The 45 Years’ Evolution of a Genre: Commodification of the University Textbook Prefaces in China

Abstract

This paper investigates diachronic changes of the university textbook prefaces in China over the past 45 years (from 1966 to 2010). Applying genre analysis, a discussion of generic structure potential, appraisal theory, as well as multimodal discourse analysis, this paper examines the changes in generic structure, the lexical-grammatical and paralinguistic features of the genre with a detailed analysis of 60 sample texts over three time periods namely 1966-1980, 1981-1995, and 1996-2010. The analysis reveals that the university textbook prefaces feature distinctive changes with the development of the times, pointing to the intertextual mix of academic discourse and promotional discourse, thus undergoing a process of commodification. It argues that the ideological influence of promotional culture, the powerful position of advertising discourse and fierce professional competition are the most conceivable contextual factors contributing to the commodification of the genre in question.