Genre is equivalent to text type in many cases.There are basically three approaches to genre analysis, namely, the typification of rhetorical action, the discourse community approach, and the social process approach.
According to the typification of rhetorical action (Berkenkotter & Huckins, 1995: 6), genres are inherently dynamic rhetorical structures that can be manipulated according to the conditions of use, and genre knowledge is therefore best conceptualized as a form of situated cognition embedded in disciplinary cultures.The rhetorical approach to genre argues that there are preferred expectations about the way information should be organized in each genre although there are no absolute constraints on the discourse structure of any given genre.Also, this approach claims that there are rhetorical differences in the written discourses of various languages, and that those differences need to be brought to consciousness before a writer can begin to understand what he or she must do in order to write in a more native-like manner (or in a manner that is more acceptable to native speakers of the target language）(cf.Bazerman, 1994).
According to the discourse community approach, genre is judged by means of the consistency of communicative purposes.Bhatia (2004: 22）states that genre analysis is the study of situated linguistic behavior in institutionalized academic or professional settings.Swales (1990: 58）defines genre as a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes.These purposes are recognized by the expert members of the parent discourse community, and thereby constitute the rationale for the genre.This rationale shapes the schematic structure of the discourse and influences and constrains the choice of content and style.Communicative purpose is both a privileged criterion and one that operates to keep the scope of a genre as here conceived narrowly focused on comparable rhetorical action.In addition to purpose, exemplars of a genre exhibit various patterns of similarity in terms of structure, style, content and intended audience.If all high probability expectations are realized, the exemplar will be viewed as prototypical by the parent discourse community.
The communicative approach to genre is mainly applied in analyzing academic writings.Swales (1990: 139-140）proposes the Create a Research Space (CARS）model for analyzing the generic features of research articles (RAs).For instance, there tend to be three generic moves in the introductions of RAs: establishing a territory, establishing a niche and occupying the niche.Generally speaking, at the beginning the voice is strong, for it expresses the writer’s position or view; in the middle part the voice is somehow weakened, as it involves negotiations with the discourse participants; in the end the voice becomes strong again, for at this time the writer has to reach a conclusion about his or her view.
The communicative approach does not simply analyze generic moves.It also takes into account lexicogrammatical features, such as reporting verbs (cf.Thompson & Ye, 1991; Hyland, 2002), and citations (cf.Myers, 1989; Swales, 1990).
Genre is also understood in terms of the regularities of a staged, goal-oriented social process.Martin (1997: 12-13）indicates that genre is concerned with systems of social processes, where the principles for relating social processes to each other have to do with texture - the ways in which field, mode and tenor variables are phased together in a text, and that in Australian educational linguistics, genres have been defined as staged, goal-oriented social processes.
Martin (1997: 6-7）discusses the relationship between genre and register.Register is used as a general composite term for the field, mode and tenor variables.Genre, on the other hand, is set up above and beyond metafunctions (at a higher level of abstraction）to account for the relations among the social processes involved in more holistic terms, with a special focus on the stages through which most texts unfold.Genre and register constitute a stratified perspective on what is referred to as connotative semiotics-semiotic systems that make use of another semiotic system as their expression plane (as opposed to denotative semiotics that have an expression plane of their own).Figure 3.5 represents the relationship between genre and register according to SFL.
Illustrated in this way, genre is realized by register (consisting of tenor, field and mode), and register in turn reflects genre.The same is true between discourse semantics and register, between discourse semantics and lexico-grammar, as well as between lexico-grammar and phonology/ graphology.In Martin’s words, such a model of genre is one of metaredundancy.
connotative semiotic
stratified context plane expression form
genretenor field mode
discourse semanticslexico-grammarphonology/graphology
stratified content form expression form
denotative semiotic
Figure 3.5 Stratified model of genre (adapted from Martin, 1997: 7)