International journal

Speech Genres

ISSN 2311-0759 (Online)
ISSN 2311-0740 (Print)

For citation:

Kolokoltseva T. N. Email in the academic field: General characteristics, dialogic potential, specifics of functioning. Speech Genres, 2026, vol. 21, iss. 3 (51), pp. 316-327. DOI: 10.18500/2311-0740-2026-21-3-51-316-327, EDN: YBYUAG

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0).
Full text:
download
(downloads: 138)
Language: 
Russian
Heading: 
Internet genres
Article type: 
Article
UDC: 
811.161.1’27’38’42:004.738.5
DOI: 
10.18500/2311-0740-2026-21-3-51-316-327
EDN: 
YBYUAG

Email in the academic field: General characteristics, dialogic potential, specifics of functioning

Autors: 
Kolokoltseva Tatiana Nikolaevna, Volgograd State Socio-Pedagogical University
Abstract: 

The article is based on the analysis of electronic correspondence within a number of Russian universities and deals with the specifics of electronic business writing in its academic form. The article outlines the differences between a traditional business letter in its paper version and an electronic business letter and characterizes the functions of electronic academic letters: informational, organizational, contact-establishing and contact-supporting, educational. The exchange of business correspondence by e-mail is considered as a communicative situation of dialogical interaction between the addressee and the addressee. The article establishes the correlation of initiating e-business letters with stimulating lines, and reacting ones with reacting lines of natural (primary) dialogue. The dialogic nature of an electronic business letter is manifested through the special importance of the addressee factor, the specific tonality of epistolary texts, the alignment of initiating and reacting emails into dialogic unities or expanded chains, as well as the action within these unities and chains of rules for syntactic and pragmatic coordination of dialogue lines. Through a survey of professors of a number of Russian universities, the author establishes the degree of activity in their using e-mail and the intensity of their business correspondence using this resource, as well as the attitude of members of the academic community to the studied professional communication tool.

Key words: 
Internet communication
network genres
dialogic genres
e-mail
electronic business letter
electronic academic letter
epistolary text
addresser
addressee
dialogue
dialogic relations
tonality of communication
functioning of electronic business letter
Reference: 
  1. Ancarno C. The style of academic emails and conventional letters: Contrastive analysis of four conversational routines. Ibérica, 2005, pp. 193–122. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267993625_The_-style_of_academi... (accessed December 25, 2024).
  2. Andreeva K. A. Features of the functioning of anthroponyms in business correspondence by e-mail. International Postgraduate Bulletin. Russian Language Abroad, 2009, no. 1–2, pp. 4–9 (in Russian).
  3. Arutyunova N. D. The addressee factor. Bulletin of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Series of Literature and Language, 1981, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 356–367 (in Russian).
  4. Arutyunova N. D. The phenomenon of the second remark, or on the benefits of an argument. In: Logical Analysis of Language. Inconsistency and abnormality of the text. Moscow, Nauka, 1990, pp. 175–189 (in Russian).
  5. Arutyunova N. D. Yazyk i mir cheloveka [Language and the World of Man]. Moscow, Languages of Russian culture, 1998. 896 p. (in Russian).
  6. Baron N. S. Alphabet to e-mail: How Written English Evolved and Where It’s Heading? London, Routledge, 2000. 336 p. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203194317
  7. Danet B. The language of email. European Union Summer School, University of Rome, 2002. Available at: http://www.europhd.it/html/onda02/04/ss8/pdffiles/lectures/Danetemail.pdf (accessed December 21, 2024).
  8. Degaltseva A. V. Modern business correspondence. In: Milekhina T. A., Ratmayr R., ed. Corporate communication in Russia: Discursive analysis. (Studia Philologica). Moscow, LRC Publishing House, 2017, pp. 317–336 (in Russian).
  9. Dyachenko M. P. Institutional nature of business writing in the electronic environment. Modern Linguistic and Methodological-Didactic Research, 2023, no. 3 (59), pp. 74–86 (in Russian).
  10. Gaines J. E-mail – a new style of communication or just a new medium: A study of the features of the e-mail text. English for Specific Purposes, 1998, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 81–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0889-4906(97)00051-3
  11. Galichkina E. N. Computer communication: Linguistic status, sign means, genre space: monograph. Volgograd, Paradigm, 2012. 322 p. (in Russian).
  12. Gimenez J. C. Business e-mail communication: ome emerging tendencies in register. English for Specific Purposes, 2000, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 237–251. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(98)00030-1
  13. Gimenez J. C. The language of business e-mail: an opportunity to bridge theory and practice. Journal of the Slovene Association of LSP Teachers, 2005. Available at: http://www.sdutsj.edus.si/ScriptaManent/20051/Gimenez.html (accessed December 18, 2024).
  14. Goroshko E. I., Zhigalina E. A. Virtual genre studies: Established and controversial. Issues of Psycholinguistics, 2010, no. 12, pp. 105–123 (in Russian).
  15. Gumanitarnye issledovaniya v Internete. Pod red. A. E. Voiskunskogo. [Voiskunsky A. E., ed. Humanitarian research on the Internet]. Moscow, Terra-Mozhaisk, 2000. 432 p. (in Russian).
  16. Jimenez M. R. Variability of the register in electronic business correspondence. International Journal of English-Language Studies, 2011, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 15–34. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259705387_Register_Variation_in...
  17. Karasik V. I. Communicative tonality. Bulletin of the K. L. Khetagurov North Ossetian State University, 2008, no. 4, pp. 20–29 (in Russian).
  18. Karasik V. I. Communicative tonality. Zhanry rechi: sb. nauch. st. Vyp. 5 [Speech of Genres: Coll. sci. arts. Iss. 5]. Saratov, GosUNTs “Kolledzh”, 2007, pp. 81–94 (in Russian).
  19. Kontsevaya N. A. Genre of longrid: Sociolinguistic aspect. Speech of Genres, 2024, no. 19, iss. 4 (44), pp. 385–393 (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.18500/2311-0740-2024-19-4-44-385-393
  20. Korneeva M. G. Features of the implementation of some categories of text based on the material of an electronic business letter. Bulletin of the Volgograd State Pedagogical University, 2015, no. 5 (100), pp. 130–135 (in Russian).
  21. Korneeva M. G. Linguistic Components of the Genre of Electronic Business Writing (based on the English language). Thesis Diss. Cand. Sci. (Philol.). Moscow, 2016. 24 p. (in Russian).
  22. Kozheko A. V. Epistolary genres: Traditional and modern forms. Modern Problems of Science and Education, 2015, no. 2–3. Available at: https://science-education.ru/ru/article/view?id=23775 (in Russian).
  23. Kurilovich Yu. A. Linguistic specificity of ways of expressing a request in Russian and English business correspondence. Bulletin of the Moscow Institute of Linguistics, 2011, no. 1, pp. 50–63 (in Russian).
  24. Kuryanovich A. V. Electronic letter as a functional and stylistic variety of the epistolary genre in the space of modern communication. Bulletin of Tomsk State Pedagogical University, 2008, no. 2 (76), pp. 44–49 (in Russian).
  25. Kuryanovich A. V. On the ways and means of selfpresentation of the epistolary-media linguistic personality (based on the texts of open letters). Ecology of Language and Communicative Practice, 2017, no. 3 (10), pp. 87–94 (in Russian).
  26. Li L. Email: A Challenge to Standard English? English Today, 2000, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 23–29. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078400000511
  27. Lutovinova O. V. Lingvokul’turologicheskie kharakteristiki virtual’nogo diskursa: monografiya [Linguocultural characteristics of virtual discourse: Monograph]. Volgograd, Peremena, 2009. 477 p. (in Russian).
  28. Lutovinova O. V. Spam as one of the varieties of the electronic letter genre. Bulletin of Tambov University. Series : Humanities, 2008, no. 1 (57), pp. 189–194 (in Russian).
  29. Mikheeva Yu. A. Electronic business communication: Structural and compositional specifics. Bulletin of the Kemerovo State University, 2021, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 512–520 (in Russian).
  30. Nechaeva V. S. Semiotic aspects of electronic business writing. Bulletin of Moscow State Linguistic University, 2012, no. 652, pp. 166–173 (in Russian).
  31. Osiyanova O. M., Yudina A. O. Electronic business correspondence as a subject of linguistic analysis. In: World languages in the economy of the future: Collection of scientific works. Orenburg, Orenburg State University Publ., 2021, pp. 53–60 (in Russian).
  32. Paducheva E. V. Pragmatic aspects of dialogue coherence. Bulletin of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Series of Literature and Language, 1982, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 305–313 (in Russian).
  33. Romanova M. S. Genre specificity of electronic writing (based on the German language). Spiritual Sphere of Society, 2015, no. 12, pp. 158–161 (in Russian).
  34. Sevryuk K. O. Culture of business correspondence: Styles of politeness. Bulletin of the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, 2020, no. 4 (38), pp. 52–58 (in Russian).
  35. Shchipitsina L. Yu. Zhanry komp’yuterno-oposredovannoi kommunikatsii: monografiya [Genres of ComputerMediated Communication: Monograph]. Arkhangelsk, Pomor University Publ., 2009. 238 p. (in Russian).
  36. Stebletsova A. O. Electronic letter in the discourse of operational interaction: Features of modern business communication. Communicative Research, 2022, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 614–624 (in Russian).
  37. Veselov P. V. Aksiomy delovogo pis’ma: kul’tura delovogo obshcheniya i ofitsial’noi perepiski [Axioms of business writing: Culture of business communication and official correspondence]. Moscow, Inform.-implementation center “Marketing”, 1993. 78 p. (in Russian).
  38. Vishnyakova E. A. Electronic Letter as Part of a Network Text in English. Diss. Cand. Sci. (Philol.). Moscow, 2007. 180 p. (in Russian).
  39. Voiskunsky A. E. Internet research in psychology. In: Semenov I., ed. The Internet and Russian society. Moscow, Gandalf, 2002, pp. 235–250 (in Russian).
  40. Voiskunsky A. E. Psikhologiya i Internet [Psychology and the Internet]. Moscow, Akropolis, 2010. 439 p. (in Russian).
  41. Voiskunsky A. E. Psychological studies of human activity on the Internet. Information Society, 2005, no. 1, pp. 36–41 (in Russian).
Received: 
25.11.2024
Accepted: 
09.01.2025
Published: 
31.08.2026