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Pragmatic Aspects of TED Talks as a Specific Speech Genre (Through the Lens of Discourse Markers’ Use)

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The article presents the analysis of the speech genre aspects of TED talks, identifies their place in the speech genre hierarchy, their reference to the communication sphere and specifies their chronotopos peculiarities. Genregenetic properties of TED talks, forming their model, are analyzed through the research of their pragmatic framework constituted by discourse markers: through the aspects of discourse organization, the addressor and the addressee’s interaction, the author’s selfpresentation. The research is based on the comparison of discourse markers’ use in TED talks and university lectures, as well as in TED talks of male and female presenters. The research showed that a TED talk is a separate speech rhetorical genre which is different from other spoken popular science genres and other types of lectures. It is realized as a primary genre in real communication and as a secondary one in the Internet communication. The genre peculiarities of TED talks are defined by their rigid chronotopos and elaborate preparations. TED talks are characterized by compact composition, deliberate structural and logical transparency and preciseness, strong orientation to the addressee’s needs, dialogue nature and persuasiveness.

Author: 
Viktorova
Elena
Yurievna
,
Saratov State University n. a. N.G. Chernyshevsky
,
Saratov
,
helena_v@inbox.ru
Key words: 
popular science discourse, popular science style, TED talks, public lecture, discourse markers, speech genre, media genre, genregenetic properties
DOI: 
https://doi.org/10.18500/2311-0740-2019-4-24-254-266
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Journal issue: 
№ 4 (24), 2019, 
Heading: 
Studies of individual genres
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