Academic Style

With both 'carriageways yblocked | police v closed the motorway for a.time | and di version signs were 'posted at the 'nearest vslip roads. Breakdown Vehicles and vambulances | had con"* siderable >difficulty $ in reaching the 'scene of the.accident | because of vfog. || This was xdense in vplaces, | and the v flashing 'amber xlight signals I had been -> switched von \ for-» most of the vnight. || So,far | there are -» no re>ports | of anyone 'seriously ^injured \ in the ^accident... At the opening 'meeting in ^London „last.night | Sir -» John vStone |... Criticised | the standard of 'motorway 'driving in this vcountry. (Ц He.said | that there was.evidence | that many of the Ъазю 'disciplines of vmotorway use | had yet to be ylearned | by British x drivers. _» Lane.discipline 1 was -» much worse in this vcountry | than in Axmerica || and the V habits of 'drivers when ^overtaking | were particularly bad. || /One 'saw tfar too much 'dangerous ^pulling out | without an -»adequate >siqnal \ having been vgiyen... || ... The conference 'is continuing. -»Now to Common ^Market negotiations... Before going into the detailed description of phonostylistic characteristics of the text we would like to say here that it is delimited in the same way as any monological oral text: phonopas-sages — phrases — intonation groups. Delimitation is different only in the dichotomy monologue — dialogue. It is also true for the role of contrast between accented and unaccented segments in the accentuation of semantic centres. Timbre may be characterized as unemotional, dispassionate, reserved, but very resolute and assured, a typical case of a newsreader's "neutral position", deliberately underlying the effect of objectiveness on the part of the newsreader. Loudness ranges from normal to forte; it is especially varied at passage boundaries. As this bulletin is split into two major items, the transfer from one to the other is very important and is strongly identified by the splash of loudness: 1....The conference is continuing, (piano) 2.(forte) Now to Common Market negotiations. Levels and ranges are usually normal, but contrasted when each news item is introduced and also at the semantic emphatic centres. Pauses tend to be rather long, especially when they occur between passages, longer still between the bulletin items. The location of pauses is commonly predictable, syntactically or semanti-cally determined. Rate is not remarkably varied. It is normally slow, rarely allegro; deliberately slow (lento) on communicatively important centres, e.g. A number of lorry drivers and motorists were unable to pull up in time and ran into the overturned vehicle causing a majo pile up. (lento) The conference is continuing, (very slow — lentis-simo) Rhythm exhibits a stable pattern. Types of heads vary, the most common being descending {falling and stepping), very often broken by accidental rises, e.g. ~* Thirty-five vvehides £ were in volved in a t multiple col'lision \ on the M '1 ^motorway this „morning. II Another very common for the reading of news coverage phenomenon is the variation of descending and ascending heads of different levels to convey the information in a really interesting way, especially in the enumeration of the events, e.g. ~*Lane.discipline | was -» much worse in this vcountry | than in A*merica || and the habits of 'drivers when xover-taking | were particularly bad. ||,One 'saw t far too much 'dangerous Apulling out | without an -»adequate >signal £ having been vgiven: || Also the semantic centre of the preceding intonation group may be repeated at the beginning of the next utterance. Lexically it may be the same word or word combination or a related one. This is done to chain the phrases tightly into a phonetic whole (phonopassage). On the prosodic level this close connection is expressed by the use of the Low Rising Tone in the initial intonation group: At the opening 'meeting in xLondon „last.night | Sir -» John vStone... || * criticized | the standard of 'motorway 'driving in this vcountry. Ц) He,said | that there was.evidence | that many of the Ъазгс 'disciplines of vmotorway use | had yet to be ylearned | by British vdriyers. One can see here that in the text sentences are not excessively long, they tend not to be unduly complicated in their structure. The intonation groups are rather short, otherwise a listener or a viewer will lose the thread of what is being reported. Terminal tones are usually final and very categoric, falls prevail on communicative centres. Falling-rising tones (or even Rise-Fall-Rises) are often heard on the initial short intonation groups introduced for deliberate effects in drawing the listener's attention: A number of lorry drivers and vmotorists | were unxable to pull xup in time... || With both 'carriageways yblocked | police vclosed the motorway for a.time... The phonostylistic analysis of a reading of a number of news coverage over the radio and television and the experimental data of recent investigations of the style (53, 54) allow us to attempt to draw the invariant of this information style register described in Table 7. Table7 The Invariant of Phonostylistic Characteristics of the Reading of a News Bulletin (Press Reporting and Broadcasting) Timbre dispassionate, impartial, but resolute and assured; the effect of "chilly distant sounding" (usually achieved by special training of the announcers) Delimitation phonopassages — phrases — intonational groups Style-marking prosodic features Loudness normal or increased, contrasted at the phonopas-sage boundaries   Levels and ranges normal; decrease towards the end of the passage; noticeable increase at the start of any new news item   Rate not remarkably varied; slow, rarely allegro; deliberately slow (lento) on communicatively important centres   Pauses rather long, especially at trie end of each news item   Rhythm stable, properly organized Accentuation of semantic centres Terminal tones frequent use of final, categoric falling tones on the semantic centres and falling-rising or rising ones in the initial intonation groups   Pre-nudear patterns common use of descending heads (very often broken); alternation of descending and ascending heads   The contrast between the accented and unaccented segments not great   Now our next step will be the description of the results of the phonological opposition of phonostylistic characteristics of the reading of an informational descriptive text and a news bulletin. 1. Broadcast texts and newspaper articles read aloud convey mainly the intellectual information as it is the language of factual statements; thus attitudinal and emphatic funciton of intonation is of secondary importance here. 2. The prosodic parameters are not greatly varied in both registers of the style but for several occasions in news bulletins when pitch levels, types of heads and pauses are alternated to break the monotony of speech and draw the listeners' or view ers' attention to something very important in a message. This of ten happens when events are enumerated. It is a very notable feature here — the ability of good newsreaders to mark the be ginning and the end of each new paragraph or topic. 3. The voice timbre is a very important marker of a news coverage reading. It is something peculiar, very easily identified, often labelled as "distant", "indifferent", "impartial", "neutral". It is true, of course, for events of a routine character. When tragic events are broadcast, for instance, all the prosodic features are switched to convey the meaning. 4. In the "news bulletin reading" type of the informational style the use of broken descending heads and fall-rises on initial intonation groups is more common. 5. Pauses tend to be longer, the general tempo is faster than that in the descriptive reading. 6. The "broadcast" reading is more properly rhythmically or ganized. Highly skilled newsreaders are capable of making the sense clear by the careful control of rhythm. Now for the conclusion we would like to say that we have described here only one type of the "language of broadcasting" register, which is close to the "ideal" informational descriptive text. All other suggested spheres of discourse — talking on events over the TV, talking to a listener, discussing the political events, commenting on them, round-table talks of commentators, and others — do not differ greatly from those, described above in the models of the first (descriptive) register. Or they may drift very far from it, become very chatty or high-flown and indulge in sudden changes of the style. For this reason it is much harder to say with certainty what the main style characteristics of such texts are. They will vary according to the type of the information involved: intellectual, attitudinal or volitional. And the placement of these texts in the system of intonation-al styles should be approached with caution in mind. As there is much stylistic freedom in broadcast talks it is difficult to make general statements, give their generalized phonos-tylistic characteristics with any confidence. There are many broadcast talks with an effort to communicate in a reasonably lively and personal manner. As a consequence they may be rather racy and have more varied prosodic characteristics and stylistic qualities than a news bulletin while resembling it in many respects. This is undoubtedly a very interesting and promising field of investigation and much is expected from the researchers in the nearest future.

This intonationa style is often described by phonostylists as both intellectual and volitional. It is determined by the purpose of the communication as the speaker's aim is to attract the listener's attention, to establish close contacts with the audience and to direct the public attention to the message carried in the contents of the text. It is frequently manifested in academic and educational lectures, scientific discussions, at the conferences, seminars and in classes. As the users of the style are interested in the involvement of the audience into the talk, this intonational style tends to be concerned and rather emotional.

The above-mentioned spheres of discourse have many features in common which result from certain common influences even though they may have differences according to the speaker, the occupation of the language user, the exact nature of the occasion, etc.

It can be suggested here that the most pure manifestation of the academic intonational style is realized ia a lecture, though a "lecture" is a very broad label which covers a variety of types. Lectures may sometimes sound as oratorical performances designed to entertain rather than inform, so there may be a great deal of overlap in these cases between different registers.

We would like to mention here that the "ideal model" of the scientific style talk would be an academic informational lecture read aloud or relied heavily upon the set of notes with the attempts on the part of lecturers to get their meaning across clearly. The balance between formality and informality is obtained in favour of the former.

The types of this style realization are not so varied as of the informational intonational style though the spheres of discourse are rather numerous (see Table 8).

Having outlined the contours of the style we shall focus our attention on academic lectures or pieces of scientific prose.

It is almost certainly true that no public lecture is ever spontaneous, since all of them, even those in which no notes are used, will have been to some extent prepared in advance and therefore represent the written variety of the language read aloud. So they have very much in common with the reading of scientific prose.

As was already pointed out above, lecturers either read the whole of what they wish to say from a script or speak with the aid of the notes; and as reliance upon a written version increases the impression of spontaneity will decrease.

Here is the example of a carefully prepared lecture read aloud in public addressed to a fairly-sized audience.

You will all have ^vseen from the ^vhandouts \ which you have in ^vfront of you | that °I pro pose to divide this 'course of ^vlectures J on the Durban and archi'tectural development of .London | into three 'main ^sections || and per>haps \ I could just 'point 'out, 'right at the beginning, | that there will be a good 'deal of ^xoverlap be_vtween them. || They are in_> tended to >stand | as ,separate. j ~* self-contained _xunits. InMeed. $ I would ^lgo as far as to >say | that ^anyone } who ^vtried to 'deal entirely Separately with the.past. | the .present | and the ^course of development in the vfuture, | would be ⁴misrepre'sen ting the 'way in which 'urban 'growth takes _xplace. ||

Now by ~*way of introduction.) Td like to 'try and 'give some indication j of how 'London it'self Paginated; || of _?what developmental ^trends were built,into,it, as it.were, $ from the -»very ₄outset, | and of how ~* these Xrends $ have af fected its ^growth. ||

Table 8

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