1.4 Organization of the Dissertation
The dissertation includes six chapters.The specific contents of each chapter are described as follows.
Chapter One is the general introduction to the whole dissertation.To begin with,the research background and rationale are introduced.Next is about the three research objectives of the project.At the same time,the data collection and analysis are explained.In the final section comes the introduction to each chapter.
Chapter Two reviews the previous studies on authorial stance and CMs.For one thing,various concepts which are closely relevant with authorial stance are surveyed.The review focuses on the previous researches in attitudinal authorial stance and epistemic authorial stance,and then points out what authorial stance means in the current study.For another,the research reviews the former studies of CMs in traditional grammar,formal semantics,pragmatics,cognitive linguistics and SFL.This part reveals the significance and importance in studying the interpersonal function of CMs in construing authorial stance.
Chapter Three delineates the theories and principles based on which the CMs are analyzed in order to construe authorial stance.Since the whole dissertation is conducted in the framework of SFL,related notions such as metafunction,stratification,realization,grammatical metaphor and expansive clause complexes are discussed.Because the research is analyzed from two comparative perspectives,then it is necessary to introduce the nature of disciplines and the influencing factors of the distinctions between AE EAPs and ANE EAPs.
Chapter Four analyzes the classification and distribution of various types of CMs in the chosen data.Statistical analyses show that the distribution of CMs in EAPs is correspondent to the nature of academic discourse.
Chapter Five and Chapter Six are statistically the heaviest.Chapter Five deals with the distribution of CMs in the corpora of N,S and H and discuss the nature of the disciplinary differences,which greatly influence these differences.Chapter Six concerns the distinction between AEs and ANEs in the choice of CMs.The influencing factors of these distinctions are also discussed.
Chapter Seven summarizes the main findings,the implications,and the limitations and offers some suggestions for future studies.