The Relationship between Rhetorical moves and Lexical Cohesion Patterns; the case of Introduction and Discussion sections of Local and International Research Articles

Communicative moves and lexical cohesion patterns (LCPs), as mounting evidence shows, are two important indicators in writing and publishing the RAs. However, the interaction between these two crucial elements and the contribution of this interaction to the failure or success of the RAs have not been given due attention to date. Having this in mind and based on a sound theoretical framework, attempt was made to find the possible interaction between the generic moves and LCPs centralized within such moves. To this end, Swales' (1990) and Kanoksilapatham (2007) move analytical models and Hoey's (1991) LCPs model were drawn upon in the analysis of 40 local RAs written by Iranian writers and 40 RAs written in international journals across sub-disciplines of Applied Linguistics. Results of the move analysis showed no significant differences regarding the obligatory moves of Introduction section across the two corpora; however, significant differences in Discussion section were revealed. Findings of the interaction between moves and LCPs indicated that there are significant differences between local and international RAs in the use of M1 of Introduction as well as M2 and M4 of Discussion sections and the way LCPs are manipulated within these moves. As long as the interaction of these two linguistic and rhetorical features were concerned, at least four possibilities were observed across local and international journals which are thought to determine, among other factors, where these academic genres might be different; similar moves, similar LCPs; different moves, different LCPs; similar moves, different LCPs; and different moves, similar LCPs.