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English for Specific Purposes 27 (2008) 161–174

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SPECIFICPURPOSES

Genre analysis, ESP and professional practice

Vijay K. Bhatia

Department of English and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Abstract

Studies of professional genres and professional practices are invariably seen as complementingeach other, in that they not only influence each other but are often co-constructed in specific profes-sional contexts. However, professional genres have often been analyzed in isolation, leaving thestudy of professional practice almost completely out, except as providing context for specific anal-yses, thus undermining the role of interdiscursivity in professional genres and practices. Drawingexamples from a range of professional contexts, in particular from business and international arbi-tration practice, this paper argues for a shift towards an integration of discursive and professionalpractices, thus emphasizing the function of interdiscursivity in critical genre analysis.� 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The American University.

1. Introduction

One of the major criticisms of teaching English for Specific (Professional) Purposes hasbeen that although students, when placed in professional settings, can handle textual fea-tures of some of the professional genres, they are still unaware of the discursive realities ofthe professional world. The blame, in my view, does not rest with the learners but with theteachers and discourse/genre analysts who treat professional genres as simply textual arti-facts (Bhatia, 1993, 1994; Swales, 1990). Although it is true that much of genre analysis,especially in the British tradition, is undertaken within the general background of ‘contex-tual factors’ emerging from relevant professional practices and cultures, these professionalpractices have never been taken seriously enough. More recently, however, some analystsseem to be taking a more serious view of what might be regarded as text-external factors,

0889-4906/$34.00 � 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The American University.

doi:10.1016/j.esp.2007.07.005

E-mail address: enbhatia@cityu.edu.hk

162 V.K. Bhatia / English for Specific Purposes 27 (2008) 161–174

leading to an integration of discursive and professional practices of the professions, oftencomplementing each other (Bargiela-Chiappini & Nickerson, 1999; Bazerman & Paradis,1991; Bhatia, 2004; Freedman & Medway, 1994; Russell, 1997; Smart, 1998; Swales, 1998).On the part of the disciplinary specialists (professionals in the workplace), this develop-ment is encouraging them to look at their professional and organizational practices fromthe point of view of language use, thus bridging the gap between the analysis of disciplin-ary discourses and discourse-based investigations of organizational, institutional andother professional practices (Alvesson & Karreman, 2000; Boje, Oswick, & Ford, 2004;Philips, Lawrence, & Hardy, 2004). Alvesson and Karreman (2000) rightly point out.

One of the most profound contemporary trends within the social sciences is theincreased interest in and focus on language. In disciplines closely related to organi-zational theory, such as sociology, social psychology, communication theory, andcultural anthropology, researchers rethink and reclaim their various subjects fromtextual and linguistic points of view. Despite diverse backgrounds, these scholarsexpress a shared message. They suggest that the proper understanding of societies,social institutions, identities, and even cultures may be viewed as discursively con-structed ensembles of texts.

In this paper, I would like to argue for a more integrated analytical perspective on pro-fessional genres in order to have an evidence-based view of the knowledge producing andknowledge disseminating practices of the professions. Drawing on a number of differentprofessional contexts, in particular from business and law, especially international arbitra-tion practice, this paper will argue for a more comprehensive and serious look at ‘interdis-cursivity’ which can be viewed as appropriation of semiotic resources across genres,professional practices and disciplinary cultures.

The paper will also illustrate the use of a multi-perspective and multidimensional crit-ical genre analytical framework by reporting from two ongoing studies. The first studyfocuses on corporate disclosure practices in Hong Kong, claiming that in order to havea good understanding of corporate disclosure documents, one needs to go beyond theestablished discursive practices of the professional cultures to take into account a numberof text-external resources, including other institutional voices that form part of the widerprofessional practice within which these discourses are invariably grounded. The studyclaims that in order to develop a comprehensive and evidence-based awareness of themotives of such disciplinary and professional practices, one needs to look closely at themultiple discourses, actions and voices, both text-internal as well as text-external, that playa significant role in the formation of specific discursive practices (Fairclough, 1992) withinthe institutional and organizational settings (Swales, 1998), in addition to the systems ofgenres (Bazerman, 1994) often used to fulfill the professional objectives of specific disci-plinary or discourse communities. The study emphasizes the need to go from text to con-text in order to undertake a comprehensive and critical view of discursive practices.

The second study, in an attempt to have a comprehensive and critical view of profes-sional practice, focuses on international commercial arbitration practice, through the dis-courses it employs to achieve its objectives. Both these studies, though on-going at thisstage, support the claim for an integrated analytical perspective on discursive and profes-sional practices in typical professional cultures. However, before we go to these studies, Iwould like to take up an interesting law case to underpin the importance of text-externalfactors in the construction and interpretation of language use in professional contexts.

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1.1. Text-external constraints on interpretation in legislative genres

It is important to note that different professional discourses have their own specificcharacteristics that constrain their use and interpretation. For instance, although legisla-tive discourse has been considered notorious for its tortuous syntactic complexities (Bha-tia, 1982), its interpretation depends largely on its application to relevant descriptions ofcases, which provide specific ‘sites of engagement’ (Scollon, 1998). Every time a legislativetext is interpreted in the context of a particular case description, it assumes a potentiallydifferent interpretation. Clarity, precision, and unambiguity, though important in legaldiscourse, may not always be so crucial at a ‘critical moment of interaction’ (Scollon,1998). Legislative writing, in this sense, becomes highly intertextual and interdiscursive,requiring socio-pragmatic considerations (Bhatia, 2004) based on the facts of a particularcase for its interpretation. As illustration, I would like to consider a recent law casedecided by the Supreme Court of India, i.e. Lohia v. Lohia (2002) AIR SCW 898 (India)(see Appendix 1 for the material facts and the arguments of the case).

The case brings into focus section 10 of Arbitration and Conciliation Ordinance ofIndia, which states:

Article 10 –

(1) The parties are free to determine the number of arbitrators, provided that such number

shall not be an even number;

So far as the lexico-grammatical meaning is concerned, there appears to be no scope forambiguity. It clearly establishes the free will of the parties to agree on any number of arbi-trators, provided this number is not an even number. However, as the case descriptionpoints out, the parties agreed to have only two arbitrators. The question then was whetherthis agreement was contrary to the provision of Article 10. Linguistic evidence clearlysuggests that this agreement contravened the provision in Article 10. However, whenone considers text-external factors, this interpretation is not really that simple andstraightforward. The Supreme Court decided that the agreement to have two arbitratorsdid not amount to contravention of Article 10. Since the case arose as a result of arbitra-tion, which has its basis in the agreement between the two disputing parties, the interpre-tation must seek its validity from conventions of arbitration practice, which brings intoplay a number of other relevant factors (including the basic assumptions, aim and objec-tives of arbitration, expectations, and bases of arbitration process, etc.) that allow one toassign a somewhat different interpretation to the same provision in this context. Let megive more substance to this.

Arbitration is meant to provide an economic, expeditious, and informal remedy for thesettlement of commercial disputes, thus legitimizing autonomy and free will of the partiescaptured in mutual agreement as basis for arbitration. That is the main reason why thejudge in this case highlights ‘arbitration as the creature of agreement’. To emphasize thisaspect of party autonomy, the arbitration rules give unprecedented freedom to parties tochoose arbitration procedures. It is obvious that the spirit of arbitration lies within thearbitration agreement, which in turn represents the free will of the parties to settle com-mercial disputes through arbitration rather than litigation. However, it is also typical ofhuman nature that when faced with arbitration award against one’s interest the affectedparties do not hesitate to go for litigation, which seems to be the situation in this case.The parties initially agreed to go for arbitration by two arbitrators but when the awardwent against their expectation they decided to opt for litigation on the grounds that the

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constitution of the arbitration commission did not accord with Article 10. The SupremeCourt rejected the claim and upheld that the two-member arbitration commission was stilllegal and valid, notwithstanding the mandatory requirement in Article 10 that the numberof arbitrators be odd and not even. Here the interpretation of the judge is clearly not basedon a simple reading of the text but takes into account the other intertextual as well as inter-discursive information, assumptions and conventions.

In fact, the interpretation of the court highlights an important tension between twolegal documents, Article 10 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Ordinance of India andthe arbitration agreement. A possible explanation is that the two parties had full freedomto appoint a mutually agreed number of arbitrators at the time of the constitution of thearbitration commission. At that point, Article 10 was the determining force, and any vio-lation of this provision would have made such a constitution of the arbitration commis-sion null and void. However, their failure to object to such an arrangement within thegiven period of time implied that they had accepted such a commission. In short, they weretaken to have waived their right to object to such appointment. However, when the partiesdid not find the award to their liking and decided to go for litigation, this was interpretedby the judge as going against the spirit of arbitration, which clearly considers ‘arbitrationas a creature of agreement’. Here one can see that after the arbitration process is complete,agreement becomes a more dominant force rather than the requirements of the arbitrationlaw. So, in spite of the fact that the case seems to rest on a violation of an interpretationbased on a strict reading of the text of Article 10, the judge goes beyond such a purely lin-guistic interpretation. He takes into account what I am referring to here as socio-prag-matic factors, such as the tension existing between the agreement between the partiesand the arbitration law, and the underlying assumptions, aim and objectives and the spiritof arbitration practice, in order to rule against the purely textual interpretation of Article10. The discussion supports the view that legal action does not always depend on seman-tically accurate interpretations, but also on appropriate socio-pragmatic interpretations.

The above case underpins the importance of text-external information, particularly theconventions that make a particular genre possible, as well as a specific professional prac-tice, and perhaps more appropriately, the specific disciplinary culture that motivates thesepractices, both discursive as well as professional. A comprehensive analysis of any profes-sional genre therefore must consider and perhaps integrate these text-internal as wellas text-external aspects of language use, which I have made an attempt to represent inDiagram 1. Any theory or framework that chooses to underemphasize any of these fouraspects of language use is likely to miss input which can be of potential value to a good

Diagram 1. Language use in professional contexts.

Appropriation of Generic Resources

Critical Analysisof Professional Practices

Interdiscursivity

Critical Analysisof Professional Genres

Demystifying CorporateDisclosure Documents

Colonization of Arbitration Practices

Diagram 2. Interdiscursivity in professional contexts.

V.K. Bhatia / English for Specific Purposes 27 (2008) 161–174 165

understanding of a specific genre used as part of the professional activity to achieve a spe-cific disciplinary objective.

Textual as well as other semiotic resources and conventions at these four levels of dis-cursive as well as professional activities are often appropriated and exploited for the con-struction and interpretation of discursive as well as disciplinary practices, thus establishinginteresting interactive patterns of interdiscursivity (Bakhtin, 1986; Candlin & Maley, 1997;Fairclough, 1995; Foucault, 1981; Kristeva, 1980). Interdiscursivity in this context can beviewed as appropriation of semiotic resources (which may include textual, semantic, socio-pragmatic, generic, and professional) across any two or more of these four levels, espe-cially those of genre and professional practice.

The main argument of the paper rests on the claim that in order to develop a compre-hensive and evidence-based awareness of the motives and intentions of disciplinary andprofessional practices (Swales, 1998), one needs to look closely at the multiple discourses,actions, and voices that play a significant role in the formation of specific discursive prac-tices within the institutional and organizational context, in addition to the conventionalsystems of genres (Bazerman, 1994) often used to fulfill the professional objectives of spe-cific disciplinary or discourse communities. This view is possible within the notion of‘interdiscursivity’, which is an important function of appropriation of text-external genericresources across professional genres and professional practices. I would now like to takeup two specific instances of interdiscursivity, one resulting from an appropriation of gen-eric resources across two different professional genres, and the other across two differentprofessional practices, Diagram 2 captures this.

2. Demystifying corporate disclosure documents1

The first study is based on an on-going research project on the study of corporate dis-closure practices. The inspiration for this work came from the collapse of Enron in 2001just after posting excellent annual results. The following are some of claims that weremade in the 2001 annual report.

1 The work described in this part of the paper was supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council ofthe Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China [Project No. 9041056 (CityU 1454/05H)].

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� Enron’s performance in 2000 was a success by any measure. . .� We continued to outdistance the competition and solidify our leadership. . .� In our largest business, we experienced an enormous increase of 59%. . .� Our newest business. . . significantly accelerated transaction activity. . .� Our oldest business. . .registered increased earnings. . .� The company’s net income reached a record $1.3 billion in 2000. . .� Enron has built unique and strong businesses that have tremendous opportunities for

growth. . .� Our size, experience and skills give us enormous competitive advantages. . .

Based on some of these reported ‘facts’, the corporation further claimed that:

� Enron is in a unique position to provide the products and services. . .� Enron is laser-focused on earnings per share, and we expect to continue strong earnings

performance. . .

Enron went on to emphasize that they had,

� Robust networks of strategic assets. . .� Unparalleled liquidity and market-making abilities. . .� Risk management skills. . .� Innovative technology to deliver products and services at the lowest cost.

It is interesting to note that Enron, one of the biggest US corporations with reportedrevenues of US $101 billion in 2000, filed for bankruptcy in less than a year. Its share valuewent down from US $81 to just 40 cents in less than a year. It is even more intriguing tofind that the company was selling shares to its own employees just days before it filed forbankruptcy, which makes one wonder to what extent the shareholders and other stake-holders were aware of the real economic health of the company. This unexpected collapseof a giant raised a number of crucial issues relevant to several areas of business and finan-cial sectors, some of which include corporate accounting, banking and investment, busi-ness law, financial accounting, financial gap analysis, bankruptcies etc. and severalstudies have since been undertaken to address some of the issues involved in such corpo-rate failures. However, this incident also raised a serious concern for those interested incritical genre analysis and corporate communication who would like to investigate theuse and abuse of linguistic and rhetorical strategies often employed in corporate disclosuredocuments and practices. A study such as this would require not only the textual analysisof corporate annual reports but also a more multiperspective and multidimensional anal-ysis of other intertextual materials, such as earnings and results announcements, pressreleases, shareholder circulars, notes from general meetings, and a range of other corpo-rate communications, in addition to financial review articles in newspapers and magazinesby outside financial experts. Over and above this, one may need to take into account theinterdiscursive relations between these corporate disclosure documents and the typical cor-porate disclosure practices of which some of these corporate disclosure genres form aninteresting part.

My study of corporate disclosure documents based on 15 Hong Kong Stock Exchangelisted companies revealed a number of interesting aspects of these documents of which I

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would like to take only one at this stage. The study showed that one of the legallyrequired modes of disclosure, that is, the annual report, is a typical combination oftwo interesting kinds of discourses included in the same document, both of which, partlybecause of the interdiscursive relations between them and partly through the expert use ofspecific lexico-syntactic as well as socio-pragmatic resources, are cleverly exploited to‘bend’ the norms and conventions of ‘reporting’ to promote a positive image of the cor-poration, even in adverse and challenging economic circumstances. The corporationsthrough these annual reports manage to negotiate the tension between the need to under-play the relatively weak past corporate performance and to project the expectations ofgood performance (speculation about the future outlook), especially in contexts whenuncertainties about future economic and corporate growth and performance threatengood prospects in the coming years (for more details see Bhatia, forthcoming). Thetwo kinds of discourses are

� Accounting discourse, which forms a major part of the Annual Reports, duly endorsed,certified by public accountants.� Public relation discourse, in the form of the chairman’s letter to shareholders, for which

public accounting firms do not take any responsibility.

As Kohut and Segars (1992), in their discussion of corporate annual reports, point out:

While financial portions such as the income statement, balance sheet, and changes infinancial position are subject to the scrutiny of the firm’s auditors, the narrative por-tions of the document are a direct consequence of corporate communication deci-sions. The president’s letter should. . .be viewed as downward communication tothe firm’s shareholders outlining past operating results and identifying new areasof potential corporate growth and profitability.. . .

In the present study, we discovered two very different kinds of discourses embedded inthe same document, that is, the annual report. To take just one example from the CathayPacific Airways Limited 2002 Annual Report, we find the following two very differentforms of discourse making claims about past and future performance. Here is a sectionfrom the financial review section:

2002 was a good year for cargo, both in terms of revenue and freight tonnage car-ried. Growth was driven by demand for Hong Kong exports to Europe and the Uni-ted States. Brussels, Manchester and Milan were added to our freighter network.Cargo revenue contributed 28.4% to Group turnover. . .Passenger services turnover increased by 8.7% to HK $22,376 million primarily dueto higher passenger numbers. The number of passengers carried increased by 9.3%to 12.3 million. . .First and business class revenues increased by 8.1% and the front end load factorincreased from 52.6% to 58.9%. Economy class revenue rose by 9.0% and the econ-omy class load factor increased from 75.6% to 81.8%.(Cathay Pacific Airways Limited Annual Report 2002)

In this instance discourse claims are based on financial data. The use of numbers is asignificant resource for making claims here. However, in the same report in the Chair-man’s letter we also find claims made about the future in a very different way.

168 V.K. Bhatia / English for Specific Purposes 27 (2008) 161–174

In 2002 the Group recorded one of its most profitable years. This was an outstanding

achievement given that the aviation industry was still suffering from the turmoil of 2001.In considering the outlook for the coming year we are conscious of the fact that itwill be hard to repeat the performance of 2002 in the context of the current global

political and economic uncertainties. Nevertheless we have every confidence in our longterm future and in our ability to excel in an increasingly competitive marketplace.(Cathay Pacific Airways Limited Annual Report 2002, emphasis added)

The first set of texts is a typical instance of accounting genre, whereas the second one isa typical example of a public relations genre. However, due to the fact that both of thesegenres were textually placed in the same text, we wanted to investigate to what extent thetwo were based on the same set of financial data. When a senior public relations managerwas asked about the role of the chairman’s letter in an annual report, she pointed out:

. . .the Chairman’s Statement in a company report (is) the PR’s job. . .At times whenprofit is not so good, her role as a PR manager is to manage the sentiments of thepublic and the shareholders so as not to make any dramatic share price movement.This involves management of tone and manner of writing the reports as well as meet-ing the expectations of the Management.

On the other hand, a senior public accountant indicated:

The accountant’s job is to note any inconsistency in the company reports and. . .to gothrough the banking mechanism of the management... Accountants are not respon-sible for the forecasting of the company’s future.

These two genres thus tend to serve two very different purposes: the accounting discoursetends to report accurately and factually on the basis of financial evidence the past corporateperformance, whereas the chairman’s letter is meant to promote a positive image of the com-pany to its shareholders and other stakeholders in order to sustain their confidence in thefuture corporate performance. Both these genres are products of two very different corpo-rate practices: one is a typical response to the conventional and legally required practiceof auditing corporate results, and the other is an instance of marketing and public relationspractice. They also use very different textual resources and rhetorical strategies: one usesnumerical data in line with audit and accountancy practices, whereas the other makes useof promotional as well as forecasting rhetoric. However, it is interesting to note that thetwo genres are strategically placed in the same document, that is, the annual report, thusestablishing an interesting interdiscursive relationship between these two different corporategenres. The main intention for placing the two genres within the boundaries of the same cor-porate annual report is that such textual proximity is likely to lend the marketing and publicrelations genre the same factual reliability and hence credibility that is often presupposedfrom the use of numerical data. The public relations genre, on its own, is likely to be viewedby the intended audience of (minority) shareholders as a promotional effort but when it isplaced in the discoursal proximity of an accounting discourse, which is often viewed as moreevidence-based, factual and therefore reliable, it is likely to raise a legitimate presuppositionthat it may be drawing its conclusions from the accounting numbers which are certified by apublic authority accepted by the controlling government agencies. Many of the minorityshareholders, whose numbers have increased considerably in recent years, often lack exper-tise and even linguistic skills to fully understand the implications of the accounting genre in

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the annual report, but when they see the chairman’s letter to shareholders in the same report,which is ‘assumed’ to be based on the accounting data, they are likely to take at least some ofthe predictions and speculative statements in the letter rather more seriously than otherwise.

This rather brief account of corporate disclosure practices clearly underpins the impor-tance of corporate practices in the study of corporate genres. A purely textual or discour-sal study of lexico-grammatical, semantico-pragmatic, and discourse organization isunlikely to reveal the intricacies of the construction, interpretation, use and especiallyexploitation of these corporate genres in achieving their corporate objectives within therequirements of disclosure practices imposed by corporate governance bodies and ratingagencies. In order to fully appreciate and understand the implications of one of the keyquestions in the analysis of professional discourse, that is, ‘why do these professionalsuse the language the way they do?’ one needs to integrate the analysis of professional gen-res with professional practices and cultures.

Having looked at interdiscursivity as a function of the relationship between genres andprofessional practice, I would like to go to yet another aspect of interdiscursivity, that is,the interrelationship between two rather different professional practices.

3. Critical study of colonization of arbitration practices2

Arbitration, as discussed earlier in the paper, is intended to be an efficient, economicaland effective alternative to litigation for settling disputes, almost entirely based on the freewill of the parties. In actual practice, however, parties do not hesitate to go for litigationwhen the outcome does not favour them. To better protect their interests, the parties oftenhave recourse to legal experts rather than non-legal experts as arbitrators, which has theeffect of making arbitration similar to litigation, often encouraging the importation of typ-ical litigation processes and procedures into arbitration practices. This leads to an increas-ing mixture of discourses as arbitration becomes, as it were, ‘colonized’ by litigationpractices, threatening the integrity of arbitration practice to resolve disputes outside ofthe courts, and thus going contrary to the spirit of arbitration as a non-legal practice.Nariman (2000), a distinguished international scholar in International Commercial Arbi-tration, rightly claims that International Commercial Arbitration has become almostindistinguishable from litigation, which it was at one time intended to supplant. Commer-cial arbitration practice thus provides an excellent context for the study of interdiscursivitywhere two rather different professional practices, litigation and arbitration, each one well-established in its own right, interact with each other, creating a perfect environment for the‘colonization’ of one practice by the other. Although interdiscursivity in this context is notdirectly the result of interaction between two genres, more interestingly, it is between twodifferent professional practices, that is, litigation and arbitration, where one seeks toundermine the ‘integrity’ of the other.

In order to investigate the integrity3 (Bhatia, 2004:112) of international arbitrationpractices, it is not enough to look at language in use as either text, or even as genre,

2 The work described in this part of the paper was supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council ofthe Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China [Project No. 9041191 (CityU 1501/06H)].

3 Integrity of genre and also of any professional practice is a function of a set of mutually accessible conventionswhich most members of a professional community share and hence gives the genre or practice a recognizablecharacter. See (Bhatia, (2004:115)) for details.

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but one may need to go beyond these to language use as professional practice. In partic-ular, one needs to determine the extent to which arbitration discourses interdiscursively‘appropriate’ generic forms and conventions from litigation, particularly in terms of theintentions, purposes, processes, procedures, and the shared expertise expected on the partof the participants involved. Most of these factors can be studied on the basis of the dis-courses employed by the participants, in addition to other sets of complementary textual,narrative, and discourse data.

To provide an evidence-based exploration of the integrity of arbitration practice there-fore, one may need to adopt a multi-perspective and multidimensional analytical frame-work (Bhatia, 2004). This will involve an integration of three data sets: an examinationof the intertextual relationships amongst documents recording discursive practices typi-cally selected from arbitration and litigation practices; narratives of experience drawnfrom key practitioners within these institutional cultures and tested against the experiencesof other community members; and selective analyses of critical moments in the discoursesof arbitration practices in specific sites of engagement.

This kind of study is consistent with what Goffman (1959) suggests through his theatri-cal metaphor of front-stage interactions, which include primary interactional data (i.e.,participant interactions, wherever possible) from the actual proceedings of arbitrationpractice and written documents such as arbitration awards and cases, as well as back-stage

interactions which may include, colleague–colleague discussions, preparation notes,impressions and views informally expressed, through interviews, and focus groups. Ofcourse, these ‘stages’ are not always clear-cut; their boundaries can be frequently blurred.However, it is possible to take advantage of such blurring by reflexively seeking confirma-tions of the communicative characteristics of critical moments in the arbitration process bytesting practitioner hypotheses against other practitioners’ experiences and against theactualities of interaction in key sites. This corroborating reflexivity becomes crucial asone investigates the contested degree to which, in given arbitration contexts and sites,interdiscursivities between the arbitrational and the litigational become manifest and ori-ented to by the participants. In analyzing such areas of interdiscursivity, although the evi-dence comes from the use of language and discourse, the focus is on the study ofarbitration practice, in particular on the extent to which arbitration practice is influencedby what is popularly known as litigation practice4.

4. Conclusions

In this paper, I have argued for a multiperspective and multidimensional approach tocritical genre analysis, which integrates the analysis of discursive and professional or dis-ciplinary practices in the context of specific professional or disciplinary cultures. In doingso, I have made an attempt to highlight the nature, function and importance of interdis-cursivity in the analysis of professional discourses. Taking interdiscursivity in genre theoryas one of the significant functions of appropriation of generic and other semiotic resourcesacross various dimensions of genres, professional practice, and professional culture, I havesuggested that conventional text-based approaches to genre analysis need to develop fur-

4 Although it is too early to show any conclusive results from analysis at this stage as the project is in its earlyphase, the indications are positive about the approach and the concept used.

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ther in the direction of contextualization (Bhatia, 2004), underpinning the crucial role oftext-external factors not only for the construction of professional discourses, but also forthe eventual success of professional activities typically undertaken by professionals toachieve their professional objectives.

By focusing on critical moments of interaction within specific sites of professionalengagement, I have brought into focus the key role of disciplinary, institutional, organiza-tional or professional practices of specialist communities in the study of the discursivepractices of established members of specific professional cultures. The argument alsounderpins the complex nature of discourse in the world of professions, a complexity thatrequires, for its analysis, a greater integration of text-internal and text-external factors thatinfluence and contribute to the construction, interpretation and exploitation of genres onthe part of professionals to achieve their objectives in a variety of specific contexts. To ade-quately account for most of these factors one may require an equally complex anddynamic multiperspective and multidimensional analytical framework which can encour-age much greater integration of analytical tools from various disciplines and frameworks.Bhatia (2004) suggests a three-space model of discourse analysis, consisting of a textual,socio-pragmatic, and social space that integrates a number of different perspectives ongenre analysis, which include not only textual, cognitive, socio-critical, and institutional,but ethnographic perspectives as well.

Employed together, these perspectives would in various ways contribute to our under-standing of professional discourse not only as text and genre but, more importantly, alsoas professional practice within the broader context of institutional, professional, organiza-tional and disciplinary cultures (Diagram 3).

Finally, this view of professional discourse that would account for and, to a largedegree, integrate professional discourse and professional practice into a single analyticalframework, has the capacity to bridge the gap between the ideal world of classroomand the real world of professional practice. The notion of interdiscursivity suggestedand developed here also helps analysts and ESP practitioners to handle pure as well ashybrid genres (Bhatia, 1995, 1997, 2004) in addition to encouraging them to understand

Socio-critical Perspective

Ethnographic Perspective

CognitivePerspective

InstitutionalPerspective Textual Perspective

DiscourseStructures

Lexico-grammar

InterdiscursivityIntertextuality

Diagram 3. Perspectives on discourse.

DISCURSIVE PRACTICE

PROFESSIONALPRACTICE

Interdiscursivity

in Professional Discourse

Diagram 4. Interdiscursivity in professional discourse.

172 V.K. Bhatia / English for Specific Purposes 27 (2008) 161–174

disciplinary conflicts in professional genres and generic conflicts across disciplines (Bhatia,1998, 2004). The paper thus argues for a comprehensive and effective analysis of profes-sional discourses through an understanding of both the discursive as well as professionalpractices in an attempt to develop a discursive model of professional practice that high-lights the relationship between discourse and professional practice through the study ofthe construction, interpretation, and consumption of professional discourses and genreswithin a socio-pragmatic space, as summed up in Diagram 4.

Appendix 1. 2002 AIR SCW 898 (Lohia v. Lohia)

Appellant: Narayan Prasad Lohia Respondent: Nikunj K Lohia.The appellant and the respondents are family members, who had disputes and

differences in respect of family business and properties. All the parties agreed to resolvetheir disputes through one Mr. Khaitan. Subsequently they agreed that Mr. Khaitanand one Mr. Jain resolve their disputes. For the purpose of this appeal, the judgespresumed that the parties had agreed to the arbitration of these two persons.. . . Theparties made their claims before these two persons, and all the parties participatedin the proceedings. On 6th of October 1996 an award came to be passed by the twopersons.

On 22nd December 1997 the first respondent filed an application in the Calcutta HighCourt for setting aside this award. Later on the second respondent also filed an applicationfor setting aside this award. One of the grounds, in both these applications was that theArbitration was by two Arbitrators whereas under the Arbitration and ConciliationAct, 1996 there cannot be an even number of Arbitrators. It was contended that arbitra-tion by two arbitrators was against the statutory provision of the said Act, and thereforevoid and invalid. These contentions found favour with a single Judge of the Calcutta HighCourt, who set aside the award on 17th November 1998. On the 18th May 2000 theAppeal was also dismissed. Hence this Appeal to this Court.

Mr. Veugopal, the counsel for the respondents, submits that section 10 is a mandatoryprovision which cannot be derogated. He points out that even though the parties are freeto determine the number of arbitrators, such number cannot be an even number. Anyagreement which permits the parties to appoint an even number of arbitrators would becontrary to this mandatory provision. He submits that such an agreement would be invalidand void as the Arbitral Tribunal would not have been validly constituted. He submits

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that composition of the arbitral tribunal itself being invalid, the proceedings and theaward, even if one be passed, would be invalid and unenforceable.

On the other hand, Mr. Dwivedi, the counsel for the appellant, submits that Sections 4,10, and 16 are part of the integrated scheme provided in the said act. . .the provisions haveto be read in a manner whereby there is no conflict between any of them. . . He submitsthat undoubtedly Section 10 provides that there should not be an even number of arbitra-tors. He points out that Section 10 starts with words. ‘‘The parties are free to determinethe number of arbitrators’’.

He submits that arbitration is a matter of agreement between the parties. He submitsthat generally, in arbitration, the parties are free to determine the number of arbitratorsand the procedure. Parties could agree upon an even number of arbitrators. He submitsthat even after a party has agreed to an even number of arbitrators he can still objectto the composition of the arbitral tribunal. He submits that such objection must be takenbefore the arbitral tribunal no later than the date of the submission of the statement ofdefence. . .

We have heard the parties at length. . . Undoubtedly, Section 10 provides that the num-ber of arbitrators shall not be an even number. The question still remains whether Section10 is a non-derogable provision. In our view the answer to this question would depend onquestion as to whether, under the said Act, a party has a right to object to the compositionof the arbitral tribunal, if such composition is not in accordance with the said Act and if soat what stage. It must be remembered that arbitration is a creature of an agreement. Therecan be no arbitration unless there is an arbitration agreement in writing between theparties.

In the said Act, provisions have been made in Sections 12, 13 and 16 for challenging thecompetence, impartiality and jurisdiction. Such challenges must however be before thearbitral tribunal itself. . . A party is free not to object within the time prescribed in section16(2). If a party chooses not to so object there will be a deemed waiver under section 4. Thuswe are unable to accept the submission that Section 10 is a non-derogable provision. In ourview Section 10 has to be read along with Section 16 and is, therefore, derogable provision.

Respondent 1 and 2 not having raised any objection to the composition of the arbitraltribunal, as provided in Section 16, they must be deemed to have waived their right toobject.

For the reasons aforesaid, the Judgments of the learned Judge and the Division Benchon the question of law discussed cannot be sustained. They are accordingly set aside.

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