Abstract

PARODI, Giovanni. La organización retórica del género Manual a través de cuatro disciplinas: ¿cómo se comunica y difunde la ciencia en diferentes contextos universitarios?. Boletin de lingüistica [online]. 2010, vol.22, n.33, pp.43-69. ISSN 0798-9709.

It is hard to find research in which a combined analysis of the rhetorical organization of discourse genres and the respective quantifications of the frequency of occurrence of macro-moves, moves and steps across disciplines. The Textbook genre, the occurrence of its rhetorical macro-moves, moves and steps and disciplinarity are the focus of this study. We aim at the determining the quantitative occurrence of the macro-moves, moves and steps identified in 126 university textbooks, as part of PUCV-2006 Corpus of Spanish. We distinguish the area of knowledge (Basic Sciences and Engineering and Social Sciences and Humanities) as well as four specific disciplines: Social Work, Psychology, Industrial Chemistry and Civil Construction. The results show variation patterns among the rhetorical macro-moves, moves and steps in respect of the disciplines involved. Disciplinarity emerges as a salient factor. SS and H texts reveal an important concentration in abstraction and focalization in theorizing without a definitive answer in reviewing alternative propositions. On the contrary, Basic Science texts show a strong didactic component and a clear concentration not only in declarative knowledge transmission but also in a step by step modus operandi, which corresponds to procedural knowledge.  

Keywords : discourse genre; textbook; rhetorical structure.