Speech genre "oral interview" in popular science: a comparative analysis of discourses in Russian and in Portuguese

Abstract

This research is developing the idea that the scientific discourse is not an isolated type of discourse limited to scientific institutions but it also represents a dialogue between pure science and modern society. By observing different means of communication between society and the scientific world (radio, scientific and popular publications, television, internet) we will study the genre of oral interview, as one representing the scientific knowledge for a non-scientific audience. The Portuguese term "divulgação científica" will be explained to the Russian-speakers as one that is more suitable to describe the interaction between the discourses being analyzed. The research will cover different spheres of modern science and will consider the material in two different languages: Brazilian Portuguese and Russian. The choice of these two rather isolated modern societies provides the possibility to consider the results of the research to be rather pure while the elaborated methodology will be possible to apply to other comparative discourses, linguistic and cultural studies. Both in Russia and Brazil, comparative discourse studies have not yet been developed and the abovementioned methodology of such studies will have to be defined. The theoretical part of the research will be dedicated to the profound observation of the Russian and Brazilian school of discourse analysies (including the French and North-American influence on both) and a unified methodology of research will be provided. The results and methodology of the present research will be possible to apply to other materials, other languages and cultures that can be used in other comparative linguistic, ethno-linguistic, socio-cultural, discourse and cultural studies. The research will be based on Mikhail Bakhtin's theory as well as on comprarative discourse analyses. The fact that comparative discourse studies have not yet been developed neither in Russia nor in Brazil highlights the importance and innovative character of the research.