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SPECIALIZED COMMUNICATION AND POPULARIZATION IN ENGLISH
1. Language for specific purposes and specialized communication: An introduction
1.1 Opening remarks The last few decades have seen an acceleration of progress in science and technology and an increasing specialization in all disciplinary and professional fields. At the same time, thanks to advances in transport and in information and communications technologies, exchanges among insiders - scholars, scientists, experts, professionals, technologists - have become ever more frequent and intense. All this has multiplied opportunities for discussion and exchange of views. Language and discourse have evolved to suit the needs of the scientific and professional community. Two main and contradictory directions of evolution can be identified. On the one hand, the degree of specialization of conversations (written and oral) among scholars has greatly increased. On the other hand, scientific advances are having an inevitable impact on people's life, affecting everyday conversations. Communication among experts and popularization are strictly related to each other and to some extent mutually complementary. When discussing them, attention will be given prevalently to written texts whose peculiarities are more stable and defined, although many of the observations put forth also apply to oral expression.
1.1.1 Research perspectives Starting from the latter decades of XX century research on specialized communication has become more and more active and prolific, with an increasing number of scholars exploring different aspects of specialized discourse. In linguistics, research has concentrated on language use, on text generation and reception, and on communicative strategies in a wide range of disciplinary, scientific, technical and professional fields, leading to the publication of many essays and papers on specialized topics. In the half century that has elapsed, research has changed: it has become increasingly internationalized; the quality and scope of research has also evolved in time, as linguistic studies have gradually moved towards a deeper understanding of the complexity of language, and of the multiple mechanisms of signification and communication. Different schools of thought and theoretical approaches have contributed to this evolution.
1.2 Languages for specific purposes: Distinctive characteristics Languages for Specific Purposes (LSPs) are contextual-functional variations of language associated with professional, disciplinary, or technical fields such as law, medicine, economics, etc. Despite the traditional structural linguistics view of language as a unified system, the heterogeneity of language use is due to factors like geographic distribution, dialects, and historical influences. The notion of special languages is attributed to Ferdinand de Saussure, who used it to refer to juridical language and scientific terminology. Over time, terms like "specialized discourse" or "specialized communication" have gained preference over "special languages." The investigation of variation within language systems in relation to social, contextual, and situational factors is highlighted, particularly within the functionalist-oriented area of linguistics. Language is now perceived as a socio-cultural polysystem, consisting of sub-systems with distinct characteristics. Three main dimensions of variation are identified: diatopic (geographical), diastratic (social), and diaphasic (contextual and functional).
Domain-specific languages are discussed as functional varieties resulting from diaphasic variation, associated with specific topics and disciplinary fields. Despite their name, LSPs are not subject to special grammatical and phonological rules, except for some archaic forms in legal language. Special languages are characterized by a tendency to prefer certain morpho-syntactic forms and exhibit distinctive discursive and pragmatic features. Sociolinguist Berruto emphasizes the use of specialized lexicon in specific sectors, making it less accessible to those without background knowledge in the field. This contributes to the classification of special languages as sub-codes. The evolution of research on specialized texts, initially focused on lexical aspects and later incorporated considerations of syntax, textual organization, and rhetorical aspects.
1.2.1 Vertical and horizontal variation and registers The concept of "special languages" or "specialized communication" refers to a diverse range of diaphasic language varieties used in different disciplinary and professional domains. It is possible to identify a core of distinctive linguistic features common to all specialized discourse and the presence of recurrent linguistic traits specific to each sector, such as medicine, economics, law, etc. The study aims to analyze the general linguistic and discursive aspects of specialized discourse across various fields. The differentiation within specialized communication is not only horizontal, across different disciplinary domains, but also vertical, within each domain. The degree of specialization or technicality in language use varies within a specific domain based on factors like the communicative event's tenor and aim. Various models, such as those proposed by Widdowson, Freddi, and Cloître and Shin, classify levels of "vertical variation" in scientific and technical communication, considering factors like competence and intended audience, including the following levels:
- Intraspecialist level : communication from specialist to specialist within the same disciplinary field.
- Interspecialist level : from specialist to specialist across disciplinary fields. 3. Didactic/pedagogical level: communication from specialist to pupil or trainee. 4. Popular level: communication from specialist to layman.
Cloître and Shin's model, based on sociolinguistic criteria like the participation framework, stands out for its applicability not only to scientific and technical fields but also to the "soft" and social sciences. It offers a continuum-based description without clear boundaries between levels. "Registers" is defined as code varieties allowing speakers to choose the most suitable language for a communicative act based on lexico-grammar and style variations. While commonly understood, the term is used with slightly differing meanings. In a systemic-functional perspective, Halliday's theory sees register as a complex notion encompassing situational and contextual variables related to the field, tenor, and mode of discourse. It serves as a semantic concept, providing a configuration of meanings associated with a particular situational context.
- Specialized (or “technical) lexicon
2.1 Non arbitrariness of scientific vocabulary: Historical perspectives The lexical component is the linguistic element that distinguishes specialized languages from general or ordinary language. Technical vocabulary differs from ordinary lexicon in that it is not arbitrary. In natural language, linguistic signs result from the association of a signifier (an acoustic image) and a signified (a concept), with the bond between them being unmotivated or arbitrary. This means that signifiers used in natural languages to represent concepts arise from historical evolution rather than deliberate choice. However, specialized terms are often intentionally introduced into specialized discourse to meet the naming needs arising from scientific and technological advancements. The establishment of basic specialized vocabulary dates back to the birth of modern science and technology, primarily in the seventeenth century. Despite English's current dominance in scientific communication, it had a poor reputation for scientific expression in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The gradual use of vernacular languages in scientific communication led to the creation of specialized vocabularies, which evolved over subsequent centuries to accommodate new concepts and discoveries. The rise of scientific communication in vernacular languages, exemplified by scholars like Galileo Galilei, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton, coincided with the development of a new scientific paradigm based on observation and experimentation. However, some scholars hesitated to publish in English due to elitist perceptions of scientific knowledge and the perceived inadequacy of English for expressing complex concepts.
This contrasts with ordinary language usage where words may carry personal or communal emotional connotations. Lexical “conciseness” involves using brief and efficient expressions, often employing acronyms, initialisms, blend words, and noun strings to convey information succinctly. Clipping, both foreclipping and backclipping, further contributes to brevity in technical language by shortening words.
"Transparency" in technical words is achieved through affixation, compounding, or modification, where the meanings of constituent elements provide clues to the overall expression's meaning. This facilitates understanding within specialized domains.
"Conservatism" is characteristic of legal and bureaucratic language, where archaic expressions and rarely used words from Middle English persist. These include terms like "thereof," "forthwith," "to deem," "to terminate," and the grammatical form "witnesseth." However, with the rise of the plain language movement, many obsolete expressions have fallen out of use in legal and bureaucratic contexts in most English-speaking countries.
2.3 Mechanisms at work in the creation of scientific and technical terminologies Word-formation is «that branch of the science of language which studies the patterns on which a language forms new lexical unit, e.g. words. To discuss word formation, it is useful to introduce the notion of morpheme, which is the minimal linguistic unit with a lexical or a grammatical meaning, and make an important distinction between lexical and grammatical morphemes. Lexical morphemes are an open class and denote extralinguistic objects and states of affairs, e.g. actions, events, situations, relations. They precede grammatical morphemes being realized as "desinences". Grammatical morphemes denote grammatical functions, e.g. plural, tense, syntactic relations (e.g. concord of gender, number). The main mechanisms at work in the creation of scientific and technical vocabulary are: - semantic redetermination, i.e. the attribution of a new meaning to an existing word; - conversion (or zero derivation), i.e. assigning the base to a different word class; - affixation, i.e. adding a prefix or a suffix to a base, with or without a change of word class; - borrowing from foreign languages, generating loanwords and loan translations or calques; - compounding, i.e. adding a base to another base.
2.3.1 Semantic redetermination Semantic redetermination is the attribution of a new meaning to an existing lexeme, and is sometimes also called resemanticization. At the origin of modern specialized language, semantic redetermination was widely used in the creation of the basic scientific vocabulary, especially in the hard sciences, where many of the basic terms are simple words derived from ordinary language through resemanticization: terms like force, mas, power, resistance, root, density, function, which are still in use in ordinary language and at the same time they are utilized as specific terms in a specialized domain. Usually, the process underlying the redetermination of certain simple words as specific terms is based on catachresis, that is, essentially by means of the metaphorical or metonymical extension of their meaning. In many cases a lexeme is semantically redetermined in more than one disciplinary sector with different meanings: an example is the term function/funzione, being used in mathematics, but also in logic and in linguistics. 2.3.2 Conversion Conversion (or zero affixation or zero derivation) is the word used to indicate a derivational process whereby an item is adapted or converted to anew word-class without the addition of an affix. The most numerous examples of conversion in domain-specific communication are those from noun to verb, for example: a) noun to verb:
- catalogue (commerce) =a pamphlet or book featuring a complete enumeration of items arranged systematically with descriptive details > to catalogue = to make a catalogue of, to classify descriptively. Other examples, classified according to the word-classes involved, are: b) verb to noun:
- to shut down = to close (a manufactory); to stop working > shut down (also: shutdown) = the closing for a time of a factory; the cessation of operation of a machine, device, or installation. c) adjective to verb:
- black = of the darkest color possible > to black =to make black, to blacken.
2.3.3. Borrowing: loanwords and calques Many of the terminological resources of a language in specific domains are derived from foreign sources. In specialized lexicon, the dissemination of new notions across frontiers does not rely only on the introduction of new international formations created in parallel in different languages to denominate such notions, but also on borrowings and calques. There is an important distinction to be made between integrated borrowings and non-integrated borrowings, i.e. those foreign words that have adapted to the structures of the recipient language (to the point that in some cases they cannot be recognized as borrowed from another language, e.g. potato, pijamas, etc.) and foreign words that still follow the phonotactic and spelling organization of the language they are borrowed from. French has been the language that has contributed more extensively to English terminology, for instance in the field of political science with some non-integrated loanwords (e.g. laissez-faire) or regarding more specifically technical and scientific notions, and have adapted to English phonotactics and morphology (e.g. oxide).
English has always tended to be a donor, rather than a receiver, of lexical material, mainly due to the prestige of the language and the primacy of research and technological advances in English speaking countries and its prevalent use as a lingua franca (e.g. in Italian: software). In addition to borrowings that are made necessary by the lack of a word to express certain new notions and concepts in Italian, there are many English words that are used in Italian although there already exists a local word for the same notion, these are called "luxury borrowings", rarer in scientific English than in other languages; among the very few instances: memorandum - written reminder; bureau - office. Luxury borrowings are frequent in Italian (e.g. budget, management).
Shifting attention to calques, it can be said that in English in recent times calques from foreign languages have been really rare (rhinestone from French caillou du Rhin).
On the contrary in Italian calques from English are relatively frequent, although not so frequent as loan words ("cavallo" from horse power).
2.3.4 Affixation Affixation, a derivational process realized by attaching one or more affixes to a base. An affix is defined as «a bound morpheme that attaches to bases.
Affixes are usually classified into three types, depending on their position with respect to the base of the word: prefixes that are attached to the beginning of a base, suffixes that follow the base, and infixes which are inserted within the base itself. An interesting characteristic of words obtained by affixation is that they are transparent: if one knows the meaning of the constituent elements (affixes, base) then it is possible to guess the meaning of a word, at least in broad terms.
Some examples of prefixes that are productive in both non-specialized and specialized language are in-, un- (both meaning "non", "the opposite of"), a- ("lacking in", "lack of"), de- ("reversing the action", "depriving"), di ("double"), dys- ("destroying the good sense of a word, or increasing its bad sense"), dis- ("non", "the opposite of"): e.g. inoxidable. Here are some examples of suffixes: -er (also: -or), added to a noun or to a verb base to obtain a deverbal noun ("maker of") (e.g. tanner); -ant (also agentive, but may also produce inanimate nouns) (lubricant); -ist, to indicate "a member of a party, or of an occupation" (virologist); -ism to obtain an abstract noun (liberalism); -ation added to a verb to obtain an abstract or a collective noun (globalization).
In other cases, the building blocks used in word formation are peculiar to one or more specific domains. In particular, in scientific language recourse is frequently made to lexical constituents derived from the classical languages, Latin and - directly or indirectly - ancient Greek. In time some of these components have taken on a stable semantic value, usually connected (at least partially) with their original meaning.
2.3.7 Noun phrases (or noun strings) Recourse to noun phrases is very common in specialized English, as the possibility of simply "assembling" nominal elements into complex phrases is highly functional to economy of expression, a characteristic which is much cherished in scientific and technical texts. As already observed for compounds, this also involves a different order in the constituents of the nominal group, as in English the Head of the noun group is always placed the first position from the right, while in Italian it occupies the first position from the left:
- soil properties = proprietà del suolo;
- asphalt pavement = pavimentazione in asfalto; Therefore, in some cases it could be difficult to understand the correct relation between the components of a noun string. This can be particularly problematic when a text is being interpreted with a view to translating it into a language - like Italian - which requires the explicitation of the logico-semantic relations between nominal elements by means of prepositions. The difficulty is increased when the noun string contains multiple heads:
- ((greenhouse gas) emissions): the noun group “greenhouse gas”, consisting of a modifier and a Head, functions as a premodifier for the noun “emissions”, which is the Head of the whole noun group. In some cases this replication of premodifiers generates structures which are obscure to anyone who is not familiar with the subject matter being treated, because of the radical reduction in explicitness.
- Terminology The specialized lexicon is the focus of study in the field of Terminology, which encompasses the collection, description, processing, and presentation of terms—lexical items specific to particular areas of usage. Terminology also encompasses the theory necessary for explaining the relationships between concepts and terms, forming the theoretical foundation for such activities. In this context, Terminology, denoted with a capital T, encompasses the field of investigation and its theoretical underpinnings, while terminology with a lowercase t refers to the system of terms within any scientific or specialized domain, along with the associated terminological work. Terminology begins with mapping the conceptual system of a given field of knowledge and systematically investigates concepts and their designations. Its objective is to describe and/or prescribe the correct usage of terms, while also contributing to understanding scientific and creative thinking, as well as the role of language therein. It's essential to define the term "lexeme." A lexeme term is described as a word (simple term), multiword expression (complex term), symbol, or formula that designates a specific concept within a given subject field.
3.1 The main principles of traditional terminology Terminology, established as a science in the 1930s, initially aimed at standardization and was influenced by the disciplines to which it was first applied. Eugen Wüster, considered its founding father, led the "Vienna School of Terminology," which focused on conceptual centrality and international standardization of scientific terms. Wüster actively contributed to terminological standardization.
The General Theory of Terminology (GTT), pioneered by Wüster and his successors, significantly shaped modern Terminology. Despite differences, various schools (Vienna, Prague, Russian, Canadian) share many principles due to Wüster's influence and Saussurean semantics. Temmerman (2000) summarizes the main tenets of the General Theory of Terminology in 5 points:
- Terminology starts from concepts, which for each discipline are organized in a system without considering language;
- a concept is clear-cut and can be assigned a place in a logically or ontologically structured system;
- a concept is ideally defined in an intentional definition;
- a concept is referred to by one term, and one term only designates one concept;
- the study of concepts is synchronical and the assignment concept/term is permanent.
Criticism of traditional Terminology includes its perceived dogmatism, neglect of language's communicative aspect, and lack of contextualization. The extension of ISO principles to all disciplines raised issues, leading to theoretical objections. Socioterminology emerged in the late 1980s, emphasizing sociological aspects and actual term use. Communicative and socio-cognitive theories advocated for dynamic, flexible Terminology considering linguistic, cognitive, and social dimensions. Cultural Terminology also gained attention for variations in terminology across languages and cultures. While GTT principles still influence terminology work, they've faced critique and revision. Subsequent sections will analyze these principles, considering criticisms, improvements, and modifications.
3.2 Onomasiological vs. semasiological approach Traditional Terminology advocates for an onomasiological approach, starting from concepts and then assigning terms to them. This approach contrasts with the semasiological approach of lexicography, which begins with words and then determines their meanings. In Terminology, synonyms are grouped together, while polysemes and homonyms are treated separately. However, objections have been raised to the strict categorization of concepts before term assignment, questioning the independence of concepts from language. Modern Terminology acknowledges the role of language in categorization and often starts with existing terms, although a conceptual system may still be developed. Terminologists now combine onomasiological and semasiological methods, using automated routines for term collection and knowledge structure development to ensure completeness and avoid homonymy.
3.3 Mapping conceptual relationships The conceptual mapping of a subjectfield requires that concepts are ordered in a conceptual classification scheme and presented in a systematic structure. In order to create a concept system, it is necessary to identify the relationships each concepts has with neighboring concepts. Here some of the most important relationships used in terminological work will be discussed.
3.1.1 Generic relationship The generic relationship identifies concepts as belonging to the same category in which there is a broader (generic) concept that is superordinate; for instance: newsletter, journal and magazine are types of periodical publications.
3.3.2 Partitive relationship The whole-part relationship indicates the connection between concepts consisting of more than one part and their constituent parts. For example, the concepts hub, spokes and rim have apart whole relationship with wheel.
3.3.3 Polyvalent relationship In some cases the relationship is complex or polyhierarchical. For instance, bus as a vehicle can be classified as road vehicle, but also as passenger vehicle.
3.3.4. Complex relationship The relationships illustrated so far are hierarchical, suitable for intentional definitions. Here is a list of the many complex relationships among concepts, as provided by Sager: (pag. 66)
3.3.5. Tree diagram A tree diagram is suitable to represent a logical system and represents members of a system on the grounds of how many characteristics they have in common. This si a tree diagram for "vehicle" and represents types of vehicles (logical relationship). The characteristics considered for the first level are motion on earth, water, in the air or in space, for the second level the characteristic considered is mode of propulsion (here only vehicles moving on water are considered). (page 67)
- A part-whole definition “describes a superordinate concept in a partitive concept system by listing all the parts that make up the whole”; it is more often applied to composites: a. An airplane is composed of the following parts: fuselage, engine, wing, fin landing gear, flight instruments b. When the definition concerns a part, then the relationships of that part to the composite and the adjoining parts is indicated: wing: part of an airplane which is connected with the fuselage…
Intensional definitions are the one preferred in terminological work because they are more systematic and include an indication of the position of a concept/term within the conceptual system of the relevant domain (addition of encyclopedic information to definition is frowned upon). However, traditional terminological theory admits that sometimes for given concept/term it may not be possible to provide a definition proper and suggests that in these cases at least an explanation should be given, therefore “a description of a concept without considering its position in a system of concepts”. Intensional definitions are readily comprehensible only for people who already understand a term and know the category, while non-specialists often need encyclopedic information in order to understand a definition.
3.5 - Univocity and variations
Mono-referentiality or univocity has been considered as one of the main characteristics of specialized terminology. A basic tenet in Terminology is that in each specific domain for one concept there should be one term, and each term should refer to one concept, thus reducing polysemy, homonymy and synonymy to a minimum. Univocity remains one the main concerns in terminology standardization. Sager points out, in line with the indications of the International Standardization Organization, the standardization of terms need to be preceded by a standardization of objects or products. Also, in some cases terminological standards are enforced with some parties being obligated to change their linguistic practices as a matter of convenience and economy. Systematic mono-referentiality is always possible only in certain fields like in mechanics, which where the domain where early terminologists worked, but in other domains it is less viable like in medicine. In the life sciences there are terms to which the principle of univocity does apply, and there is one concept one term, but in many other cases univocity is hardly possible. An element that prevented traditional terminology from admitting any degree of variations to univocity was its focus on synchronic aspects, while a consideration of the evolution of terms over time can contribute to a deeper understanding of their conceptual meaning and provide evidence of how the meaning of terms changes over time. Clone this term came to the attentions of the general public in 1996 with the cloning of Dolly the Sheep, it had been introduced several decades earlier, in 1903, with a borrowing from Ancient Greek - twig - a technique to obtain perfect copies of plant by means of cutting and grafting. In the course of the XX century the term was used such as to refer bacterial cell cultivation, in 1973 it was also applied to molecular cloning, in 1988 the expression started to be used to refer mammal reproduction. The element that all these different usages of the term have in common is: replication of identical individuals. Today has extension and diversification in meaning across domains (botany, genetics, biology). So, taking their synchronic dimension but also a diachronic approach can help understand the extension of the term for specialized usage in different contexts and specific domain. Socio-cognitive terminology sees many of such terms as prototypically structured: the prototype is a concept that is taken as a model, and related concepts are categorized and defined by means of a process of similarity comparison with it, similarity being evaluated as a function of the number of features that they have in common with the “prototype”. Some prototypically structed concepts are so broad that they have been named umbrella terms. When they are introduced, they were used to embrace various already existing concepts; some terms actually do lend themselves to standardization and normalization, and allow the application of the univocity principle, but some other do not, although (‘clone’ case) they were originally conceived to be mono-referential. The degree of variation also depends on the type of communicative situation: the smallest degree of variations will be found in standardized terminology in highly specialized communication; the highest degree in popularizing texts; and an intermediate degree of variation will characterize communication among specialists in everyday interactions.
3.6 - Terminological work and information technologies
Terminological work is usually corpus based and carried out with the support of computer and information technologies, it can rely on larges quantities of text for the collection and verification of terms, thus becoming increasingly text oriented and capable of reflecting actual usage, with the possibility of indicating frequency of use and extracting meaningful examples for contextualization. Important terminological resources are made available online in terminological database and term banks: IATE (EU’s multilingual term base).
- Syntactic Peculiarities of specialized texts
Recurrence of specialized lexicon is the most evident peculiarity of domain-specific discourse. The peculiar characteristics of specialized discourse are not limited to the lexical level, but can be found at all levels, syntactic, textual, generic, pragmatic, rhetorical. Scientific and technical language has a distinctive syntactic and stylistic organization; according to Halliday, scientific discourse is characterized by a typical syndrome of grammatical features which tend to co-occur in it and are abnormally more frequent than in general language. In particular, nominalization is the most evident and the most meaningful, begin strictly related to the basic conceptual organization of this category of texts. In this regard, peculiar syntactic structures tend to be higher in written texts than in oral expression: a language with a high lexical density, measured in the number of lexical items per clause, and a strong tendency to encode this lexical content in a nominal form.
4.1 – Nominalization: An Introduction
Nominalization is a process whereby any element or group of elements is made to function as a nominal group in the clause. The most common from of nominalization is the encoding of processes and qualities in nouns rather than verbs (natural grammatical forms). This is generally done by having recourse to de-verbal forms functioning as nomina actionis : ‘construction’ instead of the verb form ‘to construct’. Nominalization also involves adjectives, with the use of de adjectival nouns in place of adjectives: ‘importance’ instead of ‘important’. The choice to use it has the immediate effect of increasing the density of a sentence by ‘packing’ information into conceptual units. Ex: We aimed to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of these vaccines, the presence of faecal shedding, and the neurovirulence of shed virus we aimed to evaluate of these vaccines are safe and immunogenic, if faecal shedding is present, and shed virus are neurovirulent. The communicative strategies deployed involve not only the use of technical lexicon but also important syntactic choices, reducing the number of verb forms in the text. Preference for a nominal style is found in specialized texts in English, Italian and in most European languages. It can appear in all texts that regard even minimally a specialized subject, involving complex abstract reasoning (philosophy).
4.2 – Impact of nominalization on sentence organization
The nominalization of the adjective has a relatively limited impact on clausal syntax but is especially useful in discursive terms by conceptualizing qualities ( importance ). There are various types of nominalized forms that are customarily used in specialized texts. The most frequent type is a nomen actionis postmodified by a prepositional phrase or a that - clause: Environmental quality monitoring of water resources is challenged with providing the basis for safeguarding the environment against adverse biological effects from exposure to anthropogenic chemicals originating from diffuse and point source.
4.2.1. – Significance of nominal style in specialized discourse All the procedures associated with a nominal style contribute to packing information and concepts into proportionally shorter stretches of text (2 characteristics of specialized discourse = concision and efficiency). The realization of the semogenic (meaning-making) strategies (peculiar to scientific writing) packing into extended nominal groups, nominalizing processes and properties, lexicalizing logical-semantic relations first as verb and then as noun. This process tends to shift hypotactic relations from clause-complex level to noun-group level, also contributing simplifying the organization of clauses within the sentence = makes it possible to pack into a single clause (or limited number of clauses) a quantity of meaning organized into an intricate hypotactic or paratactic complex: Ex: Accurate early warning of an impending tsunami requires the detection of the tsunami in the open ocean (If populations are to be warned accurately and early of an impending tsunami, the tsunami has to be detected in the open ocean) In many cases noun groups are accompanied by adverbial complements: Fors sample preparation = in order to prepare samples After the removal of the vials from the rotator…= after the vials were removed from the rotator One of the effects of recourse to a nominal style is a substantial increase in the lexical and semantic density of texts; it has also a number of discursive consequences: there is no need to indicate the subject of a given action, nor it is necessary to express tense e and mood: The earliest recognition that plants contained compounds capable of influencing fertility dates back to some 2000 years ago stated that there has long been an awareness of the effects of certain plants on fertility but no indication is given as to the person who first developed such an awareness, while the temporal collocation of the action is lexicalized (present-tense verb form ‘dates back’) and specified (some 2000 years ago). De-verbal noun on which this construction is centered is the nominal transformation of the verb ‘to recognize’. The recurrence of these constructions is one of the results of a general tendency to avoid that the assertion of a hypothesis stance should be subordinated to an explicitly expressed epistemic subjects contributes to conferring objectivity and universality to the findings set forth. But the non-specification of the subject, tense and mood of the action made involves a reduction and mitigation of the explicit illocutionary commitment (another effect) that contribute to reducing the strength of the utterance.
4.2.2 – An Interpretation of nominalization Nominalization functions as a “grammatical metaphor”: it is an instrument that enables scientific writers to exploit “the semogenic potential of entities ” actions are construed as stable in time, rather than as processes which being transient, are more difficult to fit into taxonomies and other forms of schematic representation. Thanks to their conceptualization into abstract nominal entities, processes can take on the function of subjects, objects or be used in adverbial complements, thus making it easier to carry argumentation and reasoning forward. This helps in construing a framework of technical concepts which are related to each other taxonomically and which operate at a highly abstract level where each term condenses in itself a large amount of accumulated knowledge the result of a sort of transgression of natural grammar, in which should be verbs the expression for actions, while nouns should e reserved to participants. Nominal style with the patterns of reasoning and argumentations has been found also in ancient scientific text.
4.3 - The translation of nominal constructions Toury calls these recurrent patterns of translatorial behavior ‘textual-linguistic norms’. Norms is a category for descriptive analysis of translation phenomena, which can be inferred by means of generalization from the analysis of a corpus of texts. The concept of norm is social and cultural in nature and does not pertain only to the translation but also to recipients. Norms are present in the recipient in the form of horizon expectation. In scientific and technical, translation the rendering of nominalization is certainly the most recurrent and distinctive trait of specialized discourse, it can be found across languages (English, Italian, French…), in Italian recourse to nominalization is often made also in standard language use. In many cases it is possible to translate the sentence containing nominal constructions maintain the same clause and sentence organization; but there are cases where the syntactic organization of the sentence has to be changed radically, making recourse to procedures of nominalization or de nominalization shift from a verb phrase in the source text to a nominal form in the target text or vice versa. The shift from a non-nominal form in English to nominal one in Italian is relatively frequently because in many domains in comparable Italian texts the frequency of nominal construction tends to even be higher.
An advantage of into vitro experiments is that they can be conducted with human cells grown in culture Un vantaggio degli esperimenti in vitro è costruito dalla possibilità di condurli con cellule umane in coltura (instead of: un vantaggio degli esperimenti in vitro è che possono essere condotti su cellule umane in coltura) However, also in translation from English to Italian there are cases where de-nominalization is necessary (or is a viable option): …because of sever cut-backs in insurance coverage for mental illness in recent years, hospital stays are much shorter …a causa dei forti tagli praticati negli ultimi anni alla copertura assicurativa sulla malattia mentale, I ricoveri ospedalieri sono molto + brevi. The structural similarity between English and Italian often extends also to other elements, including complex preposition accompanying the nominal elements within the clause complex: The degradation of those components occurs at different temperature ranges La degradazione di questi componenti avviene a diversi intervalli di temperatura. A similar parallel exists when verb forms (existential verbs carrying any semantic load) collocate with nominalized elements: For reassortment to occur between viruses of two distinct genotypes, these viruses must infect the same host and the same tissue within that host Perchè avvenga il riassortimento tra virus di due diversi genotipi… Things are slightly more complicated in context where English gives preference to collocations with the verb be , as in Italian there is often a tendency to use existential verbs that are formally more complex like avvenire, rappresentare. Also, in Italian it is possible to encode logico-grammatical relations in verb forms that are relived of their semantic load by the presence of a nominalization, however there are non-infrequent cases where the nominal alternative seems to be preferred. When the lexico-grammatical nexus is instead encoded in a further nominalization ( result, cause ) in Italian a similar nominal structure is often used, but in combination with a more semantically complex linking verb: The development of Coeliac Disease is the result of …. Lo sviluppo della malattia celiaca ha origine da… Other contexts where the translation from English into Italian tends to be unproblematic include sentences featuring fact clause: This observation can account for the fact that colonic Crohn’s disease… Questa osservazione può spiegare il fatto che il morbo di Crohn…
A different approach is needed when English makes recourse to non-finite verb forms (-ed or -ing forms) especially with verbs meaning increase or decrease, because in many cases in order to obtain a natural translation preference has to be given to a noun (aumento, diminuzione..): Increasing pressure in the range from… L’aumento della pressione a valori compresi tra… Shifting from a non-nominal to a nominal expression from English into Italian is found in contexts where there appears the adverb how followed by and adjective or an adverb (how good) or a conjunction like if or whether : …is how fast cells grow or proliferate …è la velocità di crescita o proliferazione delle cellule o The introduction of a nominal form requires that other elements in the sentence are nominalized: how fast la velocità, grow crescita… o Another way of translation of ‘how’ is performed in Italian by the noun modo = il modo in cui… One significant series of experiment with cells in vitro is the work done to determine whether electromagnetic radiation can damage una serie significative di esperimenti con cellule in vitro è rappresentata dal lavoro svolto al fine di determinare la possibilità di danneggiamento del Dna….
In the translation of specialized texts their distinctive nominal style does not usually require any specific or extraordinary procedures, what is needed is the ability to handle recurrent structures on the basis of some broad principes or norms, which can be formulated in general terms. For there are contexts where they are not suitable, and recourse has to be made to ad hoc solutions to be decided on in each specific case.
Intertextuality that concerns the factors which make the utilization of one text dependent upon knowledge of one or more previously encountered texts. o Text = complete communicative occurrence, comprising linguistic elements that are organized in a cohesive whole, expressing coherent ideas, capable of fulfilling the intentions of the sender, providing information to the recipient and being relevant to the situation where it is produced and accessible depending on knowledge of previously encountered texts.
In a textual perspective, linguistic analysis can be with an internal or an external viewpoint. With and internal, it means looking at the internal constitution and organization of a communicative occurrence, also considering how its different parts contribute the whole. An external viewpoint , the focus is on discourse and its analysis cannot be restricted to the descriptions of linguistic forms an independent of the purposes and functions which these forms are designed to serve in human affairs. The notion of discourse has been oriented towards given ever more importance to the social dimension, relating communicative strategies deployed in an endless variety of contexts and situations (social, political, economical..).
5.1 – De-personalization
In domain-specific communication the recurrence of a whole range of de-personalizing syntactic features has an impact on the overall presentation of facts, motions and relations, influencing the readers’ perception. Nominalization makes it possible to avoid expressing the subject of an action and contributes to the de-personalization. There are other strategies which putting the speaker in the position of not specifying the subject, helping to present facts, findings and arguments in terms that sound objective. Has been reported / is known verb form in the passive voice It is concluded metadiscursive verb in the passive The overall evidence suggests inanimate subjects There are large increases existential construction The use of impersonal forms (omission of the subjects) has the function of limiting the illocutionary commitment on the part of the speaker while at the same time clarifying the progress of argumentation. A similar metadiscursive role is played by the noun hypothesis opening the subsequent sentence as it has the function of signaling the real discursive value of the speech act expressed in the section of text to which it refers; used in scientific and technological discourse having the ultimate effect of conferring ‘impersonality = objectivity and universality. Ex in Italian: sono state studiate / è necessario / è di fondamentale importanza o Inanimate thins and entities are used as subjects (un settore innovative…è necessario) In the translation of passive constructions with verbs like to show, to report, to find recourse to the impersonal si construction followed by a depend declarative clause can be very useful. Have been reported si è riscontrato che.. In general, in the overall organization of scientific and technical texts there is evidence of an attempt to ‘suppress the self’ of the person producing the text, or rather all linguistic elements that encode his/her discursive identity; this involves the cancellation of the grammatical presence of the subject in favor of an agent who in not individual but purely epistemic. This does not imply that the thinking subject disappears, in many cases are sections of the texts where the firs-person subject re-appears, usually in section that are more centered on individual experience.
The overall strategies in the presentation of data, information and arguments tend to be impersonal, so they highlight the writer’s impartiality and present hypotheses and arguments in the objective and impersonal light of scientific truth. However, in many cases texts alternate sections organized impersonally to other where the authors make their presence visible, highlighting the originality of their research.
5.2 - Thematization
Thematic structure is the way information is organized into a message and contributes to the flow of discourse. The theme is the element which serves as the point of departure of the message; it is that which locates and orients the clause within the context. The theme is indicated by its position (first). The remainder of the clause is the rheme , which develops on the theme, and conveys what the speaker has to say about the theme. Since the theme is the first group or phrase in a clause, in declarative clauses it often coincides with the subject:
Participants were adults in good health In interrogative clauses the theme is the finite verbal operator (do, did, is, have, can…). In WH question the theme is constituted only by the WH-element (what). In many cases the subject is preceded by other elements (adverb, prepositional phrase, complement, left branching adverbial clause…) in all these cases the thematic part includes also whatever precedes the subject, so the theme = left branching complement and extends to the subject, all that follows is the rheme. By analyzing the thematic structures, it is possible to gain insights into the writer’s actual intentions and underlying concerns. Thematization focuses attention on the real object of the discussion, thus providing a powerful tool to confer logical coherence and cohesion on discourse. Nominal style is functional to the construction of the thematic organization as the packaging into nominal groups is what makes it possible for lager chunks of information to take on critical values in the flow of discourse; a similar effect is generated by the frequent recourse to passive verbs forms, thanks to which it is possible to thematize the process, the fact, the action which has been dealt with in the previous sentence, so that the thematic element can be made to coincide with the given information, while the new ones are usually placed in a rhematic position. In English the possibility of using reporting verbs in the passive form, followed by infinitive makes it possible to thematize an element which otherwise would have been the subject of the that - clause. Some other recurrent features that are characteristics are connected with the organization of the theme-rheme sequence by placing in sentence-initial position elements whose natural syntactic position would be elsewhere: appositions, adjectives, participles…another recurrent stylistic feature aimed at emphasizing one of the elements in the sentence and altering the textual effects is the cleft sentence which generates a predicated theme (the concern that has attracted the greatest publicity is…)
5.3 - Pragmatic and rhetorical aspects
There is an assumption about specialized text (scientific and technical) which is that should meet requirements of appropriateness, economy and precision, a notion which recurs in many studies specialized communications = referential and free from any effect based on the exploitation of other language functions. However, it has put the obsolete ‘objectivity’ into question and specialize texts , around an essentially referential core, there may be a rich discursive structure serving a range of different intentions, going well beyond pure informativeness even in cases where an illocutionary component is not openly present, scientific and technical texts are never totally free from more or less covert effects of modulation and manipulation of the message, while in the main ideational content can be accompanied by an intricate complex of direct and indirect illocutionary threads.
5.3.1 – Metadiscourse
Metadiscourse refers to the linguistic resources a writer/speaker uses to attempt to guide recipients’ perception of a text, including hedges, connectives, illocution markers, code glosses and various forms of text commentary (let’s now move on to consider…).
However, in the late ‘80s attention shifted to written communication with special regard for specialized discourse and for scientific and technical communication; it was shown that these devices have an important role. In the meanwhile, the concept of hedge has been extended to embrace all linguistic features and strategies aimed at modulating or reducing the speaker’s or writer’s commitment to the truth of an utterance and to what they are saying. The hedging strategies adopted in conversation can hardly be used in scientific and technical text (which have a semi-formal or formal register), so they are replaced by other suitable forms_. E.g., a paragraph from a scientific article re-written adding hedges that are typical of colloquial language (_ substitution with sort of, I think, maybe, I’m afraid). However, in some cases hedging devices typical of informal registers can be found in specialist communication (somewhat ). Other purposes of hedges are generating an effect of a) politeness, b) indirectness, c) mitigation, d) vagueness, e) understatement/attenuation. Epistemic or evidential adverbs are often used as hedges, since they contribute to signal the attitude of the speaker/writer towards the content of an utterance. E.g., apparently, presumably, seemingly, conceivably. They indicate in what sense the speaker thinks the utterance is true or false. These adverbs occur more frequently in the introduction of papers, in the discussion and conclusion sections. For example: a) seem and presumably in the example have a politeness function, saving the author’s face from appearing too categorical (the do not reduce the strength of what is being stated) b) and c) perhaps and probably as hedges mitigate the assertiveness of the hypothesis, presenting this statement as to some degree of uncertain. In time, the inventory of devices included in the category of hedges has become wider and wider, being extended to include elements belonging to all part of speech: from modals to adjectives and adverbs, the passive voice, the use of inanimate subjects and impersonal forms etc. For this reason, it’s impossible to define a closed and definitive inventory of hedges. In many cases, all these strategies in scientific communication tend to reinforce the arguments and the hypothesis (so they do not necessarily have a weakening effect!).
- When the speaker of writer wants to save the face, they will use less categorical utterances, they will
formulate arguments in a less personal tone.
- In other cases, it is the emphasis laid on a statement that is used for the purpose of reducing commitment.
a) Emphatics are a sub-group of hedges often used in this way ( of course, finally, in fact, indeed ). The
speaker’s stance appears less rigid because what is being discussed is presented as so serious that it would
not be possible to ignore it.
b) Reported predication ( it is generally accepted that, recent research suggests that, these studies provide
strong evidence that ) is used to reduce the strength of a statement: the preposition is stated in terms of
shared knowledge (rather than as the result of specific studies), so it has a universal applicability. In this way
an author can avoid taking full
responsibility for a statement by attributing it to someone else not specified, using also impersonal reported
predication ( it is recognized that ) combined with adverbials ( in large measure, obviously ). The author’s real
contribution is introduced by the use of conditional, that make less categorical the utterance.
Modals can even have hedging functions:
- May and can add a dimension of possibility to the sentence.
- Deontic modals have the effect of reducing the author’s commitment and responsibility, such as must and
should, used in impersonal forms underline the inevitability of the action.
6. GENRE IN SPECIALIZED COMMUNICATION
Genres are recurrent text formats, characterized by a uniformity in the use of language and of discursive and rhetorical resources and in the overall structure of texts and in the organization of ideas and arguments.
6.1 DEFINING GENRE
Originally this term was used to describe and categorize forms of literary production, and then it has also been used to refer to various forms of artistic production, painting, music, photography, theatre, film, etc. However, there is no single agreed upon definition of genre in specialist communication. Some scholars define genre as “typified rhetorical actions based in recurrent situations” > this emphasizes the character of genre as rhetorical and organized around situated action, and therefore fundamentally pragmatic in nature. Others stated that a “genre is a recognizable communicative event characterized by a set of communicative purposes identified and understood by the members of the professional or academic community where it regularly occurs” → the accent is put on its conventionalized nature and to the fact that it has to be recognized by the members of a given community. Genre knowledge is the awareness of the characteristics and properties of each single text genre. Authors prefer to conform to a preexisting text format, because it is functional to their communicative needs, so it determines the effectiveness in communication, but also determine the expectations of the recipients.
Genre knowledge regulates not only forms of written communication, but also speech and conversation: there are repertoires of typified social responses in recurrent situations. Every native speaker will know very well what to say in a situation, e.g., when entering in a shop. We are all familiar with the Service Encounter text genre as it is realized in our culture. This can lead the participants to use the language appropriately without having to select the most suitable resources every single time they enter a shop.
6.2 ANALYSING TEXT IN A GENRE-BASED PERSPECTIVE
Looking at a text in a genre-based perspective involves describing the situational and social context:
- the overall cognitive/pragmatic construction of a text
- the context and situation in which the genre is used
- the linguistic, social, cultural, professional values that bear on it
Some scholars distinguish two different levels of a genre: a) Text-patterning/textualization , considers the recurrent syntactic features which may be typical of a genre or shared by various genres within a given domain (e.g., high frequency of noun phrases, passives, used in scientific and technical communication). b) Lexico-grammatical features , take account of their frequency, but also provide an interpretation of their function in the discourse, finding their communicative purpose.
Texts are characterized by moves, different cognitive and rhetorical actions performed through
discourse sequentially organized. Obligatory moves are found in CEOs’ letters:
- Evaluating/commenting on Company’s performance, trends, and results in the relevant year
- Providing a narrative of salient facts
- Illustrating outlook and priorities for the future
