The analysis of Past tense expression in the texts of different functional styles

Plan 

Introduction.....................................................................................................................3

1 Past tense expression in different functional styles.

        1.1 The notion of the functional styles...…………………………………………7

        1.2 Verb’s categories and place of tense in its system.…………………………16

        1.3 Past tense expression………………………….…………………………….19

               1.3.1 The simple past tense……………….………………………………...20

               1.3.2 Past progressive tense……………………….………………………..21

               1.3.3 Perfect tenses in English language…………….……………………..22

        1.4 Active and Passive voices in English language system………….………….26

2 The usage of past tense in the texts of different functional styles……………….…31

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………....55

Bibliography………………………………………………………………………….57

Appendix……………………………………………………………………………...60 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Introduction

Topicality The appearance and existence of functional styles is connected with the specific conditions of communication in different spheres of human life. For this reason expediently to explore the use and functioning of  the past time not only in the system of language and in speaking in the whole, but also in the separate varieties of speaking, which are accepted to name styles. Interest to research of the past time in different functional styles is conditioned by aspiration to account for the past tense in different forms, using and meaning more detailed, that will be realized through the texts. The use of texts in different functional styles for the study of past tense and aspect offers the opportunity to discover form-meaning-use associations that are not always apparent in traditional rules.

     According to foreign linguists McCarthy and Carter, communication involves relational aspects and the desire to express oneself politely and indirectly, often manifests itself in tense forms that are part of the knowledge of correct grammatical construction. The range of tense helps individuals to create communication with relational, interpersonal meaning. The speaking strategy of tense creates a relationship between the speaker, the event and the listener that can either involve or detach the participants from the event and each other. Understanding and correctly using the past and present tense has the potential of significantly increasing not only effective communication of verbal and written messages, but also of correctly and proactively establishing relational aspects of events and situations that it is an important part of proactive grammar instruction¹.

       Russian linguist Plotnik discusses the effect of tense: every narrative has a base tense, one that moves the action of the communication forward. The use of the tense establishes the mood for the conversation or the story being told – past tense is traditionally the storyteller’s medium, in which events have taken place and people have acted out their destinies. There is a finite basis to expired time. Present tense, on the other hand, promotes a feeling or mood of immediacy and the potential for change or flexibility². The best way for exploring tense and aspect is to analyse texts in different functional styles.

      Functional Style is a system of interrelated language means, which serves a definite aim in communication.  As a matter of fact, there exist a number of classifications of functional styles, but the most common one was introduced by I. R. Galperin. It includes the belles-lettres style, the publicistic style, the newspaper style, the scientific prose style, and the style of official documents.

      The question of functional styles in English was lighted up by foreign linguists such as E. Kruisinga, H. Zandwoort, O. Doubenko, S. Balli, M. Pospelov, I. Arnold, C. Brouner, G. Veyhman, O. Espersen, B. Ilish, I. Ivanova, R. Fletter and others. 

   We have found few scholars, whose works were dedicated to the research of the past tense in different functional styles, that’s why we think that it is not completely investigated. Therefore, we chose exactly “the analysis of Past tense expression in the texts of different functional styles” as a theme of our investigation.  

Theme The analysis of Past tense expression in the texts of different functional styles. 

Problem   Each style is recognized as an independent whole. Each of them requires the choice of vocabulary and most of all of a special kind of grammatical forms and structures. Sometimes it’s difficult to identify ways of expression past time in different functional styles.

Aim The aim of our research is to reveal the importance and necessity of past tense and to analyse ways of expression past time in different functional styles.

Objectives

- to reveal the notion of functional styles; 
- to define the verb as part of speech; 
- to distinguish the types of the past time in the English language; 
- to analyse the past time in the texts of different functional styles.

Hypothesis We suppose that the analysis of different functional styles will show the widely usage of the past simple tenses almost in all functional styles, while complex analytical forms of the verb, such as past perfect and past perfect continuous tenses, are seldom used in it.

Object English functional styles

Subject Past tense expression in different functional styles

Methods of investigation General outlook and analysis of special systematic literature, observation and description of articles in different functional styles

Basis of investigation   Scientific works of I. Galperin, N.M Rayevska, O. Jesperson, I. Arnold, M. Toolan, literal works of L. O’Flaherty and A. Lincoln. Books from Resource Centre, Internet sources, TSPI.

Theoretical value   In our work we have tried to give the definition of the functional style, define the notion of the verb and its categories. Also we have tried to analyse types of past time in the texts of different functional styles. All this material can be used in further scientific research.

Practical value   Our work can be applied by the teachers of the theoretical grammar during their lectures. The students can use the work as the additional material for their future study of the course of theoretical grammar.

Structure Our course paper consists of introduction, two chapters, conclusion, bibliography and appendixes.                                                                                                                                     

   Introduction includes: topicality, theme, problem, aim, objectives, hypothesis, object, and subject, methods of investigation, basis of investigation, theoretical value, practical value and structure. The first chapter describes the notion of different functional styles, determines the characteristics of the verb and defines the types of past time in English language. The second chapter is the practical part of our work in which we analysed the texts in different functional styles using the past time. In conclusion we sum up results of our investigation and emphasize the importance of expression past time in different functional styles. In bibliography a list of literature is presented. In appendix we present the texts in different functional styles, which have been analysed. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

1 Past tense expression in different functional styles. 

1.1 The notion of the functional styles.

       Functional styles are the subsystems of language, each subsystem having its own peculiar features in what concern vocabulary means, syntactical constructions, and even phonetics. The appearance and existence of functional styles is connected with the specific conditions of communication in different spheres of human life. Functional styles differ not only by the possibility or impossibility of using some elements but also due to the frequency of their usage. For example, some terms can appear in the colloquial style but the possibility of its appearance is quite different from the possibility to meet it in an example of scientific style.

       The classification of functional styles is a very complicated problem, that’s why we will consider ideas of I.V.Arnold and I.R. Galperin, bearing in mind that Galperin treats functional styles as patterns of the written variety of language thus excluding colloquial functional style.  Both scholars agree that each functional style can be recognized by one or more leading features.  But Galperin pays more attention to the coordination of language means and stylistic devices whereas Arnold connects the specific features of each functional style with its peculiarities in the sphere of communication.

        According to I.R. Galperin, a functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication. Functional style should be regarded as the product of a certain concrete task set by the sender of the message.  Functional styles appear mainly in the literary standard of the language. These represent varieties of the abstract invariant and can deviate from the invariant, even breaking away with it. Most of these styles belong exclusively to writing.

       Each functional style is a relatively stable system at the given stage in the development of the literary language, but it changes, and sometimes considerably, from one period to another.  Therefore, functional style is a historical category.  Thus, for example in the 17^th century it was considered that not all words can be used in poetry, and that a separate poetic style exists. Later, in the 19^th century romanticism rejected the norms of poetic style and introduced new vocabulary to poetry. The development of each style is predetermined by the changes in the norms of standard English.  It is also greatly influenced by changing social conditions, the progress of science and the development of cultural life³.

       Every functional style of language is marked by a specific use of language means, thus establishing its own norms which, however, are subordinated to the norm-invariant and which do not violate the general notion of the literary norm. According to Warner, the writers of the given period in the development of the literary language contribute greatly to establishing the system of norms of their period.  It is worth noting that the investigations of language norms at a given period are to great extent maintained on works of men of letters. Selection, or deliberate choice of language, and the ways the chosen elements are treated are the main distinctive features of individual style⁴.

       Geniusas indicated that individual style is a unique combination of language units, expressive means and stylistic devices peculiar to a given writer, which makes that writer's works or even utterances easily recognizable. Naturally, the individual style of a writer will never be entirely independent of the literary norms and canons of the given period.  But the adaptations of these canons will always be peculiar and therefore distinguishable.  Individual style is based on a thorough knowledge of the contemporary language and allows certain justifiable deviations from the rigorous norms⁵.

The Belles-Lettres Style

       According to Michael Toolan, this is a generic term for three substyles: the language of poetry; emotive prose (the language of fiction); the language of the drama.  Each of these substyles has certain common features, and each of them enjoys some individuality.  The common features of the substyles are the following:

1. The aesthetico-cognitive function (a function which aims at the cognitive process, which secures the gradual unfolding of the idea to the reader and at the same time calls forth a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction which a reader experiences because he is able to penetrate into the author's idea and to form his own conclusions).
2. Definite linguistic features:
• Genuine, not trite, imagery, achieved by purely linguistic devices.
• The use of words in different meanings, greatly influenced by the lexical environment.
• A vocabulary which will reflect to a certain degree the author's personal evaluation of things or phenomena.
• A peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax.
• The introduction of the typical features of colloquial language to a full degree (drama), to a lesser degree (in prose), to a slight degree (poetry).

The belles-lettres style is individual in essence.  This is one of its most distinctive properties.

        The language of poetry is characterized by its orderly form, which is based mainly on the rhythmic and phonetic arrangement of the utterances.  The rhythmic aspect calls forth syntactic and semantic peculiarities.  There are certain restrictions which result in brevity of expression, epigram-like utterances and fresh, unexpected imagery.  Syntactically this brevity is shown in elliptical sentences, in detached constructions, in inversion, etc⁶.

       Emotive prose shares the same common features, but these features are correlated differently than in poetry.  As Widdowson said, the imagery is not so rich as in poetry; the percentage of words with contextual meaning is not so high.  Emotive prose features the combination of the literary variant of the language, both in words and in syntax, with the colloquial variant.  But the colloquial language in the belles-lettres style is not a simple reproduction of the natural speech, it has undergone changes introduced by the writer and has been made "literature-like".  In emotive prose there are always two forms of communication present - monologue (the writer's speech) and dialogue (the speech of the characters).  Emotive prose allows the use of elements from other styles as well.  But all these styles undergo a kind of transformation under the influence of emotive prose.  Passages written in other styles may be viewed only as interpolations and not as constituents of the style⁷.

        Language of the drama is entirely dialogue. The author's speech is almost entirely excluded except for the playwright's remarks and stage directions.  But the language of the characters is not the exact reproduction of the norms of colloquial language.  Any variety of the belles-lettres style will use the norms of the literary language of the given period.  The language of plays is always stylized, it strives to retain the modus of literary English.

Publicistic Style

        The publicistic style of language became a separate style in the middle of the 18^th century.  From the point of view of Skrebnev, unlike other styles, it has two spoken varieties, namely the oratorical substyle and the radio and TV commentary.  The other two substyles are the essay (moral, philosophical, literary) and journalistic articles (political, social, and economic).  The general aim of publicistic style is to influence the public opinion, to convince the reader or the listener that the interpretation given by the writer or the speaker is the only correct one and to cause him to accept the expressed point of view⁸.

        According to Afanaseva and Senushkina, publicistic style is characterized by coherent and logical syntactical structure, with an expanded system of connectives and careful paragraphing.  Its emotional appeal is achieved by the use of words with the emotive meaning but the stylistic devices are not fresh or genuine.  The individual element is not very evident.  Publicistic style is also characterized by the brevity of expression, sometimes it becomes a leading feature.

        The oratorical style is the oral subdivision of the publicistic style.  Direct contact with the listeners permits a combination of the syntactical, lexical and phonetic peculiarities of both the written and spoken varieties of language.  The typical features of this style are: direct address to the audience; sometimes contractions; the use of colloquial words.  The stylistics devices employed in the oratorical style are determined by the conditions of communication.  As the audience relies only on memory, the speaker often resorts to repetitions to enable his listeners to follow him and to retain the main points of his speech.  The speaker often uses simile and metaphor, but these are generally traditional, because genuine stylistics devices may be difficult to grasp.

        The essay is rather a series of personal and witty comments than a finished argument or a conclusive examination of the matter.  The most characteristic language features of the essay are: brevity of expression; the use of the first person singular; a rather expanded use of connectives; the abundant use of emotive words; the use of similes and sustained metaphors. 

       The language of journalistic articles is defined by the character of newspaper, magazine, as well as subjects chosen.  Literary reviews stand closer to essays⁹.

Newspaper Style

       English newspaper writing dates from the 17^th century.  Matsyokha pointed out that, the first of any regular English newspapers was the Weekly News which first appeared in May, 1622. The early English newspaper was principally a vehicle of information.  Commentary found its way into the newspapers later.  But as far back as the middle of the 18^th century the British newspaper was very much like what it is today, carrying foreign and domestic news, advertisements, announcements and articles containing comments¹⁰.

       Not all the printed materials found in newspapers come under newspaper style. Only materials which perform the function of informing the reader and providing him with an evaluation of information published can be regarded as belonging to newspaper style. According to Linda Jorgenson, English newspaper style can be defined as a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means which is perceived by the community as a separate linguistic unity that serves the purpose of informing and instructing the reader¹¹. Information in the English newspaper is conveyed through the medium of:

1. brief news items;
2. press reports;
3. articles purely informational in character;
4. advertisements and announcements.

     The newspaper also seeks to influence public opinion on political and other matters.  Elements of appraisal may be observed in the very selection and way of presentation of news, in the use of specific vocabulary, casting some doubt on the facts recorded, and syntactical constructions indicating a lack of assurance of the reporter or his desire to avoid responsibility.  Sutcliffe Andrea indicated that, the principle vehicle of interpretation and appraisal is the newspaper article and the editorial in particular.  Editorial is a leading article which is characterized by a subjective handling of facts.  This purpose defines the choice of language elements which are mostly emotionally colored¹².

       Newspaper style has its specific vocabulary features and is characterized by an extensive use of:

1. special political and economic terms (president, election);
2. non-term political vocabulary (nation, crisis, agreement, member);
3. newspaper cliches (pressing problem, danger of war, pillars of society);
4. abbreviations (NATO, EEC);
5. neologisms