The building: the problem-solving product of the construction discipline

The Problem-Solution pattern has been widely considered a key discourse-organizing resource in technical discourse (Hoey, 1983, 2001). This paper aims at exploring the role of the pattern in a corpus of construction engineering textbooks. The paper contends that use of the pattern facilitates the introduction of specialized knowledge, scaffolded by means of lexical resources which allow the reader to recognize and interpret the staging of the pattern. The analysis centers on the building, as it is the main product and the process of the construction profession, and more particularly on how disciplinary discourse is constructed around the problems that affect the building. Findings show that the textual use of the Problem-Solution pattern is closely connected to the pragmatic problem-solving nature of the engineering discipline. The social dimension of this discipline is textualized in their concern to analyze the cause and the effect of the building problems for which adequate solutions should be provided. Drawing on the perspective of applied discourse analysis (Bhatia, 2004), the paper finally discusses the textual use of the lexico-grammatical, semantic and rhetorical resources of the pattern in the light of the specific professional culture and disciplinary community practices in which the text is produced.