The Popularisation of Business and Economic English in Online Newspapers

The introductory chapter discusses the popularisation of specialised text at large and of new media discourse in particular. It describes this phenomenon as a ‘reformulation process’ whereby specialised knowledge is transformed into everyday or lay knowledge, and also as a ‘recontextualisation process’ whereby popularisation discourse is adapted to the appropriateness conditions of the new genres and to the constraints of the media employed. Popularisation, it is claimed, implies relevant changes not only in terms of terminological simplifications and adaptations to the public’s prior knowledge, but also in terms of the roles undertaken by the participants in the communicative event.

The remaining chapters are organised into thematic units whose topics range from global economy, economic growth, and financial crisis to business management, employment, and sales. This part provides an in-depth investigation of various topics related to the economics and business worlds, combined with systematic explanations of linguistic phenomena at various language levels, from morphology to syntax, semantics, and the lexicon. In this book, the lexicon of ESP is offered in a fresh, less formal style, which will attract younger and non-expert readers alongside experts and professionals. The book is of considerable interest to students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, lecturers, professors, entrepreneurs, specialists, and to those scholars who investigate ESP and its popularisation.