Introduction

The book on stylistics was created thanks to the student’s drive and energy. They not only inspired the author to create new tasks, but made a valuable contribution of interesting practical materials.

The whole course of stylistics is covered in ten units. The idea of the book is to engage the class in multi-faceted creative work in practical linguostylistic analyses. The material is to be used as a basis for theoretical seminars that can not be limited by pure discussions of theory and as means of activating stylistic terminology. The chief aim is: the student is supposed to step out of the standard course boundaries.

Each of which 10 basic units concentrates on a particular aspect of stylistics. The aspects are implied in the unit titles: History of English style development, Vocabulary: stylistic aspect, Phonetic stylistic etc. Units are concerned with text-based activities, such as vocabulary analyses, editing, fulfilling a set of reading comprehension tasks. The interpretation of the text is primary. Profound understanding of various expressive means is the key to mastering the theory.

Creative work of independent character is essential. This task can be class, group or individual. Tasks on translation can be only welcome. Various supplementary materials serve to increase the students’ cultural and linguistic erudition.

The work on the book is very demanding. It involves theoretical preparation preliminary to actual work, review of it can be done in class. Theoretical introductory, marked  Basic information on the topic will help to concentrate on theory. Some texts are presented in oral form, marked  oral versions of speech productions. After comprehensive reading or listening the student comes to application of stylistic theory in  Practical stylistic tasks. For enlarging the scope of knowledge students proceed to  Collecting data on other stylistic aspects. The majority of practical tasks contain also minor tasks in translation. They are very important for understanding stylistic problems of translation.

Besides, the book contains Material for independent study that serves as example for independent stylistic search. BIBLIOGRAPHY can help to prepare for seminars and examinations, TESTS are based on theoretical course and help to memorize material. They can also serve for self-assesment.

Contents:

		INTRODUCTION	P 3
		CONTENTS	P 4
UNIT		TOPIC
Unit 1		Oral and written speech.	P
Unit 2		History of English style development	P
Unit 3		Vocabulary: stylistic aspect	P
Unit 4		Phonetic stylistic devices	P
Unit 5		Lexical stylistic devices	P
Unit 6		Syntactic stylistic devices	P
Unit 7		Functional styles	P
Unit 8		Text theory	P
Unit 9		Practical stylistics	P
Unit 10		Stylistics and translation	P
		Material for independent study	P
		BIBLIOGRAPHY	P
		TESTS	P

 Basic information on the topic

 oral versions of speech productions

 Practical stylistic tasks

 Collecting data on other stylistic aspects

Unit 1 Oral and written speech

 Read information on the topic

Oral and written speech: differences and purposes in communication process

Though there are many differentiations of speech productions, the basic ones, mentioned in many linguistic works, are oral and written. Both are important ingredients of communication process. When people communicate with each other, they exchange information, through a common system of symbols. In oral, or spoken, communication sound patterns are used to stand for objects of reality.

Oral communication, however, involves more than just language. People use vocal characteristics —rate, pitch, loudness, and so on—to help clarify the intent of the sound patterns. When people speak, they use facial expressions, gestures, and eye contact to make their meanings clear.

Ancient cultures begin with oral languages. Although oral language was a major achievement for humanity, it had limitations. It was an imperfect means for transporting messages over distance and time. With the invention of writing, ideas could be recorded, copied, and sent by several runners to people in distant places. Ideas could also be passed on with little or no distortion to succeeding generations. Later people learnt to represent the language of their group with written symbols. A written language uses printed symbols to stand for sound patterns. In addition to using letters to represent sounds, a written language contains punctuation marks that express the vocal characteristics. For example, a period and a comma in writing are equivalent to a pause in speech, while a question mark is expressed through a change in inflection, or pitch, and an exclamation point can be heard as increased volume and intensity. Nonverbal aspects of oral communication have no direct substitute in written language. Plus they can be different in oral and written speech. For example, diagrams, charts, graphs, pictures, and drawings may be used to help the reader understand the printed text. In oral speech all the richness of the voice is used.

Oral and written speech in human communication developed to serve many purposes. Writing enabled people to record ideas on a single surface. It helped to develop new communication means. Television broadcasting, radio broadcasting, digital communication made it possible to compress, store, and transmit large volumes of data efficiently. Oral speech, however, did not lose its importance and helps to provide spontaneous communication and develop the language, for it is innovative, while written speech is conservative. Both oral and written speech meets the fundamental human need to exchange and interpret information.

 To examine oral and written speech it is necessary to look beyond Language or in other words, at Paralanguage (When people talk, they don't stop short at language. They use their voices in ways that go along with language. People also talk with their bodies. And they use substitutes for language). In other words paralanguage means are called extralinguistic ones. Here we can attribute voice parameters, for the voice carries more than the sounds of language. It carries sounds that go along with language. Another example is body talk. Body movements, too, go along with language. Sometimes they take the place of actual speech. These means are sometimes called Language Substitutes.

 Listen to oral version.

Listen to the recording of the story.