Reporting Verbs in Chinese MA Theses in Linguistics vs. International Linguistics Journal Articles

Reporting verbs are commonly employed in academic writing, yet second language learners often encounter uncertainties regarding their appropriate usage during the writing process. This corpus-based study investigated the use of reporting verbs in Chinese MA theses in linguistics and international linguistics journal articles. It focused on the semantic categories of reporting verbs, the source types and the subject types of reporting clauses, as well as the interrelationships among these elements. The results showed the following: (1) regarding the semantic categories of reporting verbs, authors of MA theses tended to use SHOW verbs, whereas authors of journal articles were likely to employ ARGUE verbs; (2) in terms of reporting sources, while both groups of authors most frequently used textual references, authors of MA theses showed a secondary preference for uncited generalizations, whereas authors of journal articles more often employed self-sourced reporting; (3) when using reporting verbs, both groups of authors employed non-human subjects most frequently, followed by human and it subjects; (4) the usage of reporting verbs by two groups of authors revealed close interrelationships among the semantic categories of reporting verbs as well as the source types and the subject types of reporting clauses. Implications for L2 learners’ academic writing and EAP teachers’ instruction were also discussed.