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Файл:Стилистика английского языка. English Stylistics. Учебное пособие
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Chapter 3. The News Media Style
11. Oil be damned.
12. Move Over, Angels: Flying Is Our Everyday Miracle.
13. An ocean of troubles.
14. Rally, rally, rally. But for how long?
15. Apple CEO Defiant Against FBI Order.
Assignment 2. Read the news report by Abigail Abrams and point out all the
linguistic and structural peculiarities typical of the genre.
Mark Zuckerberg Shares Facebook’s Plan to Bring
the Global Community Together
from “Time”, February 16, 2017
Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg wants to bring people
closer together.
In a nearly 6,000-word letter published to his Facebook page on
Thursday, Zuckerberg laid out his vision for the kind of world he thinks
Facebook can help create. The free-wielding note included few specifics,
but offered a number of broad, ambitious goals for how the tech giant can
contribute to a better understanding of everything from terrorism to fake
news.
“Today we are close to taking our next step. Our greatest opportunities
are now global – like spreading prosperity and freedom, promoting peace
and understanding, lifting people out of poverty, and accelerating
science,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Our greatest challenges also need global
responses – like ending terrorism, fighting climate change, and preventing
pandemics. Progress now requires humanity coming together not just as
cities or nations, but also as a global community.”
The letter marks a shift from Zuckerberg’s initial reaction to criticism
that Facebook’s filter bubbles added to the intense national divide and
sharp partisan atmosphere after the 2016 presidential election. He
acknowledged missteps in his letter on Thursday, adding that Facebook
is working to change its policies. He also said Facebook would use
artificial intelligence to help the world in areas such as safety.
The letter ends with a quote from Abraham Lincoln that suggests, “We
can succeed only by concert.” Zuckerberg then reiterates his stance to bring
people together, as well as his hope “to build the new social infrastructure
to create the world we want for generations to come.”
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Part II. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS
Assignment 3. Examine the abbreviated version of the BBC radio news
script and select the traits that usually shape news transmission in this variety. In
case of class work split into groups and share the news items for analysis and
further comparison.
ONTH
It’s eight o’clock on Wednesday the twenty-seventh of February.
The city regulator has said that loans will never be as cheap as they were
before the recent financial crisis.
Homes in Lincolnshire have been damaged by an earthquake which was
felt across much of England and Wales this morning.
Ministers are planning to withdraw benefits from drug users who drop
out of treatment programmes.
BANKS
The head of the City regulator is predicting that cheap loans could be
a thing of the past. Hector Sants – of the Financial Services Authority –
believes that bankers have been forced to respond to the problems
stemming from America, where mortgages were offered to people who
could not afford them. He’s told the BBC that he expects banks to turn
against the elaborate financial instruments they developed in order to
make credit more easily available. Here’s our business editor, Robert
Peston:
PESTON: Regulators aren’t always right – but the firms they regulate
have to listen to them. So when the chief executive of the Financial
Services Authority says that banking markets will never return to the
way they were before last summer’s crisis, well that matters. What does
he mean? That banks will no longer be able to sell off their loans to
international investors as cheaply as they were doing or on the scale that
they were doing. Banks will, he says, revert to being more like the lenders
we used to know. They’ll get to know their customers better and forge
longer term relationships with borrowers. Most of us would probably see
that as a positive development. But there will be less cheap credit available
for all of us, not just for a few months, but, in the view of Hector Sants,
forever. He thinks that’s probably a good thing, in that we’ll have less
incentive to borrow too much, but the process of adjustment to a world
where money is more expensive will not be painless.
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Chapter 3. The News Media Style
EA RTHQUA K E
People across much of England and Wales were rocked by an earthquake
at around one o’clock this morning. A man from South Yorkshire was
injured when the chimney of his house crashed through his bedroom
ceiling. The British Geological Survey says the epicentre of the quake
was near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire – Sarah Sturdey is there: it felt
like the roof was falling in. But it was the loud rumble which was really
really loud like a train.
STURDEY: One street has been evacuated in Gainsborough in
Lincolnshire because of falling chimney stacks. And an elderly man in
Barnsley in South Yorkshire has been taken to hospital with leg injuries
after a chimney fell through his bedroom ceiling.
Drug users who drop out of treatment programmes could lose their
benefits, under Government proposals being published this morning.
A new ten year strategy to tackle drugs in England and Wales will also
encourage grandparents to care for the children of addicts and provide
better treatment for women and people from ethnic minorities. Here’s our
Home Editor, Mark Easton:
EASTON: Among the new proposals in the strategy are measures to seize
the assets of drug dealers on arrest rather than charge, and proposals to
withdraw benefits from problem users who don’t complete treatment
programmes. But such ideas are already being dismissed as unworkable
gimmicks, with critics arguing the real focus should be on the tens of
billions of pounds due to be spent on the actual treatment itself over the
next decade. National targets will still be based on numbers signed up for
treatment rather than the effectiveness of treatment. There’s been debate
within the drugs arena as to whether more emphasis should be placed on
getting problem off drugs – currently only three per cent leave the scheme
free of all illegal drugs. There’s also concern that a focus on punishment
and enforced treatment fails to encourage programmes to reduce the
harm caused by drugs. <…>
Greenpeace, the RSPB and the National Grid are among more than two
dozen organisations joining forces to encourage people to switch off their
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Part II. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS
electrical items for the good of the planet. They’re all taking part in the
UK’s first Energy Saving Day, which will be launched this afternoon.
<…>
A TV advertisement for Nutella has been withdrawn because of complaints
that it exaggerated the product’s nutritional value. The advert made claims
about the chocolate hazelnut spread’s contribution to a balanced breakfast.
The manufacturer, Ferrero UK, says it didn’t set out to mislead. <…>
Assignment 4. Read the editorial and isolate the means that give out the
position of the newspaper editorial board.
from “The New York Times”, January 6, 2016
Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a surprise executive order over the
weekend about homeless people in freezing weather. It was a little
confusing.
It instructed officials and social service agencies across the state “to
take all necessary steps” to find homeless people and move them to
shelters when it falls below 32 degrees. But officials can’t exactly do that.
State law says individuals can be forced into shelter only if they are
mentally ill and a danger to themselves or others.
The governor’s office later tried to clarify, saying it had not ordered up
a dragnet for street people. “Obviously,” it said, “the order does not
mandate involuntary commitment for competent individuals.” It said that
Mr. Cuomo merely wanted to make sure officials provide help to those
who need it, within the law. “It’s about love. It’s about compassion. It’s
about helping one another and basic human decency,” Mr. Cuomo said.
Right. Even if you consider this an honest attempt to confront an
emergency, the order is odd. Officials and advocates in New York City,
home to most of the state’s street homeless population, were puzzled.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton said it
seemed to be telling the city to do what it has done for years.
Advocates said they appreciated Mr. Cuomo’s sudden interest but
pointed out that his order didn’t bolster mental health services or affordable
housing. And they wondered how his aggressive tack could be legal or
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Chapter 3. The News Media Style
workable. If, as Mr. Cuomo has suggested, people have good reasons to
avoid crowded, filthy shelters, why would you force them to go there and
keep them there? And when the weather warms up, what have you solved?
Mr. Cuomo’s order seems intended to spotlight, not end, a festering
problem in Mr. de Blasio’s city. And to suggest that the mayor is incompetent to fix it, by reminding people that the homeless seem more abundant than ever.
And yet, by bulldozing into the crisis, Mr. Cuomo has put himself on
the same page as the mayor. Mr. de Blasio has ramped up his own response in recent weeks, shaking up his staff and offering new spending
and outreach programs. On Tuesday he named a new deputy mayor for
health and human services, Herminia Palacio, with homelessness at the
heart of her portfolio.
Mr. de Blasio and Dr. Palacio need to act. They also need a partner in
Albany. Mr. Cuomo should take his urgent concern and make himself
useful – by renewing a defunct state-city partnership to build thousands
of units of supportive housing for vulnerable New Yorkers. He should
restore state money for homeless services, to make shelters better – and
to get more people out of them.
Mr. Cuomo, who toiled in the housing field for decades, is promising
to unveil his own ambitious homelessness plan in his State of the State
address this month. It will be interesting to see whether it is his expert
take on solving the problem, or exploiting it.
Assignment 5. Examine the following article written by Frances Ryan and
state to what means the columnist resorts to evaluate the problem and show her
vision of it.
from “The Guardian”, January 2, 2017
Walk into a food bank over Christmas or new year and “hope” probably
isn’t the word that springs to mind. Sadness, yes. Shame, maybe. Or anger
that in rich, so-called “modern” Britain, such a thing needs to exist. But
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Part II. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS
when I spoke to Jane – a volunteer at a central London food bank – in
December, it felt like a bit of hope peering out amid the dark.
Things weren’t easy for Jane. Made redundant a year ago, she’d lost
a job in journalism that she loved and was struggling to find paid work.
But like many of the people I met last year – from Claire, a mum of three
funding food parcels for families at her children’s school, to Louise, an
ex-teacher running a clothes bank out of a local church – Jane was giving
up her time to help strangers who are struggling.
Look hard enough and that sort of solidarity is all around us. Take
food banks. Many of Jane’s fellow volunteers had previously used the
service themselves and wanted to give something back. Each week,
a Citizens Advice volunteer comes in to help those needing a food parcel
get back on their feet: filling in benefit forms or checking eviction notices. A few days after the Guardian published the article about her, Jane
emailed me, overwhelmed: they’d received donations of almost £ 6,000.
These are in many ways grim times, where the most basic dignities –
regular meals or a secure home for your kids – are too often out of reach.
And with each government cut and wage squeeze over recent years has
come a gnawing fear that as a society – divided, scared, selfish – we’re
turning in on ourselves. Or worse, against each other. Right now, I think
it’s easy to feel that anyone suffering is essentially out on their own.
But time and time again, I’m struck by how ordinary people choose to
come together – and the incredible good that it does. I’ve seen grassroots
campaigns across the UK such as Sisters Uncut fight for long-term
funding for domestic violence survivors. And Disabled People Against
Cuts – a group that started as just a handful of disabled people – persuading
the United Nations to investigate the government’s disability cuts.
I’m in awe of community groups rallying with their time and donations, from TheBusShelterMK in Milton Keynes trying to raise £ 30,000
to convert a double decker into a shelter for homeless people, to the Biscuit
Fund – anonymous “gifters” who scan benefit forums to find families
who need help – giving more than £ 50,000 for anything from freezers to
food hampers.
I am inspired by the trade unions starting the year defending decent
pay, job security, and workers’ rights post-Brexit. Or the pro bono lawyers
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Chapter 3. The News Media Style
overturning social care cuts and the law students winning disabled
people’s “fit for work” appeals.
No one should have to fight as hard to survive as so many in this
country currently do. But I find hope in seeing that any struggle gets
easier when we stand beside each other. Let’s take on 2017 together.
Assignment 6. Read the feature article by Jennifer Moses, identify the type
of news it covers and speak on its language and structure.
from “Time”, March 1, 2016
Confessions of an innumerate: though well aware of the risk to my
academic career, as a teen I refused to struggle with math, so much so
that my mother, afraid that I wouldn’t get into college, forced me to spend
several hours a week with a tutor. Several hundred dollars and endless
long boring hours later, Mom realized that math and I weren’t meant for
each other.
Go tell that to today’s hyper-anxious win-at-all-costs parents. OK,
that’s a little harsh, but really, if the Tiger Mom of yesteryear was
ferocious, today’s ambitious parent is not only flat-out panicked, but also
willing to spend a lot of money to get her kid placed first in line.
But why wait until your tot is potty-trained? At FasTracKids, a program
with more than 20 locations in greater New York alone, you can enroll
your 6-month-old in a “signing” class to increase their vocabulary while
giving their parents “fun techniques to communicate with your baby.”
Infant linguistic skills leave you cold? No worries, or at least not if
you live near Issaquah, Wash., where you can enroll your tot in a program
that “uses an arts-based teaching structure … allowing children to think
and solve problems creatively. “
I know: it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. But as absurd as such earlylearning programs appear to be (babies and parents have been
communicating with each other just fine since the dawn of millennia
without organized intervention; toddlers don’t need help with creativity),
they have a point: to “prepare” your f ledgling Einstein, first, for
Kindergarten, and then for elementary school, then middle-school, and
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Part II. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS
finally high school, at which time the drive to shine brighter than the next
guy gets really wonky – or at least it does if you live in a certain kind of
well-off status-minded sliver.
It’s no secret that in high-octane educational environments, kids are
routinely engaged in a whole battery of activities meant to enhance their
competitive edge: early enrichment is the least of it. Sports, music lessons,
SAT camp, a slate of AP classes – or, for those who drag their heels (as
I did) tutoring and, perhaps, a stint or two in summer school. Not that any
tutor, teacher or program will do anything for the kid who isn’t motivated,
or at least open to intellectual growth, to begin with. It’s time and money
down the drain.
That said, even for those stellar, stand-out kids who not only drink but
actually gulp the parental Kool-Aid, things couldn’t be more fraught.
I know plenty of kids who routinely juggle AP classes, varsity sports,
clubs and community service, while packing their pre-college resumes
with everything from getting a pilot’s license to more summer internships
than I ever personally had jobs. Amusing, perhaps, but there’s a serious
downside. Not to put too fine a point to it, but unconditional love doesn’t
give a fig about whether you’re in the top 10% of your high school graduating
class or how many extracurriculars you can pull off on five hours of sleep.
However, if you’ve been raised to believe that you’re only as good, and as
worthy of love, as the bragging rights you can give your parents, things can
get pretty dark pretty fast: substance abuse, anxiety, depression,
psychosomatic illness – the list of ills that disproportionally afflict the
affluent and successful student is dramatic, and very very real.
The alert reader will notice two basic themes. First, superstar
achievement typically comes with a pricey price tag. But the more
pertinent theme, I think, is that while pushing a kid to succeed may
backfire beyond a parent’s worst nightmare – the “suicide clusters” among
highly-successful students in Palo Alto come to mind – such parental
tactics more often either do nothing at all (such as in my own case) or, for
better or worse, actually reap the targeted reward: admission to the
highly-competitive college of the collective parental dreamscape.
Q u e s t i o n : Then what?
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Chapter 3. The News Media Style
A n s w e r : It starts up all over again. Is it any wonder that in 2015,
more than half of all undergraduates reported being plagued by
overwhelming anxiety?
Look, I’m not even a little bit anti-go-for-it. Bright ambitious kids
thrive on challenge, and, obviously, for the kid who wants it, tutoring can
help, sports can lead to lifelong friendships, and typically pricey summer
enrichment programs can result in, for example, Latin fluency. (Yes,
there are modern-day Latin speakers.) But you have to let the offspring
choose it, and do it, for and by himself. Even small children don’t want
mommy to tie their shoes for them or dress them if they can do it
themselves. I still remember the day I tried to force my 3-year-old daughter
to wear what I wanted her to wear. And yes, my own choice of outfit
matched, whereas hers involved clashing styles, patterns and even socks.
I relented (she screamed louder than I did), and she hasn’t let me dress her
since. Thus I learned that it’s not the outcome that matters, but the effort.
If she can do it for herself, let her.
In other words, back off. Let the kid twist his ankle; flunk the test; not
make the cut; be denied entry. Meanwhile, love your kid for who he is,
warts and all, and nurture that kid with all you’ve got, which as often as
not means deploying the word “no.” As in “No, I’m not going to take you
to the Mall.” Or: “No, you can’t have that.” Or: “No. Because I said so,
that’s why.”
Because if they really want it – whether it be entrance to a certain
college, proficiency in French or enough cash to buy a coveted pair of
boots – they’ll figure out a way to do it themselves. That’s called resilience,
and when push comes to shove it’s the one thing that makes a difference
between a fully lived life and one that isn’t.
Even Mozart, famously the son of the world’s biggest control-freak,
didn’t really take off until he told his dad to take a hike, and left Salzburg
for Vienna. As for me, and my own worried mom, after eleventh grade,
during which I barely managed to pass Algebra II / Trig, I never did set
sight on a math book again. Somehow or another, though, I got into
college, and 40 years later, I’m still learning.
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Part II. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS
SELF-STUDY: TEXTS / EXTRACTS FOR STYLISTIC ANALYSIS
Assignment 7. Whenever possible listen to or watch a news programme of
one of the “analysis, opinion, comment” broadcasting formats. Pick out the linguistic means that signal evaluation in treating the topics in question.
Assignment 8. Prepare in writing complex stylistic analysis of the texts
given under Assignments 2, 4–6. For this consult the plan from Appendix 1.
Mind the fact that all the texts in the chapter are the borrowings from the
corresponding websites to which anyone may have an access. So choose a text
of the desired variety from one of the numerous news sites, analyse it on your
own and present the results in class.
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Гальперин, И.Р. Стилистика английского языка = English Stylistics /
И.Р. Гальперин. 5-е изд. М. : Книжный дом «Либроком», 2013. – 336 с.
Добросклонская, Т.Г. Медиалингвистика: системный подход к изучению языка СМИ (Cовременная английская медиаречь) / Т.Г. Добросклон- Добросклон-Добросклонская. М. : Флинта ; Наука, 2008. – 264 с.
Знаменская, Т.А. Стилистика английского языка. Основы курса : учеб.
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208 с.
Скребнев, Ю.М. Основы стилистики английского языка : учеб. /
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Швейцер, А.Д. Контрастивная стилистика: Газетно-публи цистический
текст в английском и русском языках / А.Д. Швейцер ; под ред. В.Н. Ярцевой. 2-е. изд. М. : Книжный дом «Либроком», 2009. – 256 с.
Crystal, D. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language /
D. Crystal. Cambridge University Press, 1996. – 489 p.
Feature Writing [Electronic resource]. Mode of access: http://www.mediastudies.ca/articles/feature.htm. Date of access: 28.02.2016.
Potter, D. Handbook of Independent Journalism / D. Potter. U.S. Department
of State: Bureau of International Information Programs, 2006. – 68 р.
Radio News Style Guide [Electronic resource]. Mode of access: http://news.
bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/radio_newsroom/1099302.stm. – Date of access:
11.01.2016.
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