Stylistics IDI-234-01,February 11th, 2014.
Class 1 INTRODUCTION: Reading, Speaking, Texts and Stylistics
By this time you must have read (and I hope researched a little on) what stylistics is. Stylistics is a branch of linguistics. It deals with texts or discourse and their styles. By "styles" we should understand the way or manner in which an author (speaker or writer) uses the resources of language (in its spoken or written form or variety) in order to deliver a message. When you speak, you can express your message either by using informal words and expressions or more formal words or expressions; you can use a lot of gestures or just a few to support or make what you say more communicative or informative. You can recite, sing or stutter your message; you can use vulgar expressions or slang or words more often found in dictionaries. When you write, depending on the type of text or document that you intend to write as well as on its purpose or goal, you will choose certain words, expressions or a certain format. For instance, if you plan to write a letter, it must follow a pattern like this:
[Your Name]
[Street Address]
[City, ST ZIP Code]
March 9, 2010
[Recipient Name]
[Title]
[Company Name]
[Street Address]
[City, ST ZIP Code]
Dear [Recipient Name]:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
If you were to write a story, essay or another type of composition it would look like this:
Title
(By Your name)
:
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Or if your piece of writing is a short poem maybe it will probably look like this:
____
____________
______
_____
_____________________________
______________________________
________________
___________________________
________________
__________________
These visual representations of the pieces of writing mentioned above have been established during a long period of time in the history of a given language. They are linguistic or communicative conventions established in the history of that language and followed to facilitate communication. In a similar manner, the texts you read in the introduction of the pamphlet titled “why do people read?” follow different formats and stylistic conventions. You should have probably seen and noticed that an attorney or lawyer uses different expressions than journalists or engineers or doctors. They, in turn, use different expressions than a poet or an ordinary uneducated person. The same happens with the different written texts or documents. A legal document uses language in a different manner than a poem or a newspaper does. A scientific article or scientific writing in a physics or chemistry magazine will use different expressions and format than a cooking recipe or novel or short story or a poem. In many cases (as in the introduction of the pamphlet) the story they tell may be the same; however, the expressions and compositional conventions will be different. In sum, the words, expressions, and other stylistic (linguistic, communicative) resources you use will be in direct agreement with the type or text or document you intend to write. And this, in turn, will be in close relationship with your communicative goals. This is what the expression “functional styles” in units 7, 8, and 9 of your pamphlets means. The phrases, expressions, vocabulary (lexicon), and stylistic resources or devices (metaphors, hyperboles, ironic expressions, alliteration etc.) are in close relation with the type and communicative goal of the documents or texts in which they appear.
WARM-UP ASSIGNMENT 1:
You will write a one page composition analyzing and comparing the different texts in the introduction of the pamphlet ("why do people read") using the information provided in the chapter 7, 8 and 9 which describes the characteristics of the different Functional styles. You will use a Times New Roman type of letter number 12 (check for this on the menu of your Microsoft Office) it must be in .doc format (Microsoft office version 2003, 2007, 2010 or 2013). If must conform to the rules of good writing, so check for spelling, correct syntax (sentence organization) and paragraph (for some practice on these topics, click here) structuring. It must be sent by Thursday February 14, 2012 before 11 p.m. for this use the Google docs tag of your Google account.
See you next Monday, February 17, 2014 in JJ-109.
No comments:
Post a Comment