Table Of ContentCopyright ОАО «ЦКБ «БИБКОМ» & ООО «Aгентство Kнига-Cервис»
Министерство образования и науки Российской Федерации УДК 20
ББК 81.2Англ.я73
Омский государственный университет им. Ф.М. Достоевского
F97
Рекомендовано к изданию редакционно-издательским советом ОмГУ
Рецензент канд. филолог. наук В.Г. Болотюк
F97 Functional Styles: Учебно-методическое пособие / Сост.:
Н.Р. Афанасьева, Т.В. Сенюшкина. – Омск: Изд-во ОмГУ,
2005. – 80 с.
ISBN 5-7779-0536-6
FUNCTIONAL STYLES
Учебно-методическое пособие содержит теоретический мате-
риал по теме «Функциональные стили», а также тексты и задания
Учебно-методическое пособие для закрепления материала. Практическая часть включает как пись-
менные тексты, так и тексты для аудирования, предполагающие
работу с лексическим материалом, а также их стилистическими
особенностями, как на материале английского языка, так и в сопос-
тавлении с русским. Пособие разработано в соответствии с требо-
ваниями к уровню знаний по курсу «Аналитическое чтение».
Предназначено для студентов факультета иностранных языков
и отделения «Регионоведение» исторического факультета.
УДК 20
ББК 81.2Англ.я73
Изд-во Омск
ISBN 5-7779-0536-6 © Омский госуниверситет, 2005
ОмГУ 2005
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СОДЕРЖАНИЕ ВВЕДЕНИЕ
Введение..............................................................................................4 Учебное пособие состоит из 8 разделов, в которых рассмат-
ривается типология функциональных стилей, особенности основ-
Unit 1. Introduction..............................................................................5
ных стилей и жанров. В каждом разделе для закрепления полу-
Unit 2. Scientific Prose Style................................................................8
ченных знаний предлагаются тексты для анализа с разработанной
Unit 3. The Style of Official Documents............................................15 системой упражнений различного характера. В приложениях дан
дополнительный справочный материал по изучаемой теме. К по-
Unit 4. Publicistic Style......................................................................21
собию прилагается аудиодиск.
Unit 5. Essay.......................................................................................42
Тексты для анализа снабжены разнообразными тренировоч-
Unit 6. Newspaper Style.....................................................................53 ными упражнениями, предтекстовыми и послетекстовыми зада-
ниями творческого характера с выходом в монологическую и диа-
Unit 7. Brief News Items....................................................................60
логическую речь. Пособие содержит разнообразные задания, на-
Unit 8. Belles-Lettres Style.................................................................68 правленные на расширение словарного запаса, вопросы для устно-
го обсуждения и индивидуальных устных сообщений. Кроме того,
разработанная система упражнений дает возможность развить на-
выки предпереводческого анализа текста, знакомит студентов с
основными понятиями лингвистики текста (категориями текста).
Практическая направленность пособия позволяет развить у студен-
тов умение применять полученные теоретические знания при ана-
лизе текстов различных функциональных стилей и жанров. Посо-
бие позволяет совершенствовать навыки устного и развивать навы-
ки письменного общения на английском языке.
Характер заданий позволяет использовать как индивидуаль-
ную и фронтальную, так и другие формы взаимодействия студен-
тов (парную и групповую). В пособии использован аутентичный
материал, интересный как с точки зрения языка, так и с культуро-
логической точки зрения.
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UNIT 1 Note1. There is no unanimous opinion on the problem of distin-
guishing the belles-style as a separate one on the ground that fiction is
INTRODUCTION
in fact individual creative work of a writer who makes use of all the
subsystems of the language – both the norm with its functional styles
1. Write about students' cheating in exams in the style of one of
and regional and social varieties (slang, jargon, dialects). Colloquial
genres below:
style is also a problem – it is a controversial issue, as it may include
different features of different styles.
Scientific
Note2. While analysing a text and referring it to a particular
Prose
style or a substyle, one should bear in mind that style divisions do not
Ad
Oratorical coincide in different languages (as a result of tradition, language struc-
Speech ture and some other grounds). Thus, a scientific text in English would
Essay Fairy-tale
sound like a popular-scientific one in Russian. It is especially tangible
in text headlines (e.g. Good Birds and Better Birds for an article in
Newspaper
Newspaper
cognitive science)
Headline
Official Article
In English-speaking tradition in this respect it is more common
Document
to differentiate between two types of discourse – scientific and jour-
nalistic writing, the main basis for differentiation there being the type
2. Read your pieces of writing to 3. What features of each of the addressee – a specialist and a general reader respectively. Then
the class and compare them. Do genre can you distinguish? texts can be further subdivided according to the topic they discuss into
they have a lot in common? economic, social, political and other types of discourse.
The difference between the journalistic and scientific writing
Functional Styles can be also seen in the structure of statements that underlie the text –
radial or chain (or concatenation).
Functional Style is a system of interrelated language means,
which serves a definite aim in communication. Each style is recog-
supporting
nised as an independent whole. The peculiar choice of language means statements
is primarily dependent on the aim of the communication, on the func-
tion the style performs.
Thesis
As a matter of fact there exist a number of classifications of
statement
functional styles, but the most common one was introduced by I. R.
supporting supporting
Galperin. It includes the belles-lettres style, the publicistic style, the
statements statements
newspaper style, the scientific prose style, and the style of official
documents. All of them, though, can be further subdivided.
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Radial structure – the information is presented several times UNIT 2
from different vantage points and the author may get back to his main
SCIENTIFIC PROSE STYLE
claim several times repeating or paraphrasing it, giving various sup-
porting arguments and evidence. This may be necessary when writing
Function Features
for the general reader.
s
t
p
e • objective, precise, and mostly unemotional language
c
n
suTpphoesrtiisn g supporting supporting supporting supporting o means; words used in primary logical meaning
ssttaatteemmeenntts statements statements statements statements w c • use of terms and learned words
e
n
g • impersonality and generalized form of expression
n
Concatenation (chain structure) – the thesis statement tends to i reflected in the choice of grammar and syntactic con-
t
a
the beginning; the information is not repeated several times. The struc- e structions
r
c
ture is used when communicating with a specialist in the sphere dis- d • logical sequence of utterances
n
cussed. s a • most developed system of connectives
i
es • accepted sentence-patterns:
h
ot postulatory, argumentative, and formulative
p
hy • use of quotations and references
a
g • use of footnotes both of the reference kind and di-
n
i gressive in character
v
o
r
p
PRACTICE
TEXT 1
1. Do you know what a snowflake consists of and how the snowfall
occurs? Could you give a scientific explanation to this phenome-
non? Try to do it.
2. Read the article and check your guesses.
A snowfall consists of myriads of minute ice crystals that fall to
the ground in the form of frozen precipitation. The formation of snow
begins with these ice crystals in the subfreezing strata of the middle
and upper atmosphere when there is an adequate supply of moisture
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present. At the core of every ice crystal is a minuscule nucleus, a solid b) Which verb from is particularly useful when scientists want to
particle of matter around which moisture condenses and freezes. Liq- focus on what is done rather than who is doing it?
uid water 4 droplets floating in the supercooled atmosphere and free c) Which verb forms are particularly useful when the scientist is
ice crystals cannot coexist within the same cloud, since the vapor pres- discussing his or her conclusions and wants to make it clear
sure of ice is less than that of water. This enables the ice crystals to rob that the results are not yet established as fact?
the liquid droplets of their moisture and grow continuously. The proc- d) Which structures are particularly useful when scientists want to
ess can be very rapid, quickly creating sizable ice crystals, some of talk about what happens or would happen under various condi-
which adhere to each other to create a cluster of ice crystals or a snow- tions?
flake. Simple flakes possess a variety of beautiful forms, usually hex- 6. Referring to the chart find in the text the features of the scientific
agonal, though the symmetrical shapes reproduced in most microscope prose style.
photography of snowflakes are not usually found in actual snowfalls.
Typically, snowflakes in actual snowfalls consist of broken fragments TEXT 2
and clusters of adhering ice crystals.
You will read an excerpt form the introduction to the famous
For a snowfall to continue once it starts, there must be a con-
book by Steven Pinker “The Language Instinct”.
stant inflow of moisture to supply the nuclei. This moisture is supplied
by the passage of an airstream over a water surface and its subsequent Read the text and define its topic.
lifting to higher regions of the atmosphere. The Pacific Ocean is the
1. … Language is so tightly woven into human experience
source of moisture for most snowfalls west of the Rocky Mountains, that it is scarcely possible to imagine life without it. Chances are
while the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean feed water vapor into that if you find two or more people together anywhere on earth,
the air currents over the central and eastern sections of the United they will soon be exchanging words. When there is no one to talk
with, people talk to themselves, to their dogs, even to their plants.
States. Other geographical features also can be the source of moisture
In our social relations, the race is not to the swift but to the verbal
for some snowstorms. For example, areas adjacent to the Great Lakes
– the spellbinding orator, the silver-tongued seducer, the persua-
experience their own unique lake-effect storms, employing a variation
sive child who wins the battle of wills against a brawnier parent.
of the process on a local scale. In addition, mountainous sections or
Aphasia, the loss of language following brain injury, is devastating,
rising terrain can initiate snowfalls by the geographical lifting of a and in severe cases family members may feel that the whole per-
moist airstream. son is lost forever.
2. This book is about human language. Unlike most books
3. What communicative function is performed in this text?
with “language" in the title, it will not chide you about proper us-
4. Scientific writing is characterized by a number of structures.
age, trace the origins of idioms and slang, or divert you with palin-
What do you think they are? dromes, anagrams, eponyms, or those precious names for groups
5. Answer the questions below and find an example for each case in of animals like "exaltation of larks." For I will be writing not
the text above. about the English language or any other language, but about
something much more basic: the instinct to learn, speak, and
a) Which tense would scientists use when describing things that
understand language. For the first time in history, there is some-
are always true?
thing to write about it. Some thirty-five years ago a new science
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was born. Now called "cognitive science," it combines tools from the same in every individual, and is distinct from more general abilities
psychology, computer science, linguistics, philosophy, and neuro- to process information or behave intelligently. For these reasons some
biology to explain the workings of human intelligence. The science cognitive scientists have described language as a psychological faculty,
of language, in particular, has seen spectacular advances in the a mental organ, a neural system, and a computational module. But I
years since. There are many phenomena of language that we prefer the admittedly quaint term “instinct”. It conveys the idea
are coming to understand nearly as well as we understand that people know how to talk in more or less the sense that spiders
how a camera works or what the spleen is for. I hope to commu- know how to spin webs. Web-spinning was not invented by some
nicate these exciting discoveries, some of them as elegant as any- unsung spider genius and does not depend on having had the right
thing in modern science, but I have another agenda as well. education or on having an aptitude for architecture or the construc-
tion trades. Rather, spiders spin spider webs because they have spi-
3. The recent illumination of linguistic abilities has revolu-
der brains, which give them the urge to spin and the competence to
tionary implications for our understanding of language and its role
succeed. Although there are differences between webs and words, I
in human affairs, and for our view of humanity itself. Most edu-
will encourage you to see language in this way, for it helps to make
cated people already have opinions about language. They know
sense of the phenomena we will explore.
that it is man's most important cultural invention, the quintessen-
tial example of his capacity to use symbols, and a biologically un- 5. Thinking of language as an instinct inverts the popular
precedented event irrevocably separating him from other animals. wisdom, especially as it has been passed down in the canon of the
They know that language pervades thought, with different lan- humanities and social sciences. Language is no more a cultural in-
guages causing their speakers to construe reality in different ways. vention than is upright posture. It is not a manifestation of a general
They know that children learn to talk from role models and caregivers. capacity to use symbols: a three-year-old, we shall see, is a gram-
They know that grammatical sophistication used to be nurtured in the matical genius, but is quite incompetent at the visual arts, religious
schools, but sagging educational standards and the debasements of iconography, traffic signs, and the other staples of the semiotics
popular culture have led to a frightening decline in the ability of the curriculum. Though language is a magnificent ability unique to
average person to construct a grammatical sentence. They also know Homo sapiens among living species, it does not call for sequestering
that English is a zany, logic-defying tongue, in which one drives on a the study of humans from the domain of biology, for a magnificent
parkway and parks in a driveway, plays at a recital and recites at a ability unique to a particular living species is far from unique in the
play. They know that English spelling takes such wackiness to even animal kingdom. Some kinds of bats home in on flying insects using
greater heights – George Bernard Shaw complained that fish could Doppler sonar. Some kinds of migratory birds navigate thousands of
just as sensibly be spelled ghoti (gh as in tough, о as in women, ti miles by calibrating the positions of the constellations against the
as in nation) – and I that only institutional inertia prevents the adop- time of day and year. In nature's talent show we are simply a spe-
tion of a more rational, spell-it-like-it-sounds system. cies of primate with our own act, a knack for communicating infor-
mation about who did what to whom by modulating the sounds we
4. In the pages that follow, I will try to convince you that
make when we exhale.
every one of these common opinions is wrong! And they are all
wrong for a single reason. Language is not a cultural artifact that we 6. Once you begin to look at language not as the ineffable
learn the way we learn to tell time or how the federal government essence of human uniqueness but as a biological adaptation to com-
works. Instead, it is a distinct piece of the biological makeup of our municate information, it is no longer as tempting to see language as an
brains. Language is a complex, specialized skill, which develops in the insidious shaper of thought, and, we shall see, it is not. Moreover,
child spontaneously, without conscious effort or formal instruction, seeing language as one of nature's engineering marvels – an organ
is deployed without awareness of its underlying logic, is qualitatively with "that perfection of structure and co-adaptation which justly
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excites our admiration," in Darwin's words – gives us a new re- Text analysis
spect for your ordinary Joe and the much-maligned English lan-
guage (or any language). The complexity of language, from the scien- 1. Where does the author explicitly formulate his thesis state-
tist's point of view, is part of our biological birthright; it is not ment? Does he repeat or paraphrase it anywhere in the text? Why?
something that parents teach their children or something that must What structure of argumentation is it? (See the information in the
be elaborated in school – as Oscar Wilde said, "Education is an admi- appendices)
rable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that noth-
2. Define the communicative function of the text. How is it
ing that is worth knowing can be taught." A preschooler's tacit know-
connected with the topic of the text?
ledge of grammar is more sophisticated than the thickest style man-
3. Define other goals the author may have had in mind while
ual or the most state-of-the-art computer language system, and
the same applies to all healthy human beings, even the notorious writing the text. How does he achieve these goals? What explicit and
syntax-fracturing professional athlete and the, you know, like, inar- implicit means does he use?
ticulate teenage skateboarder. Finally, since language is the product 4. Now refer to the information in the appendices about the
of a well-engineered biological instinct, we shall see that it is not
difference between the communicative function and pragmatic aim
the nutty barrel of monkeys that entertainer-columnists make it
of a text. Formulate them as far as this text is concerned.
out to be. I will try to restore some dignity to the English vernacular,
5. Analyze the author’s use of figurative language comment-
and will even have some nice things to say about its spelling system….
ing on the effect achieved by using them.
1. What is the topic of the text?
6. Does the author use emotional or rational appeal to sup-
2. What is the author’s main claim? How does he prove it?
port his claims? Why?
7. What features prevail: those of argumentative or persua-
Questions on style
sive writing? Give instances from the text to prove your opinion.
1. Compare this text with Text 1. What is similar? What is 8. Sum up your ideas about the ways the author chooses to
different? Identify the main points of difference. achieve the aims he has set out. Does he succeed in it?
2. How would you define the style (substyle) of the text?
3. Make a list of features of this type of text in English. (You
may use other texts of the same kind). Give examples from the text to
illustrate your ideas.
4. In what respect are texts of this substyle in English differ-
ent form those in Russian?
5. Choose a paragraph and translate it to show the difference
in the conventional ways of writing texts of this kind in Russian –
make necessary changes to adapt it and to make it sound natural in
Russian.
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UNIT 3 n m Features
o
i e
THE TShTis YstLylEe isO nFo t OhoFmFoIgCenIeAouLs DanOd Cis UreMpreEseNntTedS b y four major Functs in an ween th •s•y stuuessmee ooofff twcelroimcrhdienss oi,ln ot eglroimcgaiscl, ansleo tdm iecextnpiocrlneasatsruiyro enm se aning special
substyles. The scheme below (illustrated by sample texts) graphically rtie bet • no emotive words retaining their original meaning
shows what variants it consists of: pa nt
o e • special obligatory forms of address, opening and
w m
The Style of Official Documents t e concluding
g e
n gr • encoded character of language: use of abbrevia-
Legal Documents Business Documents ndi g a tions (M.P.) and conventional symbols ($)
Documents of Diplomacy Military Documents ns bi chin • non-flexible compositional design
ditio d rea •• freixsetrdic pteadra cghraopichei nogf syntactical patterns
Invoice to: n n
o a
This is the last will SMITH & JONES LTD g c ng • grammar and punctuation depending on the pattern
an d testament… Quantity Description tatin rtaki (tecnocmeb) ining several pronouncements into one sen-
3 Ma rch, 1918: 1. Cleaning and £750 s de
n
The Peace Treaty painting two rooms u
of Brest-Litovsk
Artic le I. Germany, Aus- From Laws of War: General Orders No. 100 PRACTICE
tria-H ungary, Bulgaria, INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE
and Turkey, for the one GOVERNMENT OF ARMIES OF THE 1. As you can see from the chart above, the communicative function
part, and Russia, for the UNITED STATES IN THE FIELD of any official document is to define the conditions of the rela-
other part, declare that
the s tate of war between Prepared by Francis Lieber, promulgated by tions between two or more parties. Scan the following text and say
President Lincoln, 24 April 1863.
them has ceased. They which parties are in question here.
are r esolved to live hence- SECTION III
forth in peace and amity
with one another. Deserters - Prisoners of war - Hostages - THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED
Booty on the battle-field.
Article II. The contract-
ing parties will refrain Art. 48. Deserters from the American Army, STATES
from any agitation or having entered the service of the enemy,
propaganda against the suffer death if they fall again into the hands of We the People of the United States, in Order to form a
Gove rnment and the United States, whether by capture, or more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquil-
being delivered up to the American Army;
The Style of Official Documents and if a deserter from the enemy, having ity, provide for the common defense, promote the general Wel-
taken service in the Army of the United fare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our
States, is captured by the enemy, and pun-
Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United
ished by them with death
States of America.
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Article. I. КОНСТИТУЦИЯ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ
Section 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be Глава 1
vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of Основы конституционного строя
a Senate and House of Representatives.
Статья 1
Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be com-
1. Российская Федерация – Россия есть демократическое
posed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of
федеративное правовое государство с республиканской формой
the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the
правления.
Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous
2. Наименования Российская Федерация и Россия равно-
Branch of the State Legislature. значны.
No Person shall be a Representative who shall not attained
Статья 2
to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen
1. Человек, его права и свободы являются высшей ценно-
of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an In-
стью. Признание, соблюдение и защита прав и свобод человека и
habitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. […]
гражданина – обязанность государства.
Section 3. The Senate of the United Stats shall be com-
posed of two Senators from each state,[chosen by the Legisla- Статья 3
1. Носителем суверенитета и единственным источником
ture thereof] for six Years and each Senator shall have one
власти в Российской Федерации является ее многонациональный
Vote.
народ.
Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence
2. Народ осуществляет свою власть непосредственно, а
of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be
также через органы государственной власти и органы местного
into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class
самоуправления.
shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, and of the
3. Высшим непосредственным выражением власти народа
second Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one являются референдум и свободные выборы. […]
third may be chosen every second Year; […]
Глава 5
Федеральное Собрание
2. What substyle of official documents is this fragment from the US
Constitution a sample of?
Статья 94
3. Skim the extract and say which of the features listed in the chart
1. Федеральное Собрание – парламент Российской Федера-
can be found in this document.
ции – является представительным и законодательным органом
4. Now scan the excerpts from the Constitution of Russian Federa- Российской Федерации.
tion and do the task to follow.
Статья 95
1. Федеральное Собрание состоит из двух палат – Совета
Федерации и Государственной Думы.
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2. В Совет Федерации входят по два представителя от каж- * Modality is the term used to refer to the ways in which we ex-
дого субъекта Российской Федерации: по одному от представи- press ideas of possibility, obligation, willingness, advisability and so
тельного и исполнительного органов государственной власти. on. Other means of expressing modality include
3. Государственная Дума состоит из 450 депутатов. • adverbs, e.g. probably, ideally, etc.
• adjectives, e.g. essential, reluctant, etc.
Статья 96
1. Государственная Дума избирается сроком на четыре года. • nouns, e.g. likelihood, certainty, etc.
2. Порядок формирования Совета Федерации и порядок phrases, e.g. the chances are, to be on the cards, taken for
выборов депутатов Государственной Думы устанавливаются фе- granted, etc.
деральными законами.
Статья 97
1. Депутатом Государственной Думы может быть избран
гражданин Российской Федерации, достигший 21 года и имею-
щий право участвовать в выборах.
2. Одно и то же лицо не может одновременно являться
членом Совета Федерации и депутатом Государственной Думы.
Депутат Государственной Думы не может быть депутатом иных
представительных органов государственной власти и органов
местного самоуправления.
As you remember, texts of a particular style have different fea-
tures in different languages. Compare the peculiarities of the US
and Russian constitutions. Mind the aspects to follow:
a) compositional design and paragraphing;
b) choice of words;
c) syntax;
d) grammar and punctuation;
e) modality*;
f) graphical devices.
• Sum up your ideas and try to find a more or less plausi-
ble explanation of the nature of these differences.
• Do you regard it possible to draw any conclusions about
cultural differences between the Peoples whom these two consti-
tutes serve?
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