Dissemination of Contemporary Knowledge in English : Genres, Discourse Strategies and Professional Practices

This volume brings together a series of studies on the nature of the dissemination of specialist knowledge in English, its various principles, conceptualizations, constructs and pragmatic dynamics, over a range of discourse genres: knowledge discourse is addressed to a number of audiences, expert and lay, in a variety of fields, legal, political, economic, institutional, academic, organizational and professional. The authors explore the use of language in the creation and diffusion of knowledge, in its transformation from being a mere repository of information, achieved through complex discursive processes. These processes use both general pragma-linguistic textual resources, and also derive from the communicative practices specific to the discourse communities in question. The studies as a whole demonstrate the multi-levels of knowledge, its very varied typology, and its dynamic nature in ongoing co-construction, maintenance and updating among heterogeneous audiences.

Rita Salvi is full professor in English Linguistics and Translation in the Faculty of Economics, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome. Her research interests include general and applied linguistics, text and genre analysis, intercultural discourse for academic and professional purposes, language teaching particularly through the medium of advanced technologies, synchronic and diachronic lexicographic analysis mainly in the field of specialized language (economics and law).
Janet Bowker is a tenured researcher and Adjunct Professor in English Linguistics and Translation in the Faculty of Economics, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome. Her research interests lie mainly in academic, institutional and professional discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, socio-cognitive pragmatics, ESP teaching and testing.