Expressing Lesser Relevance in Academic Conference Presentations

Diana Yankova; Irena Vassileva

doi:10.33919/esnbu.21.2.1

Expressing Lesser Relevance in Academic Conference Presentations

Authors

Diana Yankova Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4524-882X
Irena Vassileva Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0150-6375

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.21.2.1

Keywords:

metadiscourse, lesser relevance markers, conference presentations

Abstract

While marking importance and relevance in academic discourse has been a widely researched topic, markers of lesser significance have so far been understudied. The article therefore focuses on some of the discoursal means of expressing lesser importance in conference presentations. The corpus of the study comprises recordings of 20 presentations in English at international linguistics conferences by speakers of various cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The methodology follows Deroey and Taverniersâ€™s (2012) study of lecture discourse, whereby depending on the way lesser importance is expressed, the markers are grouped under five categories. Their methodology is checked against the data provided by the transcriptions of the conference recordings to ascertain the extent to which it is applicable to other spoken academic genres. The ultimate objective is to provide steppingstones for interpreting information and distinguishing between what is important and relevant and less so in conference presentations, as well as for the identification of presentersâ€™ motivation for employing this type of metadiscourse.

Author Biographies

Diana Yankova, Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria

Diana Yankova, PhD, is Professor of Linguistics and current head of the Languages and Cultures Department, New Bulgarian University, Sofia. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in text linguistics, translation of legislative texts, American and Canadian culture studies. She is the author of several monographs and numerous articles on legal language with special emphasis on culture and genre-specific characteristics of Common law and Continental legislation, points of convergence between legal studies and linguistics, terminological and structural considerations in translating supranational law, approximation of legislation, teaching EALP.

Irena Vassileva, Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria

Irena Vassileva, PhD, is Professor of English and German and has worked extensively on spoken and written academic communication in English, German and Bulgarian. She has published three monographs and a number of articles in peer-reviewed journals and collections of articles. Vassileva has also received various research awards from outstanding foundations in international competition and has worked at universities in Bulgaria, Germany, and the UK.

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Published

2021-12-30

How to Cite

Yankova, D., & Vassileva, I. (2021). Expressing Lesser Relevance in Academic Conference Presentations. English Studies at NBU, 7(2), 127–146. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.21.2.1

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Issue

Vol. 7 No. 2 (2021)

Section

Articles

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