Kong Kenneth. Professional Discourse

Cambridge University Press, 2014. — 300 р.Using a wide range of professional genres such as research papers, business reports, performance commentaries, guidebooks and legal documents, this study focuses on the discourse of professional writing, employing analytic paradigms from systemic-functional linguistics, pragmatics, text analysis, sociology and anthropological linguistics. Kenneth Kong argues that while professions use different sets of practices, their use of language displays many universals. This is demonstrated through the analysis of data from a broad cross-section of professional settings such as medicine, law, business, mass media and engineering. This examination of professional discourse, and its important role in society, will be of interest to researchers in applied linguistics, to professionals who want to understand the role of language in their work, and to teachers of English for specific purposes.Investigates inter-professional discourse so that readers can see the connections between different professions
Explores current trends in discourse analysis, such as identity and multimodality
Examines discourse from a range of perspectives, including systemic functional linguistics, pragmatics, text analysis, and sociologyReview"Kenneth Kong's Professional Discourse is a keenly competent and deeply insightful discussion of the language and identity work of professionals. It is the state of the art in the field today."
James Paul Gee, Arizona State University"Professional Discourse promises to become a landmark contribution to the politics of, training for, and conduct of being professional in diverse occupations across international communities. It provides in-depth coverage of the theories, techniques, and assumptions in an engaging yet precise style, and serves as an indispensable resource for students as well as seasoned practitioners and researchers."
Patrice M. Buzzanell, Purdue UniversityConceptual Issues:
Profession as a symbolic community
Linguistic Realizations:
Ideology in professional discourse
Communicative competence in the professional workplace
A model of interpersonal negotiation in professional discourse
Functions and Global Patterns:
Speech functions
Intertextuality
Genre and textual patterning
Multimodality