POVOLNÁ, Renata. Cross-cultural variation in the expression of persuasive power in the genre of technical manuals: The case of directives. Discourse and Interaction. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2019, vol. 12, No 1, p. 47-74. ISSN 1802-9930. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.5817/DI2019-1-47.
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Basic information
Original name Cross-cultural variation in the expression of persuasive power in the genre of technical manuals: The case of directives
Name in Czech Mezikulturní variace ve vyjadřování persvazivní síly v žánru technických manuálů: Vyjadřování rozkazů
Authors POVOLNÁ, Renata (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
Edition Discourse and Interaction, Brno, Masarykova univerzita, 2019, 1802-9930.
Other information
Original language English
Type of outcome Article in a journal
Field of Study 60203 Linguistics
Country of publisher Czech Republic
Confidentiality degree is not subject to a state or trade secret
WWW URL
RIV identification code RIV/00216224:14410/19:00107801
Organization unit Faculty of Education
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.5817/DI2019-1-47
Keywords (in Czech) mezikulturní variace; technický diskurz; technické manuály; persvaze; persvazivní síla; persvazivní strategie; rozkazy; imperativy; modální slovesa; predikativní adjektiva
Keywords in English cross-cultural analysis; technical discourse; technical manuals; persuasion; persuasive power; persuasive strategies; directives; imperatives; modal verbs; predicative adjectives
Tags International impact, Reviewed
Changed by Changed by: Dana Nesnídalová, učo 831. Changed: 19/3/2020 09:47.
Abstract
The paper provides a cross-cultural analysis of selected linguistic realizations of persuasion in technical manuals as typical representatives of technical discourse. It aims to identify differences and similarities between the ways persuasive power is expressed in this type of specialized discourse in English and Czech L1 texts. The data comprises manuals to various technical devices and amounts to slightly more than 200,000 words. This specialized corpus (15 manuals in English and 15 in Czech) is assumed to enable the comparison of the ways in which technical communicators express persuasion. The investigation, which is conducted from the perspectives of corpus analysis and discourse analysis, focuses on the ways in which the interactive and dynamic process of persuasion is explicitly manifested: 1. directly (i.e. using directives expressed by imperatives of full verbs, modals of obligation, necessity, prohibition, and predicative adjectives expressing the writer’s judgement of the necessity to perform an action) and 2. indirectly (i.e. using other language means than directives, such as other modals than those related to obligation, necessity or prohibition, conditional clauses, rhetorical questions). The findings are expected to be relevant and applicable in the education domain to raise technical writers’ awareness of directives as useful persuasive strategies suitable for the production of effective well-written technical manuals since their quality including the appropriate degree of persuasiveness can influence prospective consumers to make a purchase of a particular technical device.
Links
GA17-16195S, research and development projectName: Persvaze v anglickém a českém specializovaném diskurzu
Investor: Czech Science Foundation
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