The use of noun phrases in biomedical research papers written by Chinese scholars.

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Grammatically, the simplest kinds of clause in English usually consist of nouns and verbs, for example: However, both in spoken and written languages, the positions before and after the verb are rarely occupied by just a single noun. More usually, they are filled by groups of two or more words. These groups of words are called noun phrases (NP), for example: NPs consist of a head noun plus one or two of the optional elements. These optional elements fit into four predetermined slots in the NP: 1= determiner and/or enumerator (e.g., the, a, first, his) 2= pre-head modifier (e.g., red, washed, painting, steel) 3= head noun 4= post-head modifier (e.g., in Leeds, which I showed you) Because of the optional nature of the slots 1, 2 and 4, NPs have a highly variable length, ranging from just single words to passages of text (1). Specifically in biomedical research papers, NPs are commonly long containing large quantities of information, which are also the common reason for long and complex sentences, a prominent linguistic feature of research papers in English. Some examplar sentences are as the following: Example 1 NP (The age-matched LETO rats that are developed from the same colony of OLETF rats but do not show DM and pancreatic fibrosis) were used as a normal control (2). The subject of this sentence is a long NP, with the head noun of rats and slots 1, 2 and 4. The slot 4, as the post-head modifier, consists of two clauses, which is the main reason for the length and complexity of the sentence. Example 2 These rats were maintained in NP (a temperature- and humidity- controlled room with a 12:12h light-dark cycle) (2). After the preposition in, there is an NP with the head noun of room. The slots 1, 2 and 4 define the number and conditions of the room. The comparatively complex NP enlarges the quantity of information contained in just one simple sentence. Such long and complex NPs are common in biomedical research papers, whose use constitutes challenge to Chinese scholars due to the differences in habitual way of thinking and language expressing between Chinese and English. Linguistically, it is known as the negative transfer of the mother tongue (3). In this paper, I categorize the inappropriate use of NP in biomedical research papers written by Chinese scholars into four types as the following.