Adapting Specialized Variety from the Perspective of Linguistics of Varieties:Theoretical and Categorial Foundations of Specialization and Popularization

Abstract

This article examines the adaptation of specialized variation as a linguistic process that transforms scientific or technical texts into versions understandable to non-expert users. Its main objective is to clarify the concepts surrounding this variation and to explain their taxonomic and functional relationships within the framework of variation linguistics. Among the central questions, it seeks to determine which factors condition adaptation, how popularization, clear communication, and plain language are interrelated, and how adaptation can be explained as a communicative and transtextual process. The study integrates the theoretical models of Jakobson (1975a [1960]), Genette (1982), Cassany, López and Martí (2000), Hutcheon and O’Flynn (2013), and Zamorano (2022) to describe adaptation as a discursive, terminological, and cognitive phenomenon, articulated through mechanisms of re-elaboration, textualization, and denomination.