Functional Styles. Афанасьева Н.Р - 7 стр.

excites our admiration," in Darwin's words – gives us a new re-                  Text analysis
spect for your ordinary Joe and the much-maligned English lan-
guage (or any language). The complexity of language, from the scien-              1. Where does the author explicitly formulate his thesis state-
tist's point of view, is part of our biological birthright; it is not      ment? Does he repeat or paraphrase it anywhere in the text? Why?
something that parents teach their children or something that must                What structure of argumentation is it? (See the information in the
be elaborated in school – as Oscar Wilde said, "Education is an admi-      appendices)
rable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that noth-
                                                                                  2. Define the communicative function of the text. How is it
ing that is worth knowing can be taught." A preschooler's tacit know-
ledge of grammar is more sophisticated than the thickest style man-        connected with the topic of the text?
ual or the most state-of-the-art computer language system, and                    3. Define other goals the author may have had in mind while
the same applies to all healthy human beings, even the notorious           writing the text. How does he achieve these goals? What explicit and
syntax-fracturing professional athlete and the, you know, like, inar-      implicit means does he use?
ticulate teenage skateboarder. Finally, since language is the product             4. Now refer to the information in the appendices about the
of a well-engineered biological instinct, we shall see that it is not
                                                                           difference between the communicative function and pragmatic aim
the nutty barrel of monkeys that entertainer-columnists make it
out to be. I will try to restore some dignity to the English vernacular,
                                                                           of a text. Formulate them as far as this text is concerned.
and will even have some nice things to say about its spelling system….            5. Analyze the author’s use of figurative language comment-
                                                                           ing on the effect achieved by using them.
      1. What is the topic of the text?                                           6. Does the author use emotional or rational appeal to sup-
      2. What is the author’s main claim? How does he prove it?            port his claims? Why?
                                                                                  7. What features prevail: those of argumentative or persua-
      Questions on style                                                   sive writing? Give instances from the text to prove your opinion.
       1. Compare this text with Text 1. What is similar? What is                 8. Sum up your ideas about the ways the author chooses to
different? Identify the main points of difference.                         achieve the aims he has set out. Does he succeed in it?
       2. How would you define the style (substyle) of the text?
       3. Make a list of features of this type of text in English. (You
may use other texts of the same kind). Give examples from the text to
illustrate your ideas.
       4. In what respect are texts of this substyle in English differ-
ent form those in Russian?
       5. Choose a paragraph and translate it to show the difference
in the conventional ways of writing texts of this kind in Russian –
make necessary changes to adapt it and to make it sound natural in
Russian.



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