Introduction. The General concept of style

grammatical means: nominal character ( the predominance of nouns over verbs), wide use of the Passive Voice,  Indefinite Tenses, numerous conjunctions revealing the logical order of the text as well as double conjunctions (not merely... but also, whether ... or both... and, as...as);

syntactical means: full, logically correct, regular syntactical models,  the syntax of simple sentence in the scientific speech - extensive use of extended two-member sentence, priority in the use of compound sentences, extensive use of secondary predicative constructions ( Complex Object, Participial and Gerundial Constructions), wide use of conjunctions, priority of  declarative sentences; the composition of a scientific text reflects stages of cognition: a problem situation, idea, hypothesis, proof, conclusion.

Different fields tend to have different styles of documentation, that is, the way you cite a source and the way you represent the source in the References. For example, biologists use the documentation style of the Council of Biological Editors, and chemists use the style of the American Chemical Society.."

Tables and figures should be done to professional standards, such as proper headings and captions and numbering. Style in this case refers to your choice of words and sentence structure. The style of science writing strives to be clear and to the point. Grand thesaurus words and long, artfully convoluted sentences are avoided.

As to choice of words, science writing uses words that its audience (other scientists in the field) will readily understand. To outsiders, the scientific vocabulary of this language looks like a lot of jargon. But the point is that scientific words that are obscure to outsiders are usually not obscure to the insiders that comprise the scientific audience.

The first 100 most frequent words of this style comprises the following units: 
a) prepositions: of, to, in, for, with, on, at, by, from, out, about, down;  
b) prepositional phrases: in terms of; in view of, in spite of, in common with, on behalf of, as a result of; by means of, on the ground of, in case of;  
c) conjunctional phrases: in order that, in case that, in spite of the fact that, on the ground that, for fear that;  
d) pronouns: one, it, we, they; 
e) notional words: people, time, two, like, man, made, years.

Verbs of exposition:    ascertain, assume, compare, construct, describe, determine, estimate, examine, explain, label, plot, record, test, verify.

Verbs of manipulation:   adjust, align, assemble, begin, boil, clamp, connect, cover, decrease, dilute, extract, fill, immerse, mix, prepare, release, rotate, switch on, take, weigh.

Lexical features

• Extensive use of bookish words e. g. presume, infer, preconception, cognitive.
• Abundance of scientific terminology and phraseology.
• Use of words in their primary dictionary meaning, restricted use of connotative contextual meanings.
• Use of numerous neologisms. Abundance of proper names.
• Restricted use of emotive colouring, interjections, expressive phraseology, phrasal verbs, colloquial vocabulary.
• Seldom use of tropes, such as metaphor, hyperbole, simile, etc.

Sentence Structure

• Use of lengthy sentences with subordinate clauses.
• Clauses have short subjects, with most of the information stated after the verb.
• Points of contrast are rhetorically balanced, using such devices as the more ;the less.
• Frequent use of passive and non-finite verb forms to achieve objectivity and impersonality.
• Direct word order.
• Extensive use of participial, gerundial and infinitive complexes.
• Extensive use of adverbial and prepositional phrases.
• Frequent use of parenthesis introduced by a dash.
• Abundance of attributive groups with a descriptive function.
• Preferential use of prepositional attributive groups instead of the descriptive of phrase.
• Avoidance of ellipsis, even usually omitted conjunctions like 'that' and 'which'.
• Use of impersonal forms and sentences such as mention should be made, it can be inferred, assuming that, etc.

 

Questions for Self-Control:

 

1. What is the main function of the Style of Official Documents?

2. What sub-styles comprise this style?

3. Comment the characteristic features of this style (both linguistic and communicative)

4. What is the structure of a business letter?

5. What words are usually used as salutation in the business letters?

6. Define the words “frame” and “slot”

7. What are the leading features in the language of diplomacy?

8. Which sub-style of the Official Documents style is rich in the use of abbreviations? Why?

 

 

Literature

      

       1.  Н.М. Разинкина. Практикум по стилистике английского и русского языков: Учебн.пособие. – М.: Высшая школа, 2006

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

Lecture 11

Colloquial Style

 

 

1.  Colloquial Style. Substyles of Colloquial vocabulary.

2.  Slang. Ways of slang formation

 

3. Jarginism, dialectal words

4.  Colloquial coinages. Vulgarisms

5. Conversation structure

 

 

Colloquial style is mainly represented in the oral type of speech. It cannot be studied through any written texts, even dialogues in the emotive prose and drama cannot be regarded as exact models of the colloquial style, as this type of dialogue is stylized by the author to convey the author’s message andhis/her understanding of the norms of the oral type of speech. The colloquial style is usually used in informal situations. In some cases elements of the colloquial style might be used in other styles. The elements of colloquial style (or rather imitation of the colloquial style) can be found in the Belles-Lettres style  to depict natural communication. Colloquial style like all other styles has its own lexical and syntactic peculiarities.

From the lexical point of view colloquial communication abounds in jargonisms, dialectical words, vulgarisms an colloquial coinages.

There is no precise definition for the notion “slang”. Nevertheless, defining the slang term, linguists agree that any slang has the following features:

1.  Slang is a part of casual, informal style of language use. The term slang traditionally has a negative connotation, it is often perceived as a “low” or “vulgar” form of a language and is considered to be out of place in formal styles of language.

2.  Slang changes quite rapidly. Some terms can enter a language rapidly, then fall out of fashion in a matter of a few years or even months.

3. Slang is usually associated with particular social groups such as teenage slang, criminal slang, drug culture slang. In this respect slang is a kind of jargon and its use serves as mark of membership and solidarity within a given social group.

 

Here are some examples  and ways of slang formation:

Hangin’ = To relax

Hawtty = Physically attractive person

Chinwag, Bibble-babble = To chat

Phat = Cool, nice, good

Peeps = Parents

Suffix –o.

Lamo, Wacko, Weirdo = A weird person

Suffix –ski; -sky

Brewski = Beer

Buttinski = A person who butts in.

Tootski = A puff of marijuana cigarette

Blending of words:

absolutely + positively = absolutively or posilutely

Stem-composition  -city; -ville

We’re in fat city.

She cried all night…you know, heartbreak city.

The guy’s really strange – totally weirdsville.

What a boring place – talk about nowheresville

Jargonisms stand close to slang, also being substandard, expressive and emotive, but, unlike slang they are used by limited groups of people, united either professionally (in this case we deal with professional Jargonisms, or professionalisms), or socially (here we deal with jargonisms proper). In distinction from slang, Jargonisms of both types cover a narrow semantic field: in the first case it is that, connected withthe technical side of some profession. So, in oil industry, e.g., for the terminological "driller" (буровщик) there exist "borer", "digger","wrencher", "hogger", "brake weight"; for "pipeliner" (трубопроводчик)- "swabber", "bender", "cat", "old cat", "collar-pecker", "hammerman";for "geologist" - "smeller", "pebble pup", "rock hound", "witcher", etc. From all the examples at least two points are evident: professionalisms are formed according to the existing word-building patterns or present existing words in new meanings, and, covering the field of special professional knowledge, which is semantically limited, they offer a vast variety of synonymic choices for naming one and the same professional item.

Jargonisms proper are characterized by similar linguistic features, but differ in function and sphere of application. They originated from the thieves' jargon (l'argo, cant) and served to conceal the actual significance of the utterance from the uninitiated. Their major function thus was to be cryptic, secretive. This is why among them there are cases of conscious deformation of the existing words. The so-called back jargon (or back slang) can serve as an example: in their effort to conceal the machinations of dishonest card-playing, gamblers used numerals in their reversed form: "ano" for "one", "owt" for "two", "erth" for "three".

A dialect is a distinct form of a language spoken in a certain geographical area. This notion is usually implied to the regional dialect. Along with the regional dialect there exist social and ethnic dialects.

A social dialect is a distinct form of a language spoken by members of a specific socioeconomic class such as the working-class dialects in England, or the ghetto language of USA.

Ethnic dialects can be distinguished among a certain ethnic group such as Yiddish English, historically associated with speakers of Jewish. In popular usage the term dialect refers to a form of a language that is regarded as “substandard”, “incorrect”, or “corrupt” as opposed to the “standard”, “correct”, or “pure” form of a language. In fact, linguists think that there is no “pure”, “standard” English, even the Standard English can be regarded as a dialect of English, which, from a linguistic point of view, is no more “correct” than any other form of English.

Examples of dialectical words

Dope = Coca-Cola (South, USA)

Pocketbook = Purse (Boston, USA)

Fetch up = Raise children (South, USA)

Fag = Cigarette (England)

Bonnet = Hood of a car (England)

Nambawan (Number One)= The Best (Creole)

Faiasmouk (Fire smoke)= Smoke (Creole)

Ai nogud (Eye no good) = Blind (Creole)

Ol maan i kam ia = The old man is coming here (Creole)

Dog  blong maan = The man’s dog (Creole)

Im bin ran = He ran (Bin used to mark Past) (Creole)

Da pua pipl awl poteito it = The poor people eat only potatoes (Hawaiian)

Wok had dis pipl = These people work hard (Hawaiian)

The term vulgarism is rather misleading. Webster’s “New International Dictionary” defines vulgarism as “a vulgar phrase or expression, or one used only in colloquial, or, esp. in unrefined or low, speech”. I.R.Galperin defines vulgarisms as expletives or swear-words and obscene words and expressions.

There are different degrees of vulgar words. Some of them, the obscene ones, are called “four-letter” words. A lesser degree of vulgarity is presented by expletives and they sometimes appear in euphemistic spelling.

   The function of vulgarisms is almost the same as that of interjections, that is to express strong emotions. They are not to be found in any style of speech except emotive prose, and here only in the direct speech of the characters.

Examples of Vulgarisms

1. With the word ‘hell’

What the hell are you doing here, you jerk!?

I won’t, you say?------Like hell, I will. (never)

Oh, God! My head hurts like hell! (badly)

I killed her for the hell of it. (for fun)

2. Sex organs

Don’t ask him to go with us, he’s got no balls (courage)

“He said you failed the exam’----‘Balls’ (nonsense)

3. Sexual intercourse

“It’s very cold today, isn’t it?”------“No, it’s not very cold. It’s f##king cold.” (extremely)

4. Body fluid, emunctory and egesta

“You bloody miserable son of a bitch!”

“Piss off, Peter, I am working now”

“ What he said really pissed me off”

Colloquial coinages (nonce-words) are spontaneous and elusive. Most of them disappear from the language leaving no trace in it. Some nonce-words and meanings may acquire legitimacy and thus become facts of the language, while on the other hand they may be classified as literary or colloquial according to which of the meanings is being dealt with.

When a nonce-word comes into general use and is fixed in dictionaries, it is classified as a neologism for a very short period of time. This shows the objective reality of contemporary life. Technical progress is so rapid that it builds new notions and concepts which in their turn require new words to signify them. Nonce-coinage appears in all spheres of life.

Conversation Structure: When we look at how actual speech or conversation is organized, we begin to appreciate how complex it is as soon as we try to devise any kind of system for talking about the various bits and pieces that occur and recur.

One particularity important principle used in conversation is the adjacency pair: a greeting leads to a return of greeting; a summons leads to a response; a question leads to an answer and so on. Conversation is a cooperative activity also in the sense that it involves two or more parties, each of whom must be allowed  the opportunity to participate. Consequently, there must be some principles, that is, principles of turn-taking. In most conversations only one person speaks at a time and that person is recognized to be the one whose turn it is to speak. Once a speaker gets a turn to speak, he or she may be reluctant to give up that turn and may employ any one or more of a variety of devices to keep it: avoidance of eye contact with listeners; employing gestures and a posture that inhibit other from speaking and so on.

Conversations must also have ways of getting started, have some recognizable core or substance to them, i.e., topic or topics, and be concludable.

Openings

The beginning of a conversation will generally involve an exchange of greetings. A telephone conversation may involve an exchange of Hello’s: a meeting between strangers might require an exchange of How do you do’s followed by some kind of self-identification. A meeting between very intimate acquaintances who spend much time together may have its own  special ritualistic beginning.

There are many ways of beginning a conversation or other talk-exchange. One is to start out with no preliminaries whatsoever: “Something wrong with the fax machine.” Another is to preface our remarks with an opening. For instance, there are a number of attention-getters (called vocatives) used at the beginning of a conversation, such as “Hey,” “Hey, John,” “Excuse me.” Once we have the hearer’s attention, we might then use a conversational parenthetical such as “You know,” “Listen.” But probably the most common opening in casual conversation is the greeting. Basically, a greeting is an expression of pleasure at meeting someone. Greetings may be casual (hello! How are you?), informal (hi! What’s up?), formal (Good day, Mr.Smeeth).

    Topic/Topics of the Conversation

Once conversation has been initiated and the opening forms have been exchanged, it will be necessary to establish a topic or topics on which to talk. One party may have something he or she wishes to convey to, or discuss with, the other. In a telephone conversation, for example , you assume that it is the caller who has a definite topic in mind. If a telephone caller does not have a specific topic in mind he or she must quickly mention this fact in some way. If the caller attempts to complete the call without either bringing up a topic or explaining that it was a call without a pre-designated topic, the party called is likely to feel somewhat bewildered. Speakers are sometimes interrupted or even interrupt themselves. A skillful speaker may try to lessen the chances of the first kind of interruption by structuring his or her remarks in such a way as to lessen the possibilities of interruption, controlling the amount and kind of gaze used between self and others, and ensuring that the kinds of signals that tend to indicate that a turn is being relinquished are not allowed to occur by accident.

Turn Taking

The person who starts speaking after the greetings are over in fact initiates the substance of the conversation by taking the next turn. One influential analysis has proposed that turn taking is controlled by three principles:

          (P1) – The speaker “selects” the next speaker.

          (P2) – The first to talk becomes the speaker.

          (P3) – The speaker continues her own remarks.

The current speaker “selects” the next speaker in various ways, one of which, of course, is to ask someone a question. Generally the person being asked has the next turn, though someone else could, in accordance with (P2), simply break in and start talking. Clearly, unless these remarks were urgent in some way, we would consider such an act rude. The same is true if the speaker asks someone a question and then keeps on talking, in accordance with (P3). These observations suggest that (P1) overrides (P2) and (P3) in the sense that (P1) has conversation priority. A speaker who wants to violate that principle needs to have a good reason, on pain of being considered rude, ignorant, or insensitive. Why do we have such principles governing conversations? One reason is that for information to get through, everyone cannot be talking at once, and sequencing principles help minimize the chances of disruptive overlap.

    Closings

Just as conversations rarely begin with their central topic, so they rarely come to an abrupt end. Participants don’t simply quit talking; they have a highly ritualized way of bringing normal conversations to an end. On one proposal, the end of normal conversation consists of a pre-closing sequence (Say hello to Joan for me…) , followed by a closing section (Goodbye), where they actually do close.

 

Questions for Self-Control

 

1. Name the main substyles of colloquial layer?

2. What is the main differences between Slang and Jargonism?

3. Define the notion of Vulgarism

4. Give the definition of the term “slang”

5. What is colloquial coinage?

6. What is the main difference between Professionalisms and Jargonisms?

7. What is three main categories of Dialectical words?

8. How did I.R. Galperin defines vulgarisms?

9. Words of which substyle are not fixed in dictionaries?

10. What is the structure of conversation? Speak about the differences in the openings, topic change and closings in the English, Kazkh and Russian speaking cultures.

 

 

Literature

      

       1.  Н.М. Разинкина. Практикум по стилистике английского и русского языков: Учебн.пособие. – М.: Высшая школа, 2006

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

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

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

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

                  6.    Wardhaugh, Ronald. 1992. An introduction to sociolinguistics. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. 
                           Wolfram, Walt. 1991.