Communicative-pragmatic potential of utterances with verified knowledge markers in German linguistic discourse

Abstract

The article deals with the textual functioning of utterances, including verified knowledge markers, which allow academic authors of linguistic texts to refer to well-known and generally accepted statements within the field of research. The most frequent explicit and indirect explicit verbal means that indicate verified knowledge in academic texts are found based on a complex (context semantic, discourse-based, communicative pragmatic) analysis of 30 linguistic research articles published in “Zeitschrift für germanistische Linguistik”. The paper considers verified knowledge markers as a class of the multi-structural and semantically specified linguistic units of a clearly pragmatic nature. These units acquire indicating functions in the contexts of written scientific communication where they mark structures of knowledge shared by all members in the linguistic scientific community. The results of the analysis show a number of the communicative and pragmatic functions performed by utterances with the verified knowledge markers. The average percentage is also provided. It has been established that the structures of verified knowledge are used in linguistic research articles especially with an intention of increasing the persuasion power of the author’s argumentation by embedding the established linguistic concepts and conventional definitions into argumentation. In addition, utterances with the verified knowledge markers allow the author to emphasize his or her position by criticizing the verified statements. Through utterances with the verified knowledge markers, the authors position themselves as competent members of the linguistic scientific community. They contextualize disciplinary shared knowledge; demonstrate their notion of the research background, methods, and standards for reporting new research results.