Lectures on Comparative Stylistics

News Media (Newspaper) Texts. Generally, the style of news media is characterized by the following key aspects: 1) an appeal to (orientation towards) the “average” mass reader or receptor; 2) lack of direct feedback; 3) the high speed of text production; 4) the limited size of a text; 5) the need to fill it with the maximum amount of information.

News media style has two main functions: informative and persuasive. Informative function is associated with such style features of new media as novelty (topicality), brevity (density of information, text compression), specialization and despecialization.

Persuasive function (persuading the reader, influencing his attitude, urging him to act). Persuasive function is connected with such style features as imagery, emotiveness, tenor and directivity. The means to express these features: connotation, lexical and grammatical modality, metaphor, metonymy, stylistic contrast, archaisms, slang, puns, paronymy, euphemisms, repetition, antithesis, inversion, etc.

Compression of the text. The key type of stylistic difference the language of Russian/Uzbek and Anglo-American media is the wider use by the latter of compressed structures. Compression is realized through such forms, specific to English, as NN-type noun phrases, compounding, conversion, - er nouns, phrase attributes as well as through more compact and laconic forms (a word instead of a phrase, a verb alone instead of a verb plus a verbal noun, an infinitive instead of a subordinate clause of purpose, an elliptical form instead of a full one).

E.g. The Republic of South Africa is the world’s No. 1 producer of gold and diamond – ЮАР принадлежит первое место в мире по добыче золота и ювелирных алмазов; According to WHO statistics, heart deseases are the No 1 killer – Согласно статистически данным ВОЗ, сердечно-сосудистые заболевания занимают первое место среди причин смертности.

Elliptical construction as a means of compression. E.g. executive resolution – резолюция исполнительного комитета; wage demands – требования об увеличении зарплаты; radioactive blowout (instead of blowout of radioactive materials) – выброс радиоактивных веществ; opinion polls (public opinion polls) – опросы общественного мнения.

Tenor. The tenor of Russian and Uzbek newspaper texts is considerably higher, their more eleveated register is based on the use of stylistically marked vocabulary and a bookish connotation as well as bokish syntax. The Anglo-American press is more low-keyed and tends to use more slang and colloquialisms.

E.g. Зеленым ковром всходов покрываются поля. Каким будет урожай этого года? Земледельцы понимают: щедрость нивы во многом зависит от их слаженной, четкой работы в эти дни.

Higher elevated register of this text is based on the use of the word – нива, земледелец, зеленый ковер всходов, щедрость нивы. If we keep this very register in translation, it will lead to the violation of stylistic norms of the English newspaper text. That’s why the translator should use several stylistic modifications (simplification of the text, adaptation of the text to the stylistic norm of the language, the use of the lower register instead of the higher one: щедрость нивы – yield, земледелец – farmer, зеленым ковром покрываются поля – fields are turning green). E.g. Fields are turning green. What harvest will this year bring? Farmers know that the yield will depend on their concerted and efficient work right now.

English media texts include a considerable use in the English texts of metaphoric verbs (e.g. to soar) whose equivalents in Russian texts are usually non-metaphoric phrases of the Vadj type (e.g. to rise rapidly).

Compared to Russian and Uzbek, the english media texts are more markedly structured and more explicitly specialised both in their vocabulary (“headline vocabulary”) and their grammar (“headline grammar”) and also in that the follow more closely the “the crucial information first” and “from general to specific” strategies.
Sources

1. 
   Гак В.Г. О сопоставительной стилистике // Методы сопоставительного изучения языков. – М., – С. 48 – 53.
   
2. 
   Федоров А.В. Очерки общей и сопоставительной стилистики. – М., 1971.
   
3. 
   Швейцер А.Д. Контрастивная стилистика. Газетно-публицистический стиль в английском и русском языках. – М.,1993.
   
4. 
   Shveitser A. D. Contrastive stylistics: news media style in English and in Russian. Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1997.