Lecture 2 - continued

The publicistic style

Includes:
 the style of newspaper and magazine articles,
 essays,
 oratorical speech
 the style of radio and TV commentaries.

Oral + written form

Aim: to convince + to cause to accept

The publicistic style

Peculiarities:
 logical argumentation + emotional appeal =
(scientific prose and belle-lettres style).
 the emotional appeal – the use of words with emotive meaning + the use of stylistic devices (not fresh or genuine!)
 the form of a monologue,
 the coherent and logical syntactical structure
 careful paragraphing, extended system of connectives
 a great number of literary and bookish words.


The aim:
 interpret the news
 comment on the events of the day
 convince [the reader that …]

Vocabulary:
 terms (political, economic, etc.);
 newspaper clichés;
 emotionally coloured vocabulary;
 stylistic devices.

Essays
 short literary articles on philosophical, aesthetic or literary subject;
 never go deep;
 individual (often in 1 st person);
 very popular in the 18 th cent.:
 the principal literary form,
 written on important topics of the day,
 often criticizing the short-comings of the political and social system in England.

Essays

Features:
 brevity of expression;
 the use of 1 st person singular, personal approach;
 the use of emotionally coloured words;
 the use of epigram, paradoxes, aphorisms.

Oratorical Speech

Includes :
 parliamentary discourse,
 speeches at Congress,
 sermons,
 orations,
 speeches on solemn public occasions.

Aim – to convince the audience and evoke an immediate desired reaction.

Oratorical speech

Features of the oral speech:
 the use of direct address (My Lords! Mr. Chairman!
Ladies and Gentlemen!);
 the use of contractions (I’ll, don’t);
 the use of pronouns I and we;
 the use of colloquial words and phrases,
 the use of alliteration.

Oratorical speech

The speaker wants:
 to keep up the interest of the audience and hold it in suspense, consequently:
 emotionally coloured words;
 lexical and syntactical TRITE stylistic devices;
 repetition;
 allusions (to contemporary or historical events, to well-known people, to literary characters, mythology and the Bible; used to draw the historical parallels and to confirm the statement).

Oratorical speech

Syntactical features –
 the sentences are long, can contain many dependent clauses and parenthetical clauses;
 the use of gradations: Such a claim was all a part, a trick, a trap to provide the Republican party with a scapegoat at that time;
 antithesis, rhetorical questions, exclamatory sentences, suspense:
We fought Lexington to free ourselves.
We fought Gettysburg to free others.
(antithesis, parallelism, repetition)

Oratorical speech

Rhetorical questions
 draw the attention of the audience
 and break the monotony of a series of declarative sentences,
 have a strong emotive colouring (the speaker strives to call for a sympathetic reaction on the part of the listeners);
 fulfill the function of a statement, not a ?

Non-rhetorical Q. are also effective.

The publicistic style

Summary

The use of direct address and 1 st person pronouns.

A rather wide use of connectives.

The abundant use of expressive and emotive words.

The use of tropes, especially sustained metaphors and similes.

The use of traditional set expressions and clichés.

The use of colloquial vocabulary.

The colloquial style -
 informal speech of everyday conversation.

The 1 st problem – classification: can it be regarded as a functional style?

- I.R. Halperin (functional styles belong only to the written variety of the literary language)

+ I.V. Arnold, Y.M. Skrebnev, V.A. Maltsev

The colloquial style


 literary colloquial ( литературно-разговорный ) ; unceremonious ( фамильярно-разговорный ) ; popular speech/ common parlance ( просторечье ).

- our everyday means of communication.

Peculiarities

 social phrases: greetings, words of parting; introductions and wishes; congratulations, requests, thanks, apologies, assent and dissent, hesitation el.;
 the formulae of direct address:
 a) socially oriented: Sir, Madam, first name, Professor …
 b) bearing personal emotiveness: endearments, abusive.


Peculiarities



2. Vocabulary. The word-stock falls into 3 layers:


 the literary; the neutral; the colloquial.
 (kid – infant, daddy – parent)
Colloquial words are always more emotionally coloured.

cock-and-bull – long, complicated story, cliff-hanger – prolonged tense situation, from A to Z – thoroughly.
Thematically colloquial lexical units are more anthropocentric

(monkey – mischievous child; splinter – splitting headache).

Peculiarities

3. Simple verbs: phrasal verbs are mostly used instead of their literary synonyms:
 to get out – retire;
 to stand up to – support.

The one-syllabled verbs, such as:
 do, put, take, come, go, get, turn, run, fall, etc., produce an enormous multiplicity of meanings.

4. Simple sentences prevail .

Peculiarities








5. Combination of compression and redundancy
Compression – realized in:
Shortened forms of modal and auxiliary verbs;
Omission of words (elliptical sentences: Been travelling?);
Clipped words;
Words of broad semantics (thing, stuff, matter);
Simplicity of syntactical constructions;
The use of monosyllabic words.

Peculiarities


So-called time-fillers or senseless expressions like
“You know…”, “Well”;

In pleonastic use of personal pronouns (Don’t you
forget it);

In the senseless repetition of words and phrases;

The use of double negative (Don’t bring no money; Ain’t
nobody’s business).

Professor Skrebnev:






Colloquial style = oral speech? But: lectures or a student’s answer > to bookish forms.
Colloquial speech = “dialogue”? But: the dialogue of an Amb. with a foreign secretary.
Lingual intercourse in coll. style is immediate.
Emotive character of everyday speech? But: poetry even more emotiveness.
“Consituation” (the situation is common to each of its participants)
A limited set of ready-made stereotyped formulas.

Prof. Skrebnev: 2 tendencies

Explication + implication - on different levels of the language

Phonetics:

The main feature is general carelessness and indistinctness of articulation. The expectancy factor makes indistinct speech comprehensible.

Explication: a loud voice, emphatic articulation (shown graphically in italics, dividing into syllables, etc.)

Prof. Skrebnev: 2 tendencies

Morphology.

Implication: dropping of morphemes (eg. real good,
pretty far, he don’t know).

Explication - in analytical morphology:

The use of emphatic forms (e.g. continuous – I’m thinking, I’m
being uneasy; Do come!)
 The use of multiple negation;
 The use of double subject;
 The use of double demonstrative pronouns (eg. Is this here
that watch?)
 The use of inclusive doubling (I will kill you dead)

Prof. Skrebnev: 2 tendencies

Syntax:

Common word combinations perform the function of imperative sentences

Tea. For two. Out here.

Non-interrogative sentences perform the function of interrogative.
 You’re going? Sugar, Dr.Trent?

The use of pseudo-interrogative sentences:
 Why don’t you sit down? Can you pass the salt?

Prof. Maltsev: word creation


Changes in the meaning:



 metaphor: paralytic – helplessly drunk; peach – adult (slang); metonymy: wig – judge; antonomasia: Othello; hyperbole: smash hit show.
Changes in form:


Compounding and blending (hasbeen, block-head, brunch);
Affixation (keener – inquis. person; oldster, kiddo, fatso)

Shortening / acronyms, back clipping, back formation, front clipping, middle clipping (e.g. maths, exams, lab, sci-fi)

Informal grammar


 the noun – the use of double genitive; the use of plural forms:

A good friend of my husband’s; I’m friends with him. He has
brains; the article can be omitted, but it can be used with proper names:
 the Johnsons; He’s married to a Miss Brown; He bought a
Picasso; I don’t claim to be a Caruso; Here again was Tom,
the Tom…; the pronoun: objective forms

Jack was four year older than me. You’re the only person. – Me?
We are mad, you and me; Told who? You know who I mean.

Informal grammar



The adjective: typical is the use of absolute superlatives

She has the longest straightest legs; a more older man; the most
carelessest man; the bestest man;
The adverb – the use of adjectives instead of adverbs

Don’t talk so loud!;
The verb: the continuous forms instead of the indefinite - more emotional and personal

How are you feeling? Oh, how the stars were shining!; the verb will is a simple mark as futurity, while shall denotes obligation; the use of forms with low colloquial or vulgar, illiterate connotations

ain’t, gotcha, wanna.





The use of elliptical constructions
 (Pass.: the airport. – Dr.: ok. );
Functional words are clipped ( ‘d, ‘s )
Leaving out the S or the functional verb or both:
 Can’t afford to buy it. // Don’t worry. Only makes your hair gray. // Nice talking to you. // Oh, being sarcastic.
 The book I’m reading; he says he has no appetite; it’s a good thing he did; the thing is it gets so awfully hot in here .