Lexical bundles in PhD dissertations and master theses: A comparative inquiry

Abstract

"The objective of the current research was to analyze and compare the 4-gram lexical bundles from the three part-genre corpora. For the theoretical framework, Hyland’s (2008) taxonomy of lexical bundles was exploited. The corpus of the study consisted of 100 Master theses and PhD dissertations. The study was focused on abstract, introduction, and conclusion only and did not enter into other parts of the Master theses and PhD dissertations. The abstract part-genre contained noticeably more bundles than the other two part-genres. In addition, introduction and abstract part-genres contained the highest amount of research-oriented bundles. As far as participant-oriented bundles are concerned, it is the conclusion part that includes noticeably more of these bundles than the other two part-genres. Overall, findings of this research showed that in three major part-genres of the academically key genre of PhD dissertations and M.A. theses, i.e. abstract, introduction, and conclusion, it is the abstract that enjoys a high amount of formulaic language in the form of lexical bundles."

A Corpus-based Study of the Lexical Bundles in the Ph. D Linguistics Dissertations’ Abstracts in Pakistani Universities

“…Professionals in applied linguistics and literature have been observed to employ bundles with varying frequencies, exhibit distinct preferences when selecting lexical items to complete structural bundles, and employ functional bundles in diverse manners. Rezaie, Farahani, and Masoomzadeh (2020) have compared the use of lexical bundles in Ph.D. dissertations and Master theses. These researchers have observed that the abstract part of PhD and M.A dissertations has more lexical bundles than other most important genres of theses, i.e., introduction and conclusion.…”