English Stylistics for Translators. Стилистика английского языка для переводчиков. Учебное пособие

Федеральное агентство по образованию Государственное образовательное учреждение высшего профессионального образования

«Казанский государственный технологический университет» Кафедра иностранных языков

ENGLISH STYLISTICS FOR TRANSLATORS

СТИЛИСТИКА АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА ДЛЯ ПЕРЕВОДЧИКОВ

Учебное пособие

Казань 2008

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УДК 811.111 (07)

ББК 81. 2 Англ-5

English Stylistics for Translators/ Cтилистика aнглийского языка для переводчиков: /Учебное пособие/ Л.А.Шимановская; Казан. гос.

направленности нередко затрудняет работу переводчика. Знание основ стилистики позволяет выполнить перевод на более высоком профессиональном уровне.

В пособии рассматривается стилистический аспект всех структурных уровней английского языка с привлечением иллюстративного материала из английской литературы с переводом.

Пособие предназначено для студентов, получающих специальную профессиональную подготовку в области перевода и переводоведения, а также может быть рекомендовано в качестве дополнительного материала для самостоятельной работы студентов, интересующихся вопросами лингвистики.

Под редакцикй проф. Н. Х. Мифтаховой

Рецензенты:

Печатается по решению

@ Казанский государственный технологический университет, 2008 г.

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FOREWORD

The manual is designed for students specializing in translation as theoretical course in English Stylistics.

The aim is to teach the students to describe and specify the whole range of stylistic devices found in the language and to define the sources of expressiveness of the texts belonging to different functional styles. Correspondingly the theoretical part of the manual falls into six parts:

Part 1. Introduction to Stylistic Studies

Part II. Stylistic Classification of the English Vocabulary Part III. Phonetic and Graphical Expressive Means

and Stylistic Devices

Part 1V. Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices Part V. Syntactical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices Part VI. Functional Styles of the English Language

The manual also includes “Supplement for Translators” presenting different patterns of stylistic analysis with their translations into Russian. Stylistic analysis has as its end the clarification of the full meaning and potential of the message of the author. A linguistic method of stylistic analysis involves careful observation and detailed description of language phenomena in the text.

Stylistic analysis is closely connected with the problem of stylistic context - microcontext and macrocontext. The close study of different texts shows that in many cases the message of the author may be understood only if the broad context is taken into account. Hence the study of stylistic context alongside with stylistic analysis is of utmost importance for translators.

The manual also includes the “ List of Specific Stylistic Terms” with transcription and translation into Russian and the list of “Familiar

quotations about Language, Style and Literature” that can be of great help in independent creative studies.

In preparing this edition, care has been taken to bring the text up to date and to introduce the reader to some outstanding problem of modern stylistics and translation. Much attention has been given to illustrations of stylistic points with the examples from modern English and American literature.

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The English literary language was particularly regulated and formalized during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The influence of the men-of-letters on this process can hardly be overestimated. J. Swift, for example, in matters of language was … a “conservative.” Byron, on the other hand, was very liberal and introduced into the literary language many new words and phrases, as for example the word “weatherology”.

The literary language influences greatly the non-literary language. This influence had its greatest effect in the 19th century with the spread of general education, and in the 20th century with the introduction of television into the daily lives of the people.

Literary English is almost synonymous with the term Standard English. Standard English is an abstraction, an ideal. It is a kind of invariant which stands above all kinds of variants of English both within and without Great Britain. This ideal helps to establish more or less strict norms for all aspects of the language. The publication of dictionaries does much to establish the literary language norms.

2. VARIETIES OF LANGUAGE

The functioning of the literary language in various spheres of human activity and with different aims of communication has resulted in its differentiation. This differentiation is predetermined by two distinct factors, namely, the actual situation in which the language is being used and the aim of communication.

The actual situation of the communication has evolved two varieties of language: the spoken and the written. Of the two varieties of language, the spoken, is primary and the written is secondary. The spoken language is maintained in the form of a dialogue – the written one in the form of a monologue. The spoken language has a considerable advantage over the written one. The

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written language has to seek means to compensate for what it lacks and is more explanatory.

The gap between the spoken and written varieties of language is always apparent due to the difference in circumstances in which the two are used. Here is an example showing the difference.

The spoken variant is: “Marvellous beast, a fox. Great places for wild life, these wooded chines; so steep you can’t disturb them – pigeons, jays, woodpeckers, rabbits, foxes,

hares, pheasants – every mortal thing.”

Its written variant is as follows: “What a marvelous beast a fox is! These wooded chines are splendid places for wild life.

They are so steep that one can’t disturb anything. Therefore one can see every imaginable creature here – pigeons, jays,

woodpeckers, rabbits, foxes, hares and pheasants.”

The most striking difference between the spoken and written language is in the vocabulary used – between typically colloquial and typically bookish words and phrases. The spoken language makes use of intensifying words, interjections and words with strong emotive meaning, words without any meaning called “fill ups” or “empty words” . Such words and set expressions as well, so to say, you see, you know, you understand , and all are very widely used in everyday speech. In written variety there is the abundance of all kinds of conjunctions, adverbial phrases and other means which may serve as connectives. The words and word combinations of the written language have also gained recognition as a separate layer of the English vocabulary.

3. GENERAL NOTES ON STYLE AND STYLISTICS

The subject of stylistics is considered to be the most obscure in content among other branches of linguistics. The confusion is between the terms style and stylistics. The first concept is broad and can be used in architecture, literature, dress, and other fields of

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human activity. Even in linguistics the word style is used so widely that it needs interpretation. The term style in linguistics can be applied to:

*the aesthetic function of language;

*expressive means in language;

*emotional colouring in language;

*a system of special devices called stylistic devices;

*the splitting of the literary language into separate subsystems called styles;

*the individual manner of an author in making use

There is a widely held view that style is the correspondence between thought and its expression. Linguists say that the linguistic form of the idea expressed always reflects the peculiarities of the thought. And vice versa, the character of thought will manifest itself in the language forms chosen for the expression of the idea.

When speaking about a writer’s individual manner of using language means to achieve the effect, we use the term individual style. Individual choice of language means, particularly in writing, is named as individual style, and the inherent qualities of speech are named as individual manner. Thus, a by-word all over the world ”Style is the man himself” points out the qualities of speech which are inherent and reveal a man’s breeding, education, social standing and turn of mind.

There is a tendency to estimate the value of individual style by the degree it violates the norms of the language. In the literary language the norm is the invariant of the phonemic, morphological, lexical and syntactical patterns in circulation during a given period in the development of the given language. A too strict adherence to the norms brands the writer’s language as bookish and the neglect of the

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norms will always be regarded as an attempt to violate the established language code which facilitates and accelerates the process of communication. The norm of the language always presupposes a recognized or received standard but it can be established only when there are deviations from it.

What we call as individual style, therefore, is a unique combination of the language units, expressive means and stylistic devices of a language peculiar to a given writer. Hence individual style may be likened to a proper name – Byronic style, ‘the language of Shakespeare’, Dickens’ manner.

The term style is often connected with embellishment of language and technique of expression, that is the ability to write clearly and in manner to interest the reader. In this case style reflects the normalized forms of the language.

The term style also signifies a literary genre. Thus we speak of classical style, realistic style, the style of romanticism.

And finally we can speak of the different styles of language. A style of language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication.

The following generally accepted styles with substyles within the English literary language may be distinguished as:

*the belle-lettres style which falls into three varieties: poetry proper, emotive prose and drama;

*the publicist style which comprises speeches (oratory), essays, articles in journals and newspapers;

*the newspaper style with three varieties: newspaper headlines, brief news items, advertisements;

* the scientific prose style with two main divisions – the prose style used in the humanitarian sciences and that used in the exact sciences; * the style of official documents which covers a wide range of

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Thus, the style (from Latin “stilus’ or “a style, an iron pin for writing’) can be termed as the distinctive manner of expression of thought peculiar to an author when style may be terse or diffuse, pithy or pointless, obscure or perspicuous, explicit or vague, simple or rhetorical, light or ponderous.

And the subject of stylistics can be outlined as the study of the nature, functions, and structure of stylistic devices, on the one hand, and on the other, the study of each style of the language as classified above with its aim, its structure, its characteristic features and the effect it produces, as well as its interrelation with other styles of language.

4. EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES

(EM and SD)

Particular stylistic means of a language by which a writer obtains a certain effect are called expressive means (EM) which are used in some specific way and specific devices called stylistic

devices (SD).

The expressive means of a language are those phonetic means, morphological forms, means of word-building, graphical and lexical, phraseological and syntactical forms, all of which function in the language for emotional and logical intensification of the utterance. Some intensifying forms of the language are normalized and dictionaries label them as intensifiers. In most cases they have corresponding neutral synonymous forms.

The most powerful expressive means are phonetic. Melody, stress, a sing-song manner of speech are more effective than any other mans in intensifying the utterance emotionally and logically. Among the morphological expressive means the use of Present Indefinite instead of Past Indefinite must be mentioned. Among the word-building means the diminutive suffixes as – y (ie) make the utterance more fresh and emotionally coloured.

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At the lexical level there are a great many words which constitute a special layer. Poetic, archaic, slang words have great expressive power. The same can be said of the set expressions of the language.

Proverbs and sayings are language units which make speech more emphatic as, for example, a proverb used by Dickens in “Dombey and Son” – “As the last straw breaks the laden camel’s

back, this piece of underground information crushed the drinking spirits of Mr. Dombey.” In the English language there are many syntactical patterns which serve to intensify emotional quality, for example, ”He is a brute of a man, is John.”

Stylistics describes not only the nature of expressive means, but also its potential capacity of becoming a stylistic device. It is conscious and intentional literary use of some of the facts of the language (including expressive means) in which the most essential features (both structural and semantic) of the language forms are raised to a generalized level aiming at the further intensification of the emotional or logical emphasis contained in the corresponding expressive means.

PART II

STYLISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE ENGLISH

VOCABULARY

General considerations

The word stock of a language may be represented as a definite system in which different aspects of words may be singled out as interdependent. A special branch of linguistic science – lexicology – has done much to classify vocabulary.

For linguistic stylistics a special type of classification is the most important. In accordance with the already-mentioned division of language into literary and colloquial, the whole of the word stock

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