A Contrastive Study On Thematic Structures And Thematic Progression Patterns Between English And Chinese Abstracts Of Agronomy Periodicals

Thematic theory and thematic progression(TP)patterns can help writers organize discourse information and realize the metafunctions of language.But the previous contrastive studies on thematic structures and TP patterns are mainly the analyses on Chinese and English scientific texts as a whole,there are rare researches either on specialized subject or on journals with different impact factors.Based on that,this thesis attempts to analyze English and Chinese abstracts of agronomy periodicals from the angles of thematic structures and TP patterns,aims to explore the similarities and differences on thematic selection as well as TP patterns between English and Chinese agronomic abstracts,find out their rules of discourse construction,and promote the writing and translation of scientific abstracts.This study aims at addressing the following questions:Firstly,what are the similarities and differences in the thematic selection between English and Chinese agronomic abstracts?Secondly,what are the similarities and differences in TP patterns between English and Chinese agronomic abstracts?Thirdly,what are the similarities and differences in the thematic selection and thematic progression patterns between high impact factor and low impact factor of the Chinese abstracts?Fourthly,what are the similarities and differences in the thematic selection and thematic progression patterns between high impact factor and low impact factor of the English abstracts?66 Chinese agronomic abstracts from core journals of CNKI and 57 English agronomic s from journals of Springer-Link are randomly selected as the corpus of this research,and the contrastive study is proceeded combining with the quantitative and qualitative research methods.The results show that:(1)Simple Themes occupy the largest proportion both in English and Chinese agronomic abstracts,and a small amount of multiple Themes are applied in the two groups,with textual Themes taking up the majority.Both Chinese and English agronomic abstracts tend to use unmarked Theme.However,zero Themes are found in Chinese texts,which is absent in English group.And the proportion of English multiple Themes is larger than that of Chinese.(2)The TP patterns in Chinese discourses present in the trend of constant Rheme pattern>crossing pattern>constant Theme pattern>simple linear pattern,while in English group,those patterns follow a tendency of constant Theme pattern>simple linear pattern>constant Rheme pattern>crossing pattern.(3)In Chinese abstracts,agronomy periodicals with high impact factors apply more unmarked Theme,and the simple linear pattern occupies smaller proportion than those in low impact factor,while crossing pattern is more frequently applied in Chinese group with low impact factor.(4)In English abstracts,agronomy periodicals with high impact factor tend to apply more multiple Themes,and the constant Rheme pattern in that group accounts for a larger proportion than those in relatively low impact factor.The findings of this study are of great significance for the writing and translation of scientific s.When writing or translating scientific abstracts,authors should not only give full consideration to the characteristics of scientific abstracts as a specific genre,but also strive to enhance their awareness of cultural and language differences,so as to further enhance their level of writing and translating abstracts of scientific papers.