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Defining the concept of Specialized Discourse

Defining the concept of Specialized Discourse. 1920-1930. SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE AT A LOWER LEVEL CLEAR-CUT DEFINITIONS OF THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SPECIALIZED AND ‘GENERAL’ DISCOURSE. “ Differences between current English and technical English can be found at

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Defining the concept of Specialized Discourse

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  1. Defining the conceptofSpecializedDiscourse

  2. 1920-1930 SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE AT A LOWER LEVEL CLEAR-CUT DEFINITIONS OF THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SPECIALIZED AND ‘GENERAL’ DISCOURSE

  3. “Differencesbetweencurrent English and technical English can befound at alllinguisticlevels and they manifestthemselves in a different way bothqualitatively and Quantitatively” (Bares 1972:129)

  4. Register studies Researchinto the conceptof ‘register’ after the Second Word war attemptedtoidentify the morphosyntactic, lexical and stylisticfeaturesthatcharacterise specializeddiscourse

  5. Registerstudiesbybritishlinguists signal a keen interest in the autonomyofspecializeddiscourseas comparedtogenerallanguage

  6. RegisterAnalysis TURNED its attentionto the descriptionofany featurethadivergesfrom the default levelof common language

  7. Lexical Dimension Focus on lexicAL DIMENSION “Some lexicalitemssufficealmostbythemselvestoidentify a certainregister:’cleanse’put us in the languageof advertising, ‘probe’ ofnewspapers, especiallyheadlines, ‘tablespoon’ ofrecipes or prescriptions…” (Hallidayet al, 1964:88)

  8. Identificationforeachspecialized languageoftextualgenreslinkedto setsofconsistentfeatures.

  9. Defining specialized discourse Controversialaspects Concerning the termusedtodefine itsobject: Specializeddiscourseas ‘restrictedlanguage’ (e.g. flight control, communication,based on the exchangeof standard messagesusing set phraseswith a set ofagreedvariants)

  10. BUT THE TERMS ‘RESTRICTED CODE’ AND ‘SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE’ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE AS SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE EXPLOITS THE LANGUAGE CODE IN A FAR MORE CREATIVE AND VARIED WAY

  11. SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE AS A ‘SPECIAL LANGUAGE’ (E.G. Code Q, frequentlyused in the telecommunicationssector) Specialrules and symbolsdeviatingfromthoseofgenerallanguage are employed

  12. But Specializeddiscourseisdistinguishedfromgenerallanguagenotforitsuseofspeciallinguisticrulesabsentfromgenerallanguagebutforitsquantitativelygreater and pragmatically more specificuseofsuchconventions (Gotti 2003)

  13. Specializeddiscourse Specialistuseoflanguage in contextswhich are typicalof a specialized ‘community’ ‘Community’ Iscrucialto the fieldofspecializeddiscourseas the features and formsofspecializedtexts are recognized and sharedby the membersofspecificprofessionalgroups. ‘

  14. Lexical features of Specialized Discourse ● MONOREFERENTIALITY: ONLY ONE MEANING IS ALLOWED ‘TERMINOLOGY TENDENCY’: ‘THE TENDENCY FOR A WORD TO HAVE A FIXED MEANING IN REFERENCE TO THE WORLD, SO THAT ANYONE WANTING TO NAME ITS REFERENT WOULD HAVE LITTLE OPTION BUT TO USE IT, ESPECIALLY IF THE RELATIONSHIP WORKS IN BOTH DIRECTIONS’ (SINCLAIR 1996: 82)

  15. ● LACK OF EMOTION: LACK OF EMOTIVE CONNOTATIONS TERMS HAVE A PURELY DENOTATIVE FUNCTION (lion: generALLY ASSOCIATED WITH SUCH QUALITIES AS FIERCENESS, AGGRESSIVENESS, PRIDE, MAJESTY BUT IN SPECIALIZED TEXTS THESE CONNOTATIONS ARE LOST

  16. ●PRECISION EVERY TERM MUST POINT IMMEDIATELY TO ITS OWN CONCEPT EXCLUSION OF SUCH DEVICES AS EUPHEMISM

  17. CASE MENTIONE BY PANNICK (1985) OF A CAMBRIDGE PROFESSOR REPORTED TO THE ACADEMIC AUTHORITIES FOR IMMORAL BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS A STUDENT “Shewaswalkingwith a memberof the university”

  18. The complaintwasinsufficientfor the professor tobecharged, because of the euphemisticwordingusedby the authorities In academiccircles the expressionwasanequivalentof the for ‘tobe in company withanundergraduateforanimmoralpurpose’

  19. The court rejected the university’s complaint on the groundsthat ‘tobewalkingwith a MEMBER OF THE UNIVERSITY’ DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A CRIMINAL OFFENCE UNDER COMMON LAW OR ANY OFFICIAL LAW OR EXPLICIT RULE CONTAINED IN THE STATUTE OF THE UNIVERSITY

  20. ●TRANSPARENCY POSSIBILITY TO PROMPTLY ACCESS A TERM’S MEANING THROUGH ITS SURFACE FORM LAVOISIER DEVELOPED A NEW NAMING SYSTEM FOR CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS TO ALLOW READERS TO IMMEDIATELY IDENTIFY THE NATURE OF THE COMPOUND CONCERNED

  21. UNDER LAVOISIER’S REFORM EACH SUFFIX WAS ASSIGNED A PRECISE MEANING WHICH ALLOWED A FUNCtionaldistinctionofsimilarterms (e.g. nitricacid nitrous acid, sulphite and sulphat)

  22. ●CONCISENESS THE CONCEPTS ARE EXPRESSED IN THE SHORTEST POSSIBLE FORM REDUCTION IN TEXTUAL SURFACE, FOR EXAMPLE ZERO DERIVATION: SALDO FROM SALDARE, CONVALIDA FROM CONVALIDARE, UTILIZZO FROM UTILIZZARE…

  23. ● CONCISENESS RELIES ON ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS E.G. “WE HAD A DOA LAST NIGHT” (DEAD ON ARRIVAL) “HE ENTERED IN A BAD DKA” (DIABETIC KETOACIDOSIS)

  24. ●Conservatism 17° -18° centuryscientistsneededtoredefinespecializedconcepts and replaceexistingtermswithnewones, usuallydrawnfromclassicallanguages Oldformulae are preferredtonewly-coinedwordsbecauseoftheircentury-oldhistory and highlycodifiedintepretation

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