Interactional Markers in Economic Metadiscourse(A Corpus-based study of The New York Times and Izvestia)

The article deals with the distribution of interactional metadiscourse in Opinions section featuring economic analysis in The New York Times and Izvestia to uncover pragmalinguistic aspects specific to analytical social journalism in the American and Russian cultures. The employment of K. Hyland`s interactional model has shown that the required degree of persuasiveness is ensured, on the one hand, by the effective promotion of relevant ideas and, on the other hand, by the dynamic involvement of readers into interaction. The frequency analysis of markers in subcategories has revealed that two cultures achieve the balance between persuasiveness and cooperation in a different way. Convincing communication of ideas by Russian economists is ensured by the abundance of statistical data, which categorically presents information, whereas in the American daily attitude markers that imply emotional and meaningful assessment of facts and objects are dominant. Russian authors more frequently use questions that have an added illocutionary force to engage their recipients. American experts employ greater number of hedges, thus being more cautious. Both dailies have approximately the same occurrence of self-reference markers signaling the author`s presence in the narrative and very rare occurrence of directives. The greater frequency of boosters used by Russian authors in the presence of sufficient statistics might indicate their confidence that the new knowledge can withstand any scrutiny and criticism.