Introduction. The General concept of style

Лекционный  комплекс по дисциплине

 «Функциональная стилистика ИЯ и КЯ/РЯ»

 

Lecture 1.

 

Introduction. The General concept of style.

 

 

1. The general concept of style. Style in language.
2. Functional stylistics as science, its subject.
3. Classification of Functional Styles.
4. Word and its meaning.

 

 

Style in its most general sense is a specific characteristic of human activity arising as a result of choice within the excepted norms of a definite mode or manner of conducting this activity. Language as the main vehicle of human communication should be regarded as a specific kind of human activity.

It is no news that any propositional content, any idea can be verbalized in several different ways. So “May I offer you a chair?”, “Take a seat, please”, “Sit down” have the same proposition (subject-matter) but differ in the manner of expression, which in its turn, depends on the situational conditions of the communication act. So, the same thought, idea, opinion can be expressed in more than one way. For example: a) King Charles was publicly decapitated. (Bookish or literary style); b) King Charles was publicly beheaded (neutral style); c) They chopped off King Charles’s head in the sight of anyone who cared to see it done (colloquial style).

Stylistics (from Greek “stylos”) meant an instrument for writing made of bone. Later it came to denote metonymically also a manner of writing and speaking.

Stylistics is that part of linguistics which concentrates on investigating the principles and the effect of the choice and use of lexical, grammatical, phonetic and language means at large to convey and express thought and emotion under different conditions of communication (discourse).

Modern stylistics was elaborated at the end of the 19-th century as direct opposition to the approach to style as the art of writing well.

2. 70 per cent of our lifetime is spent in various forms of communication activities – oral (speaking, listening) or written (reading, writing), so it is self-evident how important it is for a philologist to know the mechanics of relations b/n the nonverbal, extralinguistic essence of the communicative act and  its verbal, linguistic presentation. It is no surprise, then, that many linguists follow their French colleague Charles Bally, claiming that, stylistics is primarily the study of synonymic language resources. The stylistics of the l-ge studies on the one hand – the specificity of l-ge subsystem (functional styles and sublanguages) which are of a peculiar vocabulary, phraseology, syntax, on the other hand – expressive, emotive and evaluated properties of various language means.

Proceeding from the famous definitions of the style of a language offered by V. V. Vinogradov, we shall follow the understanding of a functional style formulated by I.R. Galperin as a system of coordinated, interrelated and interconditioned language means intended to fulfill a specific function of communication and aiming at a definite effect.

All scholars agree that a well developed l-ge is streamed into several functional styles, their classifications, though, coincide only partially: most style theoreticians do not argue about the number of functional styles being 5, but disagree about their nomenclature. The most traditional and widely accepted classification singles out the following styles:

1. Official style, represented in all kinds of official documents and papers.
2. Scientific style, found in articles, monographs and other scientific, academic publications.
3. Publicistic style, covering such genres as essay, feature article, public speeches, etc.
4. Newspaper style, covering such genres as essay, feature article, public speeches, etc.
5. Belles-lettres style, embracing numerous and versatile genres of creative writing.

It is only the first three that are invariably recognized in all classifications. As to the newspaper style, it is often regarded as part of the Publicistic domain and is not always treated individually. But the biggest controversy is flaming around the belles-lettres style. The unlimited possibilities of creative writing led some scholars to the conviction that because of the liability of its contours it can be hardly qualified as a functional style. Still others claim that, regardless of its versatility, 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 with the status of an autonomous functional style.

Each of the enumerated styles is exercised in two forms – written and oral. An article and lecture are examples of the two forms of the scientific style; news broadcasts on the radio and TV or newspaper and internet materials – of the newspaper style; an essay and a public speech – of the publicist style, etc.

The number of functional styles and the principles of their differentiation change with time and reflect the state of the functioning l-ge at a given period. So, most classifications some time ago included the so called poetic words. But poetry lost its isolated linguistic position, it makes use of all the vocabulary and grammar offered by the l-ge at large and there is hardly sense in singling out a special poetic style. 

Functional stylistics, dealing in fact with all the subdivisions of the l-ge and all its possible usages, is the most all-embracing “global” trend in style study, and such specified stylistics as scientific prose study, or newspaper style study, or the like, may be considered elaborations of certain fields of functional stylistics.

Thus the subject of functional stylistics is: 1) the study of the styles as subsystems of the literary language and a peculiar set of interdependent language means; 2) the study of these means in a system disclosing their linguistic properties and nature as well as the functioning of their laws.

The object of stylistics is text. According to Karlinski text (from Latin “textus” - соединение, ткань, сплетение) is a basic relatively independent and complete unite of speech, which consists of interrelated sentences and is created in a certain situation and is fixed in a graphic or some form.

3. Word from the stylistic point of view is the form in which the concept and the expression of emotion and attitude exist. Words may have besides their basic conceptual meaning (which is called denotation) various additional co-meanings known as connotation, the first meaning is compulsory, the second is optional. Connotation – is an additional supplemental meaning of a word.

The denotational meaning of the word “table” is a piece of furniture which serves definite purposes (to write at, to eat at). The second meaning, connotative, is absent here.

But in any other cases it expresses a special emotive, evaluative meaning or colouring, it indicates the social sphere of the usage of this word and the speaker’s attitude (solemnity, seriousness, familiarity or distance). For example: a) fragrance (of a certain perfume if you like it); b) reek (if you do not like it); c) odour (if you do not care). All 3 words denote smell, but the first connotes the speaker’s approval, the second – his revulsion, while the last has no connotation. According to Arnold connotation (also known as stylistic colouring) is regarded as a complex phenomenon made up of as many as 4 components: 1) emotive; 2) expressive; 3) evaluative; 4) of stylistic function.

1. The emotive component can be either usual or occasional; it emerges on the basis of the logical meaning, but once appearing it has the tendency to oust the latter or to modify it considerably. For example, there is very little in common between “honey” and “duck”, but in their figurative meaning they are synonyms.

2. The evaluative component expresses positive or negative attitude to a thing, concept, object denoted.

“I’m firm, though art obstinate, he is pig-headed”. All the 3 adjectives have the similar denotation “not easily influenced by other people’s opinion”; but “firm” presupposes smth versy (дост. похвалы); 

“Obstinate” - a mild disapproval; “pig-headed” – down right (явный) negative evaluation combined with expressiveness. This component never emerges in the scientific, specific, official, diplomatic speech because here evaluation should be explicit and objective.

3. Expressiveness intensifies the content of the word or other words in the same syntactical connection. Ex. “She was a poor miserable thing.” “Thing” instead of “girl” underlines the condition of the girl expressed by adjectives. They differentiate between the image bearing figurative and hyperbolizing expressiveness.

“Life was not made merely to be slaved away.” Here we deal with the figurative expressiveness. The verb “to slave” has the usual expressiveness because “to slave” do not denote the toil of slaves, but only hard work of free people. The hyperbolizing expressiveness is realized through intensifiers: all, ever, quite, even, really. For example: “She was all ears.”

4. The last component (can be presented in various ways) refers this or that word to a certain stylistic layer. The 4 components can be presented in various ways.

The presence of all the 4 components can be illustrated by separate words: coward, sneak (подлец), prig (педант), whippersnapper (ничтожество, мальчишка). All of them are derogatory (унизительный) apotheosis having different denotation, but identical emotive component, negative evaluation, and image bearing expressiveness. All of them refer to the colloquial layer.

 

Questions for self-control:

 

1. Give the definitions of General Stylistics and Functional Stylistics? What is the connection between them?
2. What was the notion of stylistics according to ancient Greeks? How is it different from the notion accepted nowadays?
3. What is the general notion of Style? Give the definition of the Functional Style. Are these two notions synonymous?
4. What is the subject of Functional Stylistics? What is its object?
5. Describe Galperin’s classification of functional styles. Why do style theoreticians argue about the nomenclature of functional styles.
6. What is the notion of “word” from the stylistic point of view?
7. What is denotation and connotation? Give examples to specify your answer.
8. Why is connotation called “stylistic coloring”? Give examples.
9. What are the four components of connotation?

 

 

Literature

 

1.  Скребнев Ю.М. Основы стилистики английского языка: Учебник для ин-тов и фак.иностр.яз. – 2-е изд., испр. – М.:ООО «Издательство Астрель», 2000

2.     I.R. Galperin. Stylistics. – Moscow,1977

3.    V.A. Kuharenko. A Book of Practice in Stylistics. – M.:Высшая школа,1986

4.     V.A. Maltzev. Essays of English Stylistics. – Мн.: Высшая школа,1984

5.     T.A. Znamenskaya. Stylistics of the English Language. М., Комкнига, 2006

 

 

 

Lecture 2

Stylistic classification of the English Vocabulary.

1. Three layers of the English Vocabulary. Neutral words.
2. Literary vocabulary.
3. Colloquial vocabulary.

 

1.

The whole word-stock of the English Vocabulary /Standard English/ is divided into three main layers: the literary layer, the neutral layer, the colloquial layer.

The main feature of the literary layer is its markedly bookish character which makes it more or less stable. The main feature of the colloquial layer is its lively spoken character which makes it unstable and fleeting. The main feature of the neutral layer is its universal character. It can be employed in all styles of language and in all spheres of human activity, which makes the layer the most stable of all. There are words equally fit to be used on various occasions independent of the sphere of communication (lecture, writing poems and talking to a child). They are defined as stylistically neutral and they cover the greater portion of the utterance. The rest are stylistically coloured, which are suitable on certain definite occasions in specific conditions of communication. Every stylistically coloured word has a neutral synonym to which it is contrasted: steed – horse. Their denotation is the same, but connotation is different, because they refer to different layers.

The following synonyms show the relations that exist between the neutral, literary and colloquial words.

 

Colloquial	Neutral	Literary
kid	child	infant
daddy	dad / father	parent
comfy	comfortable	commodious
guy	fellow	associate
get out	go away	retire
go ahead	continue	proceed

 

The main distinction between synonyms remains stylistic. Colloquial words are more emotionally coloured than literary ones. The neutral words have no degree of emotiveness. Both literary and colloquial words have their upper and lower ranges. The lower range of literary words approaches the neutral layer and will pass into that layer. The upper range of the colloquial layer can easily pass into the neutral layer. E.g.: the words teenager and flapper are colloquial words passing into the neutral vocabulary. However they still remain in the colloquial layer.

2.

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 and foreign words 6. literary coinages (nonce-words)

Terms are generally associated with a definite branch of science. Their function is to bear an exact reference to a given notion or concept. E.g.: business correspondence has its own stock of technical terms, such as account, balance, catalogue, commission, credit, customer, debit, discount, invoice, payment, retailer, settlement, wholesaler, etc.

    Alongside with terms a considerable portion of learned words occur in the texts on some special problem: approximate, commence, exclude, feasible, multiplicity, respectively, etc. This layer is especially rich in adjectives. All learned words have their everyday synonyms which are either not enough for scientific usage or less precise. We can see it in such pairs: father – paternal, home – domestic, lip – labial, mind – mental, son – filial. The learned vocabulary comprises some archaic connectives: hereby, hereafter, thereupon, therewith, and group of conjunctions: in consequence, inasmuch as, etc.

 Poetic Words are used to sustain a special elevated atmosphere of poetry, to evoke meanings and colour the utterance with a certain air of loftiness. These words are not only more lofty but also as a rule more abstract in their denotative meaning than their neutral synonyms: array – clothes, billow – wave, brow – forehead, gore – blood, woe – sorrow, behold – see, deem – think, hearken – hear, slay – kill, fair – beautiful, uncouth – strange, anon – present, nigh – almost, naught – nothing, albeit – although, ere – before.

  Archaic words are frequently to be found in the style of official documents, in business letters, in legal l-ge. In diplomatic documents one can find obsolescent words which would have long ago passed out of the vocabulary, but for their special use in the above-mentioned spheres of communication. They are used in official documents because they help to maintain that exactness of expression so necessary in this style: hereinafter, hitherto, whereof, hereunto, the ending –th instead of –s – witnesseth, the pronouns thou, thee, thy, the verb forms - art, wilt. The following example is taken from an endowment assurance policy:

“Witnesseth that if the Life insured shall pay or cause to be paid to the Society or to the duly authorized Agent or Collector thereof every subsequent premium at the due date thereof the funds of the Society shall on the expiration of the term of years specified in the Schedule hereto…”

    Words which drop out of the l-ge altogether are called obsolete. It happens when a new name is introduced for the notion that continues to exist. They acquire a lofty poetic tinge and can be accepted in poetic diction: betwixt, ere, damsel, hark, morn, save (except), to wit (namely woe).

    One should distinguish historical words. They denote institutions, customs, material objects introduced by historical events and refer to definite stages in the development of society and that’s why they never disappear from the l-ge: thane, yeoman, goblet, baldric, tzar, etc.

 Barbarisms and foreign words. Barbarisms are words of foreign origin which have not entirely been assimilated into the English l-ge. They bear the appearance of a borrowing and are felt as something alien to the native tongue. However, they are part and parcel of the English v-ry and are registered in the dictionary, whereas foreign words do not belong to the English v-ry. They are usually italicized to indicate their foreign appearance: udarnic, kolkhoz, kartoffeln, guapa (rabbit), honto (truth), etc.

e.g.: “Wakarimasu ka?” Omi said directly to Blackthorne.

“He says, ‘Do you understand?’”

“What’s ‘yes’ in Japanese?”

Father Sebastio said to the samurai, “Wakarimasu.” (J. Clavell’s. Shõgun. p. 33)

    Quite a number of barbarisms play an important role as technical terms and constitute an active part of the legal v-ry: fee simple – an estate or inheritance in land, absolute and without limitation to any particular class of heirs, laches – failure to do a thing at the proper time, esp. such delay as willbar a party from bringing a legal proceeding, alias – an assumed name, res judicate – a case that has been decided.

Literary Coinages/Nonce Words are coined for use at the moment of speech and meant to serve the occasion. Sometimes new coinages may replace old words, sometimes they disappear from the l-ge.

    There exist terminological coinages to designate new-born concepts and literary coinages. E.g.:“Let me say in the beginning that even if I wanted to avoid Texas I could not, for I am wifed in Texas and mother-in-lawed, and uncled, and aunted, and cousined within an inch of my life”.

    In scientific style the most productive means of coining new words is contraction and abbreviation: UNO (United Nations Organization) – ООН (Организация Объединенных Наций).

3.

    Colloquial v-ry: common col-l, slang, jargonisms, professional words, dialectal, vulgar, col-l coinages.

This layer may be presented in the following chart:

 

Colloquial vocabulary

_____________________________________________________________________

 

Low colloquial                                                                                                   vulgarisms

                                                                   Slang                                        (intensifiers, four-

                                                                                                                              letter words)

 

                                                    

                                                   

                                                       General          Special

 

_________________________

 

                                           jargon                                          cant

                                                                                 (Rhyme slang, back slang)

 

                    professional         corporative

Military: kite (an airplane)                                                 jazz performer – hep-cat, alligator

               oppo (a senior office)                                         dance – rat-race, cement-mixer

Business: to bang market – to sell a stock with apparent   anything excellent – killer-diller

                recklessness, so as to force down its price         a girl – chick, witch

                                                                                            Coca – Cola - fizz

 

    The most interesting phenomenon is slang, but it is difficult to define. Even the etymology of this word is very dubious. Most of the linguists consider it to be scandinavian-akin to English sling, Nor. slengjia kiefte (to sling the jaw=to use abusive language). It was registered in as early as 1756 in the meaning “language of a low or vulgar type”. Such terms as linguo, argot, jargon, flash, gibberish, cant were used as synonyms to the term slang, but one should not understand all these phenomena under one name.