Identity AND CULTURE IN DOMAIN-SPECIFIC DISCOURSE
MINISTERO DELL'ISTRUZIONE, DELL'UNIVERSITÀ E DELLA RICERCA - DIPARTIMENTO PER L'UNIVERSITÀ, L'ALTA FORMAZIONE ARTISTICA, MUSICALE E COREUTICA E PER LA RICERCA SCIENTIFICA E TECNOLOGICA
PROGRAMMI DI RICERCA SCIENTIFICA DI RILEVANTE INTERESSE NAZIONALE - RICHIESTA DI COFINANZIAMENTO (DM n. 287 del 23 febbraio 2005)
PROGRAMMA DI RICERCA - MODELLO A
Anno 2005 - prot. 2005109911
Scientific Coordinator: Prof. Maurizio Gotti (University of Bergamo)
Research Units:
- Unit I: BERGAMO, Prof. Maurizio Gotti
- Unit II: TORINO, Prof. Giuseppina Cortese
- Unit III: NAPOLI, Prof. Gabriella Di Martino
- Unit IV: ROMA IUSM, Prof. Paola Evangelisti Allori
- Unit V: MILANO, Prof. Giuliana Elena Garzone
Objectives of the Research Project
Our investigation focusses on the specific textual, semantic and pragmatic features of domain-specific English discourse in settings where local or disciplinary cultural identities are altered, integrated or redefined by international - hence intercultural - communication. Within such domains, the project seeks to assess to what extent the cultural allegiance of (native or non-native) Anglophone discourse communities to their (linguistic, professional, social, national) reference group is affected by the use of English a lingua franca of international communication. In particular our project seeks to assess:
a) the patterns of English use within such communities and the potential interference of non-Anglophone identities in their membership;
b) how language reflects conflicting cultural/professional values whose conciliation allows the construction of new identity traits;
c) to what extent the textual-rhetorical norms of the communities involved favour/hinder the encoding of specialised content in ELF (English as Lingua Franca) settings.
This common research framework is applied by each unit to the domain chosen for analysis, within the boundaries and perspectives clearly associated to a specific field of discourse - i.e. legal, academic, institutional, socio-political and of business and economics. Globally, the comparative/contrastive analyses conducted by our five units centre therefore on a comparison between common phenomena within similar textual categories but also on texts which differ as to their origin, content, genre and setting.
Project results: