1 Introduction

The paraphrasing verb plays a crucial role in academic English discourse, used to express the author's attitude towards others' viewpoints. Research has shown that there are differences in the use of suggestion and show among Chinese and foreign scholars, with Chinese scholars tending to use positive or tentative paraphrasing verbs. The vocabulary triggering theory emphasizes the influence of context on vocabulary use. By analyzing the use of suggestions and shows, it can reveal the differences in cognitive schema construction of paraphrasing verbs between Chinese and foreign scholars, providing guidance for academic English writing and teaching.

2 Vocabulary Trigger Theory and Related Research

The vocabulary triggering theory is based on psychological concepts, emphasizing the relationship between vocabulary acquisition and social, psychological, discourse, and communicative context interactions. Hoey proposed that vocabulary triggering mechanisms include lexical collocation, semantic association, pragmatic association, class linkage, discourse collocation, discourse semantic association, and discourse grammatical collocation. This theory explains the dynamism and flexibility of language use. Pace Sigge studied the triggering mechanisms of vocabulary in different language groups and found differences between communities. Hadikin explored the triggering environment of articles in spoken English in South Korea and Liverpool, pointing out that the interaction of the mother tongue affects the triggering frequency. Yang Yuchen and Yang Yuying found that there are differences in the use of 'more and more' between Chinese students and native English speakers. Pang Yang and Yang Yuchen analyzed the triggering patterns of begin, start, and commerce through vocabulary triggering theory, revealing subtle differences between synonyms. Li Dechao and Yang Xiaolin studied the triggering patterns of more and more in different environments, and pointed out that source language text and native language transfer have an impact on triggering. The theory of vocabulary triggering has also been applied to translation and rhetorical metaphor research, which helps to understand the influence of different societies, cultures, and ideologies on vocabulary selection and guides Chinese scholars and students to accurately use paraphrasing verbs in English writing or translation.

3 Research Design

Elaborated on the research design, including research questions, corpus collection, and corpus annotation and analysis. The research focuses on the differences in frequency and mechanism of using the two paraphrasing verbs' suggest 'and' show 'by Chinese and foreign scholars in English academic papers, as well as the reasons for these differences. The corpus collection is based on the field of life sciences, selecting empirical papers from 2013 to 2017 to ensure disciplinary consistency and time span of the corpus. The corpus includes 79 foreign author papers and 79 Chinese author papers in both Chinese and English from countries such as the UK, US, Australia, and Canada, totaling 237 papers with a total of 1376668 symbols. Corpus annotation and analysis were conducted using AntConc software, manually annotating vocabulary collocation, grammar construction, semantic associations, and discourse coherence, excluding non third person paraphrasing verbs and non paraphrasing verb entries. Through chi square test, the study aims to reveal whether there is a significant difference in the triggering patterns of suggestion and show in the papers of Chinese and foreign scholars.

4 Results and Discussion

There are differences in the frequency distribution of suggestions and shows in the English academic paper corpora of Chinese and foreign scholars. Chinese scholars tend to use shows, while foreign scholars tend to use suggestions. Chinese scholars use show frequently, which may be influenced by the writing style of Chinese academic papers and insufficient understanding of the connotations of English verbs. Foreign scholars use suggestions to indicate that they are more inclined to express their views cautiously. In terms of vocabulary collocation patterns, Chinese and foreign scholars tend to use noun collocations related to research results, but foreign scholars have more diverse vocabulary collocations. In terms of grammatical construction patterns, both Chinese and foreign scholars tend to use the X+Verb+that clause structure, but Chinese scholars are more inclined to use the as+Verb (past tense)+by/in structure and it+(be)+Verb (ed)+that clause structure. In terms of semantic association patterns, Chinese scholars tend to use vague language when using 'show', while both Chinese and foreign scholars tend to use the 'be suggested to do' collocation when using 'suggest'. In terms of discourse coherence patterns, Chinese scholars trigger discourse coherence relationships more frequently when using suggestions and shows than foreign scholars. These differences may be influenced by factors such as the native Chinese language, English teaching, and translation strategies.

5 Conclusion

This study is based on a self built corpus and analyzes the differences in triggering patterns between Chinese and foreign scholars using the two paraphrasing verbs' suggest 'and' show 'in English papers. The results show that Chinese scholars prefer to use shows, while foreign scholars are more inclined to suggest. In terms of vocabulary collocation, foreign scholars have shown more diverse collocation patterns. In terms of grammatical construction, both Chinese and foreign scholars tend to use specific structures, but Chinese scholars prefer to use the as+Verb (past tense)+by/in structure, which may be influenced by Chinese language. In terms of semantic association, both Chinese and foreign scholars tend to use show to and be suggested to, but Chinese scholars may misuse show when expressing uncertain results. In terms of discourse coherence, Chinese scholars tend to use show. Research suggests that in English writing or translation teaching, the differences in connotations between suggest and show should be clearly defined, the use of the first person adjective possessive pronoun 'our' should be avoided, negative transfer from the mother tongue should be reduced, and explicit indicative referents should be used to optimize cohesive devices.