A Contrastive Genre Analysis Of Chinese And English Western Drug Package Inserts

As an indispensable component of medicine,the drug package insert is a legally valid document that instructs people the usage of drugs,which has become an important way to take a good command of the introduction of drugs and get to know the appropriate approach to use the medicine.However,most of the researches on drug package inserts have concentrated on the field of translation.Even for the few genre analysis researches focusing on the field of linguistics,they are mainly the single study on Chinese or English drug package inserts focusing on Chinese or western drug alone,which indicates that there is a lack of comparative studies on the Chinese and English drug package inserts of the same type.Therefore,this thesis will make a comparison between the Chinese and English western drug package inserts from the perspective of genre analysis,aiming to find out the similarities and differences in the move structure.This study selected 30 Chinese western drug package inserts and 30 English western drug package inserts respectively from the official website of China Medical Information Platform and EMC to make sure the authenticity exists,using a framework integrating Swales’ CARS model,Bhatia’s seven-step model and Hasan’s ESP model.By comparing the moves and steps of the 60 personage introduction texts,the aim of this research is to draw the similarities and differences between the English and Chinese western drug package inserts.Besides,the reasons of the similarities and differences are analyzed,so as to provide effective reference for Chinese companies to adapt the instructions of the drug to be in line with international standards.This study draws the following conclusions: The English and Chinese western drug package inserts share the same communicative purposes and thus can be regarded as a sub-genre of the promotional genre.As for the move structure,Chinese drug package inserts have fifteen moves,thirteen of which are obligatory moves while English ones contain thirteen moves,all of which are obligatory moves.Besides,although Chinese and English western drug package inserts share some same moves,they still have some differences from the perspective of move frequency,move length,move sequence and the steps identified in some moves.The move content in English is comparatively longer,and they put the move specification before properties,while Chinese ones tend to place it after properties.And this also happens in the adverse reaction move,which is demonstrated after the move of contraindications and cautions in English western drug package inserts.However,in Chinese ones,before contraindications and cautions is the certain place consumers can find it.In addition,this article also explains the reasons for the above differences.The author believes that this is due to culture differences including the uncertainty avoidance,individuality and thinking mode.