Phraseological Features of Cover Letters written by Chinese science and engineering majors

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2020.06.012

Abstract

Abstract:

Cover letters belong to an important promotional business-writing genre. This paper adopts a corpus-driven phraseological perspective, and extracts numerous multiword sequences from Chinese Science and Engineering Majors Written English Corpus by using the phrase-list approach, the node-word approach and the phrase-frame approach. The purpose is to examine formal and functional features of multi-word sequences in cover letters written by Chinese science and engineering majors. It is found that learners are generally capable of using various semi-fixed phrases with specific semantic, functional, and move features so as to achieve communicative purposes. Learner texts are characterized by the recurrency of conditional expressions and first person pronouns, revealing the differences in the use of politeness strategies across the learner and the reference corpora.

CLC Number:

ZHANG Le, LIU Qin. Phraseological Features of Cover Letters written by Chinese science and engineering majors[J]. Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies, 2020, 20(6): 111-120.

Figures/Tables 5

References 17

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语步	内容
语步1	说明招聘信息来源
语步2	提出申请,陈述意愿
语步3	提供支撑论据。包括: (语步3a)个人背景和经验 (语步3b)对公司的益处 (语步3c)对个人的益处
语步4	请求面试或进一步联系;恳请录用
语步5	表达感谢
语步6	表达提供其他信息的意愿

排序	短语	频数	排序	短语	频数
1	try my best to	188	16	I look forward to	99
2	give me a chance	177	17	you can give me	95
3	dear sir or madam	176	18	I think I can	94
4	I will work hard	159	19	looking forward to your	90
5	to apply for the	134	20	at the same time	88
6	I would like to	131	21	me a chance to	86
7	thank you for your	130	22	I believe I can	84
8	I will try my	120	23	I hope I can	82
9	sir or madam I	119	24	apply for the position	81
10	will try my best	119	25	to hearing from you	81
11	I am writing to	118	26	what's more I	80
12	I noticed the job	116	27	forward to hearing from	78
13	noticed the job opening	110	28	I want to be	77
14	I am interested in	102	29	will work hard and	70
15	can give me a	99	30	I am looking forward	68

EOP库		参照库
排序	短语	频数	短语	频数
1	if you give me	43	if you have any	12
2	if I get the	40	if you need any	8
3	if I can get	39	if you require any	7
4	if there is any	38	if you agree that	6
5	if I have the	36	if you need further	5
6	and if there is	36	grateful if you could	4
7	be grateful if you	34	be most grateful if	4
8	resume and if there	33	if you could consider	4
9	appreciate it if you	30	most grateful if you	4
10	if you can give	30	if you require further	4

EOP库			参照库
排序	短语框架	占文本比(%)		短语框架	占文本比(%)
1	I am *	1.30		my resume *	0.89
2	I have *	0.94		look * to	0.79
3	I can *	0.91		look forward *	0.79
4	I will *	0.74		forward to *	0.73
5	in the *	0.68		I would *	0.66
6	the * of	0.64		for the *	0.60
7	that I *	0.64		to * my	0.59
8	I * a	0.63		I * be	0.54
9	I * I	0.60		for * position	0.53
10	I * the	0.59		I am *	0.52
EOP库			参照库
排序	短语框架	占文本比(%)		短语框架	占文本比(%)
11	your company *	0.57		would * to	0.52
12	give me *	0.56		would like *	0.52
13	my * to	0.50		you for *	0.52
14	I * to	0.49		the * of	0.52
15	and I *	0.49		resume for *	0.51
16	to * for	0.48		my * for	0.49
17	I m *	0.47		I * forward	0.47
18	my best *	0.45		I look *	0.47
19	want to *	0.45		the * to	0.46
20	for the *	0.45		thank you *	0.44