Presented Discourse in Popular Science: Professional Voices in Books for Lay Audiences

206 Pages·2018·0.683 MB·English

by  Olga Pilkington

PresentedDiscourseinPopularScience
Studies in Pragmatics
SeriesEditors
Maj-BrittMosegaardHansen(UniversityofManchester)
KerstinFischer(UniversityofSouthernDenmark)
AnneBarron(LeuphanaUniversityLüneburg)
volume 17
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/sip
Presented Discourse
in Popular Science
ProfessionalVoicesinBooksforLayAudiences
By
OlgaA.Pilkington
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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∵

Contents
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xiii
ListofTables xiv
ListofAbbreviations xv
1 Introduction:PopularScience,OverviewoftheGenre 1
WhyPopularScienceisImportantandHowItShapestheReader’s
PerceptionoftheScientificCommunity 1
HistoryofPopularScience 4
Language:ProfessionalandPopular 4
AuthorsandReaders 12
AGenrewithanAgenda 14
Conclusion 17
2 TheoreticalPerspectives 18
PresentedDiscourse:AnOverviewofAnalyticalApproaches 18
LeechandShort’s(1981)Model 22
SeminoandShort’s(2004)Model 25
Short’s(2007,2012)CommentaryontheSeminoandShort(2004)
andLeechandShort(1981)Models 31
Fictionality:QuestionsaboutDefinition 36
TheImportanceofEmotionalityinPopularScience 42
Dramatization,EmotionalityandProfessionalScience 45
Conclusion 47
3 AnalyticalBackground,Framework,Texts,andMethods 49
Introduction 49
GeneralRoleofDiscoursePresentationinFictionand
Non-fiction 50
TheFrameworkforPresentedDiscourseAnalysisofthePopular
ScienceCorpus 52
CorpusSelectionandMethodology 57
WhyStudyPopularScienceNarratives? 57
DescriptionofthePopularScienceCorpus 58
ComparisonofFrequencyInformationforthePopularScience
CorpuswiththeSeminoandShortFindings 61
viii contents
PresentationofCommunicatedDiscourseintheNarrativesof
DiscoveryandSpeech/WritingPresentationinSeminoandShort
(2004) 63
PresentationofThoughtintheNarrativesofDiscoveryandin
SeminoandShort(2004) 64
Conclusion 66
4 DramatizationintheNarrativesofDiscovery:TheRolesof
CommunicatedDiscourseandThoughtPresentation 67
Introduction 67
DramatizationinPresentedDiscourse:ItisNotJust(F)DS 70
DramatizationthroughNPSAandNPTA 71
DialogicNPSA 73
StringsofNPSAandInteractionofDiscourse
PresentationTypes 74
BorderlineDialogicNPSA 79
Dramatizationthrough(F)DS:Emotionality 83
Dramatizationthrough(F)DS:PersonalPerspective 86
DramatizationthroughISandFIS:EmotionalityandDialogue 87
Conclusion 89
5 BeyondDramatization 92
Introduction 92
HypothesesandDiscoveries:PresentationofThoughtisNotso
Private 94
ScientificHypotheses:NPTAandIT 95
IntroductionofDiscoveries:IT 100
Non-dramatizingCommunicatedDiscourse:Explanationof
Science 104
IndirectSpeech 104
Narrator’sPresentationofSpeechActs 108
(Free)DirectSpeech 110
Conclusion 116
6 PresentedDiscourseoutsidetheNarrativesofDiscovery 118
Introduction 118
CelebratoryDiscourse 119
“ANeutrinoWalksintoaBar”:HumorinPresented
Discourse 120
contents ix
“AllHealthyBodiesResembleEachOther,WhileEachUnhealthy
BodyisUnhealthyinItsOwnWay”:LiteraryReferencesin
PresentedDiscourse 122
SpeechPresentationversusWritingPresentation:AnotherLook 124
ConfirmingtheFusionofNon-fictionandFiction-likeQualitiesof
PresentedDiscourseinPopularScience 126
TheFictionalizedReaderinPopularScience 129
Conclusion 138
7 Conclusion 141
TheRoleofPresentedDiscourseintheFormationofPositive
Bias 141
Appendix:PracticalApplicationsofResearchFindings 151
Bibliography 177
IndexofSubjectsandNames 186