The Set of Genres as a System: Review of the Monograph by M. A. Kanturova, T. I. Stеksova “Productivity and Variability of Speech Genres” (Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, 2019. 128 p.)

The review is a response to the publication of the monograph by M. A. Kanturov and T. I. Staksova “Productivity and variability of speech genres”. The authors represent the Russian speech-and -genre space as a complicated non-rigid system, the units of which are interconnected by the relations of derivation and variability. The relevance of the study is justified by the need to develop models that summarize numerous empirical observations on the structure and functioning of individual genres and groups of genres. Spreading the theory of derivation into the relationships inside the genres and between the genres leads the authors to the productive idea of the derivational chain of speech genres (similar to the word-formation derivational chain), differentiation of mutations and modifications of genres and a number of more specific provisions that adapt system-language relations to the object of speech nature. The authors distinguish and describe four types of variability: variability as a result of derivation, invariant realization, different incarnations of genre traits, and variability in terms of interpretation. The study is based on genres belonging to everyday, professional, political spheres and fiction.