Cohesion in English and Chinese Academic Journal Abstracts

Drawing on the theory of functional linguistics, this paper makes a comparative study on cohesive devices between English and Chinese journal Abstracts. The data of the present research are collected from both English and Chinese linguistic journals. The results show that lexical repetition is the most prominent type of cohesive device in both groups of Abstracts, whereas the differences are mainly in grammatical cohesion. The practical purpose of the paper is to draw the Abstractor's attention to cross-cultural and cross-linguistic divergences on cohesive devices between English and Chinese Abstracts, thus to enhance their ability in Abstract composition.