4.2.6. The newspaper style

Not all the printed matter found in newspapers comes under newspaper style. The modern newspaper carries material of an extremely diverse character. One finds here news and comment on it; press reports of various events, articles on political and social problems, including the editorial, full texts of various documents and speeches of public figures, advertisements and announcements, poetry and emotive prose, book reviews, cross-word puzzles, chess problems and so on. All these kinds of material have different functions and different linguistic characteristics and belong to different functional styles. Example: articles on political and social problems, the editorial and commentary have the aim of influencing the reader by giving an interpretation of certain facts and they are classical specimens of publicistic style. Texts of documents represent the style of official documents.

But some of the material is to be found only in newspaper. It has its own function - which is information - and its own linguistic properties. The material is:

1. Brief news items;

2. Press reports (parliamentary, of court proceedings);

3. Articles purely informational in character;

4. Adds and announcements.

The main function of it is information, though it has elements of evaluation, like publicistic material. It is characterized by some language properties which are to be found only in this kind of writing. The language peculiarities of the newspaper style are concentrated in:

a) brief news items;

b) adds and announcements;

c) headlines.

4.2.7. Belles-lettres style

The Belles-lettres style has three varieties (sub styles):

1. The language of poetry, or verse;

2. Emotive prose or the language of fiction;

3. The language of drama.

These varieties have some common features which make up the foundation of the belles-lettres style. At the same time each has some individuality, which makes it different from the other two. The common features are:

1. A double function, which is called aesthetico-cognitive. The first object of the belles-lettres style is to present some idea for considerations, to suggest a possible interpretation of a phenomenon of life and force the reader to see the view-point of the writer. This is the cognitive function. The second object is to appeal to the feelings of the reader. This is the aesthetic function.

2. Certain indispensable (совершенно необходимый) linguistic features, such as:

(a) Genuine (not trite) imagery, achieved by the use of genuine stylistic devices;

(b) The use of words in contextual meaning;

(c) The introduction of the typical features of colloquial style to a full degree in plays, a lesser degree in emotive prose and a slight degree, if any, in poetry;

(d) Vocabulary reflecting the author's personal evaluation of things or phenomena;

(e) A peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax. Individuality in selecting language means, extremely apparent in poetic style, is a little less apparent in emotive prose and the drama.

The language of poetry, or verse;

The language of poetry is characterized by:

1) An orderly form, which is based on the phonetic arrangement of the utterance. Rhythm and rhyme are the properties which make poetry different from emotive prose and the drama.

2) Rich imagery.

3) Emotional coloring. The emotional element is characteristic of the belles-lettres style in general, but poetry has it in full measure due to the great number of emotionally colored words and the rhythmic arrangement of verse.

4) Choice of vocabulary - neutral, poetic, archaic.

Emotive prose (fiction)

The imagery is not so rich as in poetry. The percentage of words - used in contextual meaning is not so high as in poetry. The individuality of the author is not clearly seen. This sub style is characterized by the combination of the spoken and written varieties of the language, as there are always two forms of communication present - monologue (the writer's speech) and dialogue. The language of the writer usually conforms to the literary norms of the given period in the development of the English literary language.

The Language of Drama

The language of plays is entirely dialogue. The author's speech is almost entirely excluded except for the playwright's remarks and stage directions.

The language of plays is characterized by redundancy of information. This is done for the sake of the audience. In natural speech very many things remain unuttered as the situation makes them clear.

In lively conversation when a prolonged utterance, a monologue, takes place it is full of interlocutor's remarks ("signals of attention") such as: yes, I see, that's right, well-well, well, I never!, and the like. In plays these signals of attention are irrelevant and they are not inserted. Monologues in plays are never interrupted by such exclamatory words.

In plays the character's utterances are generally much longer than in ordinary conversation. A dialogue very often flows into a monologue. The monological character of the dialogue in plays becomes apparent when two or more questions are asked one after another.