceasl 0 2 1 9 1 1 14 Tortaolleper 20 27 14 67 24 4 156 Percent 12.
Discussion This study attempted to investigate the frequency and functions of self- mention – as an interpersonal resource – in discussion section of soft science Master theses.
The high frequency of self-mention in the soft science master theses, suggest a quite different rhetorical stance, establishing an appropriately authorial persona and maintaining an effective degree of personal engagement with one’s audience as valuable strategies for probing relationships and connections between entities that are generally more particular, less precisely measurable and less clear-cut."