specialized discourse

Conciseness in Language

Another neological process is the merging of two lexemes into a single term (informatica from the French informatique = information + automatique). Another type of conciseness device is juxtaposition of two words, which allows to omit preposition and premodifiers (estrattoconto). Sometimes conciseness in specialized discourse relies on acronyms and abbreviations.

Conservatism: Fear that new terms may lead to ambiguity favours the permanence of traditional linguistic traits, which are preserved even if they disappear from general language. Old formulae are preferred to the new words because of their universally accepted interpretations. An amount of conservatism is found in business language and in legal language.

The need for reform in legal language in the 1970s gave rise in the USA to the Plain English Movement, whose efforts convinced President Carter to create guidelines for clear and simple English in government regulations. The reforming movement has inspired similar movements in

other countries. However, despite continued efforts by reformers, changes to the legal language have been few.

Ambiguity: Many texts show frequent violations to the principle of Monoreferentiality, and the presence of many cases of ambiguity. At times, this ambiguity is not planned, but in other cases it is an author's decision.

Imprecision: Despite precision being a prominent feature of specialized discourse, there are several exceptions to this rule in certain disciplinary fields. One of these is legal language, where terms are sometimes fuzzy. In particular, the use of adjectives sometimes allows subjective interpretations (e.g. proper).

Redundancy: Redundancy is a violation of the principle of conciseness, when the number of lexemes employed is higher than necessary. Legal language displays the highest occurrence of violations to the principle of conciseness. An example is neo-Latin terms coupled with Anglo-Saxon parallels. Sometimes, however, lexical doubling occurs.

Involves the same language and derives from its historical development (null and void). In some cases, words that now appear synonymous could be distinct in earlier centuries (last will and testament). To tell the truth, a degree of redundancy can be observed in the expression and nothing but the truth, used in the oath taken by witnesses in court.

Semantic instability

The nature of a concept may change in a short time. The semantic variation of words due to evolving cultural and social usage is typical of both general and specialized discourses. Sometimes semantic change is gradual: purchase denoted in its early stages the acquisition of something through force; in the 1500s, it took on the modern meaning of acquisition by payment. Sometimes the transformation process is due to specific actions that enable us to date exactly when the change occurred, for example, thanks to legislative innovations. The presence of new meanings replacing existing ones may lead to ambiguity, because the two

can overlap in actual use.

11 – The relationship with general language

The specialization of words borrowed form everyday language was intense in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, when technological and scientific development made it necessary to establish a specific lexis for separate disciplines.

The specialization process has produced new lexemes alongside existing ones, healing, treatment therapy which are no longer appropriate. The words and reflects a change in medical science. For terminological contrast with general language, the preferred option is to use Latin or Greek. Many classical rooted themes have produced prefixes and suffixes widely used in specialized language (kilo-, auto-, multi-).

An investigation related to lexis for body parts shows that the nouns are mostly Anglo-Saxon, whereas the adjectives are generally rooted in classical languages. This reflects the development of knowledge in anatomical science: brain/cerebral, chest/thoracic, heart/cardiac, liver/hepatic, rib/costal, skin/dermal,

lung/pulmonary.12 – Metaphors in specialized discourse

Metaphor creation is a frequent feature of specialist texts, above all for the purpose of catachresis (the putting of new senses into old words). This process has different advantages: transparency (a metaphor is used instead of a neologism), and conciseness (favouring rapid information transfer without complex explanations).

In specialized discourse, metaphors are employed as substituted and their function is mainly stylistic. 4

The use of metaphors as shortened simile occurs in specialized discourse when the aim is to popularise knowledge. In this case, they are called interactive metaphors (‘the brain is a computer’).

However, these metaphors require a greater effort on the interlocutor’s part for decoding. They may also allow more arbitrary interpretations, imprecision and vagueness.

Even metaphors that produce catachresis may, out of their original context, lead to instances of ambiguity.

Metaphors may help decode the

conceptual system under the theory. As Lakoff and Johnson have expressed, metaphor is not only a matter of language, because human thought processes are largely metaphorical.

Lexical productivity

Specialized discourse employs words drawn from general language, but the opposite also occurs: terms coined in a specialized setting becomes part of everyday lexis. For example, the word bank, often applied to containers for disposal of human organ, or data, has been deviated from its original meaning of a place where money are stored.

Many linguists are convinced that the lexical system of specialized language is more productive than that of standard language. Actually, we found the same lexical productivity phenomena both in specialized and in general language. So, the constant production of specialized terms is due to the rapid evolution of disciplinary fields and the constant redefinition of existing terms and concepts.

Chapter 3

Syntactic features of Specialized Discourse

The specificity of

morphosyntactic phenomena found in specialized languages is not qualitative but quantitative. Certain features may also occur in general language but their higher frequency in specialized discourse makes them typical only of the latter.

1 – Omission of phrasal elements

A common way to make sentences more concise is to omit their phrasal elements. For example, in a technical manual, articles are often omitted to make the text more compact.

2 – Expressive conciseness

The linguistic strategies employed in English specialized texts to avoid relative clauses and make sentences structure lighter are found both in specialized and general language. Indeed, common to the specialized texts is the substitution of relative clauses with adjectives usually obtained by means of affixation (workable metal = metal which can be worked).

Another device commonly adopted to simplify a relative clause containing a passive form consists in omitting its subject and auxiliary. In this case the verb of the

relative clause is turned into its past participle form and placed after the noun it specifies. The passive construction in also avoided. If the agent is5to be stated, it is placed before the past participle; the link between the two elements is made explicit by a hyphen (the car has a water-cooled engine = the car has an engine which is cooled by water).

Thus and so are used to avoid relative clauses and coordinated clauses joined by the expression 'and in this way' (The results so obtained were inaccurate = the results which were obtained in this way were inaccurate).

Another adverb commonly used in English to avoid a relative pronoun or the expression 'by means of which' is whereby.

Another strategy consists in the transformation of the verb of a relative clause into a present participle. If there is an adverb or an object in this kind of sentences, it is placed before the present participle (fast-growing/ rubber-producing).

In many cases, the subject of the secondary clause,

its auxiliary and the verb itself disappear (a pentagon is a five-sided figure = A pentagon is a figure which has five sides).

3 – Premodification Transition from postmodification to premodification allow shortening sentences. A distinctive aspect of the right-to-left pattern is nominal adjectivation (the use of a noun to specify another with an adjectival function). For nominal adjectivation, the maximum number of items is generally six. To solve ambiguities, linguistic competence has to be integrated by specialist knowledge of the topic. The hyphen is employed to avoid multiple interpretations (a small car factory = a small-car factory / a small car-factory). At times, ambiguity is caused by a polysemous premodifier (silver = mineral/colour).

4 – Nominalization It also occurs in general language. What makes it distinctive of specialized discourse is its frequent use by specialists and the high level of pre/postmodification involved. Greater conciseness is an important reason.

fortransformations like nominal adjectivation and premodification. We also foundinstances of substitution, with nominalized forms taking place of verbs.Nominalization also allows an easier flow of information from new to given,facilitating text development. Through nominalization, text also acquiresgreater cohesion.

Nominalization leads to a loss of verbal value. As a result, the verb isweakened and often function merely as a copula, a link between noun phrasesderived from syntactic transformation of verbs with a strong semanticto be.content. In this case, the preferred verb is The two parts of the sentencejoined by he copula are interchangeable: the subject complement can beplaced in initial position. This inversion is extremely useful when the subject isfar longer than the complement.

5 – Lexical densityLexica density is the high percentage of content words within a text,especially in a written one. Lexical density make a text more concise than one6written in a more natural

e complexity varies in specialized languages. Some sentences are short and concise, while others are longer and more complex. The length of a sentence depends on the amount of information that needs to be conveyed. In general, specialized languages tend to have shorter sentences compared to everyday language. This is because specialized languages prioritize clarity and precision, and shorter sentences are often more effective in achieving this goal. However, there are also instances where longer sentences are necessary to express complex ideas or provide detailed explanations. The use of complex noun phrases and technical terminology can also contribute to the length of sentences in specialized languages. Overall, sentence length in specialized languages is determined by the specific context and purpose of the text.