16 Power in Specialized Communication
Abstract
The present work focuses upon the study of consensual and non-consensual power in the written texts of professional communication. The analysis is approached from the stance of genre theory, upon the premise that specialized communities have a high level of rhetorical sophistication, the keys to which are offered solely to their members. In doing so, and from a critical standpoint, it also envisages power and manipulation both as social constructions and emotional adaptive reactions for communities of practice to thrive and survive. Hence, departing from the tenets of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Critical Genre Analysis (CGA), Social-Constructionist Theory (SCT) and Basic Emotion Theory (BET), we aim to reflect upon the nature of power and manipulation in professional genres, illustrating our reasoning with instances from the state of the art on the subject. Indeed, the thesis that underlies this work supports the view that professional genres (the range of texts and text-types offered by these – very well organized and very specialized – communities for the consumption of the public audience) may be aimed at disorienting lay users regarding their true objectives, the ultimate objective of those professionals being to keep their position of leadership and influence in the social scale.
Abstract
The present work focuses upon the study of consensual and non-consensual power in the written texts of professional communication. The analysis is approached from the stance of genre theory, upon the premise that specialized communities have a high level of rhetorical sophistication, the keys to which are offered solely to their members. In doing so, and from a critical standpoint, it also envisages power and manipulation both as social constructions and emotional adaptive reactions for communities of practice to thrive and survive. Hence, departing from the tenets of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Critical Genre Analysis (CGA), Social-Constructionist Theory (SCT) and Basic Emotion Theory (BET), we aim to reflect upon the nature of power and manipulation in professional genres, illustrating our reasoning with instances from the state of the art on the subject. Indeed, the thesis that underlies this work supports the view that professional genres (the range of texts and text-types offered by these – very well organized and very specialized – communities for the consumption of the public audience) may be aimed at disorienting lay users regarding their true objectives, the ultimate objective of those professionals being to keep their position of leadership and influence in the social scale.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Content i
- Preface xiii
-
I General aspects
- 1 Models and concepts of Specialized Communication 3
- 2 Typology of Languages for Special Purposes and Specialized Communication 31
- 3 Communication about specialized knowledge 51
- 4 Specialized Communication and cognition 67
- 5 Inter- and transdisciplinarity 87
- 6 Multilingual Specialized Communication 107
- 7 Intercultural Specialized Communication 125
- 8 Linguae francae in Specialized Communication 143
-
II Functional aspects
- 9 Efficiency of Specialized Communication 169
- 10 Figurative language in domain-specific communication 191
- 11 The cognition of credibility in Specialized Communication 213
- 12 The multimodal complexity of Specialized Communication: Examples and approaches 237
- 13 Cohesion and coherence in specialized written communication 257
- 14 Gender aspects in Specialized Communication 277
- 15 Authorship and anonymity in Specialized Communication 297
- 16 Power in Specialized Communication 319
- 17 Epistemicide and Open Science Communication 339
-
III Methodological aspects
- 18 Critical Genre Analysis of specialized texts: Demystifying professional practices 361
- 19 Terminology and terminography in Specialized Communication 385
- 20 Corpus linguistics in Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) 407
- 21 Academic language and content development for multilingual learners: the SIOP model 433
- 22 Research and didactics of Specialized Communication: Content and Language Integrated Learning 453
- 23 Ethnography and ethnographic methods in Specialized Communication 475
- 24 Conversation Analysis and Specialized Communication 495
- 25 Needs analysis 513
- 26 Communication in multilingual workplaces: A mixed methods approach 529
- 27 Qualitative and quantitative text analysis 545
-
IV Media aspects
- 28 Specialized Communication in literary texts 563
- 29 Orality (and/as media) in Specialized Communication 589
- 30 Towards collaborative journalism in Specialized Communication 611
- 31 Specialized Communication in the press 625
- 32 Specialized Communication in the World Wide Web 645
- 33 Specialized Communication in social media 665
- 34 Language construction and Specialized Communication 687
- 35 Languages of logical calculation 707
- 36 Open Access publishing 725
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Content i
- Preface xiii
-
I General aspects
- 1 Models and concepts of Specialized Communication 3
- 2 Typology of Languages for Special Purposes and Specialized Communication 31
- 3 Communication about specialized knowledge 51
- 4 Specialized Communication and cognition 67
- 5 Inter- and transdisciplinarity 87
- 6 Multilingual Specialized Communication 107
- 7 Intercultural Specialized Communication 125
- 8 Linguae francae in Specialized Communication 143
-
II Functional aspects
- 9 Efficiency of Specialized Communication 169
- 10 Figurative language in domain-specific communication 191
- 11 The cognition of credibility in Specialized Communication 213
- 12 The multimodal complexity of Specialized Communication: Examples and approaches 237
- 13 Cohesion and coherence in specialized written communication 257
- 14 Gender aspects in Specialized Communication 277
- 15 Authorship and anonymity in Specialized Communication 297
- 16 Power in Specialized Communication 319
- 17 Epistemicide and Open Science Communication 339
-
III Methodological aspects
- 18 Critical Genre Analysis of specialized texts: Demystifying professional practices 361
- 19 Terminology and terminography in Specialized Communication 385
- 20 Corpus linguistics in Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) 407
- 21 Academic language and content development for multilingual learners: the SIOP model 433
- 22 Research and didactics of Specialized Communication: Content and Language Integrated Learning 453
- 23 Ethnography and ethnographic methods in Specialized Communication 475
- 24 Conversation Analysis and Specialized Communication 495
- 25 Needs analysis 513
- 26 Communication in multilingual workplaces: A mixed methods approach 529
- 27 Qualitative and quantitative text analysis 545
-
IV Media aspects
- 28 Specialized Communication in literary texts 563
- 29 Orality (and/as media) in Specialized Communication 589
- 30 Towards collaborative journalism in Specialized Communication 611
- 31 Specialized Communication in the press 625
- 32 Specialized Communication in the World Wide Web 645
- 33 Specialized Communication in social media 665
- 34 Language construction and Specialized Communication 687
- 35 Languages of logical calculation 707
- 36 Open Access publishing 725
