English Genre

1. English Genre

2. What is Genre? • What is Genre Analysis? • Approaches (schools) to Genre analysis • Move structure analysis • GSP

3. What is Genre? • The word genre comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for 'kind' or 'class'. • The term is widely used in rhetoric, literary theory, media theory, and more recently linguistics, to refer to a distinctive type of text.

4. Genre, which has traditionally been a literary concept, has recently become a popular framework for analyzing the form and rhetorical function of non-literary discourse, the research has firstly focused on academic genres, such as Swales’s (1990) description of the RA research articles introduction, and then Bhatia expand the genre analysis to the professional sittings, serving as a tool for developing ESP.

5. The concept of genre is considered vague, for it takes on diverse meanings in different contexts.

6. Most dictionaries apply the term genre exclusively to the fields of art, music and literature. The 2001 New American Oxford Dictionary defines it as: • a category of artistic composition, as in music and literature, characterized by similarities in form, style or subject matter (Jewell & Abate 2001: 707).

8. Martin points out, that speakers use language to accomplish culturally goal-orientated tasks and in so doing are obliged to use genres. Thus when shopping, a shopper converses with a sales person in a particular genre to achieve his/her purchase

9. Bakhitin’s definition • Different scholars have different views of the definition of genre. For example, Bakhitin (1999:121) relates genre to human activity: • All the diverse areas of human activity involve the use of language. Quite understandably, the nature and forms of this use are just as diverse as the areas of human activity.

10. This, of course, in no way disarms the national unity of language. Language is realized in the form of individual concrete utterances (oral and written) by participants in the various areas of human activity. • These utterances reflect the specific conditions and goals of each such area not only through their content (thematic) and linguistic style, that is, the selection of the lexical, phraseological, and grammatical resources of the language, but above all through their compositional structure.

11. All three of these aspects－thematic content, style, and compositional structure--are inseparably linked to the whole of the utterance and are equally determined by the specific nature of the particular sphere of communication. • Each separate utterance is individual, of course, but each sphere in which language is used develops its own relatively stable types of these utterances. These we may call speech genres.

12. Kress’ definition • Kress (1994:19) [7] associates it with social occasions. In his words, “Genre has specific forms and meanings, deriving from and encoding the functions, purposes and meanings of the social occasions. Genre therefore provides a precise index and catalogue of the relevant social occasions of a community at a given time.”

13. James R. Martin’s definition • Martin (1993) develops an alternative but ultimately complementary theory of genre by taking genre as a further abstract level than register. • He offers two useful definitions, one of which defines genre as a staged, goal oriented, and social activity in which speakers engage as members of a culture. • The other less technical definition is that “Genres are how things get done, when language is used to accomplish them”.

14. A genre is a staged, goal oriented, purposeful activity, in which speakers engage as members of our culture.... Virtually everything you do involves you participating in one or other genre. Culture seen in these terms can be defined as a set of generically interpretable activities (Martin 1985: 25).

15. Characteristics of genre (Swales, 2001:45) • 1. A genre is a class of communicative events. • 2. The principal criteria feature that turns a collection of communicative events into a genre is some shared set of communicative purposes. • 3. Exemplars of genres vary in their prototypicality. • 4. The rationale behind a genre establishes constraints on allowable contributions in terms of their content, positioning and form. • 5. A discourse community’s nomenclature for genres is an important source of insight.

16. Swales’ definition of genre (1990) • A genre comprises a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes. • These purposes are recognized by the expert members of the parent discourse community, and thereby constitute the rationale for the genre. • This rationale shapes the schematic structure of the discourse and influences and constraints choice of content and style.

17. Swales defines genre as a social or communicative event. • But whereas Martin talks about inevitably participating in a genre as part of any goal oriented communication, Swales claims there has to be a relationship between the purpose accomplished by the genre and the schematic structure of the genre, the text and language employed, as follows:

18. Communicative purpose is both a privileged criterion and one that operates to keep the scope of a genre as here conceived narrowly focused on comparable rhetorical action. • In addition to purpose, exemplars of a genre exhibit various patterns of similarity in terms of structure, style, content and intended audience. • If all high expectations are realized, the exemplar will be viewed as prototypical by the parent discourse community. (Swales:1990)

19. The communicative purpose is the criterion that defines a genre. Discourse communities share conventional public aims and communication mechanisms, and make use of one or more genres to communicate within or between discourse communities. • To be part of a discourse community one needs to know how and when to apply the conventions of each genre.

20. In this sense, the features of genre can be summarized as communicative, goal-directed, highly structured, professional- or academic - oriented.

21. The underlying premise of this approach is that any linguistic act is a social or communicative event in that it occurs at a particular time in a particular place and between particular people for a particular purpose.

22. Everyone engages in these events. • If, for example, you go shopping for shoes, you will expect the interaction to be fairly consistent with your past experiences of shopping for shoes. You will expect some kind of acknowledgement or greeting, to have your questions answered about availability of your size and preferred color, to be told the price, and finally to be thanked for your business. • Not all of these may occur (you may find the perfect size and color immediately and not need to ask any questions), and they may not occur in this order. • If, however, you go shopping for a car, you would expect this service encounter to be somewhat more complex, involving explanations of features and add-ons, as well as financing options.

23. In the shoe-shopping example above, your expectations are determined by your wanting to procure shoes (purpose) in the year 2003 AD (rather than in the years 1500 BC, 1945 AD, or 3000 AD), in Sydney (rather than Moscow, Bali, or Tehran), in a shop with a shop assistant (rather than a supermarket with a checkout, for example).

24. If you change any of these conditions, the interaction between you and the person from whom you wish to procure the shoes would change--the text produced would be different.

25. This is similar for written texts: love letters to your life partner, advertisements for local plumbers, posted lists of rules for the use of the gym, essays, newspaper editorials, obituaries, and doctoral theses. • Each of these examples is written at a time, in a place, for a purpose, by one or more writers for a defined reader.

26. Conclusion of Swales’ Definiftion • Swales’ approach to genre is basically functional, and genres are envisaged as social or communicative events. • Furthermore, the relationship between the purpose accomplished by a genre and the structure of the genre is such that “the communicative purpose of a genre shapes the genre and provides it with an internal structure－a schematic structure”(Swales 2001:197) • This definition of genre tries to establish a relationship between the purpose accomplished by a genre and the structure of the genre by suggesting that the communicative purpose of a genre shapes the genre.

27. Bhatia’s definition • Dr. V. K. Bhatia’s (1993: 13-15) successful genre analysis of English promotional literature represents an extension of Swales’ frameworkfrom academic writing to business writing. He elaborates on Swales’ definition in the following aspects:

28. Bhatia’s definition • Firstly, a genre has a set of communicative purpose(s). Although there are a number of other factors, like content, medium or channel, intended audience and so on, that influence the nature and construction of a genre, it is primarily characterized by the communicative purposes that it is intended to fulfill (1993).

29. Bhatia’s definition • Secondly, a genre is a highly structured and conventionalized communicative event. Specialist members of any professional or academic community are generally credited with the knowledge of not only the communicative goals of their community but also the structure of the genres in which they regularly participate as part of their daily work.

30. Bhatia’s definition • It is the cumulative result of their long experience and/or training within the specialist community that shapes the genre and gives it a conventionalized internal structure. Any major change in the communicative purposes is likely to give a different genre; however, minor changes of modifications help distinguish sub-genres (1993).

31. Bhatia’s definition • Thirdly, a genre displays constraints on allowable contributions of the participants. This means that although the writer has a lot of freedom to use linguistic resources in any way he or she likes, s/he must conform to certain standard practices within the boundaries of a particular genre.

32. Bhatia’s definition • A genre is a recognizable communicative event characterized by a set of communicative purpose(s) identified and mutually understood by the members of the professional or academic community in which it regularly occurs. Most often it is highly structured and conventionalized with constraints on allowable contributions in terms of their intent, positioning, form, and functional value. These constraints, however, are often exploited by the expert members of the community to achieve private intentions within the framework of socially recognized purpose(s)

33. Bhatia’s definition • Bboth Swales and Bhatia identifies the relationship between the communicative purpose and genre. • However, Bhatia’s definition of genre differs from Swales’ in that it brings in the psychological, particularly cognitive level of genre construction.

34. What is Genre Analysis? • Genre analysis is a developing multi-disciplinary approach to the study of texts, both verbal and written, drawing from studies in Linguistics, Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology. • Genre analysts look for the common patterns of grammar usage, key vocabulary, and text structure in particular text types.

35. Three schools • There are three schools of genre analysis: • New rhetoric schools (North American School) • Australian systems school (Functional Systemicists method) • Swalesian school (ESP school)

36. Genre Analysis in New rhetoric schools • Carolyn Miller is the main exponent of the New Rhetoric School that is also known as the North American School. • In her 1984 seminal article entitled “Genre as Social Action”, she rejects the notion of genre as a recurrent pattern of forms used for simple classifications, something easily leading to reductionism and formalism. • For her, the notion of genre is essentially a means of the situation and the motives, the intention and the effect (Miller, 1984).

37. Genre Analysis in New rhetoric schools • The New Rhetoric view towards genre gives less emphasis to the form of discourse and more to the action it is used to accomplish. • In line with their theoretical focus on socio contextual aspects of genres, New Rhetoric scholars stress more on “helping university students and novice professionals understand the social functions or actions of genre…”(Hyon, 1996:698).

38. Genre Analysis in Australian School • Martin and his colleagues have developed what is termed the Functional Systemicists method (or Australian School). • Main researchers: Martin’s schematic structure, Hasan’s GSP and Ventola, Kress--social semiotics model, Freadman’s template • For more, see李美霞. 西方语言学界话语类型研究述评[J]. 外语教学, 2004/01

39. The Australian school draws upon systemic functional linguistic (SFL) theory, in which the forms of language and functions are always considered together. • Its appeal and success lies in the fact that SFL provides “a theoretically consistent, classroom-test and, by now, well-documented set of tools by which researchers and educators can exploit the social and linguistic construction of texts for the benefit of students” (Bronson, 2001).

40. The Functional Systemicists system derives from the work of Michael A. Halliday. • Halliday contends that language: • (a) is functional (i.e. it builds meaning); • (b) is involved in the processes by which human beings construct social experience; and • (c) accomplishes its tasks in the context of the situation which gives rise to a communicative activity -- i.e. in a social exchange or interaction between speakers.

41. In his view, the context of a situation consists of its field (subject matter), its tenor (the relationship between participants), and its mode (oral or written). These denote the social context of a text in its environment.

42. SFL, which was influenced by British anthropology and linguists(e.g., Malionowski, Firth) and developed by Halliday, seeks to establish a pragmatic relationship between text and context by viewing language in a social semiotic way as a resource people use to accomplish their purposes while at the same time they express meanings in context.

43. His Australian student, Martin and his colleagues as well as other educational linguists have developed genre theory within the framework of SFL and worked out the SF model for genre analysis. • Martin’s definition for the notion of genre has provided the basis for the work of Australian School. For Martin, a genre is “a staged, goal-oriented, purposeful activity in which speakers engaged as members of our culture”.

44. Within this systemic functional framework, genres are actually approached from three different levels. • Genres are defined as staged because it usually takes more than one step for participants to achieve their goal and this level actually is related to the perspective of textual metafunction.

45. Genres are referred to as goal-oriented because they have evolved to get things done, which can be dealt with from the perspective of ideational metafunction. Genres are referred to social processes because these processes involved the interaction of participants using language, which can be approached from the perspective of interpersonal metafunction.

46. Based on this thinking, the Functional Systemicists model (which is designed specifically for secondary school students in Australia) divides genres into two main categories, story genres and factual genres.

47. story genres • Story genres comprise recount and narrative genres. Recounts are personal. They typically comprise an activity sequence, most frequently in chronological order, and use the past tense. Typical examples are: a diary, a medical history, or a resume.

48. Narratives may resemble recounts, but are generally less likely to follow a sequential format. They have different communicative goals, and to achieve these, may wish to highlight certain events or actions and to omit others, with the aim of making their story interesting. • They use both the first and third person and a variety of tenses. Examples could be: a witness account of an accident, or a description of a vacation trip

49. factual genres • Factual genres comprise Reports and Expositions/Discussions. • Reports store factual information, as in a scientific report, or an encyclopedia • Expositions/Discussions provide explanations. They may involve causes and effects, and/or judgments of social issues that call for justification.

50. Expositions/Discussions • They fall into two categories, analytical and hortatory.劝告的 • Examples of analytical expositions are: how-to pamphlets, or trouble-shooting manuals.排故手册 • Examples of hortatory expositions are: political pamphlets, government ‘white papers’, and newspaper editorials.