The Social Semiotics of University Introductions in Australia and China

Canzhong WU
Jing FANG
(Linguistics Department, Macquarie University)

ABSTRACT: Drawing on systemic functional theory, this paper studies university introductions in Australia and China, and explores the ways in which universities in these two countries present themselves to the general public. In particular, we will examine the differences and similarities of the generic structure in these introductions, and investigate the socio-cultural features and how they are manifested in lexicogrammar in terms of systemic selections of thematic structures and process types.

KEY-WORDS: discourse analysis, university introduction, corpus linguistics