| Cross-cultural contrastive studies on discourse level have greatly multiplied in recent years. However, most of these studies have focused on the micro-structure or local structure of discourse, such as discourse "cohesion" or "coherence". The empirical study of the discourse macro-structure or global structure has been largely neglected, although some well-known theories of global structure of text have long been developed.This paper, based on the theoretical framework of the theory of ''macro-structures", contrastively studies the thematic structure in Chinese and English linguistics book reviews. The overall objective is to find out the similarities and differences between the two, and see whether they are induced by cultural as well as pragmatic factors.Based on the theory of "macro-structures", this study intends to address the following questions: Do Chinese and English book reviews share the same macro-propositions'? Do the same macro-propositions contain the same proportions in both Chinese and English book reviews? Are there any differences in the connotation of the macro-propositions shared by both Chinese and English book reviews? How are these macro-propositions connected to each other, more subordinately or more coordinately?In order to answer these questions, fifteen linguistics book reviews for each language have been chosen as sample for this study.The actual analysis of the texts consists of four steps. First, the macro-structure of each book review has been outlined with reference to the theory of "macro-structures". Second, the components, sequence and proportions of the highest-level macro-propositions in the macro-structures are compared. Third, the evaluative propositions in Chinese and English book reviews are isolated for further comparison of their evaluative perspectives. Finally, the macro-structures are transposed into tree-diagrams to represent the coordinating or subordinating relationships between the macro-propositions. Statistical tests are also employed to see whether there is any significant difference in the organizational patterns of the macro-propositions between Chinese and English book reviews.Many similarities and differences between Chinese and English book reviews have emerged from the study. It has been found that macro-proposition "positive evaluation of the book" should be regarded as the crucial nuclear semantic unit in both Chinese and English texts. It appears either at the very beginning or at the very end of a text or both at the beginning and at the end of a text. But it seems that Chinese book reviews have a stronger tendency to not only begin but also end the text with macro-proposition "positive evaluation of the book", while the English reviews tend to end with it. And macro-proposition "the introduction of the content of the book" is much more common in English texts than Chinese ones.Regarding the proportions of the macro-propositions, in English book reviews there is more or less a balance betweenmacro-proposition "positive evaluation of the book" and macro-proposition "negative evaluation of the book", while in Chinese book reviews far more space is contributed to macro-proposition "positive evaluation of the book". So it seems that English reviewers feel freer to comment on the weaknesses of a book than their Chinese counterparts.For the evaluative perspectives, the results show that English bock reviewers comment more on the practical usage of a book than its theoretical significance, while Chinese book reviewers do the other way round. Another interesting point is that Chinese reviewers are more ready to comment on the personality and achievements of the author of a book.As far as the organizational patterns of these macro-propositions are concerned, the result shows that Chinese book reviews have a greater tendency for coordination than the English texts.Finally, the similarities and differences are explained within the cuhural and pragmatic contexts, namely from the perspectives of politeness strategy, cultural typo...
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