Key words in the “Missing Manual”: the problem of identification

The article deals with a key word distinction in the texts of hybrid genre. The authors have come to the conclusion that frequency criterion is not the main one in key words identification. It has been represented and proved that if words are repeated in a text many times they can be considered as frequent but not as key words. An assumption has been put forward that key words convey conceptual information (the main idea, text aboutness) and provide text cohesion. Two factors are taken into account when extracting key words from the text “iPhone: The Missing Manual”, that is provision of text cohesion and word frequency. The procedure of key word extraction is based on two interconnected methods: statistics and conceptual analysis. Key words represent concepts. The key concepts of Missing Manual are the concepts of “Gadget”, “Communication”, “User” and “Manual”. Special features of verbalization of the concept “GADGET” by the material of the text “iPhone: The Missing Manual” have been considered. The structure of the concept includes the core of the concept, the core zone is surrounded by near periphery and further periphery zones. It has been demonstrated that key words perform the following functions: they structure introduction of the text and indicate the main idea of the text, make the perception and understanding of the text easy to interpret.