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This volume brings together a series of studies on the nature of the dissemination of specialist knowledge in English, its various principles, conceptualizations, constructs and pragmatic dynamics, over a range of discourse genres: knowledge discourse is addressed to a number of audiences, expert and lay, in a variety of fields, legal, political, economic, institutional, academic, organizational and professional. The authors explore the use of language in the creation and diffusion of knowledge, in its transformation from being a mere repository of information, achieved through complex discursive processes. These processes use both general pragma-linguistic textual resources, and also derive from the communicative practices specific to the discourse communities in question. The studies as a whole demonstrate the multi-levels of knowledge, its very varied typology, and its dynamic nature in ongoing co-construction, maintenance and updating among heterogeneous audiences.
List of contents
Contents: Rita Salvi: Re-contextualizing Specialized English: from Legislation to Business - Ersilia Incelli: Unbottling the Truth about Water: the Discursive Construction of Water as a "Strategic" Resource - Renzo Mocini: Evidential Devices in English Medical Journals - Chiara Prosperi Porta: On the State of Public Health: Discourse and Sharing Practices in Annual Medical Reports - Judith Turnbull: Online Knowledge Dissemination. How to Make the Dismal Science Less Dismal - Janet Bowker: Directive Acts and Narration in Corporate Training Events: Framing Structures and Processes through Language.
About the author
Rita Salvi is full professor in English Linguistics and Translation in the Faculty of Economics, `Sapienzä University of Rome. Her research interests include general and applied linguistics, text and genre analysis, intercultural discourse for academic and professional purposes, language teaching particularly through the medium of advanced technologies, synchronic and diachronic lexicographic analysis mainly in the field of specialized language (economics and law).
Janet Bowker is a tenured researcher and Adjunct Professor in English Linguistics and Translation in the Faculty of Economics, `Sapienzä University of Rome. Her research interests lie mainly in academic, institutional and professional discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, socio-cognitive pragmatics, ESP teaching and testing.
Report
«[...] the volume is a valuable resource for anyone who is interested in professional communication in the public sphere.»
(Zhengrui Han, Discourse Studies 19(2), 2017)
