Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 16:32:42 +0100
Message-Id: <199510271532.AA20330@ub4b.eunet.be>
To: medibib-l@uni-muenster.de
From: maesv@ub4b.eunet.be (Vincent Maes)
Subject: FYI - Medical Info article
>Information Processing & Management
>Vol.31, No. 5; October 1995
>ISSN: 0306-4573
>
>
>Abstracts in German Medical Journals: A Linguistic Analysis.....769-776
> by Ines-A. Busch-Lauer
>Abstract: Studies on contrastive genre analysis have become a current
>issue in research on languages for specific purposes (LSP) and are
>intended to economize specialist communication. The present article
>compares formal schemata and linguistic devices of German abstracts and
>their English equivalents, written by German medical scholars to English
>native speaker (NS) abstracts. The source material is a corpus of 20
>abstracts taken from German medical journals representing different
>degrees of specialism/professionalism. The method of linguistic analysis
>includes
> (1) the overall length of articles/abstracts,
> (2) the representation/arrangement of "moves",
> (3) the linguistic means (complexity of sentences, finite verb forms,
> active and passive voice, tenses, linking works, and lexical
> hedging).
>Results show no correlation between the length of articles and the length
>of abstracts. In contrast to NS author abstracts, the move "Background
>information" predominated in the structure of the studied German
>non-native speaker (GNNS) abstracts, whereas "Purpose of study" and
>"Conclusions" were not clearly stated. In linguistic terms, the German
>abstracts frequently contained lexical hedges, complex and enumerating
>sentence structures, passive voice and past tense as well as linkers of
>adversative, concessive and consecutive character. The GNNS English
>equivalent abstracts were author translations and contained structural
>and linguistic inadequacies which may hamper the general readability for
>the scientific community. Therefore abstracting should be systematically
>incorporated into language courses for the medical profession and for
>technical translators.
Vincent Maes
Pfizer
(Belgian Institute for Health Economics)
102, rue Leon Theodor
B-1090 Bruxelles (Belgium)
Tel : +32 2 423.07.12 / 423.07.68
Fax : +32 2 423.07.93
e-mail : maesv@pophost.eunet.be