Comparison Of The Generic Structure Potentials Of Medical English Abstracts At Home And Abroad

Nowadays, studies on medical English abstracts mostly focus on native English speakers’ writing strategies or analysis of non-native speakers’ errors occurring on the linguistic level, and very few researches give emphasis on the deep structure of medical research articles’ abstracts from the perspective of comparative analysis. As the fact that medical English abstracts do play a very important role in spreading the latest findings in the field of medicine, this thesis is designed to make a systemic and comprehensive research on the difference and similarity between medical English abstracts written by Chinese writers and those written by non-Chinese writers from the perspective of comparative analysis.The core concept of Hasan’s Generic Structure Potential (GSP) theory is to study the deep structure of a certain genre on a macro-scale and describe all the possible structure expressions with the help of the GSP formula, which can help readers get a more systemic understanding of a genre. With Hasan’s theory of Generic Structure Potential as the theoretical basis, this thesis tries to make a comparative study on the deep structure of medical English abstracts. As the fulfillment of communicative functions of the discourse has to ask the linguistic strategies for help, this thesis will also investigate the linguistic features corresponding to the different structural elements. The aim of this thesis is to help readers gain a somewhat deeper insight into medical English abstracts and give readers some instructions in reading and writing medical English abstracts.The thesis uses stratified random sampling method to collect240medical English abstracts in all as target abstracts, with120named "Sample A" being from three core medical journals published in China, and the rest named "Sample B" being from three core medical journals published in English-speaking countries. The comparative study in this thesis mainly evolves from two aspects. One is to analyze the Generic Structure Potential (GSP) of medical English abstracts. And the other is to give a micro-level analysis of linguistic features in medical English abstracts, such as modals, verb voices, tenses, and the first personal pronouns. On the basis of the basic data statistics on these two aspects, a deeper comparative analysis is carried out with the help of SPSS (Statistical Product and Service Solutions) to process the raw data. The thesis mainly discusses the following items:the deep structures of medical English abstracts at home and abroad, the relationship between the distribution of linguistic features and the corresponding communicative functions of different structural sections of medical English abstracts, the similarities and differences between the medical English abstracts written by Chinese academic writers and those written by non-Chinese academic writers, as well as the possible factors lying behind these similarities and differences.Through the comparative study we find that the basic kinds of elements occurring in Sample A and those in Sample B are the same, i.e. Background, Objective, Method, Results, and Conclusion, but there is significant difference in the element composition between the two samples we have established. In Sample A, the obligatory element is Objective, while in Sample B, the obligatory element is Background. Compared with the structure of medical English abstracts written by Chinese writers, the structure of medical English abstracts written by non-Chinese writers is more flexible. There are also similarities, as well as differences existing between Sample A and Sample on the linguistic level. For example, the authors of medical English abstracts both at home and abroad tend to use the active voice in a higher frequency. However, when it comes to the element Method, there is difference existing between the two samples:the element Method in Sample B prefers to use the active voice, while the element Method in Sample A uses the passive voice in a higher frequency.Through the comparative study we can get the general conclusion that there are similarities, as well as differences existing between the medical English abstracts written by Chinese writers and those written by non-Chinese writers on both the structural and linguistic level, and the possible factors lying behind these similarities and differences are closely associated with the specific communicative functions of the discourse, as well as writers’personality, professional status, and cultural background.The present study will be useful for ESP writing and teaching, especially in the field of medical English. The comparative analysis between medical English abstracts written by Chinese writers and those written by non-Chinese writers can help readers get a clearer realization of the structural and linguistic features of medical English abstracts and do a better job in reading and writing medical English abstracts.