Authors

The category-based textual approach is utilized to describe the linguistic aspects of the English patent. The methodology is as follows: 1) identifying the author’s communicative intention; 2) taking into consideration the communicative function of the text resulting from the author’s communicative intention; 3) describing multilevel linguistic means used to convey the function and express the textual categories. The patent text is considered to be a product of the author’s intention finding its manifestation in the text function and the respective selection of content- and composition-related means of expressing the textual categories of theme, tonality, and composition being relevant for analyzing patents. As a structural category, the composition has the text-building role while the informative and appellative functions are typical of the compositional parts of patents. The theme of the patent is formed through the use of multi-component terminological collocations, with their syntagmatics being the result of the informative function. The subfields of tonality manifest themselves through the use of Present Simple and reference phrases in statements as well as non-categorical and neutral tones, with officialese words being typical. The compositional part Background has the appellative function resulting from the author’s intention to convey to the recipient the idea of the invention’s practical value and manifesting itself in the specific structure of the tonality where the emotionality subfield is expressed as an antithesis through the use of qualitative lexical units as well as metaphors which is not typical of other patent parts conveying primarily the informative function. The category-based textual approach to patents is deemed to provide systemic insights into the linguistic aspects thereof.