A Stylistic Analysis of English Abstracts in Academic Papers from CNKI

Hou+Lixiang+Zhang+Liping+Gao+Qiuju

Abstract：English abstracts， as an essential part of academic papers， play an important role in knowledge dissemination and academic exchange. A well-written abstract can not only attract the readers， but also increase the chances of the paper to be indexed and cited. Meanwhile， a concise abstract may save the readers time and help them withdraw the necessary information efficiently. So study on English abstracts is quite rewarding. Based on 30 English abstracts selected from CNKI at random， this paper attempts to make a stylistic analysis on the English abstracts of academic papers written by Chinese research article writer. These articles are analyzing the stylistic features of the English Abstract， it is hoped that this paper will enable Chinese research writers including undergraduates or postgraduates to eliminate the difficulties in understanding and writing the abstracts.

Key words：English Abstracts;Academic Articles;Stylistic Analysis

【摘要】英文摘要是学术论文的重要组成部分。好的摘要不仅能够吸引读者，节省读者的阅读时间，而且能够增加论文被索引和引用的机会。本文通过对30篇来自CNKI的由中国作者所写的论文摘要进行对比分析，详细剖析并总结英文摘要的文体特征，以期对论文撰写者提供有意义的指导。

【关键词】英文摘要;学术论文;文体分析

1. Introduction

It is a hot tendency to analyze academic papers from the perspective of stylistics in the recent 20 years in English study. Being a formal style， academic paper has its own stylistic features in grammar， vocabulary， etc. As Firth （1957）， a famous British linguist， puts it; “A restricted language serves as a circumscribed field of experience or action and can be said to have its own grammar and dictionary.” An English abstract， an indispensible part of an academic paper， plays an important role in research article. For one thing， it condenses the main information of research articles; for another， it saves the readers time by allowing them to decide whether they need to read further. Bhatia states that “an abstract， as commonly understood， is a description or factual summary of the much longer report， and is meant to give readers a concise knowledge of the full article.” “A well-prepared abstract enables readers to identify the basic content of a document quickly and accurately， to determine its relevance of their interests， and thus to decide whether they need to read the document in its entirety” （American National Standard In statute， 1979：1）. Thus， UNESCO requires that any paper submitted for publication should be accompanied by an English abstract. In China， almost every journal requires an abstract as a necessary part of an academic paper and most of the journals require any academic paper to be published should take an abstract both in Chinese and in English. In short， an abstract has the characteristics of brevity， conciseness and informativity， and provides the whole framework and concise content to assist the readers in deciding whether they need to read the document carefully or not.  So， a good abstract will influence the quality of the academic paper and is helpful to promote the academic exchange between different disciplines. Therefore， a study on English abstract is thought to be a rewarding job， since it will help the researchers and would-be researchers in China to gain more insights into English abstracts by which they can improve their ability to read and write abstracts.

2. Features of Stylistics

Stylistics aims at providing a methodology of analysis which will allow any person to deal with any context they want to study. There are three aspects in a speech event： the substantial， the formal， and the situational. The substantial aspect is related to the level of phonology/graphology; the formal is related to the level of lexis and grammar; the situational is related to the level of semantics. A situational variety of language can be seen as a complex of features describable by reference to a number of contextual categories. The categories are defined with reference to sets of linguistic features distinctive of a situation， which operates at some or all of the levels of a language. These features are stylistically significant features what we call stylistic features.

The three componential parts in stylistics will be analyzed in this paper： They are lexical level， syntactic/grammatical level and semantic level. These three aspects are introduced in detail ion the following part.

A： Lexical category

It refers to the choice of words， here are some typical aspects： monosyllabic or polysyllabic （simple or hard）; formal or informal （clipping or blends， abbreviations）; abstract or concrete （nouns）; general or specific （super-ordinate or subordinate）， etc.

B： The syntactic/ grammatical category

It refers to rules for ordering and connecting words into sentences. The main aspects are as follows： sentence types （simple or multiple）; sentence length （in number of words）; grammatical constructions （coordinative or cataloguing， parenthetical， etc.）; tenses （simple or past）， etc.）; voices （active or passive）.

C： Semantics category

It is used here to refer to the meaning of words， expression， etc. The meaning is conveyed from the addresser or the addressee. Here our concern is mainly the rhetorical devices， especially figure of speech which can be divided into several types： figures of comparison; figures of replacement; figures of repetition; figures of contrast; figures of double meaning; figures of resemblance， etc.

Apart from the figures of speech， communicative rhetorical devices （lexical accuracy， structural meticulousness， contextual appropriateness etc.） also play an important role. Second， “it may include such aspects as how the overall discourse patterning， planning， subject matter， the next layout， and the introduction of materials of different kinds contribute to the conveying of meaning of the whole text.”（Dong Qiming， 2008）

3. Stylistic Analysis of English Abstracts in Academic Papers

The author chooses CNKI （www.nj.cnki.net） as the source of data， since most academic periodicals or journals in China have been included in this databank. A total number of 30 English abstracts are chosen for this study. They are all selected from CNKI （China National Knowledge Internet）. Most of them are written by Chinese research article writers. On the basis of the analysis and sampling statistics of 30 English abstracts， the author summarizes the following stylistic features of English abstracts.

3.1 Syntactic Features of English Abstracts

3.1.1 Sentence Type and Length

From the analysis， we could conclude that the average of these samples is about 23.23 words per sentence. It shows that the academic papers tends to be more simple sentences， the characteristic of simple sentence is that the sentence should be conciseness and easy to remember. Simple sentence usually concerned with the subjects that people are interested in at the present time. They must be brief using the least space possible to convey the most information possible， and also they must appear to be objective and involve more multiple sentences in the academic papers.

Generally speaking， the shorter a sentence is， the simpler its structure becomes， sequentially， the easier of its meaning to be understood. In this section， the average sentence length is calculated simply in term of the number of the words from the initial letter to a full-stop， a question mark or exclamation mark.

3.1.2 Tenses

The writers hold different opinions on the tense usage in English abstract. In general， the usage of tenses in English abstract normally has two conversions. One is using simple present tense （Xiong & Teng， 2001）. For example， among 30 English abstracts that the author selected， most of their sentences are simple present tense. The other is that different situations use different tenses. The most commonly used tenses are simple present tense， simple past tense， and present perfect tense. Other tense forms occur only very rarely.

In these 30 samples， I find that the percentage of simple present tense， present perfect tense， simple past tense， and simple future tense is 85.7%， 10.9%， 0， and3.4% respectively. So it indicates that the frequently used tenses in English abstract for a academic paper are simple present tense and present perfect tense. Hence， I propose that we should use tenses according to the different situations.

3.1.3 Voices

After examining 30 English abstracts， I find that there exists a tendency to use active voice in English abstracts for the academic papers in Art courses. The details are as follows：

In sample1， three sentences are active voice， and only one sentence is passive voice.

In sample15， two sentences are active voice， and only one sentence is passive voice.

In sample 22， four sentences are active voice， and only one is active voice.

In sample 25， two sentences are active voice， and only one sentence is passive voice.

In sample 26， one sentence is active voice， and two sentences are passive voice.

In sample 29， one sentence is active voice， and one sentence is passive voice.

Other samples that I have not mentioned here are all active voices. From the table2， we know that there are 92 sentences in total English abstracts. So the percentage of the passive voice in these English abstracts is 7.6%.

In all， writers use more active voice in English abstract for their academic papers. I do not mean that you should never use the passive voice. But I remind you that using passive voice everywhere is not a good habit. Because the passive voice is less economical than the active in giving the same information， you will be cluttering the page with unnecessary words. Nowadays， it is a tendency to use more active voice in English abstract. What voice should we use not only depends on the characteristics of the abstract， but also the needs of the expression.

3.2 Lexical Features of English Abstracts

Academic papers and their abstract in particular， belong to the category of formal writing （Hu Gengshen）. Formal writing characterized by using written language is different from writing s in the colloquial style. Formal writing sets an unusually high value on objectivity， meticulous accuracy and restraint. It is directed to the readers mind and makes little effort to appeal to his emotions. Therefore， academic papers as well as their abstracts should be written formally rather than colloquially.

The formality and impersonality prevail to such extent in a formal paper that little use， if any， is made of the first and second persons “I” and “You”. And “We” is used only when it means the origination in which both the reader and the writer are included （Hu Gengshen）. The focus of the professional writing is upon the data or the analysis of the data.

After analyzing 30 English abstracts written by Chinese writers and evidence shows that most of them are in formal writing. Within these 30 abstracts， none of first or second person， or other colloquial words can be found in use. Look at the example：

（1）This paper analyzes in a comparative approach the major features of oral English and written English in an attempt to enhance English learnersawareness of the differences between the two registers thereby increasing their efficiency in improving their English communicative competence. （2）This paper is at the same time intended to help English learners get rid of their misconception about oral English learning. （3）The author also hopes that teachers of English will highlight the different language features between oral English and written English in their practical teaching and help students via a communicative teaching methodology overcome the problem of oral communication failures.

Technically speaking， this abstract is formally and professionally written. The author has written “This paper analyzes ……” rather than “I analyze……” in the paper. Also the writer has used “the author also hopes……”rather than “I also hope that ……” Therefore， it can be observed that this abstract is in formal writing.

3.3 Semantic Features of English Abstracts

3.3.1 Discourse Pattern

English abstract for a scientific paper generally has a pattern： presenting research problem， objective， methodology， main finding， or conclusion. Here I will choose Sample 27 as an example.

Sample：

Literary translation has been a major concern for translators. However， there exists a long debate about standard of translation. The paper further discusses the general features， translation standards， and strategy of literary translation. The paper points out that faithfulness is the basic principle guiding all kinds of translation in the course of literary translation， whereas all factors affecting the texts should be taker into consideration.

Problem： However， there exists a long debate about standard of translation.

Methodology： The paper further discusses the general features， translation standards， and strategy of literary translation.

Objective and finding： The paper points out that faithfulness is the basic principle guiding all kinds of translation in the course of literary translation， whereas all factors affecting the texts should be taker into consideration.

Generally， different types of discourse have different ways of organization; similar types of discourse present ideas in similar patterns.

3.3.2 Rhetorical Devices

After analyzing 30 English abstracts， there are few rhetorical devices in them. Academic papers are formal and justice， while rhetorical devices aim to make the article more vivid to understand. The most conspicuous semantic feature of academic papers is the use of a language in which most of the words are in their conceptual meaning. In other words， rhetorical devices， figure of speech can hardly find their places here. What is more， vague expressions are not allowed. Precise data are usually listed to support the scientific opinions， since the main purpose of academic papers is to give information， not to show feelings. The language should be colorless. So clarity and factuality are more important in academic papers than in other varieties.

4. Conclusion

From this study， the author has concluded that the English abstracts of the academic papers have their own characteristics in lexical， syntactic and semantic levels. It will help the Chinese research writers including undergraduates or postgraduates to know about the features of the English abstracts and help them read or write the English abstracts effectively and successfully.

【Bibliography】

[1] American National Standards Institute. Inc. American national standard for writing abstracts [M]. New York： American National Standard Institute， Inc. ANSI39. 1979.

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[3] Ventola， E. Abstracts as an Object of Linguistic Study[M]. In S. Cmejrkova， F. Danes & E. Havlova（Eds.）， Writing vs. speaking： Language， text， discourse， communication. Tubingen： Gunter Narr， 1994：333-352.

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【作者简介】

侯丽香（1980—），女，云南曲靖人，硕士学位，云南省楚雄市楚雄师范学院外国语学院讲师，主要研究方向：英语教学及翻译;

张丽萍（1969—），女，云南禄丰人，学士学位，云南省楚雄市楚雄师范学院外国语学院讲师，主要研究方向：大学英语教学;

高秋菊（1984—），女，云南楚雄人，硕士学位，云南省楚雄市楚雄师范学院外国语学院讲师，主要研究方向：大学英语教学。