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.