According To The Subject-Matter:: - Popular Scientific Discourse

The main function of the style - to provide specialists with up-to-date and relevant information.
Scientific discourse - mostly expository, containing descriptive as well as narrative passages.
According to the subject-matter:

- humanities and social sciences
- sciences
a) scientific (theoretical) style
b) technical (practical) style
In relation to the addressee:

-scientific discourse proper
-popular scientific discourse
Genres:
treatises, text books, scientific papers, essays, reports, reviews, articles in academic journals, lectures, manuals,
operating instructions etc.
The methodology of science, with its demand for systematic research and precise description, has several
consequences:
1. logical coherence
the text is organised in clear, succinct paragraphs, highly cohesive entities, based on logic
most paragraphs begin with the general thematic point, and later sentences elaborate
the theme of the next paragraph usually derives from the previous one's elaboration
the same tendency is observed in sentences: a new element at the end of one sentence is often picked up at
the beginning of the next sentence
the relations between sentences and clauses are usually made explicit through the use of connectives
cross-reference relations: anaphoric and cataphoric
2. objectivity
terms
limited use of personal pronouns
accounts of experiments
3. impersonal statement offacts

passive constructions
nominalised forms
4. clarity
terms
non-verbal representations
alternative "languages"
5. brevity
clear organization: beginning, body, closing
abbreviations
limited use of elliptical sentences
6. authority
footnotes
references
quotations
1. Subject-matter neutral vocabulary:

everyday words - to identify new discoveries and hypotheses (e.g. strangeness, flavour, colour in particle
physics)
verbs of exposition: ascertain, assume, determine, estimate, verify, etc.
verbs of warning and advising: avoid, check. insure, prevent, notice
verbs of manipulation: adjust, align, connect, fill, extract, prepare
adjectival modifiers(and their related adverbs): clockwise, graduallY, subsequentlY, periodicallY.,
continuouslY
2. Technical terms, reflecting the specialised subject-matter of scientific domains
3. Abbreviations
4. Novel vocabulary ( science is the main birthplace for new words)
Ex.: reboot - to restart a computer by reloading.
5. High lexical density
6. Absence of vulgarisms and slang
7. Latin loan words
1. Sentences - often long with a complex internal structure

2. Mostly - three types of sentences: postulatory, argumentative, formulative
3. Complexity - high frequency of noun-phrases
4. Passive constructions
5. Limited use of personal pronouns as markers of subjectivity (mostly impersonal style)
6. Use of parenthesis
7. Sentence structure: subordination prevails over coordination
8. Use of nomina Iised forms
quotations
figurative language (in some genres - genuine metaphors: "The chief result of such general
recommendations, without any guidance about what can be recommended ... must surely be to produce
severe indigestion")
emotiveness
emotive evaluation (in some genres)
penetration of a dialogue or represented speech
Ex.: " ... the intelligent non-psychologist can perhaps be forgiven if after reading this volume in the hope
that new directions might lead to new destinations, hefeels that he has been takenfor a ride. "
contact words
defined by the way the subject is treated

reader focused
Nature The Times

Malaria is a major cause of morbi- A breakthrough in research
dity and mortality claiming an aimed at the development of
estimated one million lives a year in vaccines against malaria
Africa alone. Plasmodium falciparum, has come at a time when
the most important agent of human international organisations,
malaria, has not been maintained including the World Health
for more than 2-6 in vitro. Organization, are campaigning
The development of a vaccine for malaria for the expansion of research
depends on suitable culture methods for into the contro I of parasitic
the production of relevant agents. diseases of the third world:
malaria, leprosy etc.

According To The Subject-Matter:: - Popular Scientific Discourse

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The main function of the style - to provide specialists with up-to-date and relevant information.

Scientific discourse - mostly expository, containing descriptive as well as narrative passages.

According to the subject-matter:

In relation to the addressee:

3. impersonal statement offacts

1. Subject-matter neutral vocabulary:

1. Sentences - often long with a complex internal structure

defined by the way the subject is treated

Nature The Times

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