 |
The aims of the Style of Official Documents and its Substyles
|
|
|
|
1. To reach an agreement between two contracting parties;
2. To state the conditions binding two parties in an understanding.
Each of substyles of official documents makes use of special terms.
The Style of Official Documents is marked by:
1. Conventionality;
2. Unemotiveness;
3. Encoded character (symbols, abbreviations).
4. A general syntactical mode of combining several pronouncements into one sentence.
5. Formulas of greeting, parting, politeness, gratitude.
The structure of the business letter:
· The heading;
· The reference;
- The date;
- The inside address;
- The opening salutation;
- The body;
- The complimentary close;
- Enclosure.
- It is characterized by special business terminology:
- extra-revenue, taxable capacities, liability to profit taxes;
- Red-tape clichés: I BEG TO INFORM YOU; I BEG TO MOVE;
- Abbreviations: MP, GVT, HMS, LTD.
Dear Sirs:
We are pleased to have received your order of Sept. 15 and would like to welcome you as a new customer of Payton’s Plastics.
Legal documents, military documents, diplomatic documents. The documents use set expressions inherited from early Victorian period. This vocabulary is conservative. Legal documents contain a large proportion of formal and archaic words used in their dictionary meaning. In diplomatic and legal documents many words have Latin and French origin. There are a lot of abbreviations and conventional symbols.
The most noticeable feature of grammar is the compositional pattern. Every document has its own stereotyped form. The form itself is informative and tells you with what kind of letter we deal with.
Syntactical features of business letters are: the predominance of extended simple and complex sentences, wide use of participial constructions, homogeneous members.
Morphological peculiarities are passive constructions, they make the letters impersonal. There is a tendency to avoid pronoun reference. Its typical feature is to frame equally important factors and to divide them by members in order to avoid ambiguity of the wrong interpretation.
Informal functional styles:
1. Literary Colloquial;
2. Familiar Colloquial;
3. Low Colloquial.
Characteristic features:
1. Economy of expression;
2. Redundancy of language means;
3. Dialogical unity:
o Question – answer unity; “When do you begin? – Tomorrow.”
o Anadiplosis unity; “So you would naturally say … - And mean?”
o Repetition unity; “There’s so much talk of suicide,” he said. – James’ jaw dropped. - “Suicide! What should he do that for?”
o Parallelism unity; “Well, Mr. Desert, do you find reality in politics?” – “Do you find reality in anything?”
Lexical characteristic features:
1. Shortened words, contracted forms of auxiliaries, ellipsis;
2. Intensifiers (awfully, terribly, terrifically)
3. Emotionally colored words; Dear, sweet, old Charlie, duckie. Wasn’t she beautiful! Dear me! Well! Why! There!
|
|
|
4. Time – fillers (as a matter of fact, in fact, well!, to tell you the truth)
5. Words of the most general character (thing, lot …)
6. Occasional words, neologisms. “ To think that I should have lived to be good-morninged by Belladonna Took’s son!” (A.T.)
7. Slang, jargon. “Oh, but wasn’t T.D. stewed! Say, he was simply ossified! What did Gladys say to him?”
Morphologically: composite verbs: Retire – go away, arrest – run in, betray – let down.
Syntactically: Ellipses, Redundancy, Parenthesis, Tautology, Double negation, Repetition: “You are crazy, you are!” - “I’ll tell you what…’’Don’t you ever say it again! Don’t you mind! “You be careful!”
Phonetically: casual pronunciation: “Watch ma call it? Gimmi cupa tea!”
Syntactically: Imperative constructions (voluntative function); You be careful! Don’t you ever say so again! Don’t you mind!
Postpositional adverbs: Come on, Nervy! Out with it! Claws in, you cat! Off with you and undress! (B.Shaw)
Questions (polite formulae): Will you please (kindly) …? Would you mind closing the door? Subjunctive clauses: (wish + would + Infinitive): I wish you’d behave properly. I want you to behave properly.
COMPRESSION: It’s, isn’t, don’t;
ECONOMY: Been traveling all the winter. – Egypt, Italy and that chuckled America! – I gather! (Galsworthy)
REDUDANCY: Well! I mean, like as if; Don’t give no riddles!
PHATIC and EMOTIVE functions:Intensifiers: do, does, actually, in fact,indeed, really, undoubtedly, seem: You really did go a little too far!
VULGARISMS: on earth, the devil, the hell, lousy: What the hell do you mean?
Seminars 9-10
FUNCTIONAL STYLES
Questions and tasks
Questions:
1. Speak on the types of language communication.
2. The status of the belles-letters style among the other styles.
3. Discuss the characteristic features of the scientific style.
4. Speak on the peculiarities of the newspaper style.
5. Discuss the characteristic features of the publicist style.
6. Characterize the style of official documents.
7. Comment on the main characteristics of oral colloquial speech.
Task 1
Define the functional style according to its characteristic features and functions:
1) WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
SONNET 73
1. That time of year thou mayst in me behold
2. When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
3. Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
4. Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
5. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
6. As after sunset fadeth in the west,
7. Which by and by black night doth take away,
8. Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
9. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
10. That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
11. As the death-bed whereon it must expire
12. Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.
13. This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong
14. To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Questions and tasks:
1. Read the sonnet and be ready to translate and paraphrase any part of it.
2. Speak on the structure of the sonnet.
3. Speak on the idea of the sonnet and on the images the poet resorts to in describing his decline.
4. Comment on the implication in the phrase "consumed with that which it was nourish'd by". Note the contrast between the words "to consume" and "to nourish", which are contextual antonyms here.
|
|
|
5. Discuss the thought expressed in the epigrammatic lines of the sonnet.
6. Comment on the following assertion made by a critic that "Shakespeare thought in terms of metaphors".
7. Discuss the use of metaphors in the sonnet. Use the following questions as a guide:
a) What kinds of metaphors are used in the sonnet?
b) From what spheres does the poet draw his metaphors?
c) What idea is revealed through the metaphors employed in the sonnet?
8. Pick out the cases where periphrasis is used, and comment on them.
9. State what SDs are used in the poet's description of night (lines 7, 8) and comment on them.
10. Pick out the archaic words and forms which occur in the sonnet and explain their usage.
11. State what syntactical SD is used in the first line of the sonnet, find similar cases (lines 5, 9, 13) and comment on them.
12. Pick out cases of parallelism and discuss the function of this SD in the sonnet.
13. Note deviations from the conventional rhythmical pattern (in line 8) and comment on them.
14. Discuss the possible use of a modifier of rhythm (spondee) in line 14: 'To love that well which thou must leave ere long".
15. Summing up the analysis of the sonnet speak on its message and the main SDs used by the poet to achieve the desired effect.
2) The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive. Cars that were usually gleaming stood dusty in their drives and lawns that were once emerald green lay parched and yellowing -for the use of hosepipes had been banned due to drought. Deprived of their usual car-washing and lawn-mowing pursuits, the inhabitants of Privet Drive had retreated into the shade of their cool houses, windows thrown wide in the hope of tempting in a nonexistent breeze. The only person left outdoors was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four. He was a skinny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who had the pinched, slightly unhealthy look of someone who has grown a lot in a short space of time. His jeans were torn and dirty, his T-shirt baggy and faded, and the soles of his trainers were peeling away from the uppers. Harry Potter's appearance did not endear him to the neighbours, who were the sort of people who thought scruffiness ought to be punishable by law, but as he had hidden himself behind a large hydrangea bush this evening he was quite invisible to passers-by. In fact, the only way he would be spotted was if his Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia stuck their heads out of the living-room window and looked straight down into the flowerbed below.
On the whole, Harry thought he was to be congratulated on his idea of hiding here. He was not, perhaps, very comfortable lying on the hot, hard earth but, on the other hand, nobody was glaring at him, grinding their teeth so loudly that he could not hear the news, or shooting nasty questions at him, as had happened every time he had tried sitting down in the living room to watch television with his aunt and uncle.
Almost as though this thought had fluttered through the open window, Vernon Dursley, Harry's uncle, suddenly spoke.
“Glad to see the boy's stopped trying to butt in. Where is he, anyway?”
“I don't know,” said Aunt Petunia, unconcerned. “Not in the house.” (J.K.Rowling)
3) Thank you all. Chief Justice Rehnquist, President Carter, President Bush, President Clinton, distinguished guests and my fellow citizens. The peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history, yet common in our country. With a simple oath, we affirm old traditions and make new beginnings. As I begin, I thank President Clinton for his service to our nation. And I thank Vice President Gore for a contest conducted with spirit and ended with grace.
|
|
|
I am honored and humbled to stand here, where so many of America's leaders have come before me, and so many will follow.
We have a place, all of us, in a long story, a story we continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the story of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old. The story of a slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom. The story of a power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer. It is the American story, a story of flawed and fallible people, united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals.
The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding American promise: that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, that no insignificant person was ever born. Americans are called to enact this promise in our lives and in our laws. And though our nation has sometimes halted, and sometimes delayed, we must follow no other course. (President Bush’s speech)
4) Dear Sirs,
I have recently read The Subversive Stitch written by Rozsika Parker and found it very impressive. I would also be interested in reading Parker's book Old Mistresses.
However, I could not find the book anywhere in Finland. I am presently studying Textile Design at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki. This book would be very useful for my study project in textile history. Would it be possible to receive a copy of the book (ISNB 0-7043-3883-1)? If not, could you please tell me how I could go about getting a copy for my project?
Thank you for your help and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours faithfully, Anna Suomalainen
5) On Wednesday, Israel offered to pull back to the margins of Nablus and permit the Palestinian Authority free rein to move against militants there, Israeli officials said. But Palestinian officials apparently rejected that offer in a rare joint security meeting with Israelis on Wednesday night. Palestinian officials have repeatedly demanded that Israel withdraw from all Palestinian-controlled territory.
On Dec. 5, one Palestinian was killed when Hamas supporters rioted here after the Palestinian Authority attempted to place the founder and spiritual leader of the group, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, under house arrest. Sheik Yassin, who is a paraplegic, ultimately agreed to a voluntary house arrest.
In his speech Sunday, Mr. Arafat declared that he would “allow only one authority” in Palestinian territory — his own. Since then, Palestinian officials said, more than 30 offices of Hamas in the Gaza Strip have been closed.
In red paint, policemen have scrawled, “Closed by order of the Palestinian Authority.” In one case, someone had added to the official message these words: “and the Israeli authority.” (Times, Dec, 15, 2001)
6) For all its ups and downs in the studio, Pearl Jam is a potent live band, so much so that many of the group's concerts have been recorded and turned into bootleg albums, something the band has allowed since 1995, when it first began letting fans bring small recording devices to concerts. In an unprecedented move last September, and perhaps to deter sales of overpriced bootlegs, the group released 25 double-disc live albums, one from each stop of its 2000 European tour.
Now the quintet is putting out authorized two-CD sets of every concert from its 2000 North American tour, beginning with 23 that correspond with the first leg of that jaunt. (The remaining 24, from the second leg, come out on March 27.) It's overkill, for sure, but like much of what gets offered for sale these days, the main value is in the dazzling array of choices. Did you go see the Tampa show? Now you can shell out some dough and take home a two-disc souvenir! Want to hear PJ cover The Who's “Baba O'Riley” or Neil Young's “Rockin' in the Free World”? Make sure you buy the CD from the right concert, or you'll be hurtin'. (The Sun,March,30, 2000)
|
|
|
7) Iraqi Official Says Female Inmate to Be Released
By EDWARD WONG 9:27 AM ET
An official with the Justice Ministry today said a female scientist being held prisoner will be freed on bail, as a militant group claimed it beheaded an American hostage.
8) For sociolinguists the whole notion of linguistic prescriptivism is anathema. For them, colloquial, vernacular usage, far from being something to be eliminated, is the main focus of interest. Variation in language, instead of being an accidental, disfunctional element which impedes efficient communication, and which should be suppressed, is crucial to the effective functioning of a language. Three features of language variation are taken as axiomatic:
(1) Variability is inherent in language and central to its social role. Without it we would be incapable of communicating all manner of nuances in our everyday use of language, in particular, vital information about our personal identity (along the social axis of variation) and about our relationship with the addressee (along the stylistic axis).
(2) There are no natural breaks between language varieties, no pure homogeneous styles and dialects, no neat word boxes, only gradations along social and stylistic continua. These fluid categories are susceptible to quantificational analysis.
(3) Language variation is emphatically not “free”. In other words, it is not randomly occurring or linguistically redundant and cannot be idealized away from the linguist's central concern. In fact, it correlates in a complex but nevertheless structured way with factors outside language, speaker variables like age, sex, social class, etc., and situational variables like the degree of formality, the relationship with the addressee and the like. However, these non-linguistic correlates need to be analyzed rigorously and not left to the impressionism of traditional social stereotypes. (S.B.)
9) FADE IN:
Through the window of a moving vehicle, we see a series of small, middle-class houses. This could be any suburban street in America.
INT. CITY BUS - DAY
A boy is seated near the back of a moving bus. This is TODD BOWDEN, 15, as All-American as they come. He stares out at the other passengers indifferently. Then something catches his eye.
EXT. RESIDENTIAL STREET - SANTO DONATO - DAY
TITLE: SANTO DONATO, CA FEBRUARY 1984
Todd pedals his bike down a quiet street and pulls up to an unassuming bungalow set far back on its lot. This is the kind of house one would hardly notice driving through the peaceful suburban community of Santo Donato. Todd gets off his bike and heads up the front steps. On the way, he bends down to pick up the L.A. Times.
Two signs, in laminated plastic, are secured neatly above the door bell. The first reads: “ARTHUR DENKER”. The second reads: “NO SOLICITORS, NO PEDDLERS, NO SALESMEN”.
Todd RINGS the bell. Nothing. He looks at his watch. It is twelve past ten. He RINGS again, this time longer. Still nothing. Finally, Todd leans on the tiny button, staring at his watch as he does so. After more than a minute of SOLID RINGING, a voice is heard from within.
DUSSANDER (O.S.)
All right. All right. I'm coming. Let it go!
Todd lets go as a chain behind the heavy door starts to rattle. Then it opens. An old man stands behind the screen. He is KURT DUSSANDER, a.k.a. Arthur Denker. Mid-seventies. Standing there in his bathrobe and slippers, a cigarette mashed in his mouth, he looks like a cross between Boris Karloff and Albert Einstein. Dussander stares at Todd, who tries to speak, but suddenly cannot.
DUSSANDER (continuing)
A boy. I don't need anything, boy. Can't you read? I thought all American boys could read. Don't be a nuisance, now. Good day.
The door begins to close. Todd waits till the last moment before speaking.
TODD
Don't forget your paper, Mr. Dussander.
The door stops. Dussander opens it slowly. He unlatches the screen and slips his fingers around the paper. Todd does not let go.
DUSSANDER
Give me my newspaper.
TODD
Sure thing, Mr. Dussander. (T.W.)
10) DR. JAFFE
Uh, but you have no actual medical training?
ERIN (off)
No. I have kids. Learned a lot right there. I've seen nurses give my son a throat culture. I mean what is it – you stick a giant Q-tip down their throat and wait. Or a urine analysis, with that dipstick that tells you whether or not the white count is high...
|
|
|
DR. JAFFE
Yes, I understand.
ERIN (off)
And, I mean, I'm great with people. Of course, you'd have to observe me to know for sure, but trust me on that one. I'm extremely fast learner. I mean, you show me what to do in a lab once, and I've got it down. (H.P.)
RECOMMENDED LITERATURE:
Основная литература:
1. Арнольд И.В. Стилистика. Современный английский язык. Учебник для вузов. Издательство: Флинта, Наука, 2002 или 2004. 384 стр.
2. Знаменская Т.А. Стилистика английского языка. Основы курса / Stylistics of the English Language. Fundamentals of the Course. Издательство: Едиториал УРСС, 2002.
Дополнительная литература:
1. Богин Г.И. Методологическое пособие по интерпретации художественного текста: Для занимающихся иностр. филологией. 2000.
2. Гальперин И.Р. Стилистика. М.: ВШ, 1977.
3. Косоножкина Л.В. Практическая стилистика английского языка: анализ художественного текста. Издательство: Март, 2004.
4. Разинкина Н.М. Функциональная стилистика: На материале английского и русского языков. Издательство: М., Высшая школа, 2004.
5. Рябцева Н.К. Научная речь на английском языке = English for scientific purposes: Руководство по научному изложению. Словарь оборотов и сочетаемости общенаучной лексики: Новый словарь-справочник активного типа / РАН. Ин-т языкознания. - М.: Флинта: Наука, 1999. - 598 с.
6. Швейцер А.Д. Контрастивная стилистика: Газ.-публ. стиль в англ. и рус. яз. / РАН. Ин-т языкознания; Под ред. В.Н. Ярцевой. - М., 1993. - 252с.
7. http:// www. auditorium. ru/ aud/ p/ index. php? a= presdirand c= getFormand r= resDescand id_ res=4436
8. http://www.auditorium.ru/aud/p/index.php?a=presdirandc=getFormandr=resDescandid_res=2767
9. http:// www. auditorium. ru/ aud/ p/ index. php? a= presdirandc= getFormandr= resDescandid_ res=231
Supplement
THE MAN OF PROPERTY (1906)
John Galsworthy (1867 - 1933)
|
|
|
