Tecniche espressive della lingua inglese

Language in texts and contexts: Scientific discourse

Scientific discourse

Scientific discourse is a more formal discourse, for example a presentation of a critical survey. Scientific because it is linked to the idea of the Royal Society of London, founded in 1662, a scientific society applied to mathematics and the survey of astronomical aspects at the time. It is important from the point of view of the expressive technique. They reflected about what kind of language is necessary to think and write. Nullius in verba: motto of the society. You have to rely on yourself and to express yourself very clearly and adequately. They had a rococo attitude. In 1664, two years after the establishment of the society, it nominated a committee to improve the English language. Improving means simplifying, making the language more accessible.

Bishop Sprat wrote a history of the Royal Society, in which he told about what the committee had to do and what it had done. The idea was that language was too extravagant, so they thought they had to find a remedy. They had the constant resolution to reject all amplifications, digressions, and swellings (elaborations) of style and wanted to return to the primitive purity and shortness. After the Renaissance, language had been extravagantly elaborated. Men delivered so many things almost in an equal number of words. 1:1 idea: one word = one thing. This was the limit because it is obviously impossible. However, language can be simplified. Close, naked, and natural. Fluidity. Make language like mathematics (one symbol = one idea). The language of countrymen, merchants, and artisans is better than the language of scholars and intellectuals. These were the ideals. The committee never reached any conclusion. The French reached a conclusion, the British didn't. But they introduced the idea that if you don’t write simple, you can’t be accepted. This idea still exists today, four hundred years later.

Writing considerations

When we are writing, we have five 'whats':

• What reader: the public. What public? For whom is the text intended and what does it imply?
• Audience knowledge: What do you presume your public already knows? What doesn’t it know? You must select information. You have to get a balance.
• Reader interest: Stimulating the curiosity. What interest can the public have? Why should the public be interested? What do they expect from what your writing and how can you fulfill their expectations? Strategies to keep the interest: Explanations, Illustrations, Stories, Jokes.
• Reader attention: Holding the interest. How can I maintain the interest of the public while presenting my topic? Strategies: Quotations, Illustrations, Examples from everyday life.
• What information: What you are writing should be worth writing. Is it worth writing? Is some contribution going to develop? Is something new? Sometimes 'new' means presenting things in a different perspective. Sometimes it is a rereading, a summary… A controversial or polemic point of view is also possible. Ability to select, more than giving more information.

Organizing and presenting information

What sequence: Logical development. How to organize information? What do you decide to present? The tree is an example of the development. Different countries have different developments. English development is linear, Italian development is less linear. Literal translations can seem childish or confused. Digressions should be avoided. You have to tell things and not make the reader need to understand himself. Brilliant ideas are very dangerous if they aren’t treated adequately. The most interesting element must come first to keep the public interest.

Register and reaction

What register: The register refers to the linguistic level in which you are going to collocate your text. Choice of vocabulary, syntax, and collocations. Keep cohesion and coherence. You need to understand if the audience is at the peer level. If you are talking to people at your same level, you can take a lot for granted, terms and even interest. When you are writing for a heterogeneous audience, choosing the level will be more difficult. You need to understand the level of knowledge of the topic of your audience. You need to understand how much information can be heavy.

What reaction: Reader response. If you are writing something, you have a thesis to develop and you want the audience to approve the thesis you are expressing. With the four 'whats' explained, it will be easier. You need accuracy (if the audience finds something wrong, it won’t listen to argumentations). You need to express pros and cons. If everything is clear, they will follow you. You have to show yourself sure, but never become dogmatic. You need to show a positive attitude and authority. A dogmatic attitude antagonizes the audience.

Bishop Sprat's contributions

Fluency: Characteristic of a text that contains a logical flow of thoughts. Right sequence. You have to know the subject well. Coherence: Logical connection between phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. Cohesion: Each paragraph contains itself something that will lead on the next one (effective distribution of sentences in the text, sequence). Coherence is the progression in the text giving more and more information.

Cohesion = correlation with one structure and the other. Each paragraph contains itself something that will lead on the next one (effective distribution of sentences in the text). Lexical repetitions are not only of the same words but can also be of relative words (for example "operate" and "operation"). English is very repetitive. There’s much more tolerance about repetitions in English than in Italian. Identification of keywords while talking of a certain topic. It is important to repeat the same words. Parallels structures that linked together different ideas.

Pro-forms: Syntactical forms that stand instead of other words, for example "so" and the demonstratives; the verb "to do". Retrospective labels: Nouns preceded by articles that re-propose the idea said before. Labels have two main functions: topic linking: a label that links one idea to another, topic shifting: introduce a signal of changing.

Esercitazioni

- General English.

- English for special purposes: medical, scientific…

- Academic English: English used at university by teachers teaching and writing publications and by students who write at university.

"The use of video cameras in public places in order to prevent crime is becoming more widespread. Is this a good thing? Discuss." In academic terms, it is an assignment, a topic students have to write an essay about. Keywords: video cameras, public places, prevent crime, widespread. In an assignment, you usually have indications about how to develop the topic: is this a good thing? Discuss. Discuss: argumentation, pros and cons, opinion at the end of the argumentation. The indications of how to write are called the frame of an assignment.

Principles of clarity and accuracy

Clarity.

Accuracy: Positive expressions, correct expressions.

Shortness: Economy.

Native easiness.

Grace.

Lucidity: There are five categories that define lucidity: denomination: what is the name, characterisation: what it is, equivalence: what is it like, analyses: what it is made up of, what constitutes it, function: what does it do.

Important is the use of coordination (= to present the information with the same importance) and subordination (= present the information in different ways, creating a hierarchy. It implies thinking about the type of subordination), that gives a different status to the information. Conversation is full of coordinations.

Precision and synthesis

Precision: It has different levels and the most common is the precision in spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. English writing is characterised by the pre-modification of nouns: the use of adjectives is not casual, there is a precise sequence to follow. The general rule is that the more subjective adjectives come first, the more objective ones come last. The more technical the language is, the more pre-modification you can find before the noun. Modal verbs are very sophisticated and they are a precise sign of competence. Lexical choices are very important.

Synthesis: Is the principle according to which you don’t have to say two words if only one expresses the same meaning. Avoid redundancy = unessential information. Redundancy is typical of spoken speech where it is not wrong but useful and necessary. In written language, it can be a sign of incompetency, above all in technical texts. A particular form of redundancy is the tautology = repetition of the same idea with different forms and phrases. Use economy.

Objectivity and hedging

Objectivity: The author has to express the information in an objective way, although there’s not an absolute objectivity. There is always a subjective element in what we write, for example, the choice of organisation of the text. Avoid the continual reference to "I" and "we". Use passive and non-personal forms. Useful is "it" and "there". A good text in the end allows some elements of the personality of the author to emerge. Find the right equilibrium between arrogance and hesitance. The text has to have a certainty of expression. The adjectives that are used are not objective and can be divided into different categories. It is important to avoid a great number of personal adjectives and adverbs. Idea of hedging: It is a form of protecting oneself. It is the term given to the technique in which you avoid being direct and certain. "Grace" is the faculty in the written or spoken text. There are different ways of hedging in the choice of nouns, adjectives, and verbs (modal verbs that show different possibilities and realities).

Order of adjectives exercise:

• Frightening south-westerly gale
• Interesting weather-beaten hunter’s face
• Threadbare winter grey woollen coat (winter is the function of coat)
• Tiny ancient Chinese carving
• Attractive mottled blue Spanish ceramic titles
• Slightly damaged huge Victorian oak chest of drawers
• Breath-taking green English countryside
• Sombre XVIII century faded Dutch landscape painting
• Uncomfortable white plastic cycling helmet
• Delicious colourful spicy (is considered as material) Italian evening meal

Observations about the long text

1st paragraph: Direct speech without punctuation in order to keep the reader reading. There’s something unexpected: the name of Rose, he doesn’t say Princess at the beginning. Many are the repetitions and there’s a lot of colloquialism (so..so..so..why not?). The word "caitiff" takes us to the oriental world as the word "hookah" (=pipe). At the beginning of lots of paragraphs, the author is using simple language (and..and..so..so..). There’s a lot of redundancy; it’s the intention of the author: so the Prince was very sad (line 21 and 42). He mentions the bulbuls twice (to refer to the Arabic world). There’s something unusual: the nightingale speaks. Line 78: it is strange that they were going to die but they are young. "Clergymen" is a word linked to the European (everyday culture). At the end of the story, there is even a solution ("I can marry your father").

Views in the news

Introduction: Free press, Dailies or newspapers. Free press in the Western world. Freedom of the press: where is the freedom of the press limited? Is everything legitimate? How far is it legitimate to publish everything? Personal opinions should be accepted: everyone has the right to express ideas and opinions. Truth and false. Publish something on the base of first information can be a problem. Often newspapers have not so much news: there are also personal opinions of the writers. Advertising finances the newspapers. Purpose: to promote a brand and to raise money.

What is news? Is the critic of a movie or a book a piece of news? News is information that should be interesting for the readers. Idea of the scoop. If not the event in itself, but a certain feature that makes it worth writing and reading.

Media magnates: There are newspaper owners. They control certain newspapers. Editorial policy. They are often industrialists. TV programs, different types of newspapers, magazines.

People in the news: Columnist: someone who writes regular articles that appear on the same page, usually expressing opinion. Copy editor: the person who corrects or edits a reporter’s copy and writes headlines.