Iquest; Collect data on other stylistic aspects

Give a historical survey on non-literary styles development

² Unit 3 Vocabulary: stylistic aspect

" Make practical stylistic tasks

AMONG the most popular radio shows today are call-ins, which provide millions of people the chance to speak out, share their hopes and vent their anger and frustrations. The following words may help you sound off more clearly and forcefully if you decide to call in yourself. Mark the answers you think are correct. Then turn the page to check your score.

1. sumptuous adj.—A: silky. B: lavish. C: light and airy. D: austere.

2, cascade n—A: cliff. B: mountain ridge.. C: waterfall. D: butte.

3. insatiable adj.—A: impossible to satisfy. B: having strong feelings. C: requiring continual effort. D: immovable.

4. fetish n—A: sudden notion. B: erratic behavior. C: feeling of obligation. D object of obsessive devotion.

5. penchant n.—A: plan. B: liking for something. C: decorative banner. D: dreamy thoughtfulness.

6. explicit adj.—A: inflexible. B: knowledgeable. C: clear. D: intricate.

7. arcana n—A: remembrances. B: main pointsiQ mysteries. D: difficulties.

8. frippery n.—A: wit. B: solemnity. C: trickery. D: showiness.

9. heinous adj.—A: wicked. B: beyond understanc1ing.C: ugly. D: treasonable.

10. nemesis n.—.—A: accident. B: trusted adviser. C: opponent. D: idol.

11. scurrilous adj.—A: abusive. B: scrubbed and clean. C: lacking swiftness. D: shocking.

12. mendacious adj.—A: tattered. B: outrageous.(: not truthful. D: poor.

13. vindication n.—A: slander. B: justification. C: attack. D: self-righteous pose.

14. commemorate v.—A: to flatter. B: enjoy. C: memorize. D: honor.

15. meld v—A: to soothe. B: merge. C: purchase. D: glisten.

16. mordant adj.—A: deadly. B: alarming. C: somber. D: sharply sarcastic.

17. proselytize v—A: to confront. B: establish. C: be made known. D: try to convert.

18. duplicity n.—A: repetition. B: probity. C: deceit. D: imitation.

19. hegemony n.—A: unlawfulness. B: dominance. C: mass migration. D: democracy.

20. rant v.—P: to speak wildly. B: praise inordinately. C: formalize. D: treat with scorn.

Vocabulary Ratings
10—14 correct Good
15—17 correct Excellent
18—20 correct Exceptional

Answers to “It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power”

1. sumptuous—B: Lavish; costly and luxurious; magnificent; as, an impressively sumptuous celebration. Latin sumptus (expense). 2. cascade—C: Waterfall descending over a steep and rocky surface. Also, anything that resembles a waterfall; as, a cascade of flowers covering the railing. hal- ian cascata. 3. insatiable—A: Impossible to satisfy; never getting enough; greedy; as, -4 the leaders insatiable drive for power. Latin insatiabilis. 4. fetish—D: An object or activity receiving obsessive or irrational devotion; as, to make a fetish of sports. Latin facticiuc (artificial). 5. penchant—B: Strong liking or inclination for something; as, a penchant for politics. Old French pencher (to incline). 6. explicit—C: Clear and precise, leaving no doubt as to meaning; as, The general gave an explicit explanation. Latin ex- (out) and plicare (to fold). 7. arcana—C: Mysteries; information known only to those involved; as, an attempt to expose a secret society’s arcana. Latin arcere (to shut in). 8. frippery—D: Pretentious showiness in dress or manners; as, disdain for frippeiy of any kind. Old French freperie (old clothes). 9. heinous-A: Outrageously wicked; abominable; hateful; as, the heinous crimes of the dictator’s soldiers. Old French haine (hatred). 10. nemesis-C: Opponent or problem one cannot overcome; as, The press became the Congressman’s nemesi. The Greek goddess of vengeance was named Nemesis. 11. scurrilous—A: Abusive and insulting; coarse; vulgar; as, The talk-show host grew tired of the scurrilous attacks on him. Latin scwrilis (jeering). 12. mendacious—C: Not truthful; lying or false; as, Voters complained about the mendacious statements of party old-timers. Latin mendax. 13. vindication—B: Justification; clearance of blame or guilt; as, the vindication of a controversial policy when it turns out to be successful. Latin vindicare (to claim). 14. commemorate—D: To honor or ctlebrate someone or something; as, Flag Day, June 14, commemorates adoption of the U.S. flag in 1777. Latin commemorare. 15. meld—B: To merge, blend or unite; as, His graceful letters melded many different people into a political party. Blend of melt and weld. 16. mordant—D: Sharply or bitingly sar“ castic or cutting; as, the cartoonist’s mordant observations. Latin mordere (to bite). 17. proselytize—D: To try to convert a person from one belief or faith to another. Greek proserchesthai (to approach). 18. duplicity—C: Deceit; deliberate deceptiveness; as, a broker’s duplicity in selling phony stocks. Latin duplex (twofold). 19. hegemony—B: Dominance of one state or thing over another; as, ‘Thlk shows weaken the hegemony of more conventional organs of opinion. Greek hegemonia (leadership). 211. rant—A: To speak wildly or in a ‘- loud, extravagant way; as, The agitator ranted for hours, Old Dutch anten (to talk foolishly).

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Find examples of elevated vocabulary in the text, differentiate them into stylistic groups, describe their function in the text. J Offer your variant of translating the marked extract {{{ … }}} Pay attention to preserving peculiarities of high style.

From “The Glittering Images”

{{{ Of course he's a brilliant speaker, " said Lang, careful to go through the motions of exer­cising Christian charity by giving credit where credit was due. " Technically the speech was a masterpiece."

" But a deplorable masterpiece."

Lang was satisfied. He must have been confident of my support, but it was over ten years since I had been his chaplain, and like all prudent statesmen he no doubt felt it unwise to take loy­alty too readily for granted. }}}

" Jardine's attack was quite inexcusable, " he said, sufficiently reassured to indulge in the luxury of indignation. " After all, 1 was in the most unenviable position. I couldn't condone any relaxation of the divorce law; that would have been morally repugnant to me. On the other hand if I had openly opposed all change there would have been much damaging criticism of the Church. Caught between the Scylla of my moral inclinations and the Charybdis of my political duty, " de­clared the Archbishop, unable to resist a grandiloquent flourish, " I had no choice but to adopt a position of neutrality."

" 1 do see the difficulty. Your Grace."

" Of course you do! So do all reasonable churchmen! Yet the Bishop of Starbridge has the insuffer­able insolence not only to accuse me of sitting on the fence'—what a vulgar phrase! —but to advo­cate that multiple grounds for divorce are compatible with Christian teaching! No doubt one shouldn't expect too much of someone who's clearly very far from being a gentleman, but Jardine has behaved with gross disloyalty to me personally and with gross indifference to the welfare of the Church."

The snobbery was unattractive. Lang might long since have acquired the manner of an Eng­lish aristocrat but he came from the Scottish middle classes and no doubt he himself had once been regarded as an " arriviste." Perhaps he thought this gave him a license to be virulent on the subject of class, but I thought the virulence underlined not Jardine's social origins but his own.

Meanwhile he had discarded all grandiloquence in order to deliver himself of the bluntest of perorations " In my opinion, " he said, " Jardine's no longer merely an embarrassment. He's become a dangerous liability, and I've decided that the time has come when I must take action to guard against a disaster."

1 wondered if malice had combined with old age to produce irrationality. " I agree he's contro­versial. Your Grace, but—

" Controversial! My dear Charles, what you and the genera! public have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg you should hear what goes on at our bishops' meetings! Jardine's views on mar­riage, divorce and— heaven help us—contraception have been notorious for some time in episcopal circles, and my greatest fear now is that if he continues to parade his questionable views on family life, some unscrupulous newshound from Fleet Street will eventually put Jardine's own domestic situation under the microscope."

" You're surely not implying—

" No, no." Lang's voice was suddenly very smooth. " No, of course I'm not implying any fatal error, but Jardine's domestic situation is unusual and could well be exploited by a press baron with an axe to grind." He paused before adding: " I have enemies in Fleet Street, Charles. Since the Abdi­cation there are powerful people who would like nothing better than to see me humiliated and the Church put to shame."

The speech was florid but for the first time I felt he was not motivated solely by malice. His words reflected an undeniable political reality.

1 heard myself say: " And where do I come in, Your Grace? "

" I want you to go down to Starbridge, " said the Archbishop without hesitation, " and make sure that Jardine hasn't committed some potentially disastrous indiscretion—because if he has, I want all evidence of it destroyed."

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Find examples of elevated and colloquial vocabulary in the text, differentiate them into stylistic groups, comment on their humorous function in the text.

D.J.Salinger from the story “From Esme – with love and squalor”

" Usually, I'm not terribly gregarious, " she said, and looked over at me to see if knew the meaning of the word. 1 didn't give her a sign, though, one way or the other. " I purely came over because I thought you looked extremely lonely. You have an extremely sensitive face."

I said she was right, that 1 had been feeling lonely, and that I was very glad she'd come over.

{{{ “I’m training myself to be more compassionate. My aunt says I’m a terribly cold person, " she said and felt the top of her head again. " I live with my aunt. She's an extremely kind person. Since the death of my mother, she's done everything within her power to make Charles and me feel adjusted."

" I'm glad."

" Mother was an extremely intelligent person. Quite sensuous, in many ways." She looked at me with a kind of fresh acuteness. " Do you find me terribly cold? "

I told her absolutely not—very much to the contrary, in fact. I told her my name and asked for hers. }}}

She hesitated. " My first name is Esme. I don't think I shall tell you my full name, for the moment. 1 have a title and you may just be impressed by titles. Americans are, you know."

1 said I didn't think I would be, but that it might be a good idea, at that, to hold on to the title for a while.

Just then, I felt someone's warm breath on the back of my neck. I turned around and just missed brushing noses with Esme's small brother. Ignoring me, he addressed his sister in a pierc­ing treble: " Miss Megley said you must come and finish your tea! " His message delivered, he re­tired to the chair between his sister and me, on my right. I regarded him with high interest He was looking very splendid in brown Shetland shorts, a navy-blue jersey, white shirt, and striped necktie. He gazed back at me with immense green eyes. " Why do people in films kiss sideways" he demanded.

" Sideways" I said. It was a problem that had baffled me in my childhood 1 said I guessed it was because actors' noses are too big for kissing anyone head on.

" His name is Charles, " Esme said. " He's extremely brilliant for his age, " " He certainly has green eyes. Haven't you, Charles? "

{{{ Charles gave me the fishy look my question deserved, then wriggled downward and forward in his chair till all of his body was under the table except his head, which he left, wrestler's-bridge style, on the chair seat. " They're orange, " he said in a strained voice, ad dressing the ceiling. He picked up a corner of the tablecloth and put it over his handsome, deadpan little face. }}}

" Sometimes he's brilliant and sometimes he's not, " Esme said. " Charles, do sit up! "

Charles stayed right where he was. He seemed to be holding his breath. " He misses our father very much. He was s-i-a-i-n in North Africa."

I expressed regret to hear it.

Esme nodded. " Father adored him." She bit reflectively at the cuticle of her thumb. " He looks very much like my mother— Charles, I mean. I look exactly like my father." She went on biting at her cuticle. " My mother was quite a passionate woman. She was an extrovert. Father was an introvert. They were quite well mated, though, in a superficial way. To be quite candid, Father really needed more of an intellectual companion than Mother was. He was an extremely gifted genius."

I waited, receptively, for further information, but none came. I looked down at Charles, who was now resting the side of his face on his chair seat. When he saw that I was looking at him, he closed his eyes, sleepily, angelically, then stuck out his tongue —an appendage of startling length—and gave out what in my country would have been a glorious tribute to a myopic baseball umpire. It fairly shook the tearoom.

" Stop that, " Esme said, clearly unshaken. " He saw an American do it in a fish-and-chips queue, and now he does it when-ever he's bored. Just stop it, now, or I shall send you directly to Miss Megley."

J Offer your variant of translating the marked extract {{{ … }}} Pay attention to preserving peculiarities of Esme’s speech.

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Find examples of proper names in the text, investigate their meaning, comment on their function in the text. J Offer your variant of translating the marked extract {{{ … }}} Pay attention to preserving peculiarities of names.

Sc. Fitzgerald from “The Great Gatsby”

Chapter IV

ON Sunday morning while church bells rang in the villages alongshore, the world and its mistress returned to Gatsby's house and twinkled hilariously on his lawn. 'He's a bootlegger/ said, the young ladies, moving somewhere between his cocktails and his flowers 'One time he killed a man who had found out that he was nephew to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil. Reach me a rose, honey, and pour me a last drop into that there crystal glass.' Once I wrote down on the empty spaces of a time-table the names of those who came to Gatsby's house that summer. It is an old time-table now, disintegrating at its folds, and headed 'This schedule in effect July 5th, 1922'. But I can still read the grey names, and they will give you a better impression than my generalities of those who accepted Gatsby's hospitality and paid him the subtle tribute of knowing nothing whatever about him.

{{{ From East Egg, then, came the Chester Beckers and the Leeches, and a man named Bunsen, whom 1 knew at Yale, and Doctor Webster Civet, who was drowned last summer up in Maine. And the Hornbeams and the Willie Voltaires, and a whole clan named Blackbuck, who always gathered in a corner and flipped up their noses like goats at whosoever came near. And the Ismays and the Chrysties (or rather Hubert Auerbach and Mr Chrystie's wife), and Edgar Beaver, whose hair, they say, turned cotton-white one winter afternoon for no good reason at all. }}}

Clarence Endive was from East Egg, as I remember. He came only once, in white nickerbockers, and had a fight with a bum named Etty in the garden. From farther out on the Island came the Cheadles and the 0. R. P. Schraeders, and the Stonewall Jackson Abrams of Georgia, and the Fishguards and the Ripley Snells. Snell was there three days before he went to the penitentiary, so drunk out on the gravel drive that Mrs Ulysses Swett's automobile ran over his right hand. The Dancies came, too, and S. B. Whitebait, who was well over sixty, and Maurice A. Flink, and the Hammerheads, and Beluga the tobacco importer, and Beluga's girls.

From West Egg came the Poles and the Mulreadys and Cecil Roebuck and Cecil Schoen and Gulick the State senator and Newton Orchid, who controlled Films Par Excellence, and Eckhaust and Clyde Cohen and Don S. Schwartz (the son) and Arthur McCarty, all connected with the movies in one way or another. And the Catlips and the Bembergs and G. Earl Muldoon, brother to that Muldoon who afterward strangled his wife. Da Fontano the promoter came there, and Ed Legros and James B. ('Rot-Gut') Ferret and the DeJongs and Ernest Lilly - they came to gamble, and when Ferret wandered into the garden it meant he was cleaned out and Associated Traction would have to fluctuate profitably next day. A man named Klipspringer was there so often that he became known as 'the boarder' - I doubt if he had another home. Of theatrical people there were Gus Waize and Horace O'Donavan and Lester Myer and George Duckweed and Francis Bull. Also from New York were the Chromes and the Backhyssons and the Dennickers and Russel Betty and the Corrigans and the Kellehers and the Dewars and the Scullys and S. W.

Belcher and the Smirkes and the young Quinns, divorced now, and Henry L. Palmetto, who killed himself by jumping in front of a subway train in Times Square. Benny McClenahan arrived always with four girls. They were never quite the same ones in physical person but they were so identical one with another that it inevitably seemed they had been there before. I have forgotten their names -Jaqueline, I think, or else Consuela, or Gloria or Judy or June, and their last names were either the melodious names of flowers and months or the sterner ones of the great American capitalist whose cousins, if pressed, they would confess themselves to be.

In addition to all these I can remember that Faustina O'Brien came there at least once and the Baedeker girls and young Brewer, who had his nose shot off in the war, and Mr Albrucksburger and Miss Haag and Ardita Fitz-Peters and Mr P. Jewett, once head of the American Legion, and Miss Claudia Hip. with a man reputed to be her chauffeur, and a prince of something, whom we called Duke, and whose name, if I ever knew it, I have forgotten.

All these people came to Gatsby's house in the summer.

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Comment on examples of cultural codes in the text, note the effect they create.

J Offer your variant of translating the cultural codes.

... But when you looked at the eyes that sparkled out like a beetle's from each side of his hooked nose, you saw at once that he inherited all the fiery spirit of his forefathers. In fact, a Frenchman's spirit never exhales, however his body may dwindle. It rather rarefies, and grows more inflammable, as the earthly particles diminish; and I have seen valor enough in a little fiery-hearted French dwarf to have furnished out a tolerable giant.

When once the Marquis, as was his wont, put on one of the old helmets stuck up in his hall, though his head no more filled it than a dry pea in its peascod, yet his eves flashed from the bottom of the iron cavern with the brilliancy of carbuncles; and when he poised the ponderous two-handled sword of his ancestors, you would have thought you saw the doughty little David wielding the sword of Goliath, which was unto him like a weaver's beam.

However, gentlemen, I am dwelling too long on this description of the Marquis and his chateau, but you must excuse me; he was an old friend of my uncle; and whenever my uncle told the story, he was always fond of talking a great deal about his host.— Poor little Marquis! He was one of that handful of gallant courtiers who made such a devoted but hopeless stand in the cause of their sovereign, in the chateau of the Tuileries, against the irruption of the mob on the sad tenth of August. He displayed the valor of a preux French chevalier to the last; flourishing feebly his little court sword with а ca-ca! in face of a whole legion of sans culottes: but was pinned to the wall like a butterfly, by the pike of a poissarde, and his heroic soul was borne up to heaven on his ailes de pigeon.

But all this has nothing to do with my story. To the point then. When the hour arrived for retiring for the night, my uncle was shown to his room in a venerable old lower. It was the oldest part of the chateau, and had in ancient times been the donjon or stronghold; of course the chamber was none of the best. The Marquis had put him there, however, because he knew him to be a traveller of taste, and loud of antiquities; and also because the better apartments were already occupied. Indeed, he perfectly reconciled my uncle to his quarters by mentioning the great personages who had once inhabited them, all of whom were, in some way or other, connected with the family. If you would take his word for it, John Balio, or as he called him, Jean de Bailleu, had died of chagrin in this very chamber, on hearing of the success of his rival, Robert the Bruce, at the battle of Hannockburn. And «hen he added that the Duke de Guise had slept in it, my uncle was fain to facilitate himself on being honored with such distinguished quarters.

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Find examples of cultural codes in the text, investigate their meaning, comment on the effect of routines they produce.

From.Days of Obligation

There is a crucifix over my bed. I am in bed; my eyes are open. I am waiting for the sound of midnight — a blare of horns, afire whistle, a dog's bark, a woman's scream.

Larry Faherty is in New Orleans for Christmas, so we have not spent New Year's Eve together. He sent me a postcard, written in Spanish. It's there on my dresser.

A car passes on the wet pavement outside. My room revolves on a rail of light. And then it is dark. January 1, 1960. The new decade has come to Sacramento, California. It is no longer Christ­mas. In the morning there will be a cold mass at church, and then the Rose Parade on TV. And the long gray afternoon will pass away through a series of black-and-white football games; in a few days I will be back at school.

The ectoplasmic corpus of the crucifix glows with confidence. Awake on my bed, I am inclined forward: I want the years coming to improve me, to make my hand a man's hand and my soul a man's soul.

Every New Year's Eve my mother weeps in front of the TV when Guy Lombardo strikes up " Auld Lang Syne."

The crowd in Times Square cheers.

T^is year, however, we have gone to bed early. The back-porch light is on for my brother. 1 have stayed awoke in the dark to feel the difference of a new decade.

There is no difference.

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Read two similar extracts. Find examples of cultural codes in the text, investigate their meaning, comment on the effect they produce.

■ ■ ■

Los Angeles was not the creation of foreign parents escaping tragedy; Los Angeles was the creation of Amer­ican children.

People I knew on the west side rarely went to the Mexican side. People in the San Fernando Valley expressed fatuous pride at not having been downtown for years. Orange County was the region's largest attempt to secede from itself. But Los Angeles named everything and everyone, claimed every horizon. The city without a center was everywhere the city. L.A. bestowed met­ropolitan stature on the suburban.

America made fun of L.A.

Europeans admired, especially Brits admired Los Angeles.

In London, I met a specimen of one of England's most congealed bloods who was disappointed to learn that I was from San Fran­cisco, oh dear—he much preferred Los Annjilleeze.

In 1971, Reynor Banham, a British architectural critic, pub­lished his pop celebration of the city, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies. Banham wrote disparagingly of the California alternative—San Francisco—with its " prefabricated Yankee houses and prefabricated New England or European attitudes."

Then David Hockney arrived in L.A. from coal-blackened northern England; dyed his hair, changed into shorts; eased into a primary palette. Hockney sold his canvas to the world: suburban tract villas, blond statue boys, an Aqua Velva Mediterranean.

Europe sought freedom from centuries. Europe craved vulgar­ity. Europe found innocence.

For all its innocence, L.A. was flattered by Europe's attentions in those years. It was the stuff of sonnets—old men taking young men to the opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. In a way, Europe was turning a trick on L.A., teaching the capital of childish narcissism the confidence of outward regard. L.A. soon came to believe that it was indeed an important city, a world city. " London, Paris, Beverly Hills, " read the perfume bottles. British actors and German divas were flown into town like so many truf­fles. In return, Los Angeles opened the last great European mu­seum in the world, an authentic Greek temple at the edge of the sea.

I imagined 1 knew some secret about Los Angeles that other people did not know. The architect who Bauhaused his bungalow was living in a house identical to the house I had grown up in. The Sacramento boy still refused to believe that a horizontal city could be a great city. But there were times when Los Angeles amused me for taking all I dismissed as Sacramento and selling it to the world as glamour. What a joke!

I now realize that Los Angeles was doing the same with me. I was a Mexican from the Central Valley—even then L.A. was the second-largest Mexican city in the world—a Mexican kid from the Central Valley with a big nose and glasses. I had spent my life indoors, reading about London.

But in L.A. I passed for a glamour-boy.

" Because you can talk, " one angel explained. " All they want is to be amused."

I had always been intellectually arrogant. In L.A., I yearned to become glamorous enough to be humble, in the manner of the angels.

There was nothing reticent about L.A. Glamour was instant. The city took its generosity from the movies. You're beautiful if L.A. says you're beautiful, goddammit.

It was the sons of Jewish immigrants, the haberdasher s son and the tobacconist's son, who established the epic scale of the movies. Movies taught one big lesson: individual lives have scope and grandeur.

■ ■ ■

We have hurled—like starlings, like Goths—through the cas­tle of European memory. Our reflections have glanced upon the golden coach that carried the Emperor Maximilian through the streets of Mexico City, thence onward through the sludge of a hundred varnished paintings.

I have come at last to Mexico, the country of my parents' birth. I do not expect to find anything that pertains to me.

We have strained the rouge cordon at the thresholds of imperial apartments; seen chairs low enough for dwarfs, commodious enough for angels.

We have imagined the Empress Carlota standing in the shadows of an afternoon; we have followed her gaze down the Paseo de la Reforma toward the distant city. The Paseo was a nostalgic al­lusion to the Champs-Elysees, we learn, which Maximilian re­created for his tempestuous, crowlike bride.

Come this way, please....

European memory is not to be the point of our excursion. Senor Fuentes, our tour director, is already beginning to descend the hill from Chapultepec Castle. What the American credit-card company calls our " orientation tour" of Mexico City had started late and so Senor Fuentes has been forced, regrettablv, "... This way, please..." to rush. Senor Fuentes is consumed with contrition for time wasted this morning. He intends to uphold his schedule, as a way of upholding Mexico, against our expectation.

We had gathered at the appointed time at the limousine en­trance to our hotel, beneath the banner welcoming contestants to the Senorita Mexico pageant. We—Japanese, Germans, Ameri­cans—were waiting promptly at nine. There was no bus. And as we waited, the Senorita Mexico contestants arrived. Drivers leaned into their cabs to pull out long-legged senoritas. The driv­ers then balanced the senoritas onto stiletto heels (the driveway was cobbled) before they passed the senoritas, en pointe, to the waiting arms of officials.

Mexican men, meanwhile—doormen, bellhops, window wash­ers, hotel guests—stopped dead in their tracks, wounded by the scent and spectacle of so many blond senoritas. The Mexican men assumed fierce expressions, nostrils flared, brows knit. Such expressions are masks—the men intend to convey their adoration of prey—as thoroughly ritualized as the smiles of beauty queens.