A Cross-Disciplinary Comparative Study On Co-Selection Patterns And Local Functions Of General Nouns In English Research Article Abstracts

General nouns are general and unspecific in meaning and their specific meanings should be determined in their immediate contexts.Previous studies primarily explored textual cohesive and evaluative functions of general nouns in academic discourse.However,few studies have focused on co-selection patterns of general nouns and their local functions in research article abstracts.Given that few studies have compared the characteristics of abstract writing of Applied Linguistics and Environmental Sciences,this thesis compares co-selection patterns of general nouns and their local functions in research article abstracts of the two disciplines.Based on self-built Applied Linguistics Abstract Corpus(ALAC)and Environmental Sciences Abstract Corpus(ESAC),this thesis first identified 10high-frequency overlapped general nouns(study,studies,research,data,results,effect,effects,levels,time and analysis),and divided them into 5 semantic groups.Then,guided by the co-selection theory,this thesis explored co-selection patterns of two recurrent semantic groups,namely STUDY Group(study,studies,research)and RESULT Group(data,results).Finally,local textual and evaluative functions of co-selection patterns were identified by reference to the local textual function and the local grammar of evaluation.Research results suggest that:(1)In terms of frequency distribution,a marked difference is found in frequency distribution of these eight general nouns: study,studies,research,results,effect,effects,time and analysis between ALAC and ESAC and they are less used by article writers from Environmental Sciences.And there is no significant difference in the frequency of data and levels between ALAC and ESAC.(2)In terms of composition of co-selection patterns,general nouns co-occur frequently with reporting verbs,link verbs,there be,intransitive verbs and prepositional phrases,forming four types of co-selection patterns.In STUDY group,the distribution proportions of co-selections of study and studies in ALAC are similar to those of their co-selection patterns in ESAC;co-selections of research and reporting verbs account for a higher proportion in ESAC while co-selections of research and prepositions have a higher proportion in ALAC.In RESULT group,results mainly collocates with reporting verbs,and distribution proportions of their co-selections are similar in the two corpora;co-selections of data and prepositions account for a higher proportion in ESAC.(3)In terms of local functions,recurrent co-selection patterns of general nouns realize various local textual functions,and a few types of co-selection patterns also fulfill the evaluative functions.STUDY group stands out through forming two types of co-selection patterns with reporting verbs,realizing the following textual functions:situating the research,presenting the research,describing the methodology,summarizing the results,discussing the research;co-selections of STUDY group and link verbs also fulfill the evaluative function,and adjectives in the patterns reflect different discipline characteristics.Co-selections of RESULT group and reporting verbs primarily realize textual functions of describing the methodology,summarizing the results,and discussing the research findings.These findings will expand research perspectives of general nouns,deepen students’ understanding of general nouns,offer teachers diverse instances for abstract writing teaching,provide article writers from the two disciplines with referential linguistic strategies of abstract writing,thus enhancing the readability of research article abstracts and expanding the influence of research article abstracts in academic exchanges.