The problems of ecology of modern scientifi c speech

Abstract

The study of the norms of modern scientifi c speech, as well as the factors aff ecting its eff ectiveness, is one of the urgent problems of linguoecology. Typical violations of the ecology of scientifi c speech are cases of violations of language norms and stylistic inaccuracies. They are most often found in the unprepared professional speech of young scientists (especially non-philologists). Violations of this kind can be caused, fi rstly, by an insuffi ciently high level of the addressee’s communicative competence, and secondly, by his information overload, “clip” thinking and “point” attention. The decline in the eff ectiveness of scientifi c communication is associated not only with speech errors and stylistic inaccuracies. It can be caused by the addressee using special vocabulary, which is not generally accepted in this fi eld of communication, an abundance of foreign words and expressions (especially new English loan-words), as well as the use of synonymous or variable terms. In addition, the riskiness of scientifi c speech is associated with the change of traditional and the introduction of new genres. Thus, the genre of anonymous (“blind”) review is confl ict-generating, since it involves identifying not only the positive aspects of the reviewed scientifi c work, but also its shortcomings. Mutual anonymity contributes to the fact that the reviewer, remaining unrecognized, can express critical remarks directly and sharply, without caring about the emotional state of the addressee unknown to him. In addition, the eff ectiveness of the perception of a modern scientifi c text is reduced due to some changes in its design. Finally, the attitude of the future specialists to their training is changing. Unfortunately, nowadays undergraduates and Master’s degree students are less likely to think about observing speech and language norms, they turn increasingly more often to popular scientifi c or pseudoscientifi c Internet sources for information, and less frequently display an interest in the perception and discussion of the material.

Keywords

• ecology of speech
• culture of speech
• scientifi c speech
• violations of speech norms
• genres of speech
• article
• anonymous review