Towards a Cognitive Approach to Notions of Acceptability and Transgression in Spelling and Punctuation in Workplace Communication

Abstract

Much ESP teaching is guided, to a great extent, by a general communicative approach. Likewise, the assessment criteria put forward by the CEFRare based on language learners’ language multimodality (capacity to use the four skills, reading, writing, listening and speaking) in different socio-professional contexts of communication. The ability to communicate thus acts as a key criterion in assessing language learners’ linguistic performance as opposed to grammatical or semantic conformity to norm. This study focuses on written production, and the question of whether transgression from the established language norms (syntax, spelling, etc.) is acceptable as long as it does not hinder the act of communication. To answer this question, some examples of transgressions of language norms regarding two relatively underresearched areas, spelling and punctuation, in professional contexts of communication (legal documents) are studied to measure the impact of transgressions on the performed communicative act.