Abstract
The article studies system-forming characteristics of pitch as a business speech genre in business communication. The research material is presented by 54 entrepreneurial pitches (a brief speech of an entrepreneur to investors) in the TV reality shows Dragons’ Den (UK) and Sharks Tank (USA). The article describes pitches studied by modern linguists within the anthropocentric paradigm. The paper considers the concepts ‘speech genre’, ‘communication strategy’ through the prism of scientific views of M. M. Bakhtin, O. S. Issers as well as the theory of business discourse in the works by F. Bargiela-Chiappini. The article analyzes the most typical structural, lexical, semantic and stylistic characteristics of the pitch manifested in dynamics. The authors demonstrate that the interaction of business, public and mass media discourses generates a genre that is not reduced to the simple sum of their components. The research shows that taken in the context of mass media communication, pitch as a genre should be considered in all the diversity of this speech situation, allowing us to rethink the genre-forming factors of pitch. The set of specific characteristics that make it special in its capacity of a speech genre includes inequality of the communication role and status, two pools of listeners, preset logical structure of the text, elements of show, turns in the process of speech, number of speakers, and a function of a trigger for further negotiation. A new understanding of the role and meaning of pitch allows us to categorize this genre not as an element of the sales genre but as the first component of the commercial negotiation genre. The results obtained can be applied in the practice of teaching modern English language, in research on communicative linguistics and pragmatics.
Highlights
IntroductionThe elaborated discourse analysis demonstrated that functions of entrepreneurial pitch are examined as an initial element of business negotiation and networking communication
Professor in the Department of Language Training Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation
The research shows that taken in the context of mass media communication, pitch as a genre should be considered in all the diversity of this speech situation, allowing us to rethink the genre-forming factors of pitch
Summary
The elaborated discourse analysis demonstrated that functions of entrepreneurial pitch are examined as an initial element of business negotiation and networking communication. This factor fulfills the tactics of creating identity and reliable business image, engaging into the further conversation with venture capitalists. That is why the research suggests reinventing the value of rhetorical aspects of entrepreneurial pitch understood as “the persuasive communication strategies that demonstrate their effectiveness” [Guervós 2019: 15] This new understanding of the role and value of entrepreneurial pitch transforms linguistic categorization of a pitch from a sales speech into an initial communication offer to have a conversation
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