Abstracts of Major Papers in This Issue

IdeationalCoherenceinTexts, by CHENG Xiaotang & WANG Lu, p.9

Based on the theoretical framework of discourse coherence proposed by Cheng (2005), this paper aims to explore the problems existing in non-coherent texts, especially those reflected on ideational coherence.Through the analysis of academic articles submitted to an academic journal, the study finds that the problems in topical coherence and coherence relations are prominent.Topical coherence is related to the topics in texts, contributing to effective expression of experiential meaning.Coherence relations are the relations between clauses, contributing to the expression of logical meaning in discourse.Problems with ideational coherence are one of the major reasons behind less coherent texts.

AMetapragmaticPerspectivetoMetadiscourseStudies, by JIANG Hui, p.15

Metadiscourse, composed of linguistic devices which are used to organize the text, indicates the writer’s attitude towards the content and the readers, and shows the explicit presence of the writer, the reader, and others in the text.From metapragmatic point of view, this study holds that metadiscourse, as an integrated level of discourse, is a collective of reflexive linguistic expressions resulting from language users’ conscious choice-making and their reflection on the use of language on the basis of discourse organization, writer-reader relationships, and intertextual relations for achieving the final communicative purposes.In accordance with the three aspects of reflection, we divide metadiscourse into three types, that is, metatext, interpersonal metadiscourse, and intertextual metadiscourse.An analysis of the use of metadiscourse markers in English and Chinese RAs is then conducted to show how writers realize interaction and persuasive intentions by their reflection on discourse organization, writer-reader relationships, and intertextuality.

OntheMeaningsof“Motivation”asaLinguisticUnit, by LI Erzhan & WANG Ailu, p.19

Motivation is a new and key term in contemporary linguistics, but due to its disyllabic feature and semantic contraction in contemporary Chinese, it has several meanings and usages, namely: (1) a cause or reason in the most general sense; (2) a driving force that promotes the formation, evolution, and mutation of any language phenomena; (3) a sub-driving force of language facets such as phonological motivation, lexical motivation, and syntactic motivation; (4) non-arbitrariness of language and its linguistic interpretation; and (5) a cognitively motivated view of language research.A study on the classifications and interpretations of motivation can help us disambiguate its confusing and mistaken usages, which is sure to facilitate the further research on the study of linguistic motivation as a newly established discipline.

PsycholinguisticModelsinSecondLanguageAcquisition, by CUI Peng & YANG Lianrui, p.25

With the rapid development of cognitive science, second language acquisition has been rendered a wider space.Psycholinguistics makes efforts to analyze human mental mechanism of learning and using language so as to examine how human brains process information in general.This paper introduces and comments briefly on several approaches, which have appeared as a result of the emergence of cognitive science, to second language acquisition and learning with a basis in psycholinguistic processing.They are Parallel Distributed Processing, Competition Models, Processability Theory, Information Processing Theory, Input Processing.Insights and methods to second language research and reconstruction of the concept of foreign language teaching are expected.

AnEmpiricalStudyofCollegeEnglishTeachers’TeachingMotivation, by TANG Wenli, p.29

Based on Gardner’s theory of motivation, this paper investigates Chinese college English teachers’ teaching motivation.By carrying out an empirical survey through the use of questionnaire and interview, the present paper indicates that intrinsic motivation plays a central role in college English teachers’ teaching motivation.Most college English teachers’ teaching motivation declines with the increase of their age and their years of teaching, and with the advancement of their professional experience.The key factors exerting influences on the teaching motivation include the enthusiasm of students’ learning, the cohesion of the department, and the pressure of scientific research.Secondly important factors include their state of health, the distribution system of universities, teaching facilities, and opportunities of further study abroad.

ChineseEFLTeachers’InformationLiteracyinUndevelopedWesternRegions, by GUO Xiaoying, p.34

Modern information technology provides English teaching with likeliest authentic language surroundings.Teachers’ information literacy makes the key to the reform of foreign language teaching and the improvement of foreign language teaching quality.In order to investigate foreign language teachers’ information literacy in China’s Western Areas,the present study carried out a questionnaire survey on teachers’ information faculty status and accordingly put forward advice.

InadequateTranslationfromthePerspectiveoftheConstrualTheory, by XIAO Kunxue, p.39

Cognitive linguistics holds that language and embodied human cognition are closely related, that language expresses the speaker’s construal of a particular situation, and that the linguistic structure is a direct reflex of the way in which the situation is construed, hence meaningful itself.The main function of language is to convey meaning and translation in nature is interlingual transfer of meaning.In the light of the construal theory, the loss of the source text’s way of construal is bound to bring about damage to the meaning conveyed by the source text.On the basis of the meaning-oriented view of translation, the construal theory of cognitive linguistics is applied to analyze the inadequacy of translation at different linguistic levels.

AMulti-versionCorpus-basedStudyoftheSyntacticForeignizationofSentenceSegmentsinTranslationalChinese, by XU Xin, p.46

Based on a Multi-version Corpus, with reference to Chinese grammar and syntax, this study attempts to analyze the syntactic foreignization of sentence segments in translational Chinese by making a comparison of expansion potential between English and Chinese sentences.This paper particularly explores the foreignization features of prepositional phrases, numeral phrases and predicate-object constructions.Such features which are influenced by the English and Chinese sentence patterns reveal the differences between the English and Chinese language structures.

MetaphoricalIdeasonArtandMoralsinTheSandcastle, by HE Weiwen, p.49

Critics often takeTheSandcastleas a piece of comparatively weak work among Iris Murdoch’s early novels, though the writer herself shows much favor to it.This paper argues that beyond its seemingly popular plot of a love story are the writer’s important metaphorical ideas on art and morals.It tries to interpret these hidden ideas by analyzing Bledyard, a good man rarely found in Murdoch’s work, and the other three main characters, thus revealing the underlying reasons for the particular favor of this novel.

PursuingthePriesthoodandRedeemingtheSelf:OntheConstructionofSpiritualEcologyinDeathComesfortheArchbishop, by SUN Ling, p.56

Willa Cather is one of the most influential novelists in the early part of the 20th century in the U.S.In her best seller,DeathComesfortheArchbishop, which treats religion and cultural tradition as a necessary tool to save the alienation spirit of humanity, Cather successfully portrays two French priests who were sent to New Mexico to preach Christianity in the 19th century, aiming at describing a specific kind of spiritual exploration.Cather enthusiastically praises the two French priests for their piety and their devotion to the sacred task, and for setting a good example for the humanity in achieving poetic habitation in an ideal spiritual homeland.