An Introduction To Linguistic Stylistics, I. MURAR

IOANA MURAR
AN INTRODUCTION
TO LINGUISTIC STYLISTICS
1
2
CONTENTS
Preface 7
List of abbreviations 8
1. Main concepts and definitions 9

1.1. Definitions of style 9
1.2. Definitions of stylistics 11
1.3. The scope of stylistic study 12
1.4. Stylistics and language 14
2. Varieties of the English language 16

2.1. Introduction 16
2.2. Variation according to language user 17
2.2.1. Regional variation: dialects 17
2.2.2. Social variation: Standard English 20
2.2.3. Variation according to age and gender 21
2.3. Variation according to language use: register 22
2.3.1. Attitude (style or tenor) 23
2.3.2. Medium (mode) 28
2.3.3. Field of discourse (domain) 29
3. Speech and writing in discourse 32

3.1. The functions of speech and writing 32
3.1.1. Introduction 32
3.1.2. The written language 34
3.1.3. The spoken language 35
3.2. The forms of speech and writing 35
3.3. Linguistic characteristics of speech and writing 37
3.3.1. The spoken variety 37
3.3.1.1. Morpho-syntactic features 37
3.3.1.2. Lexical features 43
3.3.2. The written variety 44
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3.4. ‘Typical’ speech and ‘typical’ writing 48
3.4.1. Inexplicitness 49
3.4.2. Lack of clear sentence boundary 49
3.4.3. Simple structure 51
3.4.4. Repetitive repertoire 52
3.4.5. Normal dysfluency 53
3.4.6. Monitoring and interaction features 53
3.4.7. Informality of style 54
3.4.8. Typical forms and in-between cases 55
4. Tenor and domain in discourse 57

4.1. Tenor (attitude) 57
4.1.1. Features of tenor 57
4.1.2. Tenor (attitude) and discourse 61
4.2. Domain 64
4.2.1. General considerations 64
4.2.2. The functions of language 66
4.2.3. Domain and discourse 71
5. Grammar and principles of good writing 76

5.1. Making language easy to follow 76
5.1.1. Sentence length 76
5.1.2. Subordination 78
5.1.3. Ordering: end-focus and end-weight 80
5.1.4. Style and structure-changing rules 83
5.1.4.1. Passive sentences 85
5.1.4.2. Cleft sentences 86
5.1.4.3. Existential sentences 87
5.1.4.4. Extraposition 89
5.1.4.5. Fronting 89
5.1.4.6. Substitution of PP for IO 90
5.1.4.7. Postponement of postmodifier 90
5.2. The principle of clarity 91
5.3. The principle of economy 92
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5.3.1. Reduction 93
5.3.2. Clarity vs. economy 95
5.4. The principle of effective communication 96
5.5. Application of the principles of style 98
5.5.1. Stylistic weakness of sentences 99
5.5.2. Ambiguities 101
6. The functional styles of the English language 104

6.1. The style of fiction 107
6.1.2. Linguistic features 177
6.1.3. Types of meaning 109
6.1.3.1. Denotative meaning 109
6.1.3.2. Connotative meaning 110
6.1.3.3. Figurative meaning 111
6.1.3.4. Symbolic meaning 112
6.1.4. The stylistic analysis of fiction 114
6.1.4.1. General considerations 114
6.1.4.2. Areas of stylistic analysis 115
6.1.5. Linguistic patterns in fictional prose 118
6.1.5.1. The Great Gatsby by S. Fitzgerald 118
6.1.5.2. Bleak House by Ch Dickens 125
6.1.5.3. The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence 128
6.1.6. Linguistic patterns in poetry 133
6.1.6.1. Heaven – Haven by G.M. Hopkins 133
6.1.6.2. Off course by E. Morgan 135
6.2. The style of newspapers/ journalism 140

6.2.2. Linguistic characteristics 141
6.2.3. Brief news items 143
6.2.3.1. Syntactic structures 143
6.2.4. Advertisements and announcements 149
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6.2.4.1. Syntactic structures 150
6.2.4.3. Rhetorical devices 152
6.2.5. The Headline 153
6.2.5.2. Syntactic features 154
6.2.6. The Editorial 156
6.3. The style of scientific prose 157

6.3.2. Linguistic features 157
6.3.2.2. Grammatical features 160
6.4. The style of official documents 167

6.4.2. The language of business 168
6.4.2.4. Compositional patterns 171
6.4.3. The language of legal documents 173
References 183
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PREFACE
The goal of this textbook was twofold: first, to provide first

year students of English (Master’s Degree) with some basic
principles of linguistic stylistics; secondly, to provide practical
guidance for text analysis. More precisely, an important
objective underlying this book was to develop students’
awareness regarding the meaning of linguistic structures as
they mark a variety of discourses and language usages in
particular contexts and situations; furthermore, to develop
skills for the stylistic analysis of texts in terms of their lexis,
grammar, textual cohesion and coherence, as well as rhetorical
devices, thus, relating the linguistic form of the texts to their
meaning and purpose.
The textbook is structured into six chapters. Chapter one
provides an overview of the main concepts and definitions of
the terms ‘style’ and ‘stylistics’. Chapter two discusses
varieties of the English language, taking into account variations
according to language user and language use. The next two
chapters are devoted to the analysis of speech/writing (chapter
three) and tenor/domain (chapter four) in discourse. Chapter
fives focuses on the relationship between grammar competence
and principles of good writing. The last chapter explores some
other linguistic aspects of stylistic study represented by the
functional styles of the English language.
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List of abbreviations
A Adverbial
C Complement
Cl Clause
Conj. Conjunction
DO Direct object
H Head
IO Indirect object
M (Pre- or post-) modifier
MCl Main Clause
Mv Main verb
NCl Noun clause
NP Noun phrase
O Object
P Predicate
PP Prepositional phrase
S Subject
VP Verb phrase
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1. MAIN CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
1.1. Definitions of Style

Scholars consider that the concept ‘style’ is so broad that it is
hardly possible to be regarded as a term. Even in linguistics the
word ‘style’ is used so extensively that it needs some
interpretation. Most linguists who deal with the subject of style
agree that the term can be applied to several fields of
investigation: the aesthetic function of language; expressive
means in language; synonymous ways of rendering one and the
same idea; the emotional colouring of language; the system of
special devices called stylistic devices; the individual manner
of an author in making use of language.
The understanding of the term ‘style’ influences the
characteristics given to Stylistics considered an important
linguistic discipline. Some of the most salient characteristics of
style are presented below (from Katie Wales, A Dictionary of
Stylistics, 2001: 370-372):
i. Style refers to the perceived distinctive manner of
expression in writing or speaking, just as there is a perceived
manner of doing things, like playing squash or painting. We
might talk of someone writing in an ‘ornate style’ or speaking
in a ‘comic style’. For some people style has evaluative
connotations, as it can be ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
ii. There are different styles in different situations (e.g.
comic vs. turgid); also, the same activity can produce stylistic
variation (for example, no two people will have the same style
in writing an essay). So style can be seen as variation in
language use, whether literary or non-literary. The term
register is commonly used for those systemic variations in
linguistic features common to particular non-literary situations,
e.g. legal language, advertising, newspaper reporting, etc.
Style may vary not only from situation to situation but also
according to medium and degree of formality, this being
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sometimes termed style-shifting. On a larger scale, style may
vary, in literary language, from one genre to another, or from
one period to another (e.g., we may talk of the style of
Augustan poetry, etc.) Style is thus seen against a background
of larger or smaller domains or contexts.
iii. In each case, style is seen as the sum of distinctive
linguistic features that seem to be characteristic of a particular
register, genre or period, etc. Style is very commonly defined
in this way, especially at the level of text: e.g., we may refer to
the style of John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale, or that of Jane
Austen’s Emma.
Since stylistic features are basically features of
language, style is in one sense synonymous with language
(thus, we can speak equally of the language of Ode to a
Nightingale). When applied to the domain of an author’s entire
work, style is the set of features peculiar to, or characteristic of
that author: his /her language habits or idiolects. So we speak
of Miltonic style, or Johnsonese (i.e. the literary style of Dr.
Samuel Johnson, characterized by erudition, Latinisms,
pomposity, etc).
iv. Since each author makes use of the general stock of the
language in any given period, what makes style distinctive is
the choice of items, as well as their distribution and patterning.
Style is thus defined in terms of choice of items, the selection
of features being partly determined by the demands of genre,
form, theme, etc.
It is considered that all utterances have a style, even if they
might seem relatively ‘plain’ or ‘unmarked’: a plain style is
itself a style (i.e. zero degree).
v. In another approach to style, some scholars (see N.
Enkvist, 1973) compare one set of features with another in
terms of a deviation from a norm. It would be wrong to imply
that style itself is deviant in the sense of ‘abnormal’, even
though there are certain marked poetic idiolects like those of
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Gerard M. Hopkins, Dylan Thomas and e.e. cummins. What we
have to do is match a text or piece of language against the
linguistic norms of its genre, or its period, and the common
core of the language as a whole. Different texts will reveal
different patterns of dominant or foregrounded features.
1.2. Definitions of Stylistics

According to Geoffrey Finch, stylistics is concerned with
using the methodology of linguistics to study the concept of
‘style’ in language. Every time we use language we necessarily
adopt a style of some sort: we make a selection from a range of
syntactic and lexical possibilities according to the purpose of
the communication (G. Finch, 2000: 189)
Stylistics in the 20th century replaced and expanded on the
earlier discipline known as rhetoric or elocution in rhetoric.
Following the publication of a two-volume treatise on French
stylistics by Ch. Bally (1909: Traité de stylistique française),
who was a pupil of the structuralist Ferdinand de Saussure,
interest in stylistics gradually spread across Europe. It was in
the 1960s that it really began to flourish in Britain and also the
United States, being given impetus from post-war
developments in descriptive linguistics, grammar in particular.
In many respects, however, stylistics is close to literary
criticism, since by far the most common kind of material
studied is literary, and since attention is largely text-centred.
The goal of most stylistic studies is not simply to describe the
formal features of texts for their own sake, but in order to show
their functional significance for the interpretation of the text;
or in order to relate literary effects or themes to linguistic
‘triggers’ where these are felt to be relevant (Wales, 2001: 373).
Stylistics draws on the models and terminology provided
by whichever aspects of linguistics are felt to be relevant. Thus,
in the late 1960s generative grammar was influential; in the
1970s and 1980s discourse analysis and pragmatics had a
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major impact on stylistics; in the 1990s critical discourse
analysis and cognitive linguistics were extremely influential.
Stylistics also draws eclectically on trends in literary theory,
so the 1970s saw a shift away from the text itself to the reader
and his/her responses to the text (we can see, in this respect,
theories such as affective stylistics, or reception theory/
aesthetics).
1.3. The Scope of Stylistic Study

There are various sub-branches of stylistics, reflecting the
diversity of approaches which exist within the field itself.
These approaches in contemporary stylistics are as follows:
i. A contrast is often drawn between literary stylistics and
linguistic stylistics:
- literary (poetic) stylistics tends to focus on literary texts,
attempting to give an objectively-based account of literary
merit, or worth.
- linguistic stylistics uses models drawn from linguistics.
Commenting on the distinction between linguistic stylistics and
literary stylistics, on aspects at the interface between language
and literature, as well as on certain difficulties of dividing the
two sub-branches of stylistics, Mick Short points out that “…
stylistics can sometimes look like either linguistics or literary
criticism depending upon where you are standing when looking
at it.” (1996: 1).
A detailed discussion of the directions of research within
linguistic stylistics is provided in the book edited by Jean
Jacques Weber (The Stylistics Reader: From Roman Jakobson
to the Present, 1996).
ii. General stylistics is used as a cover term for the analysis
of non-literary varieties of language, or registers (see D.
Crystal and D. Davy, Investigating English Style, 1969). The
main focus of such studies is on establishing principles which
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can account for the choices made by individuals and social
groups in their use of language.
iii. Because of this broad scope stylistics is closely
associated with sociolinguistics. Thus, in the most recent
decades, stylistic explorations which have been developing
within the framework of sociolinguistics, termed
sociostylistics, study, for instance, the language of writers as
social groups (e.g. the Elizabethan university wits;
pamphleteers); or various ‘fashions’ in language.
iv. Formalist stylistics and functional stylistics: A
distinction has been made between formalist stylistics and
functional stylistics based on the opposition between formalist
and functionalist approaches in linguistic studies. . Formalist
stylistics is represented by the works of Roman Jakobson;
functional stylistics is based on K. Bühler’s and R. Jakobson’s
theories regarding the functions of language, its role to describe
and explain functional styles as well as individual and
collective modalities of using language according to different
contexts. At present, functional stylistics is represented mainly
by M. A.K Halliday.
v. Discourse stylistics became popular in the 1990s, marking
a new direction in stylistics, a direction away from formal
analyses to more contextualized, discourse-oriented
approaches, such as, sociolinguistic, pragmatic and feminist
approaches. This approach to stylistics is represented by recent
work of Mick Short, Mary Louise Pratt and Peter Verdonk
(2002: Stylistics). Also, Vimala Herman’s extensive study of
drama discourse (1996: Dramatic Discourse: Dialogue as
Interaction in Plays) includes a discussion of the way
principles of social interaction can be applied to the
interpretation of play dialogue.
vi. Affective stylistics is associated with critics such as
Stanley Fish (1970: Literature in the reader: affective
stylistics), who are interested not only in emotional responses,
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but more particularly in the mental operations involved in the
process of reading.
vii. Cognitive stylistics/ poetics emerged in the 1990s, being
generally concerned with the cognitive effects of style, and
especially concerned with metaphor. Useful theoretical
information for cognitive stylistics is provided by Joanna
Gavins and Gerard Steen (2003: Cognitive Poetics in Practice);
by Elena Semino and Jonathan Culpeper (2002: Cognitive
Stylistics: Language and Cognition in Text Analysis); also,
Katie Wales in The Language of James Joyce (1992) uses the
cognitive perspective in the treatment of the style of James
Joyce.
viii. Pedagogical stylistics focuses on how concepts and
methods from stylistics can enrich the teaching of texts in the
beginning, intermediate and advanced levels of native and
foreign language study. Pedagogical stylistics is represented by
the work of Henry G. Widdowson (1992: Practical Stylistics),
Ronald Carter and Paul Simpson (1989: Language, Discourse
and Literature. An Introductory Reader in Discourse Stylistics).
1. 4. Stylistics and language

Stylistics is a method of textual interpretation in which
primacy of place is assigned to language. Language is
extremely important to stylisticians because the various forms,
patterns and levels that constitute linguistic structure are a
significant index of the function of the text. According to Paul
Simpson (2006: 3-5), to do stylistics is to explore language,
and, more specifically, to explore creativity in language use.
Language in its broadest conceptualization is not a
disorganized mass of sounds and symbols, but is instead an
intricate web of levels, layers and links.
Here is a list of the major levels of language and their related
technical terms in language study, along with a brief
description of what each level covers:
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Level of language Branch of language study
The sound of spoken language; Phonology; phonetics
the way words are pronounced.
The patterns of written language; Graphology

the shape of language on the page.
The way words are constructed; Morphology
words and their constituent structures.
The way words combine with other Syntax; grammar

words to form phrases and sentences
The words we use; the vocabulary Lexical analysis,

of a language lexicology
The meaning of words and sentences Semantics
The way words and sentences are Pragmatics;

used in everyday situations; discourse analysis
the meaning of language in context
According to P. Simpson (2006: 5), these basic levels of

language can be identified and teased out in the stylistic
analysis of text, which in turn makes the analysis itself more
organized and principled.
2. VARIETIES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
2.1. Introduction
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The term variety is used in sociolinguistics and stylistics to
refer to any system of linguistic expression whose use is
governed by situational variables. In some cases, the situational
variables of the language may be easily stated, as in many
regional and occupational varieties (e.g. London English,
religious English); in other cases, as in studies of social class,
the varieties are more difficult to define, involving the
intersection of several variables (e.g. sex, age, occupation).
Linguists recognize five major types of language variation: (1)
region, (2) social group, (3) attitude (or tenor), (4) medium
(or mode), (5) field of discourse (or domain) (see, for
example, S. Greenbaum and R. Quirk, A Student’s Grammar of
the English Language. 1990: 4-5; G. Leech et al., English
Grammar for Today. A New Introduction. 2006: 7-10).
This section discusses a model that provides an approach to
the variations we find in English in terms of two large
categories, namely, the people who use the language (the
language users) and the situations which people find
themselves in (the language uses). The more permanent
characteristics, referring to language users, are called dialects,
while the various situational factors that influence language use
are collectively referred to as registers.
The first two types of variation (i.e., region and social group)
relate primarily to the language user. People use a regional
variety because they live in a region or have once lived in that
region. Similarly, people use a social variety because of their
affiliation with a social group. These varieties are relatively
permanent for the language user.
The last three types of variation (i.e., attitude /tenor),
medium /mode), field of discourse (domain) refer to the
language use. People select a type of variety according to the
situation and the purpose of the communication. Thus, the
attitude (or tenor), expressed through language is conditioned
by the relationship of the participants in the particular situation.
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The medium (or mode) may be spoken or written, generally
depending on the proximity of the participants in the
communication. The field of discourse (or domain) relates to
the activity in which they are engaged.
In spite of the diversity of these varieties, there is a common
core (represented by a set of grammatical lexical features)
present in all of them, which justifies the application of the
name ‘English’ to all the varieties.
In the sections below we consider these variations in
language in more detail.
2.2. Variation according to language user

The characteristics of the language user which can affect
language include the following: regional origin; social-class
membership; age; gender.
2.2.1. Regional variation: dialects

Varieties according to region are usually referred to as
dialects. There are various types of dialects, including
temporal, regional, social and individual criteria.
Temporal dialects refer to the older forms of the English
language, such as Old or Middle English. Some knowledge of
the temporal dialects, or of the earlier stages of English, is
relevant to a full and correct understanding of the present-day
language. Thus, reading Shakespeare or trying to understand
items like kith and kin and ye olde tea shoppe requires
historical information which can be found in reference books
on the history of the English language or in etymological
dictionaries.
Regional and social dialects reflect the geographic
variation which is extremely prominent in English. This
variation may include regions within a single country or it may
involve the national varieties of English. Furthermore, the
urban - rural divide continues to be a major source of variation.
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The most important examples of regional studies of English
are represented by the dialect studies carried out in the United
States and Canada (The Linguistic Atlas of the United States
and Canada, acronym LAUSC, ed. H. Kurath, 1954), in
England (The Survey of English Dialects, SED, ed. H. Orton,
1962), as well as in Scotland (The Linguistic Atlas of Scotland,
in 3 volumes, ed. J. Y. Mathar, 1985). For example, The Survey
of English Dialects largely ignored age and social differences,
emphasis being placed on farming culture. The object of the
survey was to determine phonetic, morphological, syntactic
and lexical points using such methods as naming, completing,
talking, converting (for example, present to past tense), and
reverse questions (“What does corn mean?”) in direct
interviews.
Geographical dispersion is in fact the classic basis for
linguistic variation, and in the course of time, with poor
communications and relative remoteness, such dispersion
resulted in dialects becoming so distinct that we regard them as
different languages. This latter stage was long ago reached with
the Germanic dialects that are now distinct languages: Dutch,
English, German, Swedish, etc., but it has not been reached
(and may not necessarily ever be reached, given the modern
ease and range of communication) with the dialects of English
that have resulted from the regional separation of communities
within the British Isles (e.g. Welsh, Scottish).
The term ‘dialect’ is often used to reflect regional origin, as
in, for example, New England dialect, Cockney (London)
dialect, but can be used to refer to any language variety related
to the personal characteristics listed above.
We can often tell where a person comes from by the way
s/he speaks. Depending on how familiar we are with the variety
of a given region, we may be able to identify, for example,
Cockney (the dialect spoken by a native of London, especially
of the East End), Glaswegian (the dialect used by an inhabitant
18
of Glasgow) or Scouse (the dialect of English spoken in and
around Liverpool). On an international level, we may be able to
identify, dialect features of Australian, Canadian, Caribbean or
Singaporean English.
We can identify speech on the basis of its pronunciation,
vocabulary or grammar. For example, in Yorkshire dialect, as
in some other northern English dialects, the words put and putt
are pronounced alike because the vowel [٨] found in the
standard or southern pronunciation of words such as putt, cup,
bus, etc. is not used. Yorkshire dialect also has its own
vocabulary, for example the use of the word happen to mean
perhaps. On the level of grammar, the dialect has were as the
past tense of the verb be in all its forms, so that, for example,
he were is commonly heard instead of he was.
Idiolect (or a person’s individual dialect) refers not so
much to a different sort of dialect as to a selection of dialects,
which together make up a large part of a person’s linguistic
individuality. Although idiolect can contain a few items that
only this person uses, it usually consists of the established
vocabulary common to most speakers of the person’s speech
community. It is quite difficult to describe someone’s idiolect
as it tends to change over time and according to the
circumstances he or she finds herself or himself in. Idiolect
will, for example, reflect a person’s gender in the choice of
lexis and it may well show regional mixes of one kind or
another. American writers, for example, may use British items
like tarted up or roof rack, or use native faucet beside tap.
Idiolects are therefore not fixed once and for
all, but are dynamic, changing according to time, place,
occasion, etc.
2.2.2. Social variation: Standard vs. non-standard
English
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Within each of the dialects there is considerable variation in
speech according to education, socio-economic group, and
ethnic group. Some differences correlate with age and sex.
There is an important polarity between uneducated and
educated speech in which the former can be identified with the
nonstandard regional dialect(s) most completely while the
latter moves away from regional usage to a form of English
that cuts across various regional boundaries.
Just as educated English I saw cuts across regional
boundaries, so do many features of uneducated use: a typical
example is the double negative, as in He didn’t see nothing,
which is regarded as unacceptable in Standard English, but
which continues to be used as an emphatic form in uneducated
speech wherever English is spoken (Greenbaum & Quirk,
1990: 5).
One should also note that educated English naturally tends
to be given the additional prestige of government agencies, the
professions, the political parties, the press, the law court, and
the clergy, i.e. any institution which must attempt to address
itself to a public beyond the smallest dialectal community.
Because educated English is thus accorded implicit social and
political sanction, it comes to be referred to as Standard
English.
Standard English is the variety of English found in
newspapers and books, widely used in the mass media and
taught in most schools (where English is studied as a second or
foreign language). It is clearly associated with education and
broadcasting in public contexts and is more normally described
in terms of the written language (i.e. vocabulary, spelling,
grammar) than the spoken language.
According to Leech et al., “the standard language is in fact
just another variety or dialect: in English use throughout the
world, there are similar ‘standardized’ varieties widely
accepted as the most suitable for public communication.
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Beginning in Britain more than five hundred years ago,
Standard English became established as that variety which was
generally used by southern British, educated speakers of the
language, and in writing and in public usage including,
nowadays, radio and television. Standard English is sometimes
known as ‘BBC English’ or even ‘The Queen’s English’. A
similar standard (with some differences, for example, in
spelling and pronunciation) exists for American English.
Standard English is not inherently better or more ‘grammatical’
than non-standard English – all varieties are grammatical in
that they follow rules. Clearly, Standard English gained
prestige for social rather than linguistic reasons. It was
ultimately based on the usage of educated people living in the
south-east of England, where the important institutions of
government and education became established” (Leech et al.,
2006: 8).
In contrast with Standard English, forms that are especially
associated with uneducated (rather than dialectal) use are
generally called Non-standard. Non-standard forms are those
forms which are different from the usage of educated speakers
and considered by some incorrect and not accepted in Standard
English.
2.2.3. Variation according to age and gender

Scholars admit that little is known about the effect of age on
language variation, but there are grammatical features which
distinguish age dialects to some extent. For example, the
question Have you any money? is more likely to be asked by an
older speaker of British English than a younger speaker, who
would be more likely to use the construction (normal for
American English): Do you have any money?
Gender and the use of linguistic varieties, differences of
language behaviour between male and female speakers have
been the focus of great interest in recent years. Notably, Leech
21
et al. (2006: 9) provide some examples of typical linguistic
differences between male and female speakers:
- Female speakers show a tendency to use more standard
pronunciation than men. For example, in words such as
getting, speaking, etc., women are more inclined to use the
standard pronunciation of –ing as /iŋ/, unlike men who tend to
use the pronunciations of –ing as /in/.
- Males show a stronger tendency to use non-standard
grammar, for example, double negative constructions, as in I
ain’t doing nothing, I didn’t want no trouble.
- Males also show a stronger tendency to use taboo words
(words that people avoid because they are extremely offensive
or embarrassing) and ‘rude’ expressions.
- Another difference is a tendency among males to use less
polite language (i.e. bald-on record strategies), such as plain
imperative forms, e.g., Sit down. Female speakers, on the other
hand, show a preference for hedging, for less confrontational
(or less aggressive) strategies, such as Let’s sit down, Would
you like to sit down, etc.
We conclude this section by pointing out that all these
characteristics of the language user can combine and interact
with one another, so that any individual will speak a language
variety made up of features associated with several factors. For
example, taboo expressions are associated with: (i) gender
differences (males rather than females); (ii) social stratification
(lower social strata rather than higher); (iii) age variation
(younger people rather than older).
2.3. Variation according to language use: register

Variation in language depends on when and where someone
lives as well as on what his or her gender and social class
identities are, but it also depends on “what you are speaking
about; who your addressees are; how well you know them;
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whether you are addressing them orally or in writing” (Quirk &
Stein, 1990: 41).
This second set of factors relates not so much to the
individual user as to language use in certain situations.
While the term ‘dialect’ normally refers to language
variation according to the user, the term ‘register’ refers to
variation according to use (diatype or ‘style’ in a general
sense). Register can be subdivided into three factors of
language use, each of which may affect the language variety,
namely, (i) Attitude (style or tenor); (ii) Medium (or mode);
(iii) Field of discourse (or domain)
2.3.1. Attitude (Style or tenor)

The nature of our relation to others, as conveyed by “those
features which are restricted to a certain social context”
(Crystal & Davy, 1969: 60), sometimes termed personal tenor,
is expressed in the style of our communication. Varieties
according to attitude (tenor) or according to the relationship
between a speaker and the addressee(s) in a given situation,
expressed by greater or less formality, are often called
‘stylistic’. These varieties refer to the choice that depends on
our attitude to the hearer (or reader), to the topic, and to the
purpose of our communication.
Style involves a number of factors which can be divided up
into a number of different levels. One of the most widely
accepted criteria of style is that of formality, with a basic
opposition between formal and informal.
Some linguists suggest further, finer distinctions within the
formal /informal opposition. According to Leech et al. (2006:
9), there is a gradient in attitude between formal (relatively
stiff, cold, polite, impersonal) and informal (relatively relaxed,
warm, casual, friendly); in-between, there is a neutral English
level bearing no obvious attitudinal colouring, which belongs
to the common core of English.
23
For example, a request to close the window might be
expressed by Would you be so kind as to close the window? in a
very formal situation, compared with Shut the window, Tom - in
an informal situation.
The relationship between the participants in the situation
will affect the kind of language chosen, particularly in terms of
the degree of formality: we can contrast an interview for a job,
a chat among friends, a research article on outer space, etc.
There are significant choices of lexical items, for instance,
intimate and colloquial vocabulary occurring in the chat among
friends, contrasting with a high degree of technical, specialized
language in the research article.
As already pointed out, formality also has the effect of
producing speech which is closer to the standard. For example,
a witness in court might be careful to say He didn’t do it, Your
Honour, rather than ‘E never done it, which might be said to
Cockney-speaking friends outside the courtroom.
The conclusion to be drawn from these examples is that a
speaker has to know the right kind of language which should
be used in certain circumstances, though sometimes the wrong
choice may be made deliberately, for instance, for humorous or
ironic effect.
Some linguists, such as R. Quirk et al. (1985), avoid the
rather ambiguous term “style” and replace it with “attitude”.
This term has the advantage of allowing us to include
attitudinal aspects like “derogatory” or “humorous”, even
though it makes personal tenor a polyvalent field. The
preference for the term “attitude” rather than “style” lies in the
scholars’ wish to emphasize the fact that the personal tenor
between people communicating involves a great deal more than
the degree of formality, as suggested by their scale presented in
Figure 1. below (Quirk et al. 1985: 1.33).
very formal – FORMAL – neutral – INFORMAL – very
24
informal
frozen ←-------------------------------------→ casual
rigid familiar
The use of small caps for FORMAL and INFORMAL is

intended to indicate that these are the terms chiefly employed.
Figure 1: Attitude [Style] (from R. Quirk et al. 1985)
There are other factors that should be taken into account in

estimating style, namely distance (including politeness as more
distant and slang as a sign of in-group closeness) as well as
attitude (including ironic, angry, negative-derogatory,
humorous, and much more).
Distinctions in attitude (or tenor, style), referring to the
formality of any given piece of language, are also found in
dictionaries which have such labels as formal, familiar,
informal, colloquial, slang. Most lexical items are not labelled
because they are stylistically neutral. There is often little
agreement on whether an item is colloquial or slang, or on how
many levels ought to be set up.
A well-known model for this type of variety is the study of
style proposed by the Dutch linguist Martin Joos. In his book,
The Five Clocks (1961), Joos takes a variety of factors into
account including social relationships, vocabulary and
grammar. He describes five distinctive context-related styles
that speakers of the English language use on a regular basis:
these are the five clocks, or registers or levels of English usage.
The five styles of English usage recognized by Joos are:
frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimate, described as
follows:
The frozen style is used for print and declamation; people
remain social strangers, since there is no two-way participation.
Vocabulary contains archaisms and extremely formal words.
25
The formal style is described as follows: “Thus
conversations between strangers begin in formal style; among
urbane strangers in English-speaking cultures, the formal span
is only the ceremony of introduction, whose function is to
insure that no real business shall be impeded by formality; it
then lasts for one consultative speech-span, approximately six
seconds…” (Joos, 1961: 35) In this style, emphasis is put on
exact vocabulary.
The consultative style is characterized by two defining
features: (i) The speaker supplies background information – he
does not assume that he will be understood without it… (ii)
The addressee participates continuously, marked by a special
type of backchannel behaviour: e.g. the participant’s use of yes,
yeah, that’s right, oh, I see, yes, I know, etc. to indicate active
listening. Because of these two features, consultative style is
our norm for coming to terms with strangers… (Joos, 1961: 23)
Vocabulary includes all-purpose words like thing, and more
specific or exact ones like item, plan, problem, event, etc.
The casual style is for friends, acquaintances: “…there is
absence of background information and no reliance on
listeners’ participation. This is not rudeness; it pays the
addressee the compliment of supposing that he will understand
without those aids. We have two devices which do the same job
directly, ellipsis, and slang, the two defining features of casual
style” (ibid: 23) Vocabulary contains numerous lexical items
characterized as colloquial or slang.
The intimate style is not used for public information: the
message meaning is in the intonation, not the wording or
grammar (which are minimal). This brevity is not rudeness, but
the highest compliment (ibid: 31) Vocabulary includes private
language, which “is not ephemeral, but part of the permanent
code of this group – it has to be, for intimacy does not tolerate
the slang imputation that the addressee needs to be told that she
is an insider.” (ibid: 32)
26
The five-term model of style proposed by M. Joos can be
illustrated in this way:
Style Example
Frozen style: Visitors should make their way at once to the
upper floor by way of the staircase.
Formal: Visitors should go up the stairs at once.
Consultative: Would you mind going upstairs, right away,
please.
Casual: Time you all went upstairs, now.
Intimate: Up you go, chaps!
As we can notice, a change in tenor involves much more
than a simple change in the stylistic level of the lexemes
(visitors vs. chaps). There is, for example, a change in the
length and explicitness of the message: from make their way to
go, and from the upper floor to up.
Formality choices often go hand in hand with medium
differences, but they are ultimately determined by the
relationship between the people concerned. The closer the
sender (speaker or writer) feels to his or her addressee(s), the
more informal the language which the sender can use.
Conversely, the more distant the personal relationship, the
more formal the personal tenor is likely to be. The frozen and
formal versions above are likely to be announcements over a
ship’s PA system (i.e. public address system), where the
speaker does not see his or her addressees, while the other three
versions can only be uttered when the speaker and hearer see
each other. Personal tenor is thus often determined by physical
closeness or distance. Foreign learners should be careful of
using very informal or potentially offensive lexemes with
people they do not know well.
The approaches reviewed in his section (Crystal & Davy,
Quirk et al., Leech et al., M. Joos) offer a differentiated
understanding of style. In most dictionaries the labels formal
and informal predominate and can be associated with the same
27
in Quirk et al. or with formal and casual in Joos. Entries
marked as archaic, obsolete, old-fashioned, poetic, or pompous
(often abbreviated) are all examples of very formal/frozen.
Labels like colloquial, derogatory, slang, taboo, vulgar are less
clear and overlap with areas covered by both informal/casual
and very informal/intimate.
2.3.2. Medium (or mode)

Medium is often used synonymously with the term
channel. Language is primarily transmitted via the medium of
speech (or phonic medium) along the channel or ‘route’ of
sound-waves in the air; and secondarily via the medium of
writing (or graphic medium) along the channel or ‘route’ of
the written or printed page.
Language is much affected by medium: stress and intonation
are conveyed in speech, but not in writing; writing, which can
be read and re-read across distances of space and time, tends to
be more formal and more complex in structure and meaning
than speech.
The main differences between spoken and written English
derive from two sources:
i. The situation of communication: since the use of a
written medium normally presupposes the absence of the
person(s) addressed, writers must be far more explicit to ensure
that they are understood.
ii. Many of the devices we use to transmit language by
speech (stress, rhythm, intonation, tempo) are impossible to
represent with the relatively limited repertoire of conventional
orthography. In consequence, writers often have to reformulate
their sentences to convey fully and successfully what they want
to express within the orthographic system available to them.
An illustration of this variety is provided by Leech et al.
(2006: 10) who point out that spoken language used in face-to-
face situations relies on many ‘non-verbal’ signals such as
28
gestures and facial expressions. On the telephone, however, the
visual channel is not available so that, for example, Yes or Yeah
has to be substituted for head-nodding. In writing, only the
visual channel is available so the effect of intonation, or ‘tone
of voice’ cannot be conveyed, except, in part, by graphic means
such as exclamation marks and question marks (!, ?).
Written language usually involves addressees who are not
present and so cannot respond immediately, and this has an
effect on the language. For example, in letters or e-mail
messages, direct and shortened questions tend to be less
common than in conversation, so that one might be more likely
to write something like Let me know whether you are coming
rather than Coming?
Scholars have noticed that there is a fascinating merger of
these modes (written and spoken language), represented by
electronic communication, using the internet.
2.3.3. Field of discourse (or domain)

The field of discourse/ domain (also called province)
reflects how language varies according to the human
occupational or professional activity in which it plays a part. It
also reflects the fact that one needs different words to talk
about different subjects. There are many terms that characterize
particular subjects: for example, etymology and lexeme are
found in linguistics; others take on special meanings, for
example to boot up and hardware in computing, etc. There are
also combinations of lexical items that are typical of certain
fields, e.g. desirable residence, or compact patio-style garden,
which are found in the advertisements of property agents in
England.
When we carry on a general conversation about hobbies,
people, the weather, our holidays, etc., these everyday uses of
language are easy because they do not make great demands on
our minds or linguistic abilities. But when we move from the
29
general field of everyday conversation to specialized fields,
such as, chemistry, engineering, or surgery, the number of
people who understand the language, or could themselves use
it, is rather more limited.
A speaker has a repertoire of varieties, according to field and
switches to the appropriate one as occasion demands. A
seminar about chemistry, for example, will involve a wider
range of vocabulary, more technical terms and possibly longer
sentences than a conversation about our holidays. Similarly, the
language of a legal document will be different from that of an
advertisement, and the language of a religious service will be
different from that of newspaper reporting. We can thus refer to
domains of law, engineering, chemistry, religion, sports, and so
on.
There are very many fields depending on how detailed we
wish our analysis to be. The categories of register variation
interact with other categories since both the dimensions of user
and use are always present.
General language is distinguished from technical language
by its lexis (typically represented by a particular set of lexical
items), though other factors are also important. While a
command of various technical vocabularies is a matter of
education and experience, their actual use is conditioned by
various factors. Technical terms used by a surgeon in a hospital
or a lawyer in a court of law are of course a convenient and
precise means of communication. However, when experts use
technical terms with members of the general public things are
rather different: either they are incapable or unwilling to adjust
their language, perhaps because they want to put distance
between them and their interlocutors in order to impress or
exclude them. This is an illustration of language used as social
power, since solidarity with other people would show in words
that everybody can understand.
30
Exercise: Identify the categories of language use (Attitude
/Tenor; Medium / Mode; Field of discourse/ Domain) in the
following samples of language:
1. After reading this, other central heating systems won’t look
so hot.
2. STUNNING Rachel Hunter has dumped pop superstar
Robbie Williams because she can no longer cope with his
‘paranoia’. The Sun can reveal. (The Sun – 2003)
3. Praise and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honour,
power and might, be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.
4. America has entered a great struggle that tests our strength,
and even more our resolve. Our nation is patient and
steadfast.
5. MSN Messenger: the most popular, fun and personal way to
chat online.
6. So what’s likely to happen now? Well the report has been
sent to the director of Public Prosecutions, in view of er
certain evidence.
Example: After reading this, other central heating systems

won’t look so hot
Tenor: informal; Mode: written; Domain: advertising
3. SPEECH AND WRITING IN DISCOURSE
In this chapter we elaborate on the two varieties according to

medium/mode: speech and writing, attempting to point out
their function, their form as well as their salient linguistic
characteristics.
31
3.1. The functions of speech and writing
3.1.1. Introduction
The most important factors which determine the functioning
of language in various spheres of human activity are the actual
situation in which the language is being used and the aim of
communication.
The actual situation of communication has evolved two
varieties of language according to their medium: the spoken
and the written.
From the diachronic point of view, the spoken variety is
primary and the written is secondary. Each of these varieties
has developed its own features which, in many ways, may be
regarded as opposed to each other.
Speech is primary; being acquired early in our lives more or
less informally, while writing is learned much later and by
fewer people, usually in a formal educational establishment.
Writing is usually concerned with the transfer of information
(technically called transactional uses) and confers greater
prestige in society. Speech is typically used to create, maintain,
and enhance social bonds (called interactional uses), and thus
meets basic human needs, while writing satisfies less
immediate ones.
Speech, or more precisely spontaneous conversation, differs
from writing in three major respects: (i) there is a great amount
of linguistic give-and-take (or interactiveness); (ii) it is mostly
though not only concerned with the lives and interests of the
people engaged in the conversation; (iii) it is produced as we
go along (i.e., on-line production).
On the other hand, the written variety is represented by
carefully thought-out and edited written texts, which are
mainly monologues, in that the author often does not mention
himself and has no specific addressees.
32
Varieties of language can be analysed by applying speech
act theory, developed by the philosopher J. L. Austin and
continued by his former student J.R. Searle. In his book How
to do things with words (1962), Austin discusses linguistic acts
made while speaking, which have some social or interpersonal
purpose and pragmatic effect.
A succinct account of varieties of language based on this
theory is also made by K. Wales (2001: 363), who presents a
threefold speech act, represented by:
(i) the locutionary act - the physical act of uttering words;
(ii) the illocutionary act - the communicative purpose of
utterances, i.e., what is performed through speaking (e.g.
request, wish);
(iii) the perlocutionary act - the effect achieved by the
utterance on the addressee (e.g. persuading).
Usually defined by the purposes they fulfil (referred to as
illocutionary act), speech acts can be classified very generally
as asserting, directing, committing, expressing, and declaring
or more specifically as subtypes like promising, threatening, or
offering, as in the following table:
Type Subtypes Examples

Representatives/ Statements and (I maintain that) he
Assertives assertions was there!
Directives Requests and (I request you to)
questions please leave me alone
Commisssives promises, threats, I’ll be on time (I
and offers promise I will)
Expressives thanking, Gee, thanks!
apologizing, I’m sorry, I apologize
congratulating
Declaratives The marriage, By the authority vested
(a.k.a. baptism, in me I declare you
Performatives) sentencing husband and wife
33
formulas
Table 2: Illocutionary acts
The speech act may be explicit, meaning that it contains

words which explicitly designate the act being carried out, for
example in the table above (I) maintain, request, promise,
apologize, declare, etc. More often, however, illocutionary
acts are implicit:
He was there. – rather than I maintain that he was there;
Are you coming? - rather than I ask whether you are coming
Greetings, thank you’s, apologies, etc., belong among the
speech act, but they are usually treated separately under the
heading of pragmatic idioms.
3.1.2. The written language

The social prestige of written language is probably derived
from the added functions which a written variety can fulfil for
a society. According to Leech et al, (2006: 142) these functions
can be summed up as follows:
i. Writing has the advantage of relative permanence, which
allows for record-keeping in a form independent of the
memories of those who keep the records, and capable of being
checked and consulted by many different people.
ii. It also allows for communication over a great distance (by
letters, newspapers, etc.) and to large numbers simultaneously
(by publications of all kinds).
iii. As far as the reader is concerned, written language can be
processed at leisure, with part of it reread and others omitted at
will. This characteristic of written language promoted the
development of literature and intellectual development in
general.
34
iv. The persistence of written language through historical
time makes possible the creation of literary works of art in
ways comparable with the creation of paintings or sculpture.
3.1.3. The spoken language

Speech retains its own functions that can never be fulfilled
by writing:
i. Speech achieves quick, direct (‘on-line’) communication
with immediate feedback from the addressee.
ii. Speech is particularly important in integrating an
individual into a social group, and those who cannot speak,
even though they may be able to write (e.g. deaf people), often
experience severe social isolation.
iii. Speech is used far more than writing; it is an everyday
activity for almost everyone, whereas writing is not.
Over the past 100 years modern technology has brought
about big changes, in that the invention and evolution of sound
recording, the telephone and the radio have helped to overcome
the limitations of the spoken language regarding time, distance
and numbers of addressees. More recently still, e-mail and
chat-groups via the internet have extended the power of written
language, giving it something of the immediacy of speech.
We can conclude that speech and writing are complementary
in function: we cannot say that one is more important than the
other.
3.2. The forms of speech and writing

Speech and writing differ not only in function, but also in
form, as a result of the difference of medium.
The spoken variety presupposes the presence of an
interlocutor, while the written variety, on the contrary,
presupposes the absence of an interlocutor.
35
The spoken variety is typically maintained in the form of a
dialogue, the written variety is maintained in the form of a
monologue.
The spoken language has a considerable advantage over the
written, in that the human voice is a powerful means of
modulating an utterance, and also there are all kinds of
gestures, and other kinds of paralinguistic features (i.e. non-
verbal elements of communication). Since the written language
has to seek compensation for what it lacks, a written utterance
will be more explanatory, more explicit.
The use of the peculiarities of the spoken variety in written
language, or vice versa, the peculiarities of the written
language in lively speech, will always produce a ludicrous
effect.
Features of speech which are absent in writing include
rhythm, intonation and non-linguistic noises such as sighs and
laughter (these cannot be easily conveyed by conventional
writing systems). Since speech is typically used in a face-to-
face situation, it can also be accompanied by non-verbal
communication such as gestures and facial expression. Writing,
on the other hand, has several features which speech lacks,
including punctuation, paragraphing and the capitalization of
letters.
Intonation can, to some extent, be conveyed by punctuation
(commas, full stops and question marks), but only partially.
The intonation of a sentence such as I’ll take a taxi to the
station will differ according to whether the means of transport
(taxi) or the destination (station) is the most important idea.
The different meanings implied by differences of intonation
would be difficult to convey in writing without changing the
structure of the sentence.
3.3. Linguistic characteristics of speech and writing
A detailed analysis of spoken and written English is
provided in Biber et al. (Longman Grammar of Spoken and
36
Written English, 1999: 1039). Linking grammatical structures
with actual language use, the authors examine corpuses (i.e.
collections of written and spoken texts), representing four
different registers (spontaneous conversation, fiction,
newspaper language and academic prose), in the attempt to
catalogue the lexical items and syntactic structures. The
peculiarities of the two varieties are described in the sections
below:
3.3.1. The spoken variety

The spoken variety, also referred to as conversation, differs
from the written language phonetically (in its written
representation), morphologically, syntactically and lexically.
Spoken speech in general is characterised by its spontaneity
and situational character which enable the communicants to use
general and vague expressions; recursive clauses (i.e. repeated
application of rules in generating a sentence) and endless
enumerations grammatically realized by parataxis and
juxtaposition (i.e. constructions of equal status – clauses or
phrases - which are linked solely through juxtaposition and
punctuation and not through the use of conjunctions).
3.3.1.1. Morpho-syntactic features

The morpho syntactic peculiarities of the spoken language,
more than any other features, reveal the true nature of the
spoken variety of language. The most common characteristics
can be listed according to their frequency:
i. The use of pronouns: Conversation is interactive as a
form of personal communication. It is not surprising, then, that
conversation shows an extensive use of the first and second
person (personal) pronouns I, we, you, since speakers make
frequent reference to themselves describing their own personal
thoughts, feelings, past and present activities, e.g.,
Hey, I don’t know what you are talking about.
37
Okay, I’ll give you a ring.
Besides first and second person pronouns, demonstrative
pronouns are also deictic elements whose referential meaning
depends on the communicative situation. Expressions such as,
this person, that man, etc., require situational information in
order for the listener to make a referential connection and
understand what is meant.
Additionally, the demonstrative pronouns this and that
involve a metaphorical, expressive displacement in terms of
emotional nearness and distance, i.e. they can be used to locate
things emotionally. Thus, in the utterance
Get that animal out of here,
the demonstrative pronoun that, as well as pointing to the
particular animal, conveys the speaker’s attitude of dislike.
Participants in conversations share the geographical and
temporal background as well as a lot of personal knowledge of
each other so that allusions to places, persons and past times
will be found that are unintelligible to outsiders. Writing has to
be more explicit because writers are isolated from readers and
cannot rely on the situation or on paralinguistic means to help
make their message clear.
ii. Ellipsis and structural condensation:
Ellipsis, which represents the omission of elements
recoverable from the linguistic context (textual ellipsis), or
from the situation (situational ellipsis), is a typical linguistic
feature of oral communication.
Textual ellipsis is a means of avoiding unnecessary
repetition, since the missing words can be found in the nearby,
preceding text:
‘What are you doing?’ ‘Trying to put on my coat.’
Unlike in textual ellipsis, in situational ellipsis the missing
words are clear from the situation in which the language is
used:
Saw Susan and her boyfriend in Alder weeks ago.
38
Here the subject I is omitted, but it can easily be supplied
from the context.
Situational ellipsis, which is a common feature of
conversation, usually takes the form of omitting initial function
words in a clause, such as a pronoun subject, an auxiliary verb,
or the initial article of a noun phrase. Consider the following
question-answer sequences:
A: Have you got an extra exam on Monday?
B: (I’ve got) Two exams (on Monday)
C: What exams (have you got)?
In the quick give-and-take conversation, speakers leave out
what is easily recoverable from the linguistic context or the
situation. This applies particularly to answers to questions.
According to Biber et al. (2006: 441), ellipsis is highly
characteristic of spontaneous speech, because of the need to
reduce syntactic complexity due to real-time pressures. In
addition, speakers respond to the impulse of speed up
communication, avoiding the tedium of unnecessary repetition.
iii. Interrogative clauses: questions are many times more
common in conversation than in writing, reflecting the
personal, interactive nature of conversation. Conversation uses
both wh-questions (i.e. questions introduced by a wh-word that
refers to a missing element in the clause) and yes/no questions
(the addressee is expected to reply with a truth value – either
yes or no). However, nearly half the questions in conversation
consist of question tags (or disjunctive questions). It is
estimated that about every fourth question in conversation is a
question tag, the most common type of question tag being
negative (Biber et al. (2006: 252):
It seems a shame to break it up, doesn’t it, when it’s so good
Nice weather, isn’t it?
Another characteristic of questions in spoken English refers
to the direct word-order or the omission of the auxiliary verb,
39
leaving it to the intonation to indicate the grammatical meaning
of the sentence:
John knew he was supposed to pick me up?
iv. Finite complement clauses, i.e. that-clauses and wh-
clauses, are most common in conversation. On the other hand,
non-finite complement clauses (i.e. to-clauses and ing-clauses)
are relatively rare in conversation.
The following text sample (Biber et al, 2006: 351)
illustrates the different complement clauses typical of
conversation:
A: I said how’s your revision going, ‘cos I knew she was

doing revision; I try a maths paper and I can’t do that,
and I …a chemistry paper and I can’t do that and I really,
I said I think you need a break, I think you need to go and
do something else for a little while – I said ‘cos if you keep
looking over thinking you can’t do it, have a break and go
back to it afterwards. You just get really despondent.
B: Yeah.
A: and fed up and think you can’t do it and you go blank and
then you can’t touch anything you – and you know it’s
hard.
The conversation sample illustrates the dense use of that-

clauses in post-predicate position. Most of these that-clauses
are controlled by verbs of mental perception (know, think), or
declarative verbs (say). The subject of these verbs is typically I
or you, so that the construction directly represents the thoughts
or utterances of the speaker or hearer (e.g. I knew she was
doing revision; I think you need to go…; think you can’t do it; I
said how’s your revision going).
v. The basic unit for syntactic description is the sentence. In
spoken English, however, there are many stretches of language
where the concept of sentence makes no sense. Various
40
alternative terms are in use for those units of spoken language,
such as information unit, utterance chunk or idea unit.
Spoken language units are short, having a mean length of
about six words; they belong to a small set of syntactic
structures and are much more predictable than written ones.
Deletion of sentence elements such as the subject or the
predicate is quite common in conversation.
Speakers rely on well-known structures that were learned
early in life, such as paratactic constructions (i.e. constructions
linked through juxtaposition or punctuation and not through the
use of conjunctions). On the other hand, planned discourse
(written texts) uses those constructions acquired at a later stage.
One should also note that speech is untidy, full of mixed
constructions (syntactic blends), false starts, repetitions (words
as well as constructions), digressions, loose ends,
inconsistencies and changes of construction, none of which are
permitted in formal written texts.
vi. A special type of mixed constructions or syntactic blends
is represented by left and right dislocation:
There are, for instance, noun phrases in conversation whose
function is to establish a topic first and then say something
about it. This breaking down of the message into two distinct
parts makes things easier for both speakers and hearers, as in
My wife, she only came later to the party.
Tom, he was there. Ask him.
This important syntactic feature of conversational English,
called (left) dislocation, is not a simple word-order option, but
it has to do with the distribution of information. The discourse
function of dislocation may be seen as primarily concerned
with information flow and emphasis, being represented by two
major types: prefaces and noun phrase tags. Both types
involve a definite noun phrase occurring in a peripheral
position, with a co-referent pronoun in the core clause (Biber et
al., 1999: 956). In traditional grammar, prolepsis is the term
41
used to describe any structure which anticipates another later in
the sentence or in a following clause: usually nouns or noun
phrases anticipating pronouns. As a result, the sentence
structure is rather loose or informal, but the noun phrase
receives special emphasis as a marked theme (K. Wales, 2001:
322), e.g.
That old tramp, I saw him again yesterday.
The feature called right dislocation or postponed
identification is represented by noun phrase tags occurring in
final position: pronouns precede a nominal which appears
finally, as a kind of amplification, often in a tag phrase, e.g.
She’s completely mad, your sister (is).
vii. The spontaneity of conversation has a great number of
linguistic consequences, in phonetics as well. Conversational
pronunciations are characterized by contractions, reductions
(weak forms), elisions, and assimilation processes of many
kinds, which can present great difficulties to foreign learners.
Contracted forms of the verb occur quite frequently with the
primary verbs be and have as well as with the modal verbs
(can’t, won’t). The contractions ‘s and ‘d are ambiguous, with
‘s representing either is or has, and ‘d representing either had
or would. However, the intended meaning of these contractions
is generally clear in context, e.g. I’d’ve helped him. Ain’t is
another contracted form, common in the conversation of some
dialects, a versatile negative contraction, capable of
substituting for all negative contractions of be or the auxiliary
have. Being widely felt to be non-standard, ain’t is generally
avoided in written language, as well as in careful speech:
There ain’t nothing we can do (= isn’t)
I ain’t done nothing (= haven’t)
From the phonetic point of view, oral speech is characterized
by careless pronunciation: Feller = fellow, dunno = don’t
know, attaboy = that’s a boy
42
3.3.1.2. Lexical features
Among the lexical features of colloquial language, one
should mention the following:
i. Taking into account the lexical word classes in use,
linguists (see Biber et al., 2006: 23) have found that
conversation has a high density of verbs, unlike newspaper
writing and academic prose, which has a high density of nouns.
Conversation also has a high density of adverbs, since they are
linked to verbs, typically describing circumstances (such as
‘how’ or ‘why’ or ‘when’, etc.) relating to actions, processes,
and states that are denoted by verbs.
ii. Another lexical feature of spoken language is represented
by the frequent use of intensifying words to express strong
feelings. Conversation and academic prose have different
preferences in their choice of degree modifiers. Conversational
speakers use many informal amplifiers that are avoided in
academic prose, such as, absolutely, complete, utter, really,
etc.; bloody and damn are taboo words which can be offensive
in some contexts:
She’ll look really sweet.
You’re stupid, you’re bloody stupid!
Conversation is also characterized by emotional colouring
which can be perceived in the abundance of interjections and
numerous hyperboles, etc:
‘Oh, Pete, did I tell you what she said when I came in late
yesterday? Oh, it was perfectly priceless!’
‘Did you notice how Dotty was dancing? Gee, wasn’t she
the limit!’
iii. The interactive nature of conversation is clearly seen in
the frequent use of items such as yeah, right, well, indeed, sure,
really, etc., that have an interactional meaning, and are marked
off from other utterances by pauses of their own intonation
contours. These lexical items, usually referred to as discourse
markers, pragmatic markers, signals or inserts, have the
43
function of signalling relations between speaker, hearer(s) and
discourse, making an important contribution to the interactive
character of speech.
While discourse markers may have little information value,
and are seldom reproduced in formal writing, they are
nevertheless part of the native speaker’s communicative
fluency, usually conveying emotional and discoursal meanings.
They can act as significant framing and editing devices in face-
to-face interaction (e.g. well, right, OK, now, good, etc.), and
serve usefully as ’floorholders’, for example, or to monitor
feedback (e.g. OK?, Yes, Really? I see, etc.). Sometimes
discourse markers simply indicate hesitation or nervousness; or
the desire to make contact (cf. phatic communion), e.g. oh, you
know, I mean, you see, hey, well, yes, etc. (K. Wales, 2001: 115)
iv. Conversation contains numerous expressions used for
hedging, a term used to refer to the toning-down of utterances
or statements in order to reduce the riskiness of what one says
(K. Wales, 2001: 185). Phrases like kind of, sort of, etc., convey
approximation, imprecision or uncertainty, often used to lessen
the force of what is said.
And I kind of brushed it off.
It seems sort of a betrayal.
3.3.2. The written variety

The characteristic syntactic features of the written variety of
language are influenced by the fact that the situation must be
made clear by the context since the recipient (addressee) is not
present (there is lack of direct communication between the
writer and the reader of the text). No immediate feedback can
be received from the recipient and thus potential questions and
comments of the readership have to be ‘foreseen’ by the writer.
As a result, an utterance becomes more exact, and as precise as
possible.
44
Some of the most common characteristics of the written
variety of language are as follows:
i. The use of coordinators and subordinators
Writing is different from speech in several respects: It uses
highly structured syntactic forms that are less predictable; it
does not avoid subordinate constructions with causal or
temporal sentence connectors like because, since, therefore.
Recent research based on an extensive collection of data
(what is called a corpus) has modified the preconceived notion
that speech and coordination go together as do writing and
subordination: “In fact, with the exception of but, the
frequency of all coordinators is relatively low in conversation,
while subordinators are more frequent in conversation than in
news and academic prose” (Biber et al, 1999: 82-3).
The written variety of language is characterized by an
abundance of all kinds of conjunctions, adverbial phrases
and other means which may serve as connectives: furthermore,
moreover, likewise, similarly, nevertheless, therefore, on the
contrary, however, presently, eventually, henceforth,
hereinafter, in connection with, e.g.
Nevertheless, great changes do occur and have been well
documented.
Henceforth, parties which fail to get 5% of the vote will not
be represented in Parliament.
Closely related to this feature is the use of complicated
sentence-units reflected in the fact that the written language
prefers hypotaxis (i.e. subordinate constructions where
constituents have been linked through the use of subordinating
conjunctions) to parataxis (i.e. constructions which are linked
solely through juxtaposition and punctuation and not through
the use of conjunctions).
ii. The written variety of language uses formal amplifiers
(i.e. extent or degree adverbs /adverbials that intensify meaning
45
used as modifiers), including completely, extremely, highly,
entirely, fully, totally, etc.:
Indeed it is extremely difficult to establish any truly
satisfactory system.
The highly complex process of adjustment to infection is
determined by many variables.
iii. Complement clause type: there are several factors
(register as well as structural factors) that contribute to the
choice of complement clause types in the written variety of
language. Overall, non-finite complement clauses (i.e. to-
clauses and ing-clauses), which are relatively rare in
conversation) are most common in the written variety. The
following text sample (Biber et al, 2006: 351) illustrates the
different complement clauses typical of informational written
prose:
The above means are not able to represent an office

procedure or an activity in a way which would allow
automation of the co-ordination required for execution.
There are no methods for representing the interworking of
the different description techniques and it should be noted
that it may be necessary to model the same activity more
than once redundantly and in parallel by different means.
In particular, it must be possible to model the interworking
of roles (to be represented by organigrams or job profiles),
flow charts and forms.
As the text shows, there are more to-clauses than that-

clauses. The clauses are often controlled by adjectival
predicates (e.g. able, necessary, possible) with non-animate
subjects (e.g. the above means, it). The controlling verbs and
adjectives express many meanings (ability, communication,
necessity, possibility), e.g. are not able to represent, would
allow, should be noted, may be necessary, must be possible.
46
Finally, extraposed clauses (i.e. complement clauses where
dummy it fills the subject slot, and the complement clause is
placed after the predicate) are relatively common (it should be
noted that it may be necessary; it must be possible to model).
iv. Another feature particular to writing is the extensive use
of passive sentences rather than active ones across various
registers, in particular, academic prose. Passives can occur as
either short passives (also called agentless passives, because
the agent is not specified) or long passives (which contain a by-
phrase specifying the agent of the action). Unlike spoken
language/conversation where passive voice verbs are rare, the
frequency of both forms of the passive (short and long) is quite
high in the written variety of language (expository prose texts,
academic research articles, journalism, etc.). Passive verb
phrases fulfil various discourse functions, (a.) cohesion and
contextual ordering of information; or omission of information
(especially short passive); (b) weight management (especially
long passive) (Biber et al., 1999: 935). The following example
illustrates the first discourse function, namely the omission of
information, by using short passives:
Three communities on a brackish marsh of the Rhode River
were exposed to elevated carbon dioxide concentrations
for two seasons.
Often, the human actor or agent is not important in
(academic) writing. So the passive voice is useful since it
reduces the importance of the agent noun phrase by putting it
in a by-phrase or not mentioning it at all. At the same time, the
passive sentence gives the status of topic (i.e. the person or
thing about which something is said) to the direct object of the
corresponding active voice clause. Thus, we can compare the
following active voice alternative to the sentence above:
We, the researchers, exposed three communities on a
brackish marsh of the Rhode River to elevated carbon
dioxide concentrations for two seasons.
47
In an active clause, the agent is the subject of the clause.
However, because readers already know that ‘the researchers’
usually do the work in a study, there is really no need to
mention them. Here the short passive becomes a useful device:
it allows the object of study (‘the three communities’) to be the
subject of the sentence, thereby giving it topic status. ((Biber et
al., 2006: 168).
v. The written variety of language comprises relatively many
declarative clauses (i.e. clauses normally with subject-verb
word order that function to make assertions or statements) but
few imperatives (clauses that function as directives),
interrogatives (clauses that function as questions) and
exclamative clauses (i.e. clauses used to express strong
emotions)..
vi. The words and word combinations (a separate layer of the
English vocabulary) tend to be quite bookish, e.g. despite the
fact = although, in the matter of = about, a long period of time
= a long time, etc.
3.4. ‘Typical’ speech and ‘typical’ writing

In this section we outline the linguistic characteristics of
‘typical’ speech compared with ‘typical’ writing, though (as we
can see) there is actually some overlap between the two
varieties of language. The linguistic characteristics submitted
to our attention are: inexplicitness, lack of clear sentence
boundaries, simple structure, a repetitive repertoire, normal
dysfluency, monitoring and interaction features, informality of
style (Leech et al, 2006: 141-155).
3.4.1 Inexplicitness
As speech is generally used in face-to-face situations, both
the auditory and visual media are available. As a result, speech
can be much less explicit than writing, because:
48
- We can convey extra information by ‘body language’ (e.g.
facial expressions, gestures);
- We can refer to the immediate physical environment, e.g. by
pointing to objects or people;
- Our shared knowledge between individuals or local groups in
a conversation makes explicitness unnecessary;
- In a conversation there is an opportunity for feedback from
the hearer, so that the message can be clarified or repeated.
Speech tends to make frequent use of pronouns such as I, you,
it, this and that, all of which reflect its inexplicitness. Consider
the following conversation, and specially the underlined
pronouns:
A. How did it go?
B. Not too bad. I’m just glad it’s over.
A. Was it the last one?
B. Yeah, for the time being.
We should also notice the occurrence of ellipsis (where
grammatical structure has been ‘understood’ on the basis of
context). For example, Yeah, for the time being, omits the
words that would presumably be needed to make this utterance
into a fully structured sentence: Yeah, it was the last one for the
time being. We guess that the pronoun it might refer to an
examination or a tooth extraction.
3.4.2. Lack of clear sentence boundaries

The sentence is defined as “the largest structural unit in
terms of which the grammar of a language is organized”
(Crystal, 1992: 313). Identifying sentences is relatively
straightforward in the written language, but it is often
problematic in speech, where intonation and pause may give
uncertain clues as to where a sentence boundary exists. In
speech, there are no full stops or sentence-initial capitals.
Spontaneous spoken language contains numerous non-clausal
units - phrases or words - which cannot be said to be part of
49
any clause. For example, in section 3.4.1., we find Not too bad
and for the time being, which appear to be adjective and
prepositional phrases standing on their own.
Biber et al. (1999: 1048-9) have argued that the ‘sentence’ is
a notion that is not applicable to spoken language. The syntax
of conversation differs from the ‘sentence grammar’ typical of
planned writing: Prefaces, or ‘left dislocations’, such as, as to
the rest, as for problem kids, and tags, e.g. isn’t it, characteristic
of spoken English, can take the form of phrases placed
respectively before and after a clause, elaborating part of the
meaning.
This issue is also expounded by Carter and McCarthy, in
their article “Grammar and the Spoken Language” (1995: 141).
The two scholars argue that spoken language has a radically
different grammar from written language, and propose a three
part structure in which a clause may be preceded or followed
by ‘satellite’ elements such as noun phrases and tag questions –
optional elements not integrated into clause structure. The pre-
clause satellites are called ‘topics’ while the post-clause
satellites ‘tails’, as shown in Table 3 below:
Topic(s) Body Tail(s)

north and south they’re two aren’t in a way
London different worlds they
Table 3: Utterance structure (from Leech et al, 2006: 145)
As we can see, a topic or a tail is linked in some way to the

main body of the utterance, though not by grammatical linkage.
In this example, the linkage is by the use of the pronoun they
referring back to north and south London. The tag question
aren’t they is like tail referring back to the body element
they’re two different worlds.
50
Another difficulty about drawing sentence boundaries in
speech is the status of coordination. Normally, coordination
implies using words like and as a device for linking
grammatical units of the same status within a larger structure.
Hence, two coordinated clauses, as in [Tom agreed] and [she
walked away] are treated as a single complex sentence. In
writing, starting a sentence with a coordinating conjunction
and, or, or but has been disapproved by prescriptive
grammarians and writers tend to avoid it. In speech, the
practice of beginning a new utterance with coordinating
conjunctions like and, or, but and nor is common. The
coordinators can function as utterance links in speech, being
very close in function to linking adverbials:
And you won’t have that problem.
But that’s a different thing.
Both these examples come at the beginning of an utterance
or turn, in a way that is very characteristic of spoken dialogue.
While in written language, coordinating conjunctions are
predominantly used to integrate a complex of ideas into a
single sentence, in spoken language they can be looser
connectors, difficult to distinguish from connective adverbs
like so, however and yet.
3.4.3. Simple structure

Another area of difference between speech and writing is
represented by the structure of clauses: spoken grammar is less
complex than written grammar because of the short time
available to produce and process it. This is not to say that
spoken grammar is always simple. There are certain kinds of
complexity, such as the subordination of noun clauses after I
think, did you know, etc., as in:
[I think [you’ll find [it’s much easier this way]]].
The square brackets here show the subordination of one
clause in another, but the sentence is not difficult to interpret,
51
because the complexity is loaded towards the end of the
utterance – a very strong tendency in English, and especially in
spoken English.
3.4.4. A repetitive repertoire

Conversation is much more repetitive than various written
registers. Speakers often repeat partially or exactly what has
just been said in the conversation, thus relieving online
planning pressure by means of the device called local
repetition (Biber et al, 1999: 1049):
A. Let’s go to a movie. B. Okay, let’s go to the Odeon.
Broadly speaking, conversation is more formulaic in that it
relies more than the written registers on stereotyped,
prefabricated sequences of words (called lexical bundles),
which are used repeatedly. Sequences of three or four words,
such as can I have a, do you know what, have look at, as a
result of, know what I mean, etc., are frequently re-used, and
therefore become ‘prefabricated chunks’ that speakers can
easily retrieve from their memory and use again and again as
text building blocks (Biber et al, 2006: 443).
This can also be interpreted in terms of redundancy.
Whether through immediate repetition or more generally
through the more frequent use of a limited vocabulary, spoken
discourse tends to be less densely packed with information per
word than written texts. Thus, there is a marked contrast
between speech and writing in the usage of nouns and
pronouns. Nouns, words that tend to be rich in specific
information, are especially high in frequency in written texts,
while pronouns, poor in information, are especially high in
speech.
3.4.5. Normal dysfluency

Many conversational traits arise from the fact that
conversation is typically spontaneous, so that speakers are
52
continually faced with the need both to plan and to execute
their utterances in real time, ‘online’. Consequently,
conversation is characterized by what has been called ‘normal
dysfluency/ disfluency’. Dysfluency is defined as the way in
which unplanned speech departs from smooth-flowing,
grammatically well-formed utterances (Biber et al, 2006: 436).
Thus, the unprepared nature of speech includes phenomena
such as pauses, hesitations, unintended repetitions (such as I –
I – I), fillers or hesitators (e.g. um, er), unfinished sentences,
unplanned repeats, false starts, retrace-and-repair sequences.
The unplanned repeats are sometimes termed ‘false starts’;
this is indeed what they are, because the speaker says
something, then goes back to the beginning of the utterance
and repeats what has already been said. There is another set of
cases that can more appropriately be called ‘false starts’, or
even more precisely retrace-and-repair sequences, namely,
when the speaker retraces (or notionally ‘erases’) what has just
been said, and starts again, this time with a different word or
sequence of words. Thus, the example below illustrates a
sentence broken off midway as a result of a change of mind, for
example:
You really ought – well do it your own way.
3.4.6. Monitoring and interaction features

These two features represent the social dimension of speech.
They are more likely to occur in dialogue, in conversation with
a physically present addressee, rather than in monologue.
Monitoring features (also referred to as discourse
markers) indicate the speaker’s awareness of the addressee’s
presence and reactions. Discourse markers tend to occur at the
beginning of an utterance, and to combine two roles: (a) to
signal a transition in the evolving progress of the conversation,
and (b) to signal an interactive relationship between speaker,
hearer and message (Biber et al., 1999: 1086). Discourse
53
markers include adverbs and adverbials such as well, now,
right, like, sort of, as well as finite verb formulae such as I
mean, you know, you see.
Interaction features invite the active participation of the
addressee, as in questions, imperatives, second person
pronouns, and interjections (no, okay, oops, etc.) Two
constructions with particular interaction potential are tag
questions, and first person imperatives with let’s, e.g.
It’s delicious isn’t it; Okay let’s clean it up
Of course, writing generally lacks these features.
3.4.7. Informality of style

The term informal refers in linguistics to a situation or a use
of language that is common, non-official, familiar, casual, and
often colloquial, and contrasts in these senses with formal.
Whereas Would you be so good as to help me? is highly formal,
Lend us a hand, would you? is highly informal.
The situations in which speech is used are generally less
formal than those in which writing is used. Therefore, the
linguistic characteristics of informality (such as the use of
contractions in VPs – it’s, don’t, etc.) generally appear in
speech, while those reflecting formality appear in writing.
Informality can be extended to include all the features of
spoken grammar that make it casual, intimate, and the opposite
of formal: for example, reduced pronunciations, situational
ellipsis, contractions, which are all typical of conversation, can
be used to signal a degree of informality of style. Then we have
to include such phenomena as non-standard and dialect
grammar, ‘chummy’ use of vocatives like mate, or dude, as
well as taboo language (swearing).
3.4.8. ‘Typical’ forms and in-between cases
54
We can summarize the points discussed above by listing the
characteristics of ‘typical’ speech and writing (from Leech et
al, 2006: 150):
‘Typical’ speech ‘Typical’ writing

i. Inexplicitness Explicitness
ii. Lack of clear sentence Clear sentence boundaries
boundaries
iii. Simpler, looser structure More complex, integrated
structure
iv. Repetitive, restricted Less repetitive, less
choice of vocabulary restricted
v. Normal dysfluency Fluency
vi. Monitoring features No monitoring features
vii. Interaction features No interaction features
viii. Features reflecting Features reflecting
informality formality
Table 4: ‘Typical’ speech and writing
Although these are characteristics of ‘typical’ speech and

‘typical’ writing, there is some overlap between these two. For
example, a less typical use of speech occurs on the telephone,
where the visual medium is not available, the result being that
the language needs to be somewhat more explicit.
On the other hand, although speech is generally spontaneous,
unprepared, it may be prepared for a lecture or debate, and we
can expect greater fluency as a result. Furthermore, speech is or
has to be prepared word for word in advance, as in the script of
a television news bulletin. This speech will be atypical not only
in fluency but in other characteristics, such as in lacking
monitoring features or other interaction features. Conversely,
writing can sometimes display the characteristics of speech, as
in an e-mail message which may well have monitoring and
55
interaction features. Private, personal letters will also have
features reflecting a lesser degree of formality than is typical
for writing.
The conclusion to be drawn is that speech and writing
generally reflect complementary language habits. Instead of
considering the two varieties of medium - written language and
spoken language - as being quite distinct, clear-cut categories,
we should recognize that there is some overlap or
interpenetration, depending on the circumstances, the situation
of language use. We should think of medium of discourse as a
continuum from ‘typical’ speech to ‘typical’ writing, with some
in-between examples, as in the table below (from Leech et al,
2006: 151):
typical speech: conversation
(e-mail message)
(lecture)
(newspaper)
typical’ writing: a serious printed book
4. TENOR AND DOMAIN IN DISCOURSE
56
In chapter three we discussed the effect of medium on
language, as well as differences between the two varieties of
medium: spoken and written language.
Chapter four explores how discourse differs depending on
other dimensions of register, such as, tenor or attitude; the
situation of communication and field of activity.
4.1. Tenor (attitude)
4.1.1. Features of tenor (attitude)

Tenor is defined as a “term used in Hallidayan classification
of language varieties (more fully tenor of discourse), referring
to the relations among the participants in a language activity,
especially the level of formality they adopt (colloquial, formal,
etc.). Alternative labels which have been proposed for this area
are style or manner of discourse” (Crystal, 1992: 348).
As the above definition suggests, tenor (attitude) has to do
with the relationship between the addresser (speaker or writer)
and the addressee(s) in a given situation, being often
represented by greater or less formality. Thus, if the
relationship between the addresser and the addressee is distant,
public and official, as in a legal or quasi-legal document, the
tenor will be formal, whereas if it is close and intimate, as in a
conversation between family members, the tenor will be
informal. Nevertheless, as we pointed out with reference to
medium, it is more realistic to think of a scale or continuum,
from the most formal, at one extreme to the most informal at
the other. The tenor of a conversation between a lawyer and a
client, for example, has an intermediate degree of formality.
The term formality, as used in sociolinguistics and
stylistics, refers to the way in which the style or tone of
language will vary in appropriateness according to the social
context: the situation and the relationship between addresser
57
and addressee(s) (Wales, 2001: 160). Wales further specifies
that there is not a simple choice between formal and informal,
but a scale or continuum ranging from very formal to very
informal.
Other factors closely relating to formality are those of
politeness and impersonality, which, like formality, also
reflect the relation between addresser(s) and addressee(s). If
the addresser and addressee are not well known to one another
but a good rapport between them is important, they will tend to
use polite, respectful language. The letter below (a private
business e-mail) will provide an illustration of this aspect (from
Leech et al., 2006: 157):
Dear Mr. Smith
I’m terribly sorry to keep asking you for more information,
but I’m afraid I need the expiry date for your card in
addition to the details you supplied this morning. I have
processed your order already, so this shouldn’t delay the
process in any way. However if you could send me these
details at your earliest convenience I would be most
grateful. Many thanks,
David McKee
As is evident in this example, politeness shows in the use of
formulaic expressions, often standing alone in grammatical
isolation (Many thanks), or at the beginning of a complex
sentence (I’m terribly sorry…, I’m afraid…). Also, polite
utterances such as thanks and apologies are often intensified
(Many thanks, terribly sorry, most grateful). In making
demanding utterances such as requests, on the other hand, the
writer prefers indirect toning–down strategies (hedges often
used to lessen the force of what is said), such as the use of
would and other hypothetically slanted verbs: if you could.
The other factor relating to formality is represented by
impersonality. A discourse that is described as impersonal is
marked by a distinct lack of the personal and informal mode.
58
K. Wales (2001: 203) illustrates a few means of rendering a
discourse impersonal: it makes no reference to the immediate
context of situation between addresser and addressee by the use
of the personal pronouns I and you, for example, nor to the
feelings and opinions of the participants. If a pronoun is needed
as a subject, and if generalisations are to be made, then there is
the indefinite or generic pronoun one (e.g. One should always
be careful when talking to strangers.). In order to convey the
impersonal mode, a common alternative is the passive with
agent deletion, which is characteristic of such impersonal
registers as scientific textbooks, ‘officialese’, legal documents,
public notices, etc. (e.g. Smoking is not allowed in rear seats.)
An impersonal style is also obtained if the roles of the
addresser and addressee are in the background, as in written
documents with no specific author or addressee. The following
paragraph from an IATA (i.e. International Air Transport
Association) Passenger Ticket and Baggage Check (from
Leech et al., 2006: 157) can provide a good example of an
impersonal style:
Notices and Conditions: Air transportation provided is
subject to the individual terms of the transporting air
carriers, which are herein incorporated and made part of
the contract of carriage.
This text written in a legalistic style is totally impersonal, in
avoiding reference to the addresser and the addressee. The
addresser is excluded by the use of past participle (provided)
and passive (are … incorporated; (are) made part of). A text in
a more personal style might begin The air transportation we
provide… Also, no reference is made to the addressee.
According to G. Leech et al. (2006: 158), tenor comprises
four related dimensions, reflected in the type of language used:
formal/informal, polite/impolite, impersonal/personal,
specialist/popular (audience). The contrast represented by
specialist vs. popular audience is shown in the fact that a writer
59
for a popular audience, will try to engage the interest and
involvement of the reader with vivid use of language, and a
colloquial style associated with conversation. This distinction
also correlates strongly with complexity vs. simplicity of style,
understood in both a grammatical and a lexical sense. A text
aimed towards a popular audience will be written in simple
language so as to be accessible to a wide range of readers,
while a text directed towards a specialist audience, will be
written in more complex and technical language, and will
therefore be accessible to a limited range of readers.
The four related dimensions of tenor are given in Table 5:
Formal Informal
Full forms: there is, it has not, Contractions: there’s, it hasn’t
they will
Polysyllabic, Romance Monosyllabic, native Anglo-
vocabulary: investigate, Saxon voc., esp., prep. and
extinguish, decipher phr. Verbs: look into, put out,
Structures beginning with a Structures ending with a
preposition + wh-word, e.g. preposition, e.g. the people we
those to whom we wrote wrote to
Polite Impolite
Respectful terms of address, Familiar or intimate terms of
e.g. Sir, Mrs. P., Dr. H address, e.g. Tom, love
Indirect requests: Would you Direct imperatives: Give
mind, Could you… me…, Let’s do it
Impersonal Personal
Third person NPs: the reader, First and second person
passengers pronouns: I, me, you, we
Passive clauses: The problem Active clauses: We’ve solved
has been solved the problem
Impersonal It: It is evident Personal attributions: I
that… think…,
Specialist Popular
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Complex structures: in Noun Simpler structures, shorter
Phrases and Prep. Phrases sentences
More abstract language, Vivid language involving
abstract Nouns: system, activity, metaphor, etc: Have a
development, crack at it
Rare, technical vocabulary: Common, familiar vocabulary:
hindbrain, indigent cash, big, take
Complexity of language can be measured by analyzing

certain features in grammar and vocabulary (Leech et al, 2006:
159):
- In grammar, we can measure the number and complexity of
grammatical units, the kinds of grammatical complexity, or, we
can simply count the number of words per sentence.
- In vocabulary, another measure is the length of words,
counted in terms of the average number of morphemes,
syllables or letters per word. But there are other factors
involved in accessibility, such as the frequency or familiarity of
words and their meanings. For example, although the nouns
accommodation and extravaganza are of roughly equal length
(five syllables), extravaganza is a rarer and more specialized
word than accommodation, and it is in that sense more
difficult.
4.1.2. Tenor (attitude) and discourse

In this section we illustrate some features of tenor (attitude)
in general, by examining two samples of discourse from radio
news broadcasts. The medium and domain of the two samples
are identical (written form; sports news), so that in many ways
we might expect the language to be fairly similar. However, the
tenor of the two is a little different. Both samples of discourse
come from BBC radio news broadcasts on the opening of the
Olympic Games in Athens, covering the same general topic.
However, the first sample (A) is from Newsbeat, the Radio One
61
news programme (aimed at a young audience primarily
interested in popular music), while the second sample (B) is
from The World Tonight, the Radio Four news programme
(aimed at an older age range of people with an interest in
current affairs). The written form of these broadcasts has been
taken from the internet (Leech et al., 2006: 159-160)
(A) (From Newsbeat, BBC Radio 1, Web version, 13 August

2004)
Olympic Games open
The Olympic Games have officially kicked off. Tony Blair
and Princess Anne were among the thousands in the
stadium at Athens. Meanwhile, two of the host country’s top
athletes have been given until Monday to explain why they
didn’t turn up to a drugs test. Kostas Kenteris and Katerina
Thanou could now be booted out of the games. They’re now
both in hospital after a motorbike crash.
(B) (From BBC Sport, Radio 4, Web version, 13 August

2004)
The 28th Olympic Games have begun in lavish style in
Athens
The Olympic stadium hosted the opening ceremony in front
of 72,000 spectators and an estimated global audience of
four billion people. Greek President Konstandinos
Stefanopoulos declared the Games open after a spectacular
theatrical celebration and procession of athletes. The
opening extravaganza marks the end of a rocky seven- year
build-up and kicks off 16 days of sporting action.
Preparations have been blighted by controversy and the
ceremony was played out against a backdrop of a drugs
scandal involving Greece’s top athlete Kostas Kenteris.
62
The fragments submitted to our attention show certain
specific features: Using the measure of length, we find that the
Radio 4 report is considerably more complex than the Radio 1
report: thus, an average of 12 words per sentence for the former
passage (A) contrasts with an average of 18.6 words per
sentence in the second one (B).
As far as word length (measured in syllables) is concerned,
we can establish that in the (A) sample monosyllabic words
like have and be predominate, whereas in the (B) sample there
is a tendency to use more complex, polysyllabic words
(extravaganza, celebration, etc.).
By undertaking a grammatical analysis of the two passages
some aspects can be pointed out:
- Both passages have very little subordination of clauses:
subordinate clauses occur only in sentence 3 of the (A) passage
and sentence 4 of the (B) passage.
- Coordination is somewhat more important: we can see, for
example, the way the two coordinated clauses [S P A] + [S P A]
make sentence (Preparations have been blighted by …) the
longest of the second passage (B).
- The greatest complexity in these passages comes from
phrase structure – particularly NP and PP structure. Complexity
of phrases is a dominant feature of ‘typical writing’, whether
the register is journalistic or academic. NPs and PPs, in
particular, allow a dense packing of information which
characterizes this kind of writing, and distinguishes it markedly
from speech. Comparing the two passages, we can notice, for
instance, that more than half of the last sentence in passage (B)
is found in the phrase beginning against a backdrop, which
introduces the unpleasant aspect of the festivities - a ‘drugs
scandal’.
- Both passages show a preference for passive constructions:
have been given, could be booted out – in the (A) passage;
have been blighted, was played out - in the (B) passage.
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- Both passages also show a preference for phrasal verbs:
kicked off, turn up, in (A); kicks off, played out, in (B).
With reference to the other factors of tenor, represented by
impersonality and informality, there are some interesting
aspects to be pointed out in these passages. News bulletins, by
tradition, are impersonal, in keeping with their responsibility to
be factual, so 1st and 2nd person pronouns are not expected. The
passive also contributes to impersonality, by excluding certain
kinds of personal information. On the other hand, both
passages are (to different degrees) rather informal: this
tendency towards informality has increased in broadcasting and
journalism in recent years. We see this in the extensive use of
phrasal verbs like kick off instead of start. We also note, as a
sign of informality, in the (A) passage the use of verb
contractions (e.g. They’re) and of shorter, more informal
phraseology, such as motorbike crash rather than motorcycle
accident.
We can conclude by saying that the two passages are similar
in register, except for the greater simplicity and informality of
passage (A).
4.2. Domain
4.2.1. General considerations

In sociolinguistics, the term domain refers to general areas of
language use which are socially and functionally significant,
often institutionalized. According to Wales, “domain is a term
broader than register, and it overlaps with semantic field. For
bilingual speakers, domains such as ‘school’, ‘religion’, or
‘home’, for example, can cause code-switching, even as
conversational topics. For monolingual speakers, domain can
be seen as an important factor in appropriateness of usage,
determining, e.g., formal vs. informal variants” (K. Wales,
2001: 116).
64
The term domain reflects how language varies according to
the human activity in which it plays a part, or, in other words,
language varies according to the function it fulfils in
communication.
We can get a better understanding of the topic of domain by
briefly going over the features that make passages (A) and (B),
presented in section 4.1.2., representative of the domain of
news reporting. Some of the most important linguistic features,
representative of the domain of news reporting, are enumerated
below (from Leech et al. 2001: 162-3):
i. News headlines are often written in a special abbreviated
syntax known as ‘headlinese’. For example, words of low
information content such as the definite article the and the
linking verb to be are omitted (ellipsis), so in passage (A) the
more standard syntax of The Olympic Games are open is
reduced to Olympic Games open, this special syntax helping to
save space on the page.
ii. News reporting, particularly in more popular styles,
favours the use of phrasal verbs. This high frequency of
occurrence is partly due to their informality, and partly to their
liveliness of style. Phrasal and prepositional verbs, like kick off
and booted out of, bring a vivid metaphorical touch to the text,
with a suggestion of violence.
iii. News reporting aims to pack a lot of information into a
small space. This leads to a favouring of certain NP
constructions, such as the use of s-genitives instead of-phrases:
X’s Y (e.g., the host country’s top athletes; Greece’s top
athlete). The s-genitive construction is more compact than the
prepositional equivalent Y of X.
iv. While pronouns are little used, there is an important device
for cross-reference to another part of the text, ‘elegant
variation’, i.e. saying the same thing in different words (for
‘elegant variation’, see section 5.4.). This means substituting an
alternative descriptive phrase which refers to the same thing,
65
event, or person: thus, in passage (B) a spectacular theatrical
celebration refers to the same event as the opening ceremony.
v. Another common construction for compression of
information is the use of NPs in apposition, as in Greece’s top
athlete Kostas Kenteris. Greece’s top athlete is an NP referring
to the same person as Kostas Kenteris.
This list of linguistic features illustrates how similarities of
grammar features between passages (A) and (B) reflect their
similarity of communicative function, in spite of differences of
tenor (attitude).
4.2.2. The functions of language

As a system of communication, language has a multitude of
functions. It can be used to convey information, to express
feelings, to persuade someone to do something, to maintain
contact with someone else, to write poetry, or even to talk
about language itself.
There have been numerous attempts to categorize the
functions of language, the number of categories varying
according to perspective or discipline. Many have centred
specifically on the act of communication itself.
(i) One of the earliest categorizations of the functions of
language was made by Karl Bühler who established a threefold
classification of functions based on the essential elements of
addresser, addressee and sign: (a) to express the speaker’s
feelings, etc. (expressive function); (b) to appeal to, or
influence the addressee (appellative or conative function); (c)
to represent the real world (descriptive or referential function)
(Sprachtheorie, 1934, cited in K. Wales, 2001: 168).
(ii) Another influential model of the speech event was
provided by Roman Jakobson (1960: 350-377) who retained
Bühler’s classification but added three other functions: (a) the
phatic function which establishes and maintains contact
between participants; (b) the metalingual function which
66
focuses on the language itself; (c) the poetic function which
focuses on the aesthetic effect of language.
(iii) A modified form of Bühler’s and Jakobson’s models was
proposed by M.A.K.Halliday (1985): (a) the interpersonal
function (derived from the conative and expressive functions)
focuses on language used to express the relations between, and
attitudes of, speaker and listener; (b) the ideational function
(corresponding to the referential function) focuses on the
expression of experience; (c) the textual function was added
by Halliday to denote language making reference to itself, in
text building.
We elaborate on R. Jakobson’s significant attempt to
categorise the functions of language: in his essay entitled
“Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics”, (Sebeok, Style
in Language, 1960: 350-377), Jakobson discusses the
relationship between poetics and linguistics, pointing out that
in order to outline the field of study of poetics, its aims and
methods, one should investigate language in all variety of its
functions and in particular focus on the study of the poetic
function of language. An outline of language functions requires
a detailed analysis of all factors which help to constitute any
speech event, any act of verbal communication.
According to Jakobson, a simple model of a communication
channel consists of six factors: the addresser (the sender), the
message, the addressee (receiver), a context, a (common) code
and a contact (between an addresser and addressee. The
relationship between the first three factors consists in that the
addresser sends a message to the addressee. To be operative,
the message requires a context referred to, graspable by the
addressee (either verbal or capable of being verbalized), a code
fully (or at least partially) common to the addresser and the
addressee, and, finally, a contact, a physical channel and
psychological connection between the two, enabling both of
them to enter and stay in communication. The six factors
67
involved in any act of verbal communication are presented in
the following scheme (in Weber, 1996: 12):
CONTEXT
ADDRESSER MESSAGE ADDRESSEE
CONTACT
CODE
Jakobson points out the fact that even though we distinguish

six basic aspects of language, we could hardly find verbal
messages that would fulfil only one function. Actually, the
diversity lies in a specific hierarchical order of the functions,
not in a monopoly of one of them.
The verbal structure of a message depends primarily on the
predominant function. One of the six functions is always the
dominant function in a text and usually related to the type of
text. The six functions of language commonly accepted are: (i)
referential (or informational/descriptive), (ii) poetic (or
aesthetic), (iii) emotive (or expressive), (iv) conative (or
directive / appellative), (v) phatic, (vi) meta-lingual (meta-
communicative). They can be described as follows:
(i) The referential (or informational/descriptive) function
serves to represent the real world. It is oriented towards the
context, i.e. it derives from the context or subject matter of
communication, and is concerned with information transfer. It
is the dominant function in a message like Water boils at 100°
C; The earth is round; or The sun rises in the East. The
referential function of language is basic to communication, and
its significance has been recognized in many categorizations of
the functions of language, e.g. in Halliday’s ideational
function (1973). It has sometimes been argued that the
referential function is foregrounded or is more prominent in
certain types of discourse than others, e.g., technical or factual
reporting vs. poetic language.
68
(ii) The poetic (or aesthetic) function puts a strong focus on
the message for its own sake (it is oriented towards the
message). In other words, this function can be defined as the
use of language for language’s sake, i.e. for a special aesthetic
effect. The characteristic poetic function consists in
foregrounding language and meaning consciously and
creatively against the background of non-literary language, by
devices of deviation, and also repetition or parallelism. This
function is also linguistically represented by verbal play, e.g.
figurative devices, humour.
(iii) The emotive (or expressive) function describes the set
of language oriented towards the addresser (or sender):
namely, it communicates, or expresses his/her emotions,
attitudes, etc., towards what s/he is speaking about. This
function is linguistically represented by the use of interjections,
such as, Bah!, Oh!. The emotive function flavours to some
extent all our utterances, on their phonetic, grammatical and
lexical level.
(iv) The conative (or directive/ appellative) function, which
means to appeal to, or to influence the receiver, is oriented
towards the addressee (receiver). This function refers to
attempts to influence others in order to achieve some goal,
typically realized by orders or requests and is linguistically
represented by the use of questions or commands, imperative
sentences, vocatives, as in Come here! The conative function
can be found in any utterance which aims to have a specific
effect or influence on the addressee, such as a propaganda
discourse.
(v) The phatic function serves to establish, prolong or
discontinue the contact or channel of communication, or to
confirm whether the contact is still there. This function implies
that language is used to keep social relationships in good repair
by ensuring that people keep talking with each other, as in
small talk. Unlike aesthetic language, with phatic communion
69
what is important is not the news value of what one says or the
originality or creativity of the language used, but the fact that
something is said at all, silence being avoided so that speaker
and addressee can feel at ease or can enjoy each other’s
company. This function is realized by various greetings, leave-
takings, or formulas, such as How are you?; Hello, do you hear
me?
Precisely because it lacks informative value, phatic function
is not frequently found in literature, even in drama. In the plays
of Harold Pinter, however, especially in his dramatic sketches,
phatic utterances are foregrounded for humorous or ‘realistic’
effects.
(vi) The metalingual function focuses on the language itself
(it is oriented towards the code), being used to establish mutual
agreement on the code, for example, a definition. Metalingual
function is realized by various inquiries, requests for
clarification, for instance, I don’t understand/I can’t read that,
Do you know what I mean?
The six factors involved in verbal communication and the
six corresponding functions of language are presented in the
following scheme (in Weber, 1996: 16):
CONTEXT
REFERENTIAL
MESSAGE
ADDRESSER POETIC ADDRESSEE
EMOTIVE CONATIVE
/EXPRESSIVE CONTACT
PHATIC
CODE
METALINGUAL
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As pointed out by Finch (2000: 190), the idea underlying this
model is that all language is oriented in some way towards one
or more features of the communicative situation: e.g., language
oriented towards the situational context, is likely to be
referential in nature (a discussion of the weather will contain
references to the elements), while language directed at the
addressee, is likely to be conative, i.e. persuasive, interrogative,
or directive.
It should be noted that just as lexemes have different
meanings, so one and the same phrase or expression can serve
different functions simultaneously. For example, I’m dying for
a cup of coffee can, in the right circumstances, be read as a
piece of information (referential), as an expression of the
speaker’s emotion (expressive) or as a veiled, disguised order
to the addressee to get the speaker something to drink
(conative).
In general, however, language used in a given type of
activity has a dominant communicative function, with others
subordinate to it, and we can initially characterize the domains
of language according to their dominant functions.
Table 6 is a list of some domains with the dominant and
subordinate functions typically associated with them.
Domain Function
Dominant Subordinate
Journalism referential expressive, conative
Advertising conative referential, poetic
Religion expressive conative, poetic
Law referential metalinguistic, conative
Literature poetic expressive, referential
Conversation phatic referential, expressive
Table 6: Domains – functions (Leech et al. 2006: 164)
71
In fact, like the varieties of tenor (discussed in section 4.1.)
and medium/mode (discussed in chapter 3), the varieties of
domain do not lend themselves to clear-cut distinctions. There
are, for example, possible subcategories of domain with no
clear separation between them: journalism involves reporting
the news and also commenting on the news.
4.2.3. Domain and discourse

The concept of domain can be further illustrated by
analysing the discourse of a particular domain, that of
advertising. The discourse sample (from Leech et al, 2001:
164-6) is the main part of a press advertisement for a car:
The Vauxhall Chevette has always offered a great

combination of comfort, economy and enthusiastic
performance.
But this year, by realigning the rear-seat, we’ve conjured up
extra legroom in the back.
The result is even more space and greater comfort for
passengers.
Drivers, on the other hand, will notice that, in most respects,
it remains unchanged.
The Chevette is every bit as sure footed and sporty a
performer as ever it was.
One surprise, though, is that it’s now even more economical
to run.
Because our engineers have managed to wring further fuel
savings of round 4% from the already frugal 1256 cc engine
Think of that as around 5p off every gallon of petrol you use
and you’ll appreciate its value.
In fact, recent Government figures show the Chevette saloon
returning 44 mpg at 56 mph and 31.3 mpg at a constant 75
mph.
Other thoughtful touches for 1980 include side window
72
demisters and optional automatic transmission.
Restyled flushline headlights accent the car’s already
aerodynamic lines.
The main, dominant function of advertising is conative

(persuasive, directive), i.e. language is directed at the
addressee, aiming to influence him/her. If an advertisement is
to achieve its purpose, which is to sell a product, it has to be
easy to read, with a fairly simple sentence structure. In this
text each sentence starts a new paragraph, and there is an
average of 15 words per sentence, which is relatively short.
The clause structure is quite simple, with more use of
coordination than subordination. The second sentence But this
year… is probably the most complex, as it has a subordinate
adverbial construction.
This structure creates a special effect. The adverbial this
year (the second sentence), stresses the newness of the model,
and the rest of the main clause (we’ve conjured up extra
legroom in the back), at the end, gives new information about
precisely what the new feature is. A special effect is also
created by the seventh sentence Because our engineers... This
sentence is really a clause subordinate to the previous main
clause, it’s now even more economical to run. However, placing
Because our engineers... at the beginning of a new sentence
has the effect of giving separate emphasis to the explanation
for the economy of this car.
Below the level of the clause we can look at the structure
of NPs. In advertising language, as in news reporting, they are
often fairly complex, with extensive use of premodifiers. This
structure has the advantage of giving exact information, yet
remaining concise. Premodifiers are often expressed by nouns
in advertising, as in, for example, recent Government figures,
restyled flushline headlights, side window demisters. The
73
penultimate sentence Other thoughtful touches for 1980 has
both pre- and postmodifiers.
The final NP of the advertisement, the car’s already
aerodynamic lines uses the genitive car’s, which is uncommon
for inanimate nouns in many other language domains, but
common in advertising. The premodifiers themselves in this
case are subordinate phrases: ((the car’s) (already
aerodynamic) lines). This has the effect of conciseness and
impact, as is clear if we compare an equivalent phrase with
postmodification: the lines (of the car) (which are already
aerodynamic).
As far as verbs are concerned, tense is used effectively to
convey the advertiser’s message: The simple present tense
emphasizes the features of the new model (e.g. the result is, it
remains); the present perfect shows what improvements have
been made (e.g. we’ve conjured up, have managed), and the
future cleverly makes the assumption that the car will be
bought (Drivers… will notice, you’ll appreciate).
The vocabulary of the advertisement can be divided into
two categories:
(i) Words (especially adjectives) which emphasise the positive
aspects of the product, and persuade the consumer to buy
(conative function). The modifiers great (combination), extra
(legroom), more (space), greater (comfort), thoughtful
(touches) fall into this category.
(ii) Words which provide technical information about the car
(referential function). Words and phrases such as realigning,
returning 44 mpg, side window demisters, optional automatic
transmission, restyled flushline headlights, aerodynamic lines
fall into this category.
A further characteristic of advertising language, contrasting
with news reporting, is direct address: in this respect, we can
note the use of the second person pronoun you (sentence eight:
you use, you’ll appreciate), and the imperative Think of that
74
as…(sentence eight), which acts as an appeal for notice. This
point draws our attention to interconnections between domain,
tenor and mode.
Advertising language is typically very informal and personal,
and even when it occurs in written form (e.g. in press
advertisements) it shows some of the characteristics that we
associate with spoken language, for example, the use of verbal
contractions as in we’ve conjured up, it’s even more
economical, and you’ll appreciate.
Further aspects referring to the style of advertising will be
dealt with in section 6.2.4.
75
5. GRAMMAR AND PRINCIPLES OF GOOD
WRITING
A recurring theory put forward by scholars is that a good

knowledge of grammar rules can be used to consolidate and to
improve our style of written English. If we have a good
command of the grammar of English, we can analyse our own
writing, criticize and learn to improve it. In the light of such a
theory, scholars have formulated general principles underlying
organizational patterns of good writing. Thus, Leech et al
(2006: 196) suggest four basic principles of good, effective
writing, represented by:
(i.) Making language easy to follow;
(ii.) The principle of clarity;
(iii.) The principle of economy;
(iv.) The principle of effective communication.
5.1. Making language easy to follow

This principle, which comprises three aspects - sentence
length, subordination and ordering - is designed to make the
reader make sense of a text in linear form (i.e. a linear
ordering, or sequence of words, phrases, etc.).
5.1.1. Sentence length

For the reader’s sake, a text should be suitably segmented
into units, so that it can be understood bit by bit. In grammar,
the largest unit is the sentence and it is important to avoid
sentences which are either too long or too short. Linguists
avoid prescribing an ‘ideal sentence length’ for all purposes,
but recent studies suggest that the average sentence in written
English is about 18 words long.
In general, the longer a sentence is, the more complex it is,
placing a great burden on the reader’s attention and memory.
On the other hand, if we go to the other extreme, repeatedly
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making use of very simple sentences may result in
monotonous, flat style. The recommended sentence length is a
medium one, as illustrated by the following three passages
(Leech et al, 2006: 197)
(i) J. Keats was fascinated by the art and literature of the
ancient world. Just before his twenty-first birthday in 1816,
he read G. Chapman’s translation of Homer. He wrote a
famous sonnet on the subject. The next year, he visited the
Elgin Marbles. The painter B. Haydon accompanied him.
This developed his enthusiasm still further. He wrote
another notable sonnet after the visit. But his Greece was
essentially a Greece of his imagination. It was the Greece
of J. Lemprière’s Classical Dictionary. This he had read
when young. He never visited Greece.
Although passage (i) consists of very simple units, easy to
follow, it actually suffers from monotonous, flat style, with
brief, one-clause sentences.
On the other hand, passage (ii) illustrates the opposite
extreme style, represented by very long and complex
sentence(s):
(ii) Although J. Keats had been fascinated by the art and
literature of the ancient world ever since he read G.
Chapman’s translation of Homer (which produced a famous
sonnet on the subject) just before his twenty-first birthday in
1816, and had that enthusiasm further developed by his visit
to the Elgin Marbles with the painter B. Haydon the
following year (which also produced a notable sonnet), his
Greece was essentially a Greece of the imagination, inspired
by his early reading of John Lemprière’s Classical
Dictionary: he never visited Greece.
Passage (ii) is much more difficult than passage (i), because
the content of the 11 sentences of passage (i) is condensed into
only one sentence. Nevertheless passage (ii) has an advantage
over passage (i) in that it indicates, through subordination and
77
other grammatical devices, the relations of meaning between
the different clauses. We see all the different ideas fitting into a
single ‘complex thought’, with clear indications of how one
idea is linked to another, or is subordinate to another, etc.
Passage (iii) represents a happy medium between the two
extreme styles:
(iii) Although John Keats was fascinated by the art and
literature of the ancient world, he never visited Greece. His
Greece was essentially a Greece of the imagination, inspired
by his early reading of Lemprière’s Classical Dictionary.
Just before his twenty-first birthday, he read G. Chapman’s
translation of Homer, an experience which inspired one of
his famous sonnets. His enthusiasm was further developed,
in the following year, by a visit to the Elgin Marbles with the
painter B. Haydon.
5.1.2. Subordination
In grammatical analysis, the term subordination, is used to
refer to “the process or result of linking linguistic units so that
they have different syntactic status, one being dependent upon
the other, and usually a constituent of the other. (In this respect,
it is usually distinguished from co-ordinate linkage, where the
units are equivalent.)” (Crystal, 1992: 334).
It helps the reader if we not only segment our message into
units of suitable size, but also indicate the relative importance
of ideas within those units. As passages (ii) and (iii) have
already shown (in section 5.1.1), subordinate clauses are one
way of making one idea less salient than another. According to
Leech et al., “putting an idea in a main clause is like shining a
spotlight on it; putting it in the subordinate clause, by the same
simile, is like placing it in the shadow” (2006: 198). This
choice can be seen in the contrast between the complex
sentences (iv) and (v) below:
(iv) Although Keats spent the last months of his life in Rome,
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he never visited his beloved Greece.
(v) Although he never visited his beloved Greece, Keats
spent the last months of his life in Rome.
In sentence (iv), the idea in the main clause spotlights the
point about Greece, while in (v), the idea in the main clause
spotlights the point about Rome. Subordinate clauses often
state ideas which are well known, or have been mentioned
before, or in stylistic terms, they form the background.
Background(ing) is defined by Wales as being used in
opposition to foregrounding: foregrounding applies to the
dynamic actualization of ordinary language in poetic language,
while the background represents ‘normal’, non-aesthetic
language (Wales, 2001: 38-9).
This ‘backgrounding’ effect is still felt if the subordinate
clause is placed in a final position, as in (vi):
(vi) Keats never visited his beloved Greece, although he
spent the last months of his life in Rome.
‘Backgrounding’ also results from placing an idea in a
tenseless clause (i.e., a clause with a non-finite form of the
verb) or in a phrase, as illustrated by the examples below:
(vii) After he has visited the British Museum, Keats wrote his
famous Ode on a Grecian Urn. (tensed clause)
(viii) After visiting the British Museum, Keats wrote his
famous Ode on a Grecian Urn. (tenseless clause)
(ix) After a visit to the British Museum, Keats wrote his
famous Ode on a Grecian Urn. (phrase)
Coordination on the other hand, gives equal importance to
the clauses it links. We can contrast both sentences (iv) and (v)
with (x) and (xi), where the clauses are linked by the
coordinating conjunctions but and nor:
(x) Keats spent the last months of his life in Rome, but never
visited his beloved Greece.
(xi) Keats never visited his beloved Greece, nor did he visit
Rome until the last months of his life.
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There is a scale of ‘backgrounding’ which is roughly shown
in Table 7 (from Leech et al., 2006: 199):
Coordinate Tensed Tenseless Phrase

clause subordinate subordinate
clause clause
---------------------------------------------------------------------→
Table 7 No backgrounding Most backgrounding
5.1.3. Ordering: end-focus and end-weight

Ordering refers to the pattern of relationships constituting
or underlying a linear sequence of linguistic units (Crystal,
1992: 244). Ordering, as a way of indicating the relative
importance of two (or more) parts of a sentence, is closely
associated with two principles, that of end-focus and of end-
weight.
The principle or maxim of end-focus, which illustrates the
important interrelations between syntax and text structure, is
based on the general fact that different parts of utterances have
different communicative values or degrees of communicative
dynamism, and that normally new or important information is
reserved for the end (K. Wales, 2001: 126).
The emphasis typically carried by the final position is best
explained in terms of information packaging: as we read
through a sequence of sentences in a text, we progressively add
packages of ideas to the store of information with which we
started. These packages correspond to grammatical units,
especially clauses and phrases. Sentences we encounter in a
text usually contain a mixture of given information
(information we have met before) and new information
(information we have not met before). In general, the reader is
helped if given information is placed before new information.
The information system described above has been discussed
by M.A.K.Halliday (1985) using the concept of thematization:
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studies of functional sentence perspective, involving the
concept of communicative dynamism describe the dynamic
‘development’ of an utterance in terms of degrees of givenness
and newness of information, and also the semantic value or
weight of sentence elements.
The principle of end-focus can be seen by reversing the
order of the two clauses connected by the coordinating
conjunction but, in the compound sentences (xii) and (xiii):
(xii) J. Keats was fascinated by the art and literature of the
ancient world, but he never visited Greece.
(xiii) J. Keats never visited Greece, but he was fascinated by
the art and literature of the ancient world.
Although grammatically the two clauses are of the same
status (they are main clauses), in any construction X but Y, the
main focus of attention seems to fall on Y, since the final
position is the most important in terms of information.
The principle of end-focus applies not only to the ordering
of clauses, but also to the ordering of clause elements.
This principle is considered to be an important factor in the
choice of active and passive sentences. We can compare, for
instance, sentences (i) and (ii) below.
(i) 9 out of 10 cats prefer Whiskas
(ii) Whiskas is preferred by 9 out of 10 cats
In the active sentence (i), the focus is on the cat-food,
Whiskas, while in the passive sentence (ii), the focus is on the
high proportion of cats, 9 out of 10 cats.
We can also compare the two sentences below in order to
decide which of them is the easier to make sense:
(i) Instead of quinine, penicillin was given to the patient,
who began to get better almost immediately. Within a
week, she had completely recovered.
(ii) Instead of quinine, the patient was given penicillin, and
began to get better almost immediately. Within a week,
she had recovered completely.
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The second sentence (ii) is easier to understand than (i) for
two reasons: penicillin (by its contrast with quinine) conveys
the most important new information in the first clause, and
should therefore follow the word patient, which is given
information within this context; recovered completely is a
better ordering than completely recovered, because ‘recovery’
has already been mentioned, and it is the adverb completely
which brings in new information at this point.
End-position is also important for the principle of end-
weight, which involves syntactic ordering. Here complex or
‘heavy’ sentence constituents will tend to follow simpler or
lighter ones. The principle of end-weight explains why
sentence (ii) below is preferred to sentence (i):
(i) That it was a good idea to propose her for President,/ no
one doubted.
(ii) No-one doubted/that it was a good idea to propose her
for President.
This principle is frequently achieved by applying
extraposition (see also section 5.1.4.4.).
The principle has to do with the weight, or complexity, of an
element, rather than the amount of information conveyed, but
the two criteria are interconnected: a complex constituent (in
practice, one that contains a large number of words) tends to
contain more information than a simple one. Compare:
(i) The art and literature of the ancient world fascinated
Keats.
(ii) Keats was fascinated by the art and literature of the
ancient world.
Sentence (ii) is preferred to (i), because the complex phrase
by the art and literature of the ancient world is placed at the
end. Often it is a good idea to use a passive construction, as in
(ii), in order to put the ‘weight’ of the sentence in final position
(see also section 5.1.4.1).
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A marked preference for the end-weight principle can be seen
in sentences like:
(i) I admire greatly the courage of the men who dared to
carry out that raid.
(ii) One group had left open the possibility that they would
carry weapons.
In both sentences, the end-weight principle is so overriding
that it leads the writer to rearrange the elements out of their
normal order: thus, in (i) I admire greatly the courage…,
having the pattern [S P A O], instead of the normal order [S P O
A]; also, in (ii), One group had left open the possibility, with
the pattern [S P C O] instead of the normal order [S P O C].
In English there are a number of structure-changing rules
(that will be discussed in section 5.1.4. below) which allow
elements to be moved out of their normal position in the clause
so that the two principles - end-focus and end-weight – can be
applied.
5.1.4. Style and structure-changing rules

An extra dimension to the study of grammar is represented
by basic and derived structures, enabling us to deal with a
range of grammatical patterns which do not fit neatly into the
standard patterns (known as the constituent structure model of
grammar). The concept of structure-changing rule, which has
been developed in modern studies of English grammar,
represents a kind of grammatical rule which relates two
different constituent structures (basic and derived structures)
with essentially the same meaning.
The neutral, basic order of clause elements, represented by
the pattern S + P + O + C + A, applies to normal declarative
sentences. In addition to some other clause types, e.g.
questions, relative clauses, etc., which can be explained as
systematic deviations from the normal word order, there are
some other derived structures, for example:
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(i) a. (I) (adore) (music) basic order: S + P + O
b. (music) (I) (adore) derived order: O + S + P
(ii) a. (He) (looks) (a jerk) basic order: S + P + C
b.(What a jerk) (he) (looks) derived order: C + S + P
(iii) a. (The rain) (came) (down) basic order: S + P + A
b. (Down) (came) (the rain) derived order: A + P + S
c. (Down) (it) (came) derived order: A + S + P
These ‘structure-changing rules’ change one clause structure
into another, allowing us to keep the idea of a ‘basic’ or
‘neutral’ ordering, and at the same time accounting for
acceptable departures from the basic order. These variations are
seen in Table 8 (from Leech et al., 2006: 125):
Rule Basic beco derived Under certain

structure mes str. conditions
Rule 1 SPO/C/A → O/C/A S a). in MCls, to give
fronting P emphasis
b) when the shifted
element is a wh-
element like what,
what, etc.
Rule 2 ASP → APS In MCls, where A is
S-P an adverbial of place,
inversion where S is not a
pronoun (cf. iiib) and
where P contains a
Mv of position or
motion
Table 8: Variations of order

The structure-change from basic to derived structures
leaves the content of a sentence largely unchanged. Hence
many structure-changing rules, particularly those which move
constituents around in the sentence, are primarily stylistic in
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function: they serve the purpose of changing the way we say
things, the way we package information for the reader rather
than what we have to say.
There are a number of cases of stylistic structure-changing
rules, in which the effect of the change of structure is either to
move an element to the front of the sentence (‘fronting’) or to
move it towards the end (‘postponement’). The function of
postponement is generally to move the element to a position
where it will attract attention as new information, whereas the
effect of fronting an element is generally to stress its
‘givenness’ as the topic of the sentence, its connection with
what has gone before in the text.
Some of the most important cases of stylistic structure-
changing rules are represented by: passive sentences; cleft
sentences; existential clauses; extraposition; fronting of
subordinate clause object; substitution of prepositional phrase
for indirect object; postponement of postmodifier.
5.1.4.1. Passive sentences

An important structure-changing rule refers to active –
passive sentences. There is a close complementary relationship
between active and passive sentences: they appear to have the
same propositional meaning, to be paraphrases of each other.
Yet, obviously the very existence of an apparent grammatical
choice means that the passive must have particular
connotations of its own. The answer to the question ‘why
should we prefer a passive sentence to an equivalent active
one?’ is suggested by the following sentences, in which the
final and communicatively most important elements are
underlined:
(i) The heavy rains have destroyed seventy houses.
(ii) Seventy houses have been destroyed by the heavy rains
(iii) Seventy houses have been destroyed.
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One function of the passive, as in sentence (ii), is to put the
main emphasis on the ‘logical subject’ of the sentence - in this
case, the heavy rains – by moving it towards the end. We can
notice, in this connection, the different emphasis of the active
sentence (i), where the main piece of information is that the
rains have destroyed seventy houses, and (ii), where the main
piece of information is that this was done by the heavy rains:
the principle of end-focus operating here.
Another function of the passive is to allow the ‘logical
subject’ to be omitted altogether, as in sentence (iii), which
lacks the optional agent phrase by the heavy rains. Although
similar in structure and meaning, sentences (i), (ii) and (iii) all
have different communicative effects.
5.1.4.2. Cleft sentences

The term clefting is used in grammar to describe a process
whereby for emphasis or focus a simple sentence appears to
have been ‘cleft’ or divided into two clauses. One clause
contains cataphoric it + auxiliary verb be, the other a relative
clause (Wales, 2001: 56-7). Alternative terms are predicated
theme or theme predication (Halliday, 1985: 39) and it-cleft
(Biber et al. 1999: 155). These terms indicate that it is ‘natural’
to highlight items in the predicate, i.e. after a verb (be) and that
the pronoun it is the dummy subject, as it were, an empty
theme or point of initiation.
It is often possible to form a number of different ‘cleft
sentences’ or ‘cleft clauses’ from the same basic sentence:
(i) John was wearing the new suit last night.
(ii) It was John that/who was wearing the new suit last
night.
(focus on logical subject, John)
(iii) It was the new suit that John was wearing last night.
(focus on object, the new suit)
(iv) It was last night that John was wearing the new suit.
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(focus on adverbial of time, last night)
The following is a rough description of the rule for forming
clefts: (a) Choose an element of the clause: it may be S, O, C or
A, but not P; (b) Move that element (which we may call X) into
the initial position, then prefix to it the ‘dummy’ subject it, and
a form of the verb to be (e.g. It is, It was); (c) Introduce the rest
of the clause by the relative pronoun that, or who (for an
animate logical subject) following X. Thus in (i) the following
structures are derived:
[S P O A] → [It be S that P O A] (ii)
[It be O that S P A] (iii)
[It be A that S P O] (iv)
Wales (2001: 57) points out the fact that in speech, extra
prominence on certain elements can be made simply by stress
and tone of voice, possibilities denied in writing. But clefting is
found in speech as well as writing. Since it provides an extra
degree of emphasis, it is exploited in the rhetorical discourse of
public oratory:
It was the last Government who were responsible for our
present rate of unemployment.
Another motivation for clefting is to provide a contrast:
But it wasn’t the colour of his eyes that was peculiar to him,
it was the way he walked.
The early position of the focused element makes it suitable
both for expressing a connection with the preceding text and
for expressing contrast.
5.1.4.3. Existential clauses/sentences

This type of clause is like the ‘cleft’ in that it begins with a
special particle as subject, followed by the verb to be.
Existential clause describes a construction which states that
something ‘exists’, and which is formally identifiable by the
pattern there (= non-locative adverb/existential particle as
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‘dummy’ subject and theme) + be (‘exist’) + logical subject +
X (= rest of the clause), as in:
(i) There was nobody around (“Nobody existed in that area”)
(ii) There are a few people getting promoted.
(iii) There has been a whole box stolen.
Such sentences can be seen to be related in form to more
straightforward patterns, such as:
(i¹) Nobody was around.
(ii¹) A few people are getting promoted.
(iii¹) A whole box has been stolen.
But as these very paraphrases suggest, the existential
equivalent is by far the commoner alternative, since it allows
the desired special focus to fall on a post-verbal, rather than
pre-verbal element, i.e. the normal position for focusing, or for
new information. The subject slot is normally reversed for less
significant, or for given information, i.e. the theme.
The following is a rough approximation to the rule we can
use for deriving existential clauses from a straightforward
declarative clause: [S be X] → [There be S X], where S is a
(normally indefinite) NP conveying new information, and X is
anything which is added to complete the clause after the
operator-verb be. Like other structure-changing rules so far
mentioned, this one commonly has the function of postponing
new information until the end (‘end-focus’).
Existential sentences are particularly useful if the
grammatical subjects are ‘heavy’ or complex, and accord with
the principle of end-weight:
There wasn’t one word of sympathy or understanding for the
departing Prime Minister (the example is not paraphrasable
in terms of subject + be).
In formal, especially literary, English existential sentences
can also occur with some other verbs than be, such as live,
come, rise, begin:
There came a big spider, and sat down beside her.
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Once upon a time there lived a poor woodcutter.
There rose in the distance a huge cloud of yellow dust.
5.1.4.4. Extraposition
The term extraposition is used in grammatical analysis to
refer to the process or result of moving (or ‘extraposing’) an
element from its normal position to a position at or near the end
of the sentence. The pronoun it which is introduced in such
sentences is known as ‘extrapositive it’ (Crystal, 1992: 131).
Consider the following examples:
(i) What you say to them doesn’t matter. → It doesn’t matter
what you say to them.
(ii) That the dispute has been settled is encouraging. → It is
encouraging that the dispute has been settled.
(iii) To move his arm causes him considerable pain. → It
causes him considerable pain to move his arm.
The clause is usually the most complex constituent, and
extraposition postpones it in accordance with the principle of
‘end-weight’ which favours placing a heavy constituent at the
end. So in this case it is the basic structure that is less common
than the derived structure.
5.1.4.5. Fronting of subordinate clause object

This is another type of stylistic structure-changing rule. It is
convenient to take the extraposition construction of section
5.1.4.4. as the basic structure for this example of fronting:
(i) It’s a pleasure to teach her. → She’s a pleasure to teach.
(ii) It’s difficult to play a saxophone. → A saxophone is
difficult to play.
(iii) It’s fun to be with Mary. → Mary is fun to be with.
These paraphrases refer to a rule (known as Tough
movement) which involves moving a noun phrase out of the
predicate of a complement sentence. Tough is one of a class of
adjectives (others being hard, easy, simple, difficult, etc.) which
have been the focus of discussion ever since Noam Chomsky’s
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analysis of pairs such as John is eager to please; John is easy
to please. The rule of tough movement takes the non-subject
noun phrase from the extraposed complement (i.e. her,
saxophone, Mary) and substitutes it for the initial subject
pronoun of the sentence as a whole (i.e. it).
5.1.4.6. Substitution of prepositional phrase (PP) for

indirect object (IO)
Indirect objects in English usually appear before the direct
object (e.g. The man gave the boy a book) but they may also
follow it (e.g. The man gave a book to the boy).
This structure-changing rule substitutes a prepositional
phrase (PP) introduced by the preposition to (i.) or for (ii) for
an indirect object (IO):
(i) Tom sent Ann a letter. → Tom sent a letter to Ann.
(ii) John is finding his brother a job. → John is finding a job
for his brother.
The participant roles characteristic of the indirect object are
recipient (corresponding to a paraphrase with the preposition
to (to Ann, in example i. above) and benefactive
(corresponding to a paraphrase with the preposition for (for his
brother, in example ii. above).
5.1.4.7. Postponement of postmodifier

The term modifier is used in grammar to describe the
dependent elements in a noun phrase or nominal group,
occurring before or after the noun as head. Determiners
characteristically function as modifiers, and so do adjectives. A
distinction is normally made between premodification and
postmodification, the latter being modifiers that follow the
noun (Biber et al., 2006: 267).
Non-finite postmodifier clauses have three different forms:
to-clauses (example i. below), ing-clauses, and ed-clauses.
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Phrasal postmodifiers are mainly represented by prepositional
phrases (example ii. below).
(i) The time to think of many things has come. → The time
has come to think of many things.
(ii) A meeting of all the ratepayers was held. → A meeting
was held of all the ratepayers.
The structure-changing rule regarding postponement of
postmodifier involves discontinuity. For example, in the
derived sentence (i) The time has come to think of many things
there is a split subject.
5.2. The principle of clarity

The principle of clarity, an obvious imperative of written
style, means avoiding obscurity of expression, delays of
interpretation as well as ambiguities.
Ambiguity, referring to a word or sentence which expresses
more than on meaning, is represented by two types:
grammatical and lexical ambiguity.
(a) Grammatical (or structural) ambiguity: alternative
constituent structures can be assigned to a construction, as in
new houses and shops which could be analysed either as new
[houses and shops] (i.e. both are new) or [new [houses] and
shops (i.e. only the houses are new). The alternative semantic
representations can be shown by relating the ambiguous
sentence to different structures. For example, Visiting relatives
can be boring is relatable to either It is boring to visit relatives
or Relatives who visit are boring.
(b) Lexical ambiguity does not arise from the grammatical
analysis of a sentence, but is due solely to the alternative
meanings of an individual lexical item. Lexical ambiguity
arises because of polysemy (words having more than one
meaning) or homonymy (words having the same form, but
different origins). Thus, in I found the table fascinating, table is
polysemous, meaning ‘object of furniture’ or ‘table of figures’.
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Ambiguities can in many cases be eliminated by the
insertion of commas or other stops. In other cases, they can be
eliminated by changes in the grammar of the sentence, e.g.
deletions, transformations or reordering.
A special type of ambiguity is represented by ‘garden-path’
sentences. A ‘garden-path’ sentence is a temporarily ambiguous
or confusing sentence because it contains a word group which
appears to be compatible with more than one structural
analysis. The ‘garden-path’ is a reference to the saying ‘to be
led down the garden-path’, meaning to be misled. The
following sentences illustrate temporary, ‘garden-path’
ambiguities: they encourage an analysis which as the sentence
proceeds turns out to be wrong:
(i) The recruits marched down that road were never seen
again.
(ii) Though Tom kept on watching the film frightened him.
(iii) The woman shrieked at Tom and his brother started to
cry.
In these examples, the constituent which is likely to mislead
is underlined. Thus, in (i) the ‘garden-path’ is the analysis of
marched down that road as part of the main clause, instead of
as a Relative clause (‘who were marched…’). In (ii) it is the
analysis of the film as object of watching rather than as subject
of frightened. And in (iii) it is the analysis of and his brother as
part of a prepositional phrase at Tom and his brother, rather
than as the beginning of a new clause. In each case, there is an
obvious remedy for the muddle: before the misleading words,
we can insert in (i) the words who were, and in (ii) and (iii)
commas.
5.3. The principle of economy

Economy is an important criterion in linguistics, which
requires that an analysis should aim to be short and use as few
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terms as possible. The principle of economy is achieved
especially through reduction.
5.3.1. Reduction
Reduction means the simplification of grammatical
structure, hence the reduction of the number of words uttered,
by reliance on implicit meaning or reference, as supplied by
mutual knowledge. Often this implicit meaning is retrieved
anaphorically, by a previous verbal reference, but frequently it
is retrieved from the situation outside language (Biber et al.,
1999: 1043).
An important principle is that of avoiding unnecessary
words, as redundant words and structures could be omitted
without loss of meaning from the sentence. Redundancy has
definite pejorative connotations of superfluity, the rhetorical
term for an excess of meaning being pleonasm, as in the
sentence I can see with my own eyes. Also, consider:
As a rule, the negotiators generally manage to reach a
satisfactory compromise which satisfies both parties.
The sentence can be improved by omitting two redundant
words, the adverb generally and the adjective satisfactory.
. The general phenomenon of reduction, whereby we save
words and hence simplify structures can be achieved by means
of several devices:
a. The use of pro-forms, a term that refers collectively to the
items in a sentence which substitute for other items or
constructions. The central class of examples (from which the
term is derived by analogy) is personal pronouns (he, she, it,
they), which substitute for noun phrases. Other pro-forms
replace adverbials (e.g. then, there), predicates (e.g. do, as in I
like films. So do I, from So do I like films) and even whole
clauses or sentences (e.g. so, as in I said so).
b. The use of ellipsis, a term that refers to the omission of
part of an utterance or grammatical structure, which can be
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readily understood by the hearer or reader in the co-text or the
context, and which can be ‘recovered’ explicitly (K. Wales,
2001: 121).
Elided or ellipted elements constitute given information, and
ellipsis helps to focus on new information, or more important
information. Ellipsis is common in registers where economy of
expression is needed, e.g. newspaper adverts:
Home wanted for German shepherd. House-trained. Good
with children.
Such a ‘telegraphic’ style, with the omission of grammatical
words (articles, auxiliaries, etc.), is common in the
representation of interior monologue in novels. Thus, using
elliptical constructions J. Joyce suggests the quick succession
of thoughts or images that flash through the mind of his
fictional character Leopold Bloom in Ulysses:
Raised his eyes and met the stare of a bilious clock. Two.
Pub clock five minutes fast. Time going on. Hands moving.
Two. Not yet.
Ellipsis in normal discourse is possible because of its
predictability of meaning: and it is a common means of implicit
cohesion between sentences or utterances, usefully avoiding
unnecessary and possibly tedious repetition. It is thus typically
anaphoric, i.e. dependent on prior full reference.
Ellipsis is extremely common, especially in speech, based
on the maxim ‘reduce as much as possible’. But where
economy could lead to ambiguity, ellipsis is avoided, for
example, in legal contracts.
Both pro-forms and ellipsis are means of avoiding repetition.
As well as reducing length and complexity, pro-forms and
ellipsis help to connect one part of a sentence or text to
another:
(i) My brother enjoys squash more than my brother enjoys
tennis. (repetition)
(ii) My brother enjoys squash more than he does tennis.
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(pro-forms)
(iii) My brother enjoys squash more than ^ tennis. (ellipsis)
5.3.2. Clarity versus economy

The reverse effect is that applying the principle of economy
can often lead to an unsuspected loss of meaning. This means
that we should not reduce words where economy conflicts with
clarity. Consider the following sentences:
(i) Molesworth proved the theorem, on purely formal
grounds, was false.
(ii) They have been achieving their export targets and ^
increasing home sales every year.
In sentence (i), omitting the conjunction that after proved
results in a ‘garden-path’, ambiguous sentence.
In sentence (ii), ellipsis leads to unclarity of constituent
structure. The reader doesn’t know whether every year applies
(a) to the increase of home sales alone, or (b) to the
achievement of export targets. The second meaning is more
likely, because of the parallelism of the structure that expresses
it:
(a) [S (P O + P O) A] in contrast to (b) [S (P O + P O A)]
So if we intended to convey the first meaning we would have
to restore the omitted elements of the second clause, adding a
comma for extra clarity, as the coordination is now between
entire clauses:
(iii) They have been achieving their export targets, and they
have been increasing home sales every year.
([S P O] + [S P O A])
Similarly, unclarity results when an ellipsis is too distant
from its antecedent structure, as in the example below:
A number of problems will soon have been solved, and the
methods for ensuring more efficient legislative procedures
in the coming session ^ clarified.
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But the most obvious types of ambiguity and obscurity are
those arising from the use of pronouns. Normally the
antecedent of a pronoun will be a preceding noun phrase which
is either the nearest antecedent, or the nearest antecedent in a
parallel function:
Jane told her sister that she would have to leave home.
The nearest potential antecedent in this sentence is her
sister, but Jane is also a candidate because the function of Jane
(subject) is parallel to that of she.
Another type of unclarity results from the repeated use of the
same pronoun with a different antecedent:
When the headmistress visited Pam’s home to talk to her
mother, she was afraid that she would tell her about her
misconduct.
Common sense knowledge frequently resolves a theoretical
ambiguity: there would be little likelihood of interpreting the
sentence above, for example, as meaning that Pam would tell
her mother about the headmistress’s misconduct. The unclarity
in such cases lies more in the possibility of a temporary tangle
which will be resolved only by rereading. So the principle
‘Reduce as far as possible’ should be added by the rider ‘unless
unclarity results’.
5.4. The principle of effective communication

The three principles so far illustrated have to do with
efficient, successful rather than with effective communication.
But to communicate effectively is to make good use not merely
of the referential function of languages, but of all the functions
of language (i.e., expressive, conative, phatic, poetic). So, for
example, the principle ‘Reduce as far as possible’ can be
overruled for the sake of expressive repetition:
John Brown was guilty of the crime, so John Brown would
have to pay for it.
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The repetition of John Brown here is not required for clarity,
but suggests an emphasis (‘that man and that man alone’)
which would be lost by reduction.
Both repetition and reduction can be avoided by using
alternative synonymous expressions, a device known as
‘elegant variation’. Elegant variation is defined as “the
repetition of the same thought in different words […] It is a
marked feature of prose essay style as a means of avoiding
plainness and as a device for emphasis” (Wales, 2001: 402).
A kind of lexical variation, it is found in many registers not
only as a means of avoiding repetition but also as a means of
cohesion. Consider the following sentence:
That fight between Ali and Liston was the most sensational
heavyweight contest since the Dempsey – Tunney match of
1926.
Thus, in the sentence above, the underlined words – fight,
contest and match - represent alternative synonymous
expressions which help the writer to avoid monotony, repetition
and reduction.
Also, the paragraph below, (from Leech et al., 2006: 205),
can be considered another illustration of effective expressive
repetition, the underlined words and phrases representing
alternative synonymous expressions:
The ancient civilization of India grew up in a sharply

demarcated subcontinent bounded on the north by the
world’s largest mountain range – the chain of Himalayas,
which, with its extension to east and west, divides India
from the rest of Asia and the world. The barrier, however,
was at no time an insuperable one, and at all periods both
settlers and traders have found their way over the high and
desolate passes into India, while Indians have carried their
commerce and culture beyond her frontiers by the same
route. India’s isolation has never been complete, and the
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effect of the mountain wall in developing her unique
civilization has often been overrated.
(Basham, The Wonder that was India, p. 1)
As has been pointed out (Leech et al, 2006: 205), variation

in this paragraph is not so much a negative practice of avoiding
repetition, as a positive search for different words which may
appropriately highlight different aspects of the same thing.
From different metaphorical points of view, a mountain range
can be both a chain (of Himalayas) and a mountain wall. It can
also be considered a barrier, as well as a frontier when we are
thinking of it as a boundary between peoples.
We can conclude this chapter by stating that, in terms of
strengths or weaknesses, stylistic variation can be considered a
strength, and especially, linguistic variation should be used in
writing, so long as it is consistent with other principles and
goals. Linguistic variation includes not only variation in lexical
choice, but also variation of grammatical structure, such as:
variation in length and complexity of sentences; variation in
position and type of subordination; variation between
subordination and coordination; variation in type(s) and
position of adverbials (phrases or clauses that function as a
clause element); variation in type and position of modifiers
(pre-and postmdifiers).
We should take advantage of the numerous opportunities of
variation, make the most of the expressive range of language
and avoid the temptation to fall back on stereotyped formulas
and clichés. As we have seen in the sections of this chapter,
there are manifold possibilities of English grammar, of
grammatical structures, that can be used for varied effect, in
our own writing.
5.5. Application of the principles of style
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This section comprises an application of the principles of
style, highlighting the ability of grammar to explain and
promote the successful and effective use of language.
The four principles of good writing (making language easy to
follow, the principle of clarity, the principle of economy and
that of effective communication) will be discussed from a
practical point of view in order to enhance the students’
awareness of stylistic variation which should be consistent with
these principles and goals.
5.5.1. Stylistic weakness of sentences

The ten sentences illustrated in this section have been taken
from Leech et al. (2006: 206-7). The sentences suggested for
analysis can be regarded as less than successful because some
principles of style have not been observed. There are two
questions to be answered in the case of each sentence, namely:
What is the stylistic weakness of each sentence and how
should it be avoided?
(i.) Mr. and Mrs. Smith bought a collar for their dog with studs
all over it.
The principle of clarity: There is a split object: a collar with
studs all over it.
Suggested revision: Mr. and Mrs. Smith bought their dog a
collar with studs all over it.
(ii.) Once the war started, the powers that were needed human
cannon fodder.
The principle of clarity: ‘garden-path’ ambiguity: that were
needed reads like a passive relative clause.
Suggested revision: Once the war started, the ‘powers that
were’ needed human cannon fodder.
(iii.) The pipe was leaking so badly that it ran all over the
kitchen.
The principle of clarity: It (the pronoun) lacks an
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antecedent such as water.
Suggested revision: The pipe was leaking so badly that the
water ran all over the kitchen.
(iv.) She argues in her latest book A. Soueif has produced a
masterpiece.
The principle of clarity, ambiguity: the adverbial in her
latest book can belong to the main clause or to the noun
clause.
Suggested revision: She argues that in her latest book A.
Soueif has produced a masterpiece.
(v.) In the long run, we shall one day eventually win the battle
against poverty.
The principle of economy - Redundancy: in the long run,
one day and eventually are all similar in meaning.
Suggested revision: In the long run, we shall win the battle
against poverty.
(vi.) They have given their plans for improving the sports
facilities up.
Making language easy to follow: the principle of end-
weight: the adverbial particle up follows a long object.
Suggested revision: They have given up their plans for
improving the sports facilities.
(vii.) No one will ever know how Dickens meant Edwin Drood,
the novel on which he was working when he died, to end.
Making language easy to follow: the principle of end-
weight: to end follows a long object
Suggested revision: No one will ever know how Dickens
intended to finish Edwin Drood, the novel on which he was
working when he died.
(viii.) The detective swore that he had seen the accused when
he was checking in, which was evidence of his presence
in the hotel.
The principle of clarity: there are unclear antecedents for the
pronouns he, which and his.
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Suggested revision: The detective swore that he had seen
the accused checking in. This sighting was evidence of the
presence of the accused in the hotel.
(ix.) The Inland Revenue does not allow you to give tax-free
presents to your children of any size you like.
The principle of clarity: There is a split object: tax-free
presents of any size you like.
Suggested revision: The Inland Revenue does not allow you
to give your children tax-free presents of any size you like
(x.) The desultory conversation in the drawing room among
guests who had regarded Miss Manning’s superb
performance of the Ave Verum as a mere interruption
revived.
The principle of end-weight: the predicate revived follows
a very long subject.
Suggested revision: The desultory conversation revived in
the drawing room among guests who had regarded Miss
Manning’s superb performance of the Ave Verum as a mere
interruption.
5.5.2. Ambiguities
The eight sentences in this section (from Leech et al. (2006:
206-7) are also regarded as less than successful because the
principle of clarity has not been observed. They illustrate
various types of ambiguity, grammatical (structural) ambiguity,
temporary or ‘garden path’ ambiguities, delays of
interpretation.
We could clarify the structure and meaning of the following
sentences (i.-viii.) by inserting punctuation or by resorting to
some changes in the grammar of the sentence.
The task required for these sentences is to provide a
description of each ambiguity, a revised, improved version of
each sentence and a description of the change(s) that have been
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made. All the ambiguities in the following sentences can be
described as ‘garden-path’ except in (iv) and (vi).
(i.) Before we started eating the table was absolutely loaded

with delicacies.
The table is initially read as object of the adverbial clause,
not as subject of the main clause.
Suggested revision: Before we started eating, the table was
absolutely loaded with delicacies.
(ii.) It is best to reduce your overheads and work, as far as
possible, alone.
Work is initially read as a noun coordinated with overheads,
rather than as a verb.
Suggested revision: It is best to reduce your overheads, and
to work as far as possible, alone.
(iii.) As we soon discovered the ambassador was not interested
in discussing armaments.
The ambassador is initially read as object of discovered,
rather than as subject of was.
Suggested revision: As we soon discovered, the ambassador
was not interested in discussing armaments.
(iv.) I fed the dog and Harry the budgerigar.
There are two initial interpretations, readings of this
sentence: in one reading, Harry the budgerigar is a noun
phrase coordinated with the dog; in another reading,
Harry is the subject, and the budgerigar the object, of an
ellipted verb fed.
Suggested revision: I fed the dog, and Harry fed the
budgerigar.
(v.) Inside the house looks almost as it did when Darwin died.
Inside is read initially as a preposition, and Inside the
house as a prepositional phrase. In fact, inside is an adverb,
and the house is subject of looks.
Suggested revision: Inside, the house looks almost as it
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did when Darwin died.
(vi.) Her parents Lord and Lady Boothroyd refused to meet.
There are two readings of this sentence: in one reading,
Lord and Lady Boothroyd is in apposition to Her parents;
in another reading, Her parents is the ‘fronted’ object of
meet.
Suggested revision(s): (a) Lord and Lady Boothroyd
refused to meet her parents. (b) Her parents, Lord and
Lady Boothroyd, refused to meet each other.
(vii.) The party was attended by the Melchetts, some cousins of
ours, and William, of course arrived late.
William is read initially as coordinated with the Melchetts
and some cousins of ours, rather than as subject of arrived
Suggested revision: The party was attended by the
Melchetts, some cousins of ours; William, of course,
arrived late.
(viii.) Middlesex having already won the Schweppes
Championship, looks like winning the Gillette Cup as well
Middlesex can be read initially as the subject of the
adverbial –ing clause, rather than as subject of the main
clause.
Suggested revision: Middlesex, having already won the
Schweppes Championship, looks like winning the Gillette
Cup as well.
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6. THE FUNCTIONAL STYLES OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE
The functional style of the language represents the choice

of speech means that characterise a special form of speech
activity. The choice of speech means depends on the speaker’s
estimation of the speech situation itself. This estimation
comprises several aspects:
i. The situation of the given speech act, the speaker’s attitude
to the addressee – whether it is official or intimate, solemn or
natural (free and easy going), etc., represented by attitude
(tenor).
ii. The mechanism of communication may be different, it may
be either in written or oral form, i.e. medium (mode).
iii. The realization of purposes of communication, that may
be different – business information, scientific explanation,
speaker’s emotional attitude towards the object of speech,
official agreement, etc., represented by field of discourse
Referring to the diversity of styles, Katie Wales states that
“there are different styles in different situations; also the same
activity can produce stylistic variation. So style can be seen as
variation in language use, whether literary or non-literary. The
term register is also used for those systematic variations in
linguistic features common to particular non-literary situations,
e.g. advertising, legal language, sports commentary” (Wales,
2001: 371).
Used extensively in stylistics and sociolinguistics, the term
register refers to a variety of language defined according to the
situation. The term itself suggests a scale of differences, of
degrees of formality, appropriate to different social uses of
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language. It is part of the communicative competence of every
speaker that s/he will constantly switch usages, will select
certain features of grammar or lexis, in the different situations
of everyday life, such as, a chemistry seminar, a chat among
friends, a business letter, a sermon, a telephone conversation,
etc., since all these uses of language serve different social roles.
In the last few decades, there has been increased interest in
these aspects of language. As we pointed out in chapter two of
this book (Varieties of the English language, pp. 16-31), the
choice of situational features depends on three main variables,
namely, attitude or tenor, i.e. the relations between participants
(e.g. social roles) which may influence degrees of formality;
medium or mode (e.g. speech or writing, format); field or
subject matter. Another feature to be added to these variables is
the function of the variety (Wales, 2001: 337), such as
expository, didactic, etc. Thus, a TV sports commentary is
considered a distinctive variety, with a special vocabulary
reflecting the subject matter, the functions of describing and
evaluating, and the fairly informal relations between the
commentator and the audience. Linguists have drawn attention
to the fact that different registers may overlap with each other
in terms of function or medium, with the result that many
linguistic features will be common to several registers.
These distinctions in varieties of language are also seen in
phenomena of register-switching, register-mixing or register-
borrowing. An illustration of register-borrowing is usually
found in the novel, which can absorb the conventions of non-
literary varieties for mimetic, imitative effects, e.g.
‘reproducing’ newspaper articles, telegrams, etc. This aspect is
also central in the theory of intertextuality (common in text
linguistics) which can be defined as a text in relation to other
texts, so that even within a single text there can be a continual
‘dialogue’ between the given text and other texts that exist
outside it, literary or non-literary.
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D. Crystal and D. Davy analyse five types of style: the
language of conversation, the language of unscripted
commentary, the language of religion, the language of
newspaper reporting, the language of legal documents. As
suggestions for further analysis, the two linguists propose: the
language of television advertising, the language of press
advertising, the language of public speaking, the language of
written instructions, civil service language, spoken legal
language, the language of broadcast talks and news, the
language of science (Crystal & Davy, 1969: 218-251).
In this chapter, we discuss general characteristics of the
following styles: the style of fiction (the literary style) (6.1.),
the style of newspapers/journalism (6.2.), scientific style (6.3.)
and the style of official documents (legal, administrative,
business) (6.4).
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6.1 THE STYLE OF FICTION

According to K. Wales (2001: 150), fiction is thought of as a
genre consisting of imaginary and imaginative prose narratives,
chiefly novels, but also short stories, in other words, the
essence of literature. She further draws attention to the fact
that, actually, fictional literature is not all fiction (e.g. some
novels may refer to ‘real’ events or people not fictitious);
another aspect pointing to the diversity of this genre is that not
all literature is fiction (there is poetry and drama as well as the
novel, and lyric as well as narrative poetry); nor is all literature
fictional (we may study John Donne’s sermons, or the
Authorized Version of the Bible as literature).
The style of fiction refers to the language of literature,
represented by prose, poetry and drama. Each of these
substyles has certain common features, typical of the style of
literature or literary fiction. At the same time, each of these
substyles also has certain individual features and
characteristics.
The main feature, which all substyles belonging to the style
of fiction have in common, is the aesthetic-cognitive
function. It is a double function that aims at the cognitive
process, which secures the gradual unfolding of the idea to the
reader, and at the same time evokes “feelings of pleasure” and
satisfaction which a reader experiences because he is able to
penetrate into the author’s idea and to form his own
conclusions. (Miššíková, 2003: 115). In other words, the
functions of this style aim to arouse emotions, to stimulate
people’s thinking, imagination, also to entertain.
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6.1.2. Linguistic features of the literary style
The literary style comprises poetry, fiction or (emotive) prose
and drama:
(a) The language of poetry is characterized by its orderly
form, which is based mainly on the rhythmic and phonetic
arrangement of the utterances. The rhythmic aspect calls forth
syntactic and semantic peculiarities. There are certain
restrictions which result in brevity of expression, epigram-like
utterances and fresh, unexpected imagery. At a syntactic level,
this brevity is shown in elliptical sentences, in detached
constructions, in inversion, etc.
(b) The language of fictional prose (or prose fiction)
shares the same common features, but these features are
correlated differently than in poetry. The imagery is not so rich
as in poetry; the percentage of words with contextual meaning
so not so high. Fictional prose displays the combination of the
literary variant of the language, both in words and in syntax,
with the colloquial variant. But the colloquial variant in this
style is not a simple reproduction of the natural speech, it has
undergone changes introduced by the writer and has been made
“literature-like”. There are always two forms of
communication present in fictional prose: monologue (the
writer’s speech) and dialogue (the speech of the characters).
Although prose fiction allows the use of elements from other
styles as well, these styles undergo a kind of transformation
under the influence of fictional prose. Passages written in other
styles may be viewed only as interpolations, additions and not
as constituents of the style.
(c) The language of drama is entirely dialogue. The
author’s speech is almost entirely excluded except for the
playwright’s remarks and stage directions. But the language of
the characters is not the exact reproduction of the norms of
colloquial language. Any variety of the style of fiction will use
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the norms of the literary language of the given period. The
language of plays is always stylized, striving to retain the
features of literary English.
The main linguistic features of the fictional style can be
summarized as follows:
i. The fictional style is highly emotional, subjective and
expressive;
ii. There is focus on structure which helps to support the
theme, to create a particular effect, to evoke emotions;
iii. Some literary pieces have strictly defined form and
characteristic layout, especially in poetry;
iv. An important linguistic feature of the fictional style is
represented by genuine (not trite) imagery, also meanings and
messages encoded ‘between the lines’, as well as a specific
discourse situation between the author and the reader, achieved
by means of particular linguistic devices.
v. Another extremely conspicuous feature is the extensive
use of lexical items in a context meaning, very often in more
than one dictionary meaning, or at least greatly influenced by
the lexical environment.
vi. The vocabulary occurring in the fictional style will
reflect to a greater or lesser extent the author’s personal
evaluation of things and phenomena. There is a peculiar
individual selection of vocabulary, and syntax, a kind of lexical
and syntactic idiosyncrasy.
vii. Elements of colloquial language appear to a large extent
in drama, to a lesser extent in prose, and to a very slight degree,
if any in poetry.
6.1.3. Types of meaning

In this section we discuss four types of meaning used by
writers in the fictional style, namely, denotative, connotative,
figurative and symbolic meaning.
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6.1.3.1. Denotative meaning
Denotation (denotative) is a term used in semantics as part
of the classification of types of meaning, being opposed to
connotation. ‘Denotative meaning’ involves the relationship
between a linguistic unit (especially a lexical item) and the
non-linguistic entities to which it refers, being thus equivalent
to referential meaning. For example, the denotation of the
noun dog is its dictionary definition of ‘canine quadruped’, etc;
its connotations might include ‘friend’, ‘helper’, ‘competition’,
etc. (Crystal, 1992: 97).
Denotative meaning can be also defined (Wales, 2001: 100)
as the basic, central, conceptual or referential meaning of
words, without the associations (connotations) or metaphoric
meanings which they can acquire in particular contexts. In
popular speech, this type of meaning is termed literal meaning.
In everyday interchange, our usual expectation is that literal
meanings are the norm: we only look for a non-literal
interpretation of an utterance if we can’t otherwise make sense
of it.
6.1.3.2. Connotative meaning

Connotative meaning is commonly used to refer to all
kinds of associations words evoke: emotional, situational, etc.,
particularly in certain contexts, over and above the basic
denotational or conceptual meaning. Alternative terms for
‘connotative meaning’ include affective and emotive. Thus
home defined as ‘dwelling place’ has to many people
connotations of ‘domesticity’ and ‘warmth’. In literature, such
connotative meanings are particularly exploited: thus, in horror
stories night and thunder connote evil and mystery; in poetry
dew-drops connote fragility, stars steadfastness, and various
other meanings prompted by the context.
As S. Poole remarks, the subjective association between a
lexeme and a concept can arise from a person’s attitudes, or
110
experiences: For instance, we think of the lexeme turkey as
denoting a particular kind of bird and connoting a particular
festival (e.g. Christmas, Thanksgiving); also, the lexeme
school might connote boredom for some children (S. Poole,
1999: 188).
The extent to which connotations can be distinguished from
the ‘basic’ meaning is controversial. In words like woe, billow,
a poetic quality seems part of the basic meaning. Many words
seem to have either a favourable meaning (He expired), or a
derogatory meaning (He snuffed it). Certainly connotations are
often said to distinguish apparent synonyms. Thus, although
house means a ‘dwelling place’, just like home, it does not
have the same connotations as home.
6.1.3.3. Figurative meaning

Figurative meaning describes a very common type of
extension of meaning for a word (resulting in polysemy or
multiple meaning), i.e. by metaphoric transfer of senses. So,
words like mouth, head and foot have a literal, basic or
conceptual meaning (which corresponds normally to the basic
definitions in dictionaries), and also a figurative or
metaphorical meaning, as in phrases like mouth of the river;
head of the school, and foot of the bed.
According to the representatives of deconstruction theory
(e.g., Paul de Man in Allegories of reading: figural language in
Rousseau, Nietzche, Rilke and Proust, 1979) there is no clear-
cut distinction between literal and figurative meaning, that is to
say, figurative language is not seen as primarily literary: all
language is figurative.
Cognitive linguists, such as G. Lakoff and M. Johnson
(Metaphors we live by, 1980) or R. Gibbs (The poetics of mind:
figurative thought, language and understanding, 1994) go
further than deconstructionists and argue not only for the
fundamental importance of figurative language, ubiquitous and
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not deviant, but also of what they term figuration, for human
thought. The mind is not seen as inherently literal, figurative
processes being basic to many of our conceptualizations of
experience. They further argue that, therefore, figurative
language isn’t necessarily more difficult to produce and
understand than literal language.
Figurative can be closely identified with metaphorical, and
figurative language is frequently used to mean simply
metaphorical language; or else, metaphor is seen as a very
important or basic aspect of figurative language. For example,
G. Leech (A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry, 1969: 150-3)
considers synecdoche, metaphor, and metonymy under this
heading of figurative language.
More generally still, figurative language sometimes
embraces in literary criticism all kinds of devices or features
which are semantically or grammatically marked or unusual in
some way, notably all the rhetorical figures of speech as well as
metaphor, metonymy and synecdoche.
In this sense, figurative language can be seen to be
characteristic of literary, especially poetic, language although it
is also associated with advertising. Here similes, puns and
other wordplay are particularly striking for persuasive or eye-
catching effects (e.g. cool as a mountain stream, etc.). But as
cognitive linguists (G. Lakoff, M. Johnson, R. Gibbs) point out,
even in ordinary conversation figurative language is quite
frequent, as in the form of racy slang metaphors (e.g. pickled,
canned, stewed for ‘drunk’), or in hyperbole or exaggeration (I
was scared to death), simile (as hard as nails, (as) cool as a
cucumber), etc.
6.1.3.4. Symbolic meaning

Symbolic meaning is usually characteristic for a culture or a
certain context. Different domains within each culture evolve
their own special sets of symbols or symbolism. Literature, for
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instance, draws on general symbols (spring as a symbol of life
and birth, winter as the symbol of death, etc.), and also
‘literary’ symbols, a popular field of study in literary criticism.
These may be part of the literary heritage (e.g. the rose
symbolizing beauty and love, also swan symbolizing grace,
elegance, the sun symbolizing glory, brilliance, authority, life,
etc.); other symbols may be idiolectal, i.e. created by an
individual writer, for instance, the symbolism of William Blake
(the tyger/tiger, the lamb) or the symbolism of William Butler
Yeats (the Second Coming – the symbol of the death of Jesus
Christ), etc.
According to K. Wales (2001: 380), it is part of our literary
competence that we tease out the symbolism and what it stands
for from our interpretation of the imagery, for example, and
from the context. Poetic symbols are characteristically
metaphoric in structure. In novels, symbolism may be more
diffuse in its realization: characters, objects or buildings (e.g.
Bleak House by Ch. Dickens) can acquire a symbolic force, a
more abstract or generalized significance, and so help towards
an understanding of the theme of the work as a whole.
A text which has a systematic level of meaning other than
the narrative is often termed an allegory, symbolism being
frequently associated with it. In the medieval dream-vision
poem Piers Plowman, by William Langland, there are
allegorical characters such as Lady Mead and Hunger,
personifications of vices and virtues; and symbolic characters
like Piers the ploughman himself, whose significance shifts in
different parts of the poem: Peter the Apostle, Jesus Christ,
mankind.
The style of fiction is individual in essence, individuality
being one of its most distinctive properties. Individuality which
is reflected in the selection of the language means (including
stylistic devices) is highly apparent in the poetic style, in
comparison with other styles found in newspapers, scientific
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prose, or in official documents, where it is hardly noticeable.
The relationship between the general and the particular
assumes different forms in different styles, this relationship
being differently materialized even within one and the same
style.
6.1.4. The stylistic analysis of fiction
6.1.4.1. General considerations

Writers, when composing their works of literature, can
produce surprise effects, by introducing into a text words
belonging to another variety of language. The majority of
English literature is written in Standard English, considered as
the norm. Characters speaking non-standard dialects in novels
or plays stand out from the rest, and if a poet chooses to write
in a non-standard form, this often implies a specific purpose.
Expressing opinions or having a dialogue represent different
aspects of a person’s life because people have different ways of
speaking in a certain language.
The overall aim of this chapter is to illustrate how grammar
can help us to explore the form and meaning of a literary text,
and thus gain insight into things which would otherwise escape
our attention. Traditionally, ‘grammar’ is defined as “a
systematic description of a language as found in a sample of
speech or writing, e.g. in a corpus of material, or as elicited
from native speakers” (Crystal, 1991: 158). In the textbook
written by Leech and his colleagues, the term ‘grammar’ is
used to refer to the mechanism by which language works when
we communicate with other people; grammar is further
described as a set of rules which allow us to put words together
in certain meaningful ways (Leech et al, 2006: 3).
Style, viewed as the particular choice of language made by
an author, embodies that author’s way of experiencing and
interpreting the world. The excellence of literary artists must be
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evident, ultimately, in their choice of language. But we cannot
study this choice of language without some knowledge of how
to discuss and analyse the language itself, including its
grammar.
6.1.4.2. Areas of stylistic analysis

Mick Short’s textbook Exploring the Language of Poems,
Plays and Prose (1996) provides an excellent example of the
assimilation of linguistic method into literary studies via the
stylistics interface. Using stylistics to make the distinction
between the three literary genres - poetry, drama and prose -,
Short considers how readers interact with literary works, how
they understand and are moved by them. In terms of discourse
structure, he distinguishes different layers: Thus, “one layer of
discourse structure (poet – reader) is adequate to characterize
the prototypical poem. We need two levels of discourse
structure to describe the prototypical play (the playwright –
audience/reader level and the character – character level). But
to account for the prototypical novel or short story we need at
least three levels of discourse, because there is a narrator –
narratee level intervening between the character – character
level and the author - reader level” (1996: 80).
In another reference book, Style in Fiction: A Linguistic
Introduction to English Fictional Prose (1981) its two authors,
G. Leech & M. Short, lay down some basic principles of
stylistic analysis. According to them, the style features of
narrative description should cover four major areas: (a) lexis,
(b) grammar, (c) textual cohesion and coherence, (d) figures of
speech.
(a) When analyzing the lexis of a text, one should make a
distinction between general lexis and specific lexis.
General lexis examines the open class (lexical or meaning-
carrying) words in the text. Leech and Short (1981: 80) suggest
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several questions or points to be answered when analyzing
prose:
i. The type of vocabulary: simple or complex (made up of few
or many syllables or morphemes in each word); descriptive or
evaluative vocabulary; general or specific;
ii. Whether the writer makes great(est) use of referential or
denotative (central/core) meanings, or the reader has to think
about connotations or other emotive associations or words;
iii. The presence of idioms or non-literal phrases in the text,
and their association with a particular register or dialect;
iv. The presence of unusual words, e.g. archaic, rare,
specialized vocabulary;
v. Noticeable semantic fields within the vocabulary;
vi. Whether the closed class words (grammatical words:
pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners, auxiliaries,
interjections) play a significant role in the text.
The specific lexis refers to the morphological classes of
words:
i. Whether the nouns are abstract or concrete; Whether
abstract nouns refer to similar kinds of elements, as events,
perceptions, processes, moral qualities, social qualities;
ii. The frequency of adjectives in a text: kinds of attributes
(physical, emotional, visual, colour) they embody; their
occurrence in comparative or superlative forms;
iii. The frequency of verbs in a text; types of verbs: whether
they are linking, transitive or intransitive; stative or dynamic;
whether they refer to physical movement, psychological states
or activities, perception;
iv. The frequency of adverbs: kinds of meaning they have
(manner, place, direction, frequency, degree); their occurrence
in comparative or superlative forms;
(b) Within the second area represented by grammar, a
distinction has to be made between general and specific
grammar features. According to Leech and Short (1981: 80-
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81), grammar features of a narrative text refer to any general
types of grammatical construction used to special effect,
comparative or superlative constructions, parallelisms,
interjections or other speech-like phenomena.
Specific grammar features refer to:
i. Characteristics of sentences taking into account several
criteria: the functional criterion (statements, questions,
commands or exclamatory); the structural one (simple,
compound or complex); the length of sentences (due to
embedding of clauses inside one another, coordination of
clauses, long phrases acting as single clause elements);
ii. Types of clauses (relative, adverbial, noun clauses)
noticeably favoured in a text; special features about the clauses,
e.g., a frequent and unusual placement of adverbials, or
‘fronting’ of object(s) or complement(s); clauses with “dummy
subjects” (there, it), etc.
iii. At phrase level, the analysis is focused on NPs and VPs
Noun Phrases should be analysed in terms of their simple or
complex structures; in complex Noun Phrases we have to
identify the frequency and types of pre-modifiers (adjectives,
nouns) as well as types of post-modification (prepositional
phrases, relative clauses);
Verb Phrases: the tenses (present or past) noticeably
favoured in a text; sections of apparent narration where the
tense is other than the simple past tense (continuous past,
perfect, present);
(c) Another area is represented by textual cohesion (i.e.
the specific features that link different parts of a discourse) and
coherence (i.e. the underlying functional connectedness of a
piece of language). With reference to cohesion and coherence,
there are several aspects to be considered:
i. Whether the text contains logical connectives or other
links between sentences (and, or, but, so, then) or it relies on
implicit connections (juxtaposition, sequence);
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ii. Cases of cross-reference or co-reference by means of
pronouns or ellipsis; cases of elegant variation, so as to avoid
repetition;
iii. Meaning connections made by means of lexical repetition
or by the frequent use of words from the same semantic field;
iv. Factors of interest in the “interaction” between the
author/narrator and the reader;
(d) Figures of speech: some figures of speech (epithet,
metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, oxymoron) are found in both
everyday language and in literature. But in literature these are
particularly important, being exploited for their communicative
power and special linguistic effects. These effects take the
shape of special irregularities or regularities.
Some traditional figures of speech, such as metaphor, irony
and paradox, involve communication at a non-literal level.
They usually arise from some ‘irregularity’ of language – for
example, an incongruity of meaning between elements of the
same grammatical structure.
When we are dealing with a passage from literature we have
to analyse the figures of speech because, as expressive devices,
they have a pragmatic role at sentence or text level in the
presentation of the argument or theme.
6.1.5. Linguistic patterns in fictional prose

In this section we examine several passages in prose,
attempting to show how the analysis of grammatical structures
can contribute to the study of literature.
6.1.5.1. The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald

In his textbook, Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays
and Prose, Mick Short analysed a passage from Fitzgerald’s
The Great Gatsby, where Nick Caraway, the narrator, is
describing to the reader, the series of society parties which Jay
Gatsby throws at his mansion in the hope that the woman he is
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in love with, but who is now married to someone else, will
come to one of them. Nick is a near neighbour, living in a small
house from which he can observe the party at a distance. Short
motivates his choice: “I have chosen this extract because there
is almost no conversation in it and because it is a description
which is full of action and exhibits internal textual contrasts”
(Short, 1996: 335).
The Great Gatsby (chapter 3)

There was music from my neighbor's house through the
summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and
went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne
and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his
guests diving from the tower of his raft or taking the sun on
the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the
waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of
foam. On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus,
bearing parties to and from the city, between nine in the
morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon
scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. […]
Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived
from a fruiterer in New York--every Monday these same
oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of
pulpless halves. […] At least once a fortnight a corps of
caterers came down with several hundred feet of canvas
and enough colored lights to make a Christmas tree of
Gatsby's enormous garden. On buffet tables, garnished
with glistening hors-d'oeuvre, spiced baked hams crowded
against salads of harlequin designs and pastry pigs and
turkeys bewitched to a dark gold. In the main hall a bar
with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and
liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his
female guests were too young to know one from another.
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By 7 o'clock the orchestra has arrived--no thin five-piece
affair but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and
saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos and low
and high drums. The last swimmers have come in from the
beach now and are dressing upstairs; the cars from New
York are parked five deep in the drive, and already the
halls and salons and verandas are gaudy with primary
colors and hair shorn in strange new ways and shawls
beyond the dreams of Castile. The bar is in full swing and
floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside
until the air is alive with chatter and laughter and casual
innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot and
enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew
each other's names.
The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from
the sun and now the orchestra is playing yellow cocktail
music and the opera of voices pitches a key higher.
Laughter is easier, minute by minute, spilled with
prodigality, tipped out at a cheerful word. The groups
change more swiftly, swell with new arrivals, dissolve and
form in the same breath--already there are wanderers,
confident girls who weave here and there among the
stouter and more stable, become for a sharp, joyous
moment the center of a group and then excited with
triumph glide on through the sea-change of faces and
voices and color under the constantly changing light.
Suddenly one of these gypsies in trembling opal, seizes a
cocktail out of the air, dumps it down for courage and
moving her hands like Frisco dances out alone on the
canvas platform. A momentary hush; the orchestra leader
varies his rhythm obligingly for her and there is a burst of
chatter as the erroneous news goes around that she is
Gilda Gray's understudy from the "Follies." The party has
begun.
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The analysis of the style features of this passage, takes into
account the three major areas: (a) lexis, (b) grammar, (c)
textual cohesion and coherence, d) figures of speech.
(a) The lexis of this extract is fairly complex, as, for instance,
there is specialised vocabulary for the musical instruments and
food in particular; furthermore, there are a number of words
that have foreign and rather exotic connotations: hors
d’oeuvres, harlequin, Castile. As there is not much repetition in
this extract, those lexical items which are repeated will stand
out. They belong to semantic fields related to vision, drink,
music and social interaction: colour, bar, cordials, orchestra,
chatter, laughter, group.
Most vocabulary at the beginning of the passage refers to
concrete things: the food, the drinks, and the instruments of the
orchestra, but later there are more abstract nouns, mainly
describing social interaction. Many of the words in the passage
have striking visual properties (coloured lights, glistening,
harlequin designs, dark gold) or associations of grandeur and
good life (the foreign words already mentioned, also orchestra,
salons, cocktails).
The party, which seems to be mainly populated by women,
takes place at Gatsby’s house, but the host does not appear. The
orchestra leader is the only male referred to, and many nouns
referring to people are not gender specific (caterers, guests,
swimmers). On the other hand, the female image is referred to
as: female guests, women, confident girls and the extended
description of the girl who dances out on the canvas platform.
The vast majority of verbs are dynamic, helping to give a
sense of continual movement and change to the passage. Even
what would normally be static descriptions are portrayed in
terms of movement. In the first paragraph, for example, the
hams are crowded against salads and the turkeys are bewitched
to a dark gold. Many of these dynamic verbs are intransitive,
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this giving rise to the sense of purposeless action of the party,
movement for the sake of movement.
Adverbs are usually the least represented of the major
word classes. Still, as time and place items, adverbs show
changes of deictic focus, and so help to contribute to the
feeling of constant change in the scene: on weekends, every
Friday, in the kitchen, on the canvas platform. etc.
(b) In terms of grammar features, in the excerpt analysed
by M. Short, all sentences are statements, which correspond to
the text’s descriptive function. In spite of the comparatively
long sentences, they are not particularly complex in the sense
that we do not find many examples of complex sentences, or
clauses embedded inside other clauses. Most of the complexity
in the passage is occurring at phrase level (noun phrases,
prepositional phrases, etc). The dominant pattern of clauses in
this passage is represented by coordination: a series of main
clauses coordinated together, or juxtaposed, along with the
occasional subordinate clause. As a consequence, in spite of the
length of some sentences, the passage is quite easy to read,
because the predominant grammatical style is loose.
At the level of phrase structure, one should note the effects
associated with dynamic intransitive verbs and the way in
which the tense changes. Thus, the first paragraph, describing
the preparations for the party, contains verbs in the past tense
(men and girls came and went...; I watched...; eight servants
[...] toiled) and so integrates the party description with the
narrator tense for this particular novel. But at the beginning of
the second paragraph, which describes the prelude to the party,
as the guests arrive and get ready, the tense switches to present
perfect (the orchestra has arrived; the last swimmers have
come in). In the middle of the second paragraph, where the
guests begin to meet one another, there is another switch to the
present tense (the bar is in full swing; the lights grow brighter,
the groups change). Hence, as we move through the
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preparatory stages to the socializing at the centre of the party,
we move from past tense to present tense, making us feel
deictically that we are getting closer and closer to the action.
The most significant features relating to the noun phrases
revolve around their occurrence in a series of long and
distinctive constructions coordinated by the conjunction “and”:
a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and viols and cornets
and piccolos and low and high drums. The head-word of the
main noun phrase is pitful, and this head-word is post-modified
by a long prepositional phrase with of and consisting of a list of
nouns coordinated together. The list is very long, with seven
different kinds of instrument mentioned, all items being
separated by and. This is unusual, as in an enumeration, one
generally says: apples, pears and bananas, separating only the
last two items by and. Moreover, the nouns which are listed
above are generic, plural or both. By resorting to this extensive
enumeration, the author manages to emphasize the size and the
grandeur of the parties. With the description of the young
woman who dances alone on the canvas platform, we move
from generic, pluralized description to individual reference.
This change to the specific is the main reason for the series of
contrasts which we have noted between the last paragraph and
others.
(c) In terms of cohesion, there are no explicit logical
connectives, or cohesive links (like and, but or therefore) to
link sentences together, which adds to the effect of constant
change.
There is relatively little lexical repetition to link parts of the
text together, e.g. there is little use of pronouns to create
patterns of cross-reference or linked reference to one thing or
person, and there is also little use of elegant variation. These
have the effect of constant change and movement. However,
the last paragraph appears in contrast to the rest, in that the
dancing girl is referred to both through pronominal reference
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and elegant variation (confident girls…one of these gypsies…
she is Gilda Gray's understudy).
(d) Figures of speech: Although the excerpt from The Great
Gatsby is a prose text, it exhibits a feature which is typically
associated with poetry, namely, alliteration (i.e. the repetition
of the initial consonant in two or more words). The first two
sentences contain a number of alliterative patterns based on
word-initial /k/ and /g/ which emphasize the glamour of the
party: corps of caterers came…..Christmas tree of Gatsby’s
enormous garden….garnished with glistening hors d’oeuvres…
Another very common figure of speech, or trope quite
extensively used in this passage is represented by metaphor
(i.e., when a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one
thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit
comparison). Thus, in the second paragraph describing the
exquisite dishes displayed on the tables, the turkeys are
bewitched to a dark gold instead of being baked down.
Inanimate aspects of the party are often portrayed as being
alive through a pattern of animating metaphors (spiced baked
hams crowded against salads, flouting rounds of cocktails
permeate the garden, the air is alive). Finally, the young girl
who emerges from anonymity and dances onto the canvas
platform at the end of the description is foregrounded through
the reference to her dress, in trembling opal which involves a
combination of metonymy and metaphor. The dress cannot
literally be made out of a precious stone; the reference to opal
is metonymic of dress’s colour (colourless or white). In
addition, opals and dresses are not capable of trembling. The
metaphoric description links the glamour of the occasion, the
dress shimmering as the girl dances, with the suggestion that
she is nervous, and so trembling, as she moves out into the
limelight.
6.1.5.2. Bleak House by Ch. Dickens
124
In this section we examine a passage from Ch. Dickens’s
novel Bleak House (chapter 1)
Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among

green meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled
among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of
a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on
the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of
collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards and hovering in the
rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of
barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats of
ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides of
their wards; fog in the stern and bowl of the afternoon pipe
of the wrathful skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly
pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little
‘prentice boy on deck. Chance people on the bridges
peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog
all round them, as if they were up in a balloon and hanging
in the misty clouds.
Gas looming through the fog in divers places in the
street, much as the sun may, from the spongey fields, be
seen to loom by husbandman and ploughboy. Most of the
shops lighted two hours before their time – as the gas
seems to know, for it has a haggard and unwilling look.
The raw afternoon is rawest, and the dense fog is
densest, and the muddy streets are muddiest near that
leaden-headed old obstruction, appropriate ornament for
the threshold of a leaden-headed old corporation, Temple
Bar. And hard by Temple Bar, in Lincoln’s Inn Hall, at the
very heart of the fog, sits the Lord High Chancellor in his
High Court of Chancery.
Just as in the previous passage, the suggestions of stylistic

analysis aim to show how grammar can contribute to the study
125
of literature. Leech et al. (2006: 172-9) draw attention to the
fact that there is no foolproof technique for analysing literary
style. Each analysis of style is like an adventure of discovery,
in which we combine our knowledge of language and our
response to literature in order to appreciate more clearly what
the writer has succeeded in saying to us. But it is useful to have
a flexible method of study, in which we have to identify and list
features of style under various headings, after which we
provide a classification and synthesize these features of style in
an interpretation of the meaning and effect of the passage.
Since most of the style features of narrative description
referring to lexis, grammar, cohesion and figures of speech
were covered in 6.1.4.2., in this section we will discuss only
those points peculiar to this passage.
In order to see what role grammar can play in the effect of a
passage, we should examine the first and last sentences of the
passage from Bleak House:
The first sentence - Fog everywhere - is very short, in fact, it
is not a complete sentence at all in the strict grammatical sense,
as it has no verb, and is simply a noun followed by an adverb
of place. It expresses, in a nutshell, what the rest of the passage
elaborates in detail, namely, the ubiquity of the fog (the dense
murky fog of London being notorious at that time). It also sets
a grammatical pattern that is continued through the first two
paragraphs (Fog up the river… fog down the river) where noun
phrases, not clauses, become the main units of the text.
According to Leech et al. (2006: 174) there are two reasons
why Ch. Dickens omits the tensed verbs: first, the repetition of
fog becomes in this way more forceful and dramatic; secondly,
the connections between the noun phrases become associative,
rather than logical – the reader’s eye seems to move from one
disconnected scene to another, catching only glimpses of what
lies within the fog. This is grammar communicating at an
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impressionistic level where explicit declarative sentences, with
their implications of truth and precision are not relevant.
In contrast to the first sentence, the last sentence - And hard
by Temple Bar, in Lincoln’s Inn Hall, at the very heart of the
fog, sits the Lord High Chancellor in his High Court of
Chancery – is quite long, and leads us to an appropriate
climactic conclusion of the train of thought begun with Fog
everywhere. The High Court of Chancery is for Dickens the
very heart of the fog, a satirical symbol for the obfuscation of
the law. We can see how Dickens works the reader(s) up to it in
stages, as if we the reader(s) were making a journey to the very
midst of obscurity.
The penultimate sentence - The raw afternoon is rawest,
and the dense fog is densest and the muddy streets are
muddiest […], the threshold of a leaden-headed old
corporation, Temple Bar - leads us as far as Temple Bar, and
the last sentence completes the journey, taking us from Temple
Bar to the Court of Chancery. This sentence is a good example
of the principles of end-focus and end-weight (discussed in
chapter 5), leading the reader from given to new information. It
is important for the effect that the weighty phrases the Lord
High Chancellor in his High Court of Chancery come at the
end as a sort of denouement, and, to ensure this, there is an
inversion of Subject and Predicate: sits the Lord High
Chancellor. We should also point out the role of the first three
adverbials (all adverbials of place) in building up the suspense:
And hard by Temple Bar, in Lincoln’s Inn Hall, at the very
heart of the fog. The order of elements in the clause is quite
unusual: Coordinating conjunction + Adverbial + Adverbial +
Adverbial + Predicate + Subject + Adverbial [Conj A A A P S
A].
So both the first sentence and the last illustrate, in their
different ways, some special descriptive effect that is brought
about by their unusual grammatical structure: the first is a
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verbless elliptical sentence, while the last is characterized by
the inversion of Subject and Predicate.
Another important aspect refers to the use of tenses, more
precisely, the use of narrative present tense in the penultimate
sentence: The raw afternoon is rawest…, the dense fog is
densest, etc. This means that the reader apprehends the goings-
on in the novel as if they were happening now, at the very time
of reading – a device for dramatic heightening. The use of the
present tense in the description of the fog also has a further
implication of timelessness. This is, indeed, very appropriate to
the legal activities of the Court of Chancery, where lawsuits
drag on interminably.
6.1.5.3. The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence

In this section we examine an extract from D. H.
Lawrence’s novel The Rainbow taken from chapter 4.
They worked together, coming and going, in a rhythm,

which carried their feet and their bodies in tune. She
stooped, she lifted the burden of sheaves, she turned her
face to the dimness where he was, and went with her burden
over the stubble. She hesitated, set down her sheaves, there
was a swish and hiss of mingling oats, he was drawing near
and she must turn again. And there was the flaring moon
laying bare her bosom again, making her drift and ebb like
wave.
He worked steadily, engrossed, threading backwards and
forwards like a shuttle across the strip of cleared stubble,
weaving the long line of riding shocks, nearer and nearer to
the shadowy trees, threading his sheaves with hers.
And always, she was gone before he came. As he came,
she drew away, as he drew away, she came. Were they
never to meet? Gradually a low, deep-sounding will in him
vibrated to her, tried to set her in accord, tried to bring her
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gradually to him, to a meeting, till they should be together,
till they should meet as the sheaves that swished together.
He waited for her, he fumbled at the stook. She came.
But she stood back till he drew away. He saw her in
shadow, a dark column, and spoke to her, and she
answered. She saw the moonlight flash question on his face.
But there was a space between them, and he went away, the
work carried them, rhythmic.
Why was there always a space between them why, were
they apart? Why, as she came up to him from under the
moon, would she halt and stand off from him? Why was he
held away from her? His will drummed persistently, darkly,
it drowned everything else.
We discuss some of the most salient features of language

under the headings of lexis, grammar, cohesion, and figures of
speech.
(a) In keeping with the subject of this passage (the
description of the harvest-making at night), the vocabulary
used by D. H. Lawrence is simple and accessible, but with a
slightly literary or archaic flavour, such as, stook, drawing
near, laying bare her bosom, etc.
It is part of Lawrence’s technique to make repeated use of
the same words, as if to make the most of their evocative or
symbolic value. For example, the noun burden is repeated
twice in the second sentence (… she lifted the burden of
sheaves, …went with her burden over the stubble); sheaves is
another noun that is repeated a number of times (the burden of
sheaves; set down her sheaves; as the sheaves that swished
together). The verb thread, used as a present participle
threading occurs twice (threading backwards; threading his
sheaves with hers)
(b) In terms of grammar features, we should point out the
fact that the sentences vary from extreme simplicity (as in They
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worked together), to considerable complexity (as in Gradually
a low, deep-sounding will in him vibrated to her, tried to set
her in accord, tried to bring her gradually to him, to a meeting,
till they should be together, till they should meet as the sheaves
that swished together).
Leech et al. (2006: 180) notice that the complexity of the
sentences tends to be of a progressive kind through the
repetition of coordinate constructions, particularly unlinked,
juxtaposed ones: He worked steadily, engrossed, threading
[…], weaving […], threading his sheaves with hers.
At word and phrase level, we notice the extensive use of
coordination, which tends to join elements in pairs, such as
coming and going, a swish and hiss, backwards and forwards,
nearer and nearer.
A pattern frequently used by D.H. Lawrence is represented
by intransitive constructions, the Subject – Predicate pattern [S
P], or Subject – Predicate - Adverbial pattern [S P A], while
transitive structures, Subject – Predicate – Object [S P O] are
rather infrequent. As has been pointed out, in this way, the
excerpt tends to emphasize movements in themselves, rather
than movements directed to a particular goal or purpose (Leech
et al. 2006: 180).
It has also been noticed that some of the clauses with objects
that do occur have an inanimate subject and an animate
(human) object, which is the opposite of what is normally
expected, as in the flaring moon laying bare her bosom; the
work carried them; a similar case is represented by the passive
construction Why was he held away from her?, where the doer
of the action, the agent is left unspecified.
(c) The cohesion of the text is ensured by extensive use of
various kinds of connection, for instance, by conjunctions like
and, but (e.g. But she stood back…).
130
In this passage, D.H. Lawrence makes repeated use of the
third person pronouns singular or plural he, she, it, they which
help establish various kinds of cross-reference.
An important characteristic of this extract is the way certain
items, like the verbs come and go, convey a shifting or
ambivalent narrative point of view. Thus, in As he came, she
drew away, as he drew away, she came, there is a strange
ambivalence of viewpoint: came evokes the subjective position
of one person watching the other approaching, but this position
switches in the middle of the sentence: as he drew away…
. Later, we are experiencing things through the thoughts of
the boy, because the questions in the final paragraph can be
interpreted only as free indirect thought from his viewpoint:
Why was there a space between them why, were they apart?
Why, as she came up to him … would she halt and stand off
from him? Why was he held away from her?
The passage contains several questions, such as Were they
never to meet?, questions which can be interpreted as part of a
self-questioning which is going on in the mind of a character.
The negative question (never), since it expects a negative
answer, implies the character’s sense of defeat and frustration.
This is an example of free indirect thought (i.e., a kind of
indirect speech /thought in which the speech of a character and
the words of the narrator are blended, but with no reporting
clause indicated), which is a very common means of portraying
the inner consciousness of a character.
(d) The passage contains some interesting figures of speech.
We should first consider the sentence from the fourth
paragraph: She saw the moonlight flash question on his face.
This is an instance which exploits what is unusual in language.
In the subordinate clause - the moonlight flash question on his
face -, the Subject (the moonlight), Predicate (flash) and Object
(question) are strangely ill-assorted from a literal point of view.
The steady gleam of ‘moonlight’ cannot normally ‘flash’
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anything, and (besides) a ‘question’ is not something that can
be literally ‘flashed’, nor can a ‘question’, literally, be on
anyone’s face. Grammatically, there is another odd feature,
namely, the use of question without a determiner, as a mass
noun. Nevertheless, all these incongruities produce a strikingly
vivid impression. The moonlight, the sudden movement of a
face out of the shadow, and the questioning expression on the
face seem parts of the same momentary experience.
The passage contains various types of parallelism,
represented by repetitive patterns of structures and words. A
striking example of parallelism can be seen in the following
sentence:
As he came, she drew away, as he drew away, she came.
This sentence consists of a mirror-image pattern, a criss-cross
pattern, called chiasmus. Chiasmus is a rhetorical term to
describe a construction involving he repetition of words or
elements in reverse order (ab:ba), as shown in the figure below.
As [he came] [she drew away]
As [he drew away] [she came]

In this example of parallelism, not only the structures but also
the words which occupy these structures are repeated in the
pattern.
As Leech et al. point out (2006: 176), in this sentence the
pattern has a mimetic function: it imitates the form of what it
refers to – the interweaving movement of the boy and the girl.
The effect of sound imitating sense, of form imitating meaning,
is something we associate with poetry, but is perhaps an
equally important aspect of prose writing.
In section (a) we have already touched on Lawrence’s
technique to repeat the same words, as if to make the most of
their evocative or symbolic value (e.g. burden, sheaves).
Another word which acquires symbolic value is space. The
clause But there was a space between them is largely repeated
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in the next sentence Why was there always a space between
them? In this way the excerpt insists on the symbolism of the
‘space’, implying a physical distance evoking emotional
distance.
The analysis of this passage illustrates the fact that although
D.H. Lawrence’s language is relatively simple and accessible,
he achieves intensity through symbolism, the repetitions and
parallelisms of the language itself, imitating the to-and-fro
movements of the harvesters.
6.1.6. Linguistic patterns in poetry
Grammar is important in poetry as well, in order to identify

cases of ‘poetic licence’, i.e., a high degree of creative
deviation from the linguistic norms of grammar, lexis and
meaning (Wales, 2001: 304). If those rules of grammar did not
exist, of course, the poet’s deviation from the rules would lose
its communicative force.
6.1.6.1. Heaven – Haven by Gerald Manley Hopkins

The short poem Heaven – Haven, on a nun’s taking the
veil, was written by Gerald Manley Hopkins, a 19th century
Victorian poet. The two-stanza poem shows some of the
characteristics (in addition to those of metre and rhyme) that
we may expect to find in the language of poetry:
Heaven - Haven
I have desired to go
Where springs not fail,
To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail
And a few lilies blow.
And I have asked to be

Where no storms come,
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Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,
And out of the swing of the sea.
As in the prose text, but more obviously here, words form

special relationships with one another because of similarities of
sound and meaning, and also because of similarities of
grammatical structure.
The first similarity is best illustrated by the play on words in
the title, where the similar sounds of the words heaven and
haven suggest they have similar meanings.
The second similarity is evident in the marked parallelism
between the two stanzas, as shown in this ‘skeleton’ version of
their structure:
I have _ed to________ And I have _ed to________

Where________________ Where________________
To fields where_________ Where________________
And _________________ And _________________
Among the poetic licences used in this poem, we could note,

the un-English grammar of the second line (Where springs not
fail, rather than Where springs do not fail). Hopkins also
reverses the normal order of words in the third line (To fields
where flies no sharp and sided hail), and postpones the
adjective dumb to the end of the seventh line (The green swell
is in the havens dumb). Such unusual patterns of grammar
contribute to a strange dissociation of words from their
expected context, so that simple and ordinary words like
spring, flies, blow, swell and swing seem to attain abnormal
force.
All these words have an important role to play in an
extensive metaphor that the whole poem expresses, namely, the
likening of a spiritual life (heaven) to an earthly refuge
(haven).
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6.1.6.2. Off Course by Edwin Morgan
In the article entitled “What is stylistics and why can we
teach it in different ways?”, Ronald Carter proposes a detailed
lexico-grammatical analysis of the poem Off Course written by
Edwin Morgan (1966), one of the foremost Scottish poets of
the 20th century.
Carter’s article (in P. Simpson, Stylistics, 2006: 162-163) is
also interesting in that it makes a number of useful proposals
for language teaching, emphasizing the importance of
pedagogical issues and methods in stylistics.
In this section we illustrate some of Carter’s suggestions as
to how the short poem Off Course might be explored in the
classroom from within an expanded framework for stylistics.
Off Course
[1] the golden flood the weightless seat
the cabin song the pitch black
the growing beard the floating crumb
the shining rendezvous the orbit wisecrack
[5] the hot spacesuit the smuggled mouth-organ
the imaginary somersault the visionary sunrise
the turning continents the space debris
the golden lifeline the space walk
the crawling deltas the camera moon
[10]the pitch velvet the rough sleep
the crackling headphones the space silence
the turning earth the lifeline continents
the cabin sunrise the hot flood
the shining spacesuit the growing moon
[15] the crackling somersault the smuggled orbit
the rough moon the visionary rendezvous
the weightless headphone the cabin debris
the floating lifeline the pitch sleep
the crawling camera the turning silence
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i. Grammar features: Most striking in this poem is the
consistent pattern of noun phrases, with a structure made up of
a determiner (the definite article) + modifier + headword. The
predominant modifier of the headwords in the noun phrases of
this poem is an epithet, represented by qualitative epithets (e.g.
marvellous, interesting, strong); colours (e.g. blue, red);
classifying epithets (e.g. wooden, classical).
In addition to these epithets, English allows present and past
participles (e.g. ‘growing’ [line 3], ‘shining’ [4], ‘smuggled’
[5]) and other nouns (e.g. ‘the space walk’ [8]) to act as
modifiers in the noun phrase.
Morgan employs a mixture of modifiers including colours
(‘the golden flood’ [1], ‘the golden lifeline’ [8]), nominal
modifiers (‘the space walk’ [8]) and participles (‘the floating
crumb’ [3], ‘the smuggled mouth-organ’ [5]). In terms of
classes of adjectives, classifying adjectives (e.g. wooden,
classical, etc.) seem to predominate: e.g. ‘the weightless seat’
[1], even to the extent that the majority of participles are of a
classifying kind. Thus, one cumulative effect of the use of this
structure is that a number of objects are classified and
reclassified.
Other important structural features which should be noted
are the absence of a verb and the particular use to which
participles (present and past participles) are put. One main
result of the omission of a verb is that there are no clear
relations between objects. Verbs generally work to establish a
clear differentiation between subject and object and to indicate
the processes established between them, a resultant effect being
that processes between things become suspended. The poet’s
suspension of some of the normal rules of grammar can be seen
in part to contribute to this effect. Nevertheless, there are
numerous participles already observed (e.g. ‘growing’,
‘floating’ ([3], ‘shining’ [4], ‘turning [8]) which are formed
from verbs. The difference between two verbal items, i. the
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world turns, vs. ii. the turning world, illustrates the point that
in the participial form the ‘verbs’ work both with a more
defining or classificatory function and to underline a sense of
continuing. The present participles convey a feeling of things
continuing endlessly or, at least, without any clear end.
From a pedagogical point of view, the text can be used to
introduce and form the basis of teaching some key structural
features of English syntax such as the organization of noun
phrases, participles, verbal relations, etc.
ii. Lexico-semantic analysis: A conventional teaching
procedure involves discussion and definition of what the words
mean.
The notion of lexical collocation could be introduced, with
explanations about collocations occurring in the poem and
exploring the different degrees of acceptability between lexical
items, for example, about modifier and headword. Such
exploration can give students insight into the meaning of words
by explaining why the participle ‘smuggled’ has a greater
degree of semantic compatibility with ‘mouth-organ’ in line [5]
than with ‘orbit’ [15].
The range of meanings or associations carried by particular
words can be discussed in relation to collocations such as the
adjective rough in ‘the rough sleep’ [10], ‘the rough moon’
[16]. Furthermore, the possibilities of metaphoric extension can
also be investigated through the uses to which items like the
participle ‘crawling’ are put, as in. ‘the crawling deltas’ [9], or
the crawling camera’ [19].
Idioms can be also discussed with reference to this poem,
for example, e.g. ‘pitch black’ [2], as well as the extent of
convertibility of idioms, as in ‘the pitch velvet’ [10].
Such a lexico-semantic analysis could give the reader new
insights into the concentration of metaphorical extensions,
various semantic incompatibilities and unusual collocational
relations especially in the last lines of the poem.
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iii. The text as discourse: An instructive and helpful means
of distinguishing textual discourse is that of comparing one
discourse with another. Thus, it may be useful to compare this
poem with texts containing instructions, or inventories, etc.,
that is, texts which contain linguistic conventions of a similar
nature to the poem ‘Off Course’. By this method we can focus
attention on the nature of the textual organisation of the poem,
enabling us to identify a number of textual features, such as:
- The lineation of the poem is unusual, as there is an
unexplained indentation at line [15]. On the other hand, the
columns display a similar patterning in that there is an equal
space between noun phases.
- Repetition of words is a marked feature although there is
never repetition with the same collocational item. A crisscross
patterning occurs across columns, with modifiers sometimes
occurring elsewhere as headwords (e.g. ‘camera’: the camera
moon [9], the crawling camera [19]).
- There is no direct relation of the title (‘Off Course’) to the
text itself.
- The poem has no punctuation
iv. Interpretation of the text: Stylistic interpretation
involves the process of making inferences about the linguistic
forms and the meaning contracted by the function of these
forms in a literary context.
An important inference that can be made in relation to this
poem refers to the absence of verbs giving an impression of
suspension and weightlessness in which objects appear to be
located in a floating relationship with each other and with the
space surrounding them. The omission of verbs in this poem
produces a sensation of weightless, suspended condition of
outer space where objects float about according to laws
different from those on earth.
There is another interesting aspect to be noted. From about
line [10] to the end of the text no new headwords or modifiers
138
are introduced. The same features recur but in different
collocational relations. But from line [15] the collocations of
modifier and headwords become increasingly random or even
incompatible, e.g. the smuggled orbit, pitch sleep, etc. So the
connections in our ‘inventory’ between the headword (object)
and its attribute seemingly get more and more arbitrary and
meaningless.
A further point refers to the typographical layout of the text.
As R. Carter points out (in Simpson, 2006: 163), the reader is
left in an unpunctuated, unending space of free floating
connections where the mind perceiving these features in this
‘stream-of-consciousness-like’ progression is apparently as
disconnected and ‘off-course’ as the objects themselves.
Where for the most part, the lines up to line [15] represent a
clear and definite, even if constantly changing, categorisation
of things, the remaining lines (15 -20) succeed only in
embodying the sense of a world and mind shifting out of
control.
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6.2. THE STYLE OF NEWSPAPERS / JOURNALISM

Newspaper style was the last of all the styles of written
literary English to be recognized as a specific form of writing
standing apart from other forms. English newspaper writing
dates from the 17th century, when short news pamphlets began
to appear, and though they couldn’t be classed as newspapers,
they were unquestionably the immediate forerunners of the
British press. It is only in the 19th century when newspaper
developed into a system of language media, forming a separate
functional style.
According to K. Wales, journalism had a distinctive style of
a rather more formal kind even when it originated in the
nineteenth century. The term today is normally reserved for the
description of the stylistic features associated with the popular
‘tabloid’ newspapers, features which were derived after the
Second World War chiefly from the influential American
journal Time (Wales, 2001: 227).
Not all the printed matter found in newspapers comes
under newspaper style. Stories and poems, crossword puzzles,
chess problems and the like serve the purpose of entertaining
the reader, thus they cannot be considered specimens of
newspaper style.
Only materials which perform the function of informing the
reader and providing him with an evaluation of information
published can be regarded as belonging to newspaper style.
English newspaper style may be defined as a system of
interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means,
which is perceived by the community as a separate linguistic
unit that serves the purpose of informing and instructing the
reader.
The journalistic style refers to the language of newspapers,
journals, magazines, radio, television, represented by editorials,
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columns, (political, social, economic) articles, reviews, (moral,
philosophical, literary) essays, reports, features (i.e. special
articles in newspapers, magazines, programs on radio or
television), etc.
The functions of the journalistic style are: to inform, to
persuade, to form people’s attitudes. According to G.
Miššíková (2003: 116), the general aim of this style, which
makes it stand out as a separate style, is to exert a constant and
deep influence on public opinion, to convince the reader or the
listener that the interpretation given by the writer or the speaker
is the only correct one and to cause him to accept the point of
view expressed in the speech, essay or article not merely with
logical argumentation, but through emotional appeal as well.
6.2.2. Linguistic characteristics

It is rather difficult to make generalizations about the
linguistic characteristics of this style because, as D. Crystal and
D. Davy (Investigating English Style, 1969: 174) point out, the
style of newspapers and magazines “presents a wider range of
linguistically distinctive varieties than any other domain of
language study”.
Due to its characteristic combination of logical
argumentation and emotional appeal, this style has features in
common with the logical syntactic structure, with an expanded
system of connectives and its careful paragraphing, making it
similar to scientific prose. Its emotional appeal is generally
achieved through the use of words with emotive meaning, the
use of imagery and other stylistic devices as in emotive prose;
but the stylistic devices used in journalistic style are not fresh
or genuine. The individual element, which is essential to the
fictional style, is usually, not significant in the journalistic
style.
The manner of presenting ideas, however, brings this style
closer to that of the fictional style, more precisely to emotive
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prose, as it is to a certain extent individual. The degree of
individuality depends, to a large extent, on the variety: essays
have greater individuality than newspaper and magazine
articles where the individual element is generally toned down
and limited by the requirements of the style.
The newspaper also seeks to influence public opinion on
political and other matters. Elements of appraisal may be
observed in the very selection and way of presentation of news,
in the use of specific vocabulary, such as “allege” and “claim”
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 (e.g. Mr. X was said to have opposed the
proposal”; “Mr. X was quoted as saying”). The principal
vehicle of interpretation and appraisal is the newspaper article
and the editorial in particular. Editorial is a leading article
which is characterised by a subjective handling of facts. This
purpose defines the choice of language elements which are
mostly emotionally coloured.
It should be noted that while editorials and other articles in
opinion columns are predominantly evaluative, newspaper
feature articles, as a rule, carry a considerable amount of
information, and the ratio of the informative and the evaluative
varies substantially from article to article.
The corpus-based analysis of grammatical structure carried
out by Biber et al. (1999: 11) points out that even basic word
classes – such as nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs – are far
from evenly distributed across registers. Nouns and
prepositional phrases are much more common in news texts
than in conversation, whereas verbs and adverbs are much
more common in conversation.
These distributional patterns reflect differing functional
priorities: for example, news texts have an informational focus,
frequently using nouns to refer to people and things in the
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world; further, space-saving presentation of information is
extremely important, making it desirable to pack nouns,
adjectives, phrases densely into every news story.
A comprehensive account of the linguistic features of the
journalistic style is presented in Danuta Reah’s book The
Language of Newspapers (1998).
To understand the language peculiarities of English
newspaper style we analyse the following basic newspaper
features: brief news items; advertisements and announcements;
the headline; the editorial.
6.2.3. Brief news items

The function of a brief news item is to inform the reader and
its main linguistic features can be summed up as follows:
6.2.3.1 Syntactic structures

The basic peculiarity of the brief news items lies in their
syntactic structure. The size of brief news items varies from
one sentence to several (short) paragraphs. The following
grammatical features of brief news items may be regarded of
paramount importance:
i. Nouns as premodifiers: Noun + noun sequences are used
to express a wide range of meaning relationships in a succinct
form. As a result, nouns as premodifiers are especially
favoured as a space-saving device in newspaper language.
Attributive noun groups are a powerful means of effecting
brevity in news items, e.g.
The national income and expenditure figures (The Times)
Labour backbench decision (Morning Star)
ii. In newspaper writing, attributive adjectives are an
important device used to add information to noun phrases. The
example below illustrates the frequency of these attributive
adjectives (the adjectives are in bold, head nouns are
underlined):
143
With economic specialization and the development of
external economic linkages, division of labour intensifies, a
merchant class is added to the political elite, and selective
migration streams add to the social and ethnic complexities
of cities.
iii. Noun postmodifiers are also especially common in
newspaper language. Among noun postmodifiers,
prepositional phrases and relative clauses have a high
distribution in this register. For example, relative clauses are
often used to identify or describe a person:
A 20-year-old woman who had been missing for a week….
Further, relative clauses in newspaper writing typically use
dynamic verbs describing actions, in contrast to the static
presentation of information associated with prepositional
phrases:
…the 1988 event which left her on the verge of a nervous
breakdown…
Another type of postmodification is by appositive noun
phrases: Appositive noun phrases are usually non-restrictive in
meaning, providing descriptive information about the head
noun. In contrast to relative clauses, appositive noun phrases
include no verbs at all. Not surprisingly, these postmodifiers
are by far most common in newspaper writing, which
represents a register with a very high informational density. In
newspaper writing, appositives usually involve a proper noun
with human reference. With the focus on the actions of human
participants, appositive noun phrases provide background
information about people. Most of these constructions include
a proper name and a descriptive noun phrase, but these two
elements can occur in either order: proper noun + descriptive
phrase; or descriptive phrase + proper noun:
Vladimir Ashkenazy, one of the world’s greatest pianists
The Labour Party’s housing spokesman, Mr. Clive Soley
The local National Lottery winner, Vera Bloggs, 44 year-
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old mother of two…
iv. Verbal constructions represented by the non-finite forms:
the infinitive, participle, gerund:
Mr. Nobusuke Kishi, the former Prime Minister of Japan has
sought to set an example to the faction-ridden governing
Liberal Democratic Party by announcing the disbanding of
his own faction numbering 47 of the total of 295
conservative members of the Lower House of the Diet
(The Times)
v. Complex constructions, especially the nominative with the
infinitive. These constructions are largely used to avoid
mentioning the source of information or to shun responsibility
for the facts reported, as in:
The condition of Lord Samuel, aged 92, was said last night
to be a little better. (The Guardian)
vi. Unlike conversation, which is directly interactive (a form
of personal communication), and which shows a frequent use
of the first and second-person pronouns I, we, you, newspaper
writing is not directly interactive: it is not addressed to an
individual reader, and it often does not have a stated author, but
it has the function of conveying general information of current
interest. Not surprisingly, in newspaper texts, first and second-
person pronouns are relatively rare. Instead, proper nouns,
referring to people, places, and institutions, are particularly
common.
vii. Interrogative clauses in newspaper language: questions
are many times more common in conversation than in writing
(newspaper or academic writing), reflecting the interactive
nature of conversation. Nevertheless, when questions are used
in newspaper writing, they have rhetorical purposes, since
there can be no expectation that readers will actually respond.
However, these questions do help to involve the reader in the
discussion. For example:
Sign up for the green team. Do you want to know what’s
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happening to our countryside, forests, seas and seashores
at home and across the world? Do you want to know how
easy it is to affect the environment of the world by
planning trees or buying eco-friendly products? If so, read
this feature every week.
viii. Complex sentences with a developed system of clauses
are quite common in newspaper writing:
Mr. Boyd-Carpenter, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and
Paymaster-General (Kingston-upon-Thames), said he had
been asked what was meant by the statement in the speech
that the position of war pensioners and those receiving
national insurance benefits would be kept under close
review. (The Times)
ix. That-clauses represent a type of construction that occurs
with high frequency in newspaper texts. The kind of that-
clauses in newspaper reports differ from those typically found
in conversations in at least three major respects:
- Verbs of speaking (e.g. said, denied, declared, warned, etc.)
account for over half of all verbs taking a that-clause in
newspaper reports; they are used to report the speech of others,
while verbs that take that-clauses in conversation usually
convey personal thoughts, attitudes, or feelings (such as think,
know, mean, realise, believe, feel):
They denied that they had adopted a plan for guerilla
warfare.
Mr. Sisulu said that it was just a draft plan.
- In constructions with that-clauses the norm in newspaper
reports is for the subject of the main clause to refer to third
person entities, usually humans, represented by third person
pronouns (he, she, they) or proper nouns; on the other hand, in
conversation the subject of the main clause is frequently I
referring to the speaker.
- While in conversation that is typically omitted, in newspaper
reports it is rarely omitted.
146
These linguistic differences fit the differing communicative
purposes of newspaper reports and conversation: newspaper
reports purport to provide a factual, objective reportage of
recent events. By consistently using a third person perspective,
these reports give the impression of an unbiased presentation of
the news. Using first person pronouns, or verbs conveying
personal thoughts or feelings would run directly counter to
these underlying purposes. Conversation is the opposite of
newspaper writing in these respects: people who converse
directly with one another expect to hear about each other’s
personal thoughts and feelings (Biber et al. 1999: 12)

Syntax and lexicon are often treated as independent
components of English. Analysis of texts shows, however, that
most syntactic structures tend to have an associated set of
words or phrases that are frequently used with them.
The lexico-grammatical associations that occur in a large
corpus of texts indicate that these patterns are not merely
arbitrary associations; rather, particular grammatical structures
often occur with restricted lexical classes because both the
structures and the lexical classes serve the same underlying
communicative tasks or functions (Biber et al. 1999: 13). For
example, there is a restricted set of main-clause verbs that
commonly occur with that-clauses. These are all verbs from
one semantic domain, used to introduce reported speech (say,
declare, recall, note, warn, etc.) with the verb say occurring by
far the most frequently.
Newspaper style has its specific vocabulary features being
characterized by an extensive use of:
i. special political and economic terms, e.g. president,
election, crisis, nation, constitution, etc.
ii. non-term political vocabulary, e.g. public, people, unity,
peace, plan, etc. A characteristic feature of political vocabulary
147
is that the border line between terms and non-terms is less
distinct than in the vocabulary of other special fields. The
semantic structure of some words comprises both terms and
non-terms, e.g. nation, crisis, representative, leader, etc.
The terminology of the journalistic style is diverse, being
represented by words belonging to military, administration,
politics, diplomacy, economy fields.
iii. newspaper clichés, i.e. stereotyped expressions,
commonplace phrases familiar to the reader, e.g. soaring
prices, pressing problem, danger of war, pillars of society, vital
issue, to escalate a war, overwhelming majority, cut a deal, etc.
Clichés more than anything else reflect the traditional manner
of expression in newspaper writing. They are commonly
looked upon as a defect of style. Some clichés, especially those
based on trite images (e.g. captains of industry, pillars of
society) are pompous and hackneyed, others, such as welfare
state, affluent society, are false and misleading. But,
nevertheless, clichés are indispensable in newspaper style: they
prompt the necessary associations and prevent ambiguity or
misunderstandings.
v. abbreviations: Abbreviated terms, such as names of
organizations, public and state bodies, political associations,
industrial and other companies, various offices, etc. known by
their initials are very common in newspapers, e.g. UNO
(United Nations Organization), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty
Organization), EU (European Union), FO (Foreign Office),
EEC (European Economic Community), etc.
vi. neologisms: The newspaper is very quick to react to any
new development in the life of society, in science and
technology, e.g. (a) backlash (against) ‘a tendency or recent
development in society or politics, is a strong reaction against
it), as in:
He also warned of a possible anti-Western backlash.
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vii. The vocabulary of brief news items is for the most part
devoid of emotional colouring. Some papers, however,
especially those classed as “mass” or “popular” papers, tend to
introduce emotionally coloured lexical units.
The journalistic style is also characterized by emotionally
marked language, familiar expressions, euphemisms,
metaphors.
The persuasive function of the journalistic style is also
reflected in numerous positive and negative evaluative
adjectives (i.e. those adjectives relating to the assignment of
value to a person, thing or event), e.g. innovative, successful,
interesting, new, etc.
6.2.4. Advertisements and announcements

Nowadays, advertising has influenced our daily life
greatly. Newspapers, as an important component of the mass
media, surely become a means of advertising. The main point
of an advertisement is to persuade the readers of the merits of a
particular product or service, in order to increase the sale of
that product, to attract new buyers, etc. Since language is the
main carrier of the message all along, the language of
advertisements is of crucial importance.
Advertisements made their way into the British press at an
early age of its development. The principal function of
advertisements and announcements, like that of brief news
items, is to inform the reader. There are two basic types of
advertisements and announcements: classified and non-
classified (separate).
In classified advertisements and announcements various
kinds of information are arranged according to subject-matter
into sections, each bearing an appropriate name. In The Times,
for example, advertisements and announcements are classified
into groups, such as: births, marriages, deaths, in memoriam,
business offers, personal, etc.
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For example, births:
CULHANE. – On November 1st, at St. Bartholomew’s
Hospital, to BARBARA and JOHN CULHANE – a son.
As for the separate advertisements and announcements, the
variety of language form and subject-matter is so great that
hardly any essential features common to all can be pointed out.
Advertising distinguishes itself from common language by
its own features in syntax, lexicon and rhetorical devices.
6.2.4.1 Syntactic structures

i. Simple and elliptical sentences
Simple and elliptical sentences are often used in
advertisements because, compared with complex sentences,
simple sentences are more understandable and forceful.
Elliptical sentences are actually incomplete in structure but
complete in meaning. Advertisements are built on the elliptical
pattern, which means that all elements that can be omitted tend
to be eliminated from the sentence.
The adoption of elliptical sentences can spare more print
space, and take less time for readers to finish reading. In
addition, a group of sentence fragments may gain special
advertising effectiveness: brevity of expression is realized by
the absence of articles and some punctuation marks, making
the statement telegram-like.
ii. Interrogative and imperative sentences
Interrogative and imperative sentences are heavily used in
English advertisements. Imperative sentences are short,
encouraging and forceful. They are used to arouse audience’s
wants or encourage them to buy something (see section 4.2.2.
for the conative function, one of the most important functions
of the advertising message), e.g.
Enter something magical. (Oldmobile)
Feel the clean all day. (ALMAY)
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i. Simple and informal vocabulary: The function of
advertising is to provide information, attract the consumer,
exploit the market, and promise the quality. Therefore,
advertisement must pay attention to its impelling language, and
the first step is to use simple and informal vocabulary to make
it easy to understand and memorize.
I couldn’t believe it, until I tried it!
I’m impressed! I’m really impressed!
You’ve gotta try it! I love it!
These five sentences are from an advertisement of a
microwave oven. The words in it are very simple and oral. It
also uses the slang “gotta”, an abbreviation from “got to”, in
order to give an impression that this advertisement comes from
the real life.
ii. Misspelling and coinage: In some advertisements, the
advertising copywriter misspells some words on purpose, or
adds some suffix or prefix to the common words, which will
make the advertisement more vivid, interesting and attractive.
For example:
We know eggsactly How to sell eggs.
In this advertisement, “eggsactly” is the variation of
“exactly”, and echo the word “eggs” at the end of the sentence.
iii. Loanwords: The loanwords in some advertisements are
good methods to express the exoticism of the products. The
most frequently used loanwords are French and Spanish. For
example,
Order it in bottles or in cans.
Perrier…with added je ne sais quoi.
The purpose of using the French expression “je ne sais quoi”,
which means “I don’t know what”, is to suggest the French
flavour of this drink.
iv. Use of simple verbs: Linguistic studies show that
English native speakers tend to use words of Anglo-Saxon
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origin, because native words have comparably stable meaning.
In advertising, these simple words can win the consumers by
their exact, effective expression and a kind of closeness. The
words listed below are the most frequently used in advertising:
make, get, give, have, see, buy, come, go, know, keep, look,
need, love, use, feel, like, choose, take, start, taste, e.g.,
We will make this quick! (Hertz Car Return)
Get great coverage that’s so weightless and water-fresh!
(ALMAY)
All you need is a taste of adventure! (Millstone Coffee)
You will love it even more with the 2.1. megapixel C-2000
200M (Olympus Camera)
v. Use of adjectives: The most frequently used adjectives in
advertising are: new, good/better/best, fresh, free, delicious,
sure, full, clean, wonderful, special, crisp, real, fine, great,
safe, and rich. Most adjectives in advertisements have positive
connotations, helping to build a pleasant picture in readers’
minds and managing to create a belief in the potential
consumer: if I buy this product or if I choose this service, I will
lead a better life. In addition, comparatives and superlatives
occur to highlight the advantage of a certain product or service.
For example,
Think Lysol is the best disinfecting spray. (Disinfecting
Spray)
The Compaq Armada family is lighter, with new rounded
edges for easier packing. (Compaq)
6.2.4.3. Rhetorical devices

The use of personification in advertising will endow the
products with human emotion, making them pleasant to
consumers. For example,
Flowers by Interflora speak from the heart. (Interflora)
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Another device frequently used in advertising is simile, the
figure in which two essentially unlike things are compared,
often in a phrase introduced by like or as. For example,
Light as a breeze, soft as a cloud.
Ride like a feather in your pocket.
Copywriters also resort to of metaphor, a figure of speech in
which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is
used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison.
For example,
Go for the Gold.
The brightest star in electronics.
In some advertisements, the method of repetition is often
used in order to stress certain information, e.g.,
When you’re sipping Lipton, you’re sipping something
special. (Lipton tea)
Pun, which is a play upon words (sometimes on different
senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense of
different words), will leave a deep impression on readers by its
readability, wit and humour. The word used as a pun is usually
closely related to the characteristics of a certain product or the
brand name of the product, e.g.
Ask for More. (“More” is a famous cigarette brand)
6.2.5. The headline

The most concise form of newspaper information is the
headline, whose main function is to inform the reader briefly of
what the news that follows is about. Apart from giving
information about the subject-matter, headlines also carry a
considerable amount of appraisal (the size and arrangement of
the headline, the use of emotionally coloured words and
elements of emotive syntax), thus indicating the interpretation
of the facts in the news items that follow. According to Danuta
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Reah, “the headline is a unique type of text. It has a range of
functions that specifically dictate its shape, content and
structure, and it operates within a range of restrictions that limit
the freedom of the writer…. The headline should encapsulate
the story in a minimum number of words, attract the reader to
the story, and, if it appears on the front page, attract the reader
to the paper.” (1998: 13).
6.2.5.2. Syntactic features

Since a headline has to catch the reader’s attention and at the
same time to provide information about the content of the
article, some distinctive features have developed to fulfil this
function. Newspaper headlines follow rather different
grammatical rules from other kinds of writing. Some
characteristics of newspaper headlines are (Swan 1980: 409):
i. Syntactically, headlines are very short sentences or
phrases of a variety of patterns: full declarative sentences;
interrogative sentences; nominal sentences; elliptical sentences;
phrases with verbals (i.e. non-finite forms), etc.
ii. Elliptical sentences: The headlines are not always
complete sentences: they usually contain as few words as
possible and that is why grammar words like articles or
auxiliary verbs (e.g. to be) are often left out.
Initial report not expected until June (aux. verb omitted)
Shakespeare Play Immoral, Says Headmaster
More Earthquake Deaths
iii. The use of ‘heavy’ premodification and apposition in
noun phrases as subjects: nouns are commonly modified by
other nouns, and whole strings (of three, four or more nouns)
are found in newspaper headlines:
Furniture Factory Pay Cut Riot (i.e. a Riot about a Cut in
Pay for the workers in a Factory that makes Furniture)
Heathrow bullion robbery trial verdict
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iv. Newspaper headlines have a special tense system. It is
unusual to find complex forms like is coming or has produced.
Generally the simple present form (comes, produces) is used,
whether the headline is about something that has happened,
something that is happening, or something that happens
repeatedly
Britain Sends Food to Famine Victims
Students Fight for Course Changes
Fat Babies Cry Less, Says Doctor
Sometimes the present progressive tense is used (usually to
describe something that is changing or developing), but the
auxiliary verb (is, are) is usually left out.
World Heading for Energy Crisis
Britain Getting Warmer, Say Researchers
To refer to the future, headlines often use the infinitive. This
is really a contracted form of the verb be + infinitive
construction:
Queen to Visit Samoa.
PM to Announce Cabinet Changes on Tuesday
v. Passive sentences are constructed with no auxiliary verb,
just the past participle
Man Held by Police in Murder Hunt. (“A man is being
held by Police …”);
Nuns Killed in Explosion

Short words save space, and so they are very common in
newspaper headlines. Some of the short words in headlines are
unusual in ordinary language (e.g. curb, meaning ‘check’,
‘restrain’), and some are used in special senses which they do
not have in ordinary language (e.g. bid, meaning ‘attempt’).
Other words are chosen not because they are short, but because
they sound dramatic (e.g. blaze, meaning ‘fire’):
New Everest Bid by Japanese Women (bid – “attempt”)
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America Backs British Peace Move (back – “support”)
Three Die in Hotel Blaze (blaze – “fire”)
Students in Clash with the Police (clash – “violent
disagreement”)
6.2.6. The editorial

As already pointed out in section 6.2.2., the function of the
editorial is to influence the reader by giving an interpretation of
certain facts. Editorials comment on the political, business, and
other affairs or events of the day. Their purpose is to give the
editor’s opinion and interpretation of the news published and
suggests to the reader that it is the correct one.
Like any evaluative writing, editorials appeal not only to the
reader’s mind but to his/her feelings as well. In addition to
vocabulary typical of brief news items, writers of editorials
make extensive use of emotionally coloured vocabulary. Hence
the use of emotionally coloured language elements, both
lexical and structural, as for example,
But since they came into power the trend has been up, up,
up and the pace seems to be accelerating. (Daily Mail)
Emotional colouring in editorial articles is achieved with the
help of various stylistic devices. Thus, editorials abound in trite
stylistic means, especially metaphors, repetitions, similes, and
epithets: a price explosion, a spectacular sight, an outrageous
act, etc.
Two types of allusions can be distinguished in newspaper
article writing:
i. allusions to political and other facts of the day which are
indispensable and have no stylistic value;
ii. historical, literary and biblical allusions which are often
used to create a specific stylistic effect, largely satirical.
Original forms of expression and fresh genuine stylistic
means are comparatively rare in newspaper articles, editorials
included.
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6.3. THE STYLE OF SCIENTIFIC PROSE

Scientific style refers to utterances which are mainly
written, in the form of monologue, represented by textbooks,
scientific studies, research, case studies. There are several
branches of scientific style, namely, popular-scientific style,
academic and professional style.
The genre of scientific works is mostly characteristic of the
written form of language (scientific articles, monographs or
textbooks), but it may also be found in its oral form (in
scientific reports, lectures, discussions at conferences, etc.); in
the latter case, this style has some features of colloquial speech.
The function(s) of the scientific style are, to a large extent,
different from other styles.
The main function of scientific prose is proof. The style of
scientific prose is therefore mainly characterized by an
arrangement of language means which will bring proof, facts,
as well as arguments, to clinch a theory. Further functions are
to prove a hypothesis, to create new concepts, to disclose the
internal laws of existence, development, relations between
different phenomena, to communicate scientifically determined
knowledge effectively, clearly in words of certain meaning.
The popular-scientific style has the function of bringing
scientific knowledge in a comprehensible and interesting way.
This function causes the popular-scientific style to be a
compilation of various devices such as the use of terms,
description, shorter sentences.
6.3.2. Linguistic features

The main linguistic features of scientific style, characterized
by specific vocabulary and syntactic structures, can be summed
up as follows:
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An important feature of the scientific style is represented by
accuracy and expert knowledge in the use of terms. There are
some characteristics of the terms used:
i. An important feature and, probably, the most conspicuous,
is the use of terms specific to each given branch of science.
Due to the rapid dissemination of scientific and technological
ideas, the interpenetration of scientific ideas, modern scientific
prose evinces an interesting phenomenon, namely, exchange of
terms between various branches of science. As G. Miššíková
points out (2003: 121), self-sufficiency in any branch of
science is now a thing of the past. Some scientific and technical
terms begin to circulate outside the narrow field they belong to
and eventually begin to develop new meanings. Collaboration
of specialists in related sciences has proved successful in many
fields. For example, mathematical terms are used in other
sciences, including linguistics: thus, mathematical linguistics is
a branch of linguistics which studies the mathematical
properties of language. But the overwhelming majority of
terms does not undergo this process of de-terminization and
remain the property of scientific prose. There they are born,
develop new terminological meanings and there they die.
ii. No other field of human activity is so prolific in coining
new words as science is. The necessity to penetrate deeper into
the essence of things and phenomena gives rise to new
concepts, which require new words to name them. This can be
explained by the fact that a term will make more direct
reference to something than a descriptive explanation, a non-
term. Furthermore, terms are coined so as to be self-
explanatory to the greatest possible degree. Hence the rapid
creation of new terms in any emerging or developing science.
The new terms thus created, such as compound words,
derivatives, loan words, neologisms, become established quite
fast.
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iii. The general vocabulary employed in scientific prose bears
its direct referential meaning, that is, words used in scientific
prose always tend to be used in their primary logical meaning.
There are some important restrictions on the use of words:
words should not be used in more than one meaning; in order
to avoid ambiguity, there should be no words with contextual
meaning. Neutral and common literary words used in scientific
prose will be explained, if their meaning is slightly modified,
either in the context or in a foot-note by a parenthesis, or an
attributive phrase.
iv. A particularly important aspect of scientific and
technological language is the subject-neutral vocabulary which
cuts across different specialized domains. In particular, a great
deal of scientific work involves giving instructions to act in a
certain way, or reporting on the consequences of having so
acted. Several lexical categories can be identified within the
language of scientific instruction and narrative:
- Verbs of exposition: ascertain, assume, compare, construct,
describe, determine, estimate, examine, explain, label, record,
test, verify, etc.
- Verbs of warning and advising: avoid, check, ensure, notice,
prevent, remember, take care, etc.; also, several negative items:
not drop, not spill.
- Verbs of manipulation: adjust, align, assemble, begin, boil,
clamp, connect, cover, decrease, dilute, extract, fill, immerse,
mix, prepare, release, rotate, switch on, take, weigh, etc.
- Adjectival modifiers and their related adverbs: careful(ly),
clockwise, continuous(ly), final(ly), gradual(ly), moderate(ly),
periodic(ally), secure(ly), subsequent(ly), etc.
v. The focus is on particular data and phenomena, which are
viewed objectively. The language means used, therefore, tend
to be objective, precise, unemotional, devoid of any
individuality, there is a striving for the most generalized form
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of expression. There is total elimination of emotionality and
expressiveness.
The most frequently used words in scientific prose are
function (or grammatical) words, conjunctions, prepositions.
The first 100 most frequent words of this style comprise the
following units:
- prepositions: of, to, in, for, with,, on, at, by, from, out,
about, down
- prepositional phrases: in terms of, in view of, in spite of, as
a result of, by means of, on (the) grounds of, in case of;
- conjunctional phrases: in order that, in case that, in spite of
the fact that, on (the) grounds that, for fear that, etc;
- pronouns: one, it, we, they;
- notional words: people, time, years, man, made, etc.
As scientific prose is restricted to formal situations and,
consequently, to formal style, it employs a special vocabulary
which consists of two main groups:
i. words associated with professional communication;
ii. a less exclusive group of so-called learned words. Here one
can find numerous words that are used in scientific prose and
can be identified by their dry, matter-of-fact flavour, for
example, comprise, compile, experimental, heterogeneous,
homogeneous, conclusive, etc.
6.3.2.2. Grammatical features

Some of the most important grammatical peculiarities of
scientific prose are:
i. Non-finite forms (infinitives, participial and gerundial
constructions) as attributes are used in abundance. The use of
abstract nouns, gerundial, participial or infinitive constructions
instead of much simpler clauses with conjunctions makes the
text more condensed, e.g.
Apart from this, controlling emission of greenhouse gases
would require huge increase in energy efficiency.
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(“Besides, if we want to control the gases which come out
when the air becomes warmer, we shall have to produce
much more energy”)
There are also numerous compound types of predicates
based on non-finite forms such as infinitives:
These gases are easy to control but they are persistent once
emitted (“It is easy to control these gases, but it is hard to
stop them when they come out”)
Deforestation is probably even harder to change (“It is even
harder to change the situation when forests begin to
disappear”)
ii. Nominalizations: Nominalization refers to the process of
affixation or derivation whereby nouns are derived from verbs
by nominalizing suffixes (hence the term deverbal nouns), e.g.
develop-ment, convers-ion (from convert), etc. Since
nominalisations are characteristically abstract, they are quite
common in impersonal and formal registers such as scientific
prose, e.g.: friction losses, steam consumption, steam corrosion
inhibition, etc.
The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity took
place in the sixth century. (Compare: The Anglo-Saxons
were converted to Christianity. This took place in the sixth
century).
Not only deverbal nouns, but also verbal nouns, marked by
the suffix –ing, as speaking, writing, etc. are frequently used in
such nominalizations.
iii. Another feature of scientific prose is represented by the
use of extended attributive phrases, often with a number of
nouns as attributes to the head-noun, e.g.
The germ plasm theory; the time and space relativity theory;
a high level consensus; the greenhouse effect; carbon
dioxide emission; fossil fuel burning; deforestation
problems, etc.
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iv. Relative clauses and relative pronoun choices:
Comparing the three registers – conversation, newspaper
writing and academic prose (scientific prose) – Biber et al.
(2006: 284) point out several differences, related to structural
and functional considerations: relative clauses formed with the
relative pronoun that or zero relativizer have a more colloquial
flavour and are the preferred choices in conversation;
newspaper writing shows a much stronger preference for which
and who; in contrast, academic prose focuses on inanimate
objects or concepts, resulting in a much greater use of the
relative pronoun which. Indeed, with its more formal, academic
associations, which is preferred in scientific prose, e.g.:
An operator is simply something which turns one vector
into another.
v. The impersonality of scientific writings can also be
considered a typical feature of this style.
The author of scientific works tends to sound impersonal,
hence the use of the pronoun we (instead of I), as well as of
impersonal constructions.
This quality is also mainly revealed in the frequent use of
passive constructions. An extensive use of passive
constructions (approximately 20%, in comparison to 3 % in
spoken utterances) conveys the general impersonal tone of
expression. For example, scientific experiments are generally
described in the passive voice:
Then acid was taken instead of I / we then took acid
In connection with the general impersonal tone of
expression, it should be noted that impersonal passive
constructions are frequently used with verbs such as assume,
conclude, emphasize, infer, point out, presume, suppose, etc.
It should be pointed out that…
It must not be assumed that…
It must be emphasized that…
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The passive constructions are a helpful way of ensuring a
smooth flow of ideas, and are important in allowing objects to
receive prominence within clause structure.
vi. Scientific prose makes use of special emphatic
constructions to lay logical stress on some part of the
sentence:
It is not solely from water that oxygen is to be obtained (“
We can get oxygen not only from water”) .
vii. There is an extensive use of modal verbs in scientific
prose: modals are used primarily with epistemic values, in
testing, proving or disproving hypotheses and drawing
conclusions. For example, could, may and might usually
express logical possibility, as in the examples below:
The two processes could well be independent.
The only problem may be that the compound is difficult to
remove after use.
viii. The syntax of scientific speech is characterized by the
use of complete (non-elliptical) sentences, the use of
extended complex and compound sentences without omission
of conjunctions, as they enable the author to express the
relations between the parts more precisely (as different from
the asyndetic connection typical of colloquial speech).
ix. An important feature of scientific style is the logical
sequence of utterances with a clear indication of the
interrelations and interdependencies. It is considered that in no
other functional style do we find such a developed and varied
system of connectives as in the scientific style.
The coherence and cohesion of utterances is established by
means of a large number of linking adverbials, which serve a
connective function, namely to make explicit the relationship
between two units of discourse. Linking adverbials, such as,
thus, however, furthermore, nonetheless, moreover, then, in
fact, in general, etc., can express a variety of relationships,
including addition and enumeration, summation, apposition,
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result or inference, contrast or concession, and transition.
Because they explicitly signal the connections between
passages of text, linking adverbials, are important devices for
creating textual cohesion, as illustrated by the following
examples:
We are already acquainted with six properties which may be
used to describe the thermodynamic state of a system…
Lastly, entropy S was shown to be a property as a
consequence of the First Law (addition and enumeration)
To conclude, we may place the three notions of saliency in
an ordered relation as follows:… (summation)
Until recently hypobiosis was not considered to be a feature
of this genus. However, there is now ample evidence in
temperate areas that hypobiosis plays an important part in
the epidemiology(contrast/concession)
x. An important feature of scientific style is represented by
sentence patterns which can be of three types: postulatory,
argumentative and formulative.
A hypothesis, a scientific conjecture or a forecast must be
based on facts already known, on facts systematized and
defined. Therefore every piece of scientific prose will begin
with postulatory statements (postulations which are taken as
self-evident and needing no proof).
A reference to these facts is only preliminary to the
exposition of the writer’s ideas and is therefore summed up in
precisely formulated statements accompanied, if considered
necessary, by references to sources.
The writer’s own ideas are shaped in formulae, which
represent a doctrine or theory of a principle, an argument, the
result of an investigation, etc. For example,
If all the wavelengths are mixed, a white light will be
produced. (Postulatory)
This one-celled organism ate, grew, responded to its
surroundings, reproduced itself, and spread throughout
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the oceans. All life has probably evolved from that single
original cell. (Argumentative)
Chemical energy is potential energy that is stored in
gasoline, food, or oil; mechanical energy is energy related
to the movements of objects. (Formulative)
xi. An observable feature of the style of scientific prose, and
one that strikes the eye of the reader, is the use of quotations
and references. These sometimes occupy as much as half a
page.
There is another feature of scientific style, which makes it
distinguishable from other styles, namely, the frequent use of
foot-notes, not of the reference kind, but digressive in
character. This is in full accord with the main requirement of
the scientific style, which is logical coherence of ideas
expressed. Anything that seems to violate this requirement
(logical coherence of ideas) or seems not to be immediately
relevant to the matter in hand but at the same time serves to
back up the idea will be placed in a foot-note.
Some features of scientific style can be seen in the following
extract from an academic science book (quoted in Biber et all,
1999: 23):
There is also some evidence that increased mortality may
occur in eggs which are exposed to relatively low
temperatures shortly after they are laid, and which
consequently attain little embryonic growth. For example,
eggs laid after freeze-up revealed a general increase in
mortality as oviposition extended later into the autumn
when temperatures were declining.
The contextual characteristics of this science text are the
following: the text is written, carefully planned, edited and
revised; it is produced by an author who does not overtly refer
to himself in the text; the production is not interactive; the text
is addressed to a large audience of readers who are scientists,
but the addressees are never directly referred to. The primary
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purpose of the text is to present detailed and precise
information, explanations, and arguments about the biology of
grasshoppers.
Due to the influence of these contextual factors, the linguistic
characteristics of this science text are quite different from those
of other types of texts (such as, conversation, fiction). The two
sentences of the science text sample are relatively long as well
as grammatically complex. The science text sample also
contains some linguistic characteristics typical of this style:
morphologically complex vocabulary items (e.g. mortality,
embryonic, oviposition); complex noun phrase constructions
with pre- and post-modifiers (e.g. a general increase in
mortality; eggs which are exposed to relatively low
temperatures shortly after they are laid); frequent passive
constructions (e.g. are exposed, are laid); the use of modal
verbs with epistemic values (e.g. mortality may occur).
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6.4. THE STYLE OF OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

Official documents are written in a formal, “cold” or matter-
of-fact style of speech. The style of official documents, or
“officialese” as it is sometimes called (see Crystal & Davy,
1969: 242), is not homogeneous and is represented by the
following sub-styles, or varieties: The language of business
documents; The language of legal documents; The language of
diplomacy; The language of military documents.
Like other styles, this style has a definite communicative
aim and accordingly has its own system of interrelated
language and stylistic means. The main aim of this type of
communication is to state the conditions binding two parties in
an undertaking. These parties may be: i. the state and the
citizen, or citizen and citizen (jurisdiction); ii. a society and its
members (statute or ordinance); iii. two or more enterprises or
bodies (business correspondence or contracts);
iv. two or more governments (pacts, treaties); v. a person in
authority and a subordinate (orders, regulations, authoritative
directions); vi. the board or presidium and the assembly or
general meeting (procedures acts, minutes, etc.)
In other words, the aim of communication in this style of
language is to reach agreement between two contracting
parties.
The overall code of the official style falls into a system of
subcodes, each characterized by its own terminological
nomenclature, its own compositional form, and its own variety
of syntactic arrangements. But the integrating features of all
these subcodes, emanating from the general aim of agreement
between parties, remain the following: conventionality of
expression; absence of any emotiveness;
the encoded character of language, symbols; a general syntactic
mode of combining several pronouncements into one sentence.
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In this chapter, the linguistic analysis will discuss two
varieties of the style of official documents,, namely, the
language of business (6.4.2.); the language of legal documents
(6.4.3.).
6.4.2. The language of business

The business style refers mainly to written material,
especially commercial correspondence, e.g. inquiries, offers,
orders, invoices, claims and complaints, dunning letters (i.e.
written correspondence received from creditors requesting
payment of debt and/or threatening legal or other action if
payment is not made by a certain date, see Macmillan, 2002:
432), forms, etc.
The business style has several functions, namely, to inform,
to persuade, to cooperate.
The main linguistic features of business style are
characterized by certain grammatical peculiarities, specific
vocabulary and compositional patterns.

Some of the most important grammatical peculiarities of
business texts are:
i. Complex noun phrases
An important feature of business discourse is represented by
the use of extended noun phrases, often with a number of
nouns as attributes to the head-noun, e.g.
Public relations department (“department dealing in public
relations”);
parts replacement guarantee (“a guarantee for the
replacement of [spare] parts”);
a Social Security rebate claim form (“a claim form for
Social Security rebates”).
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ii. Modal verbs, represented by can, could, may, might, must,
need, should are used to express a variety of meanings
including ability, permission, possibility, obligation, deduction.
They are also frequently used to express a number of functions
or speech acts, such as, requests, offers, suggestions,
instructions, irritation, etc.
The Eastern European market could become very profitable
(= describing a future possibility)
If your current account stays in credit you do not have to
pay bank charges (= absence of obligation)
You might try giving them a discount if you really want
their order (= making a suggestion)
iii. Passive constructions are frequently used in business
texts. To see why the passive voice is preferred to the active,
we shall consider the following sentences:
a. The Personnel Manager interviews candidates. -
Candidates are interviewed by The Personnel Manager.
b. The auditors inspect the accounts once a year. –
The accounts are inspected by the auditors once a year.
c. Someone has translated the contract into Arabic. –
The contract has been translated the contract into Arabic
In each sentence the grammatical subject provides the topic
of the sentence. In (a.), the focus of attention changes from The
Personnel Manager in the active sentence to Candidates in the
passive sentence; similarly, in (b.) from The auditors to The
accounts. The by-phrase (by the Personnel Manager, by the
auditors) expresses the agent, who performed the action. In
(c.), the passive is preferred to the active construction if we are
not interested in who performs the action or it is not necessary
to know (it would be unusual to add ‘by someone’).
iv. Long and complex sentences, with various types of
subordinate clauses:
Should you wish to make a booking, please contact our
reservations manager, Gillian Gregg. (= a conditional, if
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clause, where the conjunction if is omitted)
Companies build up buffer stocks so that they do not/will
not run short of supplies. (= clause of purpose)
v. Just as scientific style, the business style is objective (i.e.,
factual, impersonal, unemotional, logical and precise). An
objective tone is achieved by:
- avoidance of expressive and emotionally marked words,
personal attitudes and evaluation;
- the speaker is presented in the 1st person singular (almost
anonymous) and the addressee is impersonal, addressed in 2 nd
person plural;
- the reported speech is used to relate what another person said,
wrote or said on a previous occasion.

i. Just as in scientific prose, the general vocabulary employed
in business texts bears its direct referential meaning, that is to
say, words always tend to be used in their logical primary
dictionary meaning.
ii. The vocabulary of business texts is characterized by the
use of special terminology. For illustration, most definitions
were taken from P. Strutt’s textbook, Longman Business
English Usage: broker (“a person who brings together a seller
and a client”), brokerage (“the commission paid for this
service”), tender (“a formal offer to supply or produce goods or
services at a stated price”), legal tender (“bank notes and coins
which are accepted in payment”); bid (“tender”); also, retailer,
stock, equity, share, dividends, takeover, etc.
In addition to special terminology, the vocabulary of business
also contains numerous formal, lofty (“bookish”) words and
phrases: plausible (“possible”), to inform (“to tell”), to assist
(“to help”), to cooperate (“to work together”), to promote (“to
help something develop”), to secure (“to make certain”), to be
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determined / resolved (“to wish”), to endeavour (“to try”), to
proceed (“to go”), to inquire (“to ask”), etc.
iii. As we have seen, the most general function of these texts
predetermines the peculiarities of the style. A striking feature of
business English usage is conventionality of language: a
special system of clichés, terms and set expressions by which
each sub-style can easily be recognized, for example, with the
following objectives / ends (“for these purposes”), I beg to
inform you, I beg to move, I second the motion, provisional
agenda, the above-mentioned, hereinafter named, We remain,
your obedient servants, etc.
There are also special collocations to be found in these texts,
such as public relations, balance of payments, balance of trade,
the Stock Exchange, legal tender, social progress, private
advisory, etc.
6.4.2.4. Compositional patterns

Perhaps the most noticeable of all features are the
compositional patterns of the variants of this style, represented
by the form, the layout of official documents (i.) as well as
formal business letters (ii.).
i. An official document usually consists of a preamble,
main text body and a finalizing (concluding) part.
(a) The preamble is usually a statement at the beginning of
the document explaining what it is about and stating the parties
of the agreement, e.g.
The States concluding this Treaty (Treaty on the Non-
proliferation of Nuclear Weapons), hereinafter referred to
as the “Parties to the Treaty’…have agreed as follows…”
(b) The main text body constitutes the central and most
important part of the document. It consists of articles –
individual parts of a document, usually numbered ones, which
state the conditions on which the parties reach their agreement.
171
(c) The finalizing part comprises the signatures of the duly
authorized people that have signed the document; the amount
of copies of the document; the date; the place.
(ii) Business letters have a definite compositional pattern,
namely, the heading giving the address of the writer and the
date, the name of the addressee and his address. The usual parts
of the business letter are:
(a) The heading, which includes the sender’s name, postal
and telegraphic addresses, telephone number as well as
reference titles of the sender and recipient, is printed at the top
of the notepaper.
(b) The date is printed in the top right-hand corner in the
order: day, month, year, e.g. 21st May, 2009 (21/5/09). Another
order is usually employed in the United States: May, 21 st 2009
(5/21/09).
(c) Name and address, i.e. the inside address is usually typed
in three, or four lines at the beginning of the letter, e.g. Messrs.
Adams and Wilkinson, /4, Finsbury Square, / London, E.C.2.,
England.
(d) The salutation may be: Sir, Sirs, Gentlemen (never
‘Gentleman’), Dear Sirs (never ‘Dear Gentlemen’), Madam,
Dear Madam (for both married and unmarried ladies), or
Mesdames (plural), (never: Dear Mr./Mister). Dear Mr. Jones/
Mrs. Brown/ Miss Smith may only be used when the sender is
fairly intimate with the person receiving the letter.
(e) Reference: Underlined heading should look as follows:
Re: Your Order No 12345. Re is not an abbreviation of
“regarding”, but a Latin word meaning “in the matter of”.
(f) Opening: There are some phrases with which to
commence a letter, such as:
In reply / with reference / referring to your letter of…;
In accordance with / compliance with / pursuance of your
order No.;
We greatly appreciate your letter of…
172
(g) The body is the subject matter that should be concise but
not laconic. The sentences should not be too long, the whole
matter should be broken into reasonably short paragraphs
which should be properly spaced.
(h) Closing or the complimentary close usually looks
something like this:
Yours faithfully / truly / sincerely / cordially
The most appropriate closing is:
Awaiting your early reply with interest;
Hoping there will be no further complaints of this nature;
Thanking you in advance for any information you can offer.
6.4.3. The language of legal documents

Having performative character and serving as commands,
the language of legal documents must avoid opportunities for
misinterpretation.
The main characteristic linguistic features of legal texts,
noticeable at the lexical and grammatical level, will be summed
up in the sections below.

The vocabulary of the legal language is mostly represented
by formal words, archaisms, and technical terms. It also
consists of common words with uncommon meanings, terms of
art (i.e. words or phrases that have a particular, precise
meaning in law, cf. Cristal & Davy, 1969: 210), neologisms,
and words of foreign origin.
i. Formal language is one of the main features of the legal
lexicon. The frequent use of formal words sets a solemn tone to
the legal texts. Formal words like ‘initiate’ (”begin”) or
‘terminate’ (”end”), which are rarely used in general English,
are quite frequent in legal texts. Other formal words in legal
texts are abeyance, acquiesce, ambit, caducity, commence,
173
complete, construe, convene, malfeasance, malversation,
notify, quash, proviso, etc.
The Agreement shall commence on this day and
automatically terminate upon the bankruptcy or insolvency
of either of the parties hereto. (the verbs commence and
terminate mean respectively ”begin” and ”end”).
The term ”effective date” means the date on which this
Agreement is duly executed by the parties hereto. (the verb
execute means ”sign”).
ii. Technical terms: Legal English, in common with many
other professional languages, employes a great deal of
terminology, that has a technical, special meaning which is not
generally familiar to the layman. The technical meaning of
words in legal texts is often stabilized, clarified, single and
precise. Thus, in legal English, there are widely used technical
terms, such as waiver, covenant, tort, defect, remedy,
jurisdiction, damages and/or losss, indemnities, tenancy, etc.,
which do not have any hidden meanings and which are not
very ambiguous. For example,
waiver (“an official written statement saying that a right,
legal process, etc. can be waived, i.e. ignored”
covenant (“a legal agreement in which someone promises to
to pay a person or organisation an amount of money
regularly”)
tort (“an action that is wrong but not criminal and can be
dealt with in a civil court of law”).
An important feature which can be identified in many legal
texts is represented by frequent use of common words with
uncommon meanings, hence becoming technical terms. Words
such as action, article, consideration, construction, execute,
party, prefer, prejudice, satisfaction, etc. are not used for their
common meaning, but for their special meaning,
Thus, in legal contexts action means “lawsuit”, party has the
meaning “a person litigating”, while execute means “to sign to
174
effect”. Other uses of common words with uncommon legal
meanings: alien („transfer property”); counterpart (“duplicate
of document”); instrument (“legal document”); letters
(“document authorizing one to act”); serve (“deliver legal
papers”).
iii. Language changes continually, but the language of the
law is rather conservative, tending to resist change and
changing. As Crystal and Davy point out, “It is especially
noticeable that any passage of legal English is usually well
studded with archaic words and phrases of a kind that could be
used by no one else but lawyers” (1969: 207).
Indeed, legal texts contain a large proportion of archaic
words, such as, aforesaid, herein, hereby, herewith, thereunder,
whereto, etc. These compound adverbs (usually formed by
adverbs such as here, there, or where to which prepositions,
such as after, at, by, from, in, of, to, under, upon, or with have
been suffixed) were common in medieval English. Rather than
saying “under it” or “under that”, a speaker of Middle English
could say hereunder or thereunder. And instead of using „with
what” or „with which” in questions, Middle English speakers
would generally say wherewith.
One of the main justifications for continued use of
antiquated vocabulary is that it is more precise than the modern
equivalent. Archaic words like herein and therein may
sometimes lead to economy of expression when they replace a
longer phrase like “in this document” or “in that clause”
(Tiersma, 2000: 94).
The property belongs to the aforementioned Mr. Jones.
(”mentioned before in an earlier part of the document”)
Such kind of words reflects the solemn, conservative, rigid
and authoritative style of contracts and the use of which can
avoid repetition and redundancy.
iv. Another feature is represented by the frequent use of
conjoined phrases (or binomial expressions) which are
175
traditionally termed doublets. Binomial phrases consist of two
words from the same grammatical category, coordinated by
and or or (Biber et al, 1999: 1030). Although the most common
kind of binomial phrase comprises two coordinated nouns,
words from all four major grammatical categories can be
combined. There are numerous synonyms or synonymous pairs
commonly used in legal writing, being represented by:
- nouns: terms and conditions, law and order, goods and
chattels, loss, injury or damage, import duty and tax, etc.
- verbs: perform and discharge, alter and change, bind and
obligate, furnish and provide, fulfil and perform, etc.
- adjectives: null and void, fit and proper, sole and exclusive,
final and conclusive, transferable and assignable.
- adverbs: slowly and inexorably.

i. An important feature is represented by the extensive use of
nominalizations (deverbal nouns), a term referring to two
distinct processes: (a) The process or result of forming a noun
from a word belonging to another word class, e.g. writing
derived from write by additing –ing; or development derived
from develop by the addition of the noun-forming suffix –ment;
(b) The process or result of deriving a noun phrase by a
transformation from a finite clause:
They rejected my complaint → Their rejecting my
complaint or Their rejection of my complaint
Both processes of nominalization can be found in legal
language. As nominalizations are characteristically abstract,
they allow the law to be stated as generally and objectively as
possible. Just like the passive constructions (discussed in (iv.),
nominalizations can be used to obscure the actor, e.g.,
The injury occurred at 5.30. - injury is a noun derived from
the verb injure.
176
Such compact nominalizations, combined with the passive,
are common in impersonal and formal registers such as legal
language, official notices, etc.
ii. Pre- and postmodification of noun phrases
Premodification, describing all those elements in a noun
phrase which are subordinate to the noun used as head word,
and which occur directly before it, is represented in English by
four major structural types of premodification in English:
general adjective (e.g. official negotiations), ed-participial
modifier (e.g. established tradition), ing- participial modifier
(e.g. exhausting task), noun (e.g. law report).
Most adjectival and participial premodifiers are condensed
structures and can be re-phrased as a longer, postmodifying
relative clause, e.g. official negotiations – negotiations which
are official. However, the re-phrasing of noun premodifiers is
not at all straightforward because noun+noun sequences can
represent many different meaning relations, with no overt
indication of which meaning is intended in any given case, e.g.
law report = report about the law; company management = the
management of a company.
Postmodification, describing all those elements in a noun
phrase or nominal group which are subordinate to the noun as
head word, and which occur after it, is represented in English
by finite clauses (i.e. relative clauses), non-finite clauses (to-
clauses, ing-clauses, ed-clauses) as well as prepositional
phrases. In particular, prepositional phrases allow a very dense
packaging of information in a text, being more compact than
relative clauses. These structures often occur in extremely
dense, embedded sequences, i.e. constructions in syntactic
subordination, where one sentence is included or ’embedded’ in
another, e.g.
There are merchant bankers who find it convenient to stir
up apprehension (postmdification by a relative clause)
An attempt to inflict bodily injury upon another by using
177
unlawful force (postmdification by a to-clause- i.e. the
infinitive)
The distinction between public and private law, espoused in
many pluralist accounts is largely bogus
(postmdification by ed-clause).
We can conclude this sction by stating that premodifiers
differ from postmodifiers in two major respects: they are more
condensed than postmodifiers, using fewer words to convey
similar information; second, premodifiers are much less
explicit in identifying the meaning relationship that exists
between the modifier and head noun. This reliance on implicit
meaning relationship is most evident in the case of noun +
noun compounds. In legal texts, postmodification is preferred
to premodification: complex nominal groups with heavy
postmodification are characteristic of legal language, where
explanatory detail is felt necessary.
iii. Modal auxiliary verbs
The language of the legal documents is not only informative
providing the reader with details and useful information about
their rights and obligations, but it also specifies and mentions
the authority which issues, orders or prohibits certain acts. This
authoritative and permissive dimension is conveyed in legal
English by means of the modal verbs shall, may, must, would,
will followed by can, ought to, should.
The most frequently used modal verb in legal texts is shall,
which fulfils a variety of functions: to express the imposition of
obligation, give directions, confer rights or indicate a positive
command in declarative sentences with all persons (e.g.
Payment shall be made by cheque); and in negative contexts, to
express prohibitions. Discussing the different uses of this
modal verb, Crystal and Davy state that in legal English „shall
is invariably used to express what is to be the obligatory
consequence of a legal decision, and not simply as a marker of
178
future tense, which is its main function in other varieties”
(1969: 206-7).
Another modal verb that is predominantly used in legal
texts is may which expresses possibility, permission,
authorization or probability:
The court may make a youth rehabilitation order in respect
of the current offence instead of imposing a fine.
The negative form (may not) is used to express prohibition,
or to limit the rights or the powers of a provision, as in:
The power conferred by subsection (1) may not be
exercised in relation to any sentence or order if an
appeal [...], against that sentence has been determined.
iv. The passive voice
The active voice, as in The thief had stolen all my money, is
the most common and unmarked form of voice, where the
grammatical subject (also the logical subject of the sentence) -
the thief -is the agent of the action expressed by a transitive
verb. The passive voice, as in All my money had been stolen
by the thief, shows that the affected object (in the active voice)
all my money becomes the grammatical subject: it is no longer
the logical subject but the goal/recipient or receiver of the
action. The agent, doer of the action is expressed by a
prepositional phrase by the thief.
Although the factual content of the two sentences remains
the same, there are certain differences in emphasis: the active
sentence places the emphasis on the agent, the doer of the
action, while a passive sentence places the emphasis on the
recipient of the action, rather than on its doer. It is also possible
for the agentive, or by-phrase to be omitted: All my money had
been stolen.
There are certain contexts and situations in which the
passive has generally been regarded as useful: (a) When the
receiver of the action (affected object) is more important than
the doer (agent), as in, The child was struck by the car; (b)
179
When the doer (agent) is unknown, unimportant, or too
obvious to be worth mentioning, as in, The store was robbed
last night; (c) when we want to establish a tone of detachment
and impersonality.
The passive voice is a typical feature of the legal style.
Passives are so common in legal English that it has even been
suggested that the passive, rather than the active, is the
unmarked voice there.
The passive voice, a typical feature of the legal style, is so
common in legal English that it has even been suggested that
the passive, rather than the active, is the unmarked voice there.
More precisely, in legal texts, passive sentences are frequently
used for strategic imprecision: when the agent is not known to
the speaker or when it can only be vaguely defined; passive
sentences are also frequently used to deliberately de-
emphasize, defocus or obscure the agent (actor), by allowing
the speaker or writer to omit reference to the agent (actor), as
in: The girl was injured at 5.30.
Passives are therefore impersonal constructions, giving an
aura of objectivity and authoritativeness to the text, which may
explain why they are common in court orders. They are also
widely used in legislative documents like Acts of Parliament,
directives, treaties, regulations, etc. on the other hand, they are
less common in contracts, where there is an interest in precise
reference to the actors (the active voice is more relevant).
v. Types of sentences
Studies (see Tiersma, Legal Language, 2000), show that
sentences in legal language are quite a bit longer than in other
styles, and since they have many subordinations or
embeddings, legal sentences have an extremely complex
structure. The length of the average sentence in legal texts can
be established at about 30 words, which represents much more
than the average sentence characterizing other genres.
180
An important feature of legal English is that it contains only
complete major sentences which are in the form of statements
(declarative sentences), with no questions (interrogative
sentences), and only occasional commands (imperative
sentences) (Crystal & Davy, 1969: 203). The great majority of
legal statements have an underlying logical structure of the
type ”if X, then Z shall be Y”, or alternatively ”if X, then Z
shall do Y”. In spite of numerous variations on this theme, the
conditional (”if X”) component is essential, because, from a
legal point of view, every requirement depends on some
condiitions which must be satisfied. It is worth noting that the
sentence structure of ”if X” is usually realized by means of
adverbial conditional or concessive clauses.
In terms of position, in English a subordinate clause may
appear in three different positions relative to the main clause:
initial, medial and final. In UK legal writing the subordinate
clauses especially the ones introduced by the conjunctions if,
when, and where occur in initial position. The medial position
is usually preferred in European legislation. The relative clause
is most frequently found in this position. This type of
embedding makes the sentence even more complicated.
Referring to the variety of positions of adverbials, Crystal &
Davy (1969: 204) point out the fact that legal draftsmen take
advantage of adverbial mobility as a means of clarifying
meaning and avoiding ambiguity: they seldom move adverbials
around, as is done in some written varieties, simply as a means
of achieving greater elegance of expression. The primary
concern with meaning leads to adverbials being placed in
positions which seem unusual by normal standards. The
example provided by Crystal & Davy (1969: 195) from an
endowment assurance policy:
Whereas a proposal to effect with the Society an assurance
on the Life Insured...
181
clearly illustrates this point: the sentence would be more
natural if the order were ...a proposal to effect an assurance
with the Society... (the transitive verb and its direct object are
not generally separated), but no doubt the idea is to get with the
Society next to the verb it modifies in order to avoid a possible
ambiguity.
182
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What are the main topics covered in the document?

What are the main topics covered in the document?

What are some of the linguistic features discussed for spoken and written language?

What are some of the linguistic features discussed for spoken and written language?

IOANA MURAR

1. Main concepts and definitions 9

2. Varieties of the English language 16

3. Speech and writing in discourse 32

4. Tenor and domain in discourse 57

5. Grammar and principles of good writing 76

6. The functional styles of the English language 104

6.2. The style of newspapers/ journalism 140

6.3. The style of scientific prose 157

6.4. The style of official documents 167

The goal of this textbook was twofold: first, to provide first

1.1. Definitions of Style

1.2. Definitions of Stylistics

1.3. The Scope of Stylistic Study

1. 4. Stylistics and language

The patterns of written language; Graphology

The way words combine with other Syntax; grammar

The words we use; the vocabulary Lexical analysis,

The meaning of words and sentences Semantics

The way words and sentences are Pragmatics;

According to P. Simpson (2006: 5), these basic levels of

2. VARIETIES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

2.2. Variation according to language user

2.2.1. Regional variation: dialects

2.2.3. Variation according to age and gender

2.3. Variation according to language use: register

2.3.1. Attitude (Style or tenor)

very formal – FORMAL – neutral – INFORMAL – very

The use of small caps for FORMAL and INFORMAL is

Figure 1: Attitude [Style] (from R. Quirk et al. 1985)

There are other factors that should be taken into account in

2.3.2. Medium (or mode)

2.3.3. Field of discourse (or domain)

Example: After reading this, other central heating systems

Tenor: informal; Mode: written; Domain: advertising

3. SPEECH AND WRITING IN DISCOURSE

In this chapter we elaborate on the two varieties according to

Type Subtypes Examples

Table 2: Illocutionary acts

The speech act may be explicit, meaning that it contains

3.1.2. The written language

3.1.3. The spoken language

3.2. The forms of speech and writing

3.3.1. The spoken variety

3.3.1.1. Morpho-syntactic features

A: I said how’s your revision going, ‘cos I knew she was

The conversation sample illustrates the dense use of that-

3.3.2. The written variety

The above means are not able to represent an office

As the text shows, there are more to-clauses than that-

3.4. ‘Typical’ speech and ‘typical’ writing

3.4.2. Lack of clear sentence boundaries

Topic(s) Body Tail(s)

Table 3: Utterance structure (from Leech et al, 2006: 145)

As we can see, a topic or a tail is linked in some way to the