The Use of Literature on Classical Linguistics and Related Topics
2007-06-09 13:46 | 03. Literature
As a company’s goals determine the discourse that the Web content must serve, I have approached linguistic questions from the perspective of discourse analysis. That is, I have studied the relationship between the language (Web texts) and the context in which it is used (i.e. e-commerce), following 
McCarthy’s (1991) definition of discourse analysis.
Literature on Discourse Analysis and Text Linguistics
Therefore, I have tried to set the linguistic event – any situation possible in which a user accesses a Web site – in a communicative context with the intention of explaining and understanding the production and reception of Web texts. The goal of my studies and editing practice for my agency so far was not to interpret existing texts, but to identify guidelines how to write usable and communicative texts for the Web. However, this can only be reached by covering general aspects of communication, language, context, and written text, which is even more the medium of online communication.
To build an initial linguistic framework for my argumentation, I have used concepts from several books written by the authorities of discourse analysis in English studies, namely Fairclough (1995) and Fowler (1986), besides McCarthy (1991). Likewise, Halliday & Hasan (1989) among others build a bridge between language, context, and text; leading to aspects of text linguistics, as discussed by De Beaugrande & Dressler (1981) who have on their part formulated the ‘seven standards of textuality’.
These authors represent only a few of the sources that imply the true complexity of the processes involved in textual communication, although they do not mention the particular problems of Web texts once. Nonetheless, my argumentation on this blog shall present these processes manageable, even for applied writing on a relatively new medium.
Literature on Language in the News
Later, I will also exemplarily apply those findings from literature to short corporate news articles and to the phenomenon of corporate blogs, since such texts usually have an advertisement purpose or shall be written for public relations. For that reason, several books on language in the news, e.g. Fowler (1991), and books concerning the discourse of advertising, e.g. Cook (1992), Bruthiaux (1996), Tanaka (1994), or Dyer (1982) were taken into consideration.
I just described the literature I have used for a general linguistic approach to the topic, and for the additional aspects that I will have to deal with in the following. The next posting will provide a survey of books and papers concerned with Internet issues, Web linguistics and usability in particular.
Published by Christian Kuhn
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