A Contrastive Study On Thematic Progression Patterns In English Research Article Abstracts Of Native And Chinese Writers

An Abstract is an indispensable part of a research article, which transmits effectiveinformation of the overall article and facilitates the document retrieval. It usually condensesthe main contents of the text by conveying the essence of research article in one paragraph.It is characterized by the textual features of compactness, clarity and informativeness.Thematic progression(TP) patterns are a key factor in realizing these textual features byconstructing semantic relations, enhancing textual coherence and organizing informationflow. Through generalizing previous studies on research article abstracts, it is found that thecurrent research focus tends to shift from language features and functional styles to textconstruction. At present, few scholars have conducted the research from contrastingperspective.Following Danes’ thematic progression theory, this paper aims to analyze the differences in the occurrence frequency and distribution of types of TP patterns in research abstracts of native English and Chinese writers with possible reasons for these differences. To this end, 30 English research article abstracts of native writers and 30 English research article abstracts of Chinese writers are selected from two international journals in the field of biomaterials. Thus, we have two groups of research article abstracts, Abstracts of Native English Writers(ANEW) and Abstracts of Non-native Chinese Writers(ANCW), from which to conduct the contrastive research on and integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches into the analyses of research questions.This research attempts to answer the following questions.(1)In the biomaterial field, what main categories of TP patterns are frequently used in English research article abstracts ? Are there any differences in the occurrence frequency of TP patterns between English research article abstracts of native writers and those of Chinese writers? If yes, what are the differences?(2)How do different types of TP patterns distribute in research article abstracts of native writers and those of Chinese writers?(3)What possible factors cause the differences between native and Chinese writers in the use of TP patterns?The findings of the above questions are explained as follows:(1) There are considerable TP patterns in biomaterial research article abstracts, in which the simple linear pattern, parallel pattern, crossing pattern and split pattern occur frequently; besides, native writers usually use far more TP patterns than Chinese writers in research article abstracts and this difference is significant.(2) The research article abstracts of native writers and those of Chinese writers have some similarities and differences in the distribution of different types of TP patterns. Both native and Chinese writers show a preference for the simple linear pattern in writing research article abstracts while the split pattern tends to be the least popular. However, a significant difference in the distribution of types of TP patterns is found that the English writers use both the simple linear pattern and the parallel pattern more frequently in research article abstracts. In contrast, the simple linear pattern and the crossing pattern are predominant in research article abstracts of Chinese writers and the crossing pattern occurs more frequently than that in research article abstracts of English writers.(3) The differences between native and Chinese writers in the use of TP patterns in research article abstracts can be attributed to the differences in syntactic construction, thinking styles and the text coherence devices.Pedagogically, this research provides non-native research article writers with some knowledge of text construction through analyzing TP patterns in English research article abstracts of native writers, thereby contributing to the publication of research articles in international journals. What’s more, this research can be useful in making research article abstracts easier to write and understand, thus it offers some implications for the improvement of both English research article teaching and writing.