Vocabulary

on the threshold of Orthodox Lent – в преддверии православного поста

piercing wind – пронизывающий ветер

Mardi Grass – вторник на масленичной неделе

sour cream – сметана

caviar – икра

sturgeon – осетр

taste buds – вкусовые окончания на языке

jesters – шуты

sledge-rides – катание на санях

scarecrow – пугало

Task

1. Read, translate the newspaper article and find out the following the stylistic distinctive features:

Lexical features

1. set phrases:

2. terminological varieties:

3. toponyms:

4. proper names:

5. international words:

6. epithet:

7. use of socially accepted contracted forms and abbreviations:

Morphological features:

a) use of non-finite verb forms, such as gerund, participle, infinitive:

b) use non-perfect verb forms:

Syntactical features:

1. use of impersonal sentences:

2. use of elliptical constructions:

From Crisis to Baby Boom

Anna Artrtunyan

The heartening announcements were made. Friday by the newly appointed Minister for Health and Social Development, Tatyana Golikova. "In 2007, 1,602,387 children were born, which represents a growth of 122,750 chil­dren compared to 2006," she was quoted by news agencies as saying. "We have not seen such a growth in birth rate in 25 years."

The numbers appear to vindicate a series of aggressive policies undertaken by the nation's health authorities in battling dire demo­graphic figures. Russia has been steadily los­ing inhabitants since 1993, two years after the collapse of the Soviet Union heralded a decade of turmoil and economic instability. Since then, the country had shrunk by some 5.8 mil­lion inhabitants.

Officials attributed the turning tide to new policies and increased economic stability. Last year, a law went into effect granting mothers $ 11,000 for the birth of their second child, while maternity leave payments and benefits for first-time mothers have increased as well. A mother can expect the government to pay at least 40 percent of her salary for two months prior to the birth of a child and two months after. If she chooses to opt out of work afterwards, she is paid up to $300 per month for the next 18 months.

"It definitely has to do with improvements in living standards and economic factors," says Alexandra Goldina, a perenatal psychologist who counsels expectant couples and accompanies women as a labor coach. "The baby boom I've witnessed over the last five to six years has spread beyond Moscow and St. Petersburg."

Goldina, who also keeps tabs on maternity hospitals and medical programs in the capital, told The Moscow News that having more chil­dren has even become something of a status symbol…

"In Moscow, first it was simply in vogue to have two children, but now it's the norm.

The more successful the man of the family is, the more children the family feels it's supposed to have. And if this used to apply mostly to Moscow, it's spreading to the regions now as well."

In particular, Goldina says, the maternity incentive for the second child has definitely played a positive role. "After the law came into force, women started getting pregnant for the second time nine, ten, thirteen years after their first child." Health authorities have announced recently that the incentive will be increased to $12,000 by 2010.

More births, meanwhile, mean new atti­tudes. According to Goldina, more and more men are lining up to help their wives give birth, while the medical establishment is learning to welcome the trend. In Moscow, the number of contracted births – meaning that a woman pays a hospital in order to have her spouse present and generally has a say in the medical procedures – have increased drastically. But so has the price. "Presently, the average price of a contract is about 50,000 rubles, (just over $2,000), while five years ago it was about 12,000 rubles."

In a medical culture where pregnancy and birth have succumbed to stringent medical reg­ulation, what that signals is that expectant mothers and families are taking a more proactive approach in pushing for more natural births. With making ends meet and finding a place to, live no longer such a pressing priority, many parents are opting for more novel ways to give birth.

The government, meanwhile, is catching on as well. In an effort to help couples hampered by infertility, the government of the republic of Tatarstan, for instance, has launched a family planning clinic that subsidizes two-thirds of the costs of fertility treatment.

"Fifteen years ago we saw deaths exceed the number of births – we are reversing this trend. 3,500 more births last year and 500 fewer deaths – we need to keep on making progress," Ayrat Farrakhov, the Tatarstan Health Minister told the Russia Today channel.

(taken from the “Moscow News”)

Vocabulary

crisis – кризис

to vindicate – оправдывать

the collapse – обвал

a perenatal psychologist – перинатальный психолог

to witness – быть свидетелем

the maternity incentive – материнский инстинкт

a pressing priority – довлеющий приоритет

infertility – бесплодие

to reverse – обратный процесс

Tasks

1. Analyze their distinctive features on all levels as described in Chapter 1.

2. Find texts demonstrative of this style and analyze their distinctive features on all levels as described in Chapter 1.

Chapter 2

Colloquial style

Literary colloquial style

Distinctive stylistic linguistics features of literary colloquial style

1. Compositional features. By colloquial we mean what is only slightly lower than neutral – such forms of speech in fact are used by people when they do not mean to be rude sarcastic and what do they intend to say in written and spoken varieties (dialogue, monologue, personal letters, diaries, essays, articles, etc.). Spontaneous types have a loose structure, relative coherence and uniformity of form and content.

The colloquial sublanguage demonstrates two tendencies: implication (компрессия) and explication (избыточность) due to the spontaneous speech.

Implication is the use of a smaller quantity of lingual means than is required by common sense. Lack of time makes the speaker to economize on lingual means.

Explication is the use of superfluous amount of form. Lack of time results in the opposite tendency as well: the speaker wastes lingual units because he has no chance of finding an economical form.

2. Phonetic features. Lack of time urge the speaker to economize on lingual means: phonetic compression (it’s, don’t, I’ve), omission of unaccented elements due to the quick tempo (you know him?).

3. Lexical features: wide range of vocabulary strata in accordance with the register of communication and participants’ roles: formal and informal, neutral and bookish, terms and foreign words. Basic stock of communicative vocabulary – stylistically neutral.

1. use of socially accepted contracted forms and abbreviations (ice for ice-cream, CD for compact disk);

2. extensive use of intensifies (so nice, such a nice day, such an idler, so many days, so much money) and gap fillers (absolutely, definitely, I mean, kind of, if I may say so);

3. use of words of indefinite meaning (thing, stuff),

4. use of interjections and exclamations (Dear me, My God, Goodness, well, why, now),

5. use of phrasal verbs (put up with it, stand somebody up) and idioms (as fit as a fiddle);

6. use of special colloquial phrases (that friends of yours).

4. Morphological features: use of regular morphological features, prevalence of active and finite verb forms.

5. Syntactical features:

a) use of simple sentences with a number of participial and infinitive constructions are the tendency to exaggerate lingual units;

b) syntactically correct utterances compliant with the literary norm;

c) decomposition and ellipsis of sentences in a dialogue (easily reconstructed from the context);

d) use of various types of syntactical compression, simplicity of syntactical connection are the tendency to economize on lingual means are the tendency to economize on lingual means ¹.