A Corpus-Based Study with Corpus Materials on Conjunctions Used by Chinese and English Authors in English Academic Article Abstracts

Abstract

On the basis of Halliday’s theory of cohesion and achievements of Chinese and English leading scholars in this field, the present writer applies the principles of Chinese traditional textual cohesion — introduction, elucidation, transition and summing up — to the study of the use of conjunctions in English abstracts in China’s English journals based on two self-built corpora with Corpus Materials. A number of Chinese and English scholars have done researches on the use of conjunctions by contrastive analysis with the rise of corpus linguistics. However, most of the main-stream research waves focused their attention on the functional classification of conjunctions based on Halliday’s or Quirk’s theories. The research findings would be of practical and instructive significance to Chinese EFL and researchers in writing English abstracts. They might be also helpful to teachers in EAP (English for Academic Purpose) teaching.