Lectures on Comparative Stylistics

Comparative Study of Functional Styles

(4 h.)
Issues for discussion

1. 
   Functional Style as an Object of Study of General and Comparative Stylistics.
   
2. 
   Comparative-stylistic Aspects of Scientific Texts
   
3. 
   Comparative-stylistic Aspects of News Media (Newspaper) Texts
   

Key Words

Comparative-stylistic analysis, functional style, texts, guidelines, functions, style features, imagery, tenor, emotiveness, directivity, modality, compression, stylistic means, stylistic modification.

Functional-stylistic aspect of comparative stylistics has not been well investigated. A great number of issues concerning the comparative study of the stylistic properties of the texts belonging to different functional styles in two and more languages still remain unresolved. Generally, comparative study of functional styles focuses on the description of common and distinctive features of the different languages in terms of their stylistic differentiation, textual representation, regularities of functioning of stylistically relevant language means, as well as extralinguistic style forming factors.

Functional style is a very complicated linguistic phenomenon. Primarily it is characterized by the variety of interpretations.

According to J. Swift, proper word in proper places make a true definition of style.

According to M. Riffaterre, style is an emphasis (expressive, effective or aesthetic) added to the information conveyed by the linguistic structure.

According to R. Jackobson, style in language is choice and the result of choice.

V.V. Vinogradov defined style as a coordinated, interrelated and interconditioned language means intended to fulfill a specific function of communication.

V.V. Vinogradov's understanding of the concept of style was reflected in I.R. Galperin's definition: "A functional style of language is a system of language means which serves a definite aim in communication".

Scientific Texts (Scientific/Academic Style). The main function is to prove a hypothesis, to create new concepts, to disclose the internal laws of development, existence, relations between different phenomena, etc.

The language means used, therefore, tend to be objective, precise, unemotional, devoid of any individuality, the form of expression is the most generalized one. The most typical features are as following: 1. logical sequence of utterances with clear indication of their interrelations and interdependence, with a developed system of connectives 2. The use of terms specific to each branch of science. 3. Vocabulary is direct, used in primary logical meaning. 4. Sentence — patterns may be of three types: postulatory (self-evident and needing no proof), argumentative and formulative. 5. The use of quotations and references. 6. Foot-notes are digressive in character.7. Impersonality of writing, revealed in a frequent use of passive constructions.

English, Russian and Uzbek differ greatly in grammatical structure. Moreover, in English there if a stable word order and grammatical correspondence of words is quite different from Russian.

Compared to Russian and Uzbek, in English the use of nouns derived from verbs is rarely met. Due to that fact the word for word translation from Russian or Uzbek into English appears to be very complicated and unreadable.

Compared to the scientific texts in Russian and Uzbek, English ones are more compact, simple, active, emotional, and conversational, distance between the author and the reader is minimal and reduced by a direct access to it and the lower level of modality.

In order to avoid mistakes in writing scientific articles, we should follow a number of guidelines:

1. 
   replace the nouns derived from verbs with the verbal forms (constructions). E.g. launching international projects, describing and explaining experimental data;
   
2. 
   to avoid using complex genitive constructions such as in Russian – «возможность определения путей решения проблемы»;
   
3. 
   to partition the long sentences;
   
4. 
   to try to avoid using the word such as which, that in compound sentences and connect the clauses with words like when, where, then, but, and.
   

One of the most frequent stylistic mistakes in translating from Russian into English is an excessive use of the pronoun “of”. To avoid using this pronoun we may follow the several rules:

1. 
   to use attributive groups i.e. the nouns as attributes. E.g. a group of transformations vs. a transformation group; results of research vs. research results.
   
2. 
   To use the gerunds or infinitives instead of nouns derived from verbs. E.g. Воспользуемся комплексным методом для построения группы трансформаций чего-либо – Let us use the complex method for constructing/to construct the transformation group of something.
   

to replace the “of”, if it is possible, for the other one close in meaning. E.g. equations of shallow waves / equations for shallow waves

3. 
   to use possessive construction E.g. roots of equation/equations’ roots.
   

One more principal feature of stylistic character in English in comparison with Russian is the specific use of negative constructions: E.g. не позволять сделать вывод – to be inconclusive; не придавать значения – to overlook; не требовать объяснения – self-explanatory; не выходить за пределы – to stay within.