Maurizio Gotti analyses the various features of specialized discourse in order to assess its degree of specificity and diversification, as compared to general language. Prior to any analysis of such traits, the notion of specialized discourse and its distinctive properties are clarified.

This book analyses the various features of specialized discourse in order to assess its degree of specificity and diversification, as compared to general language. Prior to any analysis of such traits, the notion of specialized discourse and its distinctive properties are clarified, also as compared to other features frequently occurring in specialized texts which cannot be considered distinctive. The presence of such properties are accounted for not only in linguistic but also in pragmatic terms since the approach is interpretative rather tan merely descriptive. The complexity of this discourse calls for a multidimensional analysis, covering both lexis and morpho-syntax as well as textual patterning. Some lexical aspects, morphosyntactic features and textual genres are also examined from a diachronic perspective, thus showing how various conventions concerning specialized discourse have developed over the last few centuries.

This book examines the concept of persuasion in written texts for specialist audiences in the English and Czech languages. By exploring a corpus of academic research articles, corporate reports, religious sermons and user manuals the authors aim to reveal similarities and differences in rhetorical strategies across cultures and genres. They draw on Biber and Conrad’s (2009) model for contextualising interaction in specialised discourses, Bell’s (1997) framework for the analysis of participants roles, Swales’ (1990) genre analysis approach for considering genre constraints and Hyland’s (2005) metadiscourse model for investigating writer-reader interaction. The result is a book which will appeal to researchers and students in Discourse Studies, especially those with an interest in genre and rhetorical strategies.

The study describes a detailed and original piece of research work, investigating a very important genre of human communication, and that is conversation. It provides a definition of the genre of conversation by describing nine features of conversation, namely multiple sources, discourse coherence, language as doing, co-operation, unfolding, open-endedness, artifacts, inexplicitness and shared responsibility. These nine features of naturalness in conversation serve to distinguish conversation from specialized discourse types. The study illustrates the nine defining features of conversation with authentic conversational data collected surreptitiously in England. While this study is of native speakers of English, the nine defining features of naturalness of English conversation are applicable to conversations conducted in other languages.

Presented in two parts, this book firstly introduces core considerations in ESP course development drawing on examples from a wide range of ESP and EAP courses. Secondly four case studies show how experienced ESP teachers and course developers went about developing courses to meet the needs of their particular learners.

Genre theory has focused primarily on the analysis of generic constructs, with increasing attention to and emphasis on the contexts in which such genres are produced, interpreted, and used to achieve objectives, often giving the impression as if producing genres is an end in itself, rather than a means to an end. The result of this focus is that there has been very little attention paid to the ultimate outcomes of these genre-based discursive activities, which are more appropriately viewed as academic, institutional, organizational, and professional actions and practices, which are invariably non-discursive, though often achieved through discursive means. It was this objective in mind that the book develops an approach to a more critical and deeper understanding of interdiscursive professional voices and actions. Critical Genre Analysis as a theory of discursive performance is thus an attempt to be as objective as possible, rigorous in analytical endeavour, using a multiperspective and multidimensional methodological framework taking into account interdiscursive aspects of genre construction to make it increasingly explanatory to demystify discursive performance in a range of professional contexts.

This volume focuses on specialist translation - one of the areas of translation in greatest demand in our age of globalization. The 16 chapters deal not only with the classical domains of science and technology, law, socio-politics and medicine but also with lesser researched areas such as archeology, geography, nutrigenomics and others. As a whole, the book achieves a blend of theory and practice. It addresses a variety of issues such as translation strategy based on text type and purpose, intercultural transfer and quality assessment, as well as textual and terminological issues in bilingual and multilingual settings, including international organizations and the European Union. Today translation competence presupposes multidisciplinary skills. Whereas some chapters analyze the linguistic features of special-purpose texts and their function in specialized communication, others show how specialized translation has changed as a result of globalization and how advances in technology have altered terminology research and translation processing.