Accounting for fieldwork in three areas of geology: A situated analysis of textual silence and salience Dacia Dressen-Hammouda To cite this version: Dacia Dressen-Hammouda. Accounting for fieldwork in three areas of geology: A situated analysis of textual silence and salience. Linguistics. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, 2002. English. tel- 01011742 HAL Id: tel-01011742 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01011742 Submitted on 24 Jun 2014 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. ACCOUNTING FOR FIELDWORK IN THREE AREAS OF MODERN GEOLOGY: A SITUATED ANALYSIS OF TEXTUAL SILENCE AND SALIENCE by Dacia Frerika Dressen A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Linguistics) in The University of Michigan 2002 Doctoral Committee: Professor John Malcolm Swales, Chair Professor Carol Berkenkotter, University of Minnesota Professor Jeffrey G. Heath Professor Rob Van der Voo The systemic nature of genre foils formalist studies, because formalism is limited to describing what is “there” in the texts, whereas any generic reading of a text is based equally on what is not there, on what the text does not say, and ultimately on what cannot be done with it. Comparison has been my way of getting at this “non-said”. Thomas Beebee, “The Ideology of Genre” “… rien d’autre qu’obéir au principe de la description circulaire Balzacienne: vous n’entrez jamais dans le coeur de quelqu’un sans avoir tourné autour de son horizon.” Tariq Ramadan, in Le Monde (12/01/2001) To the tender and sweetly cherished memories of my grandparents, Annie and Nick, whom I have been ready to know only too late. Julius A. Nicholsen, 1911-1987 and Anna Emma Howanitz, 1913-2001 and to the butterflies at my grandmother’s house… ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to the English Language Institute and the Morley committee, who have supported me at important and key points during this process, and to the Linguistics Department for always having provided helpful and timely financial support. A particularly heart-felt and sincere thank you is in order for my geologist informants, Nicolas Arnaud, Jacky Bouloton, Gilles Chazot, Dan Frost, Gabriel Gohau, Philippe Goncalvez, Neil Irvine, Louis Latouche, Olivier Merle and Ben van Wyk de Vries, who over the past few years have taught me much about geology, geologists and their ways, making me sometimes feel as though my next choice of career ought to be as a field geologist. With their help, I have gotten to know geology’s “insides” and feel as though it has become part of my own. A special thanks to the members of my dissertation committee, who have been as supportive as they have been insightful and helpful at pointing out the various and sometimes unhappy kinks in my dissertation: thanks to Carol Berkenkotter, for agreeing to sit on the doctoral committee as an outside reader, and for the interest that she showed in my work; thanks also to Rob Van der Voo, for agreeing to act as my guard-rail against anything untrue I might be saying about geologists, once the bloopers safely out of the way; and finally, a private thanks to Jeff Heath, who through his concern and friendly support at “delicate” moments in the early years, played an important role in the completion of my doctoral degree. iii To Bobs your uncle, my friends, who throughout the process have been there to give me the sound advice, essential support and even intelligence by procuration I've needed to continue this project. Who, through stimulating discussions, have always kept me on my feet just to keep up with them. And who, at several junctures, have gotten me back on my feet after various bouts of jitters... A special thank you to David Erdody, who has been incredibly helpful and kind in giving me a hand when I've needed it. And my undying gratitude goes to Judy Dyer, Elizabeth Axelson, Lani Wang and David Erdody, for helping me take care of the final tasks that I could not do myself. For John, I have an unspeakable appreciation, who by taking me under his wing, as a lion to a wee rabbit, has taught me through his example of humor, intelligence, ease of word, unending energy and activity, and by his unfailing support. He is truly one of the few golden ones. Thanks to Clare Mather, Christine Lac and Dana Gross, who were not only supportive of me in the early stages of my academic journey, encouraging me to forge ahead in ways they might not have imagined at the time, getting me to where I am now, but who have also been true sources of inspiration to me as lovely, warm, intelligent and successful women in adademia, whom I admire greatly. A sincere thank you is in order for Prof. Jacky Martin, whose helpfully critical voice lent clarity to my thoughts at key points in the process, as the structure and logic of my dissertation were being worked out. iv To my parents, who through and above it all, have always been there for me. To my beautiful, sweet, charming, amazing, fascinating and ever so energetic children, Hadi, Adnan and Ismaël, who have confirmed my faith that there are many ways of doing things in life, and that one’s choices, while not always easy, can be good and fulfilling ones. And to Tahar, for whom there simply aren't any words. It is clear that this dissertation, from pre-start to post- finish, would not have happened without him. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... x LIST OF APPENDICES ................................................................................................ xii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 1 1.1 Scientific discourse and the construction of research activity as instantiated and typified communicative behavior ..................................................................................... 1 1.2 The ‘said’ and the ‘unsaid’ in scientific discourse .................. 15 1.3 A description of textual silence ............................................... 29 1.4 Purpose and methodological approach of the dissertation: Identifying and explaining textual silence .............................. 41 CHAPTER 2. THE EARTH AS A “HISTORICAL MONUMENT”: MOMENTS IN BACONIAN SCIENCE, THE ATTRIBUTION OF RECOGNIZED FIELD COMPETENCE, AND A NOT UNDYING DEVOTION TO THE PRIMACY OF FIELD DATA ....... 50 2.1 Introductory matters ................................................................ 50 2.2 The early days: Geology in its nascent stages as a field- based discipline ....................................................................... 53 2.3 The standardization and institutionalization of a growing discipline (1780-1840) and the rising important of the practice of visuality. ................................................................ 62 2.4 The development of recognized field competence ................. 72 2.5 The growing polemic between empirical field practitioners and experimental method and theory ................. 76 2.6 The “revolution” in France: the effects of Wegener’s theories on the French geological community ........................ 82 2.7 A framework for analysis ........................................................ 87 vi CHAPTER 3. DETERMINING THE “SILENTIAL BOUNDARIES” OF THE FIELD ACCOUNT: A DISCOURSAL, LINGUISTIC AND RHETORICAL DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBEDDED PART-GENRE IN THREE SUBDISCIPLINES FROM GEOLOGY ................................................................................................. 92 3.1 Fieldwork reporting in geology .............................................. 92 3.2 Corpus description ................................................................ 110 3.3 Today’s field account ............................................................ 112 3.4 The geology research article ................................................. 116 3.5 Sampling Discourse and sites description ............................. 127 3.6 The Field Account ................................................................. 137 3.7 The rhetorical construction of field competence, credibility and authority. ....................................................... 145 3.9 The construction of the Field Account: A constellation of strategic options as ‘traces of professional field presence’ ... 164 3.10 A textual analysis of the Field Account .............................. 188 3.11 Textual expressions of silence ............................................ 200 CHAPTER 4. FROM FIELD OBSERVATION TO NOTES TO TALK TO TEXT: RECONTEXTUALIZATIONS OF THE FIELD ACCOUNT IN GEOLOGY ....................................................... 204 4. Introduction