ABSTRACTLexical bundles, also referred to as “multi-word sequences” (Biber et al., 2004); “formulaic language” (Wray & Perkins, 2000); prefabricated routines and patterns (prefabs) (Erman & Warren, 2000); or chunks elsewhere; have been defined by Hyland (2012) as “statistically the most frequent recurring sequences of words in any collection of texts” (p. 150). Such sequences of words have received considerable attention in corpus studies in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP), with the underlying assumptions being that (a) experts in different discourse communities combine words in different ways to convey field-specific meanings and perform a variety of rhetorical functions; and (b) control of field-specific bundles is a key component of language production – be it written or spoken. The present study looked at the use of lexical bundles in medical research articles. Using a corpus of 1.1 million words, it investigated the frequency, structures, and functions of 4-word bundles in this particular genre of academic writing. Over 200 bundles were identified and the analysis indicated (1) a predominance in medical articles of lexical bundles beginning with noun phrases or prepositional phrases; (2) a more frequent use of research-oriented bundles compared to participant-oriented and text-oriented bundles; and (3) an extremely low frequency of specialized lexical items in the identified bundles. These results, as well as their pedagogical implications, are discussed in the present paper.
Read
