台灣學生與美國學生的碩士論文致謝詞之比較研究

Abstract

不分語言文化，每個人在小時候都會被教導要表達感激(expressing gratitude)。表 達感激可分為口語以及書面兩種方式。如果表達感激的方式合宜適當，通常會令雙方 感到愉悅，並加深彼此的感情，然而相反的，若是表達感激的方式不恰當，或是沒有 在適當的時間表達感激的話，則會造成雙方的誤解，認為對方很奇怪，沒有禮貌，或 是很野蠻，不懂規矩。 近二十年來，有許多的表達感激的研究都著重在口語的互動上(Eisenstein & Bodman, 1986, 1993; Hinkel, 1994)。然而，書面上的表達感激（例如在學術寫作上）， 卻很少引起重視(Gesuato, 2004; Giannoni, 2002; Hyland, 2003, 2004)。在書面感激裡， 致謝詞(acknowledgement)是較廣為人知的。在學術寫作上，對他人提供的幫忙與協助 提出致謝，是學術界中行之有年的規範。 從語用學的角度來看，致謝詞不僅是在學術上扮演相互贈禮(reciprocal gift-giving) 表達感激的角色(Hyland, 2004)，更是反應出學術界重要的價值觀，例如：對於同儕在 學術知識上的支持與協助給予致謝(Giannoni, 2002)。此外，到目前為止，尚無研究著 重在以英語為母語者與EFL的學生在致謝詞的書寫表達方式的比較。 因此，本計畫擬探討美國學生與台灣學生在碩士論文中的致謝詞書寫方式。計畫 目標包含：(1)探討兩組學生在致謝詞中表達感激的方式；(2)探討不同學術領域(人文 或理工科)的學生在致謝詞中表達感激的方式；(3)檢視致謝詞中的語言特色；(4)探討 這些感激用語與感激對象的相互關係；(5)探討學生對於感激對象的優先順序排列。 本計畫擬收集80篇碩士論文以建造兩個語料庫，一個語料庫包括40篇由在美國的 美國學生撰寫的碩士論文，另一個語料庫則包括40篇由在台灣的台灣學生撰寫的碩士 論文。每一個語料庫都包括20篇人文學科（例如：應用語言學或教育）與20篇理工學 科（電機或資訊工程）的論文。所有收集的論文都是以英語撰寫，包括論文中的致謝 詞部份。 本計畫的研究結果不僅可以使我們更加深入了解台灣學生與美國學生撰寫碩士 論文中的致謝詞方式與其重要的語言特色。另一方面，由於目前很多的學術論文寫作 的參考用書都沒有介紹致謝詞的部份(e.g., Swales & Feak, 2004; Weissberg & Buker, 1990)，希望這個計畫可以提供有用的研究資料與真實語料實例給學術論文寫作的老 師、學生，以及教材撰寫者參考，或是給第二語言習得、語用學，社會語言學，言談 分析，篇章分析的學者們參考。

Expressing gratitude is a speech act that is taught at an early age and is commonly performed by native speakers of most languages. We often express our gratitude in either spoken or written form. If the speech act of expressing gratitude is carried out appropriately, positive feelings may arise and reinforce the relationship between interlocutors. Conversely, inappropriate thanking expressions or lack of thanking expressions may be viewed as oddness, impoliteness or even rudeness. Over the past two decades, most studies on expressions of gratitude have focused on spoken interaction (Eisenstein & Bodman, 1986, 1993; Hinkel, 1994). In contrast, less attention has been paid to written thanking expressions, especially in academic writing (Gesuato, 2004; Giannoni, 2002; Hyland, 2003, 2004). One of the most widespread written forms of gratitude is acknowledgement. Acknowledging the assistance or contributions of others is an established scholarly convention in academic writing. From a pragmatic perspective, acknowledgements not only play the role of reciprocal gift-giving in the academic practice (Hyland, 2004), but also reflect important values of the academic community, such as crediting of peers for intellectual support (Giannoni, 2002). In addition, none has focused on the comparison of Acknowledgements by native speakers of English and EFL students. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to investigate Acknowledgement in master’s theses written by American and Taiwanese students. Specifically, the study focuses on (1) the thanking strategies by both groups; (2) the thanking strategies by different disciplines (e.g., science and humanities); (3) the linguistic realizations of thanking strategies; (4) the way thanking strategies employed for different addressees; and (5) the order arrangement preference for the thanked addressees. The present study intends to collect 80 master’s thesis acknowledgements for two corpora: 40 theses written by American students in the United States, and 40 written by Taiwanese students in Taiwan. Each corpus includes 20 theses in humanities (e.g., Applied Linguistics, Education) and 20 theses in sciences (e.g., Computer Science, Engineering). All theses are written in English, including the acknowledgement section. It is hoped that the present study can provide a fuller understanding of acknowledgement in master’s theses. Analysis of the corpora samples should be able to reveal how American and Taiwanese students express their gratitude in their master’s thesis acknowledgements and the most salient characteristics. Results from this study could shed light on the teaching and learning of academic writing because acknowledgement has not been covered in most academic writing resource books (e.g., Swales & Feak, 2004; Weissberg & Buker, 1990). In addition, results will be of interest to graduate students, practitioners and researchers in the fields of applied linguistics, English for Academic Purposes, language teaching, TESOL, teacher education, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and discourse analysis.