Text: the Author’s Speech. Direct and Indirect Represented Speech. Paragraph.

The author's position is mostly revealed in his own speech. The author's and character's speeches are two different types of narration. The author's speech (the author’s narrative) supplies the reader with direct information about the author’s preferences and objections, beliefs and contradictions, serves the major source of shaping up the author’s image. The author's speech is the most complicated and various type of narration. Here the experiments of the author with the sounds, combinations of morphemes, neologisms are implemented. Here the foundations for the system of images are laid. There's a universal tendency to use standard literary lexical units, but at the same time there's an active usage of bookish & colloquial words.

There are different forms of the author’s speech:

· Entrusted narrative -in an effort to make his writing more plausible, to impress the reader with the effect of authenticity of the described events, the writer entrusts some fictitious character. Entrusted narrative can be carried out in the 1st person singular, may also be anonymous.

· Interior speech of the personage, which allows the author to peep into the inner world of the character, to observe his ideas and views. Interior speech is best known in the form of interior monologue.

· Represented (reported) speech serves to show either the mental reproduction of a once uttered remark, or the character’s thinking. The first case is known as represented uttered speech, the second one as represented inner speech. The latter is close to the personage’s interior speech in essence, but differs from it in form: it is rendered in the third person singular and may have the author’s qualitative words, i.e. it reflects the presence of the author’s viewpoint alongside that of the character, while interior speech belongs to the personage completely, formally too, which is materialized through the first-person pronouns and the language idiosyncrasies of the character.

The artistic variant of the inner speech is represented speech. Here it's of crucial importance not only to introduce the inner word of the character to the reader, but also to make it clear. In represented speech the author is practically not presented. It is important to create the effect of the combination of conscious & unconscious, rational & irrational, reality &. imagination.

The main form of represented speech is the inner monologue. Here the spiritual & moral side of the character is revealed. The character contemplates, analyses & plans without witnesses. This guarantees the sincerity & truthfulness of the personage. The inner monologue stops the development of the plot.

Another type of represented speech is the inner reaction - small pieces of inner speech, expressing the reaction of the character on the events described.

Yet another type of represented speech is autodialogue, the talk with yourself. It’s the struggle between the emotional & the rational, expressed by 2 voices. The intuition struggles against the logics. The complex nature & philosophic character of the inner monologue demands the complication of the vocabulary Si syntax; the spontaneous St emotional character of the inner reaction demands the simplicity of syntax.

Paragraph is a self-contained unit of a discourse in writing dealing with a particular point or idea. A paragraph consists of one or more sentences.The start of a paragraph is indicated by beginning on a new line. Sometimes the first line is indented. Paragraph is not only the beginning of the new line. It is the complete part of the text & has compositional meaning. The length of the p. may vary greatly from a one-word sentence to an indefinite number of sentences. Extremely long p. hinder the perception of the work and stop performing its main function - the compositional & meaningful division of the text. The role of p. in the structure of the work is so evident that many scientists consider the composition of the text to be the system of p.

71. Formal & Informal English.

FORMAL ENGLISH:

- It is used in academic writing (e.g., essays, reports, resumes, theses, and the like), and formal social events such as public speeches, graduation ceremonies, and assemblies depending upon the topic.

- Typically used in careful, edited writing — when the writer has a lot of time to polish his text. Formal English also occurs in speech, usually when the speaker is saying something that was prepared beforehand (for example, reading the news or delivering an official speech).

- It is more commonly used in writing than in speech.

- It follows the conventions of “standard” language; i.e., it uses language forms that often grammatically and lexically considered “correct” or agreed upon by most educated users of the language. For example,

- Sentences are often long and complex;

- Subject-verb agreement is observed;

- Contractions are avoided;

- The passive voice is often used (making it

more impersonal);

- It is better organized and thought out;

- The standard of correctness is higher. Some phrases are considered correct (or at least acceptable) in informal English, but wrong in formal English.

- The past tense of modal auxiliaries is common, and so on.

- Clear and precise vocabulary is used; hence, clichés, colloquialisms, idioms, phrasal verbs, proverbs and slang are avoided. Likewise, a lot of synonyms are used in order to avoid the repetition of the same words. Also, much vocabulary derived from French and Latin is used.

- Polite words and formulas like Please, Thank you, Madam, Sir, Mr. /Mrs. /Miss/Ms, Would you mind…?, May I…?, Could you please…?, etc. are often used inspeech.

- A huge number of words and phrases are used mainly in formal English. For example: nevertheless, to disclose, to constitute, to undertake, daunting, impervious, anew, truly, solace, to enchant, frantically, sizeable, to clutch, heyday, as it happens, upsurge, retrieval.

- Many (but not all) phrasal verbs are avoided.

- When spoken, words are more carefully and more slowly pronounced than in informal English

INFORMAL ENGLISH:

- It is suitable for ordinary conversations or letters to friends.

- It is more used in everyday speech (esp., conversations) than in writing.

- Typically used in “improvised” speech — when the speaker is speaking without preparation, as in a conversation (in real life or over the phone). Informal English also occurs in writing, usually whenever the writer is writing quickly and without editing (for example, in an Internet chatroom or in quick, personal e-mails).

- It often violates the conventions of “standard” language.

- Sentences are often short (or choppy) and simple;

- Subject-verb agreement is not necessarily observed;

- Contractions and acronyms are very common;

- The active voice is often used;

- Because informal English is “improvised”, it is sloppy. Speakers (and sometimes writers) often do the following: use “delaying expressions” to give themselves time: Well, I think they should have asked us first, you know? use “correcting expressions” to correct themselves: He’s not well. I mean, he’s not sick, but he’s very tired. use “qualifying expressions” to show that what they said is not exactly right: This whole bloggingthing is getting kind of old.

- The present tense of modal auxiliaries is common, and so on.

- It is less organized and thought out;

- Vocabulary use is somewhat liberal; hence, lots of clichés, colloquialisms, idioms, phrasal verbs, proverbs and slang are often used. Also, vocabulary derived from French and Latin is not common.

- Words that express rapport and familiarity are often used in speech, such as brother, buddy,man, you know, and the like.

- When spoken, words are less carefully and more quickly pronounced (often chopped) than in formal English.

72. Spoken & Written English.

The actual situation of the communication has evolved two varie­ties of language — the spоken and the written. Of the two varieties of language, diachronically the spoken is pri­mary and the written is secondary. Their features and qualities in many ways may be regarded as opposed to each other.

The situation in which the spoken variety of language is used and in which it develops, can be described concisely as the presence of an inter­locutor. The written variety, on the contrary, presupposes the absence of an interlocutor. The spoken language is maintained in the form of a dialogue, the written in the form of a monologue. The spoken language, has a considerable advantage over the written, in that the human voice, comes into play. This is a powerful means of modulating the utterance, as are all kinds of gestures, which, together with the intonation, give additional information.

The written language has to seek means to compensate for what it lacks. Therefore the written utterance will inevitably be more diffuse, more explanatory. In other words, it has to produce an enlarged repre­sentation of the communication in order to be explicit enough.

The forms of the written language replace those of the spoken language when dissemination of ideas is the purpose in view. It is the written variety of language with its careful organization and deliberate, choice of words and constructions that can have political, cultural and educa­tional influence on a wide and scattered public.

The spoken language by its very nature is spontaneous, momentary, fleeting. It vanishes after having fulfilled its purpose, which is to com­municate a thought, no matter whether it is trivial or really important. The idea remains, the language dissolves in it. The written language, on the contrary, lives together with the idea it expresses.

The spoken language cannot be detached from the user of it, the speaker, who is unable to view it from the outside. The written language, on the contrary, can be detached from the writer, enabling him to look upon his utterance objectively and giving him the opportunity to correct and improve what has been put on paper. That is why it is said that the written language bears a greater volume of responsibility than its spoken counterpart.

The spoken variety differs from the written language phoneticallv, morphologically, lexically, and syntactically.

The most striking difference between the spoken and written language is, however, in the vocabulary used. There are words and phrases typically colloquial, on the one hand, and typically bookish, on the other. Such words and phrases as 'sloppy', 'to be gone on somebody'; 'I take it' immediately mark the utterance as being colloquial, that is, belonging to the spoken variety of language. They are rarely found in the author's narrative unless special stylistic aims are pursued.

The spoken language makes ample use of intensifying words. These are interjections and words with strong emotive meaning, as oaths, swear-words and adjectives which have lost their primary meaning and only serve the purpose of intensifying the emotional charge of the utterance.

The syntactical peculiarities of the spoken language are not so striking as the lexical ones, but more than any other features they reveal the true nature of the spoken variety of language, that is, the situational character of the communication.

Unfinished sentences are also typical of the spoken language, for example, 'If you behave like that I'll...'

In the spoken language it is very natural to have a string of sen­tences without any connections or linked with and: 'Came home late. Had supper and went to bed. Couldn't sleep, of course. The evening had been too much of a strain.'

The characteristic syntactical features of the written variety of language are: exact utterances, the abundance of all kinds of conjunctions, verbial phrases and other means which may serve as connectives. Such connectives as moreover, furthermore, likewise, similarly, nevertheless, contrary, however, presently, eventually, therefore, in connection with, hereinafter, henceforth, have a decidedly bookish flavour and are seldom used in ordinary conversation.

Another syntactical feature of the written language is its use of complicated sentence-units.

Plot and Plot Structure.

The impact of a literary work depends on all its elements. Among them plot and plot structure play an important role. The plot is a series of interlinked events in which the characters of the story participate. The events are arranged in a definite sequence to catch and hold the reader's interest. The writer arranges the events, ordering them as he sees fit. Every plot is a series of meaningful events. They are meaningful in the sense that the writer does not follow all the events in which the characters of his story would participate in real life during the span of time covered by the story. He selects the events which are meaningful to the message contained in the story, and to characterization. Each event in the story is always logically related to the message, the theme, the conflict, and is psychologically related to the development of the characters within the story.

Since the writer selects events that have special meaning in relation to the message of the story, every event in the plot is always suggestive. The reader should discover the role the events of the story play in characterization and in conveying the message.

Any plot involves repetition, but it does not mean mechanical repetition. A plot is comprised of a variety of events, each of which recalls the reader, directly or indirectly, to the central problem. No matter how casual each event might seem to be at first glance, it generally returns the reader to the main problem of the story.

The plot of any story always involves character and conflict. They imply each other. Conflict in fiction is the opposition (or struggle) between forces or characters. Conflicts are classified into external and internal conflicts.Different types of external conflicts are usually termed in the following way:

1. Man against man, when the plot is based on the opposition between two or more people.

2. Man against nature (the sea, the desert, the frozen North or wild beasts).

3. Man against society or man against the established order in the society.

4. The conflict between one set of values against another set of values.

Internal conflicts ("man against himself") take place within one character. The internal conflict is localizedin the inner world of the character and is rendered through his thoughts, feelings, intellectual processes.The plot of a story may be based on several conflicts of different types, it may involve both an internal and an external conflict. Conflicts in fiction are suggested by contradictions in reality. The events of the plot are generally localized, they are set in a particular place and time. The place and time of the actions of a story form the setting.

The functions of the setting:

1. To evoke the necessary atmosphere (or mood), appropriate to the general intention of the story.

2. Reinforce characterization by either paralleling or contrasting the actions.

3. May be a reflection of the inner state of a character.

4. Place the character in a recognizable realistic environment. Such a setting may include geographical names and allusions to historical events.

5. To reveal certain features of the character.

6. When the theme and the main problem involves the conflict between man and nature, the setting becomes in effect the chief antagonist whom the hero must overcome.

Components of plot structure:

1. The exposition is the first component of plot structure. In the exposition the writer introduces the theme, the characters and establishes the setting. The exposition contains the necessary preliminaries to the events of the plot, casts light on the circumstances influencing the development of characters and supplies some information on either all or some of the following questions: Who? What? Where? When?

2. Complications - the second structural component which follows the exposition. Complications generally involve actions, though they might involve thoughts and feelings as well. This structural component consists of several events (or m o m e n t s of complications). They become tenser as the plot moves toward the moment of decision — the climax.

3. The third structural component is the climax, it is the key event, the crucial moment of the story. It is often referred to as the moment of illumination for the whole story, as it is the moment when the relationship among the events becomes clear, when their role in the development of characters is clarified, and when the story is seen to have a structure.

4. The denouement is the fourth structural component of the plot. It is the unwinding of the actions; it includes the event, or events, in the story immediately following the climax and bringing the actions to an end. It is the point at which the fate of the main character is clarified. The denouement suggests to the reader certain crucial conclusions. A story may have no denouement. By leaving it out the author achieves a certain effect — he invites the reader to reflect on all the circumstances that accompanied the character of the story and to imagine the outcome of all the events himself.

Sometimes the author rearranges the components of plot structure. Any rearrangement of the components of plot structure is meaningful. It may affect the atmosphere and introduce the necessary mood. It may increase the tension and the reader's suspense, and in this way affect the reader's emotional response to the story. The intensity of the impression depends on presentational sequencing, the order in which the writer presents the information included into the story. Presentational sequencing is interlinked with plot structure.

The writer may withhold some information and keep the reader guessing. The reader will then be uncertain of some things or suspect certain facts. A number of questions may arise, the answers to which either follow rapidly or emerge gradually in the course of the narrative.

Most stories contain an enigma, which is an important factor in story-telling.

The withholding of information until the appropriate time is called retardation. Retardation is a widely used literary technique of presentational sequencing. Retardation heightens suspense.

The flashback technique is another device of presentational sequencing. A flashback is a scene of the past inserted into the narrative.

Foreshadowing is a look towards the future, a remark or hint that prepares the reader for what is to follow. This device of presentational sequencing heightens suspense.

Presentational sequencing may be traced on different levels. It may involve sequencing of information, it may involve sequencing of literary representational forms, such as narration, description, reasoning, direct speech, interior speech, represented speech, quotations, the author's digressions. It may also involve the sequencing of viewpoints in the story, which form the so-called underlying compositional structure of literary work.