Professional Documents
Culture Documents
AN INTRODUCTION
M.SALA
Textual features
it is very important for specialized discourse because it facilitates the
comprehension of the context. Conceptual coherence and clarity in the
presentation of information.
-Specialized genres conform to natural sequences, common to all kinds of
discourse, which are based on theme-rheme patterns(the first item
immediately suggests or implies the second)
-When there's no cognitive interdependence between the variuos pieces
of information, the conceptual units are typographically distinguishable
in order to identify the section where the relevant information is.
Informative material is organized into visually identifiable blocks.
-Markers of textual/conceptual coherence (for example thus, as a result,
therefore) or procedural coherence (for example when, after, while)
signal the reader the sequencing of information.
-cohesion markers (endophora, exophora), repetition, not substitution to
avoid ambiguity.
-textual mapping devices (above, below, in the previous/next section)
Lexical features
it is very important: referential precision- transparency-conciseness of
the level of lexis.
-referential precision: it is the direct cognitive correspondance between
a term and a concept. It can be of two types: using monoreferential
terms: neologisms or istances of linguistic conservatism , which are
devoid of conventional association. The other way is to avoid polysemous
expressions for example generic terms, synonimous, euphenisms, indirect
expressions.
-Linguistic trasparency: the surface form of an expression makes its
meaning immediately accessible.
Use of compound nouns: ex. sea+speak= seaspeak
-conciseness: espression of concepts in the shortest possible way:
acronymous and abbreviations or juxtaposition or premodification.
Besides primary and secondary genres, there are interstitial (also called
peripheral genres) genres which include evaluatuvemand promotional
texts.
Personalization in acknowledgements
acknowledgements can be expressed in various ways:
Markedly personal: use of the first person singular (I, my, mine). It
manifests the author's persona and his/her personal emotions.
Unmarkedly personal: the author uses the plural (we, us, our) for
reasons of modesty.
Unmarkedly impersonal: the author uses the third person or his/her
proper name to refer to himself/herself. This strategy conveys
detatchment.
Markedly impersonal: -through the use of passives: the object/
people acknowledged are tranformed into subjects.
-nominalization: using nouns insteadof the verbs to express
gratutude or represent the type of contribution.
Ethos is set of ideas and moral attitudes that are typical of a particular
ropu.
Authorial stance: opinion that is stated publicly
it refers to the author's textual persona and his orientation towards the
domain of expertise. The ways the writers project themselves into their
texts to communicate integruty snd credibility.
The writer's self image combines three aspects:
evidentiality: the degree of confidence, implicit in what is said. A
degree of credibility or evidence.
Relation: constructions of relationships with the audience.
Affect: the writer's assessment(valutazione) of information,
his/her judgement.
First person plural: (WE) for singular agents: the author rhetorica shares
the responsability and credit with other members of the academic
community. It has two functions:
-a reader-inclusive function. The author establishes a common ground
with the reader, there's an agreement, it implies a degree of inclusion
and cooperation and it requires an active role on the part of the reader.
-a reader-exclusive function: the reader refers only to himself, excluding
the audience of readers. The reader is not implied. However it is a
mitigating strategy, because the author shares the responsability and
credit wiuth other members of the academic community.
Relevance markers
these are strategies meant to stress evidentiality, they signal the
significance of sections of texts and they emphasize the importance of a
given piece of information. It is compose by:
metadiscursive markers and markers of endophoric evaluation.
Metadiscursive markers: it is remarkable, it is important to see
that, what is crucial here, it would be interesting to consider, this
is significant, it is a worthwhile(interessante).
Markers of endophoric evaluation: they have a relevance
emphasizing function without having a metatextual character.
There are factive verbs (to confirm, prove, demonstrate, show),
adjectives like meaningful, useful, helpful and their corresponding
adverbial forms used to judge. Endophoric markers are meant to
enhance(migliorare) the perception of the scientific validity of the
research.
A relevance marking function is performed by:
-textual mapping(rilevamento) devices: they signal the organization of
the argumentation through discursive deitics pointing to other parts of
the text (es. Here, now, in the table below). The deitics show where the
information is to be found in the text.
-focaliziung expressions: expressions that give priority or focus on pieces
of information. (ex. In particular, especially). The focalizing expressions
add informative items useful to substantiate the contentof a claim.
Explicit evaluation:
writers present their research and they measure its value in relation to
currrent knowledge. Evaluation is expressed in positive terms, through
positive lexical items (strong, better, improvement), and positive
reporting verbs (prove, demonstrate, show). Positive evaluation performs
amodesty function (writers minimize praises lodi for themselves but they
maximise them for others). Writer signals community membership and
stress continuity with the previous research.
To gain community acceptance it is use a discursive tool that connects
the value of the writer's research to it.
The main goal of academic research is the concept of knowledge
advancement which embodies a form of criticism of the existing
literature and knowledge and it presupposes to fill the gap of the
previous research. In this case, writers choose a negative evaluative act
(simple explicit negative claims that are considered face-threatening for
interlocutors and in contrast with the modesty value. For this reason
criticism tends to be specific and limited to specific points.)
Implicit evaluation:
the author questions the validity of current knowledge and he presents
his/her work in contrastive terms.
Even if it is dificult to recognize evaluation in academic texts, it is
possible to retrieve(recuperare) some forms of evaluations:
-in the co-text(co-testo) from semantic elements (support or undermine
its precessor)
-from the cultural and disciplinary context (knowledge shared by the
whole academic community or school of thoughts.)
Evaluation system
Exophoric evaluation: it is expressed when discussing previous knowledge.
The evaluation system is used by writers to ascribe(attribuire) a claim to
the original researcher or when they refer to existing knowledge.
Thompson/Yijun model 1991
verbs are divided in:
-positive meaning: they express the reporting writer's positive and
negative judgements.
-negative meaning: they express the reporting writer's positive and
negative judgements.
-neutral meaning: it expresses the author's behaviour interpretation. yhe
reporting writer interprets the reported author's attitude in stating
his/her claim.
hyland classification 1999
Reporting verbs are divided into attitudinal verbs and non factive verbs.
Attitudinal verbs correspond to positive and negative verbs of the
previous classification and are subdivided into:
-factive verbs: they signal the reporting writer's acceptance of the
reporte claim. Ex to show, prove, demonstrate.
-counter-factive verbs: they express disagreement with the original
claim. ex. To ignore, to understimate, x fails to.
Non factive verbs correspond to neutral verbs of the previous
classification. They attribute a given orientation and degree of
commitment to the cited author in expressing a claim. They are sub
divided in:
-positive: they signal cited author's engagement towards his/her
claim. To advocate, to argue, to claim
-critical: they signal the researcher's sceptical stance towards a
claim. Ex to condemn, to deny, to object
-tentative: they signal the original researcher's limited engagement
towards a claim. ex to assume, to believe, to think, to suggest.
-neutral: they are represented by discourse and research verbs. Ex
to discuss, to state, to comment, to analyse.
Culture
each culture has its communicative practices, historically transmitted
and conventionaly shared views on reality, values and roles.
Culture:
-high context culture: the communication is highly context-dependent
andbased on shared knowledge. It is typical of Oriental cultures: Middle
East, Africa, Asia, South Africa)
-low context cultures: the mass of information is in the explicit code and
the meaning is wholly(intero) lexicalized.(Western Europa and North
America)
Language
the native language of the writer is a relevant factor for rhetorical
variation.
English: uncontested position of lingua franca: a vehicular language that
allows users of different languages to communicate.
ELF: English as Lingua Franca is considered a variety of standard English
which does not assume adherence to all anglo communication conventions
but is aimed at rhetorical clarity, comprehensibility and at persuasion.
Disciplinary domain
it is a very important concept to explain rhetorical variation.
Academic domains are reflected by cultural and linguistic systems that
reflect ideological orientation and knowledge-making practices.
Academic domain have bodies of knowledge, standard images of inquiry
and set of conventions (how to organize research and communicate
meanings for expressing collegiality, resolving difficulties and avoiding
disagreement.)
Hard knowledge (sciences) Soft knowledge (sciences)
Objective and detatched, presentation of They hinge on personal projection to construct a
information, they minimize the authorial credible persona.
presence in the text Tehy invoke an intelligent and interactive reader.
They discuss conceptual material in a non-
threatening way and persuasive way
long. Complex sentences.
They use citations