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The language of drama

The first thing to be said about the parameters of this variety of belles-lettres is that the language of plays is entirely dialogue. The author’s speech is almost entirely excluded, except for the playwright’s remarks and stage directions.

The degree to which the norms of ordinary colloquial language are converted into those of the language of plays, that is, the degree to which the spoken language is made literary varies at different periods in the development of drama and depends also on the idiosyncrasies of the playwright himself.

Any presentation of a play is an aesthetic procedure and the language of plays is of the type which is meant to be reproduced. Therefore even the language of a play approximates that of a real dialogue, it will none the less be stylized.

 

The language of the characters is in no way the exact reproduction of the norms of colloquial language, although the playwright seeks to reproduce actual conversation as far as the norms of the written language will allow.

The language of plays is always stylized, that is, 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.

The general trends in the developing literary language were also reflected in the wide use of biblical and mythological allusions, evocative of Renaissance traditions, as well as in the abundant use of compound epithets, which can also be ascribed to the influence of the great Greek and Latin epics.

The analysis of the language texture of plays has shown that the most characteristic feature here is, to use the term of the theory of in­formation, redundancy of information caused by the necessity to amp­lify the utterance. This is done for the sake of the audience.

the language of plays is already purposeful. The sequence signals, which are not so apparent in lively conversation, become conspicuous in the language of plays.

 

 


Date: 2015-01-29; view: 2466


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