Simplified text: term development

Foreign philological sciences traditionally use the term “simplified text” to denote the text, which is simplified for special readers who might consider the source-text difficult for understanding. Not only belles-lettres texts are exposed to simplification but also texts of highly specialized sciences. Consequently, there is a necessity for studying specific properties of the simplified text. The analysis of actual materials and theoretical research on the given problem have shown that the standard definition of the term “simplified text” requires specification. A simplified text is a necessarily secondary text, which form and/or content is changed. Thus a secondary text can become shorter due to compression and content simplification, or can become longer at the expense of explication of intradisciplinary or interdisciplinary presuppositions. The Russian philological science uses the term “adapted text” much wider than the term “simplified text”. The given research reveals the following characteristics of the simplified (adapted) text such as orientation to the addressee, intertextuality, and interaction. The author-adaptor decides what presuppositions should be chosen for explication taking into consideration requirements of potential readers, their interests, and background knowledge on the subject. Intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary presuppositions provide intertextuality of simplified (adapted) texts. Such interaction helps to catch and keep the addressee’s attention, to motivate text perusal. Results of the given research can be used in texts’ simplification (adaptation).