Summary of Styles CHAPTER ONE Choosing Le Mot Juste A very common view of style is that it is a matter of the careful choice of exactly the right word or phrase /e mot juste. We can analyze the style on the basis of synonyms and tenor. 1. Synonyms We always use the synonymous words for the same meaning but in actual speaking or writing, synonyms are not straight forward entities. Though, two words may be very similar in the meaning there are always differences of nuance (pronunciation), impact on a listener or reader. For example, saying spectacles isn’t quite same as saying glasses. We can’t say that there is same meaning of different words but what we can assume is that words like spectacles and glasses ‘overlap’ in their meaning. And that study of style is the study of meaning with a more general commonness Point of View A point of view dependsion the synonymous words we prefer to use. The words may be of different types that there may be more than one reason of choosing a particular synonymous. For example: a, Words referring to the same things but from different point of view. For example: Some person can be a terrorist for an enemy and freedom fighter for a friend. . Synonyms related to the kind of text in which they occur. . Difference on the basis of politeness. |. Difference from the point of view of formality. . Difference in terms of assertiveness or emphasis. Difference from the point of view of economy of space ie. UK for United Kingdom. Matter of Focus Choosing the word is also a matter of how we focus on what we are talking or writing about. For example: The same vehicle can be indicated as a car or a Toyota. mepeas 2. Tenor According to the Oxford Dictionary, the tenor means general meaning, sense or content of something for several educations. Personal evaluation depends on a gesture of informality to reader or listener that can be connected with the personal and power relation which is another means of expressing the right words or phrases. Let’s create imaginary situation: You want to sell your car and decide to write a small advertisement that naturally requires a number of decisions about wording (selection of words). For example: For Sale, 50% off, Buy One Get One Free, Clearance etc. These overlap in meaning in different ways and depend on advertisement that how youSummary of Styles want to represent the things. But the purpose is same to persuade a person to come on and look the things though they come on different ways. CHAPTER TWO Following and Flouting Conventions Whenever we speak or write, we are affected by social and linguistic conventions by the expectations of readers or hearers. Speaking and writing have conventional rules as we say ‘helo’ while answering the phone and “Dear Mr. Brown’ while addressing the person in the letter, but style doesn’t mean only following the conventional rules. It also means ‘Flouting’ or ‘Breaking’ while writing and speaking. Whenever we break the rules, it establishes rules of language to make our expressions new, fresh, unusual and different from conventional rules. Some ways of breaking or flouting the readers or audiences are: 1. Writers often flout (break) by expressing unconventional remarks. For example: Jokes often center upon someone leading an audience to expect one thing but supplying something different in unexpected way. 2. Sometimes readers are led to something conventional and then disappoint the expectation. 3. Writers often use spellings for stylistic effect as in commercial advertising, Dear Mr. Brown Vs. You Undisciplined Bloody Spendthrift ‘Mr. Brown is very natural way of addressing but fails to draw our attention because dear is naturalized by its usualness. But if we receive a note from a bank manager which begins with ‘You undisciplined bloody spendthrift, it pulls over attention. This is because it breaks the convention. So style may be based on: a, Following the convention or rules. b. _ Flouting the conventions or rules. Dear Mr. Brown, Dear Sir, Dear Fred Brown, Dear Fred all are based on the convention which are used while greeting but what you actually write can vary in terms of purpose and choosing word is based on who you are writing to. Dear Sir is used if we are writing for the first time and the context is formal and the person is man. Dear Mr. Brown is used after we have exchanged few letters before. Dear Fred is used for close acquaintance. Dear Piggy is used after long friendship. Sir is used to address if we are writing a formal official writing as a person from the rank. Darling Fred is for lover or spouse or My Darling, Dearest Fred, ot simply Dearest. ‘Hi Fred!” can be used instead of conventional dear. Similarly a lover might begin as ‘Scrumptious!’ substituting a kind of informal nickname for a greeting.Summary of Styles CHAPTER THREE Live and Dead Metaphors Metaphor is a figure of speech which is used to compare two different things directly without using as, like, as...as etc. The word metaphor is derived from the Greek word ‘Metaphora’ that means transfer or carry across. Metaphors carry meaning from one word, image/idea to another. It is an expression of the unfamiliar (the tenor) in terms of familiar (vehicle). ‘Love is a rose’, in this statement, rose is the vehicle and love the tenor. Live Metaphors A live metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things not using like or as. For example: She is an early bird, in which the git] is being compared with a bird. Indirectly the quality of the bird is being given to the girl. The next example is: Her home was a prison, in which the characteristics of prison are trying to assimilate or compare with the environment of the house. Dead Metaphors A dead metaphor is one that has lost the force and meaning through overuse. When a metaphor loses its poetic meaning, it is called dead metaphor. The difference between live and dead metaphor is that dead metaphor is just an ordinary part of our literal vocabulary and quite properly not resembled as the metaphor at all. Dead metaphor can easily be understood without knowing their earlier connotation. It is difficult to distinguish live metaphor from dead because the language is dynanic. Metaphors, however striking, have a way of being repeated and so of less unexpected. For example: People say all the time ‘falling in love’ but once it was used as a metaphor because being in love is like the process of falling, means risky sometimes results injury. Another example of dead metaphor is ‘the light of my life’ which is used to refer someone who gives happiness and joy to the speaker. 4 phase of a clock, to move ahead, to look backward is other example of dead metaphor. CHAPTER FOUR Patterns of Words in a Text Style is also a matter of the verbal patterning of a text as a whole and the stylistic unity to which this patterning gives rise. While using the words, we need to be conscious on its relevant to the text. One choice affects another; so the selection of words should create a kind of feeling and perception. According to the situation, theSummary of Styles use of words differs. For example: The words that are used while teaching should be different from the use of words by the commentator of a game. CHAPTER FIVE Patterns of Grammar in a Text Language is the combination of three basic components, i.e. grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. The grammar should be used appropriately according to the text. Some of the particular words which are often known as ‘content’ words are used in the sports and ‘software’ is used with computing. Function words, i.e. articles, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs etc. should also be used according to the text or with the grammar of English, but not with any particular content. Anyway, it is necessary to use the linguistic rules to convey the message in the appropriate way. CHAPTER SIX The Textual Orchestration of Patterns In this unit, we will be conscious on the way stylistic choices are orchestrated, that means, how the different patterning work together to make a text distinctive stylistic ‘grain’. Richard Jeffries’ text contains two types of patterning: i) There is the frequency of be verbs. ii) It is combined with the tendency for sentences not to have linking words i.e. and or when or therefore. The effect of be pattern derives from the relative lack of other kinds of verb. The ‘be’ words tend to give their own meaning in sentences like ‘Eternity is now’. There are sixteen such free-standing be verbs. List 6.1 Verbs other than free-standing be verbs 1) cannot understand time 2) the butterfly floats 3) Nothing has to come 4) Lexist init 5) this tumulus was raised 6) is mutually agreed on 7) The shadow goes 8) the index moves 9) the clock may make time These verbs are of different types that don’t themselves form a pattern in consistency to the free-standing be verbs. ‘The ‘be’ verbs themselves are found as part of grammatical patterning. These verbs tend to be used with two broad kinds of meaning: (a) defining: what time, eternity, ete. ‘is’Summary of Styles (b) locating: where something is in either place or time. If we look locating pattern (b): i) Itis eternity now ii) I am in the midst of it iii)It is about me in the sunshine These phrases refer to what the writer wants to see as being immediately present to him. In (a) i.e. defining pattern: i) Now is eternity ii) The years... are absolutely nothing These defining be patterns also occupy a good deal of the text. They are all definitions and are all assertions. They contribute to a pattern of assertive definitions without the linking words like ‘because’ or the expressions ‘I think’. The assertive definitions also form another kind of patterning to the conventions. Conventionally the word eternity doesn’t mean now. Jeffries, in ‘Now is Eternity’, wants to locate and immediately present place. One way to look this kind of patterning is to see as a series of denials of conventional wisdom as to what ‘is’, what is ‘here’ and what is ‘now’. Jeffries wants to challenge the conventional assumptions. Another kind of patterning is the repetition of words which are related in meaning to time, words such as eternity, clock, it and time. These ‘time words’ make the sense. The repetition of time words contributes to two kinds of pattern. 1. One is to do with the content of the passage, the continuous mentioning idea of time. 2. The other is the way in which repetition also serves to connect the text together. Jeffries uses repetition only to do the link without sentence linking words, which would produce a less ‘stop-go’ kind of flow to the text. His assertions are like a list. He is at the opposite extreme to the ‘and then... and then’ style. Ignoring the use of logical words such as therefore, because and on the other hand. We have mentioned a number of different kinds of patterning: a) free-standing be verbs b) present tense ©) be verbs followed by locative phrases d) be verbs followed by definitions. ) unconventional word-meanings/assertions f) repetition of time words 2) lack of sentence-connecting words The idea of stylistic ‘orchestration’ is the idea that these patterns are reinforced each other. Everything comes back to the idea of ‘being’, of what ‘is’, to the idea ofSummary of Styles time, to the idea of what is present here and now, and all these definitions and locations are very unconventional associations of words in English. This orchestration of words and meanings in relation to the central concept being put forward is matched by the ‘stop-go’ sentences, without linking words to show how one follows from another and without argument or justification. The different pattems interact to give the text its particular ‘grain’. The mystical and poetic texts tend to be assertive rather than logically argued. This orchestration can be seen simply 2s the ‘means to an end’, ‘how the language works’, and little more than the consequence of the author’s reason for writing. Not using ‘I believe’, ‘so it seems to me’, ‘I feel’ may reflect a conflict somewhere ‘behind’ the text. And subjective speculations about time are less than certain truths. Some writers comment it with skepticism because it may lack ‘where’ the meaning of the text lies. Let us look at a different kind of text, the boxing commentary, in which we can find the differences in description, rhetorical purposes and genre. (a)verbs describing an unfinished try at something, such as aims to throw, flicking out, trying to land (b) verbs describing the successful achievement of something such as got Bruno backed up, thudded into These are all action verbs as opposed to the categorizing verbs in Jeffries. Action verbs make different grammatical demands from categorizing verbs. The action verb requires the speaker to say who the actor is and who the receiver is. If we pay attention on the aspects of grammatical style we.can find the connection between the content of the text and writer’s or speaker's purposes of writing or speaking, which is called Content Structure. CHAPTER SEVEN The Effects of the Medium The medium of the expressions affects the style of a text. This may be a matter of conventions of politeness or layout. It also may be of convention of constraints made by the channel of communication, Style is shaped by medium that the writer or speaker used. Speaking provides different limitations and opportunities that that of writing, Headlines, slogans, postcards, inscriptions and carving of grave stone affect the style because of the limited physical space. Television commentary is different in style than radio and newspaper commentary and reporting. Likewise, advertisement uses economy of expression. For example: ‘Car for sale’ instead of writing ‘I have a car for sale’. Verse or pvetic line is another medium where restrictions play an important role. In English, in poetic line, a set of number of syllabus are used. It follows theSummary of Styles stressed and unstressed syllabus. The text of live commentary in radio is always longer than the commentary in television. So, the medium of text determines the length of a text. The television commentator doesn’t have to represent in words what television viewers can see. This means the role of television commentator is slightly different from the radio commentator. A radio commentator tries to give an impression of the way things are going on. S/he must try to give a relatively objective view point. Report is different from commentary. It is the summary written after the period. In this type of writing, reporters have had a lot of time to reflect what were the turning points and important moments. Therefore, the selection of word is considered. Radio commentary doesn’t often include ‘he’ words and also the name of the players. They tend to use non-standard language. Unlike, radio commentator, a report uses comparatively standard form. His/her style is relaxed, standing back and passing knowledge that remarks the serve of completeness. The role in the report doesn’t produce immediacy but reflection. There are differences between the sentences used in television and radio commentaries. A radio commentator begins the sentences more often with ‘and’ that the television commentator doesn’t. Sentence is difficult.to define in an oral text. However, the television commentator doesn’t. The use/of such linking words makes the sentence longer, so that, they have one clause dependent on another. It describes the cause and effect relationship. In report writing, the reporter has enough time to think about the event. So, they can conclude the events which happen several minutes apart into single complex sentence. The report allows the writer to experiment with the draft until s/he is satisfied because of the change in medium. The commentator has to tell everything quickly so, they tend to use ‘and’, ‘but’ etc. because it is the feature of spoken language. A very important difference between spoken and written text is the density of meaning. Written language is tentatively more compact than spoken language or discourse. Speech tends to use words like and, he, as, for, be, on and the function words are greater in the spoken text. The density of context words is called Lexical Density. It diverges in different types of writing. It is of higher amount in written in discourse than that of spoken discourse. It means spoken language is less dense than. written language CHAPTER EIGHT Sequences of Words and Events The most important aspect of style is the sequence in which we mention things in a text as a whole or in a paragraph and in the wording of individual sentences, and how this may create emphasis or surprise. The writer must make choices the exact words and phrases choosing the similar alternatives or different focuses on the same content to match the sequence in which words, phrases, sentences and ideas are toSummary of Styles occur. For example: Different focus on same content can be viewed in ‘car’ or ‘wheel’. Opening 1 Once upon a time there was a poor widow and her son Jack... things sequence can be continued in the same pattern as the imaginary events occur or we could start Opening 2 ‘One morning Jack woke up and saw a huge beanstalk outside his bedroom window.’ And then explain its presence by going back over what had happened the day before. The flashback version is more exciting because it begins with the extra-ordinary beanstalk and then raises questions in the reader’s mind. On the other hand, it is more difficult to understand a story which is told out of ordinary sequence because the sequenees of event don’t match the sequence of sentences. The flashbacks do possess problems of the narrator to provide the essential information needed by the reader to make sure of the story i.e, so called exposition. The flashback is striking because it flouts what seems the most natural sequencing ie. making language events follow the same sequence as events in the story. Though it seems mustinatural to follow the sequence, making statements followed by, so the passage could be taken in the reverse sequence. For example: a This is a supermarket. Therefore, varieties of things are available here. ii, Varieties of things are available here because this is a supermarket. In the above example, the reverse sequencing gives the same meaning. The sequencing of a text should try to focus on the understanding of listeners’ or readers’. Do we start with background information and lead up to new information? Or do we start with new information, to arise the questions in the reader’s or listener’s mind about it, and then begin to answer those questions? Another way of looking at sequence as the aspect of style is to look at the ways in which a speaker or writer creates a continuous thread of meaning. How one thing leads to another? It means the meaning of the previous idea must be connected with another idea. We can consider the following statements: 1. Once there was a poor widow There was once a poor widow There was a poor widow once A poor widow, there was, once ‘A poor widow once there was yk en Changing the sequence of words and phrases affects the rhetorical effect rather than the narrative content. It is difficult to find out the differences because same words can be expressed in different ways.Summary of Styles CHAPTER NINE The Selection of Significant Detail “The Selection of Significant Detail” is also the aspect of style. Given a particular scene c> event what do we make explicit about it and what do we leave ‘understood’? There is a scene in which selection forms of basis of any text. The most cleared way to see the detail is when we describe what is before our eyes. How would you describe the situation or environment you are in matters? In theory, you could go on mentioning details for ever but you'll not mention everything that you won’t need to. The trick you can leave to the reader’s experience is to make the details that you do choose ‘call up’ the whole situation. This is what is meant by their being significant. In the boxing commentary, the communicator doesn’t have time to mention many details so; s/he selects the key items in order to create an impression of the whole scene. In the radio commentary, the commentator doesn’t mention every blow but picks out samples. A specimen number of key incidents stand in for the whole. The commentator requires judgment and knowledge that should be appreciated. The terms such as: (i) Right over the top: This allows the commentator to be concise. The technique of using a part to stand for the whole applies details as well as overall strategy. (ii)It [eternity] is about me in the sunshine: The commentator selects some parts of the whole but not others. Sometimes selection can be used as a way of producing an ‘in’ style that can’t be understood by outsider. It is a kind of selection with different purpose that forms the basis of riddles. Sometime we mention not a part but a specific type of something. Being able to select is a key skill for the friction writer. Selection is of course related to ideological presupposition about the topic and the reader and listener, and their relation to the writer or speaker. CHAPTER TEN Personal Attitude Involvement and Emotion The style of a text is shaped by the ways in which the attitude of the speaker or writer gets into the verbal structures s/he uses, their emotional involvement or detachment, their point of view or ideology. Referring to the same individual one person might say lout or hooligan while the next might say demonstrator, protestor or activist. In each saying, we can see the differences in attitude, emotional coloring, personal involvement and general forcefulness. This kind of differences is called a difference of tenor (the general meaning) The differences between homosexual, and gay are differences in the tenor and such differences of attitude of life and society are also ideological. Tenor is also expressed through the function words. Margaret Thatcher uses ‘you’ and words like ‘have to’ in her speech. ‘You’ is used in we are talking to someone directly but in theSummary of Styles ‘Thatcher's passage ‘you’ is not used addressing the interviewer. So, ‘you’ can be used as a synonym for every pronoun differently. The use of ‘you” Let us look the examples of using ‘you’. So you have to be strong to your own people, and yes you have got to be strong on law and order. In these sentences ‘you’ could mean ‘the good environment’ or it could refer to ‘the leader of the government’ or whoever is in the power. ‘You’ conveys a friendly tenor and draws the audience into a familiar kind of solidarity by blurring (disobey) the distinction between ‘I’ the speaker and ‘You’ the audience. The use of ‘have to’. ‘got to’, ‘must’, ‘can’, ‘can’t’, or ‘should’ ‘The similar strategy can be seen in the use of words such as have to, got to, must, can, can’t or should, Gramrnatically, these words are all similar and like ‘be’. ‘These words indicate obligation or compulsion. For example: 1, Indicating necessity: It has to collapse under so much weight. 2. Indicating obligation or compulsion: You have to stop now. 3. Indicating hoth necessity and obligation: /t has to be strong. In the above examples, assertiveness and opinion are presented as common sense, necessity and need. CHAPTER ELEVEN Style and Ideology The style of a text is affected by the way of thinking of the speaker or writer. Every text bears consciously or unconsciously of a writer’s or speaker’s general view of life on their values, emotion and prejudice. The style is influenced by whom the speaker or writer are addressing in what tone or medium. Thus, addressee, addresser, genre, tone and medium affect the style of text. Ideology is the set of believes. It is a wider conception of life and values which seems natural to the speaker or writer. This can be clear when someone says terrorist rather than freedom fighter referring to the same person. These words refer not only the particular context but also to the wider ideological positions. Similarly, exploitation and law and order also refer to the context and the ideological disparity in perspective. Exploitation is taken as unjust control where as law and order is associated with the same power in a positive way. So, there are many words which are ideology charged. For example, when Margaret Thatcher says, 1. The kind of Britain I see would also defend its freedom. Here freedom is ideologically charged. She is thinking of freedom of particular way but this is not explicit freedom implies a ‘from’, a ‘to” and an ‘of? which are not ofien made explicit.Summary of Styles 2. Of what, from what, for whom, to do what? So, freedom is related to all these things. She is talking about the freedom of individuals, freedom from social restrictions, and freedom for Britain to rise to the level of their own abilities. Grammatically, relation is important to understand ideology. Ideology is the matter of grammar, and the rate of function word is important because they occur in every text. Metaphorical language also should be understood. So, ideology is must often clearly indicated by what the speaker or writer takes as an obvious and assumes at the outset but often it is not mentioned openly. CHAPTER TWELVE A Note on the Poetic In this unit, we look at verbal mime in poetry as a typically literary figure of style, bearing in mind that it occurs in other kinds of text as well and is not exclusive to literature or poetry. In the beginning of the study of style was associated with the style of language used in literature. Such features can be found in other kinds of text. ‘There are certain features of style found in artistic text particularly poetry, songs, raps, some advertisements and some comics. One of the common features of style found in artistic text is mime that contributes to the meaning of the words. 1. Onomatopoeia It is the use of words that imitates the sound associated with object or actions. It occurs quite often in comics. For example: ‘ding dong’, ‘boom’, ‘crash’ etc. 2. Blending Sounds The poets often use combinations of sounds across several words to do similar things. 3. Rhythm Verbal rhythm is used to represent real life movements. We use stressed and unstressed syllables. 4. Repetition of Sound Itis also a kind of mime in which the words don’t directly imitate verbal meanings but make a men.orable phrase. The repetition of sounds makes it musical and cohesive. For example: The God slot (repetition of ‘O’, a vowel sound). 5. Juxtaposition It is the placing together of senterices or words in which the reader or listener make a connection with the ideas.