Exploring lexical bundles in recent published papers in the field of applied linguistics

Abstract

ABSTRACT Multiword units can contribute significantly to the fluency of linguistic production. Lexical bundles, as a type of multiword units, are sequences of three or more words used with high frequency in natural discourse. Primary studies regarding the introduction of structural and functional classifications of lexical bundles have been followed by other researchers to compare them across disciplines based on the primary classifications. However, no comprehensive study has been conducted to explore and investigate the structural as well as the functional characteristics of the lexical bundles in research articles in the field of applied linguistics. This study aimed at exploring lexical bundles used in a substantial number of academic papers published in this specific field through different journals since 2008 to identify all the lexical bundles and to capture all the possible structural and functional characteristics they express. To achieve this, a corpus of papers published in the field of applied linguistics was complied and investigated. A considerable number of lexical bundles identified were similar to those previously found in the literature while a reasonable number of them expressed new structural and functional characteristics. The study concludes with theoretical as well as some pedagogical implications of the findings.