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Стилистика английского языка. English Stylistics. Учебное пособие

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71
Chapter 2. The scientific prose style
as it is in civilization, is always an imperfect and incomplete record of speech. This idea has tremendous implications in language teaching, and, if more people would accept it, would result, not in downgrading writing as many fear, but in restoring to speech its primary importance in human cultural history.
Assignment 3. Read the extract from a text-book on chemistry and point
out features of scientific English in it. Pay special attention to the language means that help the author establish a closer contact with the pupils thus making the topic more easily understandable to them.

from “Chemistry in the Community”, 1988
If nature always conserves, then why is it sometimes reported that a
resource is “running out”? In what sense can we “run out” of a resource?
One can talk about depleting a resource in two related ways. First, remember that nature conserves atoms, but not necessarily molecules. Nature’s rate of production of molecules, such as those which compose petroleum, is negligible compared to the rate at which we extract and burn them.
A second sense in which we can deplete a resource applies to metals. For profitable mining, an ore must contain some minimum concentration of metal. As sites with high metal concentration are depleted, lower concentration sites are developed. Meanwhile, through use, we disperse the originally concentrated resource. At some time our economy may not be able to support further extraction of such a metal for general use. For practical purposes, we will have depleted our supply of this resource.
Can we keep from doing this? Nature conserves automatically at the atomic level. Let’s look at what conservation means in human terms.
How can we conserve our resources? That is, how can we slow down the rate at which we use them? The “three R’s” of conservation are replace, reuse, and recycle. To replace a resource requires finding substitute materials with similar properties, preferably materials from renewable resources.
Gathering, processing, and using resources generates unwanted materials. We must also manage these materials. The waste and dispersion of nonrenewable resources may eventually pose serious threats to the
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Part II. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS
well-being of our society. It is preferable that the by-products of what we use be gathered and stored or disposed of wisely.
Some manufactured items could be prepared for reuse rather than sent to the dump. Unwanted outgrown clothing could be redistributed to others. Broken equipment could be repaired. Some items that wind up as trash could be recycled by processing so that the materials present in them could be used again.
Many communities realize the wisdom of this aspect of resource management. How is a recycling program planned and organized? Let’s consider such an activity in detail.
Assignment 4. Read the samples of the genres of the review and the Research and Technology Development (RTD) results presentation given
below. In both the texts isolate the means of attracting attention of potential collaborators / buyers.
Assignment 5. Compare the genre conventions of the type of scientific writing under consideration with those of the scientific article and the text- book (the compositional pattern, the peculiarities of the word choice, etc.).

from “Online Review on the Linguist List”, July 2010
The Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics represents a unique collaboration of a few hundred scholars from around the world and covers all relevant aspects of the study of Arabic and deals with all levels of the language (pre-Classical Arabic, Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, Arabic vernaculars, mixed varieties of Arabic). No other reference work offers this scale of contributions or depth and breadth of coverage.
The Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics (EALL Online) contains all content of the print edition and new content is added on a regular basis. New articles are elaborations or updates of themes already discussed in the EALL, or are new entries that are relevant to the field.
The EALL Online comprehensively covers all aspects of Arabic languages and linguistics. It is interdisciplinary in scope and represents different schools and approaches to be as objective and versatile as possible. The online edition is cross-searchable, cross-referenced and regularly updated.
73
Chapter 2. The scientific prose style
The Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics is an essential reference work for students and researchers in the fields of linguistics, Islamic studies, Arabic literature and other related fields. The Encyclopedia
of Arabic Language and Linguistics is also available in print, visit brill. com/eall for more information.

over 500 entries;•• over 300 contributions;•• over 2.1 million words;•• full-text searchable and advanced searchability;•• browsable index;•• fully Unicode compliant, to facilitate the display of foreign ••
languages;
a high-quality linguistic reference work;•• a unique and widely respected authoritative source in the field;•• covers all relevant fields in Arabic linguistics, both general and ••
language specific.
Readership: An essential reference tool for students and researchers in the fields of Linguistics, Arabic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Islamic Studies, and related fields.


from “Technology Opportunities Today”, February 2003
A Spanish research group from Universidad de Alcalá has developed a technology consisting of a friendly robot called PeopleBot, capable of assisting elderly and/or handicapped people. The user can lean on it to go from a location to another in inner environments, and it can perform tasks of tele-attendance. Moreover, the user can work, speak with it and, and also connect to Internet through it. The group is looking for partners to promote its product throughout Europe.
The system consists of a commercial platform named PeopleBot, which has artificial vision. It disposes of two ultrasound rings and a wireless communications network (ethernet) that allows remote control usage. Using ultrasound and artificial visions to localize marks, the robot creates a probabilistic map of the environment that allows it to be led
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Part II. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS
without prior knowledge about the environment. With this information, a topographic map is extracted in order to perform navigation in previously learned environments. Through the vision system, users can be localized, identified and some object can even be brought to them. The system has a voice recognition system and a voice synthesizer to communicate with its users. The system also has Internet access in order to act as an entertainment device for the users.
The main advantage of this technique is the asset of the man-engine mobile interface, in the guidance to elderly and / or handicapped people, and in having them localised and tele-attended at every moment. In the same way, the feasibility of voice synthesis and recognition as well as Internet access make it possible for the user to work with the robot and use it also for entertainment.
Potential market application
Disability aids; Health monitoring, care
Collaboration sought
Licence agreement; Information exchange / Training; Other
Promoted by
Innovation Relay Centres (IRC) Network
OLIVARES, Jimena
D.G. de Investigacion de la Consjria de Educacion y Cultura de la Cam
Centro de Enlace de Madrid
C/A lcalá 30-322 planta baja
E-28014 Madrid Tel: +34-91-7200352
Fax: +34-91-7200355
E-mail: jimena.olivares@madrid.org
http://www.madrimasd.org
SELF-STUDY: TEXTS / EXTRACTS FOR STYLISTIC ANALYSIS
Assignment. Prepare in writing complex stylistic analysis of some of the texts given above. Make your own choice. See the plan for stylistic analysis in Appendix 1.
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Chapter 2. The scientific prose style
REFERENCES
Арнольд, И.В. Стилистика. Современный английский язык: учеб. для вузов. 4-е изд., испр. и доп. / И.В. Арнольд. М. : Флинта ; Наука, 2002. – 384 с.
Гальперин, И.Р. Стилистика английского языка = English Stylistics / И.Р. Галь перин. 5-е изд. М. : Книжный дом «Либроком», 2013. – 336 с.
Кожина, М.Н. Некоторые аспекты изучения речевых жанров в нехудо­жественных текстах / М.Н. Кожина // Стереотипность и творчество в тек­сте : межвуз. сб. науч. тр. Пермь, 1999. – С. 22–40.
Котюрова, М.П. Стилистика научной речи : учеб. пособие / М.П. Котю­рова. 2–е изд., испр. М. : Издательский центр «Академия», 2012. – 240 с. – (Сер. Бакалавриат).
Разинкина, Н.М. Стилистика английского научного текста / Н.М. Ра­зинкина. М. : УРСС, 2004. – 211 с.
Разинкина, Н.М. Функциональная стилистика / Н.М. Разинкина. М. : Высш. шк., 2004. – 271 с.
Разинкина, Н.М. Практикум по стилистике английского и русского язы­ков / Н.М. Разинкина. М. : Высш. шк., 2006. – 336 с.
Чернявская, В.Е. Интерпретация научного текста / В.Е. Чернявская. СПб. : Наука, 2004. – 127 с.
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Part II. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS
CHAPTER 3. THE NEwS mEDIA STYLE
THEORY
The style of news media is a generic term which stands for the linguistic specificity of multiple journalistic products that disseminate and interpret current news via newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the Internet. However, due to the variability of the language use by mass media, researchers stress the conventionality of the term. The language of news media is conditioned by the intended audience, chosen topic and area, given time and space, trends within a network, etc.
In the main, they isolate print and broadcasting journalism as well as online journalism, the latter either existing by itself or representing online versions of the former. Different news media address a wide audience in order to inform the readership, viewers and listeners about foreign and domestic news and influence their opinion by way of interpretation.
The linguistic side of the news media genres is greatly dependent on which of the two basic f u n c t i o n s , i. e. i nf o r m at i v e orp e r s u a s i v e , is realized or prevails. For this reason today they discriminate between what belongs to “” and what to “  ”  , or informative and analytic journalism in other traditions. Besides, the language of a media text depends on the type of news it covers. H a r d n ew s is essentially the news of the day. It is urgent, topical and relevant right away. By contrast, so f t n e w s is connected with human-interest issues, i.e. topics to which attention can be drawn any day and that require no urgency in publishing or broadcasting.
Respectively, the “news” media materials embrace the following varieties of news reportage: n e w s r e p o r ts / n ew s s to r i e s / n e w s a r ti c le s in press, ne w s b u l l et i n s / n e w sc a s t s in broadcasting, newsbriefs / news i n b r i e f in both as they first of all inform and focus on hard news. Such publications as e d it o r i a l s / l e a d i n g articles, op-eds, columns, feature articles / feature s t or ie s , at times e s s ay s , r ev i e ws as well as we e k l y n e w s m a g a z i ne s in radio and television, etc. primarily persuade and therefore represent the “analysis, opinion, comment” media genres. They
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Chapter 3. The News Media Style
may contain the results of the reported hard news in-depth investigation or, especially in case of features, may cover soft news.
Тhe language of news media owes its peculiarity to the h e a d l i n e s that make part of any publication and help to arrange the news in the print edition or its online version. A headline is brief and eye-catching. In a compressed way it outlines the content of the article and advertises it. Hence, syntactically a headline may be an elliptical or nominative sentence. Brevity is as well secured by the omission of link verbs and articles, the use of abbreviations, attributive noun chains and non-finite verb forms. To grasp the reader’s attention headlines may include emotionally coloured words, puns, decomposed set phrases, rhetorical questions, direct addresses, full or shortened quotes, rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, changes in types, etc.
The headline usually matches the tone of the story. In a hard news story it is rather a straight summary of the content, while feature headlines may only hint at it.
Subheadings if present expand on the information of the headline.
“NEWS” JOURNALISM
In general, n e w s r e p o r t i n g must be concise, clear, accurate and objective. All this has got its structural and linguistic embodiment.
Usually news reports stick to a fixed structure known as the inverted pyramid in which journalists follow “crucial information first” and “general to specific” rules. It means that the most important information is given at the very beginning. This part is called the lead. It can be either several sentences or just a sentence long, and it provides the addressee with the answers to the following “five W’s and H” questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? The rest of the information appears afterwards in the decreasing order of significance and develops the points mentioned in the lead by providing details. Though a glance through the headline, subheading and the lead may be enough for the reader to get the principal information.
In comparison with most other types of journalistic writing news stories have shorter sentences and paragraphs. Each paragraph contains one main fact. In a successive paragraph a new fact, character, or setting is introduced.
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Part II. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS
The bulk of the vocabulary of a news report is neutral and common literary. It also includes time and place locators, topical political and ecomonic terms, geographical and personal names, names of institutions, neologisms. Besides, as news reporters are expected to use simple and direct language that is easy to understand, they either replace technical terms, professionalisms and jargonisms by plain words or give definitions. Loan-words may be introduced to reflect foreign realities and reproduce local colouring.
Accuracy implies correctness in the application of dates, addresses, and numbers that are frequent in news materials. The reporter’s words may be strengthened by direct or indirect quotations, at times representing contrasting views without favoring one side or another in cases where the facts are in dispute. Furthermore, the impartiality of expression results in the 3rd person accounts with impersonal sentences, a lot of passive voice constructions and non-finite verb forms.
News reportage can appear in its clipped form, i.e. in the form of a news brief. The difference between it and a news story is the length. A news brief ha rdly excee ds sever al short stat ements. It follows t he inve rt ed pyramid composition with the key information in the lead and may be reduced to the announcement of the news which means the avoidance of all the details that can be done without. News briefs are laid out on the front page and often coincide with the initial part of a longer publication the rest of which can be found inside the print edition or news site. They are also read out as news items in a radio or TV news programme.
In broadcasting news reporting demonstrates no substantial linguistic difference from press. Radio and TV news is presented in neutral and plain language. A newscast / news bulletin usually starts from the headlines that sum up the news before (and sometimes after) the main part of the broadcast. In it news items are extended by details within common thematic blocks, e.g. politics, business, sport, culture, weather. Moreover, a piece of soft news of the day frequently ends up the news programme.
Besides, it is not only the anchor / announcer who reads out the news. It may be presented by the inclusion of reports from special correspondents, interviews with the officials, etc. The “natural” sounds and various
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Chapter 3. The News Media Style
visuals on TV also make part of a newscast for the listeners or viewers to experience a place or situation for themselves.
“ANALYSIS, OPINION, COMMENT” JOURNALISM
“A n a l y s i s , o p i n i o n , c o m m e n t ” m e d i a g e n r e s also manifest some linguistic and structural similarity. Though there are fewer absolutes here than in news reporting. Opinions in editorials / leading articles, op-eds, columns, features, reviews may be expressed directly and indirectly, which usually results in the combination of means that render straightforward or hidden evaluation and provide the author’s standpoint with logical reasonining. Of course, the degree of subjectivity varies and is least tangible in editorials.
The spectrum of linguistic means that convey evaluation ranges from emotionally coloured words and words with positive or negative connotations to imagery creating devices and artistic comparisons (epithets, metaphors, metonymies, hyperboles, puns, similes, idioms, allusions, etc.). The effect may be reinforced by structures of expressive syntax (inversions, rhetorical questions, exclamations, etc.). The use of the 1st person pronouns and active verb forms may also be viewed as the indicators of the subjectivity in treating the topic.
Argumentation – which is part of any analysis or commentary – consists in the specific choice of facts and examples, clear paragraphing, the use of parentheses, connectives, quotations from authoritative sources, words of the opponents and those involved in the matter, statistical data, charts, graphics, etc.
How far journalists go in their interpretation and whether their opinion is imposed or just shared depends on the type of publication, the author’s vision of the problem, the individual manner of writing, the nature of the agency, and many other factors.
Structurally opinion articles may start from a brief tale, a sample account to illustrate or foreshadow the main story and thus to stimulate the audience’s interest. That is why it may take longer than in a news story to get to the main point.
The expansion of news reportage in broadcasting demonstrates multitude and variability of “analysis, opinion, comment” formats which makes any kind of generalization nearly impossible. Among such formats
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Part II. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS
are radio and TV news magazines, often weekly. In television they may present the news in the form of documentaries.
Traditionally such formats combine the above described verbal and non-verbal traits of news announcement and news in-depth analysis characteristic of press and broadcasting. Their selection depends on the channel and its general policy. In addition, commentaries can be given by the anchor or by some invited guests, i.e. experts, politicians, economists, activists, etc.
Self-control questions
What are the two basic functions of the news media style?1. By what subdivisions is the news media style presented?2. Which factors cause the differentiation between “news” and 3.
“analysis, opinion, comment” journalism?
What are the stylisic traits of headlines?4. What varieties belong to “news” journalism and what is their 5.
structural and linguistic specificity?
What varieties belong to “analysis, opinion, comment” journalism 6.
and what are their linguistic peculiarities?
PRACTICE
ASSIGNMENTS FOR CLASS WORK
Assignment 1. Look carefully through the headlines and comment on their stylistic specificity.
1. Niger Elections: Four Issues to Watch Out For.
2. Bank security: annoying AND useless.
3. Tabloid News Site Ratter Shuts Down, For Now.
4. 366 of China’s Cities Don’t Have Safe Air, Greenpeace Says.
5. Wages drop as worries grow over oil and Europe.
6. McDonald’s ‘Latest Fry Innovation’ is Either Genius or Insane.
7. 3 Reasons Wall Street is Panicking, and 3 Reasons You Shouldn’t.
8. Scientists Discover Meteorite ‘Older Than Earth Itself’ in Australian
Outback.
9. Those Incredible, Edible Crickets.
10. The wheels of justice grind slow.
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