XI Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2019

Language we use in any specific situation varying according to the purpose and content of the situation. Different functional styles characterize a certain situation. I.R. Galperin, the well-known Russian linguist, distinguishes the following functional styles:

The belles-letters style

Publicist style

Newspaper style

Scientific prose style

The style of official documents.

In this term paper we deal with the scientific prose style and its sub-style, popular scientific prose style.

According to the point of view of McMillan, the purpose of science as a branch of human activity is to disclose by research the inner substance of things and phenomena of objective reality and find out the laws regulating them, thus enabling man to predict, control and direct their future development in order to improve the material and social life of mankind . Scientific prose helps us to reveal and understand all the features of scientific phenomenon as they are.

The goal of this term paper is to analyse stylistics of the popular scientific prose.

To attain the target, we set the following objectives:

To distinguish scientific and popular scientific literature

To outline style shaping properties of popular scientific prose

To examine the corpus of different articles to reveal the communicative and linguistic peculiarities

To look into stylistic devices that are used in popular prose literature

This theme is very interesting for us, because we are living in the age of advanced technology, when achievements of scientific and technological progress strongly come into lives of ordinary people and science becomes part and parcel of mass culture elements. Particularly, popular scientific literature is called to fulfill this important social order and to introduce vast masses to the achievements of science.

The object of the term paper is popular scientific prose.

The subject of the term paper is stylistic peculiarities of popular scientific prose.

All the illustrative examples were taken mostly from journals “National Geographic” and “Scientific American”.

The methodological basis is founded on the works of such distinguished linguists as I. R. Galperin, W. Gilman, A. L. Nazarenko, D. Crystal, O. Lehtsalu and others.

My term paper consists of Introduction, two chapters, conclusion and bibliography.

Chapter 1. Scientific style

1.1Scientific prose style

For the further analysis the terms`style' and `stylistics'should be defined.But the term `style' is polysemantic. Tentatively, language style maybe defined as a more-or-less coherent system, a subsystem (or microsystem) within a language, consisting of certain lexico-phraseological, grammatical and phonetical resources of that language, which are used selectively and purposefully to express ideas in given situation . The study of language styles is the concern of linguo-stylistics. Put in another way, linguo-stylistics is a branch of stylistics which deals with the expressive and stylistic means of language, their relation to the idea or ideas expressed, and the classification and peculiarities of the existing styles of a language. Linguo-stylistics and literary stylistics complement each other and together they constitute what may be called general stylistics.

We are interested in functional styles, specifically, in scientific prose style.

I. R. Galperin describes functional styles of language (FS) as types of texts that are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of the communication.

The aim of the scientific prose style is to describe a phenomenon of science precisely, to reveal all the peculiarities of subject in question. The language of scientific prose is determined by a desire to prove hypothesis, to state laws, define concepts, etc. Hence the main problem is to establish a clear and logical progression of ideas and define the subject-matter precisely. For the purpose of precision the clarity, logical coherence, specific vocabulary and special syntax are employed.

Scientific language is used in reporting an experiment, in discussing a problem, in giving instructions as to how an experiment should be performed, in stating laws, or in defining concepts. It is generally agreed that the main problem for the scientist, as far as his use of language is concerned, is to define his subject matter precisely and to establish a clear and logical progression of ideas.

As far as the vocabulary of scientific prose is concerned, we can say that special terms and professional words are an indispensible part of vocabulary, as well as Greek and Latin words and forms(datum-data, formula-formulae, etc).

The style of scientific prose is predominantly unemotional.

Dynamic system of language impacts such stylistic features as simplicityand artistry of representation. These means are not independent and play subsidiary role in the popular scientific literature contributing to the achievement of the main aim - introducing to the reader serious scientific information in a popular and interesting way.

In the next section we will discuss style shaping properties which include expressive means and stylistic devices.

1.2 Style shaping properties

Linguistic science points out that the most important thing in stylistics is the interrelation of the means of expression and the subject-matter, i.e. of the expressive means of a language and the idea expressed.

When speaking of the expressive means of language, we think of the arrangement of sentences, clauses, words, and the choice of words which not only convey the idea to the reader or listener, but simultaneously provoke the desired emotional reaction from him.

The expressive means of a language may be classified as:

Lexical (the various stylistic aspects of words and phraseological units, such as poetic words, archaic words, neologisms, etc.)

Grammatical (mainly syntactical; inversion elliptical sentences, repetition in exited speech, etc.)

Phonetic (euphony, intonation, rhythm, etc.)

Chapter 2. Peculiarities of popular scientific prose

The core of any popular scientific text is terminology, the main characteristics of which are the aspiration for unambiguity and absence of emotional expressive evaluative connotations, i.e. the capability of precise expression of specific notions.

Investigating popular scientific texts we can notice the usage of specific terms even in the texts, which are orientated on the reader rather distant from the concerned field.

Constant appeal to the interlocutor is typical for the colloquial speech reflecting in the popular scientific prose in the usage of hortatory sentences:

e.g. “Have a good look at these numbers!

This illustrates a maximum orientation on the reader in order to create the `atmosphere of credence' between the author and the reader.

Scientists who are engaged in humanitarian studies resort to imagery and colorful comparisons that help to clarify abstract ideas transmitted to the addressee through a scientific article or report.

Popular scientific texts abound with a great number of epithets:

e.g. “The beautiful geometric reasoning was abandoned...»

We mentioned the usage of metaphorsin popular scientific literature. They are used to create vividness of representation and give the information in the accessible way and to describe the fact in question in the understandable manner:

e.g. “Since for more than 2000 years mathematics had been the bastion of truth of non-Euclidean geometry, the triumph of reason, proved to be an intellectual disaster.”

The metaphors in these examples strike the imagination of the reader making him or her create images and understand the subject in question more clear.

Thus we showed how authors employed different stylistic devices and language means to make popular scientific literature colorful and interesting for the reader. A number of language means are called to establish intimate connection between the author and the reader, involving the latter in the scientific discussion.

Conclusion

In this term paper we discussed popular scientific prose style as a part of scientific prose. We described the peculiarities of scientific style and popular scientific prose, their differences and what they have in common. Thomas Andrew argues that the language of science is governed by the aim of the functional style of scientific prose, which is to prove a hypothesis, to create new concepts, to disclose the internal laws of existence, development, relations between different phenomena, etc. The language means used, therefore, tend to be objective, precise, unemotional, and devoid of any individuality; there is a striving for the most generalized form of expression. At the same time popular scientific style is varied according to the usage of different language means as epithets, metaphors, similemaking popular scientific literature emotional, expressive and interesting.

Popularization of science plays a very important role in the modern world giving an access to the essence of things not resorting to high complexity of scientific texts. A person of a particular sphere can become aware of completely different field regarding to popular scientific literature.

Alan Paige Lightman, the American physicist, writer, and social entrepreneur, claims that a real scientist isn't a real scientist if he can't explain his theory to a common barman in order the latter understands it. Thus we can say that popularization of science is even important for the scientists themselves.

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Bakst A. (1997) Mathematics. Its Magic and Mastery.Princeton (N.G.) Van Nosfraud. - 842 p.

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Crystal D., Davy D. (1969) Investigating English Style. Longman. - 251p.

Dodgeson Charles L. (1972) Algebraic Formulae and Rules. Oxford. - 167p

Galperin I.R. (2014) English Stylistics. Librokom: Moscow. - 9p., 314p.

Gilman W. (1961) The Language of Science. Harcourt, Brace & World: INC. - 4p., 97p.

Hartkopf R. (1965) Mathematics for those who hate it.Adelaide Pugby.- 17p

Lehtsalu U., Liiv G., Mutt O. (1973) An introduction to English Stylistics. Tartu. - 13p.

McMillan V.E (2001) Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences. Boston. - 314p.

Shakkhovsky V.I. (2008) English Stylistics. KomKniga: Moscow. - 86p., 88p.

Sherman I.W., Sherman V.G. (1986) Biology: Human Approach: N.Y. -Oxford. - 636p.

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