Abstract
Through combing out eight patterns of Thematic Progression which are most frequently used in English scientific and technological academic papers, this study aims to examine the usage tendency and internal influencing factors of Thematic Progression patterns in English research abstracts written by postgraduates majoring in architecture and civil engineering in mainland China. Combining corpus-based analyses and group-focus interviews, results show that the overall writing level of Chinese non-English major postgraduates could reach the publishing standards of international journals in the facet of the number of words and sentences. Especially, “Simple Linear Thematic Progression” and “Thematic Progression with a Constant Theme” were the most frequently used in the students’ abstracts. Findings suggest that the tendency of using “Simple Linear Thematic Progression” was driven by the logic of students’ thinking in the academic writing process, while the application of “Thematic Progression with a Constant Theme” was correlate with genre types. The specific Move Structure in research abstracts was also found to be potentially affecting the usage tendency of special Thematic Progression patterns. Both theoretical and practical implications were discussed in this study.
Highlights
Theme-Rheme development is of great significance for understanding the semantic cohesion and textual connotation at the micro-level of discourses
Based on the above-mentioned eight Thematic Progression patterns most commonly used in the scientific papers, this study aims at analyzing the usage tendency of the Thematic Progression patterns by employing the statistical analysis software SPSS
The results shows that the structure of students’ research abstracts is mainly composed of three major Moves, namely, Move1 which refers to searching for the “blanks” or gap in previous research, Move2 which refers to filling up the gap and Move3 which refers to the statements of research results
Summary
Theme-Rheme development is of great significance for understanding the semantic cohesion and textual connotation at the micro-level of discourses. Compared with the traditional grammar which emphasizing the linguistic forms of discourses, the study of Theme-Rheme development pays more attention to the importance of the content and meaning of discourses at the macro levelsentence function. Extant studies have shown that thematic-rheme relationship has been studies in various domains including news reports, advertisements and academic writing[1,2,3]. Academic writing gradually arouses scholars’ attention, because it has become an inevitable ability for postgraduates to master, especially in China. Chinese postgraduates are required to publish research papers in English so that they can graduate successfully. Architecture and Civil Engineering is one of them
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