Three factors in the development of English style

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Folklore is an oral version of literary style preserved since ancient days. Originally oral it now exists in a written version as a recording

Every society, from the earliest civilizations, developed its own unwritten literature. This ancient literature, carried from one generation to the next by word of mouth, consisted of poems, prose narratives, myths and legends, dramas, proverbs, riddles, and other forms, all of which are called folklore.

There are several types of folk literature, told in poetry or prose. Legends tried to account for the origin of the world and the human race, explain the nature of God or the gods, and predict how the world would come to an end. Ffictional tales or fairy tales (magic stories, romance tales, animal tales and so on) represent an attempt to escape from reality. Folklore often relies on famous folktale characters

For example English Folklore has such characters as Barghest, the Dog of Darkness, Giants, Robin Hood, Witches and the like.

Being an important promotion of English style development, folklore remained and developed, for instance, piracy produced a series of tales about characters who were widely known and talked about, not for their good deeds but for their crimes. Along the East coast of America a long time ago there were many wicked pirates and smugglers. One of the wickedest of these characters was the pirate who was known as Blackbeard. His cruel deeds and rich booty were the subjects of many stories told in the Carolinas. Another sea rover buried his treasures along the banks of the Hudson River. This was Captain Kidd, who is often spoken of as a pirate though the facts do not seem to prove it.

One of modern appearances of folklore in literature is through the allusion, In addition to the allusion, folklore have found their way into literature and other arts through retelling, adaptation, and imitation.

Folklore genres developed in middle age. The beginnings of English literature appeared in the 7th or 8th century AD. After the Romans withdrew their troops from Britain in 410, there followed a long period of social unrest, war, and turbulence. This was reflected in a genre of saga. The word saga is derived from the Old Norse verb meaning “to say” or “to tell.” A traditional form of household entertainment in medieval Iceland was reading stories aloud. In this saga entertainment all kinds of written narratives were used. The major sagas that survived are those that tell of the lives of kings, legends of heroes, and stories of ordinary Icelanders.

The legendary sagas are about the pre-Christian past of Iceland. The Poetic Edda, compiled in the second half of the 13th century, is a collection of poems based on the Norse gods, and it contains a retelling of the Nibelung legend. Some of these sagas were also heroic tales of the Viking exploits in Europe.

Beowulf, the most notable example of the earliest English poetry, is an odd blend of Christianity and paganism. The story of Beowulf takes place in lands other than England, but the customs and manners described were those of the Anglo-Saxon people. This epic poem describes their heroic past. It tells of Beowulf's three fierce fights—with the monster Grendel, the equally ferocious mother of Grendel, and the fiery dragon. By conquering them, Beowulf saves his people from destruction. (In Middle English English language went untaught and was spoken only by “unlettered” people.

The language of the nobility and of the lawcourts was Norman-French; the language of the scholars was Latin. The cult of chivalry came into being, fed by the great Crusades. The tales of King Arthur and his Round Table were a result of this movement. century.

The Middle English period also marked the beginning of a native English drama, which was at first closely associated with the church. The early cycles of miracle and mystery plays possibly began as celebrations of traditional religious feasts and fasts. In any case, by the end of the 14th century the observances of certain festivals—for example, Corpus Christi—regularly involved pageants. These plays were staged in larger towns, such as York, Wakefield, and Chester, on wagons that were moved from place to place in a procession, perhaps chronological, of events.

In addition to mystery and miracle plays, morality plays were also popular at the end of the Middle English period. They usually personified such abstractions as Health, Death, or the Seven Deadly Sins and offered practical instruction in morality.

The first, and some of the best, satires in the Middle Ages were the animal tales whose hero is the wily Reynard the Fox. Although cowardly and cunning, Reynard manages to triumph over the brute strength of his adversary, usually a dull-witted wolf. The many Reynard tales satirize most aspects of medieval society.

Another outstanding literary achievement of the times was the creation of the great English and Scottish ballads. These were probably sung by people at social gatherings. The ballads preserved the local events and beliefs and characters in an easily remembered form. It was not until several hundred years later that people began to write down these ballads. They are immensely vivid stories that modern readers find especially attractive.

In examining the development of English style it is necessary to mention the role of religious literature, first of all – the Bible. The Bible is a collection of many books by an unknown number of authors. It has two components—the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was written by many authors over a period of many centuries. The New Testament was written by far fewer men over a much shorter span of years—perhaps between AD 50 and 150. The writers whose work makes up the New Testament composed four different kinds of books: the Gospels, a history of the early church entitled Acts of the Apostles, epistles (letters), and a prophetic-dramatic work entitled Revelation. All of the books were originally written in Greek. The Bible is not the whole literature of Christianity. Many other books with religious themes circulated among Christians and produced an effect upon English style.

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Read a fairy-tale. Find out means, that make it close to its origin – the song (melody, rhythm, phonetic devices etc.) Write down examples. Find out means, that make it close to modern prose, the story. (composition, characters, idea) Substantiate your point of view with the examples.
Summaries the features of the fairy-tale in 5-7 sentences.

THE TULIP PIXIES

DOWN in the West, somewhere by the borders of the Tavy, there once lived a kind old woman. Her cottage was near a pixie field, where green rings stood in the grass. Now some folk say those fairy rings are caused by the elves catching colts. They catch them and ride them round and round by night, such folk do say. But this old woman had other ideas about her fairy rings.

Around her tidy cottage was a pretty garden, full of sweet-smelling flowers. Lavender and hollyhocks grew there, lilies and rosemary and the sweetbriar tree, blue-buttons and gillyflowers, forget-me-nots and rue. But best of all was a big bed of tulips which she tended with special care. Everyone stopped to peep over her gate when the time of tulips came.

How the pixies loved this spot. They liked the kind old woman, and they liked her garden too.

One starry night, as she lay asleep, with the lilac-flowers showing white under her window, she was awakened by a strange sound. At first she thought an owl in the elm-tree had wakened her, but gradually she realised that it was a sweeter sound than the crack of the churn owl.

'It du sound for all the world like a lullaby, ' she thought, and lay listening for a while.

Then she got out of bed and peered from the window. There below her in the moonlight all the tulips in their shining colours were waving their heads in tune with the sweet music. It seemed as though they themselves were singing too.

Now when this happened the next night, ami the next, the old woman began to understand what had happened. The pixie folk had brought their babies to the tulip bed, and laid each one within a separate flower.

'They be lullin' their babies to sleep. I du declare, " said the old woman, delighted. “Ssh! dear soul, I see them now. The pixie babies are fast asleep, and there go the pixie folk themselves to dance in the meadow grass.'

She was right. It was not the catching of colts that made those rings on the green grass, but the dancing of the little folk to their own pipers' tune. But as the first dawn light broke pale in the east back came the pixies to claim their babies from the tulip cradles, where they lay asleep. And, all invisible now, they vanished clean away.

'Bless my soul! If the li'l dears b'aint a-kissin' their babies 'fore they pick'n up, ' said the old woman. 'What lovin' folks they be! '

She noticed that the tulips did not fade so quickly as the other flowers in the garden. Indeed, it seemed as though they would never wither. And one day, as she bent to have a look at them, the old woman noticed that the pixies had made them even lovelier by breathing over them. Now they smelled as fragrant as lilies or roses do.

'No-one shall pick a single tulip, not even myself.' she said. 'They shall be kept altogether for the piskies' own delight.'

And so it was as year succeeded year.

But no-one lives forever, and at last the old woman died, It was a sad day for the garden, and the tulips hung their heads. Well they might, for presently the garden passed into other hands. The new tenant cared nothing for pixie lore. He only cared for the garden at all because of its trees of fruit. Gooseberries and raspberries and greengage-plums made very tasty pies!

'Yu shouldn't be gatherin' they gooseberries out of season, ' a neighbour warned him; " tis proper unlucky. The piskies can't abide bein' robbed of their own.'

'Piskies? Pah! ' said the man.

'Surely ye b'aint a-digging up they tulips? ' said another. " Twas the old woman's special delight thaccy bed o' flowers. What be yu puttin' in? '

'I be settin' a bed of parsley, if you must know, ' said the man.

'Parsley? Dear soul alive! Doan'ee know 'tis mortal unlucky to set a parsley bed. Last man as ever I heard of was bedridden ever after.'

'Stuff and nonsense! ' snapped the new tenant disbelievingly.

So the enchanted flowers were rooted up, and parsley set instead. But so offended were the pixies that they caused it to wither away. Not only would nothing grow in the gay tulip bed, but the whole garden was soon a waste.

Yet though the lullabies were heard no more from the tulip bed, singing still came from the little folk who dwelt in the neighbourhood. But this time the singing came from the old woman's grave. Sad and sorrowful was the song the pixies sang, and every night before the moon was full they sang it.

No-one looked after the old woman's grave, yet never a weed was seen. As she had tended their tulip bed, so now they tended her grave. And though no-one was ever seen to plant a flower, somehow her favourites sprang up in the night-rosemary and gillyflowers, lavender and forget-me-nots, sweet scabious and rue.

I cannot tell how the truth may be.

I say the tale as 'twas said to me.

& Read information on the topic.

According to a legend of the Middle Ages there once lived in a distant pagan land a dreadful monster called a dragon. The flapping of its great batlike wings could be heard for miles around. With a single blow of its terrible claws it could fell an ox. From its nostrils came clouds of smoke and flame that brought death to those who breathed it. Every year a young girl was offered to it to prevent it from rushing upon the city and destroying all the inhabitants.

One year the lot fell to Princess Sabra, daughter of the king. She was saved by the valiant St. George, youngest and bravest of the seven champions of Christendom. With his magic sword Ascalon, he wounded the monster so badly that the princess was able to put her sash about its head and lead it to the marketplace of the town. There St. George slew it with one blow. Won over to the Christian faith by this deed of its champion, the people were baptized.

This is but one of the many dragon stories told in the lore of different countries. Before the time of Columbus and the age of discovery sailors refused to venture into unknown seas for fear of encountering dragons and other monsters of the deep. Old maps show the uncharted seas filled with strange creatures having wings, horns, and claws of such enormous size that they could crush a ship.

The dragons of Chinese and Japanese myth and art were reptiles with batlike wings and claws and were supposed to spread disease and death among the people. For ages the dragon was the emblem of the former imperial house of China.

These superstitions may have been based on the fact that mammoth reptiles roamed the prehistoric world. Dinosaurs lived in the ages before man appeared on Earth. However, there may have been some reptiles of great size at the time of the primitive cavemen of Europe. Such beasts would easily give rise to legends of monsters such as the dragons.

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Read the extract from the Saga of Beowolf. Note the achievements of medieval prose in comparison with folklore texts. Substantiate your point of view with the examples.
Summaries the features of the saga in 5-7 sentences.

{{{…He was amazed at what he saw— a precious hoard, cups and weapons. There were many such ancient treasures in that earth house, for in the old days a man had hidden the riches of a noble, dying tribe there. He was the last; death had taken the rest. That lone survivor, knowing death was near, mourning his lost friends, kept those treasures all alone.}}} The cave stood near the sea, protected by secret spells. He bore the treasures inside, a huge and worthy hoard of worked gold. He said, " Hold you now, Earth, what warriors could not, from you first it was taken. War-Death has seized my people; none of them can bear a sword, hold an ornamented cup. They have gone elsewhere. Now shall the hard helmet and its golden ornaments fall. Their owners sleep in death, those who once wore the war-mask. So it is with the coat of mail, which stood amid crashing shields, held off the bite of iron: it lies, falling to pieces, like the warrior who owned it. Never again will that armor travel far on a war chief by the side of heroes. There is no joy in the song, no pleasure in the harp. No hawk sweeps over the hall. No horse gallops in the courtyard. Death has sent off many men."

Thus, sad in mind, he moaned his sorrow; the lonely survivor moved day and night in sadness until the flood of death surged into his heart. The Dragon Attacks An old night-ravager, that one which, burning, seeks a burial mound, the smooth dragon of malice who flies by night encompassed in fire, found the hoard standing open. Earth dwellers fear him much. He must seek a hoard in the earth, where, old in winters, lie will guard heathen gold, though he gains nothing from it. So that foe of the people, exceedingly powerful, guarded the cave three hundred winters until a man angered his heart, took a cup to his master asking for peace. Peace was granted: the lord examined the cup, the ancient work of men. So was the hoard robbed, ransacked of a treasure. The dragon awoke, and strife came: it sniffed along the stones, found an intruder's footprints. The thief had stepped with insidious craft near tlie dragon's head. (Thus may an undoomed man survive danger if the Almighty holds him in favor.) The hoard-keeper sought eagerly along the ground, looked for the man who had robbed him

while he slept. Hot and fierce he moved about the cave. He went completely around the wasted place but no man was there. Eager for battle, he turned and turned again searching the cave, but the golden cup was gone. Anxiously he awaited the fall of night; enraged, the cave-keeper would with fire avenge the loss of his cup. When the day was gone, as the dragon wanted, he no longer waited, but went in flame, prepared with fire. The beginning was fearful to people in the land, as was the ending: death for their king. The fiend spouted fire, burned bright houses— the glow of fire stood out, a horror to the people. That terrible sky-flier wished to leave nothing alive. Near and far was seen the dragon's violence, how that destroyer hated and humbled the Geat people. The people of the land were eniveloped in fire. At dawn he darted back into his cave. He trusted in his war and in his cavern.

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Read the extract from the Bible. Note the means of expressiveness in it (similes, metaphors, epithets, etc.) Write down examples.
Find examples of creating super linear meaning (ex: the extract describes the wedding, but you can also imagine the palaces of Jerusalem, the vineyard etc.).

J Offer your variant of translating the marked extract {{{ … }}} Pay attention to preserving peculiarities of saga style.

Solomon’s Song of Songs.

Beloved

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more delightful than wine.

Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfurries; your name is like perfume poured out.

No wonder the maidens love you! Take me away with you—let us hurry!

Let the king bring me into his chambers.

Friends

We rejoice and delight in youwe will praise your love more than wine.

Beloved

How right they are to adore you! Dark am I, yet lovely,

O daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon.

Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun.

My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards;

my own vineyard I have neglected.

Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday.

Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends?

Friends

If you do not know, most beautiful of women,

follow the tracks of the sheep and graze your young goats by the tents of the shepherds.

Lover

I liken you, my darling, to a mare harnessed to one of the chariots of Pharaoh.

Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels.

I will make you earrings of gold, studded with silver.

Beloved

While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.

My lover is to me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts.

My lover is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi.

Lover

How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes are doves.

Beloved

16How handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant.

Beloved

The beams of our house are cedars; our rafters are firs.

Beloved

I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.

Lover

Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens.

Beloved

Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my lover among the young

men.

I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love.

Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples for I am faint with love.

His left arm is under my head, and his right arm embraces me.

Daughters of Jerusalern I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field:

Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.

Listen! My lover!

Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills.

My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag.

Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.

My lover spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me.

See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.

Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.

The fig tree forms its early fruit; the lssoming vines spread their fragrance.

Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.”

Lover

My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside,

show me your face, let me hear your voice;

for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards our vineyards that are in bloom.

Beloved

My lover is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies.

Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my lover,

and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills.’

¿ Collect data on other stylistic aspects

Give a historical survey on non-literary styles development

² Unit 3 Vocabulary: stylistic aspect

" Make practical stylistic tasks

AMONG the most popular radio shows today are call-ins, which provide millions of people the chance to speak out, share their hopes and vent their anger and frustrations. The following words may help you sound off more clearly and forcefully if you decide to call in yourself. Mark the answers you think are correct. Then turn the page to check your score.

1. sumptuous adj.—A: silky. B: lavish. C: light and airy. D: austere.

2, cascade n—A: cliff. B: mountain ridge.. C: waterfall. D: butte.

3. insatiable adj.—A: impossible to satisfy. B: having strong feelings. C: requiring continual effort. D: immovable.

4. fetish n—A: sudden notion. B: erratic behavior. C: feeling of obligation. D object of obsessive devotion.

5. penchant n.—A: plan. B: liking for something. C: decorative banner. D: dreamy thoughtfulness.

6. explicit adj.—A: inflexible. B: knowledgeable. C: clear. D: intricate.

7. arcana n—A: remembrances. B: main pointsiQ mysteries. D: difficulties.

8. frippery n.—A: wit. B: solemnity. C: trickery. D: showiness.

9. heinous adj.—A: wicked. B: beyond understanc1ing.C: ugly. D: treasonable.

10. nemesis n.—.—A: accident. B: trusted adviser. C: opponent. D: idol.

11. scurrilous adj.—A: abusive. B: scrubbed and clean. C: lacking swiftness. D: shocking.

12. mendacious adj.—A: tattered. B: outrageous.(: not truthful. D: poor.

13. vindication n.—A: slander. B: justification. C: attack. D: self-righteous pose.

14. commemorate v.—A: to flatter. B: enjoy. C: memorize. D: honor.

15. meld v—A: to soothe. B: merge. C: purchase. D: glisten.

16. mordant adj.—A: deadly. B: alarming. C: somber. D: sharply sarcastic.

17. proselytize v—A: to confront. B: establish. C: be made known. D: try to convert.

18. duplicity n.—A: repetition. B: probity. C: deceit. D: imitation.

19. hegemony n.—A: unlawfulness. B: dominance. C: mass migration. D: democracy.

20. rant v.—P: to speak wildly. B: praise inordinately. C: formalize. D: treat with scorn.

Vocabulary Ratings
10—14 correct Good
15—17 correct Excellent
18—20 correct Exceptional

Answers to “It Pays to Enrich Your Word Power”

1. sumptuous—B: Lavish; costly and luxurious; magnificent; as, an impressively sumptuous celebration. Latin sumptus (expense). 2. cascade—C: Waterfall descending over a steep and rocky surface. Also, anything that resembles a waterfall; as, a cascade of flowers covering the railing. hal- ian cascata. 3. insatiable—A: Impossible to satisfy; never getting enough; greedy; as, -4 the leaders insatiable drive for power. Latin insatiabilis. 4. fetish—D: An object or activity receiving obsessive or irrational devotion; as, to make a fetish of sports. Latin facticiuc (artificial). 5. penchant—B: Strong liking or inclination for something; as, a penchant for politics. Old French pencher (to incline). 6. explicit—C: Clear and precise, leaving no doubt as to meaning; as, The general gave an explicit explanation. Latin ex- (out) and plicare (to fold). 7. arcana—C: Mysteries; information known only to those involved; as, an attempt to expose a secret society’s arcana. Latin arcere (to shut in). 8. frippery—D: Pretentious showiness in dress or manners; as, disdain for frippeiy of any kind. Old French freperie (old clothes). 9. heinous-A: Outrageously wicked; abominable; hateful; as, the heinous crimes of the dictator’s soldiers. Old French haine (hatred). 10. nemesis-C: Opponent or problem one cannot overcome; as, The press became the Congressman’s nemesi. The Greek goddess of vengeance was named Nemesis. 11. scurrilous—A: Abusive and insulting; coarse; vulgar; as, The talk-show host grew tired of the scurrilous attacks on him. Latin scwrilis (jeering). 12. mendacious—C: Not truthful; lying or false; as, Voters complained about the mendacious statements of party old-timers. Latin mendax. 13. vindication—B: Justification; clearance of blame or guilt; as, the vindication of a controversial policy when it turns out to be successful. Latin vindicare (to claim). 14. commemorate—D: To honor or ctlebrate someone or something; as, Flag Day, June 14, commemorates adoption of the U.S. flag in 1777. Latin commemorare. 15. meld—B: To merge, blend or unite; as, His graceful letters melded many different people into a political party. Blend of melt and weld. 16. mordant—D: Sharply or bitingly sar“ castic or cutting; as, the cartoonist’s mordant observations. Latin mordere (to bite). 17. proselytize—D: To try to convert a person from one belief or faith to another. Greek proserchesthai (to approach). 18. duplicity—C: Deceit; deliberate deceptiveness; as, a broker’s duplicity in selling phony stocks. Latin duplex (twofold). 19. hegemony—B: Dominance of one state or thing over another; as, ‘Thlk shows weaken the hegemony of more conventional organs of opinion. Greek hegemonia (leadership). 211. rant—A: To speak wildly or in a ‘- loud, extravagant way; as, The agitator ranted for hours, Old Dutch anten (to talk foolishly).

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Find examples of elevated vocabulary in the text, differentiate them into stylistic groups, describe their function in the text. J Offer your variant of translating the marked extract {{{ … }}} Pay attention to preserving peculiarities of high style.

From “The Glittering Images”

{{{ Of course he's a brilliant speaker, " said Lang, careful to go through the motions of exercising Christian charity by giving credit where credit was due. " Technically the speech was a masterpiece."

" But a deplorable masterpiece."

Lang was satisfied. He must have been confident of my support, but it was over ten years since I had been his chaplain, and like all prudent statesmen he no doubt felt it unwise to take loyalty too readily for granted. }}}

" Jardine's attack was quite inexcusable, " he said, sufficiently reassured to indulge in the luxury of indignation. " After all, 1 was in the most unenviable position. I couldn't condone any relaxation of the divorce law; that would have been morally repugnant to me. On the other hand if I had openly opposed all change there would have been much damaging criticism of the Church. Caught between the Scylla of my moral inclinations and the Charybdis of my political duty, " declared the Archbishop, unable to resist a grandiloquent flourish, " I had no choice but to adopt a position of neutrality."

" 1 do see the difficulty. Your Grace."

" Of course you do! So do all reasonable churchmen! Yet the Bishop of Starbridge has the insufferable insolence not only to accuse me of sitting on the fence'—what a vulgar phrase! —but to advocate that multiple grounds for divorce are compatible with Christian teaching! No doubt one shouldn't expect too much of someone who's clearly very far from being a gentleman, but Jardine has behaved with gross disloyalty to me personally and with gross indifference to the welfare of the Church."

The snobbery was unattractive. Lang might long since have acquired the manner of an English aristocrat but he came from the Scottish middle classes and no doubt he himself had once been regarded as an " arriviste." Perhaps he thought this gave him a license to be virulent on the subject of class, but I thought the virulence underlined not Jardine's social origins but his own.

Meanwhile he had discarded all grandiloquence in order to deliver himself of the bluntest of perorations " In my opinion, " he said, " Jardine's no longer merely an embarrassment. He's become a dangerous liability, and I've decided that the time has come when I must take action to guard against a disaster."

1 wondered if malice had combined with old age to produce irrationality. " I agree he's controversial. Your Grace, but—

" Controversial! My dear Charles, what you and the genera! public have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg you should hear what goes on at our bishops' meetings! Jardine's views on marriage, divorce and— heaven help us—contraception have been notorious for some time in episcopal circles, and my greatest fear now is that if he continues to parade his questionable views on family life, some unscrupulous newshound from Fleet Street will eventually put Jardine's own domestic situation under the microscope."

" You're surely not implying—

" No, no." Lang's voice was suddenly very smooth. " No, of course I'm not implying any fatal error, but Jardine's domestic situation is unusual and could well be exploited by a press baron with an axe to grind." He paused before adding: " I have enemies in Fleet Street, Charles. Since the Abdication there are powerful people who would like nothing better than to see me humiliated and the Church put to shame."

The speech was florid but for the first time I felt he was not motivated solely by malice. His words reflected an undeniable political reality.

1 heard myself say: " And where do I come in, Your Grace? "

" I want you to go down to Starbridge, " said the Archbishop without hesitation, " and make sure that Jardine hasn't committed some potentially disastrous indiscretion—because if he has, I want all evidence of it destroyed."

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Find examples of elevated and colloquial vocabulary in the text, differentiate them into stylistic groups, comment on their humorous function in the text.

D.J.Salinger from the story “From Esme – with love and squalor”

" Usually, I'm not terribly gregarious, " she said, and looked over at me to see if knew the meaning of the word. 1 didn't give her a sign, though, one way or the other. " I purely came over because I thought you looked extremely lonely. You have an extremely sensitive face."

I said she was right, that 1 had been feeling lonely, and that I was very glad she'd come over.

{{{ “I’m training myself to be more compassionate. My aunt says I’m a terribly cold person, " she said and felt the top of her head again. " I live with my aunt. She's an extremely kind person. Since the death of my mother, she's done everything within her power to make Charles and me feel adjusted."

" I'm glad."

" Mother was an extremely intelligent person. Quite sensuous, in many ways." She looked at me with a kind of fresh acuteness. " Do you find me terribly cold? "

I told her absolutely not—very much to the contrary, in fact. I told her my name and asked for hers. }}}

She hesitated. " My first name is Esme. I don't think I shall tell you my full name, for the moment. 1 have a title and you may just be impressed by titles. Americans are, you know."

1 said I didn't think I would be, but that it might be a good idea, at that, to hold on to the title for a while.

Just then, I felt someone's warm breath on the back of my neck. I turned around and just missed brushing noses with Esme's small brother. Ignoring me, he addressed his sister in a piercing treble: " Miss Megley said you must come and finish your tea! " His message delivered, he retired to the chair between his sister and me, on my right. I regarded him with high interest He was looking very splendid in brown Shetland shorts, a navy-blue jersey, white shirt, and striped necktie. He gazed back at me with immense green eyes. " Why do people in films kiss sideways" he demanded.

" Sideways" I said. It was a problem that had baffled me in my childhood 1 said I guessed it was because actors' noses are too big for kissing anyone head on.

" His name is Charles, " Esme said. " He's extremely brilliant for his age, " " He certainly has green eyes. Haven't you, Charles? "

{{{ Charles gave me the fishy look my question deserved, then wriggled downward and forward in his chair till all of his body was under the table except his head, which he left, wrestler's-bridge style, on the chair seat. " They're orange, " he said in a strained voice, ad dressing the ceiling. He picked up a corner of the tablecloth and put it over his handsome, deadpan little face. }}}

" Sometimes he's brilliant and sometimes he's not, " Esme said. " Charles, do sit up! "

Charles stayed right where he was. He seemed to be holding his breath. " He misses our father very much. He was s-i-a-i-n in North Africa."

I expressed regret to hear it.

Esme nodded. " Father adored him." She bit reflectively at the cuticle of her thumb. " He looks very much like my mother— Charles, I mean. I look exactly like my father." She went on biting at her cuticle. " My mother was quite a passionate woman. She was an extrovert. Father was an introvert. They were quite well mated, though, in a superficial way. To be quite candid, Father really needed more of an intellectual companion than Mother was. He was an extremely gifted genius."

I waited, receptively, for further information, but none came. I looked down at Charles, who was now resting the side of his face on his chair seat. When he saw that I was looking at him, he closed his eyes, sleepily, angelically, then stuck out his tongue —an appendage of startling length—and gave out what in my country would have been a glorious tribute to a myopic baseball umpire. It fairly shook the tearoom.

" Stop that, " Esme said, clearly unshaken. " He saw an American do it in a fish-and-chips queue, and now he does it when-ever he's bored. Just stop it, now, or I shall send you directly to Miss Megley."

J Offer your variant of translating the marked extract {{{ … }}} Pay attention to preserving peculiarities of Esme’s speech.

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Find examples of proper names in the text, investigate their meaning, comment on their function in the text. J Offer your variant of translating the marked extract {{{ … }}} Pay attention to preserving peculiarities of names.

Sc. Fitzgerald from “The Great Gatsby”

Chapter IV

ON Sunday morning while church bells rang in the villages alongshore, the world and its mistress returned to Gatsby's house and twinkled hilariously on his lawn. 'He's a bootlegger/ said, the young ladies, moving somewhere between his cocktails and his flowers 'One time he killed a man who had found out that he was nephew to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the devil. Reach me a rose, honey, and pour me a last drop into that there crystal glass.' Once I wrote down on the empty spaces of a time-table the names of those who came to Gatsby's house that summer. It is an old time-table now, disintegrating at its folds, and headed 'This schedule in effect July 5th, 1922'. But I can still read the grey names, and they will give you a better impression than my generalities of those who accepted Gatsby's hospitality and paid him the subtle tribute of knowing nothing whatever about him.

{{{ From East Egg, then, came the Chester Beckers and the Leeches, and a man named Bunsen, whom 1 knew at Yale, and Doctor Webster Civet, who was drowned last summer up in Maine. And the Hornbeams and the Willie Voltaires, and a whole clan named Blackbuck, who always gathered in a corner and flipped up their noses like goats at whosoever came near. And the Ismays and the Chrysties (or rather Hubert Auerbach and Mr Chrystie's wife), and Edgar Beaver, whose hair, they say, turned cotton-white one winter afternoon for no good reason at all. }}}

Clarence Endive was from East Egg, as I remember. He came only once, in white nickerbockers, and had a fight with a bum named Etty in the garden. From farther out on the Island came the Cheadles and the 0. R. P. Schraeders, and the Stonewall Jackson Abrams of Georgia, and the Fishguards and the Ripley Snells. Snell was there three days before he went to the penitentiary, so drunk out on the gravel drive that Mrs Ulysses Swett's automobile ran over his right hand. The Dancies came, too, and S. B. Whitebait, who was well over sixty, and Maurice A. Flink, and the Hammerheads, and Beluga the tobacco importer, and Beluga's girls.

From West Egg came the Poles and the Mulreadys and Cecil Roebuck and Cecil Schoen and Gulick the State senator and Newton Orchid, who controlled Films Par Excellence, and Eckhaust and Clyde Cohen and Don S. Schwartz (the son) and Arthur McCarty, all connected with the movies in one way or another. And the Catlips and the Bembergs and G. Earl Muldoon, brother to that Muldoon who afterward strangled his wife. Da Fontano the promoter came there, and Ed Legros and James B. ('Rot-Gut') Ferret and the DeJongs and Ernest Lilly - they came to gamble, and when Ferret wandered into the garden it meant he was cleaned out and Associated Traction would have to fluctuate profitably next day. A man named Klipspringer was there so often that he became known as 'the boarder' - I doubt if he had another home. Of theatrical people there were Gus Waize and Horace O'Donavan and Lester Myer and George Duckweed and Francis Bull. Also from New York were the Chromes and the Backhyssons and the Dennickers and Russel Betty and the Corrigans and the Kellehers and the Dewars and the Scullys and S. W.

Belcher and the Smirkes and the young Quinns, divorced now, and Henry L. Palmetto, who killed himself by jumping in front of a subway train in Times Square. Benny McClenahan arrived always with four girls. They were never quite the same ones in physical person but they were so identical one with another that it inevitably seemed they had been there before. I have forgotten their names -Jaqueline, I think, or else Consuela, or Gloria or Judy or June, and their last names were either the melodious names of flowers and months or the sterner ones of the great American capitalist whose cousins, if pressed, they would confess themselves to be.

In addition to all these I can remember that Faustina O'Brien came there at least once and the Baedeker girls and young Brewer, who had his nose shot off in the war, and Mr Albrucksburger and Miss Haag and Ardita Fitz-Peters and Mr P. Jewett, once head of the American Legion, and Miss Claudia Hip. with a man reputed to be her chauffeur, and a prince of something, whom we called Duke, and whose name, if I ever knew it, I have forgotten.

All these people came to Gatsby's house in the summer.

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Comment on examples of cultural codes in the text, note the effect they create.

J Offer your variant of translating the cultural codes.

... But when you looked at the eyes that sparkled out like a beetle's from each side of his hooked nose, you saw at once that he inherited all the fiery spirit of his forefathers. In fact, a Frenchman's spirit never exhales, however his body may dwindle. It rather rarefies, and grows more inflammable, as the earthly particles diminish; and I have seen valor enough in a little fiery-hearted French dwarf to have furnished out a tolerable giant.

When once the Marquis, as was his wont, put on one of the old helmets stuck up in his hall, though his head no more filled it than a dry pea in its peascod, yet his eves flashed from the bottom of the iron cavern with the brilliancy of carbuncles; and when he poised the ponderous two-handled sword of his ancestors, you would have thought you saw the doughty little David wielding the sword of Goliath, which was unto him like a weaver's beam.

However, gentlemen, I am dwelling too long on this description of the Marquis and his chateau, but you must excuse me; he was an old friend of my uncle; and whenever my uncle told the story, he was always fond of talking a great deal about his host.— Poor little Marquis! He was one of that handful of gallant courtiers who made such a devoted but hopeless stand in the cause of their sovereign, in the chateau of the Tuileries, against the irruption of the mob on the sad tenth of August. He displayed the valor of a preux French chevalier to the last; flourishing feebly his little court sword with а ca-ca! in face of a whole legion of sans culottes: but was pinned to the wall like a butterfly, by the pike of a poissarde, and his heroic soul was borne up to heaven on his ailes de pigeon.

But all this has nothing to do with my story. To the point then. When the hour arrived for retiring for the night, my uncle was shown to his room in a venerable old lower. It was the oldest part of the chateau, and had in ancient times been the donjon or stronghold; of course the chamber was none of the best. The Marquis had put him there, however, because he knew him to be a traveller of taste, and loud of antiquities; and also because the better apartments were already occupied. Indeed, he perfectly reconciled my uncle to his quarters by mentioning the great personages who had once inhabited them, all of whom were, in some way or other, connected with the family. If you would take his word for it, John Balio, or as he called him, Jean de Bailleu, had died of chagrin in this very chamber, on hearing of the success of his rival, Robert the Bruce, at the battle of Hannockburn. And «hen he added that the Duke de Guise had slept in it, my uncle was fain to facilitate himself on being honored with such distinguished quarters.

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Find examples of cultural codes in the text, investigate their meaning, comment on the effect of routines they produce.

From.Days of Obligation

There is a crucifix over my bed. I am in bed; my eyes are open. I am waiting for the sound of midnight—a blare of horns, afire whistle, a dog's bark, a woman's scream.

Larry Faherty is in New Orleans for Christmas, so we have not spent New Year's Eve together. He sent me a postcard, written in Spanish. It's there on my dresser.

A car passes on the wet pavement outside. My room revolves on a rail of light. And then it is dark. January 1, 1960. The new decade has come to Sacramento, California. It is no longer Christmas. In the morning there will be a cold mass at church, and then the Rose Parade on TV. And the long gray afternoon will pass away through a series of black-and-white football games; in a few days I will be back at school.

The ectoplasmic corpus of the crucifix glows with confidence. Awake on my bed, I am inclined forward: I want the years coming to improve me, to make my hand a man's hand and my soul a man's soul.

Every New Year's Eve my mother weeps in front of the TV when Guy Lombardo strikes up " Auld Lang Syne."

The crowd in Times Square cheers.

T^is year, however, we have gone to bed early. The back-porch light is on for my brother. 1 have stayed awoke in the dark to feel the difference of a new decade.

There is no difference.

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Read two similar extracts. Find examples of cultural codes in the text, investigate their meaning, comment on the effect they produce.

■ ■ ■

Los Angeles was not the creation of foreign parents escaping tragedy; Los Angeles was the creation of American children.

People I knew on the west side rarely went to the Mexican side. People in the San Fernando Valley expressed fatuous pride at not having been downtown for years. Orange County was the region's largest attempt to secede from itself. But Los Angeles named everything and everyone, claimed every horizon. The city without a center was everywhere the city. L.A. bestowed metropolitan stature on the suburban.

America made fun of L.A.

Europeans admired, especially Brits admired Los Angeles.

In London, I met a specimen of one of England's most congealed bloods who was disappointed to learn that I was from San Francisco, oh dear—he much preferred Los Annjilleeze.

In 1971, Reynor Banham, a British architectural critic, published his pop celebration of the city, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies. Banham wrote disparagingly of the California alternative—San Francisco—with its " prefabricated Yankee houses and prefabricated New England or European attitudes."

Then David Hockney arrived in L.A. from coal-blackened northern England; dyed his hair, changed into shorts; eased into a primary palette. Hockney sold his canvas to the world: suburban tract villas, blond statue boys, an Aqua Velva Mediterranean.

Europe sought freedom from centuries. Europe craved vulgarity. Europe found innocence.

For all its innocence, L.A. was flattered by Europe's attentions in those years. It was the stuff of sonnets—old men taking young men to the opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. In a way, Europe was turning a trick on L.A., teaching the capital of childish narcissism the confidence of outward regard. L.A. soon came to believe that it was indeed an important city, a world city. " London, Paris, Beverly Hills, " read the perfume bottles. British actors and German divas were flown into town like so many truffles. In return, Los Angeles opened the last great European museum in the world, an authentic Greek temple at the edge of the sea.

I imagined 1 knew some secret about Los Angeles that other people did not know. The architect who Bauhaused his bungalow was living in a house identical to the house I had grown up in. The Sacramento boy still refused to believe that a horizontal city could be a great city. But there were times when Los Angeles amused me for taking all I dismissed as Sacramento and selling it to the world as glamour. What a joke!

I now realize that Los Angeles was doing the same with me. I was a Mexican from the Central Valley—even then L.A. was the second-largest Mexican city in the world—a Mexican kid from the Central Valley with a big nose and glasses. I had spent my life indoors, reading about London.

But in L.A. I passed for a glamour-boy.

" Because you can talk, " one angel explained. " All they want is to be amused."

I had always been intellectually arrogant. In L.A., I yearned to become glamorous enough to be humble, in the manner of the angels.

There was nothing reticent about L.A. Glamour was instant. The city took its generosity from the movies. You're beautiful if L.A. says you're beautiful, goddammit.

It was the sons of Jewish immigrants, the haberdasher s son and the tobacconist's son, who established the epic scale of the movies. Movies taught one big lesson: individual lives have scope and grandeur.

■ ■ ■

We have hurled—like starlings, like Goths—through the castle of European memory. Our reflections have glanced upon the golden coach that carried the Emperor Maximilian through the streets of Mexico City, thence onward through the sludge of a hundred varnished paintings.

I have come at last to Mexico, the country of my parents' birth. I do not expect to find anything that pertains to me.

We have strained the rouge cordon at the thresholds of imperial apartments; seen chairs low enough for dwarfs, commodious enough for angels.

We have imagined the Empress Carlota standing in the shadows of an afternoon; we have followed her gaze down the Paseo de la Reforma toward the distant city. The Paseo was a nostalgic allusion to the Champs-Elysees, we learn, which Maximilian recreated for his tempestuous, crowlike bride.

Come this way, please....

European memory is not to be the point of our excursion. Senor Fuentes, our tour director, is already beginning to descend the hill from Chapultepec Castle. What the American credit-card company calls our " orientation tour" of Mexico City had started late and so Senor Fuentes has been forced, regrettablv, "... This way, please..." to rush. Senor Fuentes is consumed with contrition for time wasted this morning. He intends to uphold his schedule, as a way of upholding Mexico, against our expectation.

We had gathered at the appointed time at the limousine entrance to our hotel, beneath the banner welcoming contestants to the Senorita Mexico pageant. We—Japanese, Germans, Americans—were waiting promptly at nine. There was no bus. And as we waited, the Senorita Mexico contestants arrived. Drivers leaned into their cabs to pull out long-legged senoritas. The drivers then balanced the senoritas onto stiletto heels (the driveway was cobbled) before they passed the senoritas, en pointe, to the waiting arms of officials.

Mexican men, meanwhile—doormen, bellhops, window washers, hotel guests—stopped dead in their tracks, wounded by the scent and spectacle of so many blond senoritas. The Mexican men assumed fierce expressions, nostrils flared, brows knit. Such expressions are masks—the men intend to convey their adoration of prey—as thoroughly ritualized as the smiles of beauty queens.

º Listen to oral version.

Listen to the recording of the story “The Sisters” by James Joyce Comment on cultural codes from the following extracts.

1. It had always sounded strangely in my ears, like the word gnomon in the Euclid * and the word simony in the Catechism.* But now it sounded to me like the name of some maleficent and sinful being. It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer to it and to look upon its deadly work.

2. 'The youngster and he were great friends. The old chap taught him a great deal, mind you: and they say he had a great wish* for him.'

3. 'That's my principle, too, ' said my uncle. 'Let him learn to box his corner.* That's what I'm always saying to that Rosicrucian * there: take exercise.

4. July 1st, 1895

The Rev.* James Flynn (formerly of S. Catherine's Church, Meath Street), aged sixty-five years.

R.I. P.*

5. Perhaps my aunt would have given me a packet of High Toast * for him, and this present would have roused him from his stupefied doze. It was always I who emptied the packet into his black snuff-box, for his hands trembled too much to allow him to do this without spilling half the snuff about the floor

6. He had studied in the Irish college in Rome * and he had taught me to pronounce Latin properly. He had told me stories about the catacombs* and about Napoleon Bonaparte. and he had explained to me the meaning of the different ceremonies of the Mass and of the different vestments worn by the priest.*

7. But no. When we rose and went up to the head of the bed I saw that he was not smiling. There he lay, solemn and copious, vested as for the altar, his large hands loosely retaining a chalice.* His face was very truculent, grey and massive, with black cavernous nostrils and circled by a scanty white fur. There was a heavy odour in the room-the flowers.

" Make practical stylistic tasks

Read the beginning of a linguistic game based on literary coinages. Continue the game:

What’s a ulalu?

A ulalu is a terrible, wolf-like creature that lives deep down in the mine of lost days. It eats anything, so watch out for ulalus. They are.bigger than blonkes.

What’s a blonke?

, A blonke is a big horse. Blonkes are fun ride, but they eat likes lyguts.

What’s a lygut?

It’s a person who eat and eats. …

J Offer your variant of translating the extract.

& Read information on the topic.

From Kipfer B.A. Steinmetz S. “The Life of the Language: the fascinating ways words are born, live and die” (abridged)

Out of the mouth of babes come… words.

The vocabulary of infants and young children is mostly of interest to their parents. Yet linguists have written volumes on this subject.

Some very common words originated in baby talk. Such words consist usually of one or two syllables that begin with a consonant. The words babe and baby evolved from an earlier word, baban, which was probably the repeated syllables ba, ba typically uttered by infants. Baby talk begins when an infiit or toddler mispronounces the name of a person or thing and the parents repeat it when talking to the child. If for example, the child calls the grandfather “Grampy” instead of “Grandpa, ” the parents and the rest of the family might begin to refer to the grandfither as “Grampy.”

BABY BABBLE

Baby talk is concerned with the limited activities of babies, much of which involve simple physical processes. The following is a list of words common in baby talk:

BEDDV-BYE: The time for a baby or very young child to go to bed.

BINKIE: A pacifier. From Binky, a brand of pacifier.

BLANKIE: A baby’s blanket.

BOO-BOO: A minor injury. A reduplication of boo, as in boo-hoo, “noisy weeping.”

BUDDY: Chum, pal, brother. Baby talk for brother.

BUNNY: A rabbit. From bun, a word for a rabbit’s tail.

BYE-BYE: Good-bye.

DA-DA: Father.

DIN-DIN: Dinner.

VUM, YUMMY, or YUM-YUM: Pleasing to the taste; delicious.

Blends or portmanteau words

In 1976, tke Inguist Margaret M. Bryant wrote an article in the journal American Speech entitled “Blends Are Increasing: ’ In it she pointed out that before the 19th century blends, or two words combined to form a new word, were rather uncommon arid did not become a widespread formation until the 20th century. An extreme example of “headline-ese” is TEX-MEX’S POP SPANGLISH JARGOT (translation: the Texan-Mexican dialect is a popular Spanish-English jargon or argot). The term portmanteau word was popularized by Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking—Glass (1872), in which Humpty Dumpry explains the word slithy in the nonsense poem “Jabberwocky”: slithy means ‘lithe and slimy’ ‘It’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed into one word: ’ Further on he says; “‘Mimsy’ is ‘flimsy and miserable’ (there’s another portmanteau for you). Carroll’s portmanteaus were not the usual blends of two words with a common sound in the middle, hur clever fusions of two words, several of which have become part of the language. Among them are chortle (blend of chuckle and snort), galumph (blend of gallop and triuinph), frabjous (irregular blend of fabulous and joyous, and frumious (blend of finning and furious). These coinages are meant to suggest the action they describe: to galumph is to gallop triumphantly; a frabjous day is flibulous and joyous.

English portmanreau words were not invented by Carroll. Various short, expressive words, often imitative of sounds, are found earlier in the language and appear to be blends.

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