Descrivere, narrare, argomentare nel manuale d’istruzioni per l’uso

Abstract

Looking at the external and internal structure of the instructional manual we can distinguish blocks and sections, each of them with its particular characteristics, communicative purposes and consequent complexity and linguistic choices. Some sections aim at describing the machine and its features. Some sections are dedicated to the procedure to obtain the standard use of it. Then, there are sections presenting some non-standard uses of the machine. By means of some examples extracted from a corpus of Italian instruction manuals, we will focus on the different parts of the text trying to underline how description, narration and argumentation are involved and used to serve the more general communicative purposes of exhortation and instruction.