Lexical bundle variation across moves in abstracts of medical research articles

The aim of this study was to explore lexical bundle use in four moves within abstracts of medical research articles (RAs) and to investigate the relation between bundles and moves. Lexical bundles were identified, and bundle structures and functions in each move were compared and analysed. Four-word bundles in medical RA abstracts were characterised by considerable overlap. The majority of lexical bundles were specific to only one move. There was no significant difference in bundle structures in types across moves, but there was a significant difference in tokens. There was a significant difference in bundle functions in both types and tokens. These differences may be attributable to the rhetorical functions of each move, which reflects a relation between lexical bundles and moves. These findings suggest caution in considering the bundle features of medical RA abstracts as a whole, since bundle variation across moves needs to be taken into consideration.