A Corpus-based Genre and
Language Feature Analysis of
Chinese and English Linguistics
and Literature Article Abstracts
Fan Chunxiang
Zhengzhou University
School of Foreign Languages
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Literature review
Objective
Method
Result
Conclusion
Literature review
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Teng Zhenru and Tan Wancheng (2004)
Lu Yuanwen (2009)
He Yuyin and Cao Zhenzhen (2010)
Li Qingming and Zhang Min (2012)
Yan Meijuan (2011) and Shi Wenxia
（2008)
 Chen Ruina（2011） and Ye Ning（2008）
 Li Yanfang (2009) and Wang Zhou (2008)
Objective
 the regular usage pattern of the language
in Chinese and English linguistic and
literature article abstracts
 the language traits of Chinese and English
linguistic and literature article abstracts
Method
 a self-built corpus by collecting the abstract of
some essays on linguistics and literature (252
Chinese and English abstracts respectively)
(Foreign Language, China Scientific Translation,
Foreign Language Learning, Modern Foreign
Language, Journal of Linguistics, Language
Teaching Research, Language Learning, The
Modern Language Journal)
 the corpus-driven approach
 The AntConc
Result
 The analysis on the generic structural
potential (GSP) of Chinese and English
linguistic and literary article abstracts
 Table 1
 Table 2
 Table 3
Result
 Summary of the GSP
 The generic structural potential (GSP) of Chinese
linguistic and literary article abstracts:
 IPMRC, among the 5 moves, the purpose and the
conclusion are the basic elements, the introduction,
method and the result moves are optional. The
frequency of the result move is the least and that of the
introduction is relatively higher.
 The generic structural potential (GSP) of English
linguistic and literary article abstracts:
 IPMRC, among the 5 moves, the purpose, method and
the conclusion are the basic elements, the introduction
and the result are optional. But the frequency of result
move in English is 66%, which means most English
abstracts will have the result move.
Result
 The language features of Chinese and
English article abstracts
 1. The use of the first person
 Table 4
 Table 5
 Analysis of the use of the first person
Result
 2. The use of the passive voice
 Table 6
 Analysis of the use of the passive voice
Conclusion
 From the above analysis on the generic structural potential (GSP) of
Chinese and English linguistic and literature article abstracts we can
easily see the difference between the two languages, which will be a
help to Chinese academic article writers. The writers know how to
write a good abstract, both Chinese and English, and catch more
publishing opportunities. After all, the authoritative magazines attach
much more importance to the high quality abstracts. There are some
writers who will publish their papers in the foreign magazines and a
high quality English abstract is necessary.
 The above analysis on the language features of Chinese and
English article abstracts makes us know the difference of the first
person and the passive voice between Chinese and English. It can
help us make a good translation to Chinese abstracts and keep
pace with the English ones.
 However, we should not, at the same time, ignore the difference
between the Chinese and the English culture. We’d better, in
abstract writing, operate on the principle that we try our best to keep
pace with the international pattern while not ignoring our own culture
(Teng & Tan, 2004). Therefore, we can exactly and timely convey
our messages to the readers with a high quality abstract.
Bibliography
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