Scientific polemical discourse and factors of its formation

The article substantiates the concept of ‘scientific polemical discourse' as a complex verbal and mental activity in the scientific sphere of communication aimed at refuting a differing point of view and arguing the author's position. The use of the word ‘scientific' in the preposition emphasizes the sphere of functioning of the discourse and its being conditioned by the corresponding sphere. The question of the relationship between the concepts of ‘functional style' and ‘discourse' is considered. They have a common methodological principle of analyzing linguistic specificity in its extra-linguistic conditionality. The difference lies in the criteria of selection and abstraction levels of extra-linguistic factors. The choice of factors relevant to scientific polemical discourse is argued. The communicative intention ‘expression of disagreement' becomes a factor in the formation of this discourse because it is the speech activity dominant for scientific polemics participants. Disagreement is defined as a type of reaction to speech similar to negative evaluation of speech behavior, where this evaluation can be expressed by a variety of speech techniques: any kind of criticism, doubt about the correctness or acceptability of a certain position, objection, refutation. Based on linguistic studies, the author proves the legitimacy and preferability of using the designation ‘polemical' compared to other ways of naming polemical communication varieties. This word is most appropriate to the tasks of studying and providing communicative-pragmatic description of the discourse in question. Such features of scientific polemical discourse as the conflictual nature, institutionality, ‘double' addressability, evaluability, argumentativeness, and intertextuality are illustrated on the material of scientific polemical texts.