Задания для самостоятельной работы студентов

QUESTIONS:

1. Give semantic characteristic of declamatory style.

2. What two varieties does this style comprise?

3. Speak on the essential characteristics of reading descriptive prose and reading a dialogic text in terms of terminal tones, tempo, rhythm, hesitation phenomenon.

4. Compare the intonation of reading serious descriptive prose (declamatory style) with that of reading scientific prose (scientific style). Identify and account for the similarities and differences.

5. Analyze the extract of a dialogic text. Discuss the way in which the author provides us with clues as to how the speech of the characters should be interpreted. In what way does this conversation differ from the natural speech of living people? What phonostylistic information is left out of the printed version?

6. Are author’s remarks as to how the text should be read important?

7. Find any extracts of your own exemplifying declamatory and scientific styles. Single out their phonostylistic peculiarities. Compare these two extracts and account for their similarities and differences. Be ready to act them out in class.

Practical material

She is Not Fair ♫

¯She is ˙not ‘fair ¦ to ˌoutward _\view,

As ↘many ↘maidens ˇbe;

Her ˈloveliness I “never _\knew

Unˈtil she _\smiled on ˌme.

_\Oh, ˈthen I ‘saw her ˈeye was _\bright,

A ˈwell of ‘love,│a ‘spring of _\light.

But ‘now ¦ her ˈlooks are ‘coy and ‘cold –

¯To ‘mine they ˙never re‘ply;

¯And >yet ¦ I ˈcease ˙not to be_\hold

The ‘love-ˌlight ¦ in her _\eye.

Her “very ‘frowns ¦ are ˈsweeter ˇfar

¯Than ‘smiles of ‘other ˌmaidens _\are.

Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849)

Unit 4. Publicistic style Explanation

The term ‘publicistic style’ is a very broad label, which covers a variety of types, distinguishable on the basis of the speaker’s occupation, situation and purpose. Publicistic style is characterized by predominance of volitional intonation patterns against the background of intellectual and emotional ones. The general aim of this intonational style is to exert influence on the listener, to convince him that the speaker’s interpretation is the only correct one and to cause him to accept the point of view expressed in the speech. The task is accomplished not merely through logical argumentation but through persuasion and emotional appeal. For this reason publicistic style has features in common with scientific style, on the one hand, and declamatory style, one the other. As distinct from the latter its persuasive and emotional appeal is achieved not by the use of imaginary but in a more direct manner.

Publicistic style is made resort to by political speech-makers, radio and television commentators, participants of press conferences and interviews, counsel and judges in courts of law. It is the type of public speaking dealing with political and social problems (eg. parliamentary debates, speeches at rallies, congresses, meeting and election campaigns).

Any kind of oration imposes some very important constraints on the speaker. Normally, it is the written variety of English that is being used (a speech may be written out in full and rehearsed). The success of a political speech-maker is largely dependent on his ability to manipulate intonation and voice quality. In accordance with his primary desire to convince the listeners of his merits he also has to ensure a well-defined ideas combined with persuasive and emotional appeal.

The intonation adequate for political speeches is characterized by the following regularities. In the pre-nuclear part the main patterns are: (Low Pre-Head +) Stepping Head; (Low Pre-Head +) Falling Head. The heads are often broken due to extensive use of accidental rises to make an utterance more emphatic. The High Level Head is less frequent and the Low Level Head here is indicative of tonal subordination. By tonal subordination we refer to cases when the pitch-level of an intonation group is dependent on its neighbours, semantically and communicatively more important intonation groups being pronounced on a higher pitch-level. The nuclear tone of final intonation groups is generally the Low Fall; the High Fall is much less common. In non-final intonation groups both simple and compound tunes are found, namely, the Low Fall, the Low Rise, the Mid-level and the Fall-Rise. The High Fall and the High Rise are very rarely used for purposes of intra-phrasal coordination. It is interesting to note that the Low Rise and the Mid-level tones are typical of more formal discourse, whereas the Fall-Rise is typical of less formal and more fluent discourse.

The speed of utterance is related to the degree of formality, the convention being that formal speech is usually slow, and less formal situations entail acceleration of speed. Variations in rhythm are few. Pauses and the ensuing internal boundaries are explicable in semantic and syntactic terms. Intonation groups tend to be short and as a result pauses are numerous, ranging from brief to very long. Hesitation pauses are avoided, still silent hesitation pauses occasionally do occur. It is interesting to note that some of the best ripostes during a political speech come at a point when the speaker is trying to gain maximum effect through a rhetorical silence. Moreover, an utterance is often emphasized by means of increased sentence-stress and the glottal stop.

This extract from a political speech may serve as an example of publicistic style.

You ↘can’t have inˈformed o‘pinion ^→ on this ‘vital _\matter with^→out being kept ‘very ˌmuch up to _\date with the ‚latest _\facts of de_\fence. Now ^→ what _\is ‚wrong with a coa^→lition _\government? Of ^→ course you ‘need a ˌcoalition ‚government in ^→ time of ‚crisis,│but the ^→ dreadful ‘part of a ˌcoalition ˌgovernment, you ‚know, is that to ^→ keep it a‚live you ↘have to ˈgo in for ˈone ‚compromise after a_\nother. You ↘have to see ˈpeople ˈsitting ‚round the ‚cabinet room with ^→ different ‚views and un↘less there can be a ˈshifting of o‚pinion to↘wards ˈsome ‘form of ‚compromise bet↘ween those ˈdifferent ’views the coa↘lition ˈgovernment ‚falls and ↘we beˈcome aˈnother _\France. Now ^→ I ‘do be‚lieve that the ^→ whole _\question of de_\fence,│the ↘whole ˈquestion of a ˈstand upon ˈsummit _\talks, the ↘whole reˈaction as to ˈwhether ˈBritain ought to ˈtake a ‘lead in this ^→ question of the _\H-ˌbomb│ as to ^→ whether we >ought to│^→ have that ‘moral ‚leadership and ↘give that ˈmoral e‚xample ↘by ˈsaying ‘not, we ↘uniˈlaterally dis‘arm. ^→ That I have ‚never ˌsaid and ↘that many ˈmembers of my ˈown party, ‘most ˌmembers of my ˌown ’party have ^→ never be_\lieved in. ^→ What we ‘do say at this ‚moment as the ˌoppoˈsition is _\this: for ˆheaven’s ˌsake, ˈgive a _\lead │and ‚try and ‚break ‚down this ↘dreadful suiˈcidal ‚wall where ↘no one will ˈyield an _\inch,│↘say that you ˈdo ˈnot in ˈfact in_\tend over the ↘next ˈsix _\months, if you ’like to ^→ have any more _\tests,│^→ say _\something that can ˈstart the dis‘armament ˌtalks _\going. Now ^→ if you _\firmly believe in ‚that ^→ don’t go in for a coa_\lition be_\cause as I’ve ’said ↘that’s a ˈvery ˈvital contriˈbution I be’lieve to↘wards the ˈpeace of the ’world and to↘wards our ˈown deˈfence _\policy.