The classification of functional varieties has been the subject of both structural linguistic and pragmalinguistics, although from different starting points. Whilst structural linguistics inferred the overall function of texts from certain distinctive features observed, pragmatics discovered the fundamental criterion in their function/role. The two type clusters therefore do not even correlate from the point of view of popular scientific texts, as structural linguistics categorises them, together with scientific texts, as expert texts, and pragmalinguistics, in contrast to scientific texts, classifies them as what is termed communicative-performative speech. The fundamental criterion for this categorisation is the predominant performative function of the text, so that various and numerous texts belong to this type cluster. On the basis of the finding that the language system is, in its internal structure, adjusted to the contradictory tasks of communication and that, accordingly, characteristic linguistic forms which facilitate contextualisation can also be identified for functional subtypes, we thus posethe question as to whether it is possible to define in detail the additional purposes in terms of which popular scientific texts can be distinguished from the other subtypes of communicative-performative speech andin terms of which popular scientific texts of the journal type can be differentiated from didactic ones precisely on the basis of their characteristic stylistically marked elements and which have been identified, in contrast to those of scientific texts, by structural linguistics.
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