« This » comme marqueur privilégié du genre : le cas des résumés de thèses

The ever-increasing impact of academic publishing has made genre analysis a priority, since it defines the requirements of the communicative goals inside a specific community. This study aims at exploring how the reference marker “this” contributes to making the PhD abstract a recognizable type of g...

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Main Author: Geneviève Bordet
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses universitaires de Caen 2011-12-01
Series:Discours
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/discours/8506
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author Geneviève Bordet
author_facet Geneviève Bordet
author_sort Geneviève Bordet
collection DOAJ
description The ever-increasing impact of academic publishing has made genre analysis a priority, since it defines the requirements of the communicative goals inside a specific community. This study aims at exploring how the reference marker “this” contributes to making the PhD abstract a recognizable type of genre and as such likely to fulfil its objectives. “This”, as a rhetorical device, seems particularly adapted to a type of discourse characterized by its distinctive conciseness and highly symbolic status in the academic field. Our corpus includes abstracts from five disciplines, written in English by English and French-speaking doctoral students. This provides evidence for establishing a typology of the functions of “this” which create focalisation, and hence determine a rhetorical strategy. The exophoric “this” establishes the link between the abstract and its context of enunciation while its endophoric uses create the dynamics of the focus structure, ranging from a simple repetitive anaphor to a shift or encapsulation of the reference. The application of this classification to a corpus of abstracts in the fields of mathematics education and materials science highlights an array of rhetorical strategies depending on the writer’s disciplinary and linguistic origin. We argue that the mastering of the interpretive space provided by the use of “this” helps the PhD candidate to demonstrate his/her legitimacy and authority, therefore contributing to his/her admission inside the academic community.
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spelling doaj-art-351649d2919949919d3f5bff8cbfcd992025-01-30T09:52:41ZengPresses universitaires de CaenDiscours1963-17232011-12-01910.4000/discours.8506« This » comme marqueur privilégié du genre : le cas des résumés de thèsesGeneviève BordetThe ever-increasing impact of academic publishing has made genre analysis a priority, since it defines the requirements of the communicative goals inside a specific community. This study aims at exploring how the reference marker “this” contributes to making the PhD abstract a recognizable type of genre and as such likely to fulfil its objectives. “This”, as a rhetorical device, seems particularly adapted to a type of discourse characterized by its distinctive conciseness and highly symbolic status in the academic field. Our corpus includes abstracts from five disciplines, written in English by English and French-speaking doctoral students. This provides evidence for establishing a typology of the functions of “this” which create focalisation, and hence determine a rhetorical strategy. The exophoric “this” establishes the link between the abstract and its context of enunciation while its endophoric uses create the dynamics of the focus structure, ranging from a simple repetitive anaphor to a shift or encapsulation of the reference. The application of this classification to a corpus of abstracts in the fields of mathematics education and materials science highlights an array of rhetorical strategies depending on the writer’s disciplinary and linguistic origin. We argue that the mastering of the interpretive space provided by the use of “this” helps the PhD candidate to demonstrate his/her legitimacy and authority, therefore contributing to his/her admission inside the academic community.https://journals.openedition.org/discours/8506genre analysisreferencePhD abstractexophoric useanaphoric useencapsulation
spellingShingle Geneviève Bordet
« This » comme marqueur privilégié du genre : le cas des résumés de thèses
Discours
genre analysis
reference
PhD abstract
exophoric use
anaphoric use
encapsulation
title « This » comme marqueur privilégié du genre : le cas des résumés de thèses
title_full « This » comme marqueur privilégié du genre : le cas des résumés de thèses
title_fullStr « This » comme marqueur privilégié du genre : le cas des résumés de thèses
title_full_unstemmed « This » comme marqueur privilégié du genre : le cas des résumés de thèses
title_short « This » comme marqueur privilégié du genre : le cas des résumés de thèses
title_sort this comme marqueur privilegie du genre le cas des resumes de theses
topic genre analysis
reference
PhD abstract
exophoric use
anaphoric use
encapsulation
url https://journals.openedition.org/discours/8506
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