A corpus-based comparison of stance markers in materials science research article abstracts by Chinese and English L1 authors

Abstract

Our study investigated stance markers used in Materials Science research article abstracts by native Chinese-speaking (Chinese L1) and native English-speaking (English L1) researchers, adopting the widely recognized interactional metadiscourse framework. We constructed two comparable corpora, each comprising 501 abstracts from research articles published between 2023 and 2025 in Materials Science journals indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. Quantitative analysis revealed that there were significant cross-cultural differences between the two corpora: Chinese L1 researchers used hedges more frequently than English L1 researchers (9.67 vs. 7.04 per 1,000 words). Chinese L1 researchers preferred to use the self-mention phrase “this paper”, while English L1 researchers employed slightly more boosters and self-mentions generally. Attitude markers were found comparable between the two corpora (4.63 vs. 4.28 per 1,000 words), which can reflect the demands of this academic genre for objectivity. These usage patterns are consistent across all journal quartiles and are generally not influenced by impact levels of the journals. Further analysis of the subcategories shows that Chinese L1 researchers depended more on modal and phrase-based hedges, while English L1 ones used a more diversified range of hedging strategies. In terms of English L1 countries, researchers from the USA, the UK, and Canada shared similar rhetorical conventions. The findings indicate that cultural traditions and disciplinary norms jointly shape the use of stance markers. This study enriches cross-cultural academic discourse studies in hard sciences, and provides practical guidance on the academic English writing instruction for Chinese L1 researchers, especially graduate students.