Collocational frameworks in medical research papers: a genre-based study
Maria Jose Luzon Marco
Abstract
Each genre favours some linguistic structures and elements over others. The present
paper reveals the usefulness of corpus-based analysis to discover the linguistic patterns
selected and favoured by a speci®c genre. It analyzes the use of collocational frameworks,
or discontinuous sequences of words, in a corpus of medical research papers and describes
the intermediate words, or collocates, which ®ll these frameworks.
The results show that the frameworks the. . .of, a. . .of, and be. . .to, when used in medical
papers, enclose restricted sets of lexical items and that the selection of speci®c collocates for
these frameworks is conditioned by the linguistic conventions of the genre. # 1999 The
American University. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
English for Specific Purposes 19 (2000) 63±86
PERGAMON
http://www.corpus4u.org/upload/forum/2005062814544143.pdf
Maria Jose Luzon Marco
Abstract
Each genre favours some linguistic structures and elements over others. The present
paper reveals the usefulness of corpus-based analysis to discover the linguistic patterns
selected and favoured by a speci®c genre. It analyzes the use of collocational frameworks,
or discontinuous sequences of words, in a corpus of medical research papers and describes
the intermediate words, or collocates, which ®ll these frameworks.
The results show that the frameworks the. . .of, a. . .of, and be. . .to, when used in medical
papers, enclose restricted sets of lexical items and that the selection of speci®c collocates for
these frameworks is conditioned by the linguistic conventions of the genre. # 1999 The
American University. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
English for Specific Purposes 19 (2000) 63±86
PERGAMON
http://www.corpus4u.org/upload/forum/2005062814544143.pdf