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Although the textbook has traditionally been assigned a peripheral status in the repertoire of academic genres, in tertiary education settings it plays an essential role as a source of both content and generic literacy, hence acculturating novices into the epistemology of the discipline. However, the role of the textbook in the professional context has been to date relatively underexplored. The aim of this paper is to define the textbook as a textual product linking the academic and the professional. Corpus-based results of a study of the online blurbs which accompany construction engineering and architecture textbooks show an intricate merging of descriptive and promotional features which provides a valuable source for understanding the way authors and target audience interact and the way authors and audiences conceive the textbook genre. The analysis of the blurb moves shows a duality of communicative purposes, translated into a multifaceted discourse meant to accommodate the linguistic and rhetorical needs of a duality of audiences, both learners and professional peers. Corpus findings call for a reconceptualization of the textbook genre, as a genre addressing both an educational and a professional audience, and whose purpose is thus only partially educational., A pesar del rol marginal tradicionalmente asignado al libro de texto entre los géneros académicos, en el contexto de la educación superior juega un papel esencial como fuente de aculturación de los no expertos, tanto en los contenidos y géneros de la disciplina como en la epistemología de la disciplina. Sin embargo, su papel en el contexto profesional no ha sido hasta el momento suficientemente investigado. El objetivo de este artículo es definir el libro de texto como un texto que une el mundo académico y el mundo profesional. Los resultados de este análisis de un corpus de solapas (blurbs) electrónicas muestran una intricada fusión de rasgos descriptivos y promocionales, una valiosa fuente para entender el modo en que interactúan el escritor y su público y el modo en que ambos conciben el género. El análisis de las solapas muestra una dualidad de propósitos comunicativos traducidos en un discurso con múltiples facetas, destinado a acomodar las necesidades lingüísticas y retóricas de un doble público lector, aprendices y profesionales. El estudio del corpus sugiere la necesidad de reconceptualizar el género de los libros de texto como un género a la vez educativo y profesional, cuya finalidad es solo parcialmente educativa.

Although the textbook has traditionally been assigned a peripheral status in the repertoire of academic genres, in tertiary education settings it plays an essential role as a source of both content and generic literacy, hence acculturating novices into the epistemology of the discipline. However, the role of the textbook in the professional context has been to date relatively underexplored. The aim of this paper is to define the textbook as a textual product linking the academic and the professional. Corpus-based results of a study of the online blurbs which accompany construction engineering and architecture textbooks show an intricate merging of descriptive and promotional features which provides a valuable source for understanding the way authors and target audience interact and the way authors and audiences conceive the textbook genre. The analysis of the blurb moves shows a duality of communicative purposes, translated into a multifaceted discourse meant to accommodate the linguistic and rhetorical needs of a duality of audiences, both learners and professional peers. Corpus findings call for a reconceptualization of the textbook genre, as a genre addressing both an educational and a professional audience, and whose purpose is thus only partially educational., A pesar del rol marginal tradicionalmente asignado al libro de texto entre los géneros académicos, en el contexto de la educación superior juega un papel esencial como fuente de aculturación de los no expertos, tanto en los contenidos y géneros de la disciplina como en la epistemología de la disciplina. Sin embargo, su papel en el contexto profesional no ha sido hasta el momento suficientemente investigado. El objetivo de este artículo es definir el libro de texto como un texto que une el mundo académico y el mundo profesional. Los resultados de este análisis de un corpus de solapas (blurbs) electrónicas muestran una intricada fusión de rasgos descriptivos y promocionales, una valiosa fuente para entender el modo en que interactúan el escritor y su público y el modo en que ambos conciben el género. El análisis de las solapas muestra una dualidad de propósitos comunicativos traducidos en un discurso con múltiples facetas, destinado a acomodar las necesidades lingüísticas y retóricas de un doble público lector, aprendices y profesionales. El estudio del corpus sugiere la necesidad de reconceptualizar el género de los libros de texto como un género a la vez educativo y profesional, cuya finalidad es solo parcialmente educativa.

The underlying assumption of this study is the understanding of a specialized term as a summary of disciplinary knowledge, formalized at a textual level in the contextual relations which structure disciplinary lexical knowledge and are therefore essential for the successful interpretation of a text. With that aim this paper carries the analysis of the lexico-grammatical patterns which signal the hyponymy and meronymy relations of the term building, a key disciplinary concept in a corpus of construction engineering textbooks, using the WordNet database for reference. The linguistic analysis of the repertoire of lexico-grammatical patterns employed brings to the fore the dual role of hyponymy and meronymy as both semantic and metalinguistic discourse-organizing lexical resources, key in the rhetorical organization of the discourse of this discipline.

The underlying assumption of this study is the understanding of a specialized term as a summary of disciplinary knowledge, formalized at a textual level in the contextual relations which structure disciplinary lexical knowledge and are therefore essential for the successful interpretation of a text. With that aim this paper carries the analysis of the lexico-grammatical patterns which signal the hyponymy and meronymy relations of the term building, a key disciplinary concept in a corpus of construction engineering textbooks, using the WordNet database for reference. The linguistic analysis of the repertoire of lexico-grammatical patterns employed brings to the fore the dual role of hyponymy and meronymy as both semantic and metalinguistic discourse-organizing lexical resources, key in the rhetorical organization of the discourse of this discipline.

The integration of a genre-based and a corpus-based instruction in ESP learning (Swales, 1990; Tribble, 2000; Ferguson, 2001; Flowerdew, 2005) has proved to be a suitable theoretical framework for describing the lexis of construction and architecture university textbooks, such as the sample compiled in the Construction Textbooks Corpus (CTC). This paper is a contribution to the study of the formal and semantic profiles of the lexis of this particular genre type and, by way of illustration, focuses on the case study of the lemmas build and construct. From a formal standpoint, the CTC reveals that the noun building (the first content word in the CTC) is six times more frequent than the verb build, and the noun construction (third in frequency) is eleven times more frequent than the verb construct. Semantically, the corpus displays a prevalence of technical meanings which refer to building and construction as the activity or business of erecting edifices or structures. By observing the lexical profile of construction textbooks, this paper will finally consider possible teaching/learning implications.

The integration of a genre-based and a corpus-based instruction in ESP learning (Swales, 1990; Tribble, 2000; Ferguson, 2001; Flowerdew, 2005) has proved to be a suitable theoretical framework for describing the lexis of construction and architecture university textbooks, such as the sample compiled in the Construction Textbooks Corpus (CTC). This paper is a contribution to the study of the formal and semantic profiles of the lexis of this particular genre type and, by way of illustration, focuses on the case study of the lemmas build and construct. From a formal standpoint, the CTC reveals that the noun building (the first content word in the CTC) is six times more frequent than the verb build, and the noun construction (third in frequency) is eleven times more frequent than the verb construct. Semantically, the corpus displays a prevalence of technical meanings which refer to building and construction as the activity or business of erecting edifices or structures. By observing the lexical profile of construction textbooks, this paper will finally consider possible teaching/learning implications.