Lecture 12

THE LANGUAGE STYLE OF PUBLICISTIC LITERATURE

The publicistic style of language is a perfect example of the historical changeability

of stylistic differentiation of discourses. For instance, in ancient Greece it was practiced
mainly in its oral form and was best known as oratoric style, within which views and
sentiments of the addresser/orator found their expression. And besides, it should be
reminded that the basic rules of linguostylistics derive from the works of ancient
philosophers and thinkers who attached great importance to public speeches, giving
speechmakers and orators a prominent place in the society.
Nowadays political, ideological, ethical, social beliefs and statements of the addresser
are prevailingly expressed in the written form, which was labelled publicist in accordance
with the name of the corresponding genre and its practitioners. The language style of
publicistic literature is famous for its explicit pragmatic function of brainwashing directed at
influencing the reader and shaping his views in accordance with the argumentation of the
author. In other words the main objective of any speechmaker is to cause his/her addressee
to accept the standpoint expressed in the speech and lead him/her to action not merely
through logical argumentation but through emotional appeal as well. This persuasive
function is most obvious and effective in oratory, as here the most powerful instrument of
brainwashing – human voice – is brought into play.
Due to its characteristic combination of logical argumentation and emotional appeal,
this style has features in common with the style of scientific prose, on the one hand, and that
of emotive prose, on the other. Its logical syntactical structure with an expanded system of
connectives and its careful paragraphing speak about its similarity with scientific prose. Its
emotional appeal achieved through the use of words with emotive meaning, the use of
imagery and other stylistic devices and expressive means, draws this style closer to fiction.
Correspondingly, we find in publicistic style a blend of rigorous logical reasoning, reflecting
the objective state of things, and a strong subjectivity reflecting the author’s personal
feelings and emotions coupled wuth conceptual approach towards the phenomena described.
 Three types of speeches are usually distinguished: political, judicial/legal and ceremonial.

Political speeches fall into two categories; parliamentary debates, and speeches at rallies,
meetings, election campaigns etc. Legal speeches are exercised in the speeches of counsel and
judges in courts of law. Ceremonial speeches or sermons (used in public weddings, funerals, jubilees
etc.) deal mostly with religious subjects, ethics and morality; sometimes they take up social and
political problems as well.

It should be stated that the sphere of application of oratory is rather broad: here science, art,
literature, business relations, information and technological innovations etc. are dealt upon.

As far as the oratorical style is modified in oral form of the utterance, typical traits of the
spoken variety of speech are to be found here:

 Direct address to the audience; Dear Mr. President (Vice-President, Prime-Minister,

Speaker, Ambassador etc), Ladies and Gentleman, Honorable Guests etc
 The use of the second person pronouns, which distinctly set the author-addressee
relations; you, your, yours etc.
 The speechmaker often uses contractions; I’ll, I’ve, won’t, isn’t, didn’t etc
Good speechmaking very often depends upon the quality of information used to develop
thesis statement. In this respect the introduction and conclusion of any speech gain paramount
importance. Very often the introduction includes a question, personal reference, startling statement,
story, quotation etc. Speech conclusion may have such effective elements as the summary, the
recommendation, the stirring statement etc. At closing the speech the orator usually thanks his/her
audience for their attention or perhaps patience; Thank you (very much), (my) dear friends, dear
colleagues, etc.

The stylistic devices used in oratorical style are mainly traditional, but Modern English
oratory strives to be more businesslike. Repetition can be regarded as the most typical stylistic
device of this style. Almost any piece of oratory may have parallel constructions, rhetorical
questions, question-in-the-narrative, climax, stylistic inversion etc., which bare merely individual
subjective character and depend upon the occasion. The prosody of speech plays a crucial role here;
the change of intonation breaks the monotony of the utterance, reviving the attention of the
audience.
 Alongside the verbal context the speechmaker makes use of paralinguistic means,
namely his/her body language, which facilitate him/her to broadcast the speech with greater
ease and have a stronger impact on the addressees.

The Essay

An essay is a piece of writing, usually short and in prose on philosophical, social, aesthetic
or literary subjects. Personality in the treatment of topic and naturalness of expression are
two of the most evident characteristics of the essay. It is rather series of personal and witty
comments than a finished argument or a conclusive examination of any matter. That is why
it never penetrates deep into the subject matter, revealing all the conceptual information, but
simply touches upon the surface. This literary genre has definite linguistic traits which shape
it as a variety of publicistic style.
The name “essay” appears to have become common on the publication of
Montaigne’s “Essays”, a literary form created by this French writer. As a separate form of
English literature the essay dates from the close of the 16 th century. It was very popular in
the 17th and 18th centuries.
The most characteristic language features of the essay are brevity of expression, the
use of the first person pronouns, which justifies a personal approach to the problems treated,
as well as a rather expanded use of connectives encouraging the process of grasping the
correlation of ideas, the abundant use of emotive vocabulary etc.
Some essays, depending on the writer’s individual approach, are written in a highly
emotional manner resembling the characteristic traits of fiction, while others are similar to
scientific prose.
In comparison with oratorical style, the essay aims at a more lasting and slower
effect; paradoxes, aphorisms and epigrams are comparatively rare in oratory, since they
require the concentrated attention of the listener. In the essay they are commoner, as the
reader has the opportunity to make a careful and scrupulous study of the content and form of
the utterance.
 A serious composition that is intended to inform or persuade is considered to be a
formal essay, and works written in a more relaxed style for a less serious occasion or
purpose are called informal essays.
According to the subject matter and the treatment it receives, essays may be classified
as narrative, descriptive, reflective and argumentative. This division, is however, by no
means clear cut; in fact most essays possess features characteristic not of one particular type,
but several.
The narrative essay is a description of happenings in their distinct chronological
order. It is the easiest to create because the material is arranged according to the actual
course of events; one knows where to start and what to do next, each paragraph being
devoted to one particular episode or group of episodes. Narrative essays bear a close
resemblance to those short stories in which the author describes events as he himself has
experienced them. In fact, particularly all narrative essays could be classed as short stories.
For this reason some authors consider that there is no justification for distinguishing between
the two forms.
The descriptive essay. This type of essay describes characters and setting at rest. It is
more difficult to write because the order in which ideas follow one another is determined not
by the sequence of events, but rather by certain qualities of these ideas and the logical
connection between them. One of the most important differences between narrative and
descriptive essays is that in descriptive writing, there is no single event which will keep the
reader in suspense as there is in story.
The essence of the reflective essay lies in contemplation upon any given subject
which demands imagination and power of observation. Such essays are developed through
analysis, that is one starts by breaking down the subject into parts, then groups the various
ideas together and finally arranges them in an order best suited for one’s purposes. In some
cases author’s of reflective essays in the arrangement of their ideas work from the general to
particular and from the impersonal to the personal, or just vice versa.
The argumentative essay touches upon one particular topic sometimes containing
controversial ideas, and is intended to be argued for or against a proposition. An ability to
reason and a capacity for arranging ideas in logical order are the important requirements of
an argumentative essay. There are two main forms of argument; inductive and deductive. In
‘inductive’ argument authors begin with a general statement and then produce facts to prove
it. In ‘deductive’ argument one statement is inferred from another, beginning with a general
idea and arriving at a particular one.

Feature articles

Irrespective of the character of the magazines and the subject matter-whether it is political,
literary, popular-scientific or satirical, all the mentioned features of publicistic style are typical to
any feature article. The character of the magazine as well as the subject chosen has a direct impact
on the choice and use of stylistic devices. Words of emotive meaning, for example, are few, if any,
in popular scientific articles. Their exposition is more consistent and the system of connectives more
expanded than in a satirical article.
The language of political magazine articles differs little from that of newspaper articles. But
such elements of publicistic style as rare and bookish words, neologisms, and parenthesis are more
frequent here than in a newspaper article. In other words, magazine articles are not labelled as over-
official or purely informative, for they comprise both elements of evaluation and appraisal and the
author’s subjective modality towards the phenomena described.
The above mentioned features, as can be seen, apply to the so-called New Journalism
which brings into use the forbidden ''I''. New journalism attempts to challange the readers by
placing them within a new world through the use of narrative devices; the latter ones allow
journalists to portray characters with their psychological depth. With the help of these
devices authors sympathize with the character within a story being told, thus they can
identify with the event and the experiences much easier than if they are told simply bare
''facts'' as traditional journalism had been doing.
Literary reviwes both by their content and by their linguistic form. More abstract
words of logical meaning are used in them, they often resort to emotional language and less
frequently to traditional set expressions.