RSSReview: Genre Change in the Contemporary World
Aug 26
EDITOR: Giuliana Garzone
EDITOR: Paola Catenaccio
EDITOR: Chiara Degano
TITLE: Genre Change in the Contemporary World
SUBTITLE: Short-term Diachronic Perspectives
SERIES TITLE: Linguistic Insights – Volume 159
PUBLISHER: Peter Lang AG
YEAR: 2012
REVIEWER: Pejman Habibie, University of Western Ontario
SUMMARY
“Genre Change in the Contemporary World” intends to shed light on the impact
of technological developments , innovations, and social trends having to do
with genre change and evolution in the contemporary world. The volume consists
of fifteen chapters including the opening one. After the opening chapter, the
remaining chapters are grouped into two sections thematically, “Academic and
Scientific Discourse” and “Institutional and Business Discourse”. “Notes on
Contributors” and a reference list constitute the concluding sections of the
volume.
Opening Chapter: Why Do Genres Change?
This chapter describes the overall framework of the book and provides the
reader with a theoretical lens for reading the subsequent chapters. In this
chapter, Giuliana Garzone enumerates textual, social, and cultural factors,
intertextual and interdiscursive interferences, ideological forces, external
pressures, and technological change as underlying factors that give rise to
genre variation and evolution within different discourse communities and in
different domains.
Section One: Academic and Scientific Discourse.
The chapters in this section address genre variation and evolution in academic
and scientific discourse.
Chapter Two: The Evolution of the Abstract as a Genre: 1988-2008. The Case of
Applied Linguistics.
This chapter presents a diachronic study of the evolution of the academic
genre of the abstract in applied linguistics over a period of twenty years.
Adopting a methodological approach that supports a combination of corpus and
discourse perspectives, Marina Bondi and Silvia Cavalieri explore variations
in communicative practices and linguistic features of this genre. The corpus
consists of 70 abstracts from 1988 and 70 abstracts from 2008 collected from
several refereed applied linguistics journals. The results indicate that
writers can be more explicit and objective when talking about their papers and
assessing their research rather than when talking about themselves, and that
locational patterns provide writers with a choice between personalization and
impersonality.
Chapter Three: A Diachronic Study of Genre Variation in Academic Publishing:
The Quarterly Journal of Economics (1965-2004).
This chapter presents an exploratory study of generic dynamics of an
English-medium journal. In this diachronic study, Davide S. Giannoni examines
a corpus of tables of contents and specimen texts published in an influential
economics journal over a span of forty years. The results indicate that
generic diversity has gradually disappeared over the years and highlight the
expanding gap between articles and all other minor contributions that enhance
the conversations of disciplines but are not cited.
Chapter Four: Poster Makers Should Think as Much about Show Business as
Science. The Case of Medical Posters in a Diachronic Perspective.
This chapter describes a diachronic study of the medical poster. Focusing on
the discourse of medical posters and indicators of marketization processes
within this discourse, Stefania M. Maci investigates the relationship between
the socio-financial context and medical discourse and the ways business
aspects of the health care system contribute to genre variation in this
discourse. The corpus consists of 2,638 posters presented at medical
conferences between 1980s-2000s. The results indicate a shift in the language
of medical posters from a narrative to a disjunctive mode. The presence of
this disjunctive mode necessitates adherence to the IMRD (introduction,
method, results, discussion) pattern of scientific discourse. Moreover, the
results reveal a change in the type of lexical items used in medical posters
and the frequent use of the adjective ‘economic’ in the 2000-2009 corpus,
indicating a shift of focus from statistical and empirical analysis in the
years 1980-1999 to socio-economic, socio-political, and socio-cultural issues
in the decade 2000-2009.
Chapter Five: Dialogic Monologues: Commencement Speeches as an Evolving Genre.
This chapter deals with commencement speeches delivered by high-caliber
academic figures at graduation ceremonies in North American universities as an
academic genre. Taking a diachronic perspective, Martin Solly examines generic
and rhetorical strategies and moves used in this genre since 1947. This
investigation indicates that monologues are becoming more and more dialogic
and interactive, and that the marketization of higher education and social
change have had a strong impact on the evolution of this genre. However, some
of the main features of this genre such as its framing in the academic context
have remained the same.
Chapter Six: Diachronic Evolution of Scientific Popularised Articles in Online
Newspapers: Critical Reflections on El Mundo.
This chapter presents the results of a diachronic study of the popularization
of scientific discourse in Spain. In this comparative study, Paula de Santiago
accounts for the evolution of web genres in online newspapers, comparing the
online supplement Salud and the online section Websalud of the Spanish
newspaper El Mundo. The focus of the study is on the form and functionality of
the articles analyzed. The results of this textual analysis are juxtaposed
with insights from three interviews with the Health Department of the
newspaper El Mundo as well. The findings indicate that social relevance is a
significant factor in topic selection and the hyper-textual and hyper-modal
capacities of the world wide web are used to a greater extent in the articles
specifically designed for cyber space.
Chapter Seven: A Diachronic Study of the Q&A Column in a Popular Science
Magazine
This chapter is about the diachronic evolution of science article
popularization in Taiwan over a span of thirty years. It indicates how the
relationship between genre users influences genres and their features over
time. Drawing on a model adopted from critical genre analysis (Bhatia 2004),
Min-Hsiu Liao describes Q&A columns and explains their social and historical
interactions with popular science development. The corpus consists of all the
correspondence in the Q&A column in Science Monthly from 1970-1999. The study
concludes that changes at textual, institutional, and social levels are the
result of the interaction among these layers of practice and do not
necessarily follow a top down or a bottom up pattern.
Section Two: Institutional and Business Discourse.
The chapters in this section address genre variation and evolution in
institutional and business discourse.
Chapter Eight: FAO’s Food Insecurity Reports: An Evolving Genre.
This chapter reports on a diachronic study of the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) reports on the State of Food Insecurity (SOFI) from
1999-2009. Adopting a combination of a text-analytical approach (Werlich,
1983) and the study of the encoding / decoding context (Bhatia, 1993, 2004;
Swales, 1990) as the methodological framework, Annarita Tavani (a) provides
an analysis of distinctive characteristics of the SOFI reports and the
sub-genres they define, and (b) explores the diachronic evolution of
discursive practices used in this domain-specific genre. The corpus consists
of ten issues of the report. The findings indicate that in spite of the
structural stability of the documents, the distribution of text types and the
organization of topics are different across several editions.
Chapter Nine: The Genre Evolution of the UN Secretary-General’s Annual Reports
from 1953- 2010.
This chapter deals with a diachronic analysis of the evolution of the UN
Secretary-General’s Annual Reports over a 60-year period. Drawing on Swales
(1990, 2004) and Bhatia’s (1993, 2004) analytical frameworks, Cristina
Pennarola and Germana D’Acquisto indicate how discursive and linguistic
features of this genre have changed and how this genre, as an informative
genre, has evolved into a self-promotional genre expanding its communicative
purpose and domain of address. The corpus consists of 37 UN
Secretary-General’s Annual Reports on the Work of the Organization from
1953-2010. The analysis indicates significant changes in the narrative focus
and the authorial stance across the early and the recent reports.
Chapter Ten: From Making to Promoting Law: An Investigation into the Evolution
of ‘Food safety’ Discourse in EU Summaries.
This chapter presents a diachronic comparative analysis of the Summaries of
European legislation as a popularized form of the specialized genre of
Directives and a manifestation of the institutional legal discourse of the
European Union. Drawing on genre analysis, critical discourse analysis, and
studies on modality, Vanda Polese and Stefania D’Avanzo provide a contextual
framework to the analysis of this genre, analyze its features, and explore the
value of modal auxiliaries in this genre. The corpus consists of Summaries of
EU Directives in the thematic area of food safety from 1982 to 2008. The
findings indicate an increase in the occurrence of shall and migrating quotes
in the 1990s followed by a decrease in the 2000s. The authors conclude that
the discursive strategies identified in this study are functional to
strengthening legitimation and credibility in EU’s involvement in food safety.
Chapter Eleven: Genre-bending for Consensus Building: A Diachronic Perspective
on Monsanto’s Pledge Reports (2000-2009).
This chapter reports on a diachronic analysis of a business genre; namely
pledge reports. Taking a discourse-analytical approach to corporate social
responsibility communication, Paola Catenaccio traces the evolution of the
discursive strategies used in the reports published by the biotechnology giant
Monsanto over a span of 10 years. The corpus consists of all reports issued
between 2000 and 2009. The analysis indicates that although this genre has not
had dramatic changes over the years, the argumentative component of this genre
has increased progressively.
Chapter Twelve: Apologetic Discourse in Financial Reporting: CEO and Chairman
Statements. A Case Study.
This chapter deals with a diachronic study of apologetic discourse in Annual
Company Reports (ACRs). The study investigates the influence of external
circumstances on rhetorical strategies. Drawing upon the findings of Ware and
Linkugel (1973), Cinzia Giglioni analyzes the use of apologetic discourse
over time and its role in generic variation focusing on CEO’s and Chairman’s
Statements in ACRs. The corpus of the study is drawn from online resources and
consists of eighteen company reports issued in 2000 and 2009 by nine UK
companies. The findings reveal variations in this genre and highlight that
variations are related to the nature of economic outlook at each of the
above-mentioned periods.
Chapter Thirteen: The CEO’s New Year’s Message from the 1960s to 2000.
This chapter presents a study of the diachronic evolution of a business genre,
the CEO’s New Year’s message, in the period from the 1960s to 2000. Combining
qualitative and quantitative methods, Sylvain Dieltjens and Priscilla
Heynderickx analyze changes in various aspects of this genre such as length,
format, proportion of negative vs. positive information, structure of the
message, and linguistic features. They also examine the difference in
manifestation of this genre in times of crisis and times of economic
stability. The corpus consists of 142 New Year’s messages collected from the
archives of different Belgian companies. The findings indicate that although
the texts have become longer, the extent of attention to wishes have
decreased. CEOs ask for more dedication, and their sense of obligation to
thank employees for their efforts have decreased. Moreover, there is
variation in this genre in times of economic crisis and economic stability.
Business-related information has increased and become more detailed during
crisis times.
Chapter Fourteen: From Job Announcements to Recruitment Advertising: The
Evolution of Recruitment Ads in a Flemish Newspaper (1946-2010).
This chapter reports on a diachronic study of job ads. Drawing on textual
findings and factors in the Flemish context, Paul Gillaerts describes the
evolution of this genre in the Flemish newspaper De Standard over a period of
sixty years through a combination of various genre analytical approaches. The
findings indicate that in spite of the diachronic development of this genre
and high level of stability of its constituent moves, the strategies and
steps used in this genre indicate genre bending and mixing with other genres
such as direct mail and commercial advertising. The analysis also reveals the
growing significance of stance and interaction in this genre, which in turn
indicate the marketization of the genre.
Chapter Fifteen: Genre Variation and Genre Change: Theory and Applications.
In this chapter, Francesca Santulli focuses on the dynamic relationship
between genre and change, emphasizing attention to synchronic and diachronic
aspects of the concept of genre. She argues that genre functions can only be
explained in the light of their change and evolution. She applies the pattern
of genre variation and evolution to the analysis of the travel guide genre.
The origin of this text genre and some aspects of its recent evolutions are
the two aspects that are taken into account. The findings highlight the
significant role of the historical context in emergence, development, and
evolution of genre in general and the tourist guide in particular.
EVALUATION
“Genre Change in the Contemporary World” is an invaluable collection of
cutting-edge studies in the domain of genre analysis. The chapters are nicely
categorized into two sections, academic discourse and business discourse, and
each chapter demonstrates interesting research into a genre within these two
discourses. The categorization of studies and thematic coherence among them
provide a sense of flow and unity through the book. The volume requires
background knowledge on the concept of genre and genre analysis research. It
is an intriguing and insightful read for novice and established members of the
discourse community. It provides a multi-dimensional picture of genre change
in the contemporary world in the true sense of the word, sketches the concept
of genre in transition, draws attention to forces that shape it, and shed
light on dynamic as well as static aspects of different genres against various
waves of change.
Marina Bondi and Silvia Cavalieri’s research and Davide S. Giannoni’s study
are
noteworthy in terms of their methodological approaches. These studies adopt
an integrative methodological approach combining corpus and discourse
perspectives as well as quantitative and qualitative tools to investigate the
evolution of the abstract and genre variation in academic publishing
respectively. Using mixed data collection methods and tools increases the
reliability and validity of these studies and their findings.
Martin Solly’s chapter is the only chapter in this volume that focuses on an
oral genre, the commencement speech. This is appreciated, since genre studies
have mainly focused on written genres. Moreover, the findings of this research
study in terms of the role of social trends in the evolution of this genre and
its popularizing function are extremely interesting.
Min-Hsiu Liao’s study is also noteworthy in several respects. It addresses the
popularization of scientific discourse as a hot topic in genre studies, and
focuses on the role of genre users as an evolutionary force. It steps beyond
textual features of discourse and expands the investigation to institutional
and social aspects of discourse. Last but not least, it highlights the
interactions and reciprocal relationship among these discoursal spaces.
Sylvain Dieltjens and Priscilla Heynderickx’s research and Cinzia Giglioni’s
study are among the interesting chapters of the second section of this volume.
In addition to the diachronic nature of their analyses, which is a common
feature of research studies in this volume, these papers highlight the key
role of socioeconomic forces and situations in the emergence and evolution of
genres, discursive practices, and rhetorical strategies of genre users.
Francesca Santulli’s exploratory study on the travel guide as a recent text
genre provides a nice closing for this volume. It is noteworthy in that
Santulli highlights the significant role of the historical context in the
emergence, development, and evolution of genre, and presents a theoretical
approach in which she focuses on the dynamic relationship between genre and
change and emphasizes attention to synchronic and diachronic aspects of the
concept of genre.
This volume opens a fresh perspective on research into genre, and highlights
where future research needs to focus. It draws attention to more complicated
aspects of genre, redefining genre analysis in a social context beyond
conventional textual and formalistic aspects. It sheds light on the role of
socio-political and contextual factors in shaping and transforming genres. The
diachronic perspective of the research in this volume highlights the
transitory and context-bound nature of genre. The reciprocal relationship
between genre and discourse community, genre and social context, and text and
context are illustrated and the pivotal role of social trends and phenomena in
evolution, extinction and mutation of genres are nicely demonstrated. Another
distinctive aspect of this volume is its focus on the role of technological
innovations, especially computer-mediated technologies, in creation,
redefinition, transformation, and evolution of genres. Variety in
methodological approaches and implications for further study are also useful
for the reader.
REFERENCES
Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analyzing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings.
London: Loman.
Bhatia, V. K. (2004). Worlds of Written Discourse: A Genre-based Approach.
London: Continuum.
Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research
settings. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press.
Swales, J. M. (2004). Research genres: Explorations and applications. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Ware, B. L., Linkugel, W. A. (1973). They Spoke in Defense of Themselves: On
the Generic Criticism of Apologia. Quarterly Journal of Speech. 59, 273-283.
Werlich, E. (1983). A Text Grammar of English. Heidelberg: Quelle and Meyer.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Pejman Habibie is the Lead teacher assistant in the Faculty of Education at
the University of Western Ontario, Canada. His research interests are EAP,
EPAP, academic writing and publishing, genre analysis, and doctoral education.
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