Intentions of English children’s nonfiction discourse: Communicative and cognitive-pragmatic perspectives

Abstract

This article examines the intentions of English children’s nonfiction discourse from communicative and cognitive-pragmatic perspectives and identifies the linguistic means of their realization at lexical, syntactic, and stylistic levels. The study is based on a corpus of English children’s nonfiction books, including encyclopedias and biographies represented by covers, blurbs, and main texts. The research applies pragmalinguistic, descriptive, cognitive, and quantitative methods grounded in speech act theory and discourse studies. The communicative perspective includes representative, directive, commissive, expressive, declarative, and quesitive intentions, whereas the cognitive-pragmatic perspective is represented by informing, influencing, and engaging intentions. The results demonstrate that communicative and cognitive-pragmatic intentions, together with their linguistic means of representation, form an interconnected system in children’s nonfiction discourse. Representative and informing intentions are predominantly realized through scientific terminology, declarative constructions, and descriptive statements, while directive and influencing intentions are expressed through imperative constructions, modal verbs, and direct address. Engaging and expressive intentions are represented through emotionally marked vocabulary, rhetorical questions, intensifiers, and exclamatory constructions aimed at maintaining readers’ interest and stimulating curiosity. The findings provide new insights into the intentional organization of children’s nonfiction discourse and its role in shaping children’s perception of scientific knowledge and interaction with the surrounding world.

CRediT Statement

Maryna Chernyk: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing – Original Draft, Visualization, Project Administration; Hanna Prihodko: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Resources, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Data Curation, Project Administration; Vladyslava Kulish: Methodology, Validation, Investigation, Writing – Original Draft; Oleksandra Prykhodchenko: Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing.

Disclosure Statement

The authors reported no potential conflicts of interest.

Generative AI Statement

During the preparation of this work, Maryna Chernyk used Grammarly, an AI-assisted writing tool, to improve the grammar, spelling, and stylistic clarity of the manuscript. After using this tool, all co-authors reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the content of the publication.