Technical discourse: The present progressive tense, the deictic “that,” and pronominalization∗

Acknowledgements: I'd like to thank the people at the Institute for Semantic and Cognitive Studies, Geneva, Switzerland, for their financial and intellectual assistance in my examination of technical discourses. I'd also like to thank Pat Murray, Brad Goodman, and Livia Polanyi for reading drafts of this paper, Susan Voss and Marlene Vigil for the manuscript preparation.

Abstract

The paper discusses conversants' use of the present progressive tense, deictic expressions, and (non) pronominalization in discourse. The discourses analyzed are technical, explanatory exchanges. It is illustrated that such discourses display underlying structures which explain, and predict, conversants' use of these linguistic forms in the technical exchanges. The findings are compared to those obtained earlier for informal rap sessions between friends.

Notes

Acknowledgements: I'd like to thank the people at the Institute for Semantic and Cognitive Studies, Geneva, Switzerland, for their financial and intellectual assistance in my examination of technical discourses. I'd also like to thank Pat Murray, Brad Goodman, and Livia Polanyi for reading drafts of this paper, Susan Voss and Marlene Vigil for the manuscript preparation.