Genre differentiation of small-format texts in modern English

Abstract

A number of objective conditions that have formed in the modern society are reflected in language as the tendency to reduce the volume of communicative units – texts – that are used in the process of communication. Currently, short textual formations are characteristic of all types of discourse, including those of interpersonal and institutional communication in the media, scientific, official and business environments, as well as in the context of creative writing. The relevance of studying small texts is explained by the need to identify specific ways by which the pragmatic potential of a limited number of linguistic means is most efficiently realized within a small construct, allowing the text to successfully fulfill its complex communicative goal in the process of verbal interaction. Specifics of discursive interaction of linguistic instruments within the framework of the textual structure are closely related to the genre parameters of a particular text variety, however at the moment researchers have not yet adopted a unified approach to systematizing genre variations of small texts. The purpose of this article is to work out a set of classification parameters for systemic arrangement of various small-format texts, which will potentially bring them to a single standard of description. As a result, a number of classification criteria for genre systematization are proposed including ontological, functional stylistic, quantitative, semiotic, formalization and environmental ones. Within the framework of each criterion, variants of genre implementations are singled out with the latter being supported with linguistic illustrations in the form of contemporary English small-format texts.