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

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Cannon to left of them

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4.Amphibrachic metre – one stressed syllable is framed by two unstressed as ................................

e.g. O, where are you going to all you Big Steamers

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5.Anapaestic metre – two unstressed syllables are followed by one stressed as ..............................

e.g. Do you ask what the birds say? The sparrow, the dove

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English verse is predominantly iambic. This is sometimes explained by the iambic tendency of the English language in general.

Most of the English words have a trochaic tendency, that is the stress falls on the first syllable of two-syllabic words. But in actual speech these words are preceded by non-stressed articles, prepositions, conjunctions or by unstressed syllables of preceding words thus imparting an iambic character to English speech. As a result iambic metre is more common in English verse than any other metre.

The Stanza

Of the units of verse rhythm the following can be named: the syllable, the foot, the line, and finally the stanza. The stanza is the largest unit in verse. It is composed of a number of lines having a definite measure and rhyming system which is repeated throughout the poem. The stanza is generally built up on definite principles with regard to the number of lines, the character of the metre and the rhyming pattern.

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There are many widely described stanza patterns in the English poetry:

-the heroic couplets (a a b b ),

-the Spencerian stanza ( a b b a b b c b c c),

-octtava rima (a b a b a b c c ),

-ballad stanza ( a b c b),

-sonnet composed of fourteen iambic pentameters with the following rhyming scheme (a b a b c d c d e f e f g g )

The English sonnet was borrowed from Italian poetry but changed a little. The English, often called the Shakespearean sonnet, has retained many of the features of its Italian parent. But the rhyming scheme is simplified and is expressed by the formula (a b a b c d c d e f e f g g ). The Shakespearean sonnets, which are known all over the world, are a masterpiece of sonnet composition. All 154 sonnets by Shakespeare express the feelings of the poet towards his beloved, his friend and his patron. “ But Shakspeare’s magic could not copied be”...(Dryden).

EMOTIVE PROSE

The imagery of emotive prose is not so rich as it is in poetry; it is the combination of the spoken and written varieties of the language with two forms of communication - monologue and dialogue. The language of the writer follows the norms of the given period in the development of the English literary language.

Emotive prose as a separate form of imaginative literature, that is fiction, came into being rather late in the history of the English literary language. The first emotive prose which appeared was translations from Latin of stories from the Bible and the Lives of the Saints. Middle English prose literature was also educational, represented mostly by translations of religious works from Latin. In the 11th and 12th centuries as a result of the Norman Conquest,

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Anglo-Saxon literature fell into a decline. Almost all that was written was in French or in Latin.

In the 14th century there was an event which played an important role not only in the development of general Standard English, but in the development of the peculiarities of emotive prose. This was the translation of the Bible made by Wyclif and his disciples.

Emotive prose actually began a life of its own in the second half of the 15th century when romances and chronicles describing the life and adventures of semi-legendary kings and knights began to appear. One of the most notable of these romances was Malory’s “Morte D’Arthur”, printed by Caxton in 1471.

In the 16th century numerous translations from Latin and Greek played a great role in helping to work out stylistic norms for the emotive prose of that period. Translations from modern languages, of Italian and French romances in particular, also began to influence the stylistic norms of emotive prose. Further centuries saw a considerable development in emotive prose with development of new lexical means and stylistic devices. There was a continuation of the classical tradition with innovations in romantic and realistic trends.

LANGUAGE OF DRAMA

The language of plays is always stylized. The stylization of colloquial language in real dialogues is one of the features of plays which at different stages in the history of English drama has manifested itself in different ways, revealing on the one hand the general trends of the literary language, and on the other hand the personal likings of the writer.

In the 16th century the stylization of colloquial language was scarcely maintained due to several facts: plays were written in haste for the companies of actors eagerly waiting for them and they

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were written for a wide audience, mostly the common people and staged in public squares. Later on after decline the revival of drama began only in the second half of the 18th century. But the ultimate shaping of the play as an independent form of literary work with its own laws of functioning, with its own characteristic language features was actually completed only at the end of the 19th century.

As a stylized type of the spoken variety of language, the language of plays has the most important feature – that is the tendency to curtail utterances, sometimes simplifying the syntax to fragments of sentences. Unlike the real, natural spoken variety of language, the language of plays is purposeful. The spoken language is made literary in plays.

B. PUBLICIST STYLE

Publicist style appeared as a separate style in the middle of the 18th century. It also falls into three varieties, each having its own features which integrate them. Unlike other styles, the publicist style has spoken varieties, in particular, the oratorical substyle. The development of radio and television has brought into being a new spoken variety, namely, the radio commentary. The other two are the essay (moral, philosophical, literary) and articles (political, social, economic) in newspapers, journals and magazines. Book reviews in journals and magazines and also pamphlets are generally included among essays.

The general aim of publicist style, which makes it stand out as a separate style, is to exert a constant and deep influence on public opinion, to convince the reader or the listener that the interpretation given by the writer or the speaker is the only correct one and to cause him to accept the point of view expressed in the speech, essays or article not merely by logical argumentation, but by emotional appeal

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as well. This brain-washing function is most effective in oratory speech.

Publicist style has features in common with the style of scientific prose on the one hand, and that of emotive prose, on the other. The emotional appeal in publicist style is generally achieved by the use of words with emotive meaning, the use of imagery and other stylistic devices as in emotive prose, but the stylistic devices used in publicist style are not fresh or genuine. Publicist style is also characterized by brevity of expression. In some varieties of this style it becomes a leading feature, an important linguistic means.

1. ORATORY AND SPEECHES

Oratorical style is evident in speeches, in orations and addresses on important occasions, at rallies, congresses, meetings and election campaigns. The main feature of this style is clear logical argumentation and emotional appeal to the audience. The aim is to convince the listeners of the truth of the ideas expressed, and at the same time to produce an emotional impact on the audience. The stylistic devices include repetitions, parallel constructions, antithesis, suspence, climax, rhetorical questions and questions-in-the-narrative.

2. THE ESSAY

Essay as a literary form was created by the French writer Montaigne. The essay is a literary composition of moderate length on philosophical, social, aesthetic or literary subjects. It never goes deep into the subject, but merely touches upon the surface. Personality in the treatment of theme and naturalness of expression are two of the most obvious characteristics of the essay.

An essay is rather a series of personal and witty comments than a finished argument or a conclusive examination of any matter. The essay was very popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. The 18th

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century was the great age of essay writing. It was then the principal literary form. In the 19th century the essay as a literary term changed into what we now call the journalistic article or feature article which covers all kinds of subjects.

The most characteristic language features of the essay remain:

1)brevity of expression,

2)the use of the first person singular which justifies a personal approach to the problems treated,

3)a rather expanded use of connectives, which facilitate the process of grasping the correlation of ideas,

4)the abundant use of emotive words,

5)the use of similes and sustained metaphors.

It is in the interrelation of these constituents that the real secret of the essay substyle consists. The close resemblance in structure between the essay and the oration has more than once been emphasized by linguists.

3. ARTICLES

All the features of the substyles described above are to be found in articles. The language of the political magazine articles differs little from that of newspaper article.

Literary reviews stand closer to essays both by their content and by their linguistic form. More abstract words of logical meaning are used in them, they more often resort to emotional language and less frequently to traditional set expressions.

C. NEWSPAPER STYLE

Newspaper style was the last of all the styles of written literary English to be recognized as a specific form of writing standing apart from other forms. English newspaper writing dates from the 17th century. The first of any regular series of English

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newspapers was the Weekly News which first appeared on May 23, 1622. The 17th century saw the rise of a number of other news sheets. The first English daily newspaper – the Daily Courant - was brought out on March 11, 1702.

The rise of the American newspaper, which was brought onto American soil by British settlers, dates back to the late 17th, early 18th centuries. It took the English newspaper more than a century to establish a style and a standard of its own. And it is only by the 19th century that English newspaper developed into a system of language means which forms a separate functional style.

The content of newspaper material is diverse; it comprises news and commentary on the news, press reports and articles, advertisements and official announcements, crossword puzzles and other material for entertainment.

English newspaper style may be defined as a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means and stylistic devices serving the purpose of informing and instructing the reader.

Since the primary function of newspaper style is to impart information, only printed matter serving this purpose comes under newspaper style proper. Such matter can be classed as: brief news items and communiques, press reports, articles purely informational in character, advertisements and announcements and editorial. The most concise form of newspaper information is the headline.

The headline is the title given to a news item or a newspaper article. The main function of the headline is to inform the reader briefly of what the news that follows is about. English headlines are short and catching, they “compact the gist of news stories” into a few words. A skillfully turned-out headline tells a story arousing the reader’s curiosity. In most of the English and American newspapers sensational headlines are quite common.

The basic language peculiarities of headlines lie in the syntactical structure: full declarative sentences, interrogative

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sentences, nominative sentences, elliptical sentences, sentences with articles omitted, phrases with verbals, questions in the form of statements, complex sentences, headlines including direct speech.

The bulk of the vocabulary of the newspapers is neutral and common literary. But the newspaper style has its specific vocabulary characterized by the extensive use of special political and economic terms, newspaper cliches, abbreviations, neologisms, proper names and occasional words.

1. ADVERTISEMENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

The function of advertisements and announcements which can be classified into groups, such as BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, DEATHS, IN MEMORIAM, BUSINESS OFFERS, PERSONAL, etc. is to inform the reader. They use stereotyped patterns employed in newspaper advertising.

2. THE EDITORIAL

Editorials like some other types of newspaper articles bear the features of both newspaper style and the publicist style. The function of the editorial is to influence the reader by giving an interpretation of certain facts. The purpose is to give the editor’s opinion and interpretation of the news published and suggest to the reader that it is the correct one. Usually the writers of the editorial make an extensive use of emotionally-coloured vocabulary. Alongside political words and expressions, terms, cliches and abbreviations one can find colloquial words and expressions, slang, and professionalisms. The language of editorial articles is characterized by a combination of different strata of vocabulary which enhances the emotional effect.

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3. BRIEF NEWS ITEMS

The function of a brief news item is to inform the reader. It states only facts without giving comments. This leads to the total absence of any individuality of expression and the most complete lack of emotional colouring. It is essentially matter-of fact, and stereotyped forms of expression prevail. The vocabulary used is neutral and common literary. But the vocabulary has an extensive use of :

a)special political and economic terms (president, gross

output, by-election);

b)non-term political vocabulary (public, people, unity);

c)newspaper cliches (danger of war, vital issue, pressing problem); d) abbreviations (UNO, NATO, MP);

e)neologisms (ecocide, ecocatastrophe, journalese);

f)special grammar patterns and specific word order.

D. SCIENTIFIC PROSE STYLE

The language of science is used to prove a hypothesis, to create new concepts, to disclose the internal laws of existence, development, etc. This style proves the idea that “The pen is the tongue of the mind.” (M. de Cervantes). The language means in scientific literature are precise, unemotional, devoid of any individuality.

“ The proper medium of scientific expression,” writes E. Sapir, “ is therefore a generalized language that may be defined as a symbolic algebra of which all known languages are translations. One can adequately translate scientific literature because the original scientific expression is itself a translation.”

The most noticeable features of this style are:

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a)logical sequence of utterances with clear indication of their interrelations and interdependence by means of a developed and varied system of connectives,

b)the use of terms specific to each given branch of science, creation of new terms and neologisms reflecting new concepts

and ideas, the exchange of terms between various branches of science,

c) the use of typical sentence-patterns of three types: postulatory, argumentative and formative,

d)the use of quotations and references with a definite compositional pattern, namely, the name of the writer referred to, the title of the work quoted, the publishing house, the place and year it was published, and the page of the excerpt quoted or referred to,

e)the frequent use of the foot-notes, formula, figures, graphs and tables.

The impersonality of scientific writings can also be considered a

typical feature of this style. The use of passive constructions prevails. The impersonal tone of expression is due to impersonal passive constructions, to such verbs as suppose, assume, conclude, point out

as in ‘it should be pointed out’, ‘it must be emphasized’. The characteristic features enumerated above do not cover all the peculiarities of scientific prose, but they are the most essential ones.

E. THE STYLE OF OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

The style of official documents is sometimes called ‘officialese’. Like other styles, it is not homogeneous and is represented by the following substyles or variants:

*the language of business documents,

*the language of legal documents,

*the language of diplomacy,

*the language of military documents.

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