Conditional relations and means of their expression through the prism of functional approach (on the material of scientific articles)
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2024-3-16-27
In modern studies of language, the focus of attention is on the functional features of linguistic phenomena. Functional grammar is no exception, describing the structure, content and functioning of semantic categories around which functional-semantic fields are organised, covering the whole language space and its different levels (aspectuality, modality, quantity, quality, etc.). This study considers condition as a subfield of the conditionality field, which also includes the subfields of cause, purpose, consequence and concession, which are closely related to each other both by internal logical relations and by means of their expression. Despite a number of studies devoted to the structure of the conditionality subfield and its separate manifestations, including conditional constructions, conjunctions and prepositions, the issues of discourse variability of the components of this subfield have not been specifically considered. Conditional relations seem to be most significant for scientific discourse, on the material of which this study is based. The scientific literature describes the conditional meanings characteristic of the corresponding constructions and constituting the content plan of the condition subfield. These are real-conditional, potential-conditional, unreal-conditional, as well as non-conditional meanings – conditional-temporal meaning, conditional-causal, conditional-consequential, conditional-purpose, conditional-concessive, conditional-explanatory. Thus, the conditional semantics is in the intersection with related meanings (including conditionality), is extremely diverse, as well as diverse means of its expression - at the level of simple (to be a condition, to condition, at, under condition, in the case of, etc.) and complex (with conjunctions if, if, if only, when, etc.) sentences. This study is based on the assumption that the means of expressing conditional semantics vary in different thematic types of scientific discourse. Turning to the core genre of scientific discourse – the scientific article – confirms this assumption. The material of the study was 3 708 articles from the peer-reviewed journals “The World of Russian Word” and “Bulletin of Tomsk State University”. In the course of the analysis, more than 60 000 contexts with conditional meanings, collected by the method of continuous sampling, from articles on philology, history, biology, computer science and informatics, and economics were considered. The analysis showed that not all private meanings of conditionality presented in the language are manifested in scientific discourse. When expressing conditional relations in the articles of the five mentioned subjects, the central position is occupied by simple sentences with the preposition at, at the level of a complex sentence the marker of conditional semantics is the conjunction if. The qualitative and quantitative indicators with regard to conditional constructions for articles of different themes differ significantly. Thus, the study shows the variability of the expression plan and content plan of the conditional subfield, the differences in the use of conditional units in different types of scientific discourse.
Keywords: functional grammar, conditional field, conditional subfield, conditional relations, scientific discourse
References:
1. Dement’yev V. V. O nekotorykh soderzhatel’notsentrichnykh tendentsiyakh v sovremennoy otechestvennoy lingvistike [On Some Content-Centred Tendencies in Modern Russian Linguistics]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filologiya – Tomsk State University Journal of Philology, 2021, no. 72, pp. 42–73 (in Russian).
2. Bondarko A. V. Teoriya funktsional’noy grammatiki: lokativnost’, bytiynost’, posessivnost’, obuslovlennost’ [Functional grammar theory: locativity, beingness, postessentiality, conditionality]. Saint Petersburg, Nauka Publ., 1996. 228 р. (in Russian).
3. Bondarko A. V. Printsipy funktsional’noy grammatiki i voprosy aspektologii [Principles of Functional Grammar and Issues of Aspectology]. Moscow, Editorial URSS Publ., 2001. 208 р. (in Russian).
4. Bondarko A. V. Teoriya znacheniya v sisteme funktsional’noy grammatiki: na materiale russkogo yazyka [The theory of meaning in the system of functional grammar: On the material of the Russian language]. Moscow, Yazyki slavyanskoy kul’tury Publ., 2002. 736 p. (in Russian).
5. Halliday M. A. C. Introduction to functional grammar. London, Arnold, 1994. 689 p.
6. Babalova L. L. Semanticheskiye raznovidnosti prichinnykh i uslovnykh predlozheniy v sovremennom russkom yazyke. Avtoref. dis. kand. filol. nauk [Semantic varieties of causal and conditional sentences in the modern Russian language. Abstract of thesis cand. philol. sci.]. Moscow, 1974. 24 р. (in Russian).
7. Gusman Tirado R. Generativnyye slozhnopodchinennyye predlozheniya v russkom yazyke [Generative compound sentences in the Russian language]. Ed. A. M. Lomova. Voronezh, 1998. 135 р. (in Russian).
8. Cao Lina. O variativnosti sposobov vyrazheniya ustupitel’nykh otnosheniy (na materiale statey nauchnogo stilya) [On the variability of ways of expressing concessive relations (on the material of articles of scientific style)]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta – Tomsk State Pedagogical University Bulletin, 2022, vol. 6 (224), pp. 34‒44 (in Russian). DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2022-6-34-44
9. Didenko E. A. Sposoby vyrazheniya usloviya v russkikh poslovitsakh. Avtoref. dis. kand. filol. nauk [Ways of expressing the condition in Russian proverbs. Abstract of thesis cand. philol. sci.]. Ryazan, 2001. 19 p. (in Russian).
10. Russkaya grammatika: Fonetika. Fonologiya. Udareniye. Intonatsiya. Slovoobrazovaniye. Morfologiya: v 2 t. [Russian Grammar: Phonetics. Phonology. Emphasis. Intonation. Word-formation. Morphology: in 2 vol.]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1980. Vol. 1. 783 p. (in Russian).
11. Akopyan A. V. ESLI i tol’ko ESLI [IF and only IF]. Ed. K. S. Akopyan. Erevan, Erevan State University Publ., 2012. 172 р. (in Russian).
12. Rogozhnikova R. P. Aktivizatsiya v sovremennom russkom yazyke podchinitel’nykh konstruktsiy soyuzami raz i poskol’ku [Activation of subordinating constructions in the modern Russian language by the conjunctions once and since]. Voprosy sintaksisa sovremennogo yazyka [Issues of modern language syntax]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1966. pp. 61–73 (in Russian).
13. Stepanenko S. L. Vyrazheniye uslovnykh otnosheniy v prostom i slozhnom predlozheniyakh: posobiye dlya inostrannykh uchashchi-khsya ekonomicheskogo profilya obucheniya [Expressing conditional relations in simple and complex sentences: a manual for foreign students of economics]. Minsk, BSU Publ., 2013. 66 р. (in Russian).
14. Akimova E. N. Kategoriya obuslovlennosti: status, sostav, urovni realizatsii [The category of conditionality: status, composition, levels of realisation]. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 2: Yazykoznaniye – Science Journal of Volgograd State University. Linguistics, 2012, no. 1 (15), pp. 250–254 (in Russian).
15. Karasik V. I. O tipakh diskursa [On types of discourse]. Yazykovaya lichnost’: institutsional’nyy i personal’nyy diskurs. Sbornik nauchnykh trudov [On types of discourse. Collection of scientific articles]. Volgograd, Peremena Publ., 2000. Pp. 5–20 (in Russian).
16. Mishankina N. A. Metafora v nauke: paradoks ili norma? [Metaphor in science: paradox or norm?]. Tomsk, Tomsk State University Publ., 2010. 282 р. (in Russian).
17. Troyanskaya E. S. Polevaya struktura nauchnogo stilya i yego zhanrovykh raznovidnostey [Field structure of scientific style and its genre varieties]. Obshchiye i chastnyye problemy funktsional’nykh stiley [General and specific problems of functional styles]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1984. pp. 16–27 (in Russian).
18. Kraevskaya I. O., Mishankina N. A. Terminoobrazovaniye v aspekte gnoseologicheskoy prozrachnosti (na materiale russkoyazychnoy terminosistemy “neftegazopererabotka”) [Terminology formation in the aspect of gnoseological transparency (on the material of the Russian-language term system “oil and gas processing”)]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta – Tomsk State University Journal, 2020, no. 456, pp. 36‒49 (in Russian).
( 938.54 kB ) 
( 880.28 kB )
Issue: 3, 2024
Series of issue: Issue 3
Rubric: THEORETICAL, APPLIED AND COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS
Pages: 16 — 27
Downloads: 194