Separata de Estilistica 2002-1

UNIVERSIDAD RICARDO PALMA

FACULTAD DE LENGUAS MODERNAS

CARRERA DE TRADUCTORES E INTÉRPRETES

CURSO DE ESTILÍSTICA INGLESA

PROFESORA: LIC. MARIA ELENA ARAGON R.

SURCO 2003

Este material de enseñanza se hace en concordancia con lo dispuesto por la legislación sobre derechos de autor: Ley 13714, Art. 69: Pueden ser reproducidos y difundidos breves fragmentos de obras literarias científicas y artísticas y aun la obra entera si su breve extensión y naturaleza lo justifican; siempre que la reproducción se haga con fines culturales y no comerciales, y que ella no entrañe competencia desleal para el autor en cuanto a aprovechamiento pecuniario de la

obra, debiendo indicarse en todo caso el nombre del autor, el título de la obra, y la fuente de donde se hubieran tomado.

Index- Introduction to stylistics 1- Stylistic devices 4- The Epithet 8- Denotation and connotation 11- Expressiveness and Emotiveness 13- The Belles-lettres style 18- The Style of Official Documents 21- The Publicistic Style 23- the Scientific Prose Style 24- The Newspaper Style 25- Stylistic Classification of the English Vocabulary 26- Special Literary Vocabulary 27- Special Colloquial Vocabulary 29- A brief outline of the development of the English Literary

Language 35- Readings 40

UNIVERSIDAD RICARDO PALMAFACULTAD DE LENGUAS MODERNASCARRERA DE TRADUCTORES E INTERPRETES ESTILÍSTICA INGLESA A - BPROFESORA: MALENA ARAGÓN

_________________________________________________________________________

(Based on Galperin’s Stylistics)

Introduction to STYLISTICS

STYLE is recognized when you put a combination of media language together with a sequence of stylistic devices. (Galperin)

STYLISTIC DEVICES are marked units in the text. The carry ADDITIONAL INFORMATION (this info may be emotional or logical)

STYLE can be recognized in 4 levels: - phonographical (sound) or phonological - morphological (word repetition or formation) - lexical (use of words in specific context) - syntactical (use of words in relation to other words in a sentence clause)

Stylistic devices can be more commonly found in: informative, exhortative and expressive texts.

INFORMATIVE Emphasizes the content EXHORTATIVE Emphasizes the appeal of the reader EXPRESSIVE Emphasizes the form of the text AUDIOVISUAL Emphasizes form of text and other features.

Examples of each kind of text

INFORMATIVE

EXHORTATIVE

EXPRESSIVE

AUDIOVISUAL

1


_________________________________________________________________________

WHAT IS STYLE?

STYLE comes from the latin word stilus which means “short stick that is sharp on one end and flat on the other. It is applied to teaching composition writing . it shows correspondence between thought and expression.

Style is a quality of language which communicates precisely emotions and thoughts (the author’s).

Style is an important aspect in the real understanding of the message. That’s why it is so important for translators as they have to communicate the real meaning of the original text into the target language.

“Style is the quality if language that communicates precise emotions and thoughts, inherent to the author.” (J.Middleton Murry)

“Style is a contextually restricted linguistic variation”. (Enkvist)1

So we can see that the definition of stylistics basically involves the way of writing different types of text using several language resources – among them stylistic resources or figures of speech – and several grammar tenses – upon the text in question. Furthermore, it involves the analysis of the oral language when analyzing diverse kinds of dialects, usages and language variations along time.

Regarding its relation to translation, let’s quote Ch. R. Taber y Eugene Nida2: “Translation consists in reproducing the message of the source language into the target language by using the nearest and most natural equivalent upon its sense and its style”

This is Jean Dubois et autres3’s definition :“Translation is to say in another language what has been written in a source language preserving the semantic and stylistic equivalences”.

HOW IMPORTANT IS STYLISTICS FOR TRANSLATION?

To understand this relation we should quote Charles R. Taber y Eugene A. Nida4 “The enormous disparity between superficial structures from two different languages is the basis of a traditional dilemma in translation: upon this dilemma, a translation is either faithful to the original text and totally unnatural in the target language or it has a good style in the target language and so it is unfaithful to the original. We assert that a translation whose style is not as correct as the one in the original language cannot be faithful”

1 Quote found in I.R. GALPERIN, Stylistics, Third edition 1981. p. 11 2 Quote found in GARCIA YEBRA, Valentín, Teoría y Práctica de la Traducción, segunda edición, 1984, Madrid, p. 29. 3 Quote found in GARCIA YEBRA, Valentín, Teoría y Práctica de la Traducción, segunda edición, 1984, Madrid, p. 30.4“La enorme disparidad entre las estructuras superficiales de dos lenguas sirve de base al dilema tradicional de la traducción: según este dilema, la traducción o es fiel al original y desaliñada en la lengua receptora, o tiene un buen estilo en la lengua receptora y entonces es infiel al original. Ahora bien debe ser posible hacer una traducción que sea al mismo tiempo fiel y de estilo aceptable. Afirmamos incluso que una traducción que no tenga en la lengua receptora un estilo tan correcto como en el texto original no puede ser fiel”. Quote found in GARCIA YEBRA, Valentín, Teoría y Práctica de la Traducción, segunda edición, 1984, Madrid, p. 43

2


_________________________________________________________________________

The concept stated by Taber and Nida was not singly thought by them; Garcia Yebra has also thought the same when he formulated his golden rule:

“La regla de oro para toda traducción es, a mi juicio, decir todo lo que dice el original, no decir nada que el original no diga, y decirlo todo con la corrección y naturalidad que permita la lengua a la que se traduce. Las dos primeras normas compendian y exigen fidelidad absoluta al contenido; la tercera autoriza la libertad necesaria en cuanto al estilo. La dificultad reside en aplicar las tres al mismo tiempo. Quien sepa hacerlo merecerá con toda justicia el título de traductor excelente”. 5

5 GARCIA YEBRA, Valentín, Teoría y Práctica de la Traducción, segunda edición, 1984, Madrid, p. 43

3


_________________________________________________________________________

STYLISTIC DEVICES6

According to Galperin, there are three different ways to recognize style:

The author may:

- compose larger sentence units. - Give rhythm and melody to utterances- Prefer definite stylistic devices.

Stylistic devices can be recognized in four levels:

Phonographical MorphologicalLexical Syntactical

Phonographical level: it is related to sound and view

a) Onomatopoeia: it imitates the natural sound produced by objects or phenomena. ex. Bark , bang, _______________, ____________________.

b) Alliteration: it is the repetition of consonants, usually at the beginning of the word. ex. Vivid violet vest; _________________________________.

c) Assonance: it is the repetition of similar vowels usually in stressed syllables ex. He insists on leading his people to peace.

d) Graphon: it is the intentional misspelling of words to reflect real pronunciation. They let us know where the speaker or writer is from, his social background, education, emotional condition, or the formal or informal level of the situation. ex. Bro’ , dunno, piña colada, ______________________, ___________________.

e) Graphical means: it emphasizes the stressed words, changes of print, use of italics, capitalization, etc. ex: nce upon a time ….

Morphological level: it is related to repetition and formation of new words.

a) Morphemic repetition: it gives emphasis to the sentence by the repetition of roots and affixes.

6 Based on classification taken from “Reading Insights” by F. Mellado / J Reyes, 1995, pp 47-50

4


_________________________________________________________________________

ex: he is unfriendly, unbearable, unconscious, and rather unusual.

b) Extension of morphemic valency: it is the combination of morphemes which forms new words. They are not found in the dictionaries. Some NONCE WORDS7 might be included in this category ex: don’t butmommy me, young lady!

Lexical level: it is related to the use of words in a specific context

a) Metaphor: it is the transference of names based on similarities between different things. These two objects must be similar at least in one characteristic. ex. Your eyes are shining stars

b) Metonymy: it is the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated. ex. These lands belong to the crown.

c) Paronomasia: it is the deliberate use of the same word with two meanings. It is used to expecting the unexpected. ex. There comes a period in every man’s life, but she is just a semicolon in his.

d) Irony: it is the use of a positive word with a negative qualification. ex. Congrats! You’ve failed the exam.

e) Antonomasia: it is the use of a proper name instead of a common one and vice versa. ex: You’re better than all the Bob Sugars of the world (Jerry McGuire) The best singer of all times is The Voice. (= Frank Sinatra)

f) Epithet: it is an adjective of an object, it expresses an imaginary and an existing characteristic. ex: blue sea, deep feelings, heart- burning smile8.

g) Hyperbole: it is deliberate exaggeration ex: I would die for you.

Syntactical level: it refers to the use of words in relation to others in a sentence or clause. It may be characterized by:

a) Length of a sentence: One word can be considered a sentence. It is considered as a particular style for those authors who use these words repeatedly. ex: Watch out!; Careful = this single word encloses the meaning of a whole sentence according to the context it appears in.

7 Galperin explains the definition of NONCE WORDS in “Stylistics” 3rd edition, p. 1098 Galperin explains the definition of “epithet” in “Stylistics” 3rd edition, pp 157-162

5


_________________________________________________________________________

b) Structure of a sentence: it involves the type of clauses used in the text, dependent or independent. Upon the combination of these clause we may have loose, periodic or balanced sentences.

c) Punctuation: it gives the text connotative information because it emphasizes the lexical and syntactical sense of the words by using punctuation marks. ex. Lands. Titles. Power. Nothing. (Braveheart with Mel Gibson)

d) Arrangement of sentence members: it refers to the position and sequence of words and clauses. This characteristic is mostly seen in expressive language. Inside this characteristic, we find the repetition of phrases and clauses which can be classified into several types:

- Anaphora: repetition at the beginning of successive expressions: easy comes, easy goes.

- Epiphora: repetition at the end: he killed by a sword, he will die by a sword.

- Framing: repetition at the beginning and at the end: My darling, what I wouldn’t do for you, my darling!

- Anadiplosis: repetition at the end of a clause and the beginning of the other: he was born tired, tired he will die.

- Chain repetition: several successive anadiplosis: he was born tired, tired he will die, die alone as alone he lived all his life.

- ordinary repetition: repetition in any place of the utterance: My kingdom for Mary, my kingdom and more I would give for Mary, not even having two kingdoms I would be worth of her love.

- successive repetition: it is a string of closely repeated units: I’m filled with love and hate, love and hate for you, that all I can feel now, love and hate.

- inversion: the direct order of sentence is changed: Here comes the sun.

- suspense: it is a sentence which is not completed immediately. The completion comes later and it creates expectation: Either you do what I say or…. I’ll tell what I know about your secret.

- detachment: use of punctuation marks anywhere to give emphasis: I have to deal with his irresistible charm … EVERY SINGLE DAY. I can say it’s become kind of tiring.

e) Completeness of sentence structure: omission of words.

- ellipsis: omission of one or more elements. This omission is compensated by the use of other elements or by the context: he finds a friend in you , I find an enemy.

6


_________________________________________________________________________

- apokoinu constructions: omission of connectors in complex sentences. It creates ambiguity: the woman married that old man got a prize (relative pronoun omitted: who)

- Break: it breaks units to express the emotional state of the author: he gave him a prize for getting good grades – and five hundred dollars as well.

Lexical Syntactical level: it is related to the information given in both structure and meaning.

a) Antithesis: it is the location of two opposite statements or ideas next to each other to emphasize contrast: You say Yes, I say No, You say Hi and I say Bye.

b) Climax: use of similar connotative words, each one more intense than the one before: You’re the most polite, gentle, magnificent man in the world.

c) Simile description of person or thing being similar to someone or something else. They use words such as “like” or “as”: Her lips are like rose petals waiting for a soft morning rain.

7


_________________________________________________________________________

The epithet

It is not as direct as the interjection.

It’s a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or sentence. It gives an individual perception of the properties of the object being described. THE EPITHET IS SUBJECTIVE AND EVALUATIVE. According to Galperin (Stylistics p.157) there is a difference between logical attribute and epithet. A logical attribute is purely objective and non-evaluating (impartial) . Example: round table, blue skies, pale complexion. An epithet does not point to the inherent qualities of the object described. IT IS SUBJECTIVELY EVALUATIVE. Example: formidable waves, wild wind, heart-burning smile. In other words, an epithet is the reader’s subjective opinion about an object.

Epithets are classified from two perspectives or points of view: Semantic point of view Structural point of view.

From the semantic point of view, there are two kinds of epithet: Epithets Associated with the nounEpithets Unassociated with the noun

Associated epithets: they are epithets that point out to a feature that is inherent to the object. Example: dark forest, terrible nightmare.

Unassociated epithets: they are epithets that point out to a feature that is not inherent to the object. It may be an unexpected feature to shock the reader. Example: voiceless sands (which won’t tell me where my lover went) , sullen earth (you will never grow a plant again).

To continue talking of the epithet, we must mention the categorization of word combination. There are two possible combinations. Stable word combination: the component parts of the set of words are comparatively close. Free word combination. When we can substitute any word of the same grammatical category for the one given.

In the epithet this word combination is always a linguistic unit because in its definite context, the attribute and the noun are definitely close. For example: valuable connections, deep feeling.

These epithets are so common they are called “language epithets” because they are very predictable (not unexpected which in this case is a good characteristic for the epithet). These epithets belong to the language as a system. Then we make a new division: Language epithets. (expected, predictable) belong to language as a system

8


_________________________________________________________________________

Speech epithets (unexpected or unpredictable: sleepless bay, piercing eyes) belong to language as an action.

Sometimes epithets become very close to the noun but are still poetic. They are called fixed epithets. Examples: true love, sweet Sir, brave cavaliers, etc.

From the structural point of view, there are two angles to see epithets. They can be seen from:

a. Composition b. Distribution.

a. When we see its composition an epithet may be:

Simple epithetCompound epithetPhrase epithet Sentence epithet

Simple epithets : they are ordinary adjectives. Blue sky, dark forest, etc.

Compound epithets: they are compound adjectives. Big-headed man, heart-melting smile.

Phrase epithets and sentences: they are phrases which are considered epithets as long as they continue being attributes of the noun. They are always placed before the noun being described. Examples: why are you giving me one of those I-gonna-kill-you-now looks? Did I do something wrong? . I went to the restaurant with my loving fiancé and his not-so-lovely mother. Phrase and sentence epithets are usually followed by words such as “expression, air, attitude, etc”. Phrase epithets are usually hyphenated because of the temporality of the epithet invented for that particular context.

Apart from these definitions we may also mention the reversed epithet: it’s composed of two nouns linked in an of-phrase. Example: an angel of God’s army. This epithet is metaphorical the noun to be assessed is in the of-phrase and the noun it qualifies is a metaphor.

b. From the distribution point of view we have:

- string of epithets: it gives many sides of depiction or representation of the object. It has an ascending scale which culminates in the last epithet. (see example of climax in Stylistic devices handout) Example: wonderful, cruel, enchanting, bewildering, fatal, great city.

- Transferred epithet: ordinary logical attributes generally describing the state of a human being but they refer to an inanimate object. Example: disapproving finger

9


_________________________________________________________________________

DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION

Denotation: It’s a component of semantics. It’s the direct meaning of the word. It’s the first meaning to appear. It’s conceptual and objective.

Connotation: It’s a component of semantics. It’s the indirect meaning of the word. It’s usually contextual. It’s subjective and affective.

Note: when translating it’s very important to consider CULTURE. It’s difficult to establish exact equivalences between words and expressions in two languages, especially when referring to connotation in such a way that what may be connotative for English may not be so for a Spanish one.

There are 4 types of connotation.

1. Emotive connotation (EC): It’s the meaning of a word, phrase or structure that produces a feeling or an emotion in the reader. We have to make a difference between these two: * feeling: are longer sentiments (love, hate) * emotions: are temporary sensations (rage, joy, sadness)

EC cancels or nullifies the denotative conceptual meaning. For example, “I’m feeling blue today”. This has nothing to do with the color. It means sad.

Other words with EC are: death, clouds, tears, horror (because they are associated to the concept they denote).

We can include interjections. They are pure signs of emotions. They don’t have any denotation. They express strong sudden emotions such as shock, disapproval, pleasure. Interjections are only understood in context.

2. Appreciative connotation (AC): It’s the approval or disapproval sensation a word can express. Ex. Up-to-date method (involves a good opinion of the method) an old-fashioned dress (involves a negative expression of the dress)

AC affects the interlocutor’s opinion. Most AC is given in adjectives as they are qualifying words. Verbs and nouns may also contain AC. Ex: sneak around, spy, intelligent, God, patriot.

3. Expressive connotation (EC) It’s related to figurative language and quantification emphasis that stress the meaning that a linguistic unit denotes. There are two sub-types:

10


_________________________________________________________________________

- Figurative Expressive connotation (FEC) It’s the usage of metaphors. Ex: I felt devastated and my heart broke.

- Quantitative Expressive connotation (QEC) It’s expressed mostly by adverbs called intensifiers. They are easily recognized because they don’t have a meaning in the sentence.

Ex: She’s quite much depressed

4. Stylistic connotation (SC): It appears when there is a sudden change of the level of the language expressed through the usage of a linguistic unit which is typical for a determinant functional style of the language. There are two sub-types:

- Literary Stylistic connotation (LSC): proper of a formal style of the language. Example: To acquire (=buy) to cease (=stop)

- Colloquial Stylistic Connotation ((CSC) Proper of an informal style of the language. Example: Ping (pink) info (information)

11


_________________________________________________________________________

Expressiveness and emotiveness

A kind of intensification of the utterance or of a part of it depending on the position in the utterance of the means that manifest this category and what this means are.

Somehow lately the notion of expressiveness has been confused with EMOTIVENESS.

Emotiveness and the emotive elements of language are what reveal the emotions of writer or speaker. They are not direct manifestations of the emotion. They are just the echoes of real emotions. Their purpose is to awaken co-experience in the mind of the reader.

Expressiveness is a broader notion than emotiveness. Emotiveness is an integral part of expressiveness. In fact, it occupies a predominant position in the category of expressiveness. Some media in language are simply focused on logical emphasis of certain parts of the utterance. THEY DO NOT EVOKE ANY INTELLECTUAL REPRESENTATION OF FEELING BUT SERVE ONLY THE PURPOSE OF VERBAL ACTUALIZATION OF THE UTTERANCE. Examples: "It was on July 1975 that the cosmos experiment of a joint American-Soviet flight took place"This example is made logically emphatic by a syntactical device (which one?) Other examples:

1) Mr. Smith was an extremely unpleasant person (the one from Lost in the Space)

Here expressiveness is reached by lexical means. We use a word to emphasize.

2) Never will he go to that place again. 3) In rushed the soldiers!

These two examples reach expressiveness by using syntactical means, in this case, different types of inversion.

4) It took us a very, very long time to get there.

Expressiveness is reached by repetition of an emphatic word, "very".

The examples below are different:

1) Isn't she cute!2) Fool that he was!

Here we find syntactical means (inversion) evoking emotiveness. The feeling of the speaker is obvious.

12


_________________________________________________________________________

3) This goddam window won't open!This evokes emotiveness by lexical means: "goddam" is used on very friendly relations to express anger (emotiveness)

4) This quickie tour didn't satisfy our curiosity!

Emotiveness is expressed by a morphological device (using a suffix -ie)Here we register positive emotiveness as there are elements that evoke certain representations of the feeling of the speaker.

It is not always possibleto make a strict differentiation between logical and emotional emphasis.

The logical and the emotional frequently overlap. For example, a too strong logical emphasis may color the utterance with emotional elements being logical and emotive at the same time.

there are five types: Phonetic formsMorphological forms Word-building formsLexical forms (including Phraseological units)Syntactical forms

PHONETIC FORMS

Human voice can indicate subtle nuances of meaning that no other means can show. These phonetic means may be: Pitch (tono) You didn't make your bed in the morning (asking for explanation) Melody You didn't make your bed in the morning (trying not to upset

the listener) Stress You DIDN'T make your bed in the morning (emphasizing the listener

didn't do the action expected) Pausation He is not important … to me. (to me is restricting his unimportant

condition) Drawling out: Certain syllables: Oh, pleeeaase! (i.e., come on, you have to be kidding!)

13


_________________________________________________________________________

Whispering Sing-song manner (similar to melody) etc.

Many of these phonetic means are not considered inside linguistics. But there has appeared a new science called "Paralinguistics" where all these means are included. Galperin's opinion is to eliminate the term paralinguistics so we can include these means in linguistics as they are a legitimate part of the phonetic structure of language.

Seymour Chatman (Stylistics: Qualitative and Quantitative - In "Style" volume 1, page 967, Nº 1, page 34: he introduces the term "phonostylistic" which he defines as a subject that studies the ways in which the author elects to constrain (oblige) the phonology of the language beyond the normal requirements of the phonetic system.

For a deeper analysis of phonetic means refer to part III "Phonetic expressive means and Stylistic Devices" (page 123)

MORPHOLOGICAL EXPRESSIVE MEANS

Some of the means are the use of:

Historical present: the use of "shall" in the second and third person. Demonstrative pronouns: with emphatic meaning as those, them, etc. Example:

"Those gold candles fixed in heaven's air". All morphological forms acquire expressiveness in the context.

WORD-BUILDING MEANS

They make the utterance more expressive by intensifying the semantic and /or grammatical properties. For example, the diminutive suffixes: -y (-ie), -let add some emotional coloring to the words. Examples: son - sonny / aunt - auntie / stream - streamlet / book - booklet /

We can include here also: neologisms, and nonce-words (formed with non-productive suffixes or with Greek roots. Example: Futurama (horama = a view)

Neologism: Some dictionaries define it as "a new word or a new meaning foran established word. This definition is considered vague as we can't measure the time words can be considered as new. Latest editions of some reliable dictionaries avoid the use of the word "neologism". If a word is fixed in a dictionary and, provided the dictionary is reliable, it ceases to be a neologism. If a new meaning is recognized as an element in the semantic structure of a lexical unit, it ceases to be new. HOWEVER, IF WE DIVIDE THE WORD-STOCK OF A LANGUAGE INTO CHRONOLOGICAL PERIODS, WE CAN CONVENTIONALLY MARK OFF A PERIOD WHICH MIGHT BE CALLED NEW.

14


_________________________________________________________________________

Every period produces an enormous number of new words which are not meant to live long. They are coined, created for the moment of the speech (refer to example in movie "Never been kissed" word RUFUS), SO THEY ARE TEMPORARY. It only serves the occasion. BUT ONCE THE WORD IS FIXED IN WRITTEN LANGUAGE, IT MAY BECOME PART OF THE GENERAL VOCABULARY REGARDLESS THE QUALITY OF THE WORD. That's why men-of-letters introduce new words which later become established in the language as synonyms of other words or replace them in time.

Other examples of neologisms are: The -ize suffix: computerizeThe suffix -dom: used with the meaning of collectivity as in musicdom. The suffic -ee: interrogatee, enrollee, askee) The suffix -ship: showmanshipThe suffix -ese: understood as belonging to a city or country as inhabitant as in Chinese, New Yorkese or pertaining to a particular writer as in Johnsonese, journalese (as pertaining to journal style)

There are two kinds of coined words: Terminological coinages (for newborn concepts)Stylistic coinages (for words whose creators seek expressive utterance)

Nonce-word: It is a word coined to suit one particular occasion. They are created to designate some insignificant subjective idea or evaluation of a thing or phenomenon and generally become moribund. They rarely pass into the language as legitimate units of the vocabulary, but they remain in the language as constant manifestation on its innate power of word-building.

Examples:

"Let me say in the beginning that even I wanted to avoid Texas I could not, for I am wived in Texas, and mother-in-lawed, and uncled, and cousined within an inch of my life" (John Steinbeck)

these words in bold are coined for the occasion on the analogy of "wived" and can hardly be expected to be registered in English dictionaries as ordinary English words.

Other examples of nonce-words:

"There is something profoundly horrifying in this immense, indefinite, not-thereness of the Mexican scene. " (Huxley)

"You're the bestest good one -- she said -- the most bestest good one in the world." (H.E. Bates)

"That was masterly. Or should I say mistressly." (Huxley)

15


_________________________________________________________________________

in modern English new words are coined in technical literature and therefore is mostly found in scientific style. Example:

TRUD: (=time remaining until dive) the first letters of this word sequence forms the neologism TRUD which will presumably remain as a professional term unknown to wider circles of Native English speakers (Galperin, Stylistics, 3rd

edition, page 103)

LEXICAL LEVELHere we find:

- words with emotive meaning only (Interjections)- words with both referential and emotive meaning (epithets)- words which still retain a twofold (double) meaning: denotative and connotative (love, hate,

sympathy) - words belonging to slang and vulgar words

All these words have an enormous expressive power especially when compared with neutral words.

Here we can also include set phrases (phraseological units) catch words, proverbs, sayings which make speech emphatic from the emotional point of view.

Example of set phrase: "Well, it will only add fuel to the fire"(used in spoken language)Neutral explanation: "It will only make the situation worse"

SYNTACTICAL LEVEL

It comprises the use of stylistic devices in general which will be used by the writer to show logical or emotional intention.

16


_________________________________________________________________________

The belles-lettres style

There are three sub-styles here:

1) The language of poetry, or simply verse.2) Emotive prose, or the language of fiction. 3) The language of the drama.

Each of these styles has its own features. But they also have common features, as follows:

- aesthetic-cognitive function: cognitive process to secure the gradual unfolding of the idea. Aesthetic process to perceive a feeling of pleasure.

- These texts do not intend to prove anything ( that’s the case of scientific prose). They just suggest a possible interpretation of the phenomena of life by forcing the reader to see the point of view of the writer.

- The belles-lettres style has certain linguistic features:

* genuine, not trite, imagery, achieved by purely stylistic devices. * use of words in contextual meaning or at least words are greatly influenced by the lexical environment. * the vocabulary reflects the author’s personal evaluation of things or phenomena. * a peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax. * the introduction of typical features of colloquial language

- The belles-lettres style is individual in essence this is one of its most distinctive properties. There is a strong imprint of personality on any work of poetic style.

LANGUAGE OF POETRY

This is what we consider verse.

Properties:

- Rhythmic and phonetic arrangement of utterances. - Syntactical and semantic peculiarities which also fall into a more or less strict orderly

arrangement. - Rhythm and rhyme are immediately distinguishable properties of the poetic sub-style as they

are wrought into compositional patterns. Here, we can talk about:

Meter and Line = which are objective qualities of language and exist outside verse. The most observable and widely recognized compositional patterns of rhythm making up

17


_________________________________________________________________________

classical verse are based on: * alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. * equilinearity (equal number of syllables in the lines) * a natural pause at the end of the line* identity of stanza pattern * established patterns of rhyming.

We have to mention the free verse which in extreme cases borders on prose.

There are five English metrical patterns: * Iambic metre: unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. * Trochaic metre: where the order is reversed. * Dactylic metre: one stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed. * Amphibrachic metre: one stressed syllable is framed by two unstressed. * Anapaestic metre: two unstressed syllables are followed by one stressed.

See page 254 for further details on verse.

EMOTIVE PROSE

Properties:

- it’s a combination of spoken and written varieties of the language as there are two forms of communication present: Monologue and dialogue.

- Emotive prose allows the use of elements of other styles as well.

THE FIRST EMOTIVE PROSE THAT APPEARED WAS TRANSLATIONS FROM LATIN OF STORIES FROM THE BIBLE AND THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS (Middle English in the 11th century)

The different styles in emotive prose were developed through time:

The sixteenth century: English emotive prose progressed rapidly. Many translations from Latin and Greek. Also translations from modern languages (Italian and French) influenced the stylistic norms of emotive prose. At that time we find the euphuistic style (illustrations built on semantic parallelism and the much favored device of mythological allusions, carefully chosen vocabulary, refinement and grace).

The seventeenth century: considerable development of emotive prose. Epoch of great political and religious strife and much that was written had a publicist aim. There is a decline in drama due to the closing of theatres by the Puritans in 1648. This closure helped in developing the emotive prose.

The eighteenth century: there is a realistic trend. “Call a spade a spade”: the authors expressed the idea that all things should be called by their right names and that the writers should use plain words. Defoe is a representative of this time with his novel “Robinson Crusoe”.

18


_________________________________________________________________________

The nineteenth century: there is a more extended use of jargonisms, professional words, vulgarisms, slang and dialectal words. Nevertheless, when printed, words appeared euphemistically d for damn or b for bloody.

Present-day emotive prose: there is a detached construction and fragmentation of syntactical models, peculiar, unexpected ways of combining sentences (especially the gap-sentence). It is developing so quickly that it can only be described grossly.

LANGUAGE OF THE DRAMA (page 281)

It’s the language of plays.

- It is entirely dialogue. The author’s speech is almost entirely excluded. - The language of the characters is not the exact reproduction of the norms of the colloquial

language (although the playwright seeks to reproduce actual conversation as far as the norms of the written language will allow).

- The language of plays is always stylized, it strives to retain the modus of literary English. - The stylization of colloquial language is one of the features of plays. It approximates the

language of a real dialogue but stylized.

19


_________________________________________________________________________

The style of official documents

Also called OFFICIALESE. This type of documents are varied including:

- business documents- legal documents - diplomacy language - military documents

its objective is to state the conditions binding two parties in an undertaking and to reach agreement between two contracting parties.

Most essential characteristic: - they are conventional in expression - They have a special system of clichés, terms and sets of expressions by which each subtype

can be easily recognized. - They use words in their logical dictionary meaning. No words with emotive meaning are to

be found in official documents. Nevertheless, in military documents sometimes metaphorical names are given to mountains, rivers, hills or villages, but these metaphors are code signs and have no aesthetic value (read example on page 313)

- The syntactical pattern of this style is as significant as the vocabulary, though not perhaps so immediately apparent. They have a compositional pattern (like in a business letter shown on page 314). Almost every official document has its own compositional design.

Examples f clichés: I beg to inform youI second the motion Provisional agendaThe above-mentionedHereinafter namedOn behalf ofDear sirWe remain, your obedient servants

In finance we find the following terms: Extra revenueTaxable capacities Liability to profit tax

In diplomatic language we find the following terms:High contracting partiesTo ratify an agreementMemorandum

20


_________________________________________________________________________

Pact Chargé d’affairesProtectorate Extra-territorial statusPlenipotentiary

In legal language, we find: To deal with a case Summary procedure A body of judgesAs laid down in

There is a feature common to all these varieties: the use of abbreviations, conventional symbols and contractions. Example:

M.P. = Member of Parliament Gvt. = Government Ltd. = Limited

These abbreviations appear in the dictionary in special indexes. Abbreviations are particularly abundant in military documents. They are not only conventional symbols but signs of the military code. Examples:

D.A.O. = Divisional Ammunition Officer Adv. = advance Atk = attack Obj = object A/T = anti-tankATAS = Air Transport Auxiliary Service.

The publicistic style

21


_________________________________________________________________________

PUBLICISTIC

It exerts a constant and deep influence on the reader . It’s a sort of brain-washing systemmost useful in oratory (due to voice use)

Main types of text:

1. Oratory and Speeches

2. The essay 3. Journalistic

Articles

STYLE It combines LOGICAL ARGUMENTATION and EMOTIONAL APPEAL. The publicistic style has scientific prose functions and emotive prose functions combined.

22

BASIC PUBLICISTIC FEATURES


_________________________________________________________________________

*SCIENTIFIC PROSE STYLE

It is mainly functional. It serves to prove a hypothesis, to create new concepts, to disclose the internal laws of existence, development, relations between different phenomena, etc.

IMPORTANT POINTS TO BE MENTIONED

The over-use of passive in other styles is considered boring. Verbs mostly used in passive constructions are: suppose, assume, presume, conclude, infer, etc. Syntactical design of utterances in exact sciences (math, chemistry and such) and in the humanities (biology, etc). Passive constructions are not indispensable in the humanities.

Emotiveness is not entirely excluded from scientific prose: There might be hypothesis, pronouncements and conclusions backed up by a strong belief and so, they use some emotionally colored words.

1) There is a logical sequence of utterances showing interrelation and interdependence. The system of connectives is very well developed. 2) It uses specific terms upon the branch of science discussed. It creates new terminology. New terms are generally followed or preceded by an explanation. Words will be used in their primarily logical meaning. Words will not have any contextual meanings. Ambiguity is avoided.3) It uses three types of sentence patterns: postulatory, argumentative and

Language is objective, precise, unemotional. It uses the most general form of expression. It is devoid of any individuality.

CHARACTERISTICS: formulative.4) Modern scientific prose uses quotations and references. 5) It uses digressive foot-notes. (they serve to back up the main idea explained in the text, not just as mere reference) 6) Scientific writing is impersonal. For this reason, it uses many passive constructions (refer to example about aspirin on page 309 and foot reference # 4)

23


_________________________________________________________________________

Use of relative clauses, verbal constructions, syntactical complexes, attributive noun groups, and specific word order (*)

1) brief news items

The newspaper has developed new sentence patterns not typical of other styles.

BASIC 2) ads and announcements

Classified : alphabetical order, in sections according to subject matterNon-classified : there are no specific features (as they can be so varied); no call for brevity either

NEWSPAPER FEATURES

3) the headline It is part of a larger whole. It contains elements of appraisal. It also instructs the reader. It is short and catching. Sometimes an article can have up to 4 headlines. Refer to page 304 for headlines syntax.

All newspapers are informative and evaluative.

Its main function is to influence the reader. It gives editor's opinion and interpretation of the news published and suggest to the reader

NEWSPAPER

It is a system of interrelated lexical phraseological, and grammatical means perceived by the community as a separate linguistic unity that informs and instructs the reader.

4) the editorial that it is the correct one. It uses emotionally colored vocabulary: political words and expressions, clichés, terms and abbreviations, also colloquial words and expressions, slang, and professionalisms. Editorial articles combine different strata of vocabulary to enhance emotional effect (see ex. On page 305)

STYLE It forms its own separate functional style in the 19th century. It has a communicative aim and its own system of language means.

1) brief news items

INFORMATION 2) press reportsIt is communicated through:

3) articles 4) ads and announcements

The first English weekly newspaper appeared in 1622 (Weekly News). The first daily newspaper appeared in 1702 (The Daily Courant)(*) relative clauses; using where, which , whoverbal constructions: unions representing engineeringsyntactical complexes: a large chunk of ice, believe to have fallen from an aircraft, crashed … attributive noun groups: heart swap patientspecific word order: who / what/ why / how / where / when

The newspaper style

24


_________________________________________________________________________

STYLISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY

LITERARY NEUTRAL COLLOQUIAL

Poeticalwords

archaicwords

SpecialColloquialVocabulary

Special LiteraryVocabulary

Lively spoken character.It’s unstable. It contains words limited to a definite community or locality.

Its character is universal. It can be used in all styles of language and in all spheres of human activity. IT’S THE MOST STABLE LAYER.

Groups of words accepted as genuine members of the English vocabulary. They have no local or dialectal character.

Archaic words

Terms

Noncewords

Foreignisms and Barbarisms

Common litterary vocabulary

Common colloquial vocabulary

Slang

ProfessionalismsVulgarisms

Dialectal

Words

Jargon

Nonce words

NeutralWords

StandardEnglish Vocab.

25


_________________________________________________________________________

SPECIAL LITERARY VOCABULARY:

I. TERMS

Related to professional scopes. Stephen Ullmann, in his book “Words and their use” says “All scientists are linguists to some extent.” They create a consistent terminology, an all-connected vocabulary related to their profession. Characteristics:

a) Terms are highly conventional: they always fit in. they are easily coined and accepted and they replace old terms (or out-dated terms).

b) Terms are directly related to a specific nomenclature of a specific science, discipline or art. c) Terms are denotative: They are directly connected with the concept they denote. d) Terms are more easily replaced by other terms than words by other words. Ex. Betamax =

VCR = DVD all this transformation happened in 20 yearsthee = you this happened in 400 years

e) Terms belong to the style of the language of science. Nevertheless they can appear in other styles: in newspaper styles, in publicistic style or any other style. Note: when a term is used in the belles letters style, it may acquire a stylistic function and become a sporadic stylistic device.

DE-TERMINIZATION: Technology and general education have increased so much that many terms that once were “terms” have become common literary or even neutral vocabulary. Words as “radio” or “television” or “microwave” are so common that they have lost their terminological character.

II. POETIC AND HIGHLY LITERARY WORDS

Poetic words form a small portion of the special literary vocabulary. These words are usually archaic. Main function: they are used when we want to emphasize an elevated atmosphere of poetry.

Note: Not all English poetry makes use of “poetical terms”. There are periods in English literature which protested against the use of conventional symbols (free verse). Other literary trends such as classicism and romanticism used many poetic terms. Journalistic style uses some poetic terms. Examples on page 80 Galperin’s “Stylistics”Characteristics.

a) Poetic words do not produce polysemy. They are said to evoke emotive meanings. b) Poetic words are usually made by compounding (young-eyed lady, beige carpeted room, etc)

or by contraction (drear = dreary ; scant = scanty). These methods are used to meet the requirements of the meter of the poem.

III. ARCHAIC, OBSOLESCENT AND OBSOLETE WORDS

The word stock of a language is always changing. Words change their meaning (example: gay) and sometimes drop out of the language altogether. New words appear to replace the old ones. In this aging process, there are three stages or levels:

26


_________________________________________________________________________

a) Obsolescent words: they are at the beginning of the aging process, when these words become rarely used. Example: art = is ; wilt = will. These words are in the stage of gradually passing out of general use.

b) Obsolete words: they have gone completely out of use but are still recognized by the English speaking community. Example: methinks = it seems to me; nay = no

c) Archaic words: they are no longer recognizable in modern English. They were in use in Old English. They have either dropped out of the language or have changed so mush that they have become unrecognizable Example: troth = faith; losel = a lazy fellow.

HISTORICAL WORDS: This group is classed as archaic (but it shouldn’t). These words belong to a period marked by historical events. They never disappear from the language. Ex: thane = a free retainer of the Anglo-Saxon Lord; a Scottish feudal lord. Historical words have no synonyms BUT ARCHAIC WORDS have been replaced by modern synonyms. The main function of archaisms: they are used to create a realistic background to historical novels.

IV. BARBARISMS AND FOREIGNISMS

Definition of Barbarism: Words of foreign origin which have not entirely been assimilated into the English language. These barbarisms are considered to be on the outskirts of the literary language. Most barbarisms have corresponding English synonyms: Example: chic = stylish ; in situ = in place. These words have already become facts of the English word stock, though they remain on the outskirts of the English vocabulary. They appear in the body of the dictionary. Other examples: fiancé, résumé, etc (these words don’t have a synonym, do they?)

Definition of Foreign Words: words used for certain stylistic purposes. They don’t belong to English vocabulary. They are not registered by English dictionaries, except in an appendix or addenda which gives the meanings of the foreign words most frequently used.

Functions of Barbarisms and Foreign words:

- To supply local color: I want to go to Cancun and drink a Margarita (foreign word) - They are used in various styles of language: In belles letters: words of foreign origin have a

monosemantic value (only one meaning) - They are used to color the passage on the problem in question with a touch of authority. A

person using many foreign words and phrases is a very educated person, so the reader thinks “he is a man who knows”.

V. LITERARY COINAGES

Neologism: a new word or a new meaning of an established word which does not appear in the dictionary. There are two kinds of coinage:

27


_________________________________________________________________________

Terminological coinage: they designate new-born concepts. T.R.U.D. (REFER TO EXAMPLES GIVEN IN THE NONCE WORDS LESSON)Stylistic coinages: used usually in belles letters style. Mistressly (REFER TO EXAMPLES GIVEN IN THE NONCE WORDS LESSON)

SPECIAL COLLOQUIAL VOCABULARY:

I. SLANG

The definition of slang is quite ambiguous. It seems to be everything that is below the standard of usage of present-day English. Definition of slang as per Webster’s Third New International Dictionary: definition written on page 104 -105 of Galperin’s Stylistics. Most dictionaries say that slang is a language used by a particular group, usually vulgar or inferior. They say is mostly spoken than written. It’s connotative. Conclusion: any new coinage that has not gained recognition and therefore has not yet been received into standard English is easily considered as slang.

Many words that were considered slang in the 19th century are now considered colloquial words in English literary language. Ex: kid = child.

Characteristics:

a) It requires continuous innovation. It never goes off. If it does, it is replaced by a new slangism. Galperin suggests that the term “slang” should be used for those forms of English vocabulary which are either mispronounced or phonetically, lexically or morphologically distorted. It should also be used to refer to some elements being considered OVER-COLLOQUIAL.

b) Slang is a deviation from the established norm at the level of a language vocabulary.

Galperin includes a definition of slang by Wentworth and Flexner in their “Dictionary of American Slang”:

“(…) when slang is used, our life seems a little fresher and a little more personal. Also, at all levels of speech, slang is used for the pure joy of making sounds (…). But more important than this expression of a sort of aesthetic motive on the part of the speaker is the slang’s reflection of the personality(…)”

Slang shows the characteristics of the speaker. The man who uses slang has a forceful, pleasing, acceptable personality.

On conclusion. Slang can either be all kinds of nonce-formations (appearing and disappearing of the language) or word combinations formed by using valid rules of word –building.

28


_________________________________________________________________________

Example: bread-basket = the stomach

According to Eric Partridge, there are many kinds of slang. Commercial, military, theatrical, etc. So Partridge believes there is also a standard slang which is the slang that is common to all those who have a special way of speaking where they use special words and phrases in some special sense.

Slang as used by English and Americans, is a universal term for any word or phrase which, though not yet recognized as a fact of standard English, has won general recognition as a fresh innovation quite irrespective of its nature: whether it is jargon, cant, dialect, jocular or pure colloquialism.

See example of contrast between standard and slang on page 108-109 of Galperin’s Stylistics.

The term slang is ambiguous because it has become a Jack of all trades and master of none.

II. JARGONISMS

Part of the non-literary vocabulary of the English language. Jargon: it is a recognized term for a group of words that exist in almost every language. The function of jargons is to preserve secrecy within one or another social group. Jargonisms are old words with new meanings imposed on them. Jargonisms are only understood inside the social group that has invented them. They are like “a code within a code”. Jargonisms are social. They are not regional. In Britain and US almost any social group of people has its own jargon. Examples: The jargon of thieves and vagabonds (=cant) The jargon of jazz peopleThe jargon of the army (= military slang)The jargon of sportsmen.

There are two kinds of jargon: a) Common Jargon: They have gradually lost their special quality (to promote secrecy).

Common jargon is understood by everybody (ex. Pie derecho). According to Galperin, this is the reason to make the division between slang and common jargon so difficult. When a jargonism becomes common it becomes slang or colloquial.

b) Special professional jargon: as mentioned before, it is a code within a code. They intend to be secret and known only by group of people.

Jargonisms (like slang and other groups of the non-literary layer) do not always remain on the outskirts of the literary language. Many words have defeated the resistance of the language lawgivers and purists and entered the standard vocabulary. Example: kid, bluff, humbug, fun, etc.

III. PROFESSIONALISMS

29


_________________________________________________________________________

They are words used in a definite trade, profession or calling by people connected by common interests both at home or at work. They commonly designate some working process or implement of labor. Professionalisms are correlated terms. The main characteristic is its TECHNICALITY. Professionalisms are special words in the non-literary layer of the English vocabulary (“terms” belong to the literary layer)They remain in the circulation within a definite community as they are linked to a common occupation and common social interests. Example: tin-fish = submarine; block –buster = a special bomb designed to destroy blocks of big buildings.

Some professionalisms become popular and gradually lose their professional flavor. See example on page 114 2nd paragraph.) Professionalisms should not be mixed up with jargonisms. Like slang words, professionalisms do not aim at secrecy. They fulfill a socially useful function in communication, facilitating the understanding of the message. They are used in emotive prose to depict the natural speech of a character: it will show the vocation, education, breeding, environment and psychology of a character. When we use many professionalisms in a character, we are preparing or creating a speech characterization.

IV. DIALECTAL WORDS

They are words in the process of integration of the English National Language. Dialectal words can be confused with colloquial words: some dialectal words have become so familiar in good and colloquial standard English that they are universally accepted. Example:

lass = a girl or beloved girlLad = a boy or young man both Scottish dialect

Dialectal words are to be found in the style of emotive prose. They function to give character to the personalities through their speeches. Dialectal words are confined to a definite locality and most of the words deal with the everyday life of the country.

V. VULGAR WORDS OR VULGARISMS

They are expletives and swear words which are of abusive characterExamples: damn, bloody, etc. They are also obscene words: these are known as four-letter words. Their use is banned in any form of intercourse as being indecent. Swear words: they are often used in conversations, out of habit without any thought of what they mean. “fucking” is an example of vulgarism in conversation. They will never be considered as standard English vocabulary and will always remain in the outskirts.

30


_________________________________________________________________________

Expletives: they function like interjections. They express strong emotions: annoyance, anger, vexation, and the like. They are not to be found in any functional style of the language except emotive prose; and here only in the direct speech of the character.

VI. COLLOQUIAL COINAGES

Colloquial coinages: Unlike those of a literary bookish character, they are spontaneous and spoken. Nonce words of a colloquial nature are based on certain semantic changes in words. That are almost imperceptible to the linguistic observer until the word finds its way into print.

Literary coinages: (of the special literary vocabulary) they are understood by the reader from the context.

Colloquial coinages have new meanings that creep into well-known words imperceptibly.

Colloquial nonce words are actually not new words but new meanings of existing words.

It is difficult to draw a line of demarcation between nonce words of bookish and colloquial origin.

An important characteristic of colloquial nonce words: Many of them can stop being nonce words and become part of colloquial, slang or vulgar terms. On the other hand, literary nonce-words will be nonce for ever.

31


_________________________________________________________________________

VARIETIES OF LANGUAGE

There are two factors that allow to make a difference en functions of language: - the actual situation in which the language is being used - the aim of the communication

The actual situation has evolved two varieties of language:

The spoken The written

The aims of communication have evolved in the functional styles of language:

a. The belles letters styleb. Publicistic style c. Newspaper style d. Scientific prose style e. The style of official documents

The situation in which the spoken language develops is the presence of the interlocutor. Written language presupposes the absence of an interlocutor. Spoken language is maintained in the form of a dialogue. Written language is maintained in the form of a monologue Spoken language is more advantageous than the written language as human voice comes into play.

Example of spoken language:

“Marvelous beast, a fox. Great places for wild life, these wooded chines; so steep you can’t disturb them – pigeons, jays, woodpeckers, rabbits, foxes, hares, pheasants – every mortal thing.”

This is its written counterpart:

“What a marvelous beast a fox is! These wooded chines are splendid places for wild life. They are so steep that one can’t disturb anything. Therefore, one can see every imaginable creature here – pigeons, jays, woodpeckers, rabbits, foxes, hares and pheasants.”

Spoken language uses contracted forms to depict its phonetics. Sometimes in written language we may find oral language that is on the way to be admitted into the standard. Example: Don’t – doesn’t

I love Lucy, she don’t care.

32


_________________________________________________________________________

These improprieties are now recognized as legitimate forms of colloquial English. The most striking difference between oral and written language is the vocabulary: There are words and phrases typically colloquial and there are others typically bookish. Example: To be gone on somebody = to be violently in love with you.

Features of spoken language:

- The erroneously called ellipsis. “The omission of parts of the utterance easily supplied by the situation in which the communication takes place. These are in fact not omissions but the regular absence of parts unnecessary in lively conversation when there are two or more people speaking. Examples can be found in page 38-39 of Galperin’s Stylistics.

- Tendency to use direct word order in questions or omit the auxiliary verb, leaving it to the intonation to indicate the grammatical meaning of the sentence. example: Scrooge knew Marley was dead? (Dickens)

- Unfinished sentences are also typical of the spoken language: Example: If you behave like that, I’ll ….

- The use of a syntactical structure with a tautological subject (two subjects are used in one sentence but only one of them is really necessary). Usually there are noun and pronoun: “He was a kind of boy, Harry.”

- String of sentences without any connections or linked with “and”. Example: “Came home late. Had super and went to bed. Couldn’t sleep, of course. The evening had been too much of a strain.”

- Spoken language is far more emotional (due to human voice) - Use of words and phrases typically colloquial - Spontaneous, momentary. It vanishes after fulfilling its purpose of communicating a thought.

Features of written language:

- The use of connectives: Furthermore, moreover, etc. - Use of complicated sentence units.- Use of words and word-combinations proper of a bookish style. - The written language lives together with the idea it expresses.

33


_________________________________________________________________________

A brief outline of the development of the English literary language

This chapter is necessary in order to avoid occasional confusion of the terms that are used in different ways on the history of literature, and style of the English language. We must not confuse “literary language” with “language of literature”. Literary language is a historical category. It is a variety of the national language.

A.M. GORKI “it must be remembered that the language is the creation of the people. The division of the language into literary and vernacular only means that there are, as it were, a rough unpolished tongue and one wrought by men of letters”.

Literary language: it is that elaborated form (variety) of the national language which obeys definite morphological, phonetic, syntactical, lexical, phraseological and stylistic norms recognized as standard and acceptable in all kinds and types of discourse. It allows changes but within the frame of the system of established norms.

The norm of usage is established by the language community at every given period in the development of the language. The norm is always changing and many times it is evasive. The norm is in a state of fluctuation at every period. Sometimes we may even say that two norms co-exist (fuiste – fuistes). If two norms co-existed, we may be positive that one of these co-existing norms will give way to its rival and either vanish from the language or else remain on its outskirts.

There are two conflicting tendencies in the process of establishing the norm:

Preservation of the already existing norm (sometimes with attempts to re-establish old forms of English) example: thy – you; fuiste - fuistes

Introduction of new norms not yet firmly established. Example: fuistes.

H.C. WILD in his book “History of modern colloquial English” says “Social changes have brought with them corresponding changes in manner and speech. Speech is not changed in a moment: much of the old remains. For instance, it is suggested that middle class Puritan ideals gradually brought a more temperate use of expletives, a greater simplicity of manners.

What is considered a violation of the norm in one period of the development of the language becomes accepted and is seen as normal in another period.

Of course many words and constructions that were considered illiterate were banned by scholars, but the people continued using these words and gradually the changes were accepted in all language levels and in vocabulary.

Literary and non-literary language are interdependent. Literary language enriches its vocabulary from the vernacular (spoken) language. It also adopts some of its syntactical characteristics. When this syntax and vocabulary are put in writing, they become norms of the language:

34


_________________________________________________________________________

selection is the most typical feature of the literary language. When a men-of letters chooses a non-literary form, this selection is due to aesthetic reasons or to some other merit or recognition that will make it a legal member of the literary language.

But this is not the case of STRUCTURAL UNITS as they are created by the people as a whole, they gradually enter the literary language in the long run. Men of letters not only write the language, but also speak it.

The English literary language was regulated and formalized during the 17 th and 18th century. Some writers were conservative like Swift; others were liberal, like Byron who introduced the word “weatherology”.

The literary language greatly influences the non-literary language. Many words, constructions and particularly phonetic improvements have been introduced through books into the English colloquial language. The most important influence of the literary language over colloquial language was in the 19th century. Then after that in the 20th century with the radio and television (people always repeat what they see).

The non-literary language has its own manifestation in all aspects of language like phonetic, morphological, lexical and syntactical.

Example: goin’ instead of going (ana) (en)

Literary English is almost a synonym of Standard English

Standard English is best described in an interesting book “The use of English” by Randolph Quirk, Professor of English Language in the University of London:

“We have seen that standard English is basically an ideal, a mode of expression that we seek when we wish to communicate beyond our immediate community with members of the wider community of the nation as a whole. As an ideal, it cannot be perfectly realized, and we must expect that members of different “wider communities” (Britain, America, Nigeria, for example) may produce different realizations. In fact, however, the remarkable thing is the very high degree of unanimity, the small amount of divergence. Any of us can read a newspaper printed in Leeds or San Francisco or Delhi without difficulty and often without realizing that there are differences at all.”9

Literary English is indifferent to territorial ways of speaking.

The English language is the result of the combination of tribal dialects of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who occupied the British isles in the 3rd to 5th centuries.

Anglo-Saxon or Old English. Old English is a dead language, like Latin or classic Greek. This old English was used until the end of the 12th century. The first manuscripts of the language belong

9 Quirk Randolph. The use of English, Ldn, Longmans, 1962, pp 95-96.

35


_________________________________________________________________________

to the 8th century. But the language of the 8th century and consecutive centuries is so different from present-day English that it is impossible to understand.

Middle English: Vocabulary had grown enormously by borrowings from Norman-French and other languages. The structure of the language also changed because inflections (most of them) disappeared.

New English: it starts from the 15th century. This is the beginning of the English language known, spoken and written at the present time.

Many dialects influenced English language during this century, but finally London dialect was gradually winning recognition. At the end of the 15th century, London dialect had been accepted as the standard in writing, in most parts of the country. This was due to Caxton, the first English printer who used the speech of London in his translations and in the books he printed.

In the 16 th century : literary English began to flourish: more printing, more growth of culture. Oxford and Cambridge contributed very much.

In the second half of the 16 th century : political an economic rise in England. Literature grows in all forms: poetry, drama, prose. Translations from Greek and Latin classic writers were very common as people were very interested in literature. Influenced in growing and making English language better: Edmund Spenser; Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, later Ben Johnson, Beaumont and Fletcher.

Two tendencies in the use of language by the writers of that time:

Free and almost unrestricted use of new words and forms, coined and imported into English language.

The revival of the archaic words, the latter being a counter weight to the former. Example: Spenser tried to preserve the old English word and Shakespeare unrestrictedly used words of all kinds and particularly new coinages. Marlowe and Fletcher use much of the vernacular language.

Factors that influenced literary English in the 15th and 16th centuries:

1) A common interest in classical literature during renaissance: scholars forced the classical norms into English language.

2) A desire to keep the language pure, to retain and revive old English words. This tendency was called ARCHAIC PURISM: it was the struggle against intrusion of foreign words.

3) An orientation towards the living developing and rapidly changing norms of the colloquial language.

36


_________________________________________________________________________

The protestant reformation played a great role in the development of literary language because the Bible had to be translated in understandable English for the masses (throughout the 16th century)

It is worth to mention that there were many difficulties in spelling. No tow writers spelt all words exactly alike.

One of the first dictionaries that appeared was the “Table Alphabetical conteyning and teaching the true writing and understanding of hard usual English words”. This was the first dictionary that confined entirely to the English language. The problem of spelling was fairly settled then at the end of the 17th century.

The 17 th century : general tendency to refinement and regulation. There was a counter weight to this tendency; it was a strong movement that wanted to restrict literary language to a simple colloquial language so it could be understood by the ordinary people.

According to Frank Visetelly, the Bible contains 97% of Anglo Saxon words more than any other English book (in the version published in 1611).

The 18 th century : normalizing tendencies continues. Scholars wanted to fic the language for all time, to establish its laws once and for all. Two men had great influence in the 18 th century. Jonathan Swift and Samuel Johnson.

Swift said that we had “to cal a spade a spade”; this phrase became a symbol for a plian and simple way of expression.

Johnson published a dictionary in 1753 where he ignores colloquial forms and only includes words from written literary publications.

The literary-bookish character of Johnson’s dictionary influenced the word usage of written English and also the formation of different styles in literary English.

The 19 th century : there was a purist spirit. Styles were differentiated in the 19 th century . There were two tendencies in this century:

1) Reactionary purism: like in the 17th and 18th centuries. They did not want anything new: no borrowings, coinages or semantic changes.

2) Tendency to draw on the inexhaustible resources of the vernacular language both in vocabulary and in the lively syntactical patterns of colloquial English (Byron)

Finally, this second tendency prevailed.

37


_________________________________________________________________________

38


_________________________________________________________________________

Readings

Language varieties in translation

THE concept of a “whole language” is so vast and heterogeneous that is not operationally useful for many linguistic purposes, descriptive, comparative and pedagogical. It is, therefore, desirable to have a framework of categories for the classification of “sub-languages” or varieties within a total language; that is, idiolects, dialects, registers, styles and modes.

13.1 In theory, a “whole language” may be described in terms of a vast inventory of grammatical, lexical and phonological and, in some cases, graphological forms, together with information about relevant substance (e.g. features of phonic substance utilized in phonology), and statistical information (on relative frequency of forms, etc.)10. All of these may be said to constitute features of the language.

Within this theoretical total inventory of features we can establish sub-groupings or sub-sets of features. Such sub-sets might be made up more or less at random – for example, a sub-set of English items like the following:

Arthropoda, ashet, bedight, caitiff, cannot, can’t, outwith, triploblastic.

All the items in this sub-set are “English” in the sense that all may be found in English texts. On the other hand, it is difficult to see much value in a grouping such as this – except for the specific purpose of illustration, as here, or perhaps as an examination item (as a test of the candidate’s ability to recognize varieties of English).

13.11 For most linguistic purposes it is desirable to establish subsets of “features” characteristic of varieties of the language which regularly correlate with certain broad contextual or situational categories. It is clear that the items listed above can be grouped in such a way. Arthropoda and triplobastic are characteristic of scientific, specifically, zoological English. Ashet and outwith are characteristically Scottish – they occur in texts written or spoken by Scotsmen. Bedight and caitiff are archaic – they are most characteristically found in texts written a few centuries ago. For many users of English cannot is characteristically a written rather than a spoken form. The form “can’t” may also occur in written texts, but it differs from cannot in that it correlates with situations in which there is a greater degree of familiarity between the writer and his reader(s).

13.2 A language variety, then, is a sub-set of formal and/or substantial features which correlates with a particular type of socio-situational feature. For a general classification of varieties we confine ourselves to a consideration of situational correlates which are constants in language-situations. These constants are (i) the performer (speaker or writer), (ii) the addressee (hearer or reader), and (iii) the medium (phonology or graphology) in which the text is presented.

These three are “constants” in the sense that they are invariably present, or implied, in all language situations. Performer or addressee are socio-linguistic roles – whether or not both roles are played by different individuals is quite irrelevant. A man may talk to himself, in which case he is

10 Whether this “inventory” is, indeed, an inventory or systematic listing (as “taxonomic description”) or an ordered set of rules (as in “transformational” description) is irrelevant. In either case, the description is unmanageably vast.

39


_________________________________________________________________________

simultaneously filling the roles of performer and addressee; or a broadcaster may talk into a “dead” microphone, unaware that a breakdown has occurred, in which case there are no listeners to fill the role of addressee; but the addressee role is still implicit in the performer’s selection of language material. Finally, every text is externalized in some form or other – the performer must always select one or other medium in which to expound the grammatical/lexical forms he is using.

Varieties fall into two major classes: (i) those which are more or less permanent for a given performer or group of performers, and (ii) those which are more or less transient in that they change with changes in the immediate situation of utterance. The major varieties are listed in 13.21, and discussed in more detail in 13.4 onwards.

13.21 Types of variety related to permanent characteristics of the performer(s).

13.211 Idiolect; language variety related to the personal identity of the performer

13.212 Dialect; language variety related to the performer’s provenance or affiliations in a geographical, temporal or social dimension.

(i) Dialect (proper) or Geographical Dialect: variety related to the geographical provenance of the performer: e.g. “American English”, “British English”, “Scottish English”, “Scots Dialect”.

(ii) Etat de langue or Temporal Dialect: variety related to the provenance of the performer, or of the text he has produced, in the time dimension: e.g. “Contemporary English”, “Elizabethan English”, “Middle English”.

(iii) Social Dialect: variety related to the social class or status of the performer: e.g. Upper and non-upper class.

13.22 Types of variety related to transient characteristics of the performer and the addressee – i.e. related to the immediate situation of the utterance.

13.221 Register: variety related to the wider social role being played by the performer at the moment of utterance: e.g. scientific, religious, civil-service, etc.

13.222 Style: variety related to the number and nature of the addressees and the performer’s relation to them: e.g.. formal, colloquial, intimate.

13.223 Mode: variety related to the medium in which the performer is operating: spoken, written.

13.23 It would, no doubt, be possible to add to this list of variety types, particularly by sub-division or conflation. For instance, a more delicate classification of medium manifestation might supply “secondary modes” – such as “telegraphese”, a sub-type of the written mode. Again, a kind of conflation might provide us with a “poetic genre” as a super-variety characterized by potential use of features appropriate to all varieties. For the present study, however, we confine ourselves to the varieties listed here.

13.3 All languages may be presumed to be describable in terms of a number of varieties, though the number and nature of these varies from one language to another – a fact in connection with translation.

All the varieties of a language have features in common – these constitute a common core of e.g. grammatical, lexical and phonological forms. In addition to the common core, however, every variety has features which are peculiar to it, and which serve as formal (and sometimes substantial) criteria or markers of the variety in question.

40


_________________________________________________________________________

The markers of particular varieties may be at any level: phonetic, phonological, graphological, grammatical, lexical. As far as dialect is concerned, many languages have a “standard” or “literary” dialect, which shows little variation (in its written form at least) from one locality to another. It is convenient, particularly in connection with translation, to regard such a dialect as unmarked.

13.4 An idiolect is the language variety used by a particular individual. The markers of an idiolect may include idiosyncratic statistical features, such as tendency to exceptionally frequent use of particular lexical items. A person’s idiolect may change in detail from day to day (e.g. by the adoption of “new pronunciations”, the acquisition of new lexical items, etc), and may change extensively in a life-time. For most purposes, however, we may regard an adult’s idiolect as relatively static.

It is not always necessary to attempt to translate idiolects: i.e. the personal identity of the performer is not always an important feature of the situation. It may happen, however, that the performer’s identity is relevant. For instance, in a novel, idiolectal features in the dialogue of one character may be worked into the plot; other characters may remark on these, and they may partly serve to identify the character. In such a case the translator may provide the same character in his translation with an “equivalent” idiolectal feature11.

13.5 A dialect, as we have seen, is a language variety, marked by formal and/or substantial features relatable to the provenance of a performer or group of performers in one of the three dimensions – space, time, and social class.

13.51 Geographical dialects may be defined with greater or lesser specificity; thus among dialects of English, for instance, we may for some purposes distinguish between British English, American English, Australian English, etc – such broad inclusive, dialects being formally distinguished from one another by relatively few markers. For other purposes we may specify sub-varieties within this, again, still more strictly localized varieties. Similarly etats de langue may be arbitrarily marked off along the time-dimension very broadly, as Old English, Middle English, Modern English, etc., or more strictly located within these broad periods, e.g. 19 th

Century English…

13.52 Dialects may present translation problems. As we have said in 13.3 above for most major languages there is a “standard” or “literary” dialect which may be regarded as unmarked. Texts in the unmarked dialect of the SL can usually be translated in an equivalent unmarked TL dialect. When the TL has no equivalent unmarked dialect the translator may have to select one particular TL dialect, create a new “literary” dialect of the TL, or resort to other expedients. This problem not infrequently arises in the translation of the Bible into pre-literate languages, and has been discussed at some length by E. A. Nida12.

13.53 When a SL text contains passages in a dialect other than the unmarked dialect (e.g. in the dialogue of novels) the translator may have to select and equivalent TL dialect. Translation equivalence, as we have seen in 7.4 above, depends on relationship of SL and TL text to “the same” substance; for total translation, this is situation substance. In the selection of an equivalent TL geographical dialect this means selection of a dialect related to the “same part of the country” in a geographical sense. Geography is concerned with more than topography and

11 Those features of what is often called the individual “style” of a particular author are idiolectal, and in a literary translation some attempt may have to be made to find TL equivalents for them. Unusual collocations may also sometimes be regarded as idiolectal – for an example see 14.52. 12 Bible Translating, Chapter 3.

41


_________________________________________________________________________

spatial co-ordinates -- and human geography is more relevant here than mere location. Thus, in relation to the dialects in Britain, Cockney is a south-eastern dialect. In translating Cockney dialogue into French, however, most translators would select Parigot as the TL equivalent dialect, even though this is a northerly dialect of French. The criterion here is the human or social geographical one of “dialect of the metropolis” rather than a purely locational criterion.

13.54 The markers of the SL dialect may be formally quite different from those of the equivalent TL dialect. There are certainly Cockney markers at all levels, but in many literary texts, Cockney is marked chiefly by phonological features, reflected in such graphological forms as “alf” or “arf” for “half”, “wiv” for “with”, and a few grammatical features such as “ain’t” for “isn’t/aren’t”. In addition there are often pseudo-phonological features, indicated by graphological peculiarities suh as “orful” for “awful” and “ter” for “to”. These graphological forms can be interpreted phonologically only in perfectly normal “standard” English ways – they are the markers of a purely visual, literary dialect.

The markers of Parigot may include a few graphological phonological features, but are likely to be largely at the lexical level, in the form of extensive use of argot. This illustrates another case, like those cited in 7.6 above, where phonological/graphological features appear to have translation equivalents at the level of lexis; but as in those examples, this is an illusion. If the translation equivalent of e’s gorn is il a foulu l’camp this does not mean that lexical items are here translation equivalents of phonological features. The translation equivalence is set up between varieties (specifically Cockney and Parigot): of which there is no equivalence between phonological and lexical features as such.

13.55 Temporal dialects, or états de langue, may also present translation problems. A contemporary état de langue of the SL, may normally be regarded as unmarked, only archaic varieties being marked. In spoken-spoken translation13 both SL and TL texts are normally “contemporary” or “unmarked” dialects in the time dimension. An archaic SL, however, raises the problem of whether the translator should seek to select an equivalent archaic TL text. Here, as in the case of geographical dialect, equivalence of absolute location in time is normally neither possible nor desirable. The 12th Century Russian Slovo o polku Igoreve, for example, would not normally be translated into 12th century English; in this form it would considerably less intelligible to a contemporary English reader than the original is to a contemporary Russian. Dennis Ward in his article on translation of the Slovo has argued against archaism in the TL text, with the exception of his deliberate selection of host as translation equivalent of the lexical item polk. Nevertheless, parts of his brilliant translation have a somewhat “archaic flavor”—the markers here being lexical items such as girded, beasts, warriors, behold, the use of brothers as a term of address, not to mention lexical items which are of low frequency in contemporary English texts because their contextual meanings relate to archaic objects or institutions such as bows, quivers, shields, pennons, gerfalcon, pagan hosts; occasional features of clause-structure; phonological features of alliteration and meter (successful partial phonological translations) and so on. Such features are for the English reader, markers of a slightly archaic

13 Here we imply a categorization of “external” aspects of translation not dealt with in the present essay. For this categorization at least four dimensions have to be considered; viz, those of media, time-relation, agent, and for human translation at least direction.

42


_________________________________________________________________________

état de langue, appropriate to the subject as well as being to some extent a translation equivalent of the SL état de langue.

13.6 Register, Style and Mode are language varieties related to the immediate situation of the utterance.

13.61 By Register we mean a variety correlated with the performer’s social role on a given occasion. Every normal adult plays a series of different social roles – one man, for example, may function at different times as head of a family, motorist, cricketer, member of a religious group, professor of biochemistry and so on, and within his idiolect he has varieties (shared by other persons and other idiolects) appropriate to these roles. When the professor’s wife tells him to “stop talking like a professor”, she is protesting at a misuse of register.

13.611 Registers, like dialects, can be defined with lesser or greater specificity; thus, while in English we may identify a general scientific register, we may also differentiate sub-registers within this. Register-markers are chiefly lexical (most obviously, “technical terms” but including other items), and grammatical, particularly grammatical-statistical features such as the high frequency of the passive verb forms, and the low frequency of the pronouns I, you, he and she in English scientific register.

13.612 In translation, the selection of an appropriate register in the TL is often important. Here, if the TL has no equivalent register, untranslatability may result. One of the problems of translating scientific texts into certain languages which have recently become national languages, such as Hindi, is that of finding, or creating an equivalent scientific register. And here again, the equivalence is between varieties; an English scientific text may have, inter alia, a relatively high percentage occurrence of passives; its Russian translation a relatively high percentage occurrence of javlaets’a + instrumental. The Russian javlaets’a is not necessarily the translation equivalent of an English passive; both are merely markers of equivalent registers.

13.62 By style we mean a variety which correlates with the number and nature of the addressees and the performer’s relationship to them. Styles vary along a scale which may be roughly characterized as formal… informal. For English, Martin Joos has suggested five styles: frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimate14.

The markers of styles maybe lexical, grammatical, or phonological. Not much is known in detail about English styles, though it is probably true, as Joos points out, that ellipsis is one marker of casual style: e.g. Coffee’s cold. Bought it yesterday. Leaving? – another is the use of slang. For English we can probably regard consultative style as the unmarked style in the spoken mode, though formal style may be the unmarked style in the written mode.

As with registers, so with styles, translatability depends on the existence of an equivalent style in the TL. In English, style markers tend to be dispersed over a number of levels of the language, including lexis and phonology. In many languages, particularly in South East Asia, the translation equivalent of particular English styles may be more rigidly built into grammar and lexis – as the use of specifically “self-abasing” or “honorific” terms in a system of pronouns, or similar obligatory alternative items in lexical sets.

14 “The Isolation of Styles”, Georgetown Monographs on Languages and Linguistics 12 -(1959) pp 107-13.

43


_________________________________________________________________________

Here again, however, translation equivalence must be set up between the varieties as such, and the specific markers may be very different in the SL and TL texts. Moreover, the equivalence is ultimately based on similarities of situation-substance – only, those which are statistically relevant in one language may not be in another. An English youth may easily address his father in casual style; an oriental youth on the other hand, may have to use honorific forms in such a situation. Both respect and affection may be present in the situation, but respect may not be a stylistically relevant feature for the English son, while it is relevant for the Asian son.

This one reason for divergences here, as elsewhere, between formal correspondence and translation equivalence. Two languages might possess a roughly corresponding set of styles; but cultural factors may dictate the use of a non-corresponding style as translation equivalent.

13.7 It should be noted that there may be syncretisms and incompatibilities between varieties. For one thing, in English, as we move “down” the style-scale from formal to casual the registral differences become less marked. A professor of zoology may give a lecture to a learned society in zoological register and formal style. He may continue to use register with the consultative style he uses in a seminar with graduate students, or with the casual style he uses in common-room scientific gossip with colleagues. Specific lexical items – the technical terms of zoology – will still be there as register-markers in his casual style, but most of the other markers of scientific register – the less specifically zoological, but still scientific, lexical items, the grammatical markers and so on – will have disappeared.

There may be incompatibility between, say, a rural dialect and a scientific register, or between casual style and religious register and so on. Such incompatibilities may have an effect on translation. Thus, some Hindi translations of English novels and short stories show no attempt to use a particular Hindi “marked dialect” as translation equivalent of rural (geographical) dialect or uneducated social dialect in English dialogue. It is possible that this reflects a dialect/mode incompatibility in Hindi – i.e. the non-compatibility of “sub-standard” Hindi dialect with the written mode.

In many cases a change of style or register involves a corresponding change of dialect or even language. In Arabic, for example, the Classical dialect is hardly compatible with casual style. Many Indians will switch from, say, Hindi or Marathi to English whenever they speak or write about scientific subjects; such people have no scientific register in their “mother tongue”, but only in English.

CHAPTER TAKEN FROM:

CATFORD, J.C.

44


_________________________________________________________________________

A linguistic theory of Translation. Oxford University Press, London, 1965 pp.

45