Lexical Analysis of Health Science Mass Circulation Articles (HSMCA) from the Frame Semantics Perspective

Abstract

Specific types of ‘genres’ and ‘sub-genres’ have widespread use as material for specific lexical items used in the teaching of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The main goal of this present study is to evaluate the quantity and quality of specific vocabulary as found in health science mass circulation articles (HSMCA). The authors propose to use Frame Semantics as the theoretical linguistic framework, and to utilise the frame ‘HEALTH’ as a cognitive linguistic analytical tool for this ‘sub-genre’. The resulting analysis demonstrates that health science articles (HSA) constituted important sources of material for EAP/ESP teachers, and learners, in the understanding of the constructive lexical nature of this specific ‘sub-genre’. The analysis also indicates that although some lexical discourse features of this ‘sub-genre’ are common to the general English vocabulary, other discourse features identified are unique to the requirements of the specific academic social group, L2 (non native) ‘health sciences students’.