English II

1.8 SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE: TEXTUAL FEATURES

Avoidance of standard textual norms, in favour of ‘deviant’ alternatives for pragmatic

reasons.

1.8.1 ANAPHORIC REFERENCE

• The use of ‘pro-nouns’ to substitute nouns is common to increase cohesion, but this may

be disregarded in specialized discourse;

• In Legal discourse, anaphoric reference is avoided in favour of lexical repetition, to achieve

maximum clarity and avoid ambiguity:

– The Tenant will permit the Landlord or the Landlord ’s agents . . . to enter his

property

• Avoiding anaphoric reference to achieve precision and clarity by a frequent reference to

parts of the text itself by the adverbials hereto, herein, hereof, thereto (‘textual mapping’

– Bhatia 1987):

– A copy of the agreement is attached hereto as Appendix B (without Appendices A

and B attached thereto which are Appendix A hereto and a form of this Agreement)

and made a part hereof is fully recited herein;

• Using a lexical anaphora that does not repeat words but clarifies the illocutionary value

(intentionality) of the word it refers to:

– The way to solve some problems connected with congestion in air traffic is to raise

prices at peak times and lower them at others. This proposal is based on nothing

more the principles of demand and supply.

1.8.2 USE OF CONJUNCTIONS

• Conjunctions add cohesion to texts, but also clarify the pragmatic purposes of the sentence

that follows them:

– but; however ; on the other hand introduce a sentence semantically opposed to the

previous one;

– as; since; for ; because; introduce a reason or explanation.

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1.8.3 THEMATIC SEQUENCE

• The thematic structure of specialized discourse (Halliday 1973; Halliday & Martin 1993)

focuses on a sequence of THEME(introducing the topic, or also ‘given’ information known

to the addressee) and RHEME (‘new’ information not found in the preceding text).

EXAMPLES OF THEME/RHEME STRUCTURE

“It is essential to keep magnetic disks in fireproof safes [Rheme]. This protection [Theme] of

original software, however, is not sufficient [Rheme]. An additional security precaution [Theme]

consists in storing copies at different sites, away from the computer.

1.8.4 ARGUMENTATIVE PATTERN

• Aim of argumentation: to convince readers that the author’s perspective is the right one;

• ‘Compositional plan’ of the text (Weirlich 1976): CLAIM based on DATA and suppor-

ted by WARRANT yet: CLAIM undermined by REBUTTAL by a QUALIFIER (e.g.,

‘presumably’) so: CLAIM strengthened by BACKING ITEM;

• Overall pattern underlying argumentative texts (Toulmin 1958):

DATA observation – PROBLEM identification – suggest of SOLUTION – argumentation

supported by PROOF - CONCLUSION

• The author’s criticism to alternative claims is carried out by projecting his/her ‘authorial

self’ in the text, by means of the first-person pronouns I, we:

– I shall argue that the postulates of the classical theory are applicable to a special

case only and not to the general case.

• by indirect expression of critical views by means of indefinite forms such as one, someone,

or general nouns such as people, the majority, etc.:

– In the case of a change peculiar to a particular industry one would expect the change

in real wages to be in the same direction as the change in the moneywages;

– Some people still seem to accept that war is a risk of power politics. But the majority

would probably hold that war is a completely inappropriate means of politics

• To make his/her persuasive function more effective, the author can appeal directly to the

reader:

– The reader can notice that . . .

• The author can choose not to mention the reader explicitly, preferring to use more

impersonal sentences or a persuasive use of modals such as must or should :

– These conclusions are intended, it must be remembered, to apply to . . .

• The author can compel the reader to obey his/her argumentative instructions, choosing

a neutral tone, as well as use of modals indicating a logical conclusion based on evidence:

– If employment increases, then the reward per unit in terms of wage-goods must, in

general, decline and profits increase;

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1.8.5 THE EMOTIVE FORCE OF SPECIALIZED TEXTS

• Objectivity of SD requires the removal of emotive content (Walton 1989);

• YET :

• ‘persuasive rhetoric’ (Frye 1957) requires a reconsideration of the emotive element in

argumentation;

• HENCE : use of figurative and emotive language also in SD to reinforce the persuasive

aims of argumentation:

– use of adjectives such as: extreme, extensive, enormous, disastrous, violently, pre-

vailing, etc. and attitudinal adverbials such as: obviously, surely, indeed, of course,

frankly, etc.;

– Day-to-day fluctuations in the profits of existing investments tend to have an exten-

sive, and even an absurd, influence on the market.

1.9 THE LEXIS OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

• Main features of the lexis of computer science

• Information Science: new specialized field with specific concepts and tools, developing its

own terminology. Its lexis is often derived from:

– other disciplines;

– general English.

• Focus on technical words used by specialists to communicate with other specialists as

regards computer applications.

1.9.1 COMPUTER SCIENCE: SPECIALIZATION AND BORROWING

WORDS BORROWED FROM THE GENERAL LANGUAGE

• – hardware;

– chat group;

– program;

– disk.

• Use of American English (AE) instead of British English (BE) because of the US computer

industry:

– program (AE) vs. programme (BE);

– disk (AE) vs. disc (BE). 11

METAPHORS

reformulation of new concepts to create analogy (which, however, is often misleading):

• memory; bus;

• gate; store;

• menu; domain;

• mouse [singular =⇒ mouses – regular plural =⇒ mice – irregular plural in general

English];

• spamming [= brand of canned meat].

CHANGE OF GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY

• e-mail / emails =⇒ e-mail (verb) [but mail is uncountable in English];

• format [noun and verb =⇒ only noun in general English];

• peripheral [noun and adjective =⇒ only adjective in general English].

USE OF COMPRESSION TECHNIQUE

• alphametric from alphanumeric;

• digitize from digitalize;

• optronics from optoelectronics.

1.9.2 COMPUTER SCIENCE: NEOLOGY

• Creation of new words when they cannot be borrowed from general English, or specialized

languages, or foreign languages;

• Derivation processes by:

– Association:

∗ byte = a blend of bit (‘morsel’) and bite (‘chew’), but also acronym of Binary

digIT Eight;

– Affixation (suffixes/prefixes):

∗ Autocode; kilobyte; megabit; postprocessing; nonformatted ; multiaddress;

– Analogy (new words modelled on already existing lexeme):

∗ software from hardware;

• Derivation process by:

– Simile: (new expressions referring to aspect or category of an item):

∗ bridge connector ; banana plug; star connection; . . .

– Compounding economy (new expressions as short and concise as possible):

∗ computer programmer from programmer of computers;

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– Material specification:

∗ ferrite core; silicon chip;

– Use specification:

∗ access arm; control byte; load program; . . .

1.9.3 COMPUTER SCIENCE: ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATION

• Acronyms to make group of words as concise as possible:

– ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange;

– RAM = Random Access Memory;

– ROM = Read Only Memory.

• Acronyms suggesting an implied meaning:

– BASIC = Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code;

– EDIT = Error Deletion by Iterative Transmission.

• Abbreviations:

– CPU = Central Processing Unit;

– ALU = Arithmetic and Logical Unit;

– EDP = Electronic Data Processing.

1.9.4 COMPUTER SCIENCE: RECENT DEVELOPMENT

• Suffixation

– -er = referred to person performing a certain action:

∗ emailer (= email sender); nternetter (= Internet user); lurker (bulletin subscri-

ber who reads but doesn’t contribute to it); . . .

– -ing = deriving nouns from verbs and referred to processes:

∗ cyberizing (= causing someone’s interest in computer use); netwriting (= writing

on the Internet); . . .

– -ie = referred to newcomers to the field of computer science:

∗ nettie and newbie (= inexperienced Internet user).

• Prefixation

– re- = denoting repetition of an operation:

∗ remailer (= network-connected computer that takes email, sends it on to a

destination, and places a veil between sender and receiver);

– cyber- = [from ‘cybernetics’] creating compound neologisms referred to computer

usage:

∗ cyberboard ; cyberchat; cybercrime; cybersex ;

∗ cyber culture; cyber science; cyber world.

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– info- = [from ‘information’] creating neologisms:

∗ Infomania; infomercial ; infotainment.

• Analogic derivation

– offline / online reader (= reading email messages with the Internet ‘off’ or ‘on’);

– Internaut (from ‘austronaut’ = one who explores the Internet).

1.10 POPULARIZATION

• Definition 1. Popularization

The conveyance of specialist knowledge for education or information purposes for an

audience of nonspecialists;

• (a) and popularizations:

Difference between pedagogic texts

– (a) = systematically providing students with conceptual and terminological resour-

ces suited to the subject content (“secondary culture”—Widdowson 1979), such as

undergraduate textbooks, instruction manuals;

– (b) = providing a wide reading public with specialized topics through everyday

language and experience (thus extending the reader’s knowledge).

1.10.1 POPULARIZATION AND TRANSLATION

• Popularization is close to translation in that it involves the transformation of a source text

(the specialized text) into a derived text (the popular text);

• Popularization as ‘redrafting’ that does not alter the disciplinary content but its language

to suit a new target audience (‘intralinguistic translation’);

• Its language presents a wide use of metaphors and similes linking specialized content with

the public’s general knowledge.

1.10.2 POPULARIZATION: FEATURES

• Absence of argumentative patterns stressing authorial innovations:

– ‘I have called&rsq