Book Review: Functional Approach to Professional Discourse Exploration in Linguistics by Elena N. Malyuga (Ed.)

Abstract

Issues related to professional discourse are becoming increasingly salient, and scholars’ growing interest in such issues is reflected in the large numbers of studies in the area of professional communication (e.g., Bhatia, 2010; John et al., 2019). Most of these studies involve functional analysis because the functional paradigm is essential in professional communication, which highlights the importance of the Functional Approach to Professional Discourse Exploration in Linguistics. The collection, edited by Elena N. Malyuga, probes different areas of professional discourse using interdisciplinary functional approaches. It aims to “offer cutting edge findings on professional discourse of different types, analyze professional language phenomena in the functional linguistic perspective and disclose issues of speech impacts on recipients and feedback in communication” (p.18), providing a comprehensive discussion of professional discourse study. This collection comprises 10 chapters. Chapter 1 is an overview, presenting the historical development of professional discourse analysis, and explains the book’s organization, which groups chapters according to the type of professional discourse they discuss. In Chapter 2, Chesnokova et al. explain different approaches to the definition of professional discourse, including as a “communicative event,” a “synonym of business communication,” and “communication in the sphere of a particular profession” (p. 23). Specifically, it examines the phenomenon of professional communication Book Review