2-1

1.Stylistics and its objectives

stylistics is a branch of linguistics, which studies the principles, and the effect of choice and usage of different language elements in rendering thought and emotion under different conditions of communication

I.R.Galperin asserts that stуlistiсs, sometimes called l i n g u o s t y l i s t i c s, is a branch of general linguistics that mainly deals with two interdependent objectives:

the investigation of the special language media which secure the desirable effect of the utterance, and

the investigation of certain types of texts which (due to the choice and arrangement of language means) are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of communication.

These two tasks of stylistics are clearly discernible as separate fields of its investigation.

The special media are called stylistic devices and expressive means (SD’s and EM’s); the types of texts are called functional styles (FS’s).

The first field of investigation, i.e. SD’s and EM’s, touches upon such general language problems as:

the aesthetic function of language,

synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea,

emotional colouring in language,

the interrelation between language and thought,

the individual manner of an author in making use of language, etc.

The second field, i.e. FS’s, brings forth the discussion of such issues as:

oral and written varieties of language,

the notion of the literary (standard) language,

the constituents of texts larger than the sentence,

the classification of the types of texts,

the generative aspect of literary texts, etc.

Stylistics as a branch of linguistics overlaps with such adjacent disciplines as theory of information, theory of communication, literature studies, psychology, sociology, logic and some others.

Depending on the school of thought there are:

1. Linguo-stylistics;2. Literary stylistics;3. Stylistics of decoding;4.traditional st; 5.functional st.; 6. Text st.; 7.l-ge st. & sreech st.; 8.descriptive st.; 9.genetic st.; 10.comparative st.

1. Linguo - stylistics is the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation. The linguistics is concerned with the language codes themselves and particular messages of interest and so far as to exemplify how the codes are constructed.

2. Literary stylistics: is to explicate the message to interprete and evaluate literary writings as the works of art.

3. Stylistics of decoding can be presented in the following way:

sender - message - receiver speaker - book - reader.

2.The general concept of style. Various definitions of style in language

Stylistics, as the term implies, deals with styles.

The word style is derived from the Latin word ‘stilus’ (‘stylus’) or Greek ‘stylos’ which meant a short stick sharp at one end and flat at the other used by the Romans for writing on wax tablets.

Later it was associated with the manner of writing.

Today it can be applied in any activity which can be performed in more than one way (manner), verbal communication including.

Hence style presupposes choice.

In linguistics the word ‘style’ has acquired so many interpretations that it gives ground for ambiguity.

Style is frequently regarded as something that belongs exclusively to the plane of expression and not to the plane of content because one and the same idea can be expressed in different ways.

S. Chatman defines style ‘as a product of individual choices and patterns of choices among linguistic possibilities.’

Style is often understood as a technique of expression, i.e. the ability to write clearly, correctly and in a manner calculated to interest the reader. Style in this sense deals with the normalized forms of the language.

The generic term ‘style’ is often identified with the individual style of an author, or the authorial style.

I.R. Galperin believes that the individual style of an author is only one of the applications of the term ‘style’.

In the case it should be applied to the sphere of linguistic and literary science which deals with the peculiarities of a writer's individual manner of using language means to achieve the effect he desires.

Style is frequently treated as the embellishment of language. Language and style as embellishment are regarded as separate bodies when style is imposed on language for artistic effect.

Style may also be defined as deviations from the lingual norm (M. Riffaterre, E. Saporta, M. Halliday, E. Enkvist).

Thus, what is stylistically conspicuous, stylistically relevant, stylistically coloured is a departure from the norm of the given national language.

I. R. Galperin defines style ‘as a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication.’

Y. M. Skrebnev, acknowledging the split of a language into sublanguages, believes that style is specificity of sublanguage.

3. Classification of functional styles.

the uses of language in numerous situations are studied by the theory of functional styles, or functional stylistics (V.V. Vinogradov, M.N. Kožina; I.V. Arnold, N.M. Razinkina and others).

There are a great many classifications of language varieties that use various criteria. There is also a lot of dispute on the number of styles in a language.

Speaking of functional styles (FS), I.V. Arnold suggested a classification of FS according the basic linguistic function they fulfill.

She started with a kind of abstract notion termed neutral style. It has no distinctive features and its function is to provide a standard background for the other styles. The other – 'real' styles can be broadly divided into two groups:

1.Colloquial styles: literary colloquial; familiar colloquial; low colloquial.

2.Literary bookish styles: a) scientific ; b) official documents; c) publicist (newspaper); d) oratorical; e) poetic (lofty-poetical).

The function of colloquial styles is intercourse; of scientific prose and official documents – information; publicist (newspaper), oratorical and poetic (lofty-poetical) – influence.

I.R. Galperin in his definition of a functional style stresses the aim of communication. According to him, a FS is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication.

In English he distinguishes 5 functional styles and suggests their subdivision into substyles:

1.The belles-lettres style:

a) poetry; b) emotive (imaginative) prose or fiction; c) the language of the drama.

2.The publicist style:

oratory and speeches; b) the essay; c) articles.

3.The newspaper style: a) brief news items; b) headlines; c) advertisements and announcements; d) the editorial.

4.The scientific prose style: a) exact sciences; b) humanitarian sciences;

c) popular science prose.

5.The style of official documents: a) business documents; b) legal documents; c) the language of diplomacy; d) military documents

I.R. Galperin includes in his classification only the written varieties of the language. (With the only exception for such spoken varieties of publicist style as oratory and speeches).

Thus, he recognizes no colloquial style. The spoken language, according to him, by its very nature is spontaneous, momentary, fleeting.

Y.M. Skrebnev uses the term sublanguages in the meaning that is usu. attributed to functional styles. He maintains that the number of sublanguages and their styles is infinite. Y.M. Skrebnev rejects the idea of the complete classification of styles and believes that ‘there are as many sublanguages with their styles as you choose’ (including idiolects).

The scholar recognizes only the two major varieties of language use – formal and informal and colloquial.

The same does his follower V.A. Maltzev.

V.L. Naer’s classification includes seven styles:

official documents, scientific papers, professional technical, newspaper, publicist, belles-lettres, religious texts.

One of his merits consists in the fact that he was the only one among Soviet scholars to recognize the religious variety.

4. The scientific prose style.

The style of scientific prose has 3 subdivisions:

1) the style of humanitarian sciences;

2) the style of "exact" sciences;

3) the style of popular scientific prose.

Its function is to work out and ground theoretically objective knowledge about reality

The aim of communication is to create new concepts, disclose the international laws of existence.

The peculiarities are: objectiveness; logical coherence, impersonality, unemotional character, exactness.

Vocabulary. The use of terms and words used to express a specialized concept in a given branch of science. Terms are not necessarily. They may be borrowed from ordinary language but are given a new meaning.

The scientific prose style consists mostly of ordinary words which tend to be used in their primary logical meaning. Emotiveness depends on the subject of investigation but mostly scientific prose style is unemotional.

Grammar: The logical presentation and cohesion of thought manifests itself in a developed feature of scientific syntax is the use of established patterns.

- postulatory;- formulative;- argumentative;

The impersonal and objective character of scientific prose style is revealed in the frequent use of passive constructions, impersonal sentences. Personal sentences are more frequently used in exact sciences. In humanities we may come across constructions but few.

The parallel arrangement of sentences contributes to emphasizing certain points in the utterance.

Some features of the style in the text are:

- use of quotations and references;

- use of foot-notes helps to preserve the logical coherence of ideas.

Humanities in comparison with "exact" sciences employ more emotionally coloured words, fewer passive constructions.

5. The style of news media

some scholars discriminate between the newspaper style and the publicist(ic) style, some do not, uniting all the varieties of the journalistic sphere either under the term newspaper or publicist style, the mass media style, etc.

I.V. Arnold uses the term newspaper style for both of them.

I.R. Galperin following V.L. Naer discriminates between them due to the function performed: to inform in newspaper writing or to evaluate and convince in publicist one, etc.

The world of the news media embraces the spheres of written, or print (newspapers and magazines), and spoken, or broadcasting (radio and television), journalism.

It performs multifarious functions, e.g.

-to inform a wide audience about the events in the news,

-to suggest and often impose their possible interpretation or

-just to share an opinion about them with a contemporary.

Each paper or channel has worked out its house style – a journalistic style characterized by the preferred forms of expression.

Their selection mainly depends on the following 3 factors:

-the awareness of what its readership, its listener, or its viewer wants;

-the treated area (e.g. politics, economy, science, religion, etc.) that predetermines the application of the correspondent vocabulary units including neologisms, abbreviations and acronyms, international words, the names of institutions and enterprises; and

-the allotted for a particular variety time and space.

The core element in the print media output is a news report- an account of current news, something of timely importance.

The headline of a news report (as well as of other genres) has got its own style which is sometimes called Headlinese.

It is written in a telegraphic manner; it is critical, summarizing, always suggestive and drawing attention to a news story.

The function of the headline is complex. That conditions the choice of lingual means. 1.It informs the reader briefly what the text that follows is about. 2.to arouse interest in the potential reader and to catch his eye.

-nominative and elliptical sentences,

-infinitive complexes, and attributive noun groups.

An inverted pyramid form;lead(who,what,when,where,why)

Details come next, in short paragraphs.

News reportage can be conveyed in shorter forms-news items located in the ready made blocks on the front pages. They are intended for the previewing of the edition publications and state facts without giving explicit comments. The language of news items is stylistically neutral too.

Other than news stories, in a newspaper or a magazine, there are such permanent analytical genres as

editorials (leading articles), op-eds, essays, feature articles, and

personal columns.

If a news report transmits factual information about current events, these genres disclose by commentary ‘the nature’ of a particular news issue and actually become a continuation or expansion of a news report.

According to the manner of presentation essays fall into several varieties:

-descriptive (making a picture of smb. or smth.),

-narrative (telling a real story),

-expository (based on argumentation), etc.

Features:

- the use of the first person and active verb forms.

-longer §

- the use of the first person and active verb forms we get to know what the article is about

6. The style of advertising

Advertisement is a notice or paid announcement in the print, broadcast or electronic media designed to attract public attention, thus increasing the sales of the things advertised. The main function- to persuade the potential customers to buy certain goods and services. Adv-ing exists in oral and written forms.

The style of advertising is a rapidly developing style, represented by a huge variety of texts that can be classified according to their contents into: informative advertising(looks like a small article, but it may also consist of one line, in an informative manner, e.g. Tobacco companies are often running adv-ts with the general message of not smoking); infotisement ( provides the reader with useful news or information on a topic. E.g. describing a new model of a car); advertorial (an adv-те written in the form of an objective opinion editorial and presented in a printed publication, often as an entire n/p section. Adv-als commonly advertise new products and techniques); advertising note (a short piece of advertising, often without any title, but containing the company’s logo or slogan. They describe new products).

Compositionally, texts of adv-ing may include: the title (to grasp the maximum of reader’s attention); the subtitle (the nature of the offer, mentioned in the title, is made clear); the slogan; the body (a proof of the claim that has been made in the title).

9. The b-l style (the substyle of drama)

The sphere-verbal art. The main function-aesthetico-cognitive, aims at the cognitive process and receiving pleasure.

The language of plays is entirely dialogue or polylogue.

The author’s speech is almost entirely excluded except for the playwright’s remarks and stage directions.

But the language of the characters is always purposeful, or stylized, i.e. it resembles colloquial language but in no way it is its the exact reproduction, it strives to retain the modus of literary English, unless the playwright has a particular aim which requires the use of non-literary forms and expressions.

As words are to be spoken out in front of a large mass of people with differing cultural background, the playwright chooses the words easily perceived and understood by everyone present.

The stylization of colloquial language in drama is also revealed in the redundancy of information.

The character’s utterances are generally much longer than in ordinary conversation. While the real spoken language tends to curtail utterances, sometimes simplifying the syntax to fragments of sentences.

Besides, in lively conversation, even a prolonged utterance is interspersed with the interlocutor’s ‘signals of attention’ (e.g. yes, yeah, oh). In plays these ‘signals of attention’ are irrelevant and therefore are done away with.

Further, the speech of the characters – unlike in real life – is never interrupted spontaneously.

Dialogue in plays gradually flows into a monologue (a ‘false dialogue’, or ‘monological dialogue’) with the remarks being a kind of linking sentence between the two parts of the monologue.

Therefore, sometimes the audience listens to a series of monologues still within the framework of a dialogue.

8. The b-l style (the substyle of emotive prose)

The sphere-verbal art. The main function-aesthetico-cognitive, aims at the cognitive process and receiving pleasure.

It is sometimes termed fiction since most of the works reflect fictitious facts, events and characters which have never lived in reality.

The imagery is not so rich as in poetry, the number of words with contextual meaning is not as high as in poetry.

It is always a combination of the spoken and written varieties of the language, in as much as there are always two forms of communication present – monologue (usually the writer’s speech) and dialogue (the speech of the characters).

The language of the author is expected to conform to the literary norms while the language of a character will rather present a stylized version of the colloquial speech.

It is not a pure and authentic reproduction of what might be the natural speech of living people. The colloquial speech is made ‘literature-like’ and the words are purposefully chosen to characterize the personage of a novel, or of a story.

Emotive prose allows the use of elements from other styles as well: newspaper, official, scientific, though they undergo a kind of transformation.

It abounds in all sorts of imagery creating devices: metaphors often turning into symbols, etc.; syntactical patterns all together producing a certain atmosphere; emotionally coloured elements all playing on the reader’s emotions.

7. The style of official documents

I.R. Galperin’s classification of substyles of the official documents style includes

-diplomatic documents,

-business documents,

-legal documents, and

-military documents.

Y.M. Skrebnev adds here personal documents (certificates, diplomas, etc.)

The main aim of this type of communication is to reach an agreement and to state the conditions binding two parties (the state and the citizen, the citizen and the citizen, the state and the state) in an undertaking .

Generally objective, concrete, unemotional and impersonal, the style of official documents presupposes

-stylistically neutral and bookish vocabulary;

-the use of terminology and officialese vocabulary (cliches, opening and conclusive phrases);

-the use of foreign words (especially Latin and French);

-absence of tropes and emotionally coloured vocabulary;

The Style of Diplomatic Documents

nearly 60 varieties: treaties, agreements, conventions, declarations, protocols, memoranda, acts, engagements, etc.

they consist of

-the preamble or preliminary recitals, setting out the names of parties (Heads of State, States or Governments), the purpose for which the document was concluded;

- the body;

- the formal (or final) clauses: the date of the documents, the mode of acceptance, opening of the documents for signature, entry into force, duration, etc;

-formal acknowledgment of signature;

-signature by the plenipotentiaries.

Among other traits can be named:

- special terms;

- non-assimilated borrowings, mainly from Latin and French (status quo, force majeure, etc).

-Frequent numbering of units.

- archaic words ( whereof, whereupon)

-simple extended sentences

The Style of Legal Documents

the least communicative style. legal documents are supposed to say exactly what is meant. They are highly formulaic, accept no informality or spontaneity, and often contain the precise copying ‘from the book’.

-very long sent- ces

-few punctuation marks

-Capitalization

-many archaisms, borrowings from French and Latin .

- complete major sentences, mostly in the form of statements.

10. The colloquial style.

The term ‘colloquial speech’ is applied by researchers to careless, unconventional, free-and-easy everyday speech of only those who are well educated and can speak 'correct' literary English perfectly well, whenever it is necessary.

exists in written and spoken varieties: dialogue, monologue, personal letters, diaries, various notes, etc.

When written, the function of the colloquial style is to render the specificity of everyday conversation and informal speech.

The specific features of the colloquial language are:

1) the spontaneous character of communication;

2) the private character of communication;

3) face-to-faceness or immediacy.

These features are reflected in the following peculiarities:

Prefabrication

The colloquial style has a great amount of ready-made formulae and clichés or stereotyped units which ease a spontaneous conversation.

Here belong social phrases like greetings (e.g. hello, how are you?), thanks and responses

Creativity (spontaneousle, so –new words are used:doggie, duckie)

Compression

The colloquial speech is usually economical and laconic. It is reflected in the following language phenomena:

-contracted forms, abbreviations and clipped words (e.g. ads for advertisements, ice for ice-cream, TV for television, CD for compact disk; we‘ve for we have);

-words of broad semantics with the meaning specified by the situation (e.g. do, get, fix, nice, some, one).

– extensive use of phrasal verbs (e.g. let smb down, put up with);

– simplicity of syntax.

Emphatic intonation as a powerful semantic and stylistic instrument capable to render subtle nuances of thought and feeling.

Vocabulary is a noticeable aspect of the colloquial style.

It may be subdivided into

a) literary,

b) familiar, and

c) low colloquial layers.