A Study of Authors’ Stance Through the Rhetorical Functions of Citation in Korean Research Articles

This study examines patterns of stance construction by analyzing the rhetorical functions of citation in Korean research articles in the field of Korean language education. A total of 694 citations were extracted from 19 Korean research articles published in journals related to Korean language education. These citations were classified according to the 13 rhetorical functions of citation proposed by Chen & Yang(2024). Authors’ stance for each function was then analyzed using a framework based on Coffin’s (2009) stance taxonomy and Martin & White’s (2005) Appraisal Theory. The analysis revealed that the stance of objectification was the most prevalent among all citation instances, particularly in functions that describe prior research findings in a neutral manner. In contrast, functions associated with establishing research necessity or reinforcing argumentation manifested a clear stance of acknowledgement, while a stance of challenge was selectively employed in certain functions. Moreover, linguistic features such as the reporting verb, tense, and citation format varied systematically according to rhetorical functions. These findings demonstrate that authors’ stance and its construction through citation exhibit consistent patterns depending on rhetorical functions. This study provides practical implications for teaching citation to learners of Korean for academic purposes and offers a new direction for research on citation by integrating rhetorical functions and authors’ stance.