Negative Evaluation in Oral Scientific Dialogue (Based on Russian and English)

Abstract

The object of this research is scientific dialogue interpreted as a form of communication at the interface of two types of discourse – scientific (as a recipient discourse) and everyday (as a donor discourse, having a significant influence on the initial parameters of scientific discourse). The paper substantiates the idea that in the conditions of dialogue, everyday communication greatly affects the axiological structure of scientific discourse, which is reflected in the following ways: 1) activation of negative evaluative statements and diversification of their functions; 2) use of direct critical comments (expressing disagreement, objection, doubt, etc.); 3) active use of two opposite methods – de-intensification, i.e. softening (through initial approval, admittance of possible wrongness of the criticism, etc.), and intensification (through various techniques or words, e.g. intensifying adverbs amplifying the negative semantics) of negative evaluation; 4) expansion of the object of negative evaluation (by aiming it at external facts and phenomena, which can transform professional evaluation into personal or naïve). The study is based on the material of Russian and English as the main languages of international scientific communication. The author concludes that the two national variants of scientific dialogue have similar tendencies in terms of negative evaluation: activation and direct expression of negative evaluation, as well as its intensified or de-intensified use and expansion of its object. At the same time, a specific nature of verbalization of negative evaluation in the Russian scientific dialogue is emphasized. The results obtained can be applied in teaching scientists and academics the norms of polemical speech, including in an international setting.