Lexical means of expression of communicative-pragmatic intention in texts of scientific-public discourse

Abstract

The article singles out and analyzes the functioning of lexical means of expressing communicative and pragmatic intention in the texts of popular scientific discourse. The theoretical basis of the presented research is the provision of scientists about the orientation of such texts to the mass recipient of scientific information, as well as the function of popularizing scientific knowledge, i.e. addressing the text of scientific topics to non-specialists. As a result of studying numerous scientific sources on this topic, it is claimed that the presence of a communicative goal determines the general nature of messages and their linguistic form. Accordingly, the pragmatic potential is the result of the author’s choice of the content of the message and the way of its linguistic expression. Given the relevance of the specified theme and the presence of certain gaps in its study, the purpose of the article is to highlight and interpret the main principles of expressing the communicative and pragmatic component of the texts of popular scientific discourse. The set goal involves solving such tasks as defining the concepts of “popular scientific discourse” and “communicative-pragmatic intention”, as well as the analysis of key lexical means of expressing the communicative-pragmatic component of popular scientific texts. Thus, the subject of research is the popular scientific discourse, and the object is the lexical means of expressing the communicative and pragmatic component of the texts of the popular scientific discourse. The material of the research is articles in the English-language popular scientific publications such as American Scientist, New Scientist, Popular Science, Science magazine, and Popular Mechanics. In the research paper, we are guided by the statement that in the texts of popular scientific literature, the personal relationships of the author and markers of modality are clearly revealed. The specified features of the popular scientific text are expressed by linguistic means at all levels. Based on the analysis, we highlight the main means of expressing the communicative and pragmatic orientation of the mentioned texts at the lexical level. The results of the study showed that the vocabulary of the analysed texts is divided into commonly used lexics – 50%, general scientific lexics – 30% and specialized terminological lexics – 20%. Also, in order to achieve the communicative and pragmatic intention and focus on high contact of the presentation, the pronouns I (presentation of the material in the first person singular), you / your (as appeal to the reader), as well as we, us (as identification of the author with the recipient) are used. In the presented texts, emotional and evaluative vocabulary characterizes a certain phenomenon or concept through the prism of the author’s perception. By expressing a subjective evaluation, the text acquires expressiveness, since the vocabulary with a clear connotation minimizes the difficulty of the recipient’s perception of the text. In a certain context, evaluative vocabulary is used figuratively. Authors use elements of conversational style to perform the communicative function in popular scientific texts.