摘要:This corpus-based study explores frequency, form, and
function of a particular group of formulaic expressions: lexical bundles.
Lexical bundles are defined as commonly recurrent sequences of word combinations
which are often semantically regular, structurally incomplete, and not idiomatic
(Biber, et al., 1999). While most previous corpus-based studies of this group of
multi-word sequences have been mainly concerned with variations across different
disciplines, and registers, this study is looking at possible variations within
some written key academic genres of one single discipline of applied
linguistics. Lexical bundles within each of the genres are classified
structurally as well as functionally using Biber et al. (1999) and Hyland
(2008a) respectively. By comparing frequency, form ,and function of these
clusters in high-stakes postgraduate genres with research articles, this study
shows that not only are there relatively large differences between student
genres and research articles in the types of bundles employed, but also there
are some striking discrepancies in terms of frequency, and function of four-word
lexical bundles.