Belles-lettres functional style

I. Introductory Notes

1.1. Aims and purposes of the integrated approach to the belles-lettres text analysis. The course of analytical reading for the 4th year university students majoring in the English language and literature aims at further developing the students’ skills of reading authentic belles-lettres texts, not only, and not merely as an aid in learning the language, but as works of verbal art whose poetic content and artistic linguostylistic peculiarities should be properly perceived and appreciated as something global, united by the author’s artistic message to the reader. Hence the necessity to embark on an integrated method of a belles-lettres text analysis which combines a traditional linguostylistic analysis, mainly focusing on the identification and description of linguostylistic concepts proper (individual stylistic devices and expressive means), on the one hand, and a complex wholistic approach to the text as an integral communicative unit and as an object of a separate branch of linguistics, generally known as textlinguistics, on the other.

Textlinguistics requires a complex approach to the text as an object of its study, including its formal-semantic structure, its logico-conceptual unity and functional-communicative aspect of its nature. Since any text is a communicative unit, all its structural and semantic properties undergo the influence of the situation of communication. So, texts belonging to different functional styles and characterized by different functional-communicative aims have a particular structure and possess particular lingual features which can be subjected to textlinguistic analysis.

The main aims of the analytical procedures in terms of textlinguistics are two-sided: 1. to master the techniques and methods of the analysis as such; 2. to acquire the adequate metalanguage of the analysis which comprises not only the necessary linguistic terminology, but also a certain amount of speech-patterns and word-combinations of a cliché d character, generally used in this field of speech communication.

1.2. General characteristics of some semantic and structural text categories. Defining a text as an integral communicative unit it is necessary to point out that it is characterized by a number of specific text categories constituting it and thus inherent in it. There is no generally recognized nomenclature of text categories in linguistics. Their types and number vary. For example, two basic groups of text categories, namely, semantic and structural ones are distinguished in textlinguistics: 1) semantic categories: informativity, presupposition, depth, pragmatics, implication, integrity; 2) structural categories: segmentability, grammatical cohesion, prospectiveness, retrospectiveness, continuum.

In fact, almost all text categories have a combined structural-semantic character, as they affect both the plane of expression and the plane of content. All text categories interact with one another, and the character of their interaction can have functional-stylistic significance, as it changes depending on a text type.

I. The aim and purpose of any text is to create and pass on a certain amount of information, which finds its expression in the category of informativity, one of the most essential categories of a text. There are two types of information conveyed by the belles-lettres text – factual and conceptual ones.

Factual information is explicitly presented in a text. It unfolds gradually and includes the description of facts, objects, phenomena, portraits of personages, landscapes, the development of events. It is a linear, surface information which has time and space duration. It makes up the theme of a text.

Conceptual information, or the author’s artistic message, is a more complex type of information, as it is implicit and is deduced from the text as a whole. It makes up the idea of the text, and can be treated as a text deep message which must be understood and explicated by the reader.

The conceptual information of the text, its message may correlate with its title. It may either fully correspond to it or oppose it, but in any case, the title of a text is closely associated with its conceptual information, or the author’s artistic message.

Note: texts of newspaper, scientific and official document functional styles are mainly characterized by factual information. Conceptual information is an indispensable feature of any belles-lettres text and is elicited from it in different ways by different recipients, i.e. readers.

II. In some texts the category of presupposition is clearly manifested. It is closely connected with the category of informativity, as the volume of the information conveyed by a text is extended by certain facts relevant in terms of the category of presupposition, and therefore they require a certain amount of background knowledge on the part of the reader. They include:

1. facts of general socio-historical and cultural significance, e.g. reference to certain historical events, facts from the cultural, economic, political life, national traditions and customs of the society described, famous figures etc.

2. allusions to works of world literature including the Bible, ancient mythology, and their characters.

III. Another semantic category which is correlated with the conceptual information of the text is the category of depth. It forms the subtext of the text, and is typical of fictional texts only.

IV. Informativity, presupposition and depth are closely associated with the category of implication which is created by various stylistic devices on the lexical, syntactical, phonetic levels. Implication widens the limits of the text, creates its depth, enhances its expressivity and enriches its conceptual information. To fully comprehend and appreciate a work of verbal art its conceptual information can be compressed into a certain number of conceptual cores within which tropes and other stylistic means serve as sygnals of the author’s artistic implications the sum total of which results in the author’s global artistic message to the reader.

V. The category of pragmatics is the influence on the reader’s perception of the information conveyed, his/her emotions, feelings. This category reflects the author’s attitude towards the events described, his/her impact upon the readers, his/her intention to convince them. The author may influence his/her readers directly (by means of his/her direct address to the reader, digressions, meditations, direct characterization) or indirectly (with the help of different stylistic devices and expressive means). As a result, the author’s influence makes the reader accept his/her vision of life, and agree or disagree with it.

VI. One of the most essential and universal categories of any text is its integrity, or unity which finds its expression on two different, though interconnected levels: formal-structural and semantic ones, the former correlated with the grammatical cohesion, the latter – with the lexical cohesion of the text.

It is generally recognized that among various means of text cohesion it is lexical means of cohesion that play the most important role because they, first and foremost, contribute to the logico-semantic integrity of the text.

The structural interrelation between different parts of the text (sentences, paragraphs, supraphrasal unities) is achieved due to various formal markers, referred to as grammatical means of cohesion:

1. various adverbial connectors including conjunctions, conjunctive words, parentheses;

2. personal and demonstrative pronouns referring to objects mentioned above;

3. various prop-words, which serve as means of secondary nomination of things, persons, facts, phenomena, already mentioned above;

4. the Definite Article before the noun already mentioned above;

5. the unity of tense-forms in different parts of a text etc.

Lexical means of cohesion comprise:

1. the recurrence of key-words which reflect the most important content points of a text;

2. the use of words pertaining to certain lexico-semantic groups united by some common notions;

3. the use of words and word-combinations making up certain thematic groups on the basis of common underlying notions;

4. the use of words logically associated with the key-words;

5. the use of synonyms proper and contextual ones;

6. the use of antonyms, both antonyms proper and contextual ones;

7. the use of words built up by some common word-building elements (derivatives, compounds, conversion pairs etc.).

Note: The lexical cohesion of a belles-lettres text is closely related to its integrity and can be expressed by stylistic means of cohesion, as any stylistic device, which is based on different types of repetition, may serve as a means of cohesion:

1. anaphora;

2. epiphora;

3. anadiplosis (catch repetition);

4. framing, or ring repetition;

5. parallelism;

6. antithesis;

7. tropes and other lexical stylistic devices and expressive means;