基于语料库的论文摘要语步的对比研究

语步分析是进行体裁分析和体裁研究的主要方法,也是分析论文摘要的重要手段。本文运用语步分析的方法,依照John Swales确立的导言-方法-结果-结论(IMRD)四语步模式,对72篇航空航天领域的中英论文英文摘要中的语步进行了基于语料的对比研究。结果显示,中英论文的英文摘要在宏观的语步结构和各语步的语言使用特征上都存在较大差异。中国科技工作者在撰写论文英文摘要或进行摘要汉英翻译时应对此予以重视,以促进科研成果的国际化。

Corpus-based Comparative Study of Moves in the Abstracts of Research Papers

As a major approach to genre study, move is of vital importance for analyzing abstracts of research papers. The present paper conducts a corpus-based comparative study of moves in the English abstracts of Chinese and English scientific research papers. The study adopts the four-move model established by John Swales as its framework. Two corpora are built, with one containing 36 English abstracts from Journal of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and another 36 from AIAA Journal. The study starts first from the move models of English abstracts of both corpora and then presents a detailed analysis of linguistic features of each move. Significant differences are found in both macrostructure and linguistic features between the two corpora. Further analysis shows that linguistic and cultural differences could have exerted great impact on the use of moves and their overall organization. It is suggested that, if papers in Chinese journals intend to be cited and indexed internationally, abstract writing and/or translating from Chinese into English need substantial improvement.