英汉议论文段落主题句的类型分布

对30篇英汉议论文中293个有效段落的统计表明,英汉议论文一半以上的段落都是演绎型。英语段落发展主要有两种模式:段首主题句和无主题句;汉语则有多种模式:段首、段尾、段中及无主题句段落。因此,既不能认为英汉语篇中的主题句运用没有差异,也不能简单地以直接、间接来区分。

The distribution of topic sentences in Chinese and English paragraphs

The statistical analysis of 293 efficacious paragraphs in 30 English and Chinese argumentative writings shows that more than half of the paragraphs in English and Chinese argumentative writings are deductive; there are mainly two types of paragraph development in English writing: topic sentence appearing at the beginning of a paragraph and no topic sentence existing; however, there are four types in Chinese, topic sentence appearing at the beginning, in the middle, at the end of a paragraph and no topic sentence existing. Therefore, we cannot take it for granted that there is no difference between Chinese and English discourses in using topic sentences, nor can we simply use directness and indirectness to distinguish between them.