Open Access

Ludwig M. Eichinger

• The focus on communication in research on professional and scientific language somehow reflects the intention of John L. Austin's phrase "How to do things with words?" But a description based on the concept of communication ultimately also relies on linguistic idiosyncrasies. We will look at things the other way round and ask first "how to do (professional) things" and then look at the linguistic units used specifically for this purpose. Professionalism in this view takes very different forms for different types of actions ("practices"). Although reliability and professional authority are central features of all linguistic realizations to be considered, they are represented in very different ways. As a result, professionalism not only shows in the high degree of explicitness of technical prose typical for written scientific discussion. It is also reflected in the high degree of implicitness of speech that accompanies and constitutes practical action.