Unit 8. Newspaper Style

Vocabulary

Exercise 1. Make sure that you remember the following words and expressions.

Abound in – изобиловать, иметься в большом количестве

The seas and oceans that wash the coasts of Russia abound in fish

Abbreviation – аббревиатура

What does this abbreviation stand for?

Allusion – аллюзия

Allusions are culture-specific: a foreigner with a different cultural background isn’t likely to understand them.

Appraisal – оценка

Implicit appraisal can usually be found in all articles, even if the journalists pretend to be unbiased.

Attributive – атрибутивный, определительный

Extended attributive complexes are characteristic of both newspaper style and academic style.

Adverbial modifier – обстоятельство (член предложения)

In most sentences adverbial modifiers of time, place, reason, and manner are used.

Colloquial – разговорный

Colloquial words are very common in most newspapers stories, as they help authors to be on informal terms with the reader.

Condense – сжимать, уменьшать объем

Information in the news should be condensed: broadsheet sentences consist of 30-35 words, and tabloid restrict their sentences to only 20 words.

Emotionally colored – эмоционально окрашенный

The use of emotionally colored words makes stories more personal.

Encapsulate – заключать в капсулу

The medicine that doctor prescribed to me, is encapsulated and easy to take.

Epithet – эпитет

Epithets include not only adjectives, but nouns or nominative phrases as well, such as secret lover, grey-haired pensioner, or woman who put Premier on path to power.

Exclamation – восклицание

Exclamations can be used in headlines to reflect the newspaper’s attitude to the news story.

Expressive force – выразительная сила

Language means possessing expressive force make the reader interested in the story and stimulate him to read on.

Genuine – истинный, подлинный

The words “genuine leather” om shoe sole mean that the shoes are made of natural animal skin.

Gerundial – герундиальный

Gerundial constructions are very often misunderstood by Russian students of English.

Jargonism – жаргонизм

When journalists report events connected with representatives of a particular profession or job, they use jargonisms and professional slang deliberately.

Infinitive complex – инфинитивный комплекс

The use of infinitive complexes is one of typical difficulties of translation.

Inverted – перевернутый

Inverted sentence structure is a powerful syntactic device for creating emotional tension.

Irony – ирония

My favorite anchorman is not only a very accomplished TV presenter; he’s also smart and full of mild irony.

Means (plural only) – средства

Today we are going to look more closely at the stylistic means used to convey the author’s attitude to his characters.

Metaphor – метафора

Today many scholars agree that metaphor is not only a stylistic device, but also a model of thought.

Misspelt word – слово, написанное с нарушением орфографии

Deliberately misspelt words are often used for drawing audience’s attention for advertising purposes.

Neologism – неологизм

Many Russian neologisms are words borrowed from the English language to denote new phenomena, such as technical innovations.

Omit – пропускать, не включать

In many headlines linking verbs are omitted in order to achieve lexical density.

Orbital – орбитальный

Today’s news program includes a story about the crew of the Russian space orbital station.

Paragraph – абзац

The first paragraph of an article giving the news summary is called the lead.

Pattern – образец

Psychologists study behavior patterns of people in different stress situations.

Parody – пародия

Stand-up comedians often make parodies of famous politicians and other celebrities.

Participial – причастный (напр., оборот)

It is sometimes difficult to differentiate participial and gerundial constructions in English.

Predicate – сказуемое

Many English sentences contain compound verbal and compound noun predicates.

Pun – каламбур

Nowadays puns are almost as frequent in broadsheets as they are in tabloids.

Rhyme – рифма

I remember a lot of children’s rhymes from the times when my kids were small.

Set expression – устойчивое словосочетание

Many set expressions in European languages originate from the Bible.

Stylistic device – стилистический прием

A skilled reporter uses a whole range of stylistic devices.

Subject – подлежащее

In order to translate a sentence correctly, you should first of all identify its subject and predicate.

Syntax (syntactical) – синтаксис, синтаксический

It took him several years to study English syntax rules.

Term (terminology) – термин, терминология

Newspaper terminology includes some jargonisms that are unknown to people outside this field.

Verb (verbal) – глагол, глагольный

Irregular verbs in English are a real pain in the neck!

Exercise 2. Match the words in Column A with their definitions in Column B. Make up your own sentences with these words.

A	B
Pun	Expression used to indicate surprise, anger, etc.
Allusion	Emotionally colored attribute
Set expression	Upside-down
Paragraph	The main member of a sentence
Genuine	Implied comparison between two unconnected people or things
Pattern	Repeating the same first letters (usually consonants)
Epithet	Novel word to denote a new thing
Rhyme	To make more compact or laconic
Metaphor	Real, authentic
To condense	Play with double meaning of the word to achieve humorous effect
To abound	An idiom or phraseological unit
Neologism	Structural part of an article
Subject	Words ending in identical sounds
Inverted	To be rich in
Exclamation	Model
Alliteration	Reference to some shared piece of cultural information

Exercise 3. Match the words in Column A with the words in Column B to make up word combinations. Use them in your own sentences.

A	B
Stylistic	paragraphs
Language	constructions
Expressive	expression
Infinitive	predicate
Gerundial	force
To misspell	devices
Emotionally colored	information
Innovative	various devices
Well-structured	puns
To break	language units
To employ	means
Set	complexes
Means of	syntactic rules
Verbal	neologisms
To condense	words
Funny	appraisal