Overview

Winner of the European Society for the Study of English Language and Linguistics Book Award 2010 This book is one of the first applications of a functional approach to language across time. It first summarizes and evaluates previous studies of the development of scientific language, including Halliday's exploration of this fascinating topic. It then traces the development of scientific writing as a genre, in terms of its linguistic features, from Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe (the first technical text written in English) almost to the present. It goes on to consider texts by major scientists of the late seventeenth century, and then analyses and discusses a corpus of texts taken from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, covering the period 1700 to 1980. The main linguistic features studied are the use of passive forms, first person pronouns, nominalization, and thematic structure. This brings out the interestingly different patterns of development in the physical and biological sciences. It also highlights previously unnoticed effects, such as the influence of mathematical modelling on texts in the physical sciences - though not, interestingly, the biological sciences - from the late nineteenth century onwards. Thus scientific language - like virtually all language - is intimately related to the context (here the 'field') within which it is produced.

Full Product Details

Author:   David Banks
Publisher:   Equinox Publishing Ltd
Imprint:   Equinox Publishing Ltd
Dimensions:   Width: 16.00cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 23.60cm
Weight:   0.480kg
ISBN:  

9781845533168

ISBN 10:   184553316
Pages:   277
Publication Date:   01 December 2008
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Introduction Diachronic study of scientific text Systemic Functional Linguistics - a suitable framework Thematic structure Grammatical metaphor Part 1: From Chaucer to Newton 1. Beginning with Chaucer Where it all began The Passive Personal pronouns Nominalization 2. Between Chaucer and Newton A troubled period Francis Bacon Robert Boyle Henry Power and Robert Hooke Experimental and descriptive sciences 3. The Royal Society and Newton The place of the Royal Society and its Philosophical Transactions Newton Newton and the influence of Latin Newton and Huygens Part 2: The intervening centuries 4. A way forward Two centuries of increasing nominalization The corpus 5 Passives Increasing use of passives Passives and process types 6 First person pronoun Subjects A rare phenomenon The eighteenth century situation Continuation in the nineteenth century The twentieth century: a radical change 7. Nominalization Nominalizing processes Experiment Nominalized processes as Modifiers 8. Thematic Structure Motivation for the passive The Grammatical Functions of Topical Themes Textual Themes Interpersonal Themes Thematic progression 9. The semantic nature of Themes A typology of Themes Minor types of Theme Features of the experiment The human element Textual reference Mathematics 10. An Interpersonal coda Ancients and Moderns Epistolary framing Praise Criticism Community Provenance Referencing Appendix 1 Appendix 2

Reviews

Winner of the European Society for the Study of English Language and Linguistics Book Award 2010

Author Information

David Banks holds a degree in philosophy from the University of Cambridge, a doctorate from the Universite de Nantes, and an HDR (Habilitation a Diriger des Recherches) from the Universite de Bordeaux 2. Born in Newcastle in 1943, he has been living abroad since 1975, initially in Iraq, and subsequently in France. He is currently Professor of English Linguistics at the Universite de Bretagne Occidentale (Brest). He is head of ERLA (Equipe de Recherche en Linguistique Appliquee) and Chairman of AFLSF (Association Francaise de la Linguistique Systemique Fonctionnelle).

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions