Narratives in Professional Domains

Narratives have always had a primary role in institutional and professional discourse: They form an essential part of the life, products, and publications of professional organizations and disciplines. Nevertheless, many text types and genres of the modern world are typically described as highly abstract, condensed and specialized, with variable adaptions though to the necessities of context and medium. Therefore, in the varieties of spoken interaction, the written medium and the internet, each domain of professional discourse tends to maintain its typical mixture of narrative vs. non-narrative variation, both across time and genres.

The research projects on narratives in various professions all depart from the specific needs of communication of the disciplines, in particular of different scientific domains, among which medicine a special case in point. The question when, how and why narrative presentation is preserved sheds light on the ubiquity and multi-functionality of narrative structure and enhances our understanding of the close interaction between discourse and grammar.