DEFINING THE CONCEPT OF SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE 1920 1930

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 ALL LINGUISTIC LEVELS AND THEY MANIFEST THEMSELVES IN A DIFFERENT WAY BOTH QUALITATIVELY AND QUANTITATIVELY” (BARES 1972: 129)

Register studies RESEARCH INTO THE CONCEPT OF ‘REGISTER’ AFTER THE SECOND WORD WAR ATTEMPTED TO IDENTIFY THE MORPHOSYNTACTIC, LEXICAL AND STYLISTIC FEATURES THAT CHARACTERISE SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE

REGISTER STUDIES BY BRITISH LINGUISTS SIGNAL A KEEN INTEREST IN THE AUTONOMY OF SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE AS COMPARED TO GENERAL LANGUAGE

REGISTER ANALYSIS TURNED ITS ATTENTION TO THE DESCRIPTION OF ANY FEATURE THA DIVERGES FROM THE DEFAULT LEVEL OF COMMON LANGUAGE

Lexical Dimension FOCUS ON LEXICAL DIMENSION “SOME LEXICAL ITEMS SUFFICE ALMOST BY THEMSELVES TO IDENTIFY A CERTAIN REGISTER: ’CLEANSE’PUT US IN THE LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING, ‘PROBE’ OF NEWSPAPERS, ESPECIALLY HEADLINES, ‘TABLESPOON’ OF RECIPES OR PRESCRIPTIONS…” (HALLIDAY ET AL, 1964: 88)

IDENTIFICATION FOR EACH SPECIALIZED LANGUAGE OF TEXTUAL GENRES LINKED TO SETS OF CONSISTENT FEATURES.

Defining specialized discourse CONTROVERSIAL ASPECTS CONCERNING THE TERM USED TO DEFINE ITS OBJECT: SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE AS ‘RESTRICTED LANGUAGE’ (E. G. FLIGHT CONTROL, COMMUNICATION, BASED ON THE EXCHANGE OF STANDARD MESSAGES USING SET PHRASES WITH A SET OF AGREED VARIANTS)

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

SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE AS A ‘SPECIAL LANGUAGE’ (E. G. CODE Q, FREQUENTLY USED IN THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECTOR) SPECIAL RULES AND SYMBOLS DEVIATING FROM THOSE OF GENERAL LANGUAGE ARE EMPLOYED

BUT SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE IS DISTINGUISHED FROM GENERAL LANGUAGE NOT FOR ITS USE OF SPECIAL LINGUISTIC RULES ABSENT FROM GENERAL LANGUAGE BUT FOR ITS QUANTITATIVELY GREATER AND PRAGMATICALLY MORE SPECIFIC USE OF SUCH CONVENTIONS (GOTTI 2003)

SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE SPECIALIST USE OF LANGUAGE IN CONTEXTS WHICH ARE TYPICAL OF A SPECIALIZED ‘COMMUNITY’ IS CRUCIAL TO THE FIELD OF SPECIALIZED DISCOURSE AS THE FEATURES AND FORMS OF SPECIALIZED TEXTS ARE RECOGNIZED AND SHARED BY THE MEMBERS OF SPECIFIC PROFESSIONAL GROUPS. ‘

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)

● 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

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

CASE MENTIONE BY PANNICK (1985) OF A CAMBRIDGE PROFESSOR REPORTED TO THE ACADEMIC AUTHORITIES FOR IMMORAL BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS A STUDENT “SHE WAS WALKING WITH A MEMBER OF THE UNIVERSITY”

THE COMPLAINT WAS INSUFFICIENT FOR THE PROFESSOR TO BE CHARGED, BECAUSE OF THE EUPHEMISTIC WORDING USED BY THE AUTHORITIES IN ACADEMIC CIRCLES THE EXPRESSION WAS AN EQUIVALENT OF THE FOR ‘TO BE IN COMPANY WITH AN UNDERGRADUATE FOR AN IMMORAL PURPOSE’

THE COURT REJECTED THE UNIVERSITY’S COMPLAINT ON THE GROUNDS THAT ‘TO BE WALKING WITH 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

●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

UNDER LAVOISIER’S REFORM EACH SUFFIX WAS ASSIGNED A PRECISE MEANING WHICH ALLOWED A FUNCTIONAL DISTINCTION OF SIMILAR TERMS (E. G. NITRIC ACID NITROUS ACID, SULPHITE AND SULPHAT)

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

● 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)

●CONSERVATISM 17° -18° CENTURY SCIENTISTS NEEDED TO REDEFINE SPECIALIZED CONCEPTS AND REPLACE EXISTING TERMS WITH NEW ONES, USUALLY DRAWN FROM CLASSICAL LANGUAGES OLD FORMULAE ARE PREFERRED TO NEWLYCOINED WORDS BECAUSE OF THEIR CENTURY-OLD HISTORY AND HIGHLY CODIFIED INTEPRETATION