AN ANALYSIS OF THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL STIDIES ON METADISCOURSE

Abstract

Metadiscourse refers to the method in organizing discourse, expressing the writer’s attitudes towards the texts and readers. It has been studied by many scholars in discourse analysis in recent years. This article reviewed previous studies on metadiscourse, including definitions, classifications, theoretical studies and empirical studies. Moreover, critical comments on previous studies of metadiscourse were discussed. The analysis suggests that more studies are supposed to focus on different discourse genres and interdisciplinary research could also be explored in future studies.