Means of Semantic Compression in Modern English Scientific Discourse (Based on Abstracts to the Articles From International Scientific Citation Databases)

The article explores the phenomenon of semantic compression in small format metatexts within the contemporary English scientific discourse. Abstracts to scientific articles from international citation databases, in particular those of Scopus and Web of Science, are analysed with the aim of eliciting ways of semantic compression. The latter is viewed as a key parameter of a scientific abstract, whose semantic quality is the main factor responsible for further integration of the research results into the global knowledge pool. It is presumed that an abstract, being a secondary small-format text, represents an exact semantic copy of the original scientific article, hence compression is viewed as a mechanism of redistributing the functional load of the eliminated units of the original by means of increasing the informative potential of the remaining elements within the secondary small-format text. In the process of pragma-semantic and discourse analysis, a specific complex of semantic compression methods is revealed on every level of scientific abstract organization; in particular, compression means are elicited on the structural and semantic textual levels, as well as on the morphological, lexical, syntactic and graphical ones. The revealed patterns, on the one hand, expand our understanding of compression mechanisms typical of small-format texts in general; on the other hand, the practical data obtained as a result of the analysis can be used by a wide range of researchers while writing abstracts in English for publications in high-ranking international scientific journals.

The Scientific Abstract as a Discursive Genre in Peruvian Scientific Journals of Education

The aim of the present study is to analyze the structure of 117 abstracts extracted from four Peruvian scientific journals of education. The analysis of the study units was carried out following the "rhetorical moves" model proposed by Swales and Feak. A documentary study was carried out. The results show a greater presence of movements 2, 3 and 4 and a lesser presence of movements 1 and 5, which evidences a greater interest in highlighting the purpose, method and results in the summaries on education. Regarding the order followed, the presence of structures of 4 and 3 movements is greater, although the established order is not always followed (M1, M2, M3, M4, M5). It is concluded that the results show certain regularities compared to similar studies.

Myth as a form of knowing in Algirdas Julius Greimas’ semiotics

The article focuses on the peculiarities of the creation, representation and persuasion of scientific abstract and mythical figurative knowing in A. J. Greimas’ reconstruction of Lithuanian mythology. Mythical knowing is understood in two ways: as a cultural construct, a part of cultural knowledge that is limited to the existential and discoursive experience of the reader, and as a special ability or skill of the mythical gods. In order to explain the similarities and differences between mythical and scientific knowing, the concepts of narrativity and believing are used. Narrative structures imply the fundamental patterns of thinking about man and the world (existence/action, death/life, nature/culture) and convert individual understanding into a collective one. The emphasis on the rational and rhetorical point in the concept of believing partially reduces the contradiction between the strict methodological reason of the semiotical tradition and the practical and cunning reason of an mythical textual tradition.