LINGUIST List 29.1308
Mon Mar 26 2018
Diss: Applied Linguistics; Text/Corpus Linguistics: Tomoko Sawaki: ''Construing Stance in History Theses: Dynamic Interactions among Ideology, Generic Structure and Engagement''
Editor for this issue: Sarah Robinson <srobinsonlinguistlist.org>
Date: 19-Mar-2018
From: Tomoko Sawaki <tomokosawakigillard
gmail.com>
Subject: Construing Stance in History Theses: Dynamic Interactions
among Ideology, Generic Structure and Engagement
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message to a friend Institution: The University of New South Wales
Program: PhD English/Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2014
Author: Tomoko Sawaki
Dissertation Title:
Construing Stance in History Theses: Dynamic Interactions among Ideology, Generic
Structure and Engagement
Dissertation URL:
http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/53755
Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
Text/Corpus
Linguistics
Dissertation Director:
Dissertation Abstract:
This thesis examines introductory chapters of recent history theses, in order to
identify generic structure, engagement strategies, and to explore the extent of the
role engagement strategies play in relation to the construction of text. In order to
resolve analytical issues in the Swalean method, a new method is proposed, which
integrates the Greimassian method, a semiotically oriented structuralist method of
reducing elements to the minimum function. By doing so, this thesis demonstrates
that emerging elements such as postmodern personal anecdotes can be effectively
incorporated into this minimized generic structure model, providing a practical
methodology for future generic structure analyses. Quantitative and qualitative
investigations are pursued in order to compare the generic structures of thesis
introductory chapters of different ideological orientations. The results are
statistically tested with correspondence analysis so as to visually identify the
correlation between generic structure components and ideological orientation. The
analysis of engagement strategies is also conducted quantitatively and qualitatively
to compare the distribution of different dialogic elements according to ideological
orientation. The engagement analysis further investigates the distribution of
dialogic elements across generic structure components, which investigates if and how
engagement strategies realise larger textual resources, namely, the interaction
between engagement strategies and generic structures. This thesis finds that
traditional and postmodern theses vary significantly in the way they create dialogic
spaces and that engagement strategies vary across generic structure components. This
thesis concludes that a minimized binary generic structure model is useful in
analyzing increasingly diversified thesis writing. It also concludes that dialogic
elements play a crucial role in constructing text, enabled by dynamic interaction
with ideology and textual resources. This thesis finds a large extent of variation
within a discipline and proposes that developing negotiation strategies to
successfully persuade members of different ideological orientations within a
discipline may be crucial in pedagogic settings.
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