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Meaning construction through citations

Insights from Chinese students’ and English L1 students’ MA theses of applied linguistics

ORCiD logo with link | Dalian University of Technology
 | Dalian University of Technology
Published online: 21 September 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.25074.tan
Abstract
Citations play a pivotal role in shaping meaning construction in academic writing. This article adopts a corpus-based method to investigate how students construct meaning through citations both in the whole text and different sections of their English MA theses, with a sample of 30 from Chinese students and another 30 from English L1 students doing applied linguistics research. A meta-functional framework for analyzing citations was developed to examine their formal features and functions in meaning construction. Findings reveal that both groups frequently generalize views in support of arguments, with a preference for neutral meanings and integral citations. Chinese students tend to focus more on attributing information to specific sources and emphasize concepts and theories, rather than connecting these with existing literature. In contrast, English L1 students are more likely to use citations to convey evaluative meaning, apply methods or theories from prior studies, and emphasize views and results. These tendencies vary across sections of the theses. The findings offer valuable insights for meaning construction through citations in English academic writing, and provide an empirical basis for fostering a more critical approach to academic English learning.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Citations, forms, functions and meaning construction
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Corpus description
    • 3.2Extraction of citations
    • 3.3Annotation of citations
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Ideational meaning construction of citations
    • 4.2Citations’ interpersonal relationship negotiation
    • 4.3Citations’ textual information organization
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Meaning construction through citations of both Chinese and English L1 students
    • 5.2Differences in citations’ meaning construction between Chinese and English L1 students
  • 6.Conclusion and implications
  • Note
  • Declaration of contributions from Generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process
  • References
References (72)
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