13. Publicistic style

The publicistic style of language became discernible as a separate style in the middle of the 18th century. The publicistic style has a spoken variety - the оratorical sиbstyle. The development of radio and television has brought into being another new spoken variety, namely, the radio and TV соттеntary. The other two substyles are the essay (moral, philosophical, literary) and journalistic articles (роlitical, social, economic) in newspapers, journals and magazines.

The general aim of publicistic style is to exert a constant and deep influence on public opinion, to convince the reader or_the listener that the interpretation given by the writer or the speaker is the only correct one and to cause him to accept the point of view expressed in the speech.

The manner of presenting idea brings this style closer to that of belles-lettres, to emotive prose, as it is to a certain extent individual. Publicistic style is characterized by brevity of expression. It becomes a leading feature, an important linguistic means. In essays brevity sometimes becomes epigrammatic.

13.1. Oratory and speeches

_The oratоriсal stуle of language is the oral subdivision of the publicistic style. Persuasion is the most obvious purpose of oratorical speech that may lead to action. Direct contact with the listeners permits a combination of the syn­tactical, lexical and phonetic peculiarities of both the written and spoken varieties of language. In its leading features, however, oratorical style belongs to the written variety of language, though it is modified by the oral form of the utterance and the use of gestures

Certain typical features of the spoken variety of speech of this style are: direct address to the audience (ladies and gentlemen, honourable member(s), the use of the 2nd person pronoun you, etc.), contractions (I'll, won't, haven't, isn't and others) and the use of colloquial words.

This style is evident in speeches on political and social problems of the day, in orations and addresses on solemn occasions, as public weddings, funerals and jubilees, in sermons and debates and also in the speeches of counsel and judges in courts of law.

The sphere of application of oratory is confined to an appeal to an audience and crucial issues in such spheres as science, art, literature, or business relations. If such problems are dealt with in oratorical style the effect is humorous.

Political speeches fall into two categories: parliamentary debates, and speeches at rallies, congresses, meetings and election campaigns.

Sermons deal mostly with religious subjects, ethics and morality; sometimes nowadays they take up social and political problems as well.

Orations on solemn public occasions are typical specimens of this style and not a few of their word sequences and phrases are ready-made phrases or cliches.

The stylistic devices employed in oratorical style are determined by the conditions of communication. If the desire of the speaker is to rouse the audience and to keep it in suspense, he will use various traditional stylistic devices. But undue prominence given to the form may lead to an exaggerated use of these devices, to embellishment.

Stylistic devices are closely interwoven and mutually complementary thus building up an intricate pattern. Antithesis is framed by parallel construc­tions, which, in their turn, are accompanied by repetition, while climax can be formed by repetitions of different kinds.

As the audience rely only on memory, the speaker often resorts to repetitions to enable his listeners to follow him and retain the main points of his speech. Repetition is also resorted to in order to convince the audience, to add weight to the speaker's opinion.

A mere repetition of the same idea and in the same linguistic form may bore the audience and destroy the speaker-audience contact, there­fore synonymic phrase repetition is used instead, thus filling up the speech with details and embellishing it.

Repetition can be regarded as the most typical stylistic device of English oratorical style. Almost any piece of oratory will have parallel constructions, antithesis, climax, rhetorical questions and questions-in-the-narrative. Almost all the typical syntactical stylistic devices can be found in English ora­tory. Questions are most frequent because they promote closer contact with the audience. The change of intonation breaks the monotony of the intonation pattern and revives the attention of the listeners.

The desire of the speaker to convince and to rouse his audience re­sults in the use of simile and metaphor, but these are generally tradition­al ones, as fresh and genuine stylistic devices may divert the attention of the listeners away from the main point of the speech. Besides, unex­pected and original images are more difficult to grasp and the process takes time. If a genuine metaphor is used by an orator, it is usually a sustained one, as a series of related images is easier to grasp and facilitates the conception of facts identified one with another.

Allusions in oratorical style depend on the content of the speech and the level of the audience.

Мy Lords; Mr. President; Mr. Chairman; Your Worship; Ladies and Gentlemen, etc. At the end of his speech the speaker usually thanks the audience for their attention by saying: Thank you or Thank you very much. Ex­pressions of direct address may be repeated in the course of the speech and can be expressed differently: dear friends, my friends, Mark you\, Mind\

Here is an example of the speech made by a member of the House of Commons in Parliament.

“It is essential, if the council is to be effective, that it includes people who are interested and who have the knowledge and who have undertaken the scientific research involved. It must be remembered that they will have a great deal more knowledge of the subject than will the chairman of the council. They will have a totally different point of view about what is happening in the country than will the Minister. We should provide that we have the uncompromis­ing opinions of the members of the council, including those members appointed to it because of their knowledge of the problems of various localities.

Another point with which I want to deal was touched upon by the hon. Member for Kidderminster. During the Committee stage we debated at great length the topic of research into noxious fumes, especially sulphuric oxides. We especially pleaded that the Clean Air Council should have co-ordinating powers so that it could co­ordinate the activities of bodies conducting research into problems of oxides and noxious fumes. Indeed, we thought that the Minister's opinion upon that subject was the same as ours. As the Bill is now drafted, certain powers are given to local authorities to contribute towards the cost of investigation and research into the pollution of the air.

We know that scientific and technical institutes and the fuel technology sections of some universities are conducting research into the problem of sulphuric pollution; yet we do not see any power given to the Clean Air Council to deal with the problem of sulphuric oxides, even though sulphuric pollution is one of the worst forms of air pollution. Will the Minister give us an assurance that he will specially direct the attention of the Clean Air Council to its duties in co-ordinating research into the problem of sulphuric oxides? Will he at the same time look again at the problem of Parliamentary accountability to make it possible for the council to give an annual report to the House, irrespective of the opinions of the Minister?"

The ornamental elements in this speech are reduced to the minimum. It is a matter-of-fact speech where no high-flown words or elaborate sty­listic devices are to be found.

It will be of considerable interest to compare this speech to Byron's Maiden Speech in the House of Lords in defence of the Luddites, which can be regarded as a perfect specimen of oratorical style. Byron used his eloquence against the Bill providing capital punishment for the de­struction of machines. His purpose was to prevent the passage of the Bill, to get an impartial examination of the facts.

Byron's speech is rich in oratorical devices. All these devices are motivated, they are organically connected with the utterance: the form by no means dominates the content.

In contradistinction, an examination of the following speech will show that it is practically devoid of meaning. The speaker is merely seeking an effect. The proper evaluation of the speech should be: “Words, words, words.” The whole speech is made to hide the fact that the speaker has no thought. Questions remain unanswered, climaxes are not motivated.