stylistics.doc

A brief introduction about spoken style on English news Stylistics is a study of style with a linguistic method. And English stylistcs can be divided into two parts : written style and spoken style . Now I will introduce you something about spoken style on English news just like English radio news. Because we listen to what they say , in general , radio news must be concise and easy to understand so that listeners can catch as much information as possible . Therefore , we should process the radio news , not just to read out the news in different newspapers . Now , I will introduce you the characteristics of spoken style on English news like English radio news(Guardian and BBC). First , from the aspect of vocabulary , the words it uses should be brief and easy to understand . It usually prefers the words that are commonly used and the words with few and short syllables instead of some strange and long words . For example , we use express rather than register , blast to explosion , falling down to collapse , got support to floated , dsiagreenment to objection , jobless to unemployed , a wide choice of to alternative , talk to negotiation or conference , tie to relation and so on . In the Guardian of 9.24 , we have this sentence“Both countries want Iran to pull back from developing nuclear weapons.”Here we use pull back rather than retreat. In the Guardian of 10.29,“this is the biggest Taliban blast in Pakistan for the past 2 years in terms of fatalities.”We use blast rather than explosion. In the BBC of 12.17 , we have this sentence “The talks are stalled.”We use talk rather than negotiation or conference . Second , from the aspect of sentence type , concise sentence type should be used and a simple sentence is often used . What they say is momentary . Too many concepts or words should not put into one sentence , so simple sentences are usually used , or it can change long sentences into short ones to make it suitable for peoples listening habits . Inverted sentences and participle phrases and some typical written structures should not be used so that it can achieve the goal that listeners can understand what the news is about as soon as it is broadcasted . In the Guardian of 10.08 ,we have this passage“Islanders in the South Pacific fled away from the coastline after 3 strong earthquakes struck the region again.There is a warning of another tsunami , but it turned out to be very small.There was panic , nevertheless , in countries like Papau New Guinea.But in the north Pacific , the powerful typhoon has struck across Japan . It has caused widespread damage,and flooding .And all flights to the outside world are suspended. The storm has now weakened slightly.”This passage is made up of some simple sentences , so it is easy to listen to , easy to understand . Third , the leads of the English radio news focus on the most important parts . Their leads usually do not include the 6 elementswho,what,when,where,why and how . It lays emphasis on the most important information so that listeners can make preparations for the following information . Thus , these leads are usually not long . In the BBC of 11.19, we have a lead like this“Afghanistan will see a new presidential term start on Thursday but not with a new president .” In the BBC of 11.26, a lead is“The government of the Gulf state of Dubai is to ask creditors to accept a 6-month suspension of debt repayments by Dubai world.”The two leads both focus on something important and they are short. And they usually use present perfect and simple present to indicate something that have already happened , which can add timeliness , freshness and immediacy to the news . As we can see in the BBC of 12.10,the lead“The government of the Philippines has been heavily criticized in recent weeks for -”. Fourth , in radio news , the figures we hear usually are not exact figures .Because exact figures are often difficult to catch , we tend to use integer with some adverbs showing estimation such as roughly , about , almost , nearly , just over , just below . In the Guardian of 9.16，“The Center for Social Justice is calling for a radical simplication of the system which he claims would help lift more than 200,000 children out of poverty .”In the Guardian of 9.24,we have the sentence“Terry Herbert found more than 1500 coins.” In the BBC of 12.10, “The government of the Philippines has been heavily criticized in recent weeks for being slow to respond to the massacre last month of nearly 60 people on the island of Mindanao.” In the BBC of 12.17,we have“one of its satellites has found the floor of the crater on the moon to be about 250 degrees below zero .”These are the examples to demonstrate that . Last but not least, from the aspect of pronunciation and intonation , there are various kinds of pronunciations . One , different reporters have different tunes, different speeds . For example, the Guardian of 9.09 and the Guardian of 9.16 is reported by Bill Overton ; and the Guardian of 9.24 is reported by Sue Mansfield . Comparing the two reporters , I think Bill Overton speaks faster . So , often , I can just catch its main points . Two , just in the news we have listened before , it has quotations said by the person himself and there are African English , Indian English , and Chinese English . Although most parts of the news can be caught , some of it cannot because they are not as standard as the English that native speakers say . And their English have different accents . It may be difficult to understand . For example , in the Guardian of 9.16 , we have a quotation by Jimmy Carter , who is an African-American . He has his own accent . “because of a belief among many white people not just in the south but around the country”, here he pronounces white very strange just like most of the African-Americans do . And the quotations are very colloquial because they are the very oral English . One example , in the BBC of 12.10 , we have some words said by Leila de Lima , “yes, its not enough, because , y