A Study of Lexical Ties Used in Medical Science Articles Written by Iranian and English Authors

Abstract

Establishing a unified text which possesses distinct types of lexical ties is one of the challenging aspects of using a foreign language. This issue even becomes critical when producing the language in a written form is of concern. The present study attempted to compare the frequency of the use of lexical ties in English Medical Sciences (EMSs) articles written by Iranian and native writers. Based on this purpose, the researchers selected two sets of corpora each consisting 10 articles; one written by native authors and the other corpus written by non-native authors. In this research, the researchers examined the use of two types of lexical ties, i.e. reiteration and collocation in abstracts, introduction and discussion and conclusion of native and non-native EMSs articles. After collecting the data from the two sets of corpora, the researchers estimated the frequency of lexical ties. Later on, to compare the use of lexical ties in the two sets of corpora, the researchers used Linear Regression. The results indicated that there was not a statistically significant difference in the use of lexical ties in abstracts, introduction and discussion and conclusion sections of EMSs articles. The research findings have several implications for language instructors and university students.