Academic Style Suggested Spheres of Communication

 

 

Written variety of the language

Spoken variety of the language

Monologue

Dialo­gue

Monologue

Dialogue

Polylogue

Public

Pub­lic

Public

Non-public

Public

Non-public

Publ

ic

Non

-public

Prep.

Spont.

Prep.

Prep.

Spont.

Prep.

Spont.

Prep.

Spont.

Prep.

Spont.

Prep.

Spont.

Prep.

Spont.

the rea­ding of lectu­res or scien­tific re­ports in pub­lic, over the radio or te-levi-sion

the rea­ding of exam­ples in ans­wers at confe­rences or in inter­views

scien­tific talks and ex­plana­tions at se­minars and classes

ex­plana­tions at se­minars, ans­wers in the inter­views, at con­feren­ces

ans­wers at exa­mina­tions

ans­wers at exa­mina­tions

inter­views in TV stu­dios

inter­views, talks at sci­enti­fic confe­ren­ces, con­gres­ses

talks at exa­mina­tions, at sci­enti­fic confe­rences

inter­views, talks at exa­mina­tions, at con­feren­ces, meet­ings

discus­sions over the radio and TV discus­sions at con­feren­ces, at semi­nars

discus­sions at con­feren­ces, con­gres­ses, semi­nars, in TV studios

discus­sions at con­gresses, confe­rences

217

It → started of ˌcourse, | not as _vone , I but as ˎtwo cities. || The ˌRomans built a ^↘ bridge a'cross the >Thames | at a ^↘ point where the 'estuary was 'narrow e'nough ⌇ to ^↘rnake it a 'practical 'propoˎsition | and the en^→campment asˎsociated with this _obridge | ^↘grew 'up on the 'north 'bank of the ˎriver.

The ^→ principal ˎfort of this enˌcampment | was ^↘on the 'site now 'occupied by the ˎTower.

Further to the vwest , | at a ↘point where the 'river was vfordabIe, | an ˋ abbey | — the → Ab­bey of ˎWestminster — was ofounded | and the ↘two 'towns 'grew 'up oside by ˎside | — ↗one centred on the vRoman camp, | and the → other on the ˎAbbey. →Now in my ˎnext ˌlecture | I ↘hope to 'demonstrate in vde tail I that ↘this 'state of afvfairs | — this double vfocus ⌇ as we might ˌcall it | was of ↘crucial im'portance for the 'subsequent 'growth of 'London as a ˎcity. || This is a public lecture about the growth and development of London addressed or rather read aloud to a fairly-sized audience. The lecturer is evidently a specialist on the subject, therefore he sounds very self-assured and comfortable with the subject, rather knowledgeable about the topic. The purpose of the lecturer is to inform rather than entertain, his aim is to deliver a message across to the audience, to win the attention and interest on the part of the listener, to establish a contact in a specific and fully premeditated way. The result of the audience control may be seen in the tenden­cy to adopt "rhetorical" forms of speech in which the listeners are addressed or questioned directly so as to persuade them that they are in contact with the speaker and to get them more readi­ly round to his way of thinking: I'd like you to consider what happened as the two towns began to expand. What do you think the main consequences of the ex­pansion were? To guide understanding and control the audience the speaker outlines the points he is going to lecture about, uses all sorts of phrases to clarify his position and underline each new item in the text: 218 You will all have seen from the handouts which you have in front of you that I propose to divide this course of lectures on the urban and architectural development of London into three main sections and perhaps I could just point out, right at the begin­ning that there will be a good deal of overlap between them. Indeed I would go as far as to say... Now by way of introduction I'd like to try and give some in­dication of... Now m my next lecture I hope to demonstrate in detail... The relationship between the lecturer and the public is on the whole rather formal, the degree of formality is not varied, though he sounds enthusiastic about what he says. The text is delimited in the way specific for any monological presentation. The analysis of the prosodic characteristics of the text and re­ports on the recent research carried out in this field in the present instance allow us to conclude that this type of the scien­tific intonational style (lectures, reports, explanations, inter­views, etc.) is generally characterized by the parameters de­scribed in Table 9. We would like to specify here that a certain amount of varia­tion is a must when we perform within the register of scientific discourse, but a lecturer should keep himself (or herself) from go­ing to extremes, otherwise he will use patterns of a different style (publicistic or declamatory, for instance) and we will wit­ness the fusion of many styles. Now our next procedure will be the phonological opposition of the reading of an academic lecture and a descriptive text pro­sodic characteristics. As a result of the comparison we would like to describe here specific characteristics of the academic style which display fea­tures not shared by others. 1. A scientific (academic) text read aloud in public in front of a fairly-sized audience conveys both intellectual and volitional information, so the attitudinal and emphatic functions of intona­tion are of primary importance here. 2. A lecturer always sounds self-assured, authoritative, in­structive and edifying, because any scientific style talk should be well prepared and is often even rehearsed by a trained lecturer. 219 Table 9

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