Some Practical Assignments for Stylistic Analysis
I.Stylistic Connotations in Vocabulary
Point out stylistic differences within the groups of synonyms:
face — visage — mug — deadpan nose — snout — beak — nasal cavity
/ think — / gather — I presume — I take it — / guess — methinks
Boy — youth — lad — young male person — youngster — teenager
lass — girl — maiden — wench — young female person
nonsense — absurdity — rot — trash
legs — pins — lower extremities
Silence, please.'— Stop talking.'— Shut your trap!
Wait! - Hold on! - Stand by!
You are — thou art
breathe in — inhale — gasp
friend — comrade — pal — buddy — acquaintance
Hurry up! — Move on! — Hasten your step!
II. Colloquial Vocabulary
Paraphrase so as to show the different uses of the verb 'to do':
1) Have you done your homework? 2) I have to do a sum. 3) Will you please do the room? 4) Who does the cooking in your family? 5) Go and do your teeth! 6) I like the way you do your hair. 7) They do fish very well in this restaurant. 8) What subjects do you do at your University? 9) I did some music in my childhood. 10) This car can do 80 miles an hour. 11) What do you do for a living? 12) You did right to tell me about it. 13) That won't do. 14) Will this sum do for you? 15) It did me good. 16) He is doing well at school. 17) How are you doing? 18) He was up and doing at five in the morning. 19) What is doing here? 20) If you say it again, I'll do you! 21) Can we do Oxford in three days? 22) He does Ronald Reagan very well.
III. Formal Styles
1. Analyse the peculiarities of the style of scientific texts; paraphrase the marked expressions by more neutral onesa) The degree of liberty possessed by the citizens of a state has
become the key standard by which liberal democracies are
compared with other forms of government.. However, there is much less consensus on the meaning of liberty.
In political thoughtliberty is largely synonymouswith freedom.But it is as well torecall that liberty or freedom have not always been valuedin Western or other forms of political thought. Indeedreligious and political authoritarians,and many conservatives and traditionalists, equate liberty with licence,the absence of control, moral chaos. Moreover,many political philosophers, fromPlato to Hobbes, have arguedthat human beingsshould sacrificetheir freedom to ensureorder or stability, in the form of strong and/or enlightenedgovernment.
Many political theoristsmake a distinctionbetween positiveliberty ('freedom to do', or self-mastery') and negativeliberty ('freedom from' or 'not being obstructed') although others arguethat the distinction is not logically sustainable,that it just confuses matters. The conceptof liberty, whether positive or negative, or both, evidently means 'not being controlled' or 'not being obstructed'.
The most notable exponentsof positive liberty were Rousseau and Kant. They argued that genuine freedom is possessed only by individuals who are autonomous agents— that is, by those whose power of reasonis free from manipulation by others,and are capable of exercising self-determination in their moral and political choices.We are free only when we act rightly, and vice versa: we are free when our 'real self is in charge. This thesiscan, of course, become a means for suggestingthat people are not free even when they claim to be.
The idea of negative liberty, by contrast, is derived from the doctrineof natural rights which claims that individuals have certain inalienablerights which should not be transgressedby any individual, group or government. Such rights are 'liberties', that is, rights to be free from control, and are most vigorouslysupported in the doctrine of libertarianism. Negative liberty exists where citizens are free to behave in any way which does not harm another citizen or contravenespecific laws. Negative liberty is often tested in societies where governments or pressure groups attempt to define what constitutesharm to others: thus the private sexual activities of consenting adultswould appear to be harmful to neither the practitioners northe general public,yet many states prohibit bylaw certain types of private sexual expression
b) Such innovationswill involve changes to the dietof the whole populations,including a sharp reductionin consumption ofintensively- reared cattle. An international agreement was reachedat the J992 Earth Summit,although the policies agreedwill onlyreduce the rate of increase of greenhouse gases. This, coupled witha fear that American voters regardtheir right to drive large cars as on a par withthe constitutional right to bear arms,made the administration of President Bush very obstructive in internationalnegotiations. Given the economic and political power of the USA, and their consumption of energy, this stance has reduced othercountries' readiness to respond. Finally, it is worth notingthat any suggestion that global warming threatens life on Earth is highly exaggerated. The changes in atmospheric composition are significant in relation tochanges in the last few million years, but are neglectable comparedwith the changes brought about by life.
2. Analyse the peculiarities of publicist style in the following extract from the First Inaugural speech by Thomas Jefferson; paraphrase the bookish expressions by more neutral ones:
Friends and Fellow Citizens ...
During the contest of opinion through which we have passed, the animation of discussion and of exertions hassometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal lawsmust protect, and to violate which would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long
bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others; that this should divide opinions as to measures of safety. But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans — we are all federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. 1 know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government cannot be strong; that this government is not strong enough. But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear that this government, the world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest government on earth. I believe it is the only one where every man, at the call of the laws, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
IV. Figures of Speech