Genre & Lexis

Genres and lexis are key components of communication within a discourse community, but what exactly are they, and how do we use them? According to Writing at Saint Leo, genre can be broken down into two parts, old and new. Old genre is defined as a categorization of content based on style, tone, and format. Many hear the word genre and only think of that definition, when trying to categorize their favorite movies or books. But most don’t even know the new definition of genre which is commonly used within discourse communities. Genre within a discourse community can be defined as a typified response to a recurring situation. An example of this form of genre that the authors used, would be receipts when buying goods in a grocery store. The receipt is expected of the customer and the cashier, and it is the response to the recurring situation of a transaction. Genre is used within discourse communities to share ideas and goals and create a common form of communication. One personal experience with using genre within my discourse community would be my payroll checks or direct deposit, at my job at Chick-Fil-A. There are many other components that make this job a discourse community, and the repeating payroll is one of them, making up the genre part. Lexis is defined as terminology that is specific to a particular field and is mainly used by certain discourse communities that allows for more proper and efficient interpersonal communication. Lexis can consist of certain types of language that only members within the community understand, and the author of this article mentions how lexis and jargon go together. At my discourse community job, Chick-Fil-A, our “language” that we used with one another was very important in the communication aspect. We would communicate words and phrases that many outside would not understand. One of the few would be saying ‘heard’ whenever instructions were given to indicate that we heard them say that, or saying ‘down a fryer’ or ‘dropping cfa’s’ when we were either down one of our french fry fryers, or having to put more filet’s out to cook. There were crucial phrases to help make sure that everyone around was communicating what was going on to help ensure the business was running more smoothly. Genre and lexis are key components when working within a discourse community because they are the main elements of the communication aspect, which are vital in ensuring that the community runs properly.