Exploring Within-Discipline Variation of Lexical Bundle Use: An Example from Medical Research Articles and Medical Case Reports

Ndeye Bineta Mbodj; Viviana Cortes

Authors

Ndeye Bineta Mbodj Georgia State University Atlanta | GA | USA https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0604-6101
Viviana Cortes Georgia State University Atlanta | GA | USA https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4704-779X

Keywords:

lexical bundles, medical discourse, register variation

Abstract

Studies that focus on the use of formulaic language in academic writing primarily investigated the use of different types of formulaic sequences in academic research articles in various disciplines. These studies revealed dramatic variations in the use of formulaic language across academic disciplines (e.g., Cortes, 2004; Hyland, 2008; Jalali; Moini, 2014; Shahriari, 2017). However, there is evidence that discipline alone may not be enough to determine linguistic variation (Gray, 2015), as different registers within one discipline may reflect different linguistic characteristics depending on specific communicative purposes (Biber; Conrad, 2019). In the case of medical written discourse, different medical registers may call for the use of different formulas to convey different communicative intents. This is the case of the medical research article (MRA) and the medical case report (MCR). In this study, we will focus on the identification and analysis of lexical bundles in medical discourse, particularly in MRAs and MCRs. Lexical bundles (Biber et al., 1999) are groups of three or more words that frequently occur in a given register. They are identified empirically, using specially designed computer programs that run through the texts in a language corpus and flag expressions of three or more words that repeat frequently, employing a strictly corpus-driven approach (Cortes, 2015). Using specially designed software, lexical bundles of 3+ words were identified in each corpus. These expressions were later analyzed according to their structure and the functions they performed to conduct a comparison across the two registers using taxonomies adapted from the literature (Biber; Conrad; Cortes, 2004; Hyland, 2008).

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

ANTHONY, L. AntConc (Version 3.5.2) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, JP: Waseda University, 2017.

BAZERMAN, C. Constructing Experience. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1994.

BIBER, D.; CONRAD, S. Lexical Bundles in Conversation and Academic Prose. In: HASSELGARD, H.; OKSEFJELL, S. (ed.). Out of Corpora: Studies in Honor of Stig Johansson. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999. p. 181-189.

BIBER, D.; CONRAD, S. Register Variation: A Corpus Approach. In: SCHIFFRIN, D.; TANNEN, D.; HAMILTON, H. (ed.). The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. London: Blackwell, 2005. p. 175-196.

BIBER, D.; CONRAD, S. Register, Genre, and Style. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

BIBER, D.; CONRAD, S.; CORTES, V. ‘If You Look at …’: Lexical Bundles in University Teaching and Textbooks. Applied Linguistics, v. 25, p. 371-405, 2004.

BIBER, D.; GRAY, B. Grammatical Complexity in Academic English: Linguistic Change in Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

BIBER, D.; JOHANSSON, S.; LEECH, G.; CONRAD, S.; FINEGAN, E. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman, 1999.

CHEN, L. Lexical Bundles in Vocabulary-Based Discourse Units: A Corpus-Based Study of First Year Core Engineering Textbooks. 2018. Dissertation (Doctorate in Philosophy) - Carleton University, Ottawa, 2018. Unpublished.

CHEN, Y. H.; BAKER, P. Lexical Bundles in L1 and L2 Academic Writing. Language Learning & Technology, v. 14, n. 2, p. 30-49, 2010.

CORTES, V. Lexical Bundles in Academic Writing. In: JABLONKAI, R.; CSOMAY, E. (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Corpora in Language Teaching and Learning. London: Routledge, 2023. p. 220-233.

CORTES, V. Lexical Bundles in Published and Student Disciplinary Writing: Examples from History and Biology. English for Specific Purposes, v. 23, p. 397-423, 2004.

CORTES, V. Situating Lexical Bundles in the Formulaic Language Spectrum: Origins and Functional Analysis Developments. In: CORTES, V.; CSOMAY, E. (ed.). Corpus Linguistics in Applied Linguistics: Studies in Honor of Doug Biber. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2015. p. 197-216.

CORTES, V. The Purpose of This Study is to: Connecting Lexical Bundles and Moves in Research Article Introductions. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, v. 12, p. 33-43, 2013.

CORTES, V.; LAKE, W. LBiaP: A Solution to the Problem of Attaining Observation Independence in Lexical Bundle Studies. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, v. 28, n. 2, p. 263-277, 2023.

DORGELOH, H. The Interrelationship of Register and Genre in Medical Discourse. In: SCHUBERT, C.; SANCHEZ-STOCKHAMMER, C. (ed.). Variational Text Linguistics: Revising Register in English. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016. p. 43-65.

GAGNIER, J. J.; KIENLE, G.; ALTMAN, D. G.; MOHER, D.; SOX, H.; RILEY, D.; CARE GROUP. The CARE Guidelines: Consensus-Based Clinical Case Reporting Guideline Development. BMJ Case Reports, v. 2, n. 5, p. 38-43, 2013.

GRAY, B. Exploring Disciplinary Writing Through Corpus Linguistics: When Discipline Tells Only Part of the Story. 2014. Dissertation (Doctorate in Applied Linguistics) - Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, 2014. Unpublished.

GRAY, B. Linguistic Variation in Research Articles: When Discipline Tells Only Part of the Story. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2015.

HYLAND, K. As Can Be Seen: Lexical Bundles and Disciplinary Variation. English for Specific Purposes, v. 27, p. 4-21, 2008.

HYLAND, K.; JIANG, F. Academic Lexical Bundles: How Are They Changing? International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, v. 23, n. 4, p. 383-407, 2018.

JALALI, Z.; MOINI, M. Structure of Lexical Bundles in Introduction Section of Medical Research Articles. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, v. 98, p. 719-726, 2014.

LAKE, W.; CORTES, V. Lexical Bundles as Reflections of Disciplinary Norms in Spanish and English Literary Criticism, History and Psychology. In: ROMER, U.; CORTES, V.; FRIGINAL, E. (ed.). Advances in Corpus-Based Research on Academic Writing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2020. p. 184-203.

LIN, K.; MWINLAARU, I.; TAY, D. Introduction: Genre Research Into the 21st Century - Goals, Approaches, and Applications. In: LIN, K.; MWINLAARU, I.; TAY, D. (ed.). Approaches to Specialized Genres. Abingdon; New York: Routledge, 2021. p. 1.

LU, X.; DENG, J. With the Rapid Development: A Contrastive Analysis of Lexical Bundles in Dissertation Abstracts by Chinese and L1 English Doctoral Students. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, v. 39, p. 21-36, 2019.

MBODJ, N. B. Writing in the Disciplines and Within-Discipline Variations: A Comparison of the Formulaic Profiles of the Medical Research Article and the Medical Case Report. 2021. Dissertation (Doctorate in Applied Linguistics) - Georgia State University, Atlanta, 2021. Unpublished. DOI: https://doi.org/10.57709/26822844.

MBODJ-DIOP, N. B. Lexical Bundles in Medical Research Articles: Structures and Functions. 2016. Thesis (Master of Arts) - Michigan State University, Michigan, 2016.

MILLAR, N.; BUDGELL, B.; FULLER, K. “Use the Active Voice Whenever Possible”: The Impact of Style Guidelines in Medical Journals. Applied Linguistics, v. 34, n. 4, p. 393-414, 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/ams059.

NATTINGER, J.; DECARRICO, J. Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

NWOGU, K. N. The Medical Research Paper: Structure and Functions. English for Specific Purposes, v. 16, n. 2, p. 119-138, 1997.

PORTER, J. Intertextuality and the Discourse Community. Rhetoric Review, v. 5, p. 34-47, 1986.

REPPEN, R.; OLSON, S. Lexical Bundles Across Disciplines: A Look at Consistency and Variability. In: RÖMER, U.; CORTES, V.; FRIGINAL, E. (ed.). Advancements in Corpus-Based Research on Academic Writing. Amsterdam; New York: John Benjamins, 2020. p. 169-182.

SHAHRIARI, H. Comparing Lexical Bundles Across the Introduction, Method and Results Sections of the Research Article. Corpora, v. 12, p. 1-22, 2017.

SHIN, Y. Evaluative Prosody and Semantic Preference: Extending the Analysis of Recurrent Multiword Sequences. English for Specific Purposes, v. 59, p. 48-58, 2019.

SWALES, J. Research Genres. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

TOGNINI-BONELLI, E. Corpus Linguistics at Work. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2001.

WRIGHT, H. Lexical Bundles in Stand-Alone Literature Reviews: Sections, Frequencies, and Functions. English for Specific Purposes, v. 54, p. 1-14, 2019.