The Connection between Parts of the Sentence

There are two polar types of syntactic connection in the sentence: subject-predicate relation and secondary relation, i.e. relations between secondary parts of a sentence. The subject-predicate relation serves to convey a piece of information, to inform the hearer about something. The secondary parts of the sentence make, together with their head-words, mere word-combinations, i.e. composite denominations, functionally equivalent to simple words.

Between the two polar types of syntactical connection there exists an intermediate type - a semi-predicative connection which occurs when a secondary part of the sentence becomes «detached».

Detachment means that a secondary member a) becomes phonetically separated, b) obtains emphatic stress, c) sometimes, though not necessarily, changes its habitual position. This secondary part of the sentence, remaining what it has been (an attribute, an adverbial modifier, etc.), at the same time assumes the function of an additional predicative; it comes to resemble the predicate.

Detachment makes the word prominent. Thus, from the point of view of stylistics, detachment is nothing but emphasis.

Theoretically, any secondary part of the sentence can be detached:

«Smither should choose it for her at the stores - nice and dappled» (Galsworthy) - detachment of the attribute.

«Talent, Mr.Micawber has, capital, Mr. Micawber has not» (Dickens) - detachment of the direct object.

Parenthetic Elements, i.e. words, phrases and clauses disconnected grammatically with their syntactical surroundings, also possess stylistic value. Parenthesis may perform the following stylistic functions:

• to reproduce two parallel lines of thought, two different planes of narration (in the author's speech), e.g.:

«...he was struck by the thought (what devil's whisper? -what evil hint of an evil spirit?) - supposing that he and Roberta - no, say he and Sondra - (no, Sondra could swim so well and so could he) - he and Roberta were in a small boat somewhere...» (Dreiser);

• to make the sentence or clause more conspicuous, more emphatic, e.g.:

«The main entrance (he had never ventured to look beyond that) was a splendiferous combination of a glass and iron awning...» (Dreiser);

• to strengthen the emotional force by making part of the utterance interrogative or exclamatory, e.g.:

«Here is a long passage - what an enormous prospective I make of it! - leading from Peggoty's kitchen to the front door» (Dickens);

to avoid monotonous repetition of similar constructions;

to impart colloquial character to the author's narration.

Revaluation of Syntactical Categories

Revaluation of syntactical categories means the use of certain syntactical categories or forms of their expression with their meanings transferred. Thus, a statement which is usually given the form of a declarative sentence may be expressed by means of interrogative sentence; several kinds of sentence patterns may express negation, although they do not contain any grammatical devices of negation (the negative particle or negative pronouns).

Rhetorical question is an affirmative or negative statement which only assumes the form of a question. The use of the interrogative form performs an expressive function since it implies direct appellation to the hearer's opinion. The speaker never doubts what kind of answer to his question can be expected, and the conclusion is left with the hearer:

If this belief from heaven be sent,

If such be Nature's holy plan,

Have I not reason to lament

What man has done of man? (Wordsworth)

LECTURE 8

FUNCTIONAL STYLES

 

Each style of the literary language makes use of a group of language means the interrelation of which is peculiar to the given style. It is the coordination of the language means and stylistic devices that shapes the distinctive features of each style, and not the language means or stylistic devices themselves. Each style can be recognized by one or more leading features, which are especially conspicuous. For instance, the use of special terminology is a lexical characteristic of the style of scientific prose, and one by which it can easily be recognized.

The definition of a functional style resembles very much the one given in the first chapter of the present manual.

A functional style can be defined as a system of coordinated, interrelated and interconditioned language means intended to fulfill a specific function of communication and aiming at a definite effect.

The English language has evolved a number of functional styles easily distinguishable one from another. They are not homogeneous and fall into several variants all having some central point of resemblance. Thus, I.R.Galperin distinguishes five classes:

The Belles-Lettres Style

1) Poetry;

2) Emotive Prose;

3) The Drama.

Publicistic Style

1) Oratory and Speeches;

2) The Essay;

3) Articles.

Newspapers

1) Brief News Items;

2) Headlines;

3) Advertisements and Announcements;

4) The Editorial.

Scientific Prose

Official Documents.

The Belles-Lettres Style

Poetry

Emotive Prose

The Drama

Each of these substyles has certain common features, typical of the general belles-lettres style.

The common features of the substyles may be summed up as follows. First of all, comes the common function, which may broadly be called «aesthetical-cognitive». Since the belles-lettres style has a cognitive function as well as an aesthetic one, it follows that it has something in common with scientific style, but the style of scientific prose is mainly characterized by an arrangement of language means which will bring proofs to clinch a theory. Therefore we say that the main function of scientific prose is proof. The purpose of the belles-lettres style is not to prove but only to suggest a possible interpretation of the phenomena of life by forcing the reader to see the viewpoint of the writer.

The belles-lettres style rests on certain indispensable linguistic features, which are:

Genuine, not trite, imagery achieved by purely linguistic devices.

The use of words in contextual and very often in more than one dictionary meaning, or at least greatly influenced by the lexical environment.

A vocabulary which will reflect to a greater or lesser degree the author's personal evaluation of things or phenomena.

A peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax, a kind of lexical and syntactical idiosyncrasy.

5. The introduction of the typical features of colloquial language to a full degree or a lesser one or a slight degree, if any.

Poetry

The first differentiating property of poetry is its orderly form, which is based mainly on the rhythmic and phonetic arrangement of the utterances. The rhythmic aspect calls forth syntactical and semantic peculiarities which also fall into more or less strict orderly arrangement. Both the syntactical and semantic aspects of the poetic substyle may be defined as compact, for they are held in check by rhythmic patterns. Both syntax and semantics comply with the restrictions imposed by the rhythmic pattern, and the result is brevity of expression, epigram-like utterances, and fresh, unexpected imagery. Syntactically this brevity is shown in elliptical and fragmentary sentences, in detached constructions, in inversion, asyndeton and other syntactical peculiarities.

Rhythm and rhyme are distinguishable properties of the poetic substyle provided they are wrought into compositional patterns. They are typical only of this one variety of the belles-lettres style.

Emotive Prose

Emotive prose has the same features as have been pointed out for the belles-lettres style in general; but all these features are correlated differently in emotive prose. The imagery is not so rich as it is in poetry, the percentage of words with contextual meaning is not so high as in poetry, the idiosyncrasy of the author is not so clearly discernible. Apart from metre and rhyme, what most of all distinguishes emotive prose from the poetic style is the combination of the literary variant of the language, both in words and syntax, with the colloquial variant. It would perhaps be more exact to define this as a combination of the spoken and written varieties of the language.

Present-day emotive prose is to a large extent characterized by the breaking-up of traditional syntactical designs of the preceding periods. Not only detached constructions, but also fragmentation of syntactical models, peculiar, unexpected ways of combining sentences are freely introduced into present-day emotive prose.

The Drama

The third subdivision of the belles-lettres style is the language of plays. Unlike poetry, which, except for ballads, in essence excludes direct speech and therefore dialogue, and unlike emotive prose, which is a combination of monologue and dialogue, the language of plays is entirely dialogue. The author's speech is almost entirely excluded except for the playwright's remarks and stage directions, significant though they may be.

Publicistic Style

Publicistic style also falls into three varieties, each having its own distinctive features. Unlike other styles, the publicistic style has spoken varieties, in particular, the oratorical substyle. The development of radio and television has brought into being a new spoken variety, namely, the radio commentary. The other two are the essay (moral, philosophical, literary) and articles (political, social, economic) in newspapers, journals and magazines. Book reviews in journals and magazines and also pamphlets are generally included among essays.

The general aim of the publicistic style, which makes it stand out as a separate 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, essays or article not merely by logical argumentation, but by emotional appeal as well. Due to its characteristic combination of logical argumentation and emotional appeal, the publicistic style has features common with the style of scientific prose, on the one hand, and that of emotive prose, on the other. Its coherent and logical syntactical structure, with the expanded system of connectives, and its careful paragraphing, makes it similar to scientific prose. Its emotional appeal is generally achieved by the use of words with emotive meaning, the use of imagery and other stylistic devices as in emotive prose. But the stylistic devices used in the publicistic style are not fresh or genuine.

Publicistic style is also characterized by brevity of expression. In some varieties of this style it becomes a leading feature, an important linguistic means. In essays brevity sometimes becomes epigrammatic.

Oratory and Speeches

Oratorical style is the oral subdivision of the publicistic style. Direct contact with the listeners permits the 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 present in this style are: direct address to the audience («ladies and gentlemen», «honorable members», the use of the 2^nd person pronoun «you»), sometimes contractions (/'//, won't, haven't, isn't) 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 Essay

The essay is a literary composition of moderate length on philosophical, social, aesthetic or literary subjects. Personality in the treatment of theme and naturalness of expression are two of the most obvious characteristics of the essay. This literary genre has definite linguistic traits which shape the essay as a variety of the publicistic style.

The most characteristic language features of the essay are:

Brevity of expression, reaching in a good writer a degree of epigrammaticalness.

The use of the first person singular.

A rather expanded use of connectives, which facilitate the process of grasping the correlation of ideas.

The abundant use of emotive words.

The use of similes and metaphors as one of media for the cognitive process.

Articles

Irrespective of the character of the magazine and the divergence of subject matter - whether it is political, literary, popular-scientific or satirical - all the already mentioned features of the publicistic style are to be found in any article. The character of the magazine as well as the subject chosen affects the choice and use of stylistic devices. Words of emotive meaning, for example, are few, if any, in popular scientific articles. Their exposition is more consistent and the system of connectives more expanded than, say, in a satirical style.

The language of political magazines articles differs little from that of newspaper articles. But such elements of the publicistic style as rare and bookish words, neologisms (which sometimes require explanation in the text), traditional words combinations and parenthesis are more frequent here than in newspaper articles. Literary reviews stand closer to essays both by their content and by their linguistic form. More abstract words of logical meaning are used in them, they more often resort to emotional language and less frequently to traditional set expressions.

 

LECTURE 9

 

Newspaper Style

English newspaper style may be defined as a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means which is perceived by the community speaking the language as a separate unity that basically serves the purpose of informing and instructing the leader.

Since the primary function of the newspaper style is to impart information the four basic newspaper features are:

Brief news items and communiques;

Advertisements and announcement;

The headline;

The editorial.

Brief News Items

The function of a brief news is to inform the reader. It states only facts without giving comments. This accounts for the total absence of any individuality of expression and the almost complete lack of emotional coloring. It is essentially matter-of-fact, and stereotyped forms of expression prevail.

The newspaper style has its specific features and is characterized by an extensive use of:

Special political and economic terms.

Non-term political vocabulary.

Newspapers cliches.

Abbreviations.

Neologisms.

Besides, some grammatical peculiarities may characterize the style:

Complex sentences with a developed system of clauses.

Verbal constructions.

Syntactical complexes.

Attributive noun groups.

Specific word order.

The Headline

The headline is the title given to a news item or a newspaper article. The main function of the headline is to inform the reader briefly of what the news that follows is about. Sometimes headlines contain elements of appraisal, i.e. they show the reporter's or paper's attitude to the facts reported.

The basic language peculiarities of headlines lie in their structure. Syntactically headlines are very short sentences or phrases of a variety of patterns:

Full declarative sentences.

Interrogative sentences.

Nominative sentences.

Elliptical sentences.

Sentences with articles omitted.

Phrases with verbals.

Questions in the form of statements.

Complex sentences.

Headlines including direct speech.