Expounding knowledge through explanations

Generic types and rhetorical-relational patterns

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4473979
AutoresChristian M I M Matthiessen (0000-0003-0247-5723, Department of English , The Hong Kong Polytechnic University , Hong Kong , Hong Kong), Jack Pun (0000-0002-8043-7645, University of Oxford, autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Volumen2019
Número227
Páginas31-76
Fecha de publicación2019-03-05
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSemiotica (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0037-1998 • E-ISSN: 1613-3692
EditorialWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/sem-2016-0045
OpenAlexW2749131227
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas21

In this paper, we focus on contexts where the primary activity is toexpound knowledgeabout general classes of phenomena, either by categorizing and characterizing them or by explaining them based on some theory, ranging from a commonsense folk theory to an uncommonsense scientific theory. Texts produced in such contexts include science lectures, research articles, and entries in encyclopedias. We focus onexplanations, considering them across strata in terms of context, semantics, and lexicogrammar, and summarizing contributions from different research strands. Against this background, we report on a study of the registers used in secondary school chemistry textbooks in Hong Kong. We begin by summarizing a framework for classifying the contexts in which texts operate - a framework designed to allow us to differentiate different kinds of text according to the contexts they operate in. Then, we focus on one type of context - that of expounding knowledge about general classes of phenomena. Next, we identify different strategies of expounding knowledge, contrasting explanations and categorizations, and then discuss explanations in more detail. Finally, we move to the question of how these contextual types are realized semantically as texts organized as rhetorical complexes, drawing on secondary school textbooks in chemistry in particular

Context (archaeology) · Encyclopedia · Epistemology · Focus (optics) · Linguistics · Rhetorical question · Semantics (computer science) · Sociology · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · History · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy