Distinctive linguistic features of the Newspaper Style
Types of lexical meanings
The content plane of words includes denotative and connotative meanings.
1) Denotative or referential meaning, the basic type of lexical meaning, is the word‘s reference to the object.
This reference may be individual
e.g. The dog is trained
or general
e.g. It‘s not a dog.
That is why denotative meaning is subdivided into demonstrative and significative:the type of denotative meaning varies in different groups of words, the meaning of situational words is relative – it depends on the situation and context,
e.g. here, son, my, this, now
Pronominal words do not name the referent, they only point to it,
e.g. he, she, they
Their meaning in isolation is very general,
e.g. he – any male
But in speech their reference is always individual,
e.g. he – this particular male
The referent of proper names is always an individual object or person. They refer to each member of a particular class,
e.g. London, Paris (cities), John, Bob (men)
Specific and generic terms differ in the size of the referent group,
e.g. rose – flower; flower – plant
General terms have a wider meaning and can substitute for any specific term,
e.g. dog – English bulldog, French poodle, cocker spaniel.
The referent of abstract words can be perceived by the mind and not by the senses: miracle, polite, to manage.
2) Connotative meaning includes various additional meanings: emotional, evaluative, intensifying and expressive, e.g. hillock, to devour. As a rule, connotation co-exists with denotation. Sometimes it comes to the foreground and weakens the word‘s denotative meaning.
Words also may have a certain stylistic value. It means that they refer to this or that situation or functional style: science, everyday life, business: get – obtain –procure; child – kid – infant.
Distinctive linguistic features of the Newspaper Style
The newspaper is the most readable source of information throughout the world. The facts in the newspaper are presented objectively and fairly. The language is clear and acceptable. One of the main functions which publicistic style has to contain is that the information in the newspaper should be relevant.
NS includes informative materials: news in brief, headlines, ads, additional articles. But not everything published in the paper can be included in N.S. we mean publicist essays, feature articles, scient. Reviews are not N.S. to attract the readers attention special means are used by british & am. Papers ex: specific headlines, space ordering. We find here a large proportion of dates, personal names of countries, institutions, individuals. To achieve an effect of objectivity in rendering some fact or event most of info is published anonymously, without the name of newsman who supplied it, with little or no subjective modality. But the position of the paper becomes clear from the choice not only of subj. matter but also of words denoting international or domestic issues. Substyles. To understand the language peculiarities of English newspaper style it will be sufficient to analyze the following basic newspaper features:1) brief news items;2) advertisements and announcements;3) headlines; Brief items: its function is to inform the reader. It states only facts without giving comments. The vocabulary used is neutral and common literary. Specific features are: a) special political and economic terms; b) non-term political vocabulary; c) newspaper clichés; d) abbreviations; e) neologisms.
Publicist style.(oratory, speeches, essays, articles) the style is a perfect ex. Of historical changeability of stylistic differentiation of discourses. In Greece it was practiced in oral form which was named P. in accordance with the name of its corresponding genre. PS is famous for its explicit pragmatic function of persuasion directed at influencing the reader & shaping his views in accordance with the argumentation of the author. We find in PS a blend of the rigorous logical reasoning, reflecting the objective state of things & a strong subjectivity reflecting the authors personal feelings and emotions towards the discussed subject. Substyles: The oratory essays, journalistic articles, radio and TV commentary. Oratory.It makes use of a great hummber of expressive means to arouse and keep the public's interest: repetition, gradation, antithesis, rhetorical questions, emotive words, elements of colloquial speech. Radio and TV commentaryis less impersonal and more expressive and emotional.The essayis very subjective and the most colloquial of the all substyles of the publicistic style. It makes use of expressive means and tropes. The journalistic articlesare impersonal.