Procedural vocabulary: lexical signalling of conceptual relations in discourse

This paper sets out to explore the function of items of procedural vocabulary as signals of conceptual relations in scientific discourse. Procedural vocabulary, a general strategic vocabulary first studied by Widdowson (1983), consists of lexical items which do not belong to any particular schema. They are highly context-dependent items with very little lexical content, which accounts for their important role in the elaboration of rhetorical functions related to the explanation of concepts. On the basis of a database of definitions, descriptions and classifications occurring in scientific discourse, we have established a taxonomy of procedural items in terms of the contextual relations that they set up between content-bearing words. These relations signalled by procedural vocabulary can be classified into nine major groups: identity, difference, inclusion, exclusion, process, function, spatial relations, feature relations, and quantity modification. An awareness of the vocabulary signalling these relations is part of the language user's communicative strategies which allow for the negotiation and comprehension of concepts in discourse.