Iv - University of Salford Institutional Repository

A scientific text addresses itself directly to the reader. No
participants are involved in the communicative situation or event.
Even pronominalization is out of focus. The reader is constantly kept
abreast of the pre-nuclear information, and at the same time, pressed
to predict post-nucleLr information. In this way, the reader is made
to interact with the text-supplied material. Tumours have to be
detected before being diagnosed. This sequential arrangement of
logical argumentation is science-specific. The obligatory meaning, or
rather the semantic substance of the scientific text, should not be
foreshadowed or impaired by rhetorical devices or stylistic
embellishments.
The text-author gives linguistic expression to a specific message
he must have already had in mind. Two factors are involved in this
process; one is mental or conceptual while the other is physical or
mechanical. The former relates to the concepts which the author
strives to construct in his mind before he attempts to transcribe them
in visible signs. This mental representation of the message, which is
inevitably conditioned by relevant psychological considerations, is
prior to the text-actualization in visible, interpretable signs.
Therefore, the text-originator should know how to conceptualize and
actualize the message he intends to communicate to his reading
audience. Moreover, he should master the linguistic tools hE will have
to utilize in order to cast his message in the most appropriate mould.
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