Scientific and Technical Texts: Language & Structure

Scientific and technical texts

Scientific and technical texts:

Scientist: Texts about natural and physical phenomena that study the principles and laws of nature.

Technicians: Subjects involving practical applications of these principles and aiming to report on the progress of science.

Language features

1. Clarity: Well-constructed sentences that avoid ambiguity and misunderstandings.
2. Accuracy: Absence of subjectivity and the use of monosemic terms where possible.
3. Objectivity: Content should be presented in a manner compatible with objective discussion.
4. Use of nonlinguistic codes: Formulas and symbols alternate with ordinary verbal language.
5. Used forms of discourse: Exposition and argumentation.
6. Cryptic vocabulary: Specialized vocabulary whose domain is available only to those initiated into the corresponding sciences; one must know the field of science to which the text belongs. These texts pursue universal objectivity and accuracy.
7. Presence of loans: Borrowings from other languages are common.

Linguistic features

1. Sentence type and function: Declarative sentences predominate and the referential function is dominant.
2. Morphology: Specific nouns and adjectives are used; gnomic expressions may appear; use of indefinite articles and the first person plural in some contexts.
3. Syntactic features: Subordination abounds; copular sentences are common; logical SVO order is frequent; there is extensive use of passive and impersonal constructions.
4. Semantic lexicon: Emphasis on denotation and technical terms.
5. Technicalities — monosemic value: Each word tends to have a single, precise meaning.
6. Procedures for the development of terminology: Loans from Latin and Greek (for example: filament, cell, lipid).
7. Specialization: Transfer of common language words to describe concepts specific to a given science.
8. Syntagmatic composition: Combining two or more words to describe a single reality.
9. Metonymic designation: Designating an object with the name of the discoverer or inventor.
10. Acronyms: Frequent use of shortened forms and initialisms.

Text structures

The issuer of technical and scientific texts is a person who possesses specialized knowledge and intends to make it known.

1. Specialized texts: Aimed at an audience skilled in the art.
2. Academic texts: Intermediate between a high degree of specialization and broader disclosure.
3. Informative texts: Targeted to a lay audience, including definitions and explanations. Examples include radio and television news channels.

Ways to build scientific texts

1. Exposition: Demonstration of content; may follow a deductive or inductive organization.
2. Demonstration: To prove through the enunciation of a hypothesis and observable facts; interpret reality through a method.
3. Argumentation: To test an idea; argumentation uses deductive or inductive reasoning.