A Corpus-based Study of the Structures and Functions of Academic Chunks in the Discipline of Engineering

DOI

10.2991/icimm-15.2015.241How to use a DOI?

Keywords

academic chunk; corpus-based study; engineering discipline

Abstract

Chunks are commonly used in academic written register, and there are quite remarkable differences in chunk features between disciplines. Based on a corpus investigation into 4-word chunks in research articles of engineering discipline, the present study has found that researchers in this field most frequently use the chunks of structures passive followed by prepositional phrase and noun phrase with of-phrase fragment. Besides, due to the empirical and experimental nature of engineering studies, researchers use research-oriented chunks most prevalently, text-oriented chunks the second, participant-oriented chunks the fewest. The findings on the structures and functions of academic chunks in the present study can provide pedagogical implications for academic writing in engineering field.

Copyright

© 2015, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Xin Chen
AU  - Gengsheng Xiao
PY  - 2015/07
DA  - 2015/07
TI  - A Corpus-based Study of the Structures and Functions of Academic Chunks in the Discipline of Engineering
BT  - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Information Engineering for Mechanics and Materials
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1328
EP  - 1332
SN  - 2352-5401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/icimm-15.2015.241
DO  - 10.2991/icimm-15.2015.241
ID  - Chen2015/07
ER  -