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Olga A. Pilkington

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In: Presented Discourse in Popular Science

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Olga A. Pilkington

Olga A. Pilkington
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Dar Hadith al Hassania

Abstract

A corpus study that explores presented discourse of scientists in popular science books, Presented Discourse in Popular Science: Professional Voices in Books for Lay Audiences offers new insight on the functions of presented discourse in non-fiction. In the process, the book addresses the issues of fictionality, emotionality, and dramatization in popular science and discusses the celebratory nature of popularizations. The book proposes a minor adjustment to terminology of presented discourse analysis, suggesting a combined category for speech/writing presentation and labeling it “communicated discourse.”

The study concludes that communicated discourse in popular science narratives of discovery prefers the forms commonly associated with non-fiction (indirect discourse) while assigning to them the functions most often observed in fiction (dramatization, emotionality). Thought presentation (in both direct and indirect forms), on the other hand, is more likely to communicate scientific hypotheses than reveal the inner worlds of actants. Based on the findings, the study calls for a re-evaluation of presented discourse functions in non-fiction by introducing a concept of a degree of dramatization. Rather than viewing dramatizing properties in presented discourse as associated only with select categories, this investigation proposes that all forms of presented discourse contain dramatizing capabilities.