Die Zwischenebene der Fachkommunikation. Wissenstransfer in Lehrtexten der Neurologie

This paper focuses a genre belonging to a complex level of LSP communication which can be defined as “intermediate”, i.e. the academic textbook. This level plays a central role in granting the continuity of specialised scientific knowledge, as the fundamental requirement for the survival of each scientific field lies in the possibility of recruiting new members through formal (academic) education. Since this latter largely makes use of (and often depends on) this genre, a description of its linguistic features, internal structure, and the way it presents scientific knowledge should necessarily fall within the research trends in LSP communication. The aims of this paper are therefore twofold: 1. to determine the levels of analysis required for the description of this genre and to describe the characteristics of the (neurological) textbook according to those levels, and 2. to interpret such features and thereby investigate whether they may be classified exclusively as didactic or whether other categories are necessary to interpret them. The assumption arising from the analysis is that only some functional aspects can be regarded as didactic while others can only be interpreted as serving the (socially determined) function that this text fulfils in its context of use. The analysis also offers insight into of the differences existing among the various types of textbooks. These can in fact be connected to the way the two functional features of the texts are balanced depending on the specific needs of the addressees.