DESCRIPTION CRITERIA OF ANIMALS IN THE GERMAN ZOO GUIDES (FREQUNCY ANALYSIS)

Abstract

The article examines description criteria of animals after strategy of theme development for the genre “zoo guide” (object of analysis are German zoo guides of the Berlin 1889, Leipzig 1883 and Vienna 1875 zoos). The reasons for necessity and relevance of empirical studies in the text linguistics are given, especially for poorly researched genres as zoo guides. The structure of the text is the result of the theme development: depending on the principle of information presentation and the imposition of various structural-thematic elements the coherent text can be formed. The main text of zoo guides has descriptive strategy of theme development and includes the description of animals according to the certain criteria, which has different frequency of use in the zoo guides studied. The main criteria are appearance, distribution, way of life, adaptability, food, reproduction, extension status (rarity) of the species. The criteria appearance and distribution are obligatory almost for all species, they are left out only for indigenous or well-known species. The Vienna’s zoo guide has the most detailed description and the highest indicators of the criteria of the animal life outside the zoo. The Berlin’s zoo guide contains the greatest number of species, uses elliptical sentences and points out the patrons of the zoo.