CLIMATE CHANGE

1. General considerations. In order to get a more or less idea of the word stock of any language, it must be presented as a system, the elements of which are interconnected, interrelated and yet independent. The word stock of a language may be represented as a definite system in which different aspects of words may be singled out as interdependent. A special branch of linguistic science-lexicology - has done much to classify vocabulary. For our purpose, i. e. for linguistic stylistics, a special type of classification, stylistic classification is the most important.

An accordance with the division of language into literary and colloquial, we may represent the whole of the word stock of the English language as being divided into three main layers: the literary layer, the neutral layer and the colloquial layer. The literary and the colloquial layers contain a number of subgroups each of which has a property it shares with all the subgroups within the layer. This common property, which unites the different groups of words within the layer may be called its aspect. The aspect of the literary layer is its markedly bookish character. It is this that makes the layer more or less stable. The aspect of the colloquial layer of words is its lively spoken character. It is this that makes it unstable, fleeting.

The aspect of the neutral layer is its universal character. That means it is unrestricted in its use. It can be employed in all styles of language and in all spheres of human activity. The literary layer of words consists of groups accepted as legitimate members of the English vocabulary. They have no local or dialectal character. The colloquial layer of words as qualified in most English or American dictionaries is not infrequently limited to a definite language community or confine to a special locality where it circulates. The literary vocabulary consists of the following groups of words: 1) common literary; 2) terms and learned words; 3) poetic words; 4) archaic words; 5) barbarisms & foreign words; 6) literary coinages including nonce words.

The colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups: 1) common colloquial words; 2) slang; 3) jargonisms; 4) professional words; 5) dialectal words; 6) vulgar words; 7) colloquial coinages.

The common literary, neutral and common colloquial words are grouped under the term standard English vocabulary.

Proverbs and sayings.

They are brief statements which show in condensed form the accumulated life experience of the community and serving as symbols for abstract ideas. They are facts of language collected in dictionaries. There are some features typical for proverbs and sayings: rhythm, rhyme and /or alliteration/ assonance. ▲ Wealth is nothing without health. In this proverb the effect of euphony is achieved through assonance and alliteration, which create rhyme and rhythm. ▲ It is enough to make a cat laugh. No pains, no gains. Proverbs and sayings will never lose their freshness and vigour because they are revived in their modifications which will be commented later on.

Epigrams, paradox, allusion.

An epigram is a stylistic device akin to a proverb, the only difference between them is that epigram is created by people whose names are well known. They have a bookish air about them which differs them from proverbs. They can be fixed in dictionaries. ▲ Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. (J. Milton) A paradox is a statement which is contrary to generally accepted opinion, but which expresses some kind of truth. ▲ Men marry because they are tired, women – because they are curious. Both are disappointed. An allusion is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary, mythological, biblical fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing. ▲ It’s no use pretending that we are Romeo and Juliet. In this sentence reference to “R and J” achieved by the repetition of names.

Functional Styles of the English Language

According to Galperin: Functional Style is a system of interrelated language means serving a definite aim in communication. It is the coordination of the language means and stylistic devices which shapes the distinctive features of each style and not the language means or stylistic devices themselves. Each style, however, can be recoquized by one or more leading features which are especially conspicuous. For instance the use of special terminology is a lexical characteristics of the style of scientific prose, and one by which it can easily be recognized. Classification: 1. The Belles - Lettres Functional Style. a) poetry; b) emotive prose; c) drama; 2. Publicistic Functional Style, a) oratory; b) essays; c) articles in newspapers and magazines; 3. The Newspaper Functional Style. a) brief news items; b) advertisments and announcements; c) headlines; 4. The Scientific Prose Style. a) exact sciences; b) humanitarian sciences; c) popular- science prose; 5. The Official Documents Functional Style. a) diplomatic documents; b) business letters; c) military documents; d) legal documents;

Functional Styles of the English Language

According to Galperin: Functional Style is a system of interrelated language means serving a definite aim in communication. It is the coordination of the language means and stylistic devices which shapes the distinctive features of each style and not the language means or stylistic devices themselves. Each style, however, can be recoquized by one or more leading features which are especially conspicuous. For instance the use of special terminology is a lexical characteristics of the style of scientific prose, and one by which it can easily be recognized.

Classification of Functional Styles of the English Language

1. The Belles - Lettres Functional Style.

a) poetry;

b) emotive prose;

c) drama;

2. Publicistic Functional Style,

a) oratory;

b) essays;

c) articles in newspapers and magazines;

5. The Official Documents Functional Style.

a) diplomatic documents;

b) business letters;

c) military documents;

d) legal documents;

The main peculiarities of scientific and official style.

The Style of Official Documents

1) Language of business letters; 2) Language of legal documents; 3) Language of diplomacy; 4) Language of military documents; The aim: 1. to reach agreement between two contracting parties; 2. to state the conditions binding two parties in an understanding. Each of substyles of official documents makes use of special terms. Legal documents: military documents, diplomatic documents. The documents use set expressions inherited from early Victorian period. This vocabulary is conservative. Legal documents contain a large proportion of formal and archaic words used in their dictionary meaning. In diplomatic and legal documents many words have Latin and French origin. There are a lot of abbreviations and conventional symbols. The most noticeable feature of grammar is the compositional pattern. Every document has its own stereotyped form. The form itself is informative and tells you with what kind of letter we deal with. Business letters contain: heading, addressing, salutation, the opening, the body, the closing, complimentary clause, the signature. Syntactical features of business letters are - the predominance of extended simple and complex sentences, wide use of participial constructions, homogeneous members. Morphological peculiarities are passive constructions, they make the letters impersonal. There is a tendency to avoid pronoun reference. Its typical feature is to frame equally important factors and to divide them by members in order to avoid ambiguity of the wrong interpretation.

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. 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. 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. Scientific popular style has the following peculiarities: emotive words, elements of colloquial style.

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The Style of Official Documents

1) Language of business letters; 2) Language of legal documents; 3) Language of diplomacy; 4) Language of military documents; The aim: 1. to reach agreement between two contracting parties; 2. to state the conditions binding two parties in an understanding. Each of substyles of official documents makes use of special terms. Legal documents: military documents, diplomatic documents. The documents use set expressions inherited from early Victorian period. This vocabulary is conservative. Legal documents contain a large proportion of formal and archaic words used in their dictionary meaning. In diplomatic and legal documents many words have Latin and French origin. There are a lot of abbreviations and conventional symbols. The most noticeable feature of grammar is the compositional pattern. Every document has its own stereotyped form. The form itself is informative and tells you with what kind of letter we deal with. Business letters contain: heading, addressing, salutation, the opening, the body, the closing, complimentary clause, the signature. Syntactical features of business letters are - the predominance of extended simple and complex sentences, wide use of participial constructions, homogeneous members. Morphological peculiarities are passive constructions, they make the letters impersonal. There is a tendency to avoid pronoun reference. Its typical feature is to frame equally important factors and to divide them by members in order to avoid ambiguity of the wrong interpretation.

Publicistic style. (oratory, speeches, essays, articles) the style is a perfect ex. Of historical changeability of stylistic differentiation of discourses. In Greece it was practiced in oral form which was named P. in accordance with the name of its corresponding genre. PS is famous for its explicit pragmatic function of persuasion directed at influencing the reader & shaping his views in accordance with the argumentation of the author. We find in PS a blend of the rigorous logical reasoning, reflecting the objective state of things & a strong subjectivity reflecting the authors personal feelings and emotions towards the discussed subject. Substyles: The oratory essays, journalistic articles, radio and TV commentary. Oratory. It makes use of a great hummber of expressive means to arouse and keep the public's interest: repetition, gradation, antithesis, rhetorical questions, emotive words, elements of colloquial speech. Radio and TV commentary is less impersonal and more expressive and emotional. The essay is very subjective and the most colloquial of the all substyles of the publicistic style. It makes use of expressive means and tropes. The journalistic articles are impersonal.

The main peculiarities of belles-lettres style.

Belles-lettres style (the style of fiction) embraces:1)poetry; 2)drama; 3)emotive prose. B-l style or the style of imaginative literature may be called the richest register of communication: besides its own lan-ge means which are not used in any other sphere of communication, b-l st. makes ample use of other styles too, for in numerous works of literary art we find elements of scientific, official and other functional types of speech. Besides informative and persuasive functions, also found in other functional styles, the b-l style has a unique task to impress the reader aesthetically. The form becomes meaningful and carries additional info. Boundless possibilities of expressing one's thoughts and feelings make the b-l style a highly attractive field of research for a linguist.

The belles-lettres style, in each of its concrete representations, fulfils the aesthetic function, which fact singles this style out of others and gives grounds to recognize its systematic uniqueness, i.e. charges it with the status if an autonomous functional style.

Newspaper style includes informative materials: news in brief, headlines, ads, additional articles. But not everything published in the paper can be included in N.S. we mean publicist essays, feature articles, scient. Reviews are not N.S. to attract the readers attention special means are used by british & am. Papers ex: specific headlines, space ordering. We find here a large proportion of dates, personal names of countries, institutions, individuals. To achieve an effect of objectivity in rendering some fact or event most of info is published anonymously, without the name of newsman who supplied it, with little or no subjective modality. But the position of the paper becomes clear from the choice not only of subj. matter but also of words denoting international or domestic issues. Substyles. To understand the language peculiarities of English newspaper style it will be sufficient to analyze the following basic newspaper features:1) brief news items;2) advertisements and announcements;3) headlines; Brief items: its function is to inform the reader. It states only facts without giving comments. The vocabulary used is neutral and common literary. Specific features are: a) special political and economic terms; b) non-term political vocabulary; c) newspaper clichés; d) abbreviations; e) neologisms.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 929