Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
TERM PAPER
SPECIALITY: Stylistics
SUBJECT: Inversion as a stylistic devise in the texts of newspaper
articles.
Moscow 2011
Table of contents
Introduction3
1.
1.1.
1.2.
1.3.
1.4.
2.
Theoretical part6
Stylistic as a science 6
Functional Styles..7
Newspaper style.10
Stylistic inversion........12
Practical part16
Conclusion22
Bibliography.24
Appendix26
Introduction
The mass media (radio, newspapers, TV) are aimed at the widest possible
and audience. They play the important role in reflecting the life of society and in
building opinions. The mass media can draw the publics attention to the most
serious political, economic, social and ecological problems. They are doing much
to excite an interest in every aspect of the country's life. The aim of mass media is
not only to inform the people of everything that is going in the world but to help
them understand and correctly interpret the events. To reach the goals authors tend
to use different stylistic devices and expressive means such as metaphor,
metonymy, epithet, occasionalism, periphrasis, alliteration, oxymoron, inversion
and many others.
The timeliness of the work is determined by the importance of the
newspapers in modern world and by frequent using of inversion as one of the
expressive means in them. The press always focuses public attention on all the
most important questions of social, economic, scientific and cultural life. Most
newspapers in our country come out daily, besides there are some weekly
newspapers too. The edition board of a newspaper usually deals with the topical
issues of the day. The readers questions, opinions and suggestions which they send
in letters the editor help to improve the newspaper and make it more interesting. It
keeps people informed on topical issues of the day. Reports by political observes
and commentators help us get useful information at home and foreign affairs[7].
1. Theoretical part
1.1. Stylistic as a science
The subject of stylistics can be outlined as the study of the nature, functions
and structure of stylistic devices, on the one hand, and, on the other, the study of
each style of language as classified, its aim, its structure, its characteristic features
and the effect it produces, as well as its interrelation with other styles of language.
The task we set before ourselves is to make an attempt to single out such, problems
as are typically stylistic and cannot be treated in any other branch of linguistic
science.
English language as being divided into three main layers: the literary layer,
the neutral layer and the colloquial layer. The literary and the colloquial layers
contain a number of subgroups each of which has a property it shares with all the
subgroups within the layer. This common property, which unites the different
groups of words within the layer, may be called its aspect. 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. It is this that makes it unstable, fleeting [7].
The aspect of the neutral layer is its universal character. That means it is
unrestricted in its use. It can be employed in all styles of language and in all
spheres of human activity. 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 or American
dictionaries is not infrequently limited to a definite language community or confine
to a special locality where it circulates[2].
There are 2 basic objects of stylistics:
- special linguistic means (stylistic devices and expressive means) which
secure the desirable effect of the utterance;
- certain types of texts discourse which due to the choice and
arrangement of the language are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of
communication (functional styles).
clarity and logical cohesion which is responsible for the repeated use of such clich?
s as: Proceeding from; As it was said above; In connection with and
other
lexico-syntactical
forms
emphasizing
the
logical
connection
and
10
news
specific
from
subject.
only
News
one
source
pamphlets
or
appeared
dealt
with
only
from
11
casting some doubt on the facts reported and syntactic constructions indicating a
lack of assurance on the part of the reporter as to the correctness of the facts
reported or his desire to avoid responsibility (for example, 'Mr. X was said to have
opposed the proposal'; 'Mr. X was quoted as saying...'). The headlines of news
items, apart from giving information about the subject-matter, also carry a
considerable amount of appraisal (the size and arrangement of the headline,
the use of emotionally colored words and elements of emotive syntax), thus
indicating the interpretation of the facts in the news item that follows. But, of
course, the principal vehicle of interpretation and appraisal is the newspaper
article and the editorial in particular. Editorials (leading articles or leaders) are
characterized by a subjective handling of facts, political or otherwise [11]. They
have much in common with classical specimens of publicistic writing and are often
looked upon as such. However, newspaper evaluative writing unmistakably
bears the stamp of newspaper style. Thus, it seems natural to regard newspaper
articles, editorials included, as coming within the system of English newspaper
style. But it should be noted that while editorials and other articles in
opinion columns are predominantly evaluative, newspaper feature articles, as a
rule,
carry
considerable
amount
of
information,
and
the
ratio of the informative and the evaluative varies substantially from article to
article.
The principal function of a n e w s p a p e r s t y l e i s t o inform
the reader. It goes without saying that the bulk of the vocabulary used in newspaper writing is neutral and common literary. But apart from this, newspaper style
has its specific vocabulary features and is characterized by an extensive use of:
special political and economic terms, non-term political vocabulary, newspaper
cliches, abbreviations, neologisms, foreign words.
The above-listed peculiarities are vocabulary parameters used in an English
newspaper. They are generally devoid of any emotional coloring. But some
popular papers tend to introduce emotionally colored elements into the matter-of-
12
fact via using different stylistic devices. Some of them are metaphor, metonymy,
irony, simile, periphrasis, euphemisms, hyperbole, allusions and many others. One
of these stylistic devices used in the newspaper articles is stylistic inversion which
presents a great interest. In order to learn more about its using in the newspaper
articles lets get down to its detailed description [8].
(Predicate) Object
(SP0).
Further,
Jespersen
mentions a
13
in the sequence of the component parts. Hence the clash between semantically
insignificant
elements
of
the
sentence
when
they
are
placed
in
are
closely
attached
to
their
objects
chances
and
support.
word.
In
the
inverted
word-order
not
only
the
objects
chances and support become conspicuous but also the predicates has and
has not.
In this example the effect of the inverted word-order is backed up
by two other stylistic devices: antithesis and parallel construction. Unlike
grammatical inversion, stylistic inversion does not change the structur al
meaning of the sentence, that is, the change in the juxtaposition of
the members of the sentence does not indicate structural meaning but
has
some
superstructural
function.
Stylistic
inversion
aims
of
the
utterance.
Therefore
specific
intonation
pattern
14
as in:
"Eagerly they wished the revolution." (The Independent)
5.
These five models comprise the most common and recognized models of
inversion.
15
sometimes
be
true,
but
really
talented
poets
will
never
sacrifice sense for form and in the majority of cases inversion in poetry
is called forth by considerations of content rather than rhythm.
Inverted word-order, or inversion, is one of the forms of what are
known
as
word-order
emphatic
is
constructions.
nothing
more
than
What
generally
unemphatic
called
construction.
traditional
Emphatic
means
of
the
language
models [4].
2. Practical part
having
typical
structural
16
In the practical part we will examine all the types of stylistic inversion
which were meant in the theoretical part. Each type to a greater or lesser degree
represents a special difficulty for translation. In the term paper there are examples
from the articles from newspapers such as Forbes, Independent, Times,
Observer, Daily Telegraph, The Moscow News, The Economist and
Sunday Times.
The first example was found in the newspaper Observer. This is an
advertisement of new cheese Farmhouse English Cheese:
Can you tell the cheese from the real cheese? Cheese can be made
almost anywhere. But real cheese has to be made on the farm. And happily it
still is. On the handful of farms in Somerset, in the rolling pastures of Cheshire
and in the dales of Lancashire, make we our cheese [14].
?
.
. .
,
.
This example of inversion refers to the fifth type of grammatical inversion
i.e. modifier and predicate stand before the subject.
In this example everything is done for the best influence on consumer. The
front placement of the adverbial modifier draws the attention and a consumer first
of all reacts to this information. The important information of producer about the
fact that real cheese has to be made on the marvelous meadows and so on is
emphasized by the front placement of the producing place. That was possible to
reach this goal only by the placement of adverbial modifier in the front place. If
we compare this word order with the traditional one we make our cheese on the
handful of farms in Somerset then the production place loses its emphatic stress.
Here the inversion performs intensificative and logic-informative function.
17
18
economic restructuring " are an attention grabber (probably stressed more in the
first sentence than it would be in the middle of the clause). It is presented at the
beginning to give a kind of preface to the rest of the sentence and to catch your
eye-mind-emotion chain.
Legal behaviour it may be; moral behaviour it is not.
; .
Note that inversion makes italicizing stressed words unnecessary. This
might be a good strategy for all those who only have UE BASIC, as we can't show
stress without resorting to tactics similar to those who feels a need toCAPITALISING. Yet it must be remembered that inversion can seem extremely
artificial in English, it is used only rarely - when required for cohesion,
conciseness or emotional stress on certain words.
This example we found in the magazine Forbes ASAP [21].
Most service providers offer a road map. But how many are willing to dig
in and help pave the road?
At the heart of Unisys Services is our customerize philosophy
.
?
Unisys Services ,
.
This is the fifth type of inversion so when the both modifier and predicate
stand before the subject. Its function is not only grammatical but logicalinformative. We have the rheme on the front place in order to stress the new
information and to attract readers attention. If we make a traditional word order
we will have the following:
Our customerize philosophy is t the heart of Unisys Services.
19
20
Should you not wish to sign the contract, you must let them know before
the end of June [17].
,
.
Note that we can also use the inversion structure with should when we are
talking about present and future conditions and, again, negative forms are not
contracted. Use of should here has nothing to do with obligation, but is simply an
alternative to the present simple in the more normal if-clause.
Finally, inversion is possible, though I think less common, with this form of
the conditional when we are talking about the improbable future. Again negative
forms are not contracted:
Were she not his daughter, he'd have no hesitation in phoning the police
[16].
, .
We use the inversion strategy when we want what we are saying to sound
more carefully considered and it is also characteristic of more formal and literary
styles.
Crystal clear the aim is: to keep personal power and the power of the
party of crooks and thieves [15].
:
.
Here we have the third type of inversion: the predicative is placed before
the subject. The author of this article wanted to stress all the clearness of the
21
aim and that is why he put the attribute predicative before the subject. Here
we have an emotional colouring function of inversion.
A country with a great history of scientific inventions, cultural talent in
music, literature and performing arts is Russia [13].
,
, .
This example of inversion we found in the newspaper Passport. The
inversion consists in the predicatives placement before the link-verb. They both
are placed before the subject. Here we have both informative and emotional
colouring function of stylistic inversion.
This example has analogy with the previous one. The adverbial modifier is
placed before the subject. Its the forth model of inversion according to Galperins
classification. This example if from Vogue and here we have an ad of cosmetics.
The advertising slogan is:
Just like true love, its made last.
- .
There is an adverbial modifier first of all not the subject and predicate as in
the traditional word order. The information which is carried by the adverbial
modifier is the main one for attracting attention of the costumers. The readers
attention is drawn by such unusual word order and therefore the whole expression.
Then the product itself becomes more attractive for buyers. Here we have the
logical-informative function of the stylistic inversion. The most important
information is placed at the beginning.
Conclusion
22
23
Bibliography
24
25
Appendix
26
Proportion of usage of each type of stylistic inversion in the texts of a newspaper article
1-The object is placed at
the beginning of the
sentence
2-The attribute is placed
after the word it modifies
3-The predicative is placed
before the subject
4-The adverbial modifier is
placed at the beginning of
the sentence
5-The modifier and
predicate stand before the
subject