A Corpus-based Analysis of Epistemic Modality Markers in Thai and Chinese Research Articles
In international academic community, varieties of English in academic discourse written by non-native speakers (NNS) reflect the influence of cultural norms and identities which can explain NNS' difficulties in expressing their ideas and arguments. Being considered as an essence of academic writing, epistemic modality markers show writer’s commitment, ranging from uncertain possibilities to confident assurances, in asserting its qualification and conveying their attitudes to establish a relationship with readers, and representing writers' voice and positioning (Milton & Hyland, 1999).
In the corpus of native speakers (NS) and NNS, much research shows great difference of epistemic modality markers used by NNS in research articles (RAs), for instance, Italian's few argumentative strategies (Gotti, 2012), Chinese's straightforward assertion preference (Liu, 2013), French's exaggerated self-confidence (Sionis, 1997). However, little has been done in the corpus of English as a lingua franca in Asian corpora.
This paper examines cultural variations of epistemic modality markers in RAs written by Thai and Chinese researchers. Consisting of 56 RAs in the discipline of Applied Linguistics, corpora originated from two English-medium journals. Data are compiled and run by the AntConc program (Anthony, 2014) to identify frequency and mean per 1,000 words. Based on the metadiscourse model (Hyland, 2005), the data are analyzed in-depth and compared regarding the degree of epistemic modality strengths, indirectness, implicitness, and politeness. The findings shed the light of weaker academic discourse and cross-cultural variations of non-native speakers in writing academic articles for international communication. Some pedagogic implications for academic writing and cross-cultural understanding are presented.
Keywords: epistemic modality markers, academic discourse, research articles, English as a lingua franca, cross-linguistic variation
