2.1.2 Authorial stance in this current study
Based on the above illustration,authorial stance in this current study is defined as the epistemic and affective judgements and attitudes conveyed by the author in the author-reader interaction.These judgements and attitudes could fulfill or counter the readers’expectations.
It is can be seen from the above definition that expectation is considered as the crucial criterion.Hoey(2001:20)mentions that a discourse which leaves the readers with no idea of how it might develop would be a discourse from which the readers gain little.That is to say,when the authors express their stance,they should focus on their own intentions on the one hand and the readers’expectations on the other.In other words,the authors might attempt to interpret the grammatical devices to express their AAS and EAS in light of the expectations of the readers.
As to the grammatical signals which could help authors tell what is coming next in the discourse,Hoey(2001:21)points out that they vary in nature and exists in different forms such as specialised nouns(e.g.,consequence),verbs(e.g.differs),adjectives(e.g.contrasting)and adverbs and prepositional phrases(e.g.therefore,as a result),etc.This dissertation focuses on the research of conjunctive signals.