Speech Genres in Cultural Practice

<i>Genre Matters: Essays in Theory and Criticism</i>. Edited by Garin Dowd , Lesley Stevenson , and Jeremy Strong . Bristol and Portland, OR: Intellect Books, 2006. Pp. 178.

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Modern linguistics is characterized by the establishment and formation of a new promising direction, based on anthropocentric theory of speech genres (TSG). The popularity of this direction lies in the interest of the scientists in the phenomenon of virtual communication, which has a certain structure and differs in mechanisms of influence on the social content. The multidimensionality and richness of genre forms determine the need for a diverse approach to the study of speech genres in modern genology. The aim of the article is to study and analyze the theory of speech genres in modern linguistics. The author presents the basic theoretical foundations of the study of the theory of speech genres. Taking into account the achievements of modern studies, the concept of speech genres is analyzed, features and functions of the visual elements of the speech genre are described. It is proved that the modern speech genre and its variety the virtual speech genre are an informational and communicative environment in which there is a certain styling, sphere of communication, speech behavior. The speech genre and the virtual speech genre belong to the written communication and rely on the fullest use of lexical, grammatical, graphic, and media means of speech, which foresees certain adjustments, as well as it differs by the form of dialogue and monologue.

This is the second article in a cycle on the connection between genre studies and linguistics. The previous article discussed the question “What have genre studies given to linguistics?” This article focuses on linguistic methods used in speech genres theory: more traditional for linguistics, starting with the descriptive method and its later varieties – structural – and less traditional (component analysis, the method of immediate constituents, the generative method, the method of describing external and deep content structures, the method of semantic fields). Speech genres theory is studied in relation to linguistic paradigms. The most significant for speech genres theory is the turn in linguistics from the study of the language only to the study of speech (discourse), and thus – the recognition of the presence of a specific systematic nature of speech. Besides, speech genres theory is analyzed in connection with traditional linguistic directions: syntactic theory and methodology are used in the study of the composition of speech genres, lexicology and semantics – in the study of the names of speech genres. The major focus is on the modern period when new areas of linguistics and speech genres theory emerge simultaneously (Internet linguistics and Internet genre studies). The article also discusses division of linguistic disciplines in connection both with the speech genre division of language (structural, diachronic, functional) and with the division of genre studies (structure of the speech genres, classification of speech genres, sociology of speech genres, psychology of speech genres and genre thinking, cognitive and culturological aspects of speech genres). The role of speech genres theory in the division of linguistic disciplines into deductive and inductive is also discussed. The article appreciates the role of several outstanding linguists in the development of speech genres theory. In addition, the author briefly touches upon the connection between genre studies and literary studies: in the study of literary texts and genres they converge.

Genre analysis has become a prevalent approach in the linguistic analysis of various specialized genres. A concept of genre, emerging from literature, has received a broader dimension in the last decade, focusing on establishing recognized structures and language exponents of a specific genre in a particular discourse community. In addition, the expansion of ESP and the rise of subgenres in many rising professional vocations require users to have competence in the English language. In addition, language researchers need ‘to dig into’ the pragmatic context of genres. With this mind and resting on the concept of genre and discourse communities, the paper sheds light on how the genre analysis approach can be applied in teaching different marine electrical genres to students and future ETO officers. The marine electrical engineering discourse community is specific and relatively novel. In this paper, the focus is placed on seafarers, future electro-technical officers and the analysis of genres they utilize in their professional work on board ships. The results of the paper can be inspiring to ESP teachers involved in teaching specialized and technical genres.

The article discusses the legitimacy and appropriateness of using the concept of genre sphere in modern genre studies, by analogy with other “spheres” used in many modern humanities, for example, in conceptology. The author concludes that the genre sphere objectively exists, but the use of the genre sphere as a concept in genre studies also has objective pros and cons. The paper analyzes the possible composition of the genre sphere: the totality of all speech genres/speechgenre space of a separate national culture in a given period and in dynamics; a separate intra-cultural subculture; a separate age subculture. The genre sphere does not include speech acts, tonalities, styles, strategies and tactics, types, precedent texts, as well as actual linguistic units of different types and levels. The paper focuses on the tasks of the “genre sphere theory” and the tasks of genre studies, the solution of which is facilitated by the use of the concept of the genre sphere: the ordering of ideas about the structure of communicative concepts and in their composition – speech genre, national genre sphere and national culture, genrogenic situations, anthology (encyclopedia, dictionary) of speech genres, typology of speech genres. A separate micro-study deals with the categories, scenarios, etc. of the Russian genre sphere (the significance of the concept of communication, communicative personality, greater and lesser elaboration of individual genres, intra-genre tonalities and values, such as iskrennost’ (≈‘sincerity’), spravedlivost’ (≈‘fairness’), pryamota (≈‘directness’), vezhlivost’ (≈‘politeness’), kompliment (≈‘compliment’)). The arguments “against” the use of the concept of genre sphere in genre studies include the insufficient development of the methodology of genre studies, the absence of new special methods and techniques that would be used in studying the genre sphere, as well as the fact that at the current stage of development of genre studies, this concept is perceived as largely redundant in relation to such actively and successfully developed concepts as the speech-genre picture of the modern era, speech-genre space, and near-genre space of speech.

The article formulates the subject and tasks of the future speech-genre discipline – the integral description of speech genres – which, in the author’s opinion, claims to be central to the general theory of speech genres. The main sources of the theory of speech genres integrality include the high level of a speech genre as a speech and language unit, the complex, multidimensional and multicomponent nature of the theory of speech genres, the multidisciplinarity of the theory of speech genres (it draws on data from almost all the humanities and partly non-humanities). The integral description of speech genres will include the following parameters: the cultural and historical context of the speech genre; typological characteristics of speech genre (including their place in various typologies); speech-genre variantology and recurrence, including new technogenic and Internet derivatives from primary, traditional genres; representation in the corps. The integral description of speech genres and its parameters are discussed in connection with the division of linguistics (partly – other sciences, for example, literary criticism). It is shown that the majority of divisions of linguistics that are significant for the integral description of speech genres go back to Saussure’s idea of opposing internal and external linguistics, and the main tasks of the theory of speech genres correspond to those three “eternal” problems of linguistics formulated by V. M. Alpatov: “How is language structured?”, “How does language function?” and “How does language develop?” The author discusses directions of the most important genre studies, from which the integral description of speech genres should be “composed”, and the criteria used for their selection: 1) the model is already integral (multi-component and interdisciplinary); 2) universal (applicable to many languages and national cultures, in different historical periods); 3) based on this model, the largest number of studies was carried out. The first criterion is met by the model of T. V. Shmeleva, the second – by the universalist model of A. Wierzbicka, the third – by traditional speech-genre models: lexical, syntactic and pragmatic. In conclusion, the author discusses the unresolved problems of speech genres, which can be logically solved on the basis of the integral description of speech genres: typology (integral bases for the classification of speech genres claim to be more reliable), variantology, applied and experimental aspects (vocabulary representation of speech genres and corpus aspect, including the analysis of key phrases of speech genres).

The study is devoted to the analysis of the speech genre of the webinar related to the educational field – the field of teaching children and adults. The relevance of the study is due to the lack of genre studies of webinars as such, conducted for educational purposes. The webinar genre is currently a highly demanded speech genre, formed on the basis of the seminar genre, taking into account its use in the Internet space. The objectives of the study were to identify the basic and variable genre features of an educational webinar in terms of its communicative goal, addresser and addressee, the image of the past and the image of the future, dictum (event) content, linguistic embodiment. As a result, a basic model of the speech genre of the webinar was built and the variability of this model was noted. The basic model also includes speech strategies and tactics used in this speech genre; their potential variability is revealed. The scientific novelty of the study lies in a comprehensive analysis of the genre features of the webinar in accordance with the questionnaire of the speech genre, focused on the analysis of the speech genre in the pragmalinguistic aspect. This aspect involves the analysis of the speech genre body of content, their goals and objectives, the social roles of the communicants, their speech expectations and the way they are implemented in the process of communication. It is noted that almost every element of the webinar structure allows for significant variability, which indicates the constant development of this genre, the continuation of the process of its formation. The least variable elements of the webinar speech genre model are the image of the past and the image of the future.

This article focuses on modern linguistics and its new promising direction, the anthropocentric theory of speech genres (TSG). The author of the article examines the importance of the theory of speech genres in the context of virtual communication and its impact on social content. The necessity of a multidimensional approach to the study of speech genres in modern genology and the virtual nature of social networks, their unstructured nature, pluralism and fragmentation are emphasized. It is concluded that the modern speech genre and the virtual speech genre are an information and communication environment based on written communication and using a wide range of linguistic means. The importance of distinguishing between speech genres on the web cannot be overstated, as it helps ensure effective communication and understanding among Internet users. Speech genres are varieties of texts or speech that have their own characteristics, style, and purpose. They are used to convey information, express thoughts, entertain, or create an emotional atmosphere. In the online space, recognizing speech genres has several crucial aspects: communication efficiency, avoiding misinterpretation, enhancing credibility, facilitating effective information seeking. In conclusion, the identifying speech genres on the web is of utmost importance as it enables effective communication, helps users find relevant content, prevents misinterpretation, enhances credibility, and fosters trust. By understanding and utilizing the appropriate speech genres, both content creators and consumers can engage in meaningful and productive online interactions.

The article defines the methodological problems of constructing a model of the speech genre and suggests the way of solving them. The existing models of Text – Text components – Genre type are recognized as the main tool for the study and description of speech genres. It is argued that the speech genre description methodology in modern linguistics should be focused on the ideas of systematic construction. The principles of text analysis in the aspect of speech genre studies are determined and some errors of scientifically employed approaches are identified. The elimination of these errors will allow genre studies to shift to a new methodological principle of constructing a genre model that has a diagnostic potential. The current problematic issues of genre studies are formulated. As a productive technology for describing a speech genre, we propose a universal method of functional modelling, which will enable designing genres and their modules on the basis of regularity, obligation, and oppositional character. In order to solve the problem of genre description in the attributive aspect, that is, to determine its units, it is productive to analyze the genre applying the so-called communicative semiotic model, as well as the method of transformational-and-oppositional analysis. The proposed principle of genre description is postulated as a method of objective modelling. Thus, within the framework of this study, the analysis of the theoretical problems of modern genre studies is carried out, the objectives of speech genres investigation are formulated and the approaches to their achieving are presented in an overview.

The article reflects the scientific fate of the main genre model – the “questionnaire of the speech genre” of T. V. Shmeleva. The author discusses the reasons for the high demand for the “questionnaire” in genre studies: the parameters of the “questionnaire” affect the most important aspects, the “pain points” of the genre; the formal simplicity and consistency of the “questionnaire”. Along with the advantages and achievements (the article gives their brief description), the author points to a few critical issues concerning the “questionnaire”: the lack of items of the “questionnaire” (the juxtaposition of primary and secondary speech genres, direct and indirect speech genres, speech and rhetorical genres, cultural characteristics of speech genres, etc. are not presented in it) and its crucial points which are not commonly recognized, i.e. the ranking points of the “questionnaire”. In relation to modern genre studies, the article deals with the items that either should be or can be, or have already been added to the “questionnaire”, as well as the theoretical justification of their relations, which, according to the author of the article, will allow to clarify some other items of the “questionnaire”. The emphasis is on those points that are less spelled out in the “canonical” “questionnaire”, but that should be used for a more adequate study of genres (especially new ones), and are already actually used. The discussion focuses on the following points: typological, including the stadial-typological and historical-etymological, features of speech genres; determination of the place of the genre in the structural-hierarchical typology; cultural, linguistic and linguocultural characteristics of speech genres; characteristics of the communicative concept, through which the genre is presented and interpreted, and its components; the ability of the genre to form its variants; corpus and quantitative characteristics of speech genre; online genres.

The article is devoted to the analysis of gratitude as a speech genre of ritual political communication. The purpose of the article – to analyze the genre features of gratitude as a kind of political text; which envisaged the formulation of such tasks: to define the concept of the speech genre and to outline the degree of his study in linguistics; to consider the specifics of ritual speech genres of political communication; to analyze the speech genre of gratitude in the Ukrainian ritual political discourse. Object of research – ritual displays of Ukrainian political discourse; subject - a speech genre of gratitude in the Ukrainian political discourse. The main issues of the theory of speech genres are considered, the views on the typology of Ukrainian ritual speech genres in political discourse are presented and the genre of gratitude is described. The genre and language specificity of gratitude in Ukrainian political discourse is compared with other ritual genres. The language genre is a communicative phenomenon, the type of organization of discourse, which involves a specific pragmatic method of the speaker, the selection of special expressions and lexical means, the expression of the individual picture of the world. For political communication, such speech genres are characteristic: greetings, festive treatment, gratitude, obituary and compassion, inaugural speech. Gratitude is the language genre of etiquette communication, it is not related to the political ritual directly, it specifies the contribution of the addressee to political life, has a specific addressee, and at the formal level is a dialogic written communication. For a particular implementation, political greetings are designed not only for the immediate addressee, but also for the target audience, the audience, therefore, perform the image function.

The article considers a speech genre borrowed from American and Western European educational tradition, which is an axiologically oriented text of a student’s comment on the teacher. The article continues the study of evaluative speech genres of educational discourse, considering the problem of speech genre borrowing from an axiological perspective. The aim of this study is a linguistic and axiological analysis of students’ public evaluative utterances commenting on their attitude to teaching. Speech borrowing is one of the least studied problems in linguistics, which determines the relevance of the present study along with the importance of the sphere of education itself for the culture of society as a whole. Based on the communicative and semiotic concept of speech genre, the author identifies and analyzes the value aspects of student evaluation of teaching quality, identifies general and national specific features of English- and Russian-language evaluation texts, identifies and describes factors of conflictogenic evaluative statements of this genre, distinguishing features of functioning of pragmatic category of categorization in Russian- and English-language evaluative texts. The article reveals the absence of clear speech-genre criteria in Russian students’ evaluative comments unlike in English-language practices, which can be explained by the fact of speech genre borrowing and the lack of relevant speech-genre competence in the Russian-language educational discourse. The article considers the linguistic and ecological aspect of this speech genre from moral and ethical and legal points of view. The article reveals the dependence of the linguistic form of conceptualization of negative evaluation on communicative and ethical competence, the formation of which depends on the conceptual certainty of the speech genre. The author concludes that the utilitarian and pragmatic borrowing of communicative patterns from a foreign culture can be a threat to the spiritual and moral state of society.

The author of this article applies the theory of speech genres of M. M. Bakhtin, developed by A. D. Stepanov, to analyze the plays of A. N. Ostrovsky. In particular, she considers the tyrannical characters through the prism of primary speech genres. According to the author’s point of view, a completely definite and stable set of primary speech genres defines such characters. There prevail imperative speech genres, which are associated with influencing the will of another person, namely, an order, a demand or a threat. The article briefly describes each of these genres showing that they are used by the tyrannical characters to impose their own whims on the interlocutors. The author confirms this conclusion by the examples (the behavior of Bruskov, Akhov, Karkunov). What is more, the tyrannical characters resort to didactic speech genres, which mainly demonstrates their opinion of themselves as “knowledgeable” (this distinguishes, for example, Kabanikha). At the same time, the tyrannical characters often use the speech genre of complain, which shows the weakness of their nature and lack of strength when facing resistance (for example, Bolshov, Akhov). The author makes a conclusion that there are wide possibilities of applying the theory of speech genres in the study of Ostrovsky’s plays.

The article deals with the problem of genre in translation studies. The hypothesis of the study is the idea of the genre shifts emerging at the moment of interpreting within the genre of a TV interview. The authors discuss the ways of interpreting the genre. In accordance with the functional-linguistic approach to the analysis of speech genre, the authors consider the ways in which the linguistic personality of the interpreter verbally regulates the translation of the genre. The authors structurally describe the material, methods and results of the study. The aim of the study includes the linguistic analysis of genre shifts, ways of overcoming them and description of speech means of realization of a genre by the linguistic personality of a conference interpreter. The authors substantiate the logic of choosing the genre type, list the characteristic features of the genre of the television interview of portrait type. The researchers use the method of comparative analysis of the genre’ “projection” and linguocognitive analysis of the stylistic parameters of the scripts of interpretation and consider the ways of genre preservation in interpreting realized by conference interpreters. The linguistic analysis hereby considers translation solutions (transformations) at the lexico-semantic and grammatical levels; ways of expressing the genre through the use of background knowledge and extra-linguistic context; ways of translating genre conventions (the key condition of a genre). They analyse translation mistakes as a way of a genre expression. The distinctive features of the English- and Russian-language genre of the TV interview are listed on the grounds of the performed simultaneous translations. The results of the study demonstrate the future prospects of genre research, including the analysis of the of conscious and unconscious genre preservation/ breakage in interpreting.