| Lexical bundles are word combinations that recur frequently in a given register.As multiword expressions and form-function composites,lexical bundles perform multiple discourse and pragmatic functions,and play an important role in enhancing the efficiency of language processing and the fluency of language output.Through the exposure to contextualized language,especially reading,English learners can acquire most lexical bundles.Textbooks contain abundant contextualized reading texts,and they are important source of language input.Hence,it is of great significance to explore the features of lexical bundles in textbooks.This study focuses on the reading texts in Contemporary College English:Intensive Reading(CCEIR)and An Integrated English Course(AIEC)with the aim of exploring the features of lexical bundles in comprehensive English textbooks for English majors.As basic language concepts,four-word lexical bundles have been regarded as typical representatives of lexical bundles for the frequency of occurrence,diverse structures and functions.The present study aims to answer the following three questions:(1)What is the overall distribution of four-word lexical bundles in CCEIR and AIEC?(2)What are the similarities and differences of four-word lexical bundles in terms of structure and function between CCEIR and AIEC?(3)What are the similarities and differences of the relationship between the structure and function of four-word lexical bundles in CCEIR and AIEC?In order to answer the questions above,corpus-driven approach is adopted.The author built two corpora,extracted eligible four-word lexical bundles by means of AntConc 3.5.8 and employed widely acknowledged structural and functional frameworks to analyze the overall distribution,structure and function of lexical bundles,and the relationship between structure and function in the two sets of textbooks.Through the analysis of lexical bundles in two sets of comprehensive English textbooks for English majors,the following findings are obtained:(1)Overall,lexical bundles in the textbooks do not cover all the structural and functional subtypes,and they show similarities in the type of lexical bundles and differences in the frequency of lexical bundles;(2)Structurally,lexical bundles in textbooks are phrasal,with noun and prepositional phrase bundles dominating and passive verb bundles missing.The three broad structural categories appear more frequently in CCEIR and each category contains different subtypes in different textbooks;(3)Functionally,referential bundles are dominant in the textbooks,with some functional subtypes missing.The three functional categories of lexical bundles appear more frequently in CCEIR and lexical bundles that perform conversational functions only appear in it;(4)The structure and function of lexical bundles are strongly associated,and the relationship between structure and function of lexical bundles in the textbooks shows high similarities.The study compares the characteristics of lexical bundles in two sets of comprehensive English textbooks for English majors and helps to enrich the studies of lexical bundles.The research findings can help deepen teachers' and students'understanding of lexical bundles in textbooks,which is beneficial for improving English teaching and learning.In addition,the research results can also facilitate the compilation and design of textbooks for English majors. |
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