“In the present study”: An exploration of prepositional phrase-frames in Chinese EFL learners’ theses and dissertations of applied linguistics

This paper delves into the overall use, grammatical patterns, and discourse-pragmatic functions of Prepositional Phrase-frames (PP-frames) utilized by Chinese EFL learners across Bachelor's theses, Master's theses, and Doctoral dissertations, in comparison with research articles (RAs) of Applied Linguistics. The analysis of these discontinuous formulaic language used in cross-sectional learner corpora and the RA corpus is pivotal for understanding the connection between academic literacy level and formulaic expressions in academic writing and for appreciating the development of phraseological competence among L1 Chinese writers as they navigate their way into the complexity of academic English. The findings unravel a growing tendency in the overall frequencies of use and a developmental trend in lexico-grammatical diversity and more genre- and discipline-specific functional characteristics, as Chinese EFL student writers advance through their academic journey from the undergraduate level to the doctoral level. A thorough analysis of functional dimensions of PP-frames in theses and dissertation writing reveals an increased level of functional complexity in the use of PP-frames for referential and discourse organizing functions. This study contributes to academic English instructions of PP-frames.