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Article published In:
Register Studies
Vol. 2:2 (2020) ► pp.176–208

Functional variation of lexical bundles in academic lectures and TED talks

| National Taiwan Normal University
| National Taiwan Normal University

This study explores the differences between academic lectures and TED talks by comparing their respective frequent four-word lexical bundles, and the discourse functions of those bundles in these two registers. The results indicate that academic lectures use more varied lexical bundles at a higher frequency than TED talks do. The functional distributions of the bundles further reveal that referential bundles are prevalent in both registers. However, TED speakers use more lexical bundles to organize their discourse and to guide the audience through their talks, while academic lecturers use more stance bundles to show their intentions and to inform the audience about upcoming events. The distinctive characteristics of academic lectures and TED talks are revealed via the divergent sets of lexical bundles in the two registers; the two registers are also shown to differ greatly in terms of the use of lexical bundles for different functions.

Keywords: lexical bundles, academic lectures, TED talks, discourse functions
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Description and classification of lexical bundles
    • 2.2Lexical bundles in academic lectures
    • 2.3TED talks
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Corpora
    • 3.2Bundle extraction and analysis
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Lexical bundles in academic lectures and TED talks
    • 4.2Functional distribution of lexical bundles
      • 4.2.1Stance expressions
      • 4.2.2Discourse organizers
      • 4.2.3Referential bundles
      • 4.2.4Special conversational functions
  • 5.Pedagogical implications
  • 6.Limitations and directions for future research
  • 7.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 23 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rs.18003.liu
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