Maket 2012 1-2:Layout 1.qxd


On Some Aspects of Linguistic Economy in English

Academic Discourse

Astghik Chubaryan, Ruzan Karapetyan
Yerevan State University

R ecently scientists in CERN experiment have found some signs that certain par-ticles travel faster than light. Of course this still needs thorough analysis and
weighty confirmations, however it indicates the general trend of modern life very pre-
cisely – time today passes at a quicker rate than it used to. On second thoughts we all can
memorize events which prove the accelerating speed of the modern flow of life. This
phenomenon is reflected in practically every domain of life and surely language could
not but be affected by this trend. The present article is devoted to the analysis of differ-
ent genres of the scientific register of speech the qualities of which are predetermined and
shaped by corresponding extralinguistic factors.

The nature, consequently the function, of science is such that it targets at obtaining
and systematizing the knowledge of the world around us. Furthermore, it requires that the
language, meant for the transfer of scientific knowledge, be compendious, laconic, logi-
cally constructed and be capable of transferring more information in less linguistic volume.
Thus, the issue of linguistic economy, realized via the compression, is taken as central for
this work. 

The analysis of the empirical material really demonstrates the prior role of compres-
sion in scientific speech. It is worth mentioning that this priority is increasing, since we
viewed this phenomenon on the diachronic plane as well. The following sources served
as material for the empirical investigation for our analysis:

1) 42 pages of highly specialized papers from High Energy Physics, meant for pro-
fessionals only;

2) A textbook for university students “Thermodynamics with Chemical
Applications”; and

3) Posters presented at the international conference “Optical Liquid Crystals” held in
Yerevan, September 25-30 2011

It should be mentioned that a special emphasis is placed on the regularities and differ-
ences of linguistic compression usage across genres, which proceeds from the function-
al characteristics of the given genre. Another point to be considered before getting down
to the presentation of the data: linguistic compression is a very broad notion and can be
realized on different levels and via various methods. The volume of the given work does
not permit incorporation of all the aspects of this notion, so we will dwell upon absolute
constructions and adverbial participles which are very effective in substituting subordi-
nate clauses in scientific speech, for they are capable of absorbing more information in a
lesser volume due to their structural peculiarities. Being very capacious these construc-
tions transfer the same amount of information, as the corresponding subordinate clauses,
more expeditiously. Present below are the examples:

Armenian Folia AnglistikaLinguistics

49



1. This looks like a kind of brane at t = 0, with Neumann boundary conditions for the
field C.

2. Writing the metric as a deformation of the flat space metric gμν = ημν + hμν,
imposing the gauge conditions h00 = hi0 = hii = 0 and linearizing the Bach ten-

sor,one can write the general solution as (-ij+ k(iζ j)) − ik0tˆ-ij_eik.x, kμ kμ = 0.
3. With I an interval of the time-axis {x _ ht, x1, . . . xdi: x1 = · · · = xd= 0}we setA0(I)

_ A(OI) where OI is the double cone I00 _ Rd+1, the causal envelope of I.
4. Since the equation for C is conformal invariant we simply can consider it in flat

space. Thus, dropping the denominator in (2.3) we get the flat space metric.
5. Thus, we often use ideal-gas heat capacities, these being different for different

gases and functions of temperature only.

6. The third axiom does the entropy function what the first axiom does for the internal
energy, asserting its existence and providing a relationship which connects it with
measurable quantities.

The examples demonstrate the effectiveness of these constructions for scientific
speech, but at the same time they show that the ellipsis of certain grammatical categories
requires additional efforts on the part of readers/listeners to interpret the information cor-
rectly. This is connected with the level of professional preparedness of the read-
ers/listeners and must definitely be taken into consideration by speakers/writers. In the
examples provided the interconnection of the participial clauses with the main clause
is quite ambiguous for non-professionals (temporal, conditional, instrumental, of
cause-effect and so on), whereas in science these nuances in meaning are determina-
tive.

Now let us present how the linguistic compression is reflected in each of the genres.
1) In the scientific papers examined we found 81 cases of Absolute constructions and

adverbial participles at 42 pages only. This is quite a high concentration, especially in
terms of the adequate interpretation of the information. This can be explained by the
specificity of the genre of scientific paper itself, which is meant for a narrow circle of
professionals who have detailed and complete idea concerning the topic under discus-
sion. Thus, a compressed transfer of information can in no way affect the correct percep-
tion of the content, consequently it is justified by extralinguistic factors. In other words,
the principle of the economical use of linguistic means dominates over the necessity of
high level of explicitness in this sphere and this, in its turn is reflected frequent use of the
constructions discussed.

Another interesting fact is connected with diachrony. Analysis of the papers written
in the years between 1985-91, revealed the following statistics: 29 cases of absolute con-
structions at 218 pages. Whereas, in the papers analyzed for this work we found 35 cases
of absolute constructions use at only 42 pages. This is mere statistics, however it might
be assumed that the increasing demand of the time to be more concise and laconic is
traced in this statistics.

2) The second source examined is a textbook for university students. Here we found
21 cases of absolute constructions and adverbial participles at 65 pages. As compared
to scientific papers a significant decline of linguistic means fulfilling the function of

Armenian Folia Anglistika Linguistics

50



compression is observed in this genre. This is predetermined by the necessity to be as
explicit as possible, since the utmost goal of textbooks is to teach. As is seen the
extralinguistic requirements of the genre in questions are directly proportional with the
statistics. Thus, it can be supposed that the principles of linguistic economy in the
given case are not weighty enough to regulate the use and functioning of linguistic
units proper. 

3) And the third genre analyzed is posters. This area has very little been investigated
and requires a comprehensive insight, so we looked into the problem of narration effi-
ciency both in terms of structural organization of posters and linguistic compression.
Posters presented at the international conference “Optical Liquid Crystals” held in
Yerevan, September 25-30 2011 served as material for investigation. We studied approxi-
mately 15 posters by Italian, Canadian, Taiwanese, Russian and Armenian scholars. It is
to be stipulated that herein we present only certain preliminary observations, since accu-
rate results and rigid assumptions require an in-depth, all-encompassing analysis of dif-
ferent linguistic levels. 

The first point to mention is that in posters the cases of linguistic compression via
adverbial participles and absolute constructions are practically absent. All in all we
encountered just 2 cases of sentences with adverbial participles. Perhaps it might be
accounted by the fact that in posters simple and concise sentences are more favoured,
where the information is contracted to the highest possible extent. From the material ana-
lyzed it could be concluded that the data in posters is presented more schematically,
either in graphs and figures or in points. These were the first two striking modes for
information compression in posters, at least this is what we observed at this level of
analysis. This is true practically for all the poster conclusions we examined. Here is an
example:

Conclusions

• Artifact-free, compact “portable” CD spectrograph based on a cycloidal optical axis
grating

• The diffraction properties of the cycloidal grating allow for real-time CD
• Extreme simplicity of the method: only the intensities I1

or,
Perspectives

• ECP range 190-360nm ask for UV transparent LC and KM
• Extend the method to circularly Luminiscence  (CPL) and vibrational optical activi-

ty (i.e. ROA)

An interesting fact to mention and of course this should be taken into consideration
when teaching Academic writing to Armenian students. All the posters by Armenian
scholars were extremely wordy, long and obviously these were extracts from scientific
papers, but the genre of posters does not permit it due to the space restrictions. So the
principle of linguistic economy must be taught to students for them to observe the inter-
nationally-accepted norms.

Armenian Folia AnglistikaLinguistics

51



And to sum up, it should be mentioned that there are still numerous issues to be studied
in the genre of posters on all the linguistic strata, because in posters the principle of lin-
guistic compression is much more pertinent than in the other two sources discusses
above.For now, we can state that the two evident ways for compressing information in
posters are schematic presentation of data and simple sentences presented in points.

References:

1. Halliday, M.A.K.; Matthiessen, Ch. (1997) Systemic Functional Grammar. A First
Step into the Theory.

2. Halliday, M.A.K. & Martin, J.R. (1993) Writing Science: literacy and discursive
power. London: Falmer Press. 

3. Leech, G.; Hundt, M. (2009) Change in Contemporary English. A Grammatical
Study. New York: CUP.

4. Chubaryan, A.; Karapetyan, R. (2004) Absolutniye konstruktsii kak sredstvo
lingvisticheskoi ekonomii v nauchnoi proze. // Foreign Languages for Special
Purposes. N 4. Yerevan: YSU Press.

È»½í³Ï³Ý ÙÇçáóÝ»ñÇ ïÝï»ëÙ³Ý ëϽμáõÝùÁ ³Ý·É»ñ»Ý ·Çï³Ï³Ý ¹ÇëÏáõñëáõÙ

È»½ í³Ï³Ý ÙÇçáóÝ»ñÇ ïÝï»ëÙ³Ý ëϽμáõÝùÁ, áñÁ Ëáëù³ëï»ÕÍÙ³Ý ³Ýμ³ Å³-
Ý»ÉÇ Ù³ë ¿ ϳ½ÙáõÙ, ¹ñë¨áñíáõÙ ¿ μáÉáñ É»½í³Ï³Ý ٳϳñ¹³ÏÝ»ñáõÙ ¨ ÷³ëïá-
ñ»Ý ³ÛÝ áõÅÝ ¿, áñáí ϳñ·³ íáñíáõÙ »Ý É»½í³Ï³Ý ѳٳϳñ·Ç ½³ñ·³óÙ³Ý íñ³
áõÕÕ³ÏÇáñ»Ý ¨ ³ÝáõÕÕ³ÏÇáñ»Ý ³½¹áÕ Ý»ñùÇÝ ¨ ³ñï³ùÇÝ ½³Ý³½³Ý ·áñÍáÝÝ»-
ñÇ ÷áËѳñ³μ» ñáõÃÛáõÝÝ»ñÁ: ¶ÇïáõÃÛ³Ý É»½íÇ μÝ³Ï³Ý å³Ñ³ÝçÝ ¿ ÷á˳Ýó»É
³é³í»É³·áõÛÝ ï»Õ»Ï³ïíáõÃÛáõÝ` û·ï³·áñÍ»Éáí Ñݳñ³íáñÇÝë ùÇã É»½í³Ï³Ý
ÙÇçáóÝ»ñ: ê³ ¿É Çñ Ñ»ñÃÇÝ å³Ûٳݳíáñí³Í ¿ ÙÇ ß³ñù É»½í³Ï³Ý ¨ ³ñï³É»½-
í³Ï³Ý ·áñÍáÝÝ»ñÇ ³½¹» óáõÃÛ³Ùμ, ³Û¹ ÃíáõÙ` ÙïùÇ Ïáõé ¨ ïñ³Ù³μ³ ݳϳÝ
ϳéáõóí³ÍùÇ ³å³ÑáíáõÙ, ѳÏÇñ×áõÃÛáõÝ, ï»Õ»Ï³ïí³Ï³Ý ѳ·»óí³ÍáõÃÛáõÝ,
ųٳݳÏÇ ¨ ï³ñ³ÍùÇ ïÝï»ëáõÙ ¨ ³ÛÉÝ: γï³ñí³Í í»ñÉáõÍáõÃÛ³Ý Ýå³ï³ÏÝ
¿ å³ñ½»É, û ÇÝãå»ë ¨ ÇÝã ã³÷áí ¿ ¹ñë¨áñíáõÙ É»½í³Ï³Ý ÙÇçáóÝ»ñÇ ïÝï»ëÙ³Ý
ëϽμáõÝùÁ ·Çï³Ï³Ý á×Ç ï»ùëï»ñáõÙ` ï»ùëïÇ ß³ñ³ÑÛáõë³Ï³Ý, ÇÙ³ëï³μ³ -
Ý³Ï³Ý ¨ ·áñÍ³μ³ Ý³Ï³Ý ³é³ÝÓݳѳïÏáõÃÛáõÝÝ»ñÇ ÷áËѳñ³μ» ñáõÃÛ³Ý ï»-
ë³ÝÏÛáõÝÇó: 

Armenian Folia Anglistika Linguistics

52