Structural, stylistic and communicative features of the traditional instructional discourse

Discourse is an interrelation of three components: the set of texts, the system of communicativeacts and the model of world outlook. The texts of the instructional discourse are insufficiently explored nowadays. This research meets the contemporarychallenge of fast-paced development of the instructional discourse. The historical period of political system change and transition to themarket economy in Russia in 1995 is taken as the relative borderline between the traditional and contemporary instructions. Fast development ofinstructional discourse is closely related to the galloping development of hi-tech devices, which are those that combine the achievements of severalindustrial branches of its time. As the result of the instructional discourse analysis three groups of features are being defined: structural, stylistic andcommunicative. Traditional instructions mostly are printed manuals or user guides whose style is close to the methodological literature with reconditeterms. The speech tactics of informing, shifting the burden of responsibility and driving to act are used. The speech genres are as follows: manual,user guide, memo, prescription and directive. The speaker is given the role of either an expert or a teacher; the listener is a professional in needof consulting, or a student, respectively. The strict form of the instruction does not allow switching the communicative role. Contemporary instructionsin addition to the paper-printed form exist as elements of software and hardware interface, e-texts and media. The chapters are spread withinthematically divided sections, the text is non-linear due to hyperlinks, and the organization of instructional material is automated (WEB 2.0). As forthe stylistic features, the instructional discourse is enlarged due to inclusion of advertisement discourse components, the use of terms is minimized,the elements of intuitively measured iconic semiotic system are introduced. The communicative features include the use of speech genre of recommendationand prohibition; the latent and verbal pointing to the readers background knowledge requirements. The development of instructionaldiscourse has come to the idea: to use some object one does not need to know how it works. The following study of the instructional discourse willallow to estimate and to understand the changes in the cognitive and social spheres.

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