Lecture 3 Formal style

1.Learned words
2.Foreignisms and barbarisms
3.Scientific prose
4. Officialese
5.Refined words
6.Modes of poetic diction
7.Archaic and Obsolete Words
8.Professional Terminology
 Formal style is restricted to formal situations. In
general formal words fall into two main groups:
words associated with professional communication
and a less exclusive group of the so called learned
words.
Professional Learned words ( poetry and fiction)
communication

Professional Foreignisms Scientific Officialese Archaic Modes

terminology and prose and of

barbarisms Obsolete poetic

words diction
1. Learned words.
These words are mainly associated with the printed page. It is in
this vocabulary stratum that poetry and fiction find their main resources.
The term learned includes several subdivisions of words. Any educated
English – speaking individual is sure to use many learned words not
only in his formal letters and professional communication but also in his
everyday speech, and their speech is certainly richer for it.
In the following extract it achieves a definitely incongruous note.
For ex.: “You should find no difficulty in obtaining a secretarial
post in the city.” Carel said “obtaining a post” and not “getting a job”. It
was a part of bureaucratic manner which, Muriel noticed, he kept
reserved for her. ( From “The Time of Angels” by I. Murdoch).
Writers use this phenomenon for stylistic purposes. When a
character in a book uses two many learned words it produces a comic
effect.
 Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion by B. Shaw engaging in
traditional English small talk answers the question “Will it rain, do
you think?” in the following way:
“The shallow depression in the west of these islands is likely to
move slowly in an easterly direction there are no indications of any
great change in the barometrical situation.”

This piece of modern prose is rich in literary words which underline

its reserved beauty. One might say that it is the selection of words which
makes the description what it is: serious, devoid of cheap sentimentality.
Without knowing some learned words, it is even impossible to read
fiction (not to mention scientific articles) or to listen to lectures
delivered in the foreign language. It is true, that some of these words
should be carefully selected and “activized” to become part of the
students’ functional vocabulary.
 2. Foreignisms and barbarisms
Hundreds or thousands of foreign words have been borrowed into the
English language since Anglo-Saxon period. Most of them have been
entirely assimilated. The term assimilation is a partial or whole
conformation of the phonetical, graphical and morphological standards of
the receiving language and its syntactic system. According to the degree of
assimilation borrowed words may be classified into:
1. completely assimilated loan words
2. partially assimilated loan words
3. unassimilated loan words or barbarisms.
A foreignism is a loanword that has not been adapted and integrated into the
recipient language at all and that is not (yet) perceived as belonging to it
fully.
 Barbarisms occur in speech only, but do not form part of the
language system. These words are on outskirts of the literary language.
It should be noted that barbarisms differ from foreign words proper in
that have become facts of the English language, known and used by the
English speaking community. Most of them have corresponding
equivalents: ex. et cetera “and so on”, chic “elegant”.
A barbarism is a nonstandard word, expression or pronunciation
in a language, particularly one regarded as an error in morphology.
Foreign words do not belong to the English vocabulary. They are
used in English books to provide local colour. Barbarisms are also used
for the same purpose, but they also have another function – the
function of elevation. They play an important role in speech character.
A person who uses barbarisms is obviously an educated person.
3. Scientific prose: numerous words that are used in scientific prose and
can be identified by their dry, matter-of-fact flavour, e.g. comprise,
compile, experimental, heterogeneous, homogeneous, conclusive). Special
terminology is used in various specific branches of knowledge and art, it’s
that stylistically marked part of the vocabulary which is used in special
works dealing with processes and results of scientific research. It is not
difficult to understand the importance of this special vocabulary. The terms
are usually used in scientific and technical literature and speech. In fiction
and publicistic literature their functions change.
The function of the term in non-scientific literature is either to indicate the
technical peculiarities of the subject to make some reflections to the
occupation of a character whose language could naturally contain special
words and expressions.
4. Officialese (канцеляризмы). These are words of official
bureaucratic language, the formal and typically verbose style of
writing considered to be characteristic of official documents,
especially when it is difficult to understand.
e.g. to assist (help), endeavour (try), proceed (go),
approximately (about), sufficient (enough), attired (dressed),
inquire (ask).
Typical example of officialese:
You are authorized to acquire the work in question by
purcahase through the ordinary trade channels – We advise
you to buy the book in a shop.
5. Refined words – polysyllabic words drawn from the
Romance languages and fully adapted to the English
phonetic system, some of them
continue to sound singularly foreign. Their sound seems to
create complex associations: e.g. solitude, sentiment,
fascination, delusion, meditation, cordial, illusionary.
 6. Modes of poetic diction – poetic words are lofty, high-flown, they
sound archaic, colouring:
Example:
Alas! They had been friends in youth; But
whispering tongues can poison truth And
constancy lives in realms above; And life
is thorny; and youth is vain; And to be
wroth with one we love,
Doth work like madness in the brain…
(Cole
ridge
)
Definition: Elevated and often archaic
language used by poets to create a heightened
emotional or intellectual effect.
The poetic language of today is less pretentious, artificial and
correspondingly more direct, simple and clear than the poetic language of
the 18 century in Anglo-Saxon poetry, in which the sea was called the
playground of the winds, a sword was called the light of battle, woman was
called the ornament of home, etc. The English vocabulary of today is a set
of words with fixed poetic connotations. Their usage was typical of poetry
in the 18 century but in the 1-st quarter of the 19-century the so called
poetic diction fell into disuse. Poetic words usually have neutral synonyms:
steed - horse, behold - to see, etc. In modern language and conversation
poetic words are used with a satirical, ironical or humorous function.
 7. Archaic and obsolete words. Learned words and archaisms are both
associated with the printed page. Many learned words may also be used in
conversational situations. This cannot happen with archaisms, which are
invariably restricted to the printed page. These words are partly or fully out of
circulation, rejected by the living language. Their last refuge is in historical
novels and writers use them to create a particular period atmosphere.
Thou and thy, aye “yes” and nay “no” are archaic and rejected by common
usage, yet poets use them even today. We can find the same words and other
archaisms among dialectisms, which is quite natural, as dialects are also
conservative and retain archaic words and structures.
Numerous archaisms can be found in Shakespeare, but it should be taken
into consideration that what appear to us today as archaisms in the works of
Shakespeare.
Other examples of archaisms are: morn for morning, eve for evening,
moon
for month, damsel for girl, errant for wandering, e.g. errant knights.
 8. Professional Terminology
Hundreds of thousands of words belong to special scientific, professional or
trade terminological systems and are not used or even understood by people
outside the particular speciality. Every field of modern activity has its
specialized vocabulary. There is a special medical vocabulary, and similarly
special terminology for psychology, linguistics, teaching methods and others.
There are several problems in the field of terminology.
The first one: does a term lose its terminological status when it comes into
common use? Various elements of media of communication (TV, radio, popular
magazines, science fiction, etc.) supply people with scraps of knowledge from
different scientific fields, technology and arts (sport, politics, etc.). From this
point of view words associated with medical sphere such as unit «доза»,
theatre «операционная», contact «носитель инфекции» are no longer
medical terms as they are more or less in common usage.
The second one deals with controversial problems of polysemy and
synonymy. An “ideal” term should have one meaning. Polysemantic terms may
lead to misunderstanding. E.g.: colour stands for the «цвет» and stuff used for
colouring «краска».
The same is true about synonymy in terminological systems. Some
scholars insist that terms shouldn’t have synonyms because scientists would
name the same objects and phenomena in their field by different terms and and
wouldn’t come to any agreement. In fact terms possess synonyms.
 Questions for discussion
1. Where are formal words used?
2. Are learned words used only in books? Which type
of learned books, do you think, is especially suitable
for verbal communication? Which is least suitable
and even undesirable?
3. What are the principal characteristics of archaic
words?
4. What are the controversial problems connected with
professional terminology?
5. Do you think that students of English should learn
terms? If so far which branch or branches of
knowledge?