Poetic style

It can well refer to prose, either because it has some rhythmic regularity, or because it resorts to elevated language. Not all poetry belongs to poetic style. it is characterized by maximally elevated vocabulary as well as high-flown syntax and even morphology.

I know not, whether laws be right, or whether laws be wrong.

Morphologically we use old forms of pronouns and adjectives (thou art / thou dast, he dath / hath). The elevated language includes many archaic forms.

1. obsolescent (thou, thee) – understood by everyone but used only in specific situations (in church)

2. obsolete – still understood, but they are no longer used by anyone (me thought, me thinks)

3. archaic proper – may not be recognized by native language speakers (troth – pledge обет)

A specific subgroup is called historisms, which die out together with the notions they define (yeoman – a small farmer, thane – тан, помещик)

Specifically poetic words usually have neutral synonyms

billow – wave

brine – salt water

main – sea

deem – think

hapless – unhappy

The same word may have one poetic and another standard m-ng

fair – just, light – beautiful

tall – not short – brave

hall - … - чертог

Newspaper & publicistic style

The genres that Galperin recognizes as newspaper style possess an essential element of compression whereas journalistic articles are much closer in style to essays & to oral speeches. Relying to a great extend on tropes & figures of speech. Journalistic articles can differ & vary from flaming written oratory to more or less objective analysis of news in the social sphere, economy, education, law, science. In fact popular science is a genre bordering on science proper & on journalistic articles. Compression can manifests itself in a number of ways:

1. phrasal epithets (a can-do guy, a one-strike-and-you-are-out policy)

2. telescoping (=blending, portmanteau words) (катастройка = катастрофа + перестройка);

3. ellipsis (esp. in headlines) (Teenagers charged – Подростки предъявлено обвинение);

4. nominative chains (esp. in headlines) (Nuremberg war crimes tribunal – Суд в Нюрнберге над военными преступниками);

5. abbreviations (EU – European Union, “H. R. H” – Her Royal Highness – Ее королевское высочество);

6. abbreviations intentionally imitating existing words (WASP – оса – White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, ЗУБР – защитники уникальных богатств России);

7. abbreviations of the names of prominent public figures (ВВП – В. В. Путин);

Brief news items are another good example of compression. The whole news can be summed up one extended sentence, especially in the Internet.

Very often the source comes last. Headlines make use of a number of stylistic devices:

1. turn swords into ballots – decomposition of an allegoric set-expression

2. Europe’s Mr. Fix-it – antonomasia

3. a case of hooliganophobia – neologism

4. the erosion o’ confidence – metaphor

5. odyssey into the shadow – mythological allusion

6. есть ли жизнь в желудке – пародия

7. some of them sum up the sense of the article – crash update: inestigators steuggle with pilot’s accents;

8. a note of mystery – fish, health risk & a giant asteroid;

use of expressive language:

1. elevation: freak – crippled/monster [-] unususal/strange [neutral]

2. degradation: the wrong TV channel was done in in a more exquisite way

metaphor: stage manager of a political play

Clichés are typical of all styles, except poetic.

We attach great significance to – мы придаем важное значение

The problem is a wide-ranging issue – проблема имеет комплексный характер

The official document style

The style is not homogeneous. It is the oldest one. In order to make a factual mistake, compilers of such documents rely on tradition. Many vocabulary items which are obsolescent in every-day life are used in document. The grammar of official language is also high-flown & a bit obsolescent. the style also aims at compression. That is an article of law is often expressed by one log sentence. The scientific style is poorer in functions that the official style. The latter has 2 function: informative & urgic, when scientific style has 1.

Classification of terms, the main criteria:

1. branch of knowledge: science, technology, law, medicine;

2. logical category: terms denoting objects, processes, properties;

3. semantic structure: polysemantic vs. monosemantic terms.

4. formal structure (root words – “atom”, derivatives – “denominator”, “density”, compound words – “biosphere”, word combinations – “carbon dioxide”);

5. motivation: fully motivated terms, partially motivated, non-motivated;

6. source: native, borrowings, translated terms, hybrids

The style is most objective devoid of emotive connotation & implications. It is very explicit. It is hardly used in figurative language, though such a device as simile may цork its way in science. Metaphors can be found in scientific or technical language. It is typical of English. That is why when translating such cases we often have to neutralize the original English expression. Until recently the optical method data processing has benn the bride’s maid rather that the bride. – … играл второстепенную роль. Very often sentences in scine are also embody a very detailed idea. In translation you may have to restructure such sentence paragraph completely to make them read easily.