Chapter 10:

PHONETIC EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC

DEVICES

10.1 General Notes

The stylistic approach to an utterance is not confined to its structure and sense.
There is another thing to be considered which, in a certain type of communication,
plays an important role. This is the way a word, a phrase or a sentence sounds. The
sound of most words taken separately will have little or no aesthetic value. It is in
combination with other words that a word may acquire a desired phonetic effect. The
way a separate word sounds may produce a certain euphonic impression, but this is a
matter of individual perception and feeling and therefore subjective.
However the sound of a word, or, perhaps, more exactly the way words sound
in combination, cannot fail to contribute something to the general effect of the
message, particularly when the sound effect has clearly been deliberately worked out.

10.2 Phonetic Stylistic Devices

10.2.1 Onomatopoeia

A combination of speech-sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc.)

by things (machines, tools) by people (sighing, laughter, patter of feet, etc) and by
animals. A combination of speech sounds of this type will inevitably be associated
with whatever produces the natural sound. Therefore the relation between
onomatopoeia and the phenomenon it is supposed to represent is one of metonymy.
There are two types of onomatopoeia: direct and indirect.

Direct Onomatopoeia
is contained in words that imitate natural sounds, as ding-dong, buzz, bang, cuckoo,
mew, ping-pong, roar and the like. These words have different degrees of imitative
quality. Some of them immediately bring to mind whatever it is that produces the
sound. Others require the exercise of a certain amount of imagination to decipher it.
Onomatopoeic words can be used in a transferred meaning, as: ding-dong which
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represents the sound of bells rung continuously, may mean 1. noisy, 2. strenuously
contested (a ding-dong struggle, a ding-dong go at something).

Indirect Onomatopoeia
A combination of sounds the aim of which is „to make the sound of an utterance an
echo of its sense“. It is sometimes called echo-writing.

‘And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain.’

(E.A.Poe)

where the repetition of the sound /s/ actually produces the sound of the rustling
curtain. Indirect onomatopoeia, unlike alliteration, demands some mention of what
makes the sound, as the rustling (of curtains) in the line above. The same /w/ in
producing the sound of wind

‘Whenever the moon and stars are set,

whenever the wind is high,
All night long in the dark and wet
A man goes riding by.‘
(R.S.Stevenson)

Indirect onomatopoeia is sometimes very effectively used by repeating words

which themselves are not onomatopoeic, as in Poe´s poem The Bells where the
words tinkle and bells are distributed in the following manner:

‘Silver bells ... how they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle’

and further
‘To the tintinabulation that so musically wells
from the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.’

The term onomatopoeia comes from the Greek language where it meant ‘name-
making’. It can be seen as the lexical process of creating words which actually sound
like their referent, e.g. bang; crash; cuckoo; sizzle; zoom.

• The name-reference relationship of these words is characteristically conventional

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 and arbitrary. To some extent, onomatopoeic words are as conventional as other
words, in that their phonemic shape conforms to the language system of their
coiners, despite the apparent universality of their reference (e.g. ducks say quack,
quack in English but coin, coin in French).

• Many noises are not easily verbalised, so that it requires considerable interpretative
power to recognise the reference of iiiaaaaach as a yawn in children's comics;
phut or vrach as bomb shells in the First World War poems; or krankle as the
sound of a tram in Joyce's Ulysses.

• In literary language onomatopoeia is often much exploited as an expressive iconic

device, along with other sound associations that can be grouped under the general
heading of sound symbolism.

10.2.2 Alliteration

A phonetic stylistic device which aims at imparting a melodic effect to an

utterance. The essence of this device lies in the repetition of similar sounds, in
particular consonant sounds, in close succession, particularly at the beginning of
successive words:

Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before.
(E. A. Poe)

When the choice of words depends primarily on the principle of alliteration, the
exactitude of expression, and even sense, may suffer. But when used sparingly and
with at least some slight inner connection with the sense of an utterance, alliteration
heightens the general aesthetic effect. In A Dictionary of Stylistics K. Wales provides
us with a detailed analysis of this phenomenon, including comments on alliteration in
use (ibid., p. 18):

Alliteration
(1) Sometimes rather loosely paraphrased as ‘initial rhyme’, alliteration is
• the repetition of the initial consonant in two or more words
• used as a deliberate phonological device, which is associated mostly with literary,
especially poetic, language;
but
• it is also found in popular idioms: as dead as a doornail
• in tongue twisters: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

The foregrounding of the sounds can be used for emphasis, and to aid
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memorability.
In poetry
• alliteration is also used for onomatopoeic effects, to suggest by the association of
sounds what is being described, e.g.:

While melting music steals upon the sky,

and soften’d sounds along the waters die.
(Pope: The Rape of the Lock)

(2) Occurrences of more than two alliterated words seem marked to the modern
reader, even over-emphatic. Yet extensive alliteration was regularly used as a means
of cohesion in so called alliterative verse (England before the Norman Conquest, and
in the 14th century). The alliterated syllables are also the strongly accented or stressed
syllables and so are related to the rhythmic pattern:
• continuous alliteration ( x x x x )
• transverse alliteration ( x y x y ), etc.
The extent to which alliteration in such poetry can also be expressive is a matter
of dispute. It seems hard to deny associations in such lines as:

‘The snaw snitered ful snart, that snayed the wilde’

(Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)

(i.e. ‘The snow came shivering down very bitterly, so that it nipped the wild
animals’).
Alliteration as a device of form has occasionally been exploited in later
literature by poets such as Hopkins and Auden. For Hopkins in particular it takes its
significance from its co-occurrence with other phonological patterns such as
assonance, for instance:

‘I caught this morning morning's minion, king-

dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding’

(The Windhover)

10.2.3 Assonance

(1) A partial or half-rhyme much used in poetic language as an aspect of sound

patterning and cohesion. The same vowel is repeated in words, but with a different
final consonant (e.g. cough drop; fish n’chips).
Assonance is used for a variety of expressive effects. In the poem by Tennyson
beginning

Break, break, break,

On thy cold grey stones, O Sea!
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the double assonance of the diphthongs /ei/ and /8/ enforces the lexical links of
break and grey, cold and stone; and also suggests (by the vowel length) the steady,
inexorable movement of the sea, as well as the narrator's anguish.
(2) Assonance is sometimes more loosely used to refer to all kinds of
phonological recurrence or juxtaposition, e.g. alliteration and rhyme.

10.2.4 Rhyme and Rhythm

Rhyme
The repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combinations of words. Rhyming
words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are
usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines. Identity and particularly the
similarity of sound combinations is relative.

Full rhymes
Identity of the vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in a stressed syllable
(might-right, needless-headless).

Incomplete rhymes
Great variety, e.g. vowel rhymes and consonant rhymes:
• In vowel rhymes – identical vowels in corresponding words, the consonants can be
different (flesh-fresh-press).
• In consonant rhymes – concordance in consonants (worth-forth, tale-tool-Treble-
trouble, flung-long).
• Compound or broken rhymes: the combination of words is made to sound like one
word, i.e. colloquial and sometimes with a humorous touch. One word rhymes with
a combination of words (upon her honour-won her, bottom-forgot em-shot him).
• Compound rhyme may be set against what is called eyerhyme, where the letters not
the sounds are identical (love-prove, flood-brood, have-grave) Acc. to the way the
rhymes are arranged within the stanza we distinguish certain models:
1. couplets – aa;
2. triple rhyme – aaa;
3. cross rhyme – abab;
4. framing or ring rhyme – abba.

Rhythm
Exists in all spheres of human activity and assumes a whole variety of forms. It is a
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mighty weapon in stirring up emotions whatever its nature or origin, whether it is
musical, mechanical, or symmetrical as in architecture. In general rhythm is defined
as “a flow, movement, procedure, etc., characterised by basically regular recurrence
of elements or features, as beat, or accent, in alternation with opposite or different
elements or features” (Webster’s New World Dictionary).
Rhythm is primarily a periodicity, a deliberate arrangement of speech into
regularly occurring units. “The speaker is aware of the occurence in the utterance of
a number of strong stresses or beats corresponding to those parts of the utterance to
which he wishes to attach particular accentual meaning and on which he expends
relatively great articulatory energy; the remaining words or syllables are weakly and
rapidly articulated. ... the syllables uttered with the greatest stress constitute, for the
speaker, hubs with which unstressed syllables will be associated to form rhythmic
groups.” (Gimson, A. C., 1972, p. 260).
Considering the given definitions rhythm can be seen as the main factor that
brings ‘order’ into an utterance by means of its demand for oppositions that alternate:
long, short, stressed, unstressed, high, low, etc. contrasting segments of speech. As A.
C. Gimson concludes the utterance in English “is delivered as a series of close-knit
rhythmic groups, which override in importance on the phonetic level the significance
of the word on the linguistic level” (ibid., p. 260). The phenomenon of rhythm in
language is thus considered as an efficient phonetic expressive means which serves to
foreground particular features of the utterance.

10.2.5 Phonaesthesia

Phonaesthesia is the study of the expressiveness of sounds, particularly those

sounds which are felt to be appropriate to the meaning of their lexemes.
As Allan (1986) notes, in words like flail, flap, flare, flush, flick, fling, flop and
flounce the initial fl- suggests sudden movement; in bash, crash, smash and trash, -
ash suggests violent impact.
A poet like Hopkins, interested in both etymology and expressiveness makes
great play with phonaesthetic effects:

‘And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell’

(God’s Grandeur)

10.2.6 Sound Symbolism

The fact that certain sounds or sound clusters are felt to be in some way
appropriate to the meanings they express is sometimes named also sound symbolism.
However, the term is regarded somewhat inaccurate, since the connection between
sound (or phoneme) and meaning is more motivated, less arbitrary, than with
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symbolism proper. For example, the words like bump, crump, thump might indicate a
dull sound on impact, they indicate certain connection between the sound and
meaning. Considering the words with gl- as in glitter, glimmer, glint, glisten, gleam,
glow, these do not actually mime the light and the term sound symbolism would be
thus more appropriate here (Wales, ibid., p. 426).

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Chapter 11:
STYLISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH
VOCABULARY

11.1 Layers of the Vocabulary

In his book on Stylistics, I. R. Galperin (1971) suggests, that in order to get a

more or less clear idea of the word-stock of any language, it must be presented as a
system. The elements of this system have to be seen as interconnected, interrelated
and yet independent. In accordance with the division of language into literary and
colloquial, I. R. Galperin (ibid.) distinguishes three main layers in the vocabulary: the
literary, neutral and colloquial layer.
The fact that literary and colloquial layers contain a number of subgroups
within the layer is their common property called the aspect of the layer. The aspect of
the literary layer is its markedly bookish character. It is this that makes the layer more
or less stable. The aspect of the colloquial layer of words is its lively spoken
character, which makes it unstable and fleeting.
The aspect of the neutral layer is its universal character. That means it is
unrestricted in its use. It can be employed in any style of language and in all spheres
of human activity. It is this that makes the layer the most stable of all.
The literary layer of words consists of groups accepted as legitimate members
of the English vocabulary. They have no local or dialectal character.
The colloquial layer of words as qualified in most English and American
dictionaries is not frequently limited to a definite language community or confined to
a special locality where it circulates.
I. R. Galperin (ibid.) lists the following groups of words as belonging to the
literary vocabulary: common literary words, terms and learned words, poetic words,
archaic words, barbarisms and foreign words and literary coinages including nonce-
words. The colloquial vocabulary consists of the common colloquial words, slang
words, argot, jargon and professional words, dialectal words, vulgar words and
colloquial coinages.
The common literary, neutral and common colloquial words are grouped under
the term standard English vocabulary. Other groups in the literary layer are regarded
as special literary vocabulary and those in the colloquial layer are regarded as special
colloquial (non-literary) vocabulary.

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11.1.1 Neutral, Common Literary and Common Colloquial Vocabulary

Neutral words are used in both literary and colloquial language. Neutral words
are the main source of synonymy and polysemy. It is the neutral stock of words that is
so prolific in the production of new meanings. The faculty of neutral words for
assuming new meanings and generating new stylistic variants is often quite amazing.
This generative power of neutral words in the English language is multiplied by the
very nature of the language itself. It has been estimated that most neutral English
words are of a monosyllabic character. In the process of development from Old
English to Modern English most of the parts of speech lost their distinguishing
suffixes. This phenomenon led to the development of conversion as the most
productive means of word-building. Unlike all other groups, the neutral group of
words cannot be considered as having a special stylistic colouring, whereas both
literary and colloquial words have a definite stylistic colouring.
Common literary words are mainly used in writing and in polished speech. The
users of language clearly perceive differences between stylistic colouring of literary
and colloquial words. In fact, they often view (and perceive) literary lexis as
stylistically opposite to colloquial units. I. R. Galperin discusses stylistic and
ideographic synonyms pointing out that “there is a definite, though slight semantic
difference between the words” (ibid., p. 65). In addition to these, less frequent types
of synonyms, such as absolute, or cognitive synonyms (with identical meaning) can
be considered (e.g. violin – fiddle).
Some scholars have pointed out that there is no neat way of characterising
synonyms. In the field of lexical semantics usually two aspects of synonyms are
studied; first, their necessary resemblances and permisible differences, and, second,
consider their use in context by means of diagnostic frames (Cruse, 1989, pp. 265-
294). For example, truthful and honest have a significant degree of semantic overlap
(they show a necessary resemblance) and thus can be labelled as synonyms. Using
items in context can reveal much about their character. We can, for instance, examine
candidates for absolute synonyms hide and conceal: Where have you hidden my
slippers? and Where have you concealed my slippers? Apparently, the second
sentence is not acceptable. In this case, the normality difference is evidence against
absolute synonymy. (Cruse, ibid., p. 269).
The notion of (lexical) synonymy in stylistics is mainly significant because of a
variety of stylistic markers, types and degrees of specific colouring, expressed by
synonymous items. J. Mistrík (ibid., pp. 113-121) points out that there can be as many
types of stylistic synonyms as the many stylistically marked classes recognised within
vocabulary:

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 stylistic marker pairs of synonyms
abigail – maiden, anele – bless, betimes – before long,
bowman – archer, ere – before, erelong – before long,
historical
gentle – aristocratic, handmaiden – maidservant, host –
army, magnify – applaud, reed – arrow, etc.
commodious – comfortable, de facto – in fact, illegal –
bookish, or literary,
outlawed, infant – child, misnomer – inaccurate name,
formal
noblesse – aristocracy, toxophilite – archer, etc.
auntie – aunt, daddy – father, leech - parasite (about a
expressive, or emotional person), foul-mouthed – obscene, get out – go away,
mummy – mother, etc.
adoration – love, array – attire, blossom – flower,
poetic
flirtatious – provocative, nymph – maiden, etc.
bastard – illegitimate child, brown stuff – opium, cat – a
substandard man, chick – a woman, gold – money, kid – child,
(slang, jargon, argot) marinade – mixture, piece – gun, pigeon – informer,
sloppy – untidy, etc.

Table 10. Stylistic Markers of Synonyms

Synonymous pairs can be classified also according to the level of complexity of

expression (e.g. full-length versus shortened expression, single-word versus multi-
word expression, etc.), for instance, delicatessen – deli, United States of America –
USA, ill at ease – embarrassed, ill-equipped – unablee, kick the bucket – die, mercy
killing – euthanasia, etc.
Common colloquial vocabulary overlaps into the Standard English vocabulary
and is therefore to be considered a part of it. Just as common literary words lack
homogeneity so do common colloquial words and set expressions. Some of the lexical
items belonging to this stratum are close to the non-standard colloquial groups such as
jargonism, professionalism, etc. These are on the borderline between the common
colloquial vocabulary and the special colloquial or non-standard vocabulary. The
spoken language abounds in set expressions which are colloquial in character, for
example, all sorts of things, just a bit, How is life treating you?, so-so. What time do
you make it?, to hob-nob (to be very friendly with, to drink together), so much the
better, to be sick and tired of, to be up to something.

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11.1.2 Special Literary Vocabulary

Technical Terminology
There are several characteristic features of technical terms which can be listed as
follows:
• highly conventional character;
• usually associated with a definite branch of science and therefore with a series of
other terms belonging to that particular branch of science;
• terms do not function in isolation, they always come in clusters, either in a text on
the given subject, or in special dictionaries, which provide careful selections of
terms;
• terms tend to be monosemantic (interdisciplinary homonymy and polysemy exists);
• terms are predominantly used in special works dealing with the notions of some
branch of science, therefore it may be said that they belong to the scientific style
(but their use is not confined to this style);
• an ideal term is usually easily coined and accepted (some of them have
international character in English, frequently they are loan-words);
• new coinages easily replace out-dated ones;
• sometimes terms are used in a satirical function, for example,
“Green eyes, fair skin, pretty figure, famous frontal development,”
(W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair)

Poetic and highly literary words

• used primarily in poetry;
• they belong to a definite style of language (poetic language);
• poetic language has special means of communication, namely rhythmical
arrangement, some syntactic peculiarities and a certain number of special words
known as poetic vocabulary;
• poetic vocabulary has a tendency to detach itself from the common literary word-
stock;
• poetic words claim to be of higher rank (older works name them ‘the aristocrats of
a language’);
• poetic words and expressions were called upon to sustain the special elevated
atmosphere of poetry;
• they do not present a homogeneous group;
• poetic tradition keeps alive archaisms and archaic forms of words
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• the use of poetic words does not as a rule create the atmosphere of poetry in the
true sense
• poetic words may also have a satirical function.

Archaic words
I. R.Galperin (ibid.) mentiones three stages in the ageing process of words:
• The beginning of the ageing process is when the word becomes rarely used. These
words are in the stage of gradually passing out of general use, for example, the
pronouns thou, thee, thy, thine. Some dictionaries label them as obsolescent.
• The second group of archaic words are those that have already gone completely
out of use but are still recognised by the English speaking community. These are
called obsolete, for example, methinks (it seems to me), nay (no).
• The third group consists of words which are no longer recognisable in modern
English. They may be called archaic proper, for instance, troth (faith), a losel (a
lazy fellow).

Barbarisms and foreign words

There is a considerable layer of words in English which are called barbarisms. These
are the words of foreign origin which have not entirely been assimilated into the
English language. They bear the appearance of a borrowing and are felt as something
alien to the native tongue. They are considered to be on the outskirts of literary
language. Most of them have corresponding English synonyms, for instance, chic
(stylish), bon mot (a clever witty saying), en passant (in passing), etc.
It may become quite relevant to distinguish between barbarisms and foreign
words in stylistic analysis. Such distinction can point out several characteristics of the
language user and his or her intentions within the utterance. To quote I. R. Galperin
(ibid.), “... barbarisms are words which have already become facts of the English
language. They are part and parcel of the English word stock, though they remain in
the outskirts of the literary vocabulary. Foreign words, though used for certain
stylistic purposes, do not belong to the English vocabulary.”

Literary coinages (including nonce-words)

The term literary coinages is sometimes viewed as overlapping with the term
neologisms and nonce-words. The words labelled as neologisms are in general new
words or new meanings for established words. This definition is quite vague, because
it is not always easy to define ‚what is new‘ in language. As I. R. Galperin (ibid.)
points out, the coining of new words is firstly connected with a need to designate a
new-born concept, these would be terminological neologisms or terminological
coinages. Secondly, the new words are coined because their creators seek expressive
utterances, these words can be named stylistic coinages or stylistic neologisms. Unlike
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neologisms which are mainly coined according to the productive models for word-
formation in the given language, the literary-bookish neologisms (or literary coinages)
may sometimes be built with the help of affixes and by other means which have gone
out of use. In this case the stylistic effect is more apparent and the stylistic function of
the device is stronger and more acute. Examples of new coinages of a literary-bookish
type can be found, for instance, in the language of newspaper (e.g. Blimp, Blimpish).
Literary coinages have to compete with the rival synonyms already existing in
the vocabulary of the given language. Some of them are felt to be unique because of a
new shade of meaning they bring into the language. If a neologism is approved of by
native speakers, it ceases to be a neologism and becomes a proper member of the
general vocabulary. Many new literary coinages disappear entirely from the language,
other leave traces, especially, when they are fixed in the literature of their time. This
is not the case with colloquial coinages. These are spontaneous, and, due to their
linguistic nature, cannot be fixed. Thus, some of them are felt to be new, fresh and
fashionable for a certain period of time, but sooner or later they become worn out and
usually fade away from the language.

11.1.3 Special Colloquial Vocabulary

Jargon
Jargon, or professional slang, is a recognised term for the group of words that exists in
almost every language. Their aim is to provide (more or less) informal equivalents to
technical terms. A sense of collegiality, close scholarly understanding within a group
of experts, exclusiveness of a particular profession, and other sociolinguistic
phenomena often result in outer illegibility, that is, jargonisms are usually fully
understood only by experts, speakers otside the group find them usually illegible.
Jargonisms are professional words, social in their character, they are not regional.
Usually, any group of professionals has its own jargon. In the English language the
jargon of the army is known as military slang, jargon of jazz people, the jargon of the
sportsmen, etc. As stated above the various jargons remain a foreign language to
outsiders, for example, crew (a group of sprayers), jam (meeting of sprayers), tagg
(simple signature), piece (graffiti picture, a more complex creation) in the jargon of
graffiti makers, or a lexer for a student preparing for a law course, etc. The lexis of
professional slang, or jargon, can be also classified into groups of professional words
or professionalisms.

Professionalisms
are words used in a definite trade or profession. They are used by people connected by
the same interests both at work and at home. They are correlated to terms, for
instance, block-buster (a bomb designed to destroy blocks of big buildings), piper (a
specialist who decorates pastry with the use of a cream-pipe), outer (a knockout
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blow), etc.

Dialectal words
are those words which in the process of the integration of the English national
language remained beyond its literary boundaries, and their use is generally confined
to a definite locality.

Vulgar words
are ones which are used only in colloquial, or, especially, in unrefined or low speech.
According to some authors (R. Webster), a vulgarism does not necessarily connote
coarseness. I. R. Galperin (ibid.) defines vulgarisms as expletives or swearwords and
obscene words and expressions. They are not considered as words in common use nor
can they be classified as colloquialisms.

Colloquial coinages
or ‚nonce-words‘ are spontaneous and elusive. They are not built by means of affixes
but are based on certain semantic changes in a word. When a nonce-word becomes
fixed in a dictionary it is classed as a neologism for a very short period of time.

11.2 The Classification of Slang

In this part, some basic notions are discussed and main definitions are provided.
The text is based on the classification of American slang as presented by R. L.
Chapman in his preface to the New Dictionary of American Slang (1986). The
language material analysed by R. L. Chapman is American English, however, his
conclusions and definitions are generally applicable in the study of slang.

11.2.1 What is Slang?

The definition of slang in linguistics is especially notorious. The problem is one

of complexity, such that a definition satisfactory to one person or authority would
seem inadequate to another because the prime focus is different. Various definitions
tend to stress one aspect or another of slang. An interesting approach is introduced by
Robert L. Chapman, (ibid.), who stresses the individual psychology of slang speakers.

11.2.2 Sociolinguistic Aspect of Slang

The external and quantitative aspects of slang, its sociolinguistics, have been
very satisfactorily treated in many linguistic works on slang (S. B. Flexner, 1975; E.
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Partridge, 1954).
Recorded slang emerged from the special languages of subcultures. The group
which has been studied the longest and most persistently has been the criminal
underworld itself (i.e. argot of criminals), including the prison population, whose
cant or argot still provides a respectable number of unrespectable terms. Other
undercultures contributing heavily are those of hoboes, gypsies, soldiers and sailors,
of the police, or narcotic users, of gamblers, cowboys, of all sorts of students, of
show-business workers, of jazz musicians and devotees, of athletes and their fans, of
railroad and other transportation workers, and of immigrant or ethnic populations
cutting across these other subcultures.
In the 1980s some of these traditional grounds for slang lost their productivity,
and other subcultures emerged to replace them. For example the general adoption of
terms from hoboes, railroad workers, gypsies and from cowboys has very nearly
ceased, although the contributions of all these persist in the substrata of current slang.
Criminals and police (cops and robbers) still make their often identical contributions,
and gamblers continue to give us zesty coinages. Teenagers and students can still be
counted on for innovation and effrontery. Show business workers are still a fertile
source of slang.
The adoption of military, naval, and merchant marine slang has slowed, not
surprisingly. World Wars I and II probably gave us more general slang than any other
events in history. Railroad slang has been replaced, though on a lesser scale, by the
usage of airline workers and truck drivers. The jazz world, formerly richly involved
with drug use, prostitution, booze, and gutter life, is no longer so contributory, nor has
rock and roll quite made up the loss, but taken as a whole, popular music, for instance,
rock, blues, funk, rap, reggae, and others, are making inroads.
Terms from ‘the drug scene’ have multiplied astronomically. Sports also make
a much larger contribution, with football and even basketball not challenging but
beginning to match baseball as prime producers.
Among the immigrant-ethnic contributions, the influx from Yiddish continues
to be strong but the old Dutch and German sources have dried up. Italian carries on in
modest proportion. The Hispanic source has been surprisingly uninfluential, although
a heavier contribution is predictable. All these are far behind the increased borrowing
from black America (and this from the urban ghetto rather than the old Southern
heartland).
Some sources of slang are entirely or relatively new. Examples of these are the
computer milieu and the hospital-medical-nursing complex.
In the matter of sex, our period has witnessed a great increase in the number of
terms taken over from homosexuals. Their contribution cannot be restricted to sex
terms alone, since the gay population merges with so many others that are educated,
witty, observant, acerbic, and modish.
The ‘growth sector’ is hardest to characterise now. To name it, R. L. Chapman
uses a clumsy compound like ‘the Washington-Los Angeles-Houston-Wall Street-
Madison Avenue nexus’. American culture occupies these centres, and they occupy
the culture through pervasive and unifying communications media. They give to
America the slang of brass, of the execs, of middle management, of dwellers in
bureaucracies, of yuppies, and of the talk shows and the ‘people’ sort of columns and
106
magazines. Bright, expressive, sophisticated people, moving and prospering with
American lively popular culture. They are the trend-setters and source of the slang
that seems to come from everywhere and not to be susceptible to labelling.
This new emphasis in the fortunes of American slang points to one of its
important distinctions, that between so called primary and secondary slang.

11.2.3 Primary and Secondary Slang

Primary slang is the pristine speech of subculture members, so very natural to

its speakers that it seems they might be mute without it. Of course they would not be,
since we know that slang is by definition always an alternative idiom, to be chosen
rather than required. Much of teenage talk, and the speech of urban street gangs,
would be examples of primary slang.
Secondary slang is chosen not so much to fix one in a group as to express one’s
attitudes and resourcefulness by pretending, momentarily, in a little shtick (show
business) of personal guerrilla theatre, to be a member of a street gang, or a criminal,
or a gambler, or a drug user, or a professional football player, and so on -and hence to
express one’s contempt, superiority or cleverness by borrowing someone else’s verbal
dress. Secondary slang is a matter of stylistic choice rather than true identification.

11.2.4 Individual psychology of slang

Obviously an individual resorts to slang as a means of attesting membership in

the group and of cutting him- or herself off from the mainstream culture. He or she
merges both verbally and psychologically into the subculture that boasts itself on
being different from, in conflict with and superior to the mainstream culture, and in
particular to its assured rectitude and its pomp. Slang is thus an act of bracketing a
smaller social group that can be comfortably joined and understood and be a shelter
for the self.

11.2.5 Slang and Language Levels

Slang is the body of words and expressions frequently used by or intelligible to

a rather large portion of the general public, but not accepted as good, formal usage by
the majority. No word can be called slang simply because of its etymological history;
its source, its spelling, and its meaning in a larger sense do not make it slang. Slang is
best defined by a dictionary that points out who uses slang and what ‘flavour’ it
conveys. Jonathan Green (1998) defines slang as “the counter-language, ... the
language of the rebels, the outlaw, the despised, the marginal, the young. Above all it
is the language of the city – urgent, pointed, witty, cruel, capable both of excluding
and including, of mocking and confirming.” (Green, ibid., v). J. Green also points out
that slang can be in its worst no more than vulgar for vulgarity‘s sake, stupid, the stuff
of insult and obscenity. At its best it can be delightfully and even subtly humorous, a
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vibrant subset of the English language (ibid., v).
The line between slang and colloqualism (the casual language of everyday
speech) cannot be strictly and precisely drawn. As the authors of slang dictionaries
claim, there is often a number of words which may be classified as colloquial.
Moreover some of them have joined standard English (e.g. applesause, breadline
convertible, dusters, hitchhikers, pizzeria, voodoo, etc.). Some slang dictionaries also
indicate at what stage the word progressed from slang to standard use (e.g. Green,
ibid.).
A detailed study of vocabulary levels in the English language is presented by
R. L. Chapman (ibid.) who considers standard usage, colloquialisms, dialects, cant,
argot, jargon and slang.

Standard usage
comprises words and expressions used, understood, and accepted by a majority of
citizens under any circumstances or degree of formality. Such words are well defined
and their most accepted spellings and pronunciations are given in standard
dictionaries. In standard speech one might say: Sir, you speak English well.

Colloquialisms
are familiar words and idioms used in informal speech and writing, but not considered
explicit or formal enough for polite conversation or business correspondence. Unlike
slang, however, colloquialisms are used and understood by nearly everyone. The use
of slang conveys the suggestion that the speaker and the listener enjoy a special
‘fraternity’, but the use of colloquialisms emphasises only the informality and
familiarity of a general social situation. Almost all idiomatic expressions could be
labelled colloquial. Colloquially, one might say: Friend, you talk plain and hit the nail
right on the head.

Dialects
are the words, idioms, pronunciations, and speech habits peculiar to specific
geographical locations. A dialectism is a regionalism or localism. In popular use
‘dialect’ has come to mean the words, foreign accents, or speech patterns associated
with any ethnic group. In Southern (American) dialect one might say: Cousin, y’all
talk mighty fine. In ethnic-immigrant ‘dialects’‘ one might say: Paisano, you speak
good English, or Landsman, your English is plenty all right already.

Cant, jargon, and argot

are the words and expressions peculiar to special segments of the population.
Cant is the conversational, familiar idiom used and generally understood only
by members of a specific occupation, trade, profession, sect, class, age group, interest
group, or other sub-group of a main culture.
Jargon is the technical vocabulary of such a sub-group, jargon is ‘shop talk’.
Argot is both the cant and the jargon of any professional criminal group. In
such usages one might say, respectively: CQ-CQ-CQ...the tone of your transmission
is good; You are free of anxieties related to interpersonal communication; or
Duchess, let’s have a bowl of chalk.
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Slang
is generally defined above. In slang one might say: Buster, your line is the cat’s
pyjamas, or Doll, you come on with the straight jazz, real cool like.
Each of these levels of language is more common in speech than in writing, and
slang as a whole is no exception.
Slang tries for a quick, easy, personal mode of speech. It comes mostly from
cant, jargon, and argot words and expressions whose popularity has increased until a
large number of the general public uses or understands them. Much of this slang
retains a basic characteristic of its origin: it is fully intelligible only to initiates.
Eventually, some slang passes into standard speech; other slang flourishes for a
time with varying popularity and then is forgotten; finally, some slang is never fully
accepted nor completely forgotten. O.K., jazz (music), and A-bomb were recently
considered slang, but they are now standard usages. Bluebelly, Lucifer, and the bee’s
knees have faded from popular use. Bones (dice) and beat it seem destined to remain
slang forever: Chaucer used the first and Shakespeare used the second.
It is impossible for every living vocabulary to be static. Most new slang words
and expressions evolve quite naturally: they result from specific situations. New
objects, ideas, or happenings, for example, require new words to describe them. Each
generation also seems to need some new words to describe the same old things.
Railroaders (who were probably the first American sub-group to have a nation-
wide cant and argot) thought jerk water town was ideally descriptive of a community
that others called a one horse-town. When the automobile replaced the horse the
changes were natural and necessary: one-horse town > don’t spare the horses > a
wide place in the road > step on it.
The automobile also produced such new words and new meanings (some of
them highly specialised) as gas buggy, jalopy, bent eight, Chevvie, convertible*, lube.
Like most major innovations, the automobile affected American social history
and introduced or encouraged road hogs, joint hopping, chicken (the game), car coats,
suburbia*.
The automobile is only one obvious example. Language always responds to
new concepts and developments with new words. R. L. Chapman (ibid.) outlines
several fields of slang production. Some of the listed words have lost their slang
character and have become part of standard language. They are indicated (some of
them also in the previous text) by an asterisk:

ƒ Wars: redcoats, minutemen, bluebelly, over there, doughboy, gold brick, jeep*.
ƒ Mass immigrations: Bohunk, greenhorn*, shillelagh, voodoo*, pizzeria*.
ƒ Science and technology: ‘gin*, side-wheeler, wash-and-wear, fringe area, fallout.
ƒ Turbulent eras: Redskin, maverick, Chicago pineapple, free love*, fink, breadline*.
ƒ Evolution in the styles of eating: applesauce*, clambake, luncheonette*, hot dog*,
coffee and.
ƒ Dress: Mother Hubbard, bustle, shimmy, sailor, Long Johns*, zoot suit, Ivy
League*.
ƒ Housing: lean-to, bundling board, chuckhouse, WC, railroad flat, split-level,
sectional.
ƒ Music: cakewalk, bandwagon, fish music, long hair, rock.
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ƒ Personality: Yankee, alligator, flapper, sheik, hepcat, B.M.O.C., beetle, beat.
ƒ New modes of transportation: stage, pinto, jitney, kayducer, hot shot, jet jockey.
ƒ New modes of entertainment: barnstormer, two-a-day, clown alley, talkies, d.j.,
Spectacular.
ƒ Changing attitudes towards sex: painted woman, fast, broad, wolf, jailbait, sixty-
nine.
ƒ Human motivations: boy crazy, gold-digger*, money-mad, Momism, Oedipus
complex*, do-gooder*, sick.
ƒ Personal relationships: bunkey, kids*, old lady, steady*, ex, gruesome twosome,
John.
ƒ Work and workers: clod buster, scab*, pencil pusher*, white collar*, graveyard
shift*, company man.
ƒ Hair styles: bun, rat, peroxide blonde, Italian cut, pony tail, D.A.

Those social groups that first confront a new object, cope with a new situation,
or work with a new concept devise and use new words long before the population at
large does. The larger, more imaginative, and useful a group’s vocabulary, the larger
its contribution to slang.
To generate slang, a group must either be very large and in constant contact
with the dominant culture or be small, closely knit, and removed enough from the
dominant culture to evolve an extensive, highly personal, and vivid vocabulary.
Teenagers are an example of a large subgroup contributing many words. Criminals,
carnival workers, and hoboes are examples of the smaller groups. The smaller groups,
because their vocabulary is vivid and personal, contribute to the general slang out of
proportion to their size.

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Chapter 12:
FUNCTIONAL STYLES OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE

12.1 Stylistic significance

In stylistics, the study of the function of linguistic elements in texts is central,

not only of their grammatical function, but more importantly to their function in
relation to the meaning of the text, their contribution to the overall theme and
structure. This is known as stylistic significance.
Non-literary stylistics (see Crystal & Davy 1969) and register studies have
related situational types of language to predominant functions, for example,
advertising with persuasion, TV commentary with information, etc. Such typologies
according to predominant functions are also an aspect of text linguistics. So in text
linguistics, it is distinguished between descriptive, narrative and argumentative texts.

12.2 Attempts to Categorise Functions of Language

In his Closing statement: Linguistics and Poetics (In: The Stylistic Reader,
1996, pp. 10-35) Roman Jakobson presents summary remarks about poetics in its
relation to linguistics. To outline the field of study of poetics, its aims and methods,
he focusses on the study of the poetic function of language, while emphasizing that
language must be investigated in all variety of its functions. An outline of the
language functions requires a detailed analysis of all factors which help to constitute
any speech event, any act of verbal communication. A simple model of a
communication channel consists of three phenomena: the addresser sends a message
to the addressee. To be operative the message requires a context referred to,
graspable by the addressee (either verbal or capable of being verbalized), a code fully
(or at least partially) common to the addresser and addressee, and, finally, a contact, a
physical channel and psychological connection between the two, enabling both of
them to enter and stay in communication. R. Jakobson (ibid., p. 12) offers a scheme
presenting all these factors:

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 CONTEXT
ADDRESSER MESSAGE ADDRESSEE
CONTACT
CODE

Table 11. Main Factors in Verbal Communication

These six factors determine the functions of language, each of them a different
one. R. Jakobson (ibid.) points out that even though we distinguish six basic aspects
of language, we could hardly find verbal messages that would fulfil only one function.
It should be emphasised that the diversity lies in a specific hierarchical order of the
functions, not in a monopoly of one of them. The verbal structure of a message
depends primarily on the predominant function. A set toward the referent, an
orientation toward the context, so called referential function, is the leading task of
numerous messages, but the accessory participation of the other functions must be
taken into account.
The second, so called emotive or expressive function is focused on the
addresser. It aims a direct expression of the speaker’s attitude toward what he is
speaking about. It tends to produce an impression of certain emotion, therefore it is
termed ‚emotive‘. This function is linguistically represented by the use of
interjections. As underlined by Jakobson (ibid.), the emotive function flavours to
some extent all our utterances, on their phonetic, grammatical, and lexical level. As
for the amount of information carried by language, the notion of information cannot
be restricted to the cognitive aspect of language. A speaker, using expressive features
to indicate his angry or ironic attitude, conveys ostensible information (Jakobson,
ibid., p. 13).
The vocative and imperative sentences are the purest grammatical expression of
the conative function, that is an orientation toward the addressee. The conative
function means to appeal to, or to influence the addressee. From this point of view, it
is important to realise that it is only declarative sentences (not imperatives) which are
liable to a truth test. An imperative sentence, for instance, Drink!, cannot be followed
by a question ‘is it true or not?’. However, it is perfectly all right to ask this question
after a declarative sentence, for example: I’ve had two glasses already.
The traditional model of language, as introduced by K. Bűhler in his book
Sprachteorie. Die Darstellungsfunktion des Sprache (Jena, 1934), was confined to
these three functions – emotive, conative and referential. Almost thirty years before
R. Jakobson, K. Bűhler insisted that these three functions are not regarded as mutually
exclusive and pointed out that any speech event usually fulfills more than one
function. K. Bűhler’s practical classification was elaborated by the Prague School
linguists* who added a fourth category, known as the aesthetic function of language.

* The Prague School, properly the Prague Linguistic Circle, was one (like Russian formalism) of
the most important linguistic and literary movements of the early twentieth century, and its work
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R. Jakobson observed three further constitutive factors of verbal communication and
three corresponding functions of language.
Considering the messages whose primary function is to establish, to prolong,
or to discontinue communication, to check if the channel works (‘Hello, do you hear
me?’), to attract the attention of the interlocutor or to confirm his continued attention
(‘Are you listening?’), we recognise the set for contact reflected in the phatic
function of language. The phatic function of language “may be displayed by a profuse
exchange of ritualised formulas, by entire dialogues with the mere purport of
prolonging communication” (Jakobson, ibid., p. 15).
Whenever the addresser and/or the addressee need to check up their language,
that is whether they use the same code, their speech is focused on the code, their
verbal communication performs a metalingual function. Metalingual function is
realised by various inquiries, for instance, ‘I can’t follow you - what do you mean?’ or
‘Do you know what I mean?’, etc.
The sixth factor involved in verbal communication is the message itself. “The
set toward the message as such, focus on the message for its own sake, is the poetic
function of language.” (Jakobson, ibid., p. 15). The poetic function (corresponds to
the Prague School’s aesthetic function) needs to be studied in connection with the
general problems of language and vice versa, the investigation of language has to
account for its poetic function. As R. Jakobson points out the poetic function cannot
be reduced to the sphere of poetry, since it “is not the sole function of verbal art only
its dominant, determining function, whereas in all other verbal activities it acts as a
subsidiary, accessory constituent.” (Jakobson, ibid., p. 15).
This function of language deepens the fundamental dichotomy of signs and
objects and thus cannot be confined to the field of poetry. Examples of verbal
communication where the speakers use particular sequences or collocations just
because they ‘come easily through their mouth’ or simply ‚sound good‘ illustrate the
non-literary use of poetic function, for instance: Beastie Boys, highly likely, Mad Max,
sloppy speech, unlikely likely, etc. Many catch-phrases, proverbs, slogans and slang
expressions function in this way.
The scheme of main factors involved in verbal communication can be now
complemented by the six corresponding functions of language:

still continues to this day (e.g. functional sentence perspective, theme and rheme). Only gradually
did the ideas of Mathesius, Mukařovský, Trubetskoy and others become known in the west: partly
through Roman Jakobson who (like Trubetskoy) had moved from Moscow and helped found the
Circle in 1926, later emigrating to the United States at the outbreak of the Second World War, and
also through the translations of their work into English in the early 1960s (e.g. Vachek, 1964).
Greatly influenced by the structuralism of Saussure, the Prague linguists made significant
contributions to phonetics, phonology and semantics. They developed Saussure´s ideas of language
and parole along essentially functionalist lines, e.g. the functions that the language has to perform
shape its system. Jakobson´s model of the speech event is based on their ideas, and they also
developed the influential notions of foregrounding and (de-) automatisation.
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 CONTEXT
REFERENTIAL

MESSAGE
ADDRESSER POETIC ADDRESSEE
EMOTIVE CONATIVE
CONTACT
PHATIC

CODE
METALINGUAL

Table 12. Functions of Language. (Based on Jakobson, ibid., p. 16.)

12.3 Classification of Language Styles

Each style of the literary language makes use of a group of language means, the
interrelation of which is peculiar to the given style. It is the co-ordination of the
language means and stylistic devices which shapes the distinctive features of each
style, and not the language means or stylistic devices themselves.
A style of language can be defined as a system of co-ordinated, interrelated and
interconditioned language means intended to fulfil a specific function (see above) of
communication and aiming at a definite effect.
The development of each style is predetermined by the changes in the norms of
Standard English.
There are a few traditional classifications of styles known in Czech and Slovak
linguistics (see B. Havránek, E. Pauliny, F. Miko). The most representative and
complex approach is introduced by J. Mistrík. In his earlier works, Mistrík outlined
two main groups of styles, individual and interindividual. These groups were further
specified as shown in the following table:

Objective Objective – Subjective Subjective

scientific administrative aesthetic publicistic rhetoric essayistic colloquial

Table 13. Classification of Styles. (Based on Mistrík, 1985, p. 423.)

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 In the study of English stylistics we will discuss general characteristics of the
belles-letters style (corresponds to umelecký in Mistrík’s classification), publicistic
style, newspaper style (both correspond to publicistický), scientific prose style
(corresponds to odborný) and the style of official documents (corresponds to
administratívny). Different terminology should be noticed when comparing English
and Slovak. Sometimes it might be even more convenient to discuss the language of a
particular text rather than trying to include the text under some of the umbrella terms.
For example, the Slovak term publicistický štýl covers different areas than the English
term publicistic style. So we prefer to discuss the language of newspapers separately
in English. The term essayistic style is also rare in English. Language of essays is
discussed within publicistic style as one of its three varieties. Similarly, the notion of
colloquial style is often referred to as language of conversation, etc.

12.3.1 The Belles-Lettres Style

The term belles-lettres style may have become obsolete nowadays, but it is
quite useful when we need to indicate the difference between the artistic texts and
other literary texts (i.e. written in literary or standard language).
The belles-lettres style, or the language of literature, refers to the language of
poetry, fiction and drama. Each of these substyles has certain common features,
typical of the general belles-lettres style. They make up the fundamental characteristic
of the style, by which it is made recognisable and can be singled out. At the same
time, each of the substyles also has individual features and characteristics.
The main feature, which all substyles of the belles-lettres style have in
common, is the aesthetico-cognitive function. It is a double function that aims at the
cognitive process, which secures the gradual unfolding of the idea to the reader and at
the same time evokes “feelings of pleasure”.
The most characteristic linguistic features of the belles-lettres style can be
summarised as follows:

• Sophisticated figurativeness, genuine imagery, meanings and messages encoded

“between the lines” and a specific discourse situation between the author and the
reader constructed by means of particular linguistic devices, their unique selection
and arrangement.
• The use of lexical items in a contextual and very often in more than one dictionary
meaning, or at least greatly influenced by the lexical environment.
• A vocabulary which will reflect to a greater or lesser degree the author’s personal
evaluation of things or phenomena.
• A peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax, a kind of lexical and
syntactical idiosyncrasy.
• The introduction of the typical features of colloquial language to a full degree
(in plays) or a lesser one (in emotive prose) or a slight degree, if any (in poems).

The belles-lettres style is individual in essence. Individuality is one of its most

distinctive properties. It is reflected in the selection of the language means (including
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stylistic devices) and is extremely apparent in poetic style, hardly noticeable in the
style of scientific prose and is entirely lacking in newspapers and in official style. The
relationship between the general and the particular assumes different forms in
different styles and in their variants. This relationship is differently materialised even
within one and the same style. This is due to the strong imprint of personality on any
work of a poetic style. There may be a greater or lesser volume of imagery (but not an
absence of imagery), a greater or lesser number of words with contextual meaning
(but not all words without contextual meaning), a greater or lesser number of
colloquial elements (but not a complete absence of colloquial elements).

12.3.2 Publicistic Style

Publicistic style became discernible as a separate style in the middle of the 18th
century. It also falls into three varieties, each having its own distinctive features
which integrate them. Unlike other styles, the publicistic style has spoken varieties, in
particular, the oratorical substyle. The development of radio and television has
brought about a new spoken variety, namely, the radio commentary. The other two
are the essay (moral, philosophical, literary) and articles (political, social, economic)
in newspapers, journals and magazines. Book reviews in journals and magazines and
also pamphlets are generally included among essays.
The general aim of the publicistic style, which makes it stand out as a separate
style, is to exert a constant and deep influence on public opinion, to convince the
reader or the listener that the interpretation given by the writer or the speaker is the
only correct one and to cause him to accept the point of view expressed in the speech,
essay or article not merely with logical argumentation, but through emotional appeal
as well (the brain-washing function). Due to its characteristic combination of logical
argumentation and emotional appeal, the publicistic style has features in common
with the logical syntactical structure, with an expanded system of connectives and its
careful paragraphing, making it similar to scientific prose. Its emotional appeal is
generally achieved through the use of words with emotive meaning, the use of
imagery and other stylistic devices as in emotive prose; but the stylistic devices used
in publicistic style are not fresh or genuine. The individual element essential to the
belles-lettres style is, as a rule, little in evidence here. This is in keeping with the
general character of the style.
The manner of presenting ideas, however, brings this style closer to that of
belles-lettres, in this case to emotive prose, as it is to a certain extent individual.
Naturally, of course, essays and speeches have greater individuality than newspaper
and magazine articles where the individual element is generally toned down and
limited by the requirements of the style.
Some more features of the publicistic style can be found out from the
requirements that are imposed on American radio and TV reporters. The following are
ten aspects that should be present in a report or commentary to make it successful:

1. immediacy (in medias res),

2. proximity (relation to recipient),
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3. consequence (comment on consequences),
4. prominence (inform about the latest and interesting events),
5. drama (dramatic events),
6. oddity (originality),
7. conflict,
8. sex,
9. emotions,
10. progress.

Publicistic style is also characterised by brevity of expression. In some varieties

of this style it becomes a leading feature, an important linguistic means. The short
report is focussed on five W’s: who, what, where, when and why. In essays brevity
sometimes becomes epigrammatic.
Generally, we distinguish the most obvious subdivisions: oratory, i.e. speeches
and orations, essays and articles.

12.3.3 Newspaper Style

The term newspaper style is traditionally used in English to denote the style of
newspaper writing. Since it evokes a feeling of excluding the style of magazine
writing (where the articles do not just bring information but also analyse or comment
on different things), some authors started to use the term journalistic style also in
English. However, this term has not been fully assimilated into English and the term
newspaper style is preferred.
J. Mistrík (1970) defines newspaper style as a purposeful and thematic
arrangement of language means in order to bring up-to-date, accurate and convincing
information on current affairs. However, this concerns only news, commentaries and
articles, reports, etc. In present newspapers and magazines there is a number of
crosswords, sports results, TV or radio programme listings and many others, which
can hardly be included in newspaper style.
What in English is put in different styles of newspaper and magazine writing, J.
Mistrík (ibid.) divides into three genre categories that cover all aspects of newspaper
or journalistic style. These categories are news genres, focusing on providing
objective information (news story, interview), analytical genres, to some extent
allowing subjective opinion (leading articles, in English language press editorials,
columns, articles, gloss, commentary), and belletristic genres that are the most
subjective from all three categories (report, essay). All these genres differ in the
language means they use to bring some information, to convince the reader about
something, and so on. As a whole the journalistic style carries certain characteristic
features. The first is the purpose of informing the reader and the need of being up-to-
date. Then there is a great variety of themes. On the other hand, there is the necessity
of the text being compact and coherent. In terms of lexical means, words with clear
meaning are given priority, then there are terms which are used in popular-scientific
texts, expressive words to attract and keep the reader’s attention, neologisms and loan
words. The sentence is usually simple or coordinating clauses, with parenthesis. A
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special feature of this style is the use of extra-linguistic expressive means such as
pictures, diagrams, charts. Of course, all these features depend on the genre and type
of the text (Števková, 2002).
It is difficult for the English language press to make some generalisation about
the characteristics of the newspaper style because, as Crystal says, the style of writing
of newspapers and magazines “presents a wider range of linguistically distinctive
varieties than any other domain of language study” (Crystal, Davy, 1993). In her
analysis of scientific and publicistic texts, L. Števková (ibid.) points out, that the style
of particular newspapers or magazines differs so much that only certain features can
be selected and described as being typical for journalistic style. The following part is
based on her analysis of headlines and what is usually put under the notion of
journalese. She uses the term journalistic style to denote the style of newspaper and
magazine writing in both, English and Slovak.

Headline
Headline English is something specific, which occurs only in the press. Since the
function of a headline is to catch the reader’s attention and at the same time to provide
information about the content of the article, some distinctive features have developed
to fulfil this function. According to M. McCarthy and F. O’Dell (1994) who briefly
summarised these features, the headlines usually contain as few words as possible and
that is why grammar words like articles or auxiliary verbs are often left out, simple
present tense is used and infinitive is applied to express the future event. The words
used tend to be short and they sound dramatic. A headline often contains a play with
words or a pun. D. Crystal (1987) gives a similar description of headlines saying they
are more elliptical and adding also some examples of making a headline as short as
possible, for example, the preposition on means in fact about.

Journalese
The journalistic style, though one of the most recently developed styles, or one of the
last to become an independent style, has developed a number of distinctive features
involving both language and text organisation. Since these features concern only
journalistic style, some linguists tend to refer to them as journalese. The others select
only some linguistic issues to go under this notion.
In Investigating English Style (1993) D. Crystal and D. Davy devote one
complete chapter to the analysis of language of newspapers and the notion of
journalese. First they say that it is impossible to detect any common features which
would be characteristic for the style of writing for various genres because newspapers
or magazines are simply so different that the number of possibilities is extremely
large. Therefore they decided to compare the style of news reporting between two
daily papers in order to detect some typical devices that then could be labelled as
journalese for this style of writing. Their analysis and comparison is very detailed,
starting with the headlines and paragraphing, they go through types, word-order and
punctuation, vocabulary, where they compare the use of colloquialisms and idioms,
ending with word-plays and type of information provided. All these features are then
referred to as journalese.
J. Mistrík, for example, does not operate within similar categories. However, in
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the vocabulary classification he includes a special category overlapping with the
category of terms called journalisms (žurnalizmy) as a group of words with high
frequency of occurrence in newspapers or magazines (ibid.). English language has no
such category and the expression journalism denotes only the work of a journalist that
is the work of collecting, writing and publishing stories.

Historical development
Newspaper style was the last of all the styles of written literary English to be
recognised as a specific form of writing standing apart from other forms.
English newspaper writing dates from the 17th century. The first of any regular
series of English newspapers was the Weekly Newes which first appeared on May 23,
1622. It lasted for some twenty years until it ceased publication in 1641. The first
English daily newspaper The Daily Courant was brought out on March 11, 1702. It
was principally a vehicle for information, commentary as a regular feature only found
its way into the newspapers later on.
It took the English newspaper more than a century to establish a style and a
standard of its own. And it was only by the 19th century that newspaper English may
be said to have developed into a system of language means which forms a separate
functional style.
The English newspaper style may be defined as a system of interrelated lexical,
phraseological and grammatical means which is perceived by the community
speaking the language as a separate unity that basically serves the purpose of
informing and instructing the reader.
As stated earlier in this section, not all the printed matter found in newspapers
comes under newspaper style. The modern newspaper carries material of an extremely
diverse character. On the pages of a newspaper one finds not only news and comment
on it, but also stories and poems, crossword puzzles, chess problems, and the like.
Since these serve the purpose of entertaining the reader, they cannot be considered
specimens of newspaper style. Nor can articles in special fields, such as science and
technology, art, literature, etc. be classed as belonging to newspaper style.

Genres of newspaper style proper

Since the primary function of newspaper style is to impart information, only
printed matter serving this purpose comes under newspaper style proper. Such matter
can be classed as:

• brief news items and communiqués

• press reports
• articles purely informational in character
• advertisements and announcements

The most concise form of newspaper information is the headline. The

newspaper also seeks to influence public opinion on political and other matters.
Elements of appraisal may be observed in the very selection and method of
presentation of news, in the use of specific vocabulary and special syntactic
constructions. The headlines of news items, apart from giving information about the
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subject matter, also carry a considerable amount of appraisal (the size and
arrangement of the headline, the use of emotionally coloured words and elements of
emotive syntax), thus indicating the interpretation of the facts in the news item that
follows. But the principal vehicle of interpretation and appraisal is the newspaper
article, and the editorial in particular. Editorials, leading articles or leaders, are
characterised by a subjective handling of facts, political or otherwise, and therefore
have more in common with political essays or articles and should therefore be classed
as belonging to publicistic style rather than newspaper style. Though it seems natural
to consider newspaper articles, editorials included, as coming within the system of
English newspaper style, it is necessary to note that such articles are an intermediate
phenomenon characterised by a combination of styles, the newspaper style and the
publicistic style.

12.3.4 Scientific Prose Style

J. Mistrík says that scientific style, or, according to P. Newmark (1995) also
technical style, is applied when certain scientific knowledge or information obtained
from scientific research has to be conveyed. This style has some distinctive
characteristics from which the most important are the use of terms, objectivity,
accuracy and expert knowledge (Mistrík, 1970). In terms of language means, the
constructions of the gerund and participle are used to make the text more condense
and precise, and frequently occurring are also parentheses. Then there are also
compound words and derivates, loan words, neologisms, etc.
One of the branches of the scientific style is popular-scientific style, the other
levels as suggested by P. Newmark (ibid.) can be academic and professional, all
differentiated by the vocabulary, when the former uses transferred Latin and Greek
words and the latter operates with formal terms used by experts. The third category is
popular level. L. Števková studied linguistic characteristics of scientific and
journalistic texts and suggested that the division of the scientific style based on
vocabulary is probably not as exact as it might seem (2002). In her opinion, the
division according to the use of terms may fall on the argument that Latin and Greek
terms can be used in professional and popular texts too if they illustrate or emphasize
something and are so-called stylistically marked then; also terms frequently used in
professional texts are not omitted from the popular or academic texts. J. Mistrík, on
the other hand, operates only with two subdivisions where the scientific one is aimed
at the expert public and the popular-scientific one, also comprising of journalistic
expressive means, is directed at the general public. The function of “bringing
scientific knowledge in a comprehensible and interesting way” causes the popular-
scientific style to be a compilation of various devices such as the use of terms,
description, shorter sentences, diagrams and pictures, and from time to time
expressive words as well (ibid. p 116).
As indicated above, the language of science is governed by the aim of the
functional style of scientific prose, which is to prove a hypothesis, to create new
concepts, to disclose the internal laws of existence, development, relations between
different phenomena, etc. The language means used, therefore, tend to be objective,
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precise, unemotional, devoid of any individuality; there is a striving for the most
generalised form of expression.
The first and most noticeable feature of this style is the logical sequence of
utterances with a clear indication of the interrelations and interdependencies. It will
not be an exaggeration to say that in no other functional style do we find such a
developed and varied system of connectives as in scientific prose.
A second and no less important feature and, perhaps, the most conspicuous, is
the use of terms specific to each given branch of science. No other field of human
activity is so prolific in coining new words as science is. The necessity to penetrate
deeper into the essence of things and phenomena gives rise to new concepts, which
require new words to name them. As has already been pointed out, a term will make
more direct reference to something than a descriptive explanation, a non-term. Hence
the rapid creation of new terms in any developing science.
Further, the general vocabulary employed in scientific prose bears its direct
referential meaning, that is, words used in scientific prose will always tend to be used
in their primary logical meaning. No words should be used in more than one meaning.
Nor will there be any words with contextual meaning. Even the possibility of
ambiguity is avoided. Furthermore, terms are coined so as to be self-explanatory to
the greatest possible degree. But in spite of this a new term in scientific prose is
generally followed (or preceded) by an explanation.
In modern scientific prose an interesting phenomenon can be observed, the
exchange of terms between various branches of science. This is due to the
interpenetration of scientific ideas. Self-sufficiency in any branch of science is now a
thing of the past. Collaboration of specialists in related sciences has proved successful
in many fields. The exchange of terminology may therefore be regarded as a natural
outcome of this collaboration. For example, mathematical terms have left their own
domain and travel freely in other sciences, including linguistics.
A third characteristic feature of scientific style is what we may call sentence-
patterns. They are of three types:

• postulatory,
• argumentative,
• formulative.

A hypothesis, a scientific conjecture or a forecast must be based on facts

already known, on facts systematised and defined. Therefore every piece of scientific
prose will begin with postulatory pronouncements which are taken as self-evident and
needing no proof. The writer’s own ideas are also shaped in formulae, which
represent a doctrine or theory of a principle, an argument, the result of an
investigation, etc. Here the sentences which sum up the arguments are used.
Some other features of scientific prose can be listed here. For example, the use
of quotations and references, the frequent use of foot-notes, digressive in character,
the impersonality of scientific writings which is mainly revealed in the frequent use of
passive constructions. Scientific experiments are generally described in the passive
voice. In connection with the general impersonal tone of expression, it should be
noted that impersonal passive constructions are frequently used with the verbs
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suppose, assume, presume, conclude, infer, point out, and others, for example, it
should be pointed out, it must not be assumed, it must be emphasised, etc.

12.3.5 The Style of Official Documents

There is one more style that can be distinguished in the literary English
language, and that is the style of official documents. I. R. Galperin (ibid.) points out
that this style, like others, is not homogeneous. It is represented by the following
substyles or variants:

• the language of business documents,

• the language of legal documents,
• the language of diplomacy,
• the language of military documents.

I. R. Galperin (ibid.) sees the main communicative aim of this style in stating
the conditions binding two parties in an undertaking. Considering particular substyles,
for instance the legal language, or the language of the law, David Crystal and Derek
Davy point out that it would be quite misleading to speak of legal language as
communicating meaning. Of all uses of language, the language of the law is perhaps
the least communicative, since it is designed mainly to allow one expert to register
information for scrutiny by another. This causes much of its unusualness and odity. In
fact, the legal writers use specific jargon which does not reflect the needs of a general
public. Another quality which determines the style of legal documments is the
extreme linguistic conservativism of legal English, apparent at the level of sentence
structures and lexis (Crystal, Davy, ibid.).
Some other peculiarities of the style of official documments can be mentioned
here. At the level of lexis the most striking feature is a special system of clichés, terms
and set expressions by which each substyle can easily be recognised (e.g. I beg to
inform you, I beg to move, provisional agenda, the above-mentioned,
hereinafternamed, on behalf of, private advisory, Dear Sir, We remain, your obedient
servants, etc.) In fact, each of the subdivisions of this style has its own peculiar terms,
phrases and expressions which differ from the corresponding terms, phrases and
expressions of other variants of this style. Thus in finance we find terms like extra
revenue, taxable capabilities, liability to profit tax. In legal language to deal with a
case, summary procedure, a body of judges, as laid down in. Likewise other varieties
of official language have their special nomenclature, which is conspicuous in the text,
and therefore easily discernible.
Besides the special nomenclature characteristic of each variety of the style,
there are certain features common to all varieties:

• the use of abbreviations, symbols, contractions,

• the use of words in their logical dictionary meaning (in military documents
sometimes metaphorical names are given to mountains, rivers, hills or villages),
• no words with emotive meaning except those which are used in business letters
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 as conventional phrases of greeting or close, as Dear Sir, yours faithfully.

The distinctive properties appear as a system. The style is not recognisable only
through its vocabulary. The syntactic pattern of the style is as significant as the
vocabulary though not perhaps so immediately apparent.

***

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LINGUISTIC STYLISTICS
Gabriela Miššíková

Vydavateľ: Filozofická fakulta

Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre

Posudzovatelia: Prof. PhDr. Tibor Žilka, DrSc.

Doc. PhDr. Pavol Kvetko
Jazykový redaktor: John Kehoe
Technický redaktor: Mgr. Zuzana Fabianová
Náklad: 250 kusov
Rozsah: 127 strán
Formát: A5
Vydanie: prvé
Rok vydania: 2003

ISBN 80-8050-595-0

127