The article deals with the status of the speech genres theory (SGT) and its contribution to the development of modern linguistics. In his polemical article Professor V. V. Dementyev argues that SGT is characterized by the wide range of research problems, a close connection with such academic domains as the theory of speech acts, colloquial studies, discourse analysis, linguistic personology and other areas that study a human and their language. This thesis does not raise objections, as the 21st century is considered to be the century of syncretism and interpenetration of sciences, which has become one of the main features of the entire post-non-classical science. This approach provides a holistic reflection on the object of study, in this case, on the language. It is called syncretism, integrity, interdisciplinarity, polydisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity. In general, these terms are synonymous, because they are based on the idea of holism of everything in the world. In this sense, SGT is in line with modern science. The thesis of V. V. Dementyev on the diffusion of genres. Diffusion can be considered as the most important trend not only in science, but also in the entire modern culture, which is shown with the help of examples. However, some statements of V. V. Dementyev’s article seem debatable: the problem of the pervasiveness of SGT in linguistics in its entirety, which can give rise to a dangerous tendency – the absorption of linguistics by SGT. Their interests do often overlap, but each of the named areas solves the problem of personal communication in a social environment in its own way, and each of them has its own subject and its own history. Today SGT cannot take into account many of the processes occurring in discourse, but this is a relatively new science with a great future.
Speech genre theory through the prism of modern linguistics