A Study On The Use Of Logical Conjunctions In Abstracts Of MA Theses By Chinese Postgraduates And English Native Speakers

In recent years,logical conjunctions(LCs)have attracted more and more attention in academic researches.However,it remains less explored on the LCs in abstracts of masters’ theses,especially on the comparative studies in different disciplinary contexts.This study,based on the self-built corpora of abstracts of masters’ theses of Chinese postgraduates and English native speakers in four disciplines(80 abstracts from each of these disciplines),investigates the distribution of logical conjunctions in English abstracts of MA theses composed by Chinese postgraduates as compared with English native speakers’,including overall frequency distribution features,semantic relations,positional distribution and disciplinary difference.The findings of this thesis are as follows:(1)With regard to overall frequency of logical conjunctions,Chinese postgraduates in these four disciplines(physics,computer science,linguistics and management)are inclined to use more logical conjunctions than English natives do in English abstracts of masters’ theses.(2)In terms of the distribution of semantic relations,it is found that both Chinese postgraduates and English native counterparts rely on additive relations most frequently,such as and,also and further;And they both use temporal relations least frequently.(3)As for the positional distribution,LCs in medial position predominate the use of logical conjunctions between the two corpora.Furthermore,Chinese postgraduates have a tendency to use more LCs in initial position,such as so,then,but fewer LCs in sentence-medial and final positions compared with English native speakers.(4)In the aspect of the usage of LCs in different disciplines,Chinese postgraduates tend to overuse them in these three disciplines,i.e.,linguistics,management and computer science but underuse them in physics than English native speakers do in English abstracts of masters’ theses.These results indicate that Chinese postgraduates still have some deficiencies in the use of logical conjunctions,mainly due to the influence of their non-English thinking patterns and their mother language transfer.This thesis may help them to master logical conjunctions better and use them more appropriately so that they can write more coherent and logical theses.For translators,the study will help them to use English logical conjunctions correctly,thus improving the accuracy and coherence of their translations from English to Chinese or vice versa.