Arguments in Defense of the Nomination ‘Discursive Foundations of Speech Studies’ (Clarifying the Concept of ‘Discursive Foundations’)

In contemporary linguistics, with the emergence of a new scientific field – speech studies, which has gradually separated from functional stylistics, the need has arisen to substantiate its independence and the legitimacy of differentiating these fields. The article presents arguments in defense of a contentious nomination – ‘discursive foundations of speech studies’. Following M. N. Kozhina, the creator of the well-known theory of functional styles, according to which the methodological basis for the differentiation of styles lies in their being conditioned by a set of extralinguistic factors, the authors of the article develop a concept closely related to the extralinguistic foundation of functional stylistics – ‘discursive foundations of speech studies’. The article aims to emphasize the relevance of searching for arguments in support of the proposed nomination. The authors offer the following hierarchy of extralinguistic factors: discursive (in a broad understanding of discourse) strongly influential style-forming factors and strongly influential but not style-forming, specifically discursive, factors (in a narrow understanding of discourse). This approach to the extralinguistic foundation, without contradicting M. N. Kozhina’s theory, makes it possible to differentiate the two related linguistic fields and offers an interpretation of the discursive foundations of speech studies. The article describes the properties and role of subject-related extralinguistic factors in the interpretation of the semantic structure of texts. It is the complex of factors primarily related to the psychological characteristics of the cognizing subject or to the stage of the subject’s cognitive activity that forms the methodological framework for studying scientific texts – the discursive foundations of speech studies. The proposed approach is illustrated through a speech analysis of a fragment of a scientific text. A conclusion is drawn regarding the potential of the clarified concept of ‘discursive foundations’ and the possibilities of using the nomination ‘discursive foundations of speech studies’.