An important component of fluent linguistic production and a key distinguishing feature of particular modes,
registers and genres is the multi-word expressions referred to as ‘lexical bundles’. These are extended collocations which appear
more frequently than expected by chance, helping to shape meanings and contributing to our sense of coherence and distinctiveness
in a text. These strings have been studied extensively, particularly in academic writing in English, but little is known about how
they may have changed over time. In this paper we explore changes in their use and frequency over the past 50 years, drawing on a
corpus of 2.2 million words taken from top research journals in four disciplines. We find that bundles are not static and
invariant markers of research writing but change in response to new conditions and contexts, with the most interesting changes
within disciplines. The paper also discusses methodological approaches to studying bundles diachronically.
(2010) Lexical bundles in L1 and L2 student writing. Language, Learning and Technology, 14(2), 30–49.
Chen, Y.-H., & Baker, P.
(2016) Investigating criterial discourse features across second language development: Lexical bundles in rated learner essays. Applied Linguistics, 37(6), 849–880.
Conklin, K., & Schmitt, N.
(2008) Formulaic Sequences: Are they processed more quickly than nonformulaic language by native and nonnative speakers?Applied Linguistics, 29(1), 72–89.
Cortes, V.
(2004) Lexical bundles in published and student disciplinary writing: Examples from history and biology. English for Specific Purposes, 23(4), 397–423.
Cortes, V.
(2006) Teaching lexical bundles in the disciplines: An example from a writing intensive history class. Linguistics and Education, 17(4), 391–406.
(1951) Modes of meaning. In J. R. Firth (Ed.), Papers in Linguistics 1934–51 (pp. 190–215). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Glynos, J., & Howarth, D.
(2007) Logics of Critical Explanation in Social Political Theory. London: Routledge.
Hoey, M.
(2005) Lexical Priming: A New Theory of Words and Language. London: Routledge.
Hyland, K.
(2004) Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic Writing. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Hyland, K.
(2008a) Academic clusters: Text patterning in published and postgraduate writing. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 18(1), 41–62.
Hyland, K.
(2008b) As can be seen: Lexical bundles and disciplinary variation. English for Specific Purposes, 27(1), 4–21.
Hyland, K.
(2012) Bundles in academic discourse. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 321, 150–169.
Hyland, K., & Jiang, K.
(2016a) Change of attitude? A diachronic study of stance. Written Communication, 33(3), 251–274
Hyland, K., & Jiang, K.
(2016b) “We must conclude that…”: A diachronic study of academic engagement. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 241, 29–42.
Hyland, K., & Jiang, K.
(2018) “We believe that…”: Changes in an academic stance marker. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 38(2), 139–161.
Hyland, K., & Tse, P.
(2005) Hooking the reader: A corpus study of evaluative that in abstracts. English for Specific Purposes, 24(2), 123–139.
Kopaczyk, J.
(2012) Applications of the lexical bundles method in historical corpus research. In P. Pezik (Ed.), Corpus Data across Languages and Disciplines (pp. 83–95). Berlin: Peter Lang.
Kopaczyk, J.
(2013) The Legal Language of Scottish Burghs: Standardization and Lexical Bundles, 1380–1560. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ma, G. H.
(2009) A study of four-word lexical bundles in English major students’ timed writing. Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 41(1), 54–60.
(2010) An academic formulas list: New methods in phraseology research. Applied Linguistics, 31(4), 487–512.
Sinclair, J.
(1991) Corpus, Concordance, Collocation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wei, N. X.
(2007) Phraseological characteristics of Chinese learners’ spoken English: Evidence of lexical chunks from COLSEC. Modern Foreign Languages, 30(3), 280–291.
Wray, A.
(2002) Formulaic Language and the Lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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(2000) The functions of formulaic language: An integrated model. Language and Communication, 201, 1–28.
Cited by
Cited by 27 other publications
Atcheson, Hana
2022. Ustálená slovní spojení v odborných článcích výtvarných disciplín fotografie a produktového/průmyslového designu. In Výzkum v didaktice cizích jazyků V, ► pp. 165 ff.
Bao, Kai & Meihua Liu
2022. A Corpus Study of Lexical Bundles Used Differently in Dissertations Abstracts Produced by Chinese and American PhD Students of Linguistics. Frontiers in Psychology 13
Bargetto Fernández, Miguel Ángel & Karen Vanessa Córdova León
2023. Procesamiento del léxico disciplinar en estudiantes novatos de Kinesiología: reporte de una tarea de decisión léxica. Lingüística y Literatura 44:84 ► pp. 61 ff.
2022. Lexical bundles in maritime texts. ICAME Journal 46:1 ► pp. 5 ff.
Buerki, Andreas
2019. Furiously fast: On the speed of change in formulaic language. Yearbook of Phraseology 10:1 ► pp. 5 ff.
Buerki, Andreas
2020. Formulaic Language and Linguistic Change,
Cui, Xuanjun & Yoonjung Kim
2023. Structural and functional differences between bundles of different lengths: A corpus-driven study. Frontiers in Psychology 13
Davis, Boyd H., Meredith Troutman‐Jordan & Margaret Maclagan
2024. Your phrases matter: Third waves in research approaches and new contexts for formulaic language. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 59:1 ► pp. 84 ff.
Deng, Liming, Bagheri Fatemeh & Xiaoping Gao
2021. Exploring the interactive and interactional metadiscourse in doctoral dissertation writing: a diachronic study. Scientometrics 126:8 ► pp. 7223 ff.
Du, Zhongquan, Feng Jiang & Luda Liu
2021. Profiling figure legends in scientific research articles: A corpus-driven approach. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 54 ► pp. 101054 ff.
HADİZADEH, Abbas & Sonia JAHANGİRİAN
2022. Lexical Bundles and Disciplinary Variation in Master Theses. Language Teaching and Educational Research 5:2 ► pp. 59 ff.
Hyland, Ken & Feng (Kevin) Jiang
2022. Bundles in advanced EAL authors’ articles: How do they compare with world Englishes practices?. World Englishes 41:4 ► pp. 554 ff.
Jiang, Feng (Kevin) & Ken Hyland
2021. ‘The goal of this analysis …’: Changing patterns of metadiscursive nouns in disciplinary writing. Lingua 252 ► pp. 103017 ff.
Liu, Luda, Feng (Kevin) Jiang & Zhongquan Du
2023. Figure legends of scientific research articles: Rhetorical moves and phrase frames. English for Specific Purposes 70 ► pp. 86 ff.
Liu, Xia, Shuangling LI, Wenzhang Fan & Qimeng Dang
2023. Corpus-based bundle analysis to disciplinary variations: Relocating the role of bundle extraction criteria. English for Specific Purposes 70 ► pp. 151 ff.
2022. A functional analysis of lexical bundles in the discussion sections of applied linguistics research articles: A cross-paradigm study. Russian Journal of Linguistics 26:3 ► pp. 625 ff.
Siepmann, Dirk
2019. General academic language in German-English translation: a nuanced view. Lebende Sprachen 64:2 ► pp. 230 ff.
Su, Hang, Yuqing Zhang & Xiaofei Lu
2021. Applying local grammars to the diachronic investigation of discourse acts in academic writing: The case of exemplification in Linguistics research articles. English for Specific Purposes 63 ► pp. 120 ff.
Sun, Ya & Qiong Wang
2023. Mapping the Field of Register Studies: A Bibliometric Analysis. SAGE Open 13:4
YAKUT, İlyas & Fatma YUVAYAPAN
2022. LEXICAL BUNDLES ACROSS DISCIPLINES: THE CASE OF RESEARCH ARTICLES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES. İnönü University International Journal of Social Sciences (INIJOSS)
Yin, Xiaoyi & Shuangling Li
2021. Lexical bundles as an intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary mark: A corpus-based study of research articles from business, biology, and applied linguistics. Applied Corpus Linguistics 1:1 ► pp. 100006 ff.
Zhang, Shaojie, Hui Yu & Lawrence Jun Zhang
2021. Understanding the Sustainable Growth of EFL Students’ Writing Skills: Differences between Novice and Expert Writers in Their Use of Lexical Bundles in Academic Writing. Sustainability 13:10 ► pp. 5553 ff.
Zhou, Xinye, Yuan Gao & Xiaofei Lu
2023. Lexical complexity changes in 100 years’ academic writing: Evidence from Nature Biology Letters. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 64 ► pp. 101262 ff.
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