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Title:
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Is the Language of Politology an LSP?
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Author:
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Antonino Principato
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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University of Naples Federico II
, Department of Political Studies
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Degree Date:
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1997
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Text/Corpus Linguistics
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Director(s):
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C. Cecioni
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Abstract:
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The present study originates from the need to examine the EGP-ESP dualism, which has somewhat characterized linguistic speculation in the past few decades. More precisely, considering what have always been hailed as the main features of ESP stricto sensu, i.e. lexical unambiguity (Cecioni, 1981, 59-60) and terminological autonomy (Beccaria, 1987, 22-24), some early-ninety US official text material has been studied in the attempt to ascertain the specificity of the language of American politology: is it an instance of ESP, an example of EGP, or does it lie somewhere in between? Those features that would make it belong to the last categorization have been studied more accurately, with the twofold aim of assessing their degree of specificity and their exemplificatory potential for the teaching of English in Italian Political Science Departments. Taking a forward dimension, the present research aims at fulfilling both linguistic and language teaching objectives: the identification of some form of English for Political Science and the isolation of the macro- and micro-textual markers specific to it. Hence, the very concept of ESP might be reconsidered - not only in contrast to EGP, but also as a gradatum of text-types detaching themselves from EGP according to greater or lesser degrees of textual specificity. In order to reduce the effect of contextual factors a minimum and to guarantee a certain objectivity in data gathering and evaluation, the present research focuses upon written text material. For an empirical assessment of the degree of specificity of the language of American politology the choice has fallen on 'Yugoslavia: Prospects for Stability', in Foreign Affairs, Vol. 70, No. 3, Summer 1991, published by the Council on Foreign Relations of the US Department of State. One instance of ESP, 'Does the Distal Rectal Muscle in Anorectal Malformations Have the Functional Properties of a Sphincter?', in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, Vol. 25, No.9, September 1990, and one of EGP, 'The Myth of Liberalism', in Newsweek, November 2, 1992, have been selected as control texts. The latter have been analized according to certain criteria which have been maintained for the analysis of the politological text, and the resulting data have been compared. The analytical approach has combined Trimbles paragraph-centered model (1985, 11), Wilss oriented configuration (1982, 113-120) and Hallidays model (Halliday/Hasan, 1976).
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