Functions of Expressions of Futurality  in Professional Economic Texts

Martin Mikuláš

Functions of Expressions of Futurality in Professional Economic Texts

Číslo: 1/2016
Periodikum: Prague Journal of English Studies

Klíčová slova: Economic discourse; English for academic purposes; function; futurality; modes of meaning; textual coherence

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Anotace:  e aim of this corpus-based study is to identify the functions that selected expressions

of futurality can express in professional economic texts.  e classifi cation of functions
is established on the corpus of seven economic books. Excerpted instances of futural
constructions are analysed with respect to textual and interpersonal functions as defi ned
by Halliday. Futurality is interpreted broadly to include all lexical and grammatical
means referring to the future.  is approach makes it also possible to analyse futurality
as a means of text coherence. Hence the core grammatical means are interpreted
along with co-occurring lexical means under the two categories of functions to provide
a comprehensive model of text coherence with regard to futurality. Frequency analysis
shows that core futural expressions are not distributed equally throughout the corpus.
While some expressions (e.g., will and the present simple tense) dominate, others prove
to be rather insignifi cant (e.g., be on the point/verge of, the present progressive tense).
In addition, both lexical and grammatical constructions regularly co-occur in clusters,
contributing to the coherence of the economic texts.