A Comparative Study Of The Use Of Lexical Bundles In The English Abstracts Of Journal Articles By Chinese And English Native Writers

Lexical bundles,word sequences occurring most frequently in a given register,are basic building blocks of discourse,the use of which can contribute a lot to fluency,accuracy,and idiomaticity in writing.The past twenty years have seen many bundle studies focusing on the body part of academic writing.However,few studies have examined the bundle use in abstract writing,which is the essence of the entire paper.Meanwhile,English abstract writing in China tends to be problematic,deviating from native norms and thus making it difficult to be accepted by the academic community.To address these research gaps and provide a more scientific approach to evaluating English abstracts,this paper analyzes bundle use in English abstract writing from journal articles in the discipline of Economics.Two corpora are established: an English native writers abstract corpus(C-EN)and a Chinese writers English abstract corpus(C-CH).By analyzing lexical bundles in the two corpora,this study reveals many important differences in the use of bundles in terms of frequency,structure,and function,providing an overall picture of bundle use in both native and Chinese abstract writing and valuable pedagogical implications for abstract writing.An overall frequency-based study shows that Chinese writers rely more heavily on a limited range of lexical bundles.Nearly 80% of native bundles are not used in Chinese writing,suggesting that there is still a large gap in bundle use between native and Chinese writing and restricting the use of idiomatic expressions by Chinese.The structural comparison shows that Chinese writers have not acquired many of the structural patterns used by natives,limiting their ability to express complex and diverse information.In NP-based category,Chinese writers underuse a+N+of.They also have difficulty in distinguishing prepositions and are unaware of using complex post-modifiers(e.g.preposition+which and that)to construct subordinate clauses,hampering the effective transmission of complex ideas.In PP-based category,many bundles,mostly used in the spoken register or directly translated from Chinese expressions,are overused by Chinese writers,suggesting their little awareness of register difference and limited bundle knowledge.In VP-based and clause-based categories,personal pronoun+verb phrase pattern is underused while pattern anticipatory it is overused by Chinese,showing their reluctance to use self-mention bundles and distancing themselves from the research and reader.The authorial invisibility also makes the abstract writing less authoritative.The functional comparison shows that native and Chinese writers use bundles performing different functions.Native bundles can help construct abstract texts that are more precise,coherent,and convincing.In research-oriented bundles,Chinese writers have a preference for vagueness and inclusive bundles,showing their limited knowledge of more specialized alternatives.Text-oriented bundles mark the organization of the text.Chinese abstract texts are less cohesive and coherent because Chinese writers underuse contrastive transitions,some of the additive transitions,and anaphoric references.Native writers also use much more we/I+verb bundles to make abstract writing a unified,coherent whole with consistent subjects.Chinese writers,however,tend to use subjects that are not related,making their abstracts less coherent.In participant-oriented category,Chinese writers underuse hedges but use more directives than natives,making their writing less cautious and more categorical.They also avoid using self-mentions(e.g.I find that),downplaying their contributions and involvement in their research.In summary,the bundle use discrepancies and problems make Chinese abstract writing less informative,coherent,and interactive than native writing.To produce writing closer to native norms,learners and teachers should be aware of the importance of lexical bundles and make use of corpus tools to facilitate bundle teaching and learning.The findings in the present study offer practical pedagogical implications for abstract writing.Studying abstract writing from the perspective of lexical bundles also extends the research scope and enriches the existing structural patterns and discourse functions of lexical bundles.