Stylistic devices based on intensification of a certain feature of an object

Simileis a stylistic device based on comparison of two objects or notions belonging to different spheres of life. The objects compared are not identical, though they have some resemblance, some common features.

e.g. : Unhappiness was like a hungry animal waiting beside the track for any victim (G. Greene).

Formally, the simile is manifested:

— grammatically, with the help of conjunctions (as if; as thought, like, than, as. . .as)

e.g. :She looked at him as uncomprehendingly as a mouse might look as a gravestone.

— lexically, by means of the words expressing likeness (remind, resemble, seem, appear). It is called disguised simile

e.g. : He reminded me of a hungry cat.

Hyperboleis a deliberate overstatement, exaggeration that is used to intensify one of the features of the object.

e.g. : Her family is one aunt about a thousand years old (F. S. Fitzgerald).

Understatement / meiosisis lessening, weakening, underrating, reducing the real characteristics of the object of speech. It serves to emphasize the insignificance of what one speaks about.

e.g. : She wore a pink hat, the size of a button. (J. Reed).

12.Lexical stylistic devices: periphrasis, euphemism.

Periphrasisis a word combination which is used instead of one word, designating an object.

e.g. : alterations and improvements of truth – lies; two hundred pages of blood-curdling narrative - thriller.

Euphemismis a variant of periphrasis which is used to replace an unpleasant, hush or blunt word or expression by a conventionally more acceptable, mild or vague one.

e.g.: Jean nodded without turning and slid between two vermilion-coloured buses so that two drivers simultaneously used the same qualitative word (J. Galsworthy).

13. The stylistic use of set expressions: proverbs and sayings, epigrams, allusions.

Phraseologism - a group of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the constituent words, as for example (It was raining) cats and dogs.

The use of phraseologisms: People use idioms to make their language richer and more colorful and to convey subtle shades of meaning or intention. Idioms are used often to replace a literal word or expression, and many times the idiom better describes the full nuance of meaning. Idioms and idiomatic expressions can be more precise than the literal words, often using fewer words but saying more.

Acad.Vinogradov pointed out 3 types of phraseological units:

a) fusions where the degree of motivation is very low, we cannot guess the meaning of the whole from the meanings of its components, they are highly idiomatic and cannot be translated word for word into other languages, e.g. at sixes and sevens - (in a mess беспорядок, кто в лес, кто по дрова, куча мала)

b) unities where the meaning of the whole can be guessed from the meanings of its components, but it is transferred (metaphorical or metonymical), e.g. to play the first fiddle ( to be a leader in something), old salt (experienced sailor)

c) collocations where words are combined in their original meaning but their combinations are different in different languages, e.g. cash and carry - (self-service shop), in a big way (in great degree) etc.

or not, which is recognized by any user of the language & culture as a more or less integral unit. Within set. ex-nswe find the foll-ng groups:

1)proverbs & sayings give more spoken, cultural character to a discourse. (пьян как сапожник = drank as a fish).

2)A сliсhe is an expression that has become trite. Every functional style with the possible exception of poetic style has its own set of cl-s. C-s are typical of journalism, main function - not to waste time (without moving a muscle; without a doubt; to tell the truth; couldn't keep my eyes open).

3) A quotationis a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, well-known speech & is used as a proof or illustration (To be or not to be).

4) Allusion is a reference or a hint to a well-known literary work, person, event or place. Al. can be overt and covert. It is always rich in connotation and very economic. Allusion helps a careful reader not only to perceive the information that is implied in a certain literary work, it also clarifies the author’s opinion & feelings. To understand an allusion the reader should have some background knowledge. Differences from quot.: no indication of the source is given; an al. is only a mention of a word or phrase which may be regarded as the key-word of the utterance. Types of al.: historical, biblical, mythological, literary. Al.is also widely used in titles:

Ulysses, Pygmalion-myth.; Vanity Fair, In our time, The Sun also Rises-biblical, The Catcher in the Rye – literary (Burns); a friend in Need - a proverb (a friend in need is a friend indeed).

Example 1

I can resist everything but temptation

This brief epigram by Oscar Wilde is remarkably witty: temptation, is by definition, something we attempt to resist. By saying he can resist everything but temptation, the speaker is also saying he can resist nothing.

Example 2

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

This epigram speaks to the idea that being gossiped about may seem bad, but being completely ignored often feels even worse. Readers would expect the opposite of a bad thing to be good, but in this case, the opposite is even worse. This statement illustrates the paradoxical side of many epigrams.

Example 3

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.

In this example, wit and brevity communicate the larger idea that people soften their mistakes by claiming to learn from the experience.

Epigrams show that the truth can be conveyed concisely and wittily. Whereas many writers and speakers take time, effort, and space to make the truth known, epigrams take advantage of brevity. Short sayings are more memorable and more easily passed down over time than long essays and arguments. Because it is often difficult to concisely and wittily express complicated or universal truths, a well-written epigram is considered an admirable poetic and intellectual feat.

14. Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices: inversion, detachment, parallel constructions, chiasmus.

Syntactical expressive means include constructions that reveal a certain degree of logical and emotional emphasis.

Stylistic inversion. This is a stylistic device in which the traditional direct order of the English sentence S-P-O is changed either completely so that the predicate (predicative) precedes the subject fully or partially or the object precedes the subject. So we distinguish complete and partial inversion. Unlike grammatical inversion, stylistic inversion does not change the structural meaning of the sentence. Its purpose is to attach logical stress or additional emotional colouring to the surface meaning of the sentence. That is why inversion is accompanied by a specific intonation pattern.

The types of inversion predominantly used in Modem English are as follows:

1. The object stands at the beginning of the sentence, e.g. Talent Mr. Micawber has; capital Mr. Micawber has not. {L)

2. The attribute expressed by an adjective stands in post-position to the noun it modifies, e.g. But it's a letter congratulatory. (A.C.).

3. The predicative expressed by a noun or a pronoun precedes the subject, e.g. Insolent, wilful and singularly pretty was her aspect. (Ch.B.)

4. The adverbial modifier, usually standing at the end of the sentence, is placed at the beginning, e.g. Eagerly I wished the morrow. (E.Poe) When the reader notices that the traditional word order is violated, he should be aware of the author's intention to attach special importance to the inverted part of the sentence and look for some additional information lying behind it. In Modern English we often come across questions which are presented as affirmative sentences, the only indication, of their
interrogative nature being the question mark at the end. E.g. Then he said: "You think so? She was mixed up in this lousy business? (J.Br.) The inverted question presupposes the answer with more certainty than the normative one. It is the assuredness of the speaker of the positive answer that constitutes additional information which is brought into the question by the inverted word order.

Detachment.This device is used by writers to make the reader pay special attention to some parts of the sentence which are placed in such a position that formally they seem independent of the words they refer to, but their semantic connection with such words is clearly perceived by the reader. Detached parts of the sentence may be different in length - from a single word to an extended group of words. E.g. Daylight was dying, the moon rising, gold behind the poplars.(G.) The italicized phrase in bold type seems to be isolated, but still the connection with the primary members of the sentence is clearly perceived, so gold behind the poplars may be interpreted as a simile or a metaphor.

The stylistic function of detachment lies in emphasizing the meaning of the detached part, attaching special significance to it. E.g. She was lovely: all of her - delightful. (Dr.) In this sentence the punctuation mark plays an important role. The dash standing before the word makes it conspicuous and, being isolated, it becomes the culminating point of the climax -lovely... - delightful, i.e. the peak of the whole utterance. The phrase all of heris also isolated. The general impression, suggested by the
implied intonation, is a strong feeling of admiration.

Parallel constructions.This is the reiteration of the structure of several successive sentences or clauses which are identical or similar in their structure. Parallel constructions may be partial or complete. Partial parallelism is the repetition of some parts of successive sentences or clauses, e.g. If we are Frenchmen we adore our mother; if Englishmen, we love dogs and virtue. (J.J.) Complete parallelism maintains the principle of identical structures throughout the corresponding sentences, e.g. / told him you were sick, I told him you were asleep. (W.Sh.)

Parallelism is often combined with other stylistic devices and is used to back them up, such as lexical repetition, alliteration, antithesis. It is widely used in the belles-lettres style, in publicistic and scientific prose with different functions.

1. In emotive prose the main function is to intensify the communicative and expressive significance of the utterance, e.g. It was not a day to be without a job or cigarettes or lunch. It was not a day in which he had no interest in it. (I.Shaw)

2. Syntactic parallelism may unite semantically different elements into complex syntactic unities, creating a true-to-life description of the event, e.g. Shelling the peas, smelling the onions cooking, watching the deft movements of her perfectly manicured hands, hearing the gay murmur of her voice, he felt the depression of the last weeks lift. (D.C.)

3. In oratory and publicistic style the main function of parallel constructions is to stress the main idea of the utterance, to convince the reader or the listener, to cause him to accept the author's point of view, e.g. But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal - there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller... (H. Lee). In the attorney's speech parallelism creates the effect of gravity and authority.

4. When used in scientific prose parallelism elucidates the scientific phenomenon and helps to impose upon the reader the author's point of view, e.g. In some cases, a chronological or logical sequence can in English be changed in presentational order (e.g. told backwards); when this is done, the referential structure of the tale is unaffected, but the grammatical structure of the telling is radically altered. Grammatical order is necessarily linear, but referential order is at least potentially simultaneous. (K.Pk.)

A variety of parallelism is called chiasmus. Here the repeated parts of the sentence come in the reversed order. Its main function is to attach a new additional content to the utterance, fixing the addressee's attention on the fact, thus making it prominent, e.g. A court is only as sound as its jury, and the jury is only as sound as the men who make it up. (H.Lee)

Reversed parallelism is called chiasmus. The second part of a chiasmus is, in fact, inversion of the first construction. Thus, if the first sentence (clause) has a direct word order - SPO, the second one will have it inverted - OPS. Inversion inthe second half of an expression with the parts reversed. "Down dropped the breeze, the sails dropped down" (Coleridge).

15.Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices: repetition, enumeration.

One of the most prominent places among the SDs dealing with the arrangement of members of the sentence decidedly belongs to repetition. ' We have already seen the repetition of a phoneme (as in alliteration), of a morpheme (as in rhyming, or plain morphemic repetition). As a syntactical SD repetition is recurrence of the same word, word combination, phrase for two and more times. According to the place which the repeated unit occupies in a sentence (utterance), repetition is classified into several types:

Repetition.It is common knowledge that repetition is widely used in oral speech, its aim being to make a direct emotional impact on the listener. Thus, in the following example from Galsworthy the excited state of mind of the speaker is shown:

"Stop!" she cried, "Don't tell me! I don't want to hear; I don't want to hear what you 've come for. I don't want to hear".

When it is used by writers as a stylistic device, its function is different. In this case it aims at logical emphasis, an emphasis necessary to fix the attention of the reader on the key-word of the utterance. Repetition is a recurrence of the same word, word-combination, phrase or a sentence two or more times. According to the place which the repeated unit occupies in a sentence the following varieties of repetition can be singled out:

1. Anaphora - the repeated unit comes at the beginning of two or more consecutive sentences, clauses or phrases. E.g. / might as well face fads: good-bye, Susan, good-bye a big car, good-bye a big house, good-bye the silly handsome dreams. (J.Br.)

2. Epiphora - the end of successive sentences (clauses) is repeated. E.g. / wake up and I'm alone and I walk round Warley and I'm alone; and I talk with people and I'm alone. (J.Br.) The main stylistic function of both anaphora and epiphora is to create the background for the non-repeated unit, which, through its novelty, becomes foregrounded. J. Framing - the initial parts of a syntactical unit, in most cases of a , paragraph, are repeated at the end of it. Framing makes the whole utterance more compact and more complete. E.g. Obviously - this is a streptococcal infection. Obviously. (W.D.) Its function is to clear up the notion mentioned at the beginning of the utterance. Between two appearances of the repeated unit stands the middle part of the utterance which explains and clarifies what was introduced at the beginning.

4. Catch repetition - the end of one clause or sentence is repeated at the beginning of the following one. Specification of the semantics occurs here, too, but on a more modest level. E.g.And a great desire for peace, peace of no matter what kind, swept through her. (A.B.)

5. Chain repetition is a combination of several successive catch repetitions. E.g. To think better of it, "returned the gallant Blandois", "would be to slight a lady, to slight a lady would be deficient in chivalry towards the sex, and chivalry towards the sex is a part of my character" (D.).

6. Ordinaiy repetition has no fixed place in the sentence, its function is to emphasize both the logical and the emotional meanings of the repeated unit. E.g. / really don't see anything romantic in proposing, ft is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. (O.W.)

7. Successive repetition is a string of repeated units closely following each other. This variety of repetition is the most emphatic, because it shows the peak of emotions of the speaker. E.g. / wanted to knock over the table and hit him until my arm had no more strength in it, then give him the boot, give him the boot, give him the boot — / drew in a deep breath. (J.Br.)

Repetition requires the reader to stop and rethink the significance of the reiterated unit So it is widely used in emotive prose to convey different feelings and emotions, such as meditation, sadness, reminiscence and other psychological states.

There is a kind of repetition called tautology, which is the repetition of the same statement, word or phrase in the immediate context and which is considered a fault of style. But there is another side of this phenomenon: any seemingly unnecessary repetition of words or of ideas expressed in different words may be justified by the aesthetic aims of the communication. From this point of view the sentence The daylight is fading, the sun is setting, and the night is coming on may be quite justified as an artistic example picturing the approach of night.

Enumeration[iֽnju:m(ə)΄rei∫(ə)n] – repetition of the same part of speech in succession (not the same words). Separate things or properties are named one by one to display some kind of semantic homogeneity. Famine, despair, cold, thirst and heat had done their work on them.

16. Syntactical stylistic devices: suspense, climax, anticlimax, antithesis.

Syntactical stylistic devices add logical, emotive, expressive information to the utterance regardless of lexical meanings of sentence components. There are certain structures though, whose emphasis depends not only on the arrangement of sentence members but also on the lexico-semantic aspect of the utterance. They are known as lexico-syntactical SDs.

Litotes is a two-component structure in which two negations are joined to give a positive evaluation. Thus "not unkindly" actually means "kindly", though the positive effect is weakened and some lack of the speaker's confidence in his statement is implied. The first component of a litotes is always the negative particle "not", while the second, always negative in semantics, varies in form from a negatively affixed word (as above) to a negative phrase.

Litotes is especially expressive when the semantic centre of the whole • structure is stylistically or/and emotionally coloured, as in the case of the following occasional creations: "Her face was not unhandsome" (A.H.) or "Her face was not unpretty". (K.K.)

The function of litotes has much in common with that of understatement - both weaken the effect of the utterance. The uniqueness of litotes lies in its specific "double negative" structure and in its weakening only the positive evaluation. The Russian term "литота" corresponds only to the English "understatement" as it has no structural or semantic limitations.

20.The main peculiarities of belles-lettres style.

Belles-letters style.It is common knowledge that we organise our speech taking into account the communicative situation in which it takes place. A speech functional style is a socially accepted stereotype of speech behaviour, closely connected with man's social activity. A style contains information concerning the speaker: his social role, psychological state, his attitude to
the listener and the subject of speech. In Modern English the following styles are usually distinguished: belles-lettres style, publicistic style, newspaper style, scientific style and official style.

This style is not homogeneous, it is usually divided into the followingsubstyles:

the language of poetry;

the language of emotive prose;

the language of dramatic works.

All these substyles are characterised by the aesthetic-cognitive function and they provide for a gradual unfolding of the author's message to the reader. At the same time they give an aethsetic pleasure from perceiving the literary form in which the author's thoughts are clothed.

This pleasure is explained not only by admiring the language resour­ces selected by the author, but also by the fact that the reader is given an opportunity to make his own conclusions regarding the author's message. So the chief purpose of this style is to prove that the author's interpretation of the described events is not the only correct one; on the contrary, the reader can formulate his own conclusions concerning the events described in the book.

This style is characterised by the following features:

1. Vivid, original imagery, achieved by purely linguistic means. In order to intensify the emotional impact upon the reader the author widely uses metaphors, similes, epithets, inversion, parallelism, other expressive resources of stylistics.

2. Words are used not only in their direct dictionary meanings, but also in contextual meaning, which is created by lexical environment and is influenced by the general conception of the belles-lettres work.

3. The word choice reflects the author's subjective perception of reality. It should be noted that every writer has his own inventory of words, and it is different from the word stock of other writers.

Though this style belongs to written styles, it has some features of colloquial style. Sometimes the whole book may be written in colloquial style, e.g. the novel by John Salinger The Catcher in the Rye which creates an impression of the main character's addressing the reader just from the pages of the novel.

Besides the already mentioned features, the language of poetry is characterised by a wide use of assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, archaic words and their forms, which create an impression of sophistica­tion and solemnity. The language of drama, in its turn, is remarkable for a wide use of colloquial vocabulary and syntactic structures, the presence of authorial comments, the division of plays into acts and scenes. In plays the author's message is communicated to the reader not directly, but indirectly, through the speech and actions of characters.

21.The main peculiarities of publicist style.

This style goes back to the 18th century. It emerged from public speeches on social, moral and philosophical issues. This is the so-called oratorical substyle which also has an oral variety. With the appearance of radio and TV a new substyle emerged - radio and TV commentary. Besides, there are two more written substyles - the essay and journalistic articles in newspapers and magazines.

The chief purpose of pubiicistic style is to make a deep and lasting influence on public opinion, to convince the reader or listener that the interpretation of events, suggested by the author, is the only correct one. The author makes the reader accept his viewpoint not only with the help of logical arguments, but also through emotional influence. It is especially noticeable in oratorical substyle, in which human voice plays a very important part. The choice of stylistic devices in this case is predetermined by the conditions of communication. In order to move the audience emotionally the speaker makes use of traditional stylistic resources - image-bearing metaphors, unexpected comparisons, rhetoric questions and parallel constructions. But in order to produce a deeper impression on the audience their use can be exaggerated, thus resulting in embellishment of speech. In pubiicistic style stylistic devices and expressive means are closely interrelated. For instance, antithesis may be supported by parallelism, which can be complicated by various types of repetitions.

As a vivid example of the oratorical substyle we can cite the speech of Atticus Finch, a lawyer, at the trial of Tom Robinson. The speaker uses a lot of stylistic devices in order to rouse the jury and to make them believe that Tom Robinson is not guilty:

And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to 'feel sorry 'for a white woman has had to put his word against two white people's. I need not remind you of their appearance and conduct on the stand - you saw them for yourselves. The witnesses for the state, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County, have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption - the evil assumption — that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their calibre.

As we can see, the emotional impact upon the reader is achieved by numerous stylistic resources: image-bearing epithets {quiet, respectable, humble), a hyperbole {unmitigated temerity), a metaphor {to put one's word against somebody), parenthetic constructions (with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County; the evil assumption), the repetition of the logically and semantically important words {confidence and confident) parallel constructions at the end of the paragraph.

The essay is a literary work of moderate length on philosophical, social and ethical topics, which is characterised by the author's subjective treatment of the subject. Among the most typical linguistic features of the essay are: brevity of expression, the presence of the author (the pronouns /, we), a wide use of conjunctions and emotionally coloured words. Here is an extract from an essay devoted to the problem of fighting crime in the history of civilisation:

Caging men as a means of dealing with the problem of crime is a modem refinement of man's ancient and limitless inhumanity, as well as his vast capacity for self-delusion. Murderers and felons used to he hanged, beheaded, flogged, tortured, broken on the rack, blinded, ridden out of town on a rail, tarred and feathered, or arrayed in the stocks. Nobody pretended that such penalties were anything other than punishment and revenge. Before nineteenth-century developments, dungeons were mostly for the convenient custody of political prisoners, debtors, and those awating trial. American progress with many another grim "advance", gave the world the penitentiary. (Wic.)

22.The main peculiarities of newspaper style.

Newspaper style is a system of interconnected and interdependent lexical, grammatical and phraseological means which has the purpose of informing and interesting the reader. The newspaper is a vehicle of mass media, it is intended for mass audiences, it is a means of influencing the reader and bringing him to the journalist's understanding of facts. People read newspapers in situations where it is difficult to concentrate: on the underground, on the train, at breakfast, etc. Consequently, the newspaper has the task of presenting information in such a way as to give it quickly, briefly, and to make a certain emotional impact upon the reader. The reading of newspapers should not require any preliminary preparation on the part of the reader, though alongside ordinary, constantly repeated topics the newspaper can touch upon any problem which has gained relevance in recent days or weeks. All these factors result in the necessity of using standard syntactic patterns and lexical cliches, as the journalist has little time for processing information.

Reading newspapers we cannot but notice that their vocabulary abounds in proper names, place names, names of establishments and organisations, a lot of dates. There are also many international words and neologisms, which can later turn into cliches, e.g. vital issue, free world, pillar of society, escalation of war, aggravation of a situation, etc. Researchers also point out numerous stereotypical phrases, e.g. Mr X is reported as saying.... It is alledged that... The vocabulary is mostly neutral, all the information is concrete, as a rule. Very conspicuous is the abundance of evaluative and expressive elements, e.g. JWien the last Labour Government was kicked out. {Daily Mail).

In order to make contact with the reader various graphic means are widely used - types, titles, which should catch the reader's eye, the distribution of an article among a few pages, which makes it possible for the reader to take notice of the article.

It is common knowledge that the titles in British and American newspapers are rather specific, as their task is to make the reader interested in the piece of information in the newspaper and to present the article in a concise form, e.g.:

1. Italy's radio, TV workers on strike.

2. Apollo trail-blazers back relaxed and joking.

3. Convict sentenced for life for coffin girl kidnap.

In the first title the author just tells the readers that in Italy the personnel of radio and TV companies have gone on strike, so this heading is purely informational in character. In the second heading we can see that a group of American astronauts aboard the spaceship "Apollo" have returned to the Earth, as well as some additional information - they are in high spirits and good health. The third heading is rather mystifying. We cannot understand it completely until we have read the whole article. As for the article, it runs about a criminal, escaped from prison, who kidnapped a millionaire's daughter in order to get a ransom, and kept her in a wooden box. Later the criminal was captured and the girl set free. The title, which gives the general orientation, is followed by a subtitle. It is printed in smaller letters and enlarges on the information given in the title. The first lines of the article proper give the gist of the information, then details follow.

Newspaper articles contain a lot of quotations which can be presented either in inverted commas or without them, in a reduced form. The journalist's commentary often accompanies the information. Ordinary verbs in newspaper language are often replaced by set phrases, which create an impression of smoothness, e.g. to make contact with, to play the leading part, to serves the purpose of. Instead of short words longer word combinations are used, e.g. with respect to, having regard to, in view of not unimportant, not inevitable. All these cliches make the text sound sophisticated, though the contents may be quite commonplace. Alongside traditional information items the newspaper contains editorials, whose style is close to publicistic, as well as dvertisements and announcements, which have their own peculiarities and make a special substyle within newspaper style.

23. The main peculiarities of scientific style.

In scientific styleall language means are subordinated to the aim of creating an objective picture of a state or phenomenon. Therefore they are objective, precise, devoid of emotiveness and individuality. Here are the characteristic features of this style:

1. The existence of logical connection between utterances, which is shown with the help of a wide use of conjunctions and connectives.

2. A scientific description of the subject requires the use of special words - terms, whose number increases as the scientific and technological progress develops.

3. The presence of speech cliches and standard phrases. As a rule, a scientific presentation begins with facts which are common knowledge, after this the author unfolds his own argumentation and makes conclusions.

4. The use of quotations and references which have a certain structure: the author's name, the title of the book referred to, the name of the city where the book was published, the name of the publishing house, the year of its publication.

5. A frequent use of footnotes, placed at the bottom of the page. They contain additional information which the author does not want to include in the text of the article so as not to violate the sequence of narration.

6. Scientific style is devoid of emotionality and subjectivity, the author tries to present facts objectively and impartially. For this reason passive constructions are widely used as they are considered to be more objective. In this way, the commonly used phrases like I weighed 10 grams of the stuff and dissolved it in as little water as I could will be changed in scientific style for a more objective sentence: Ten grains of the substance were dissolved in a minimum amount of water.

All the above-mentioned peculiarities of scientific style can be visible in the next extract, devoted to the topic of the category of case in English:

We have considered the three theories, which, if at basically different angles, proceed from the assumption that the English noun does not distinguish the grammatical case in its functional structure. However, another view of the problem of the English noun cases has been put forward, which sharply counters the theories hitherto observed. This view approaches the English noun as having completely lost the category of case in the course of historical development. (M.B.)

The fragment begins with the universally known truth that the noun in English does not posses a noun inflection, after which the author passes on to expostulate another theory. The extract abounds in linguistic terms, contains the cliches proceed from the assumption, put forward a view, the sentences follow each other in logical succession, there exists a close connection between them. At the same time the reader cannot but perceive the impersonality and objectivity of the presentation of scientific data.

24. The main peculiarities of official style.

Official style resembles scientific style in its impartiality and objectivity. It is subdivided into the following substyles: the language of official documents; that of diplomacy; that of legal documents; that of military documents. Here are its most characteristic features:

1. A special set of cliches, terms and stereotyped phrases, e.g. / beg to inform you; on behalf of smb.; in connection -with smth.

2. The frequent use of abbreviations and symbols, such as MP (Member of Parliament), Gvt (government), $ (dollar), £ (pound sterling), Ltd. (limited), Co. (company), etc.

3. The use of words in their direct dictionary meanings. In official style utterances are formulated in such a way as to avoid misinterpretation or ambiguity.

4. A specific syntactic arrangement of texts with long, logically constructed sentences, a ramified system of subordinate clauses, linked by means of conjunctions and connectives.

As a vivid example of official style we can cite the beginning of a letter sent by the chairman of the Organizing Committee of a scientific conference to one of his colleagues:

Dear Sir!

Contributed papers accepted for the conference will be presented in oral sessions or in poster sessions, each type of presentation being considered of equal importance for the success of the conference. The choice between the one or the other way of presentation will be made by the Programme Committee.

Sincerely

T. W. Thomas,

Chairman.

25. The main peculiarities of colloquial style.

the colloquial style exists in its own right, it can penetrate into practically any other style . Colloquial Style – the peculiarities are mostly due to its oral character.

It exists in 3 layers:

1) Common(standart C.) (Hу ладно, is it ok? )

2) Casual C.(фамильярно-разговорный)-use of slang and professional jargon, use of acceptable dysphemism (дисфемизм) old sport, “мой старик”. And adjectives with negative affective connotation “damn, beastly, confounded”

3) Low C. (просторечие)- vulgarisms, swear words: “bastard, son of bitch”and obcense language, uneducated use of language (ложит, красивше,шешнадцать )

This style is characterized by 2 controversial tendencies, both rooted in the oral nature of discourse:

1. Comparison

2. Redundancy

Comparison:

1) Contracted forms of verbs (can’t, doesn’t, he’s)

2) Clippings: prof, doc, exam

3) elliptical sentences, esp questions: Looking for a room? Angry?.

4) Words of broad lexical meaning: thing, stuff, business

Redundancy:

1)double subject(syntactic tautology) My brother, he is such a scoundrel!

2)pause fillers (well, you see, so, mmm).

Slang is a very short lived phenomenon. It identities with a group (students’, military, drug addicts’). Yet other scholars such as Skrebnev or Crystall tend to believe that S refers to the vocabulary in general use, whereas group-restricted S had better be called jargon. S is very shorted. It soon dies out. Jargon is a slang of a special group to mark social identity. Sometimes expressions are based on double metaphor. (тусоваться) There is a layer of words which is called арго it is a language of prisoners, In English it is called Cant