FUNCTION OF LEXICAL BUNDLES IN ECONOMICS RESEARCH ARTICLES

Abstract

This paper investigates the function of 4-word lexical bundles in a corpus of economics research articles in English, written by Macedonian scholars. It adopts a corpus-driven approach, and it follows Hyland’s (2008a) tripartite functional classification of lexical bundles, grouping the bundles into three main categories: research-oriented, text-oriented and participant oriented. The findings indicate that lexical bundles contribute significantly to the creation of discourse in the economics research articles by serving various functions. The results also demonstrate that research-oriented lexical bundles are dominant in the academic writing for economics, supporting previous research which showed prevalence of this type of bundles in the academic written genres in general. This suggests that lexical bundles should be considered an important component in the process of language acquisition, and need to be introduced in EAP courses, emphasising the function they serve in specific registers.