A Corpus-Based Analysis of Lexical Bundles in English Introductions of Chinese and International Students' Theses

Phraseology is attracting an increasing number of linguistics researchers' attention. Based on the data from our self-made corpus, this paper aimed to make a comparative analysis of the lexical bundles in the English introductions of Chinese graduate students' theses and those written by the graduate students in the international prestigious universities. The most frequently used four-word lexical bundles in the corpus were identified and classified structurally and functionally and corresponding analysis was made. Results indicated that lexical bundles in the English introductions of Chinese students' theses were structurally incomplete in comparison with those in the international students' papers, and that lexical bundles were less varied in form, meaning and function in Chinese students' English thesis introductions despite the larger number both in type and token. It is necessary to strengthen the richness, diversity and fluency of lexical bundles in them.