A Comparative Study of Evidentiality in Abstracts of English and Chinese Research Articles

This paper is a comparative study of evidentiality in abstracts of English and Chinese research articles. This study chooses 50 English linguistics abstracts and 50 Chinese linguistics abstracts. This paper first describes the lexicogrammatical realizations of evidentiality both in English and Chinese linguistics abstracts. Then, it specifically compares the use of reporting evidentials and inferring evidentials in English and Chinese abstracts. The findings are: the frequency of evidential use in English abstracts is higher than that in Chinese abstracts; the lexicogrammatical realizations of evidentiality in English abstracts are much more various and complex than those in Chinese abstracts. Besides, the analysis and comparison of the use of reporting and inferring evidentials in English and Chinese abstracts shows that the objectivity of English abstracts is higher than that of Chinese abstracts, and accordingly, the Chinese writers may bear higher responsibility for the information than English writers do. This study may be beneficial to the learning and teaching of academic writing in China, and on the other hand, it will enrich the study of evidentiality in academic discourses. Index Terms--evidentiality, lexicogrammatical realizations, abstracts of English and Chinese research articles I. II.