Metadiscourse Research: Theoretical Frameworks and Empirical Studies in China

In the early stages of discourse analysis, the emphasis was on how language was used in the exchange of information. Into the 1980s, however, scholars like Sinclair and other researchers in pragmatics, English language teaching, academic writing, and critical discourse analysis began to delve into the interactional dimension of language. It was during this era that metadiscourse emerged as a valuable tool for scrutinizing the interactional facets of language, gaining significant attention and recognition. As a result, metadiscourse research became intricately intertwined with discourse analysis. Discourse analysis itself is concerned with the pragmatic and practical deployment of language, exploring the social communication objectives that individuals aim to accomplish through the use of language. These objectives can be broadly classified into two primary categories: the exchange of information and the exchange of emotion, i.e., the transactional and interactional function of language. The transactional function of language is concerned with what people aim to convey in terms of propositional meaning when using languages, while the interactional function of language focuses on the expression of interests, perspectives, opinions, and values, among other things, when conveying propositional meaning.