Shell Nouns as Resources for Cohesion and Stance in Master’s Thesis Abstracts: A Corpus-based Contrastive Study

Abstract

Academic writing relies heavily on abstract nouns to structure information and signal stance. This study adopts a corpus-based, contrastive approach to examine the use of shell nouns in English abstracts of Chinese and Western master’s theses in education. High-frequency shell nouns were analyzed in terms of their frequency, lexico-grammatical patterns, and discourse functions. Results show that Chinese learners use shell nouns more extensively and across a broader lexical range, while native speakers rely on a smaller, more conventional set. Both groups favor clause-based constructions, but Chinese students prefer more explicit clause expansion, whereas native speakers use demonstrative constructions to enhance cohesion. Functionally, shell nouns serve semantic, cohesive, and evaluative purposes. Epistemic meanings dominate both corpora, reflecting the objective style of abstracts. Chinese learners tend to use more attitudinal nouns, emphasizing procedural clarity, whereas native speakers favor deontic nouns, highlighting reliability and a balanced stance. The study contributes to research on shell nouns and L2 academic writing, offering pedagogical implications for postgraduate writing instruction in education.