Characteristics of English for Science and Technology

The Syntactic Characteristics of EST 
The accuracy, conciseness and objectivity of EST documents are also achieved by some syntactic 
characteristics of EST, such as the extensive use of postpositive attributive, non-predicative verbs, 
passive voice as well as long and complicated sentences. 
Common Use of Postpositive Attributive 
Postpositive attributives commonly appearing in 
ordinary English are more frequently used in EST because of the preciseness requirement of ST 
documents. Generally, the use of postpositive attributives in EST can be realized through the 
following five structures: (1) Prepositional phrase. e.g.
 
The explanations of the earth’s magnetic field are 
generally accepted
.
(2) Adjectives or adjective phrases. e.g. 
All radiant energy has wavelike characteristics
, 
analogous to those of waves 
.
(3) Adverbs. e.g. 
The force upward equals the force downward so that the balloon 
stays at the level.
 
(4) Participles. e.g.
In 1983, there were only 200 computers connected to the Internet .
(5)
Attributive Clauses. e.g. 
The loads a structure is subjected are divided into dead loads, which include the 
weights of all parts of the structure, and live loads, which are due to the weights of people, moveable equipment.
Besides, encouragingly used in EST are some postpositive attributives of more complicated structure, 
which are actually combinations of the the above postpositive attributives of simple structure. For 
example, in the sentence 
Hand is the body part at the end of a person’s arm that includes the fingers and thumb, 
used for picking up, holding, and touching things
,
the scientific definition of 
hand
is precisely and 
compactly presented by a combination of prepositional phrase, attributive clause, and participle 
phrase.
2015 International Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research (ICHSSR 2015) 
© 2015. The authors - Published by Atlantis Press 
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