МІНІСТЕРСТВО ОСВІТИ І НАУКИ, МОЛОДІ ТА СПОРТУ УКРАЇНИ

Запорізький національний технічний університет

КУРС ЛЕКЦІЙ

з дисципліни «Особливості мови науково-технічної літератури»

для студентів ІІ курсу спеціальності 7.02030304 „Переклад”

всіх форм навчання

Частина 2

2011

Курс лекцій з дисципліни «Особливості мови науково-технічної літератури» для студентів ІІ курсу спеціальності 7.02030304 "Переклад" всіх форм навчання. – Частина 2 / Укл.: А.Б.Підгорна. – Запоріжжя: ЗНТУ, 2011. – 62 с.

Укладач: А.Б.Підгорна, к.філол.н., доц. каф. ТіПП

Рецензент: Е.О.Кущ, к.філол.н., доц. каф. ТіПП

Відповідальний

за випуск: А.Б.Підгорна, к.філол.н., доц. каф. ТіПП

Затверджено

на засіданні кафедри

“Теорії і практики перекладу”

Протокол № 5

від “14” грудня 2011

ЗМІСТ

Lecture 1. Grammatical Features	4
1.1 Grammatical Peculiarities	4
1.2 Tense	6
1.3 Voice	10
Lecture 2. The Sentence Structure	12
2.1 Word Order	12
2.2 The Subject	15
2.3 The Predicate	16
2.4 The Object	18
2.5 Modifiers	20
2.6 Danglers in Scientific Prose	25
2.7 Antecedents	26
2.8 Clauses	27
Lecture 3. Punctuation	28
3.1 Is Punctuation Really Important?	28
3.2 Periods	32
3.3 Commas	34
3.4 Colons	39
3.5 Semicolons	40
3.6 Question Marks	41
3.7 Exclamation Points	42
3.8 Apostrophes	42
3.9 Quotation Marks	43
3.10 Parentheses	44
3.11 Brackets	45
3.12 Hyphens	46
3.13 Dashes	50
Lecture 4. Types of Writing: Compositional Peculiarities	51
4.1 Scientific Articles	51
4.2 Research Papers	52
4.3 Theses	53
4.4 Summary and Abstract	54
4.5 Instructions and Procedures	57
4.6 Specifications	59
References	61

Lecture 1. Grammatical Features

1.1 Grammatical Peculiarities

Stylistic features of the scientific prose are not constricted only to lexical peculiarities though they are the most obvious. Grammatical features play the role which is not the least important . Some grammatical phenomena may cause a great deal more difficulties to the recipients of scientific texts than any lexical one and dictionaries are of no help in this case.

Grammatical phenomena of the language are connected with the history and specificity of this language development, and generally they differ from the grammatical peculiarities of other languages although they may be some way or another similar. Thus, if we compare the English and Ukrainian languages we can outline the following grammatical peculiarities of the former one:

a) analytical character of the English language (unlike the synthetic one of the Ukrainian language), which means that syntactic relations within sentences are expressed mainly with the help of specific grammatical words, or particles, auxiliary verbs, rather than inflection (the change of word forms) like in Ukrainian. It implies:

- adjectives, numerals and adverbs have no case endings (inflection);

- there are only three synthetic finite forms of the verb (ask, asks, asked), while all the other tense forms are constructed with the help of auxiliary verbs;

b) an abundance of function words – prepositions that show the relations between words, i.e. perform the function of inflections of the Ukrainian language;

c) fixed word order if compared with a free one of Ukrainian. The breach of the word order has a stylistic meaning;

These are grammatical peculiarities of the English language as opposed to the Ukrainian one. This is what usually causes translation difficulties and necessitates the adequate choice of appropriate grammatical transformations.

Detailing grammatical features of the scientific and technical English one must admit that there is no scientific or technical grammar, of course. The scientific discourse is characterized by the use of the same syntactical and morphological forms as any other functional style. However, a number of grammatical phenomena are more frequent in it than in any other style, or otherwise, some phenomena are very rare, or have additional stylistic meaning.

Thus, the following grammatical peculiarities characterize scientific and technical texts.

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES:

a) subject-verb-object word order in the sentence (inversions are very rare);

b) narrative way of presenting information, i.e affirmative sentences. If interrogative ones are used their purpose is to outline a problem to be solved (after the question asked). Exclamatory sentences are too emotional to be included into scientific discourse (but for certain genres).

c) predominance of different complex sentences. Though at present there is a tendency in the English language scientific discourse for clear and simple speech and writing, complex sentences are still widely used for the purpose of giving all necessary arguments and details in one meaningful unit. The author of the text has to include a plenty of material into a limited text space without losing coherence and clarity of statements. That is why it is said scientific texts tend to syntactic compression, i.e. an increase in the amount of information covered along with a decrease in the text amount. This aim is achieved with the help of complex sentences, complex word-combinations, verbals, etc.

d) frequent use of passive to achieve objectivity and impersonality (attention is focused on the description of mechanisms, processes or structures but not on the one who performs the action): mention should be made, it can be inferred, etc.

e) extensive use of non-finite verb forms (assuming that…, considering the fact…, to achieve the purpose) with the view of conciseness and impersonality. Besides it must be mentioned that in scientific discourse there is a prevailing use of attributive participial and infinitive phrases in post-position (the goods ordered, the facts checked, the experience to be conducted, the temperature to be obtained).

f) the use of formal or indefinite-personal subjects (one, it, there, they, we, you (in Ukrainian: Зазначають, що …...);

g) abundance of adverbial and prepositional phrases, attributive groups with a descriptive function;

h) frequent use of parenthesis introduced by a dash.

i) prevalence of nominal constructions over the verbal ones to avoid time reference for the sake of generalisation. However some linguists insist on using verb forms because excessive or unnecessary nominalization can make your writing wordy because it requires a noun and a verb instead of just a verb form.

j) article omission (General view is that…; First uranium mine in the region was…, biological engineering)

The list given above presents the most characteristic grammatical features, although it must be mentioned that there is a difference in the perception of scientific texts by Ukrainian and English / American writers. There is even some kind of an initiative tendency nowadays in scientific America termed “The Plain Language Movement”. The movement dates back to the 1970s when the U.S. federal government began encouraging its regulation writers to be less bureaucratic. They say: “The rule is that scientific reports and papers must be written in the past tense, passive voice and third person (or impersonal). It is a bad rule. I believe it is responsible for much of the stupefying ponderousness of expression in scientific writing.”

The plain language movement is an attempt to demonstrate the benefits of writing clearly and concisely, in a reader-focused style. In short, the plain language movement may be called a recipe to use:

- logical organization of your text,

- common, everyday words (except for necessary technical terms),

- “we” and other personal pronouns,

- the active verbs, and

- short sentences.