Structure of Lexical Bundles in Introduction Section of Medical Research Articles

Lexical bundles defined as recurrent sequences of words are considered as important building blocks of written and spoken academic discourse. This study investigated the use of four-word lexical bundles in introduction section of published research articles in medicine. For identifying lexical bundles, a number of computer softwares such as Antconc 3.2.3, and WordSmith Tools 5 were used. The results of the study showed that 161 lexical bundles differ structurally and most of the writers of medical research articles rely on noun phrases and phrasal bundles for establishing their written academic discourse.