Authorial Stance Markers in Cross-Disciplinary Academic Discourse: A Case Study of the Conclusion Parts of English Doctoral Dissertations

This study, drawing upon Hyland's system of stance in particular, coupled with Brown and Levinson's face theory, analyzes the use of stance markers in the conclusion parts of English doctoral dissertations from four disciplines, namely physics, anthropology, psychology and education. Adopting both qualitative and quantitative methods, this thesis makes a cross-disciplinary study of the classification, function and distribution characteristics of authorial stance markers in academic discourse.