Connecting lexical bundles and moves in medical research articles’ Methods section

Abstract

This study employs a corpus-driven approach to identify the four-word lexical bundles in the Methods section of 1 000 medical research articles (MRAs) from ten leading medical journals representing ten medical sub-fields. The bundles are first structurally and functionally analysed and further connected to rhetorical moves to fill the form-function gap of lexical bundle studies. Results showed that, structurally, the Methods section is dominated by clausal bundles (types and tokens). Functionally, the Methods section is dominated by research-oriented bundles (types and tokens). Our analysis of the bundle-move connection in the Methods section showed that all move-specific bundles (i.e. bundles occurring in only one move) are strongly associated with the rhetorical function of the moves they occurred in, while most cross-move bundles (i.e. bundles occurring in multiple moves) seem to display no clear associations with moves. In addition, the structural and functional analysis of move-specific bundles and cross-move bundles showed apparent structural and functional similarities. Our study may have valuable pedagogical implications for medical academic writing.