[pt] Este trabalho estuda o uso do metadiscurso em artigos pesquisa em diferentes culturas, áreas disciplinares e seções do artigo, tendo como objetivo investigar como esse recurso retórico varia em contextos lingüísticos e sócio-culturais diversos, contribui para a construção de sentido de textos escritos e reflete a construção de conhecimento em diferentes áreas disciplinares. A pesquisa adota como base teórica a abordagem sociointeracional de linguagem, a teoria da construção social do conhecimento e princípios da retórica contrastiva. O corpus utilizado compõe-se de 24 artigos científicos, divididos em duas línguas (português e inglês), duas áreas disciplinares (Ciências Biomédicas e Lingüística, Letras e Artes) e quatro seções (Introdução, Metodologia, Resultados e Discussão). O estudo da variação entre os textos escritos em inglês e português mostrou que há diferenças quanto ao uso de itens metadiscursivos que enfocam a micro ou a macroorganização do artigo de pesquisa. A variação interdisciplinar mostrou que o texto pode ser escrito de forma subjetiva ou objetiva, e que o conhecimento nas diferentes comunidades disciplinares pode ser construído com base em idéias ou fatos. Quanto às seções dos artigos, verificou-se que o uso do metadiscurso varia para alcançar objetivos retóricos diferenciados de acordo com a seção do artigo. Esta pesquisa reforça a possibilidade e necessidade de enfocar o metadiscurso e a linguagem sob uma ótica sociointeracional, confirmando que a escrita acadêmica é interativa e mostrando que a construção de sentidos de textos e a construção de conhecimento variam em diferentes culturas e comunidades disciplinares. / [en] This research studies the use of metadiscourse in research articles in different cultures, disciplinary areas and article sections, aiming at investigating how this rhetorical device varies in different linguistic and socio- cultural contexts, contributes to the construction of meaning in written texts and reflects the construction of knowledge in different disciplinary areas. This work adopts as theoretical basis a sociointeractional approach to language, the theory of social construction of knowledge and principles of contrastive rhetoric. The research corpus is composed of 24 scientific articles, divided into two languages (Portuguese and English), two disciplinary areas (Biomedical Sciences and Linguistics, Letters and Arts), and four sections (Introduction, Methodology, Results and Discussion). The study of variation between texts written in English and Portuguese shows that there are differences in the use of metadiscourse items which can focus on micro or macroorganization of the scientific article. Interdisciplinary variation shows that scientific texts can be written either in a subjective or objective manner, and that knowledge construction in different disciplinary communities can be based either on ideas or facts. As to research article sections, this study shows that the use of metadiscourse varies according to writers´ intention to reach rhetorical objectives in each section. This research study reinforces both the possibility and necessity to focus on metadiscourse and language under a sociointeractional perspective, confirming that academic writing is interactive, and showing that the construction of meaning in texts and the construction of knowledge vary in different cultures and disciplinary communities.

(in English): The diploma thesis explores the means of expressing interpersonal function (metadiscourse) in English academic lectures. This function includes means mitigating the proposition of authors (hedges), expressions boosting its credibility (booster), instances reflecting attitude of the author (attitude markers) and means referring to both, the author himself (self-mentions) and the audience (engagement markers). For the purpose of the analysis, the integrative approach of Ken Hyland was chosen. It explores interpersonal resources as well as interactive resources in written academic discourse. Means organizing text into an intelligible and comprehensible unit will be also studied. The excerpted instances of metadiscourse were examined with respect to their function and realization form. In a case of realization forms, we expected to find means expressing modality (modal verbs, adverbs, adjectives), evaluative adjectives and adverbs, conjunctions and an array of personal pronouns referring to the participants of lectures. The findings showed surprising deviations in the categories of boosters, extended frame markers and attitude markers. Remaining categories, despite the different mode of the data (spoken academic language) corresponded with Hyland's findings from written academic discourse.

The dissertation surveys the use of expressions of futurality in professional economic texts (the linguistic part). In addition, it investigates didactic aspects of futurality in the process of English as a second language acquisition, focusing on undergraduates in the study programme B 6208 - Economy and Management (the didactic part). The topic was chosen on the basis of the author's empirical experience and the results of pre-tests in the target group. The research is based on a corpus-based linguistic study. Seven representative monographs written by native speakers were selected as a source of relevant information about the use of futural constructions in a written economic text. All the sources were explored by means of corpus query software and instances of selected futural constructions (will, shall, be going to, be about to, be on the point of, be (due) to and the present tense) were excerpted. Functions of the futural constructions were elaborted on the basis of the numerous excerpts and confronted with English for specific (economic) purpose textbooks that are used widely at Czech economic universities. To prove or disaprove their mutual interdependence, the correlation of general language and specific language proficiencies of undergraduates from two universities was measured....

Based on a corpus analysis of 72 research articles, this thesis examines citation practices in four academic disciplines, two soft (linguistics and art history) and two hard (biology and astronomy). The first part provides quantitative results for the usage of two basic types, integral and non-integral citation. The non-integral type is preferred mainly in biology (91%), whereas astronomy and linguistics do not show such strong preference. In art history, both types are used with similar frequencies. The second part is focused on integral citation and examines instances of its sub-types (verb-controlling, naming and non-citation). The third part analyses the distribution of citations in the individual sections of research articles which shows to be dependent on the structural organization of the article. In general, two tendencies have been found: in articles with IMRD structure (biology and linguistics), citations occur mainly in the introduction and discussion. In astronomy and art history, citations are almost evenly distributed across the text. The last part of this thesis is focused on reporting verbs and their semantic classification (research, cognitive and discourse acts). Astronomy shows strong preference for research acts verbs, whilst biology employs this type only slightly more often...

Dans le contexte actuel de réformes des programmes de langue française à l’Université Libanaise, les institutions franco-libanaises se repositionnent pour améliorer la formation des enseignants du secteur public. Dans ce cadre, cette recherche s’attache à proposer un programme linguistique conçu à partir d’une ingénierie pédagogique de type FOS. Elle vise à améliorer le niveau de langue des enseignants de mathématiques bilingues pour offrir à l’Éducation de Base publique (cycle primaire) des maîtres d’école capables de communiquer efficacement en français et par conséquent de contribuer à améliorer le niveau de français de leurs élèves. À ce titre, la première phase de cette étude consiste à définir les enjeux politiques et institutionnels liés à la mise en œuvre d’un programme sur mesure. Ensuite, à travers l’analyse des besoins langagiers d’une part, et d’un corpus filmé, transcrit et enrichi d’observations d’autre part, nous étudions les pratiques langagières et examinons les fonctions de la parole enseignante. Cette étude convoque les outils conceptuels de l’analyse des discours et de la pragmatique linguistique. Un regard croisé sur les analyses a permis de dégager des objectifs didactiques spécifiques inscrits dans une perspective interventionniste. Les principales propositions prônent une didactisation de l’alternance codique et ciblent des tâches professionnelles prioritaires telles qu’exposer une démarche pour calculer, animer en français un cours de mathématiques et utiliser les manuels dans l’enseignement/apprentissage de cette discipline.Finalement, une offre de formation complète ainsi qu’une évaluation sur mesure sont conçues et doivent être intégrées à un dispositif de formation continue dispensé à la faculté de pédagogie de l’Université Libanaise. / In the current context of reforms of French language programs at the Lebanese University, the Franco-Lebanese institutions reposition themselves to improve the training of public school teachers. In this context, this research aims to offer a linguistic program designed from an educational engineering French for Specific Purposes type. It aims to improve the level of language of bilingual mathematics teachers in order to offer for public Basic Education (primary school) teachers that are able to communicate effectively in French therefore helping to improve the students' level of French. As such, the first phase of this study is to define the political and institutional issues related to the implementation of customized program. Then, through the analysis of the language needs on one hand, and analyzing a corpus that is filmed, transcribed and enriched of observations on the other hand, we will study the language practices and will examine the functions of teaching discourse. This study convenes the conceptual tools of discourse analysis and linguistic pragmatics. A fresh perspective on an analysis has identified specific learning objectives enshrined in an interventionist perspective. The main didactic proposals advocates a didactization of code switching and targets professional priority tasks as exposing an approach to calculate, animating a French mathematics course and using textbooks in the teaching / learning of this discipline. Finally, a complete training offer and a customized assessment are designed and must be integrated into an in-service training provided to the Education Faculty of the Lebanese University.

CARIOCA, Cláudia Ramos. A evidencialidade em textos acadêmicos de grau do português brasileiro contemporâneo. 2009. 201f. Tese (Doutorado em Linguística) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Letras Vernáculas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Linguística, Fortaleza-CE, 2009. / Submitted by nazareno mesquita (nazagon36@yahoo.com.br) on 2012-08-13T14:30:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_tess_CRCarioca.pdf: 1197726 bytes, checksum: 1bd42e1dded668aa6f2f1d4f1975201c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Josineide Góis(josineide@ufc.br) on 2013-09-25T23:42:28Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_tess_CRCarioca.pdf: 1197726 bytes, checksum: 1bd42e1dded668aa6f2f1d4f1975201c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-09-25T23:42:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_tess_CRCarioca.pdf: 1197726 bytes, checksum: 1bd42e1dded668aa6f2f1d4f1975201c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Evidentiality is a linguistic category related to the source of informations and also to strategies of commitment degrees of the author with these informations. With the intent of investigating the manifestation of that category in the construction of academic degree works in contemporary Brazilian Portuguese, this research aims to: a) re-discuss the status of evidentiality as a linguistic category; b) analyze the relations between modality and evidentiality; c) examine the strategies employed in the use of evidentiality marks in the monographs, dissertations and theses; d) identify, describe and analyze the evidential linguistic marks in the scientific works in focus; e) relate the use of evidentials to strategies for compromise effect in textual construction. By identifying and interpreting the evidential marks in the construction of academic texts, this research seeks to contribute to express explicitly the meaning effects linked to the transmitting of information strategically, since these marks are used for diverse purposes, such as resorting to the so-called "authority argument”, attenuation of liability in relation to what is said, modalization in the continuum between certainty and non-certainty, suggesting a degree of commitment in relation to the truth of the proposition, also a critical positioning in relation to the proposition. This analysis, guided by functionalist assumptions, has a theoretical dimension, aimed at re-discussion of the conceptual boundaries between modality and evidentiality categories, and an analytical dimension, which, in constant dialogue with the theory, researches in a qualitative and quantitative way the use of evidentiality marks in monographs, dissertations and theses. The choice of these text genres for the corpus constitution is justified by the assumption that they present a greater amount of information whose source is not the author himself, conditioning the use of evidentiality marks in the observable relationship with the degree of commitment of the author related to the information conveyed. The acquisition of 1500 instances for this research came true from the organization of a corpus consisting of thirty academic degree (ten monographs, ten dissertations and ten theses), which was used as a cut-off for analysis: introduction, one chapter of theoretical discussions and conclusion. Data were analyzed according to these categories: the type of mark evidential (lexical or grammar item – verb, noun, adjective, adverb, preposition; metadiscursive statement, simple juxtaposition, quotatives marks of ABNT) and the position of such mark in relation to source (before, between, after); b) the types of concepts characteristic of the evidential semantics are described, the source of information (the utterer, defined external source, undefined external source, common domain); the evidential access (direct, less direct, undirect); the nature of evidential information (subjective, experiential, inferential, reported); c) the pragmatical and discursive aspects, that is, the effects of meaning associated with the construction of the arguments in that concerns to the expression of high, medium or low commitment to what is being reported. In three genres of academic degree, the low commitment was more frequent and the differences between high and low commitment is nearly the same in these genres. Regarding to semantic aspects, the external, indirect and reported source was the most frequent, explicit by dicendi verbs, that appear between the source and the contend asserted. / A evidencialidade é uma categoria linguística que diz respeito à fonte das informações veiculadas e, nessa indicação, está também relacionada com estratégias de (des) comprometimento do enunciador com tais informações. No intuito de investigar a manifestação dessa categoria na construção dos trabalhos acadêmicos de grau do português brasileiro contemporâneo, a pesquisa objetiva: a) rediscutir o estatuto da evidencialidade como categoria linguística; b) analisar as relações entre modalidade e evidencialidade; c) verificar as estratégias utilizadas no uso das marcas de evidencialidade nas monografias, dissertações e teses; d) identificar, descrever e analisar as marcas linguísticas evidenciais nos trabalhos científicos em foco; e) relacionar o uso de evidenciais com estratégias para efeito de (des)comprometimento na construção textual. Ao identificar e interpretar as marcas evidenciais na construção dos textos acadêmicos, a pesquisa busca contribuir para a explicitação dos efeitos de sentido vinculados à veiculação das informações de forma estratégica, já que essas marcas são utilizadas com propósitos diversificados, como, por exemplo, o recurso ao chamado “argumento de autoridade”, a atenuação da responsabilidade em relação ao que é dito, a modalização no contínuo entre a certeza e a não-certeza, sugerindo um grau de comprometimento em relação à verdade da proposição, bem como um posicionamento crítico em relação a ela. A análise, orientada por pressupostos funcionalistas, conta com uma dimensão teórica, voltada para a rediscussão dos limites conceituais entre as categorias modalidade e evidencialidade; e uma dimensão analítica, que, em constante diálogo com a teoria, investiga, qualitativa e quantitativamente, o uso de marcas da evidencialidade nas monografias, dissertações e teses. A escolha desses gêneros textuais para a constituição do corpus justifica-se pela suposição de que apresentam uma maior quantidade de informação cuja fonte não é o próprio autor, o que condiciona o uso das marcas de evidencialidade na relação observável com o grau de comprometimento do produtor relativamente à informação veiculada. A obtenção das 1500 ocorrências para esta pesquisa concretizou-se a partir da organização de um corpus constituído por trinta trabalhos acadêmicos de grau (dez monografias, dez dissertações e dez teses), dos quais foi utilizado um recorte como material de análise, selecionando-se a introdução, um capítulo de fundamentação teórica e a conclusão. Os dados obtidos foram analisados segundo as seguintes categorias: a) os meios linguísticos de expressão da evidencialidade no discurso acadêmico que envolve a produção textual da monografia, da dissertação e da tese foram especificados em relação ao tipo de marca evidencial (item lexical ou gramatical - verbo, substantivo, adjetivo, advérbio, preposição; enunciado metadiscursivo, justaposição simples, normas citativas da ABNT; e à posição de tal marca em relação à fonte (anteposta, intercalada, posposta); b) os tipos de noções evidenciais caracterizadoras do aspecto semântico, a fonte da informação (sujeito-enunciador, fonte externa definida, fonte externa indefinida, domínio comum); o acesso evidencial (direto, menos direto, indireto); a natureza evidencial da informação (subjetiva, experiencial, inferencial, relatada); c) os aspectos pragmático-discursivos, ou seja, os efeitos de sentido na construção da argumentação relacionados à expressão do alto, médio ou baixo comprometimento com o que está sendo informado. Predominou, na construção dos três gêneros de trabalhos acadêmicos de grau, o efeito de baixo comprometimento, sendo a diferença entre alto e baixo comprometimento aproximadamente a mesma nos três gêneros. Quanto aos aspectos semânticos, predominou a fonte externa definida, indireta e relatada, manifestada por meio de verbos dicendi, que se intercalam entre a fonte e o conteúdo asseverado.

La presente ricerca, che si inserisce negli ambiti della pragmatica, della linguistica testuale e della linguistica applicata, analizza il fenomeno della mitigazione all’interno di un corpus di 25 articoli scientifici in italiano, con l’intento di comprendere meglio questo fenomeno pragmatico nel suo contesto di azione. Si cerca quindi di rispondere ad alcune domande riguardanti forme, funzioni e domini testuali della mitigazione. Per riuscire in ciò, si è elaborato un approccio pragmatico integrato, derivato dal modello tripartito di Caffi (2007), basato sulla nozione di scope (contenuto proposizionale, dimensione illocutiva e origine deittica dell’enunciato), e dalla lunga tradizione di studi di stampo funzionalista. Si presentano quindi i primi risultati di questa ricerca originale, sia da un punto di vista qualitativo sia qualitativo. Infine, tale ricerca investiga alcune possibili implicazioni per l’insegnamento dell’italiano LS in ambito accademico, offrendo a quanti coinvolti nell’insegnamento, sia in qualità di ricercatori che di insegnanti, alcune prime conclusioni, strumenti e risorse immediatamente utilizzabili per la progettazione di percorsi formativi volti allo sviluppo di sensibilità testuali e di genere e di abilità come quella di scrittura accademica, definibili comunicative, accademiche e transferable, , abilità cruciali per qualunque studente universitario che intenda completare con successo il proprio percorso di studi. / This research, framed into the domain of pragmatics, textual linguistics and applied linguistics, aims to analyse mitigation phenomena within a 25 Italian RA’s corpus, to contribute to a better comprehension of these phenomenon in its context of action. More in details, this work attempts to answers to some questions regarding forms, functions and text domains of mitigation. In order to do so, an integrated pragmatic approach was elaborated, derived from Caffi’s tripartite model (2007), based on the notion of scope (propositional content, illocutionary dimension and deictic origin), and on the tradition of literature in a functionalist perspective. The first results of this original investigation, both qualitative and quantitative, will be presented. Furthermore, this research investigates some possible implications in the domain of Italian as FL teaching, and some potential implementations. It provides then, to those involved in teaching Italian LS in academic context, as both teacher and researcher, some first conclusions, tools and resources immediately expendable to design language formation paths, meant to develop textual and genre sensibility as well as competences and skills, like academic writing, defined communicative, academic and transferable, which are crucial for any kind of student to achieve success in their studies.

Many students who come to universities and colleges find it difficult to acquire a well-functioning academic language, especially in writing. This is confirmed in several studies (Ahlm m.fl. 2009, Ask, 2005, 2007, Hoel 2010). One measure that is called for is concerted activities, which help to socialize students into the academy. The aim of this essay is to use the students’ experiences to elucidate and analyse the conditions for peer response in process-oriented writing in higher education, the difficulties it entails, and its consequences for teach-ing and learning. The students’ experiences of and attitudes to peer response in relation to academic literacy are studied and analysed critically in a course on the use of academic lan-guage. The empirical section presents the implementation and results of the selected methods – a questionnaire and interview with 30 and 5 students respectively on a professional educa-tion programme during their first year of study. The result shows a close correspondence be-tween the students’ experiences of peer response linked to their experiences of their develop-ment of academic writing, but also between their experiences of peer response and attitudes to and experiences of their knowledge of academic writing. The study also demonstrates the students’ experiences of success factors and pitfalls of peer response. The success factors concern metalanguage, working with a clear structure, reading and discussion of texts, and the need for an open, secure climate. The students’ experiences of the pitfalls of peer response concern, on the one hand, socio-emotional and psychological aspects in relation to the other students, for example the difficulty of balancing the response, and especially of daring to crit-icize a text sharply. On the other hand, it concerns the fear of not being good enough because of inadequate knowledge of academic language and academic text.

Academic writing is generally regarded as the most important communication medium through which people in the tertiary academic context choose to communicate their ideas. It is also well known that it is sometimes an arduous process for students to become accustomed to the requirements (the conventions and conditions) that hold for the production of appropriate written texts in this context. The initial impetus for the current study was provided by what appeared to be a significant problem that some supervisors at the University of Pretoria identified in terms of the academic writing ability of their postgraduate students. This study therefore investigates postgraduate academic writing with regard to a number of such issues, and does so within the broader confines of academic literacy. The ultimate purpose of this investigation is to discover how writing interventions may be designed that offer appropriate assistance to students who experience difficulty with their writing. The study commences with an attempt to find support for treating 'academic discourse' as a potentially productive area of academic enquiry. It therefore presents an account on the nature of a 'discourse community', and attempts to ascertain whether there are any grounds on which 'academic discourse' may be regarded as a unique type of discourse used for specific communicative functions in the tertiary academic environment. It further discusses critically some of the traditional features of academic texts. The research then proposes thirteen design principles that serve as injunctions that should be considered in the development of writing courses, and proceeds to a critical discussion of the most important approaches in the teaching and learning of writing. What is evident from this discussion is that none of the historical approaches will, on their own, enable one to design justifiable writing courses. As a result, an eclectic approach is required in order to integrate the strengths of these approaches into a strategy for writing course design that is theoretically and practically justifiable. Subsequently, the critical interpretation of the literature in the first part of the study is used in the design of a framework for writing course design in tertiary education. This framework consists of six focuses that stand in a relationship of dynamic interaction towards a description of the context in which tertiary students write. Thus, relevant aspects concerning the writer, text, reader, institutional context and one's approach to writing are all essential elements that should be carefully considered in terms of their potential influence on the eventual design of materials that will constitute a writing course. The rest of the study consists of an application of the proposed framework that addresses firstly, the perceptions of supervisors at the University about the academic literacy ability of their postgraduate students, as well as their requirements for academic writing. It then proceeds to an investigation of a specific group of students' (from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences) perceptions about their own academic literacy ability and a determination of their perceptions and expectations of academic writing at university. Because the information that was collected (by means of questionnaires) in both cases mentioned above is mainly perceptual in nature, it was considered essential to determine the academic literacy ability of students in the study group by means of a reliable testing instrument. A written text that these same students produced was further analysed in order to establish possible writing difficulties they experienced. In addition, it was important to confirm certain findings from the supervisor questionnaire, and more specific information had to be collected on particular writing issues that could inform discipline specific writing course design (this was accomplished through focus group interviews with supervisors of the School of Agricultural and Food Sciences). A combination of all the prominent findings of the empirical work mentioned above, as well as insights gained in the literature survey, is then used to make justifiable suggestions for the design of writing course materials for students in the study group. Finally, a number of issues were identified that could not be addressed by this study and, therefore, suggestions are made for future research that may investigate these matters. / Thesis (DPhil ( Linguistics))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Unit for Academic Literacy / DPhil / Unrestricted

This study set out to investigate how students construct their identities. Throughout their socialisation into academia, students are confronted with the paradox of learning as they negotiate the opposing discourses of enslavement and mastery that construct higher education. Utilising a critical discursive psychology approach this research aimed to examine the implications this paradox holds for the development of students’ identities. In-depth interviews with five master’s degree students allowed for an examination of the linguistic resources available for students to draw on in constructing their accounts of student-hood. Analysis of the interpretive repertoires and ideological dilemmas in the text revealed the uptake of contradictory subject positions in participants’ navigation of academic discourse. In order to address the inconsistencies associated with these conflicting ways of being a student, participants ‘worked’ a face in their interactions with academic discourse. Their face-work served to address the paradox by integrating the contradictory positions evident in their accounts. It is in the agency displayed in the integration of these disparate positions that the emancipating student is revealed. / Psychology / M.A. (Research Consultation)