Imitation, Informational Value and Phatic Communication in the Genres of Academic Discourse

Abstract

The article deals with the current state of academic discourse in the sphere of social sciences and its description as a multifaceted communication phenomenon. The analysis allows the authors to classify the features of numerous academic genres and to define the extra-linguistic nature of their origin. The key features include the prevalence of phatic utterances over informative ones, imitation, and desemantization, as well as deintellectualization as a new feature introduced by the authors. The contextual interpretation of the linguistic features of modern academic discourse in this study is based on its sociolinguistic analysis and employs the method of correlation of social and linguistic phenomena, as well as pragmalinguistic analysis encompassing a wide “context of the situation”. Transformational “socio-traumatic” processes of modernity have influenced the sphere of social sciences. Academic discourse (as well as discourse in general) is dependent on the social, cultural and temporal context, which triggers a change in the proportion of its cognitive and manipulative functions. Dissertations and dissertation synopses as predominantly and increasingly formalized genres of academic discourse display features of imitation. In such papers, researchers discover an ‘imitation explosion’. We argue that the leveling of negative signs in academic discourse can be achieved only if society changes its attitude towards professional discourses, especially concerning their form and content, as well as the researchers’ responsibility. Therefore, the possibility of improvement of academic discourse is determined by both linguistic and extralinguistic (socio-cultural) factors. It is essential that society gradually develops a positive reputation and responsibility of a scholar as a subject of academic discourse.