文体学

Ⅰ. Explain the following terms.

1. Style: Style is considered an important factor in writing, and is an important part of

a writing course.

2. Register: Register is the term used in linguistics to describe the relationship between a particular style of language and its context of use.

3. Incongruity:Violating the existing norm, rules, principles and conventions is called incongruity.

4. Loose Sentence: A loose sentence puts the major idea first and then the illustration.

5. Periodic Sentence: A periodic sentence can be used to create suspense, or expectation, thus drawing the listen’s attention to the end of the sentence. It can be used to produce humorous and emphatic effect.

6. Reference: Some units of language can only be explained by referring to some other elements in the above text or in the text below. Such phenomenon is called reference.

7. Genre: A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, marked by a distinctive style, form, or content, or a conventionalized pattern or structure.

8. Substitution: If we use one item to replace another which was just referred to above, it is a case of substitution.

9. Rhetorical Question: A rhetorical question is to use the form of a question in order to express a strong emotion or to emphasize a particular aspect.

10. Antithesis: The same structure is repeated and the meanings of all the structure are contrastive. Such a device is called antithesis.

Ⅱ.Answer the following questions briefly.（50%）

1.What factors can result in differences in style?

Different events, activities, topics and subject matters should be described by different types of language, and so it will result in different styles.

2.What factors affect the writer’s selection of words and style?

The factors are field, tenor and mode which affect the writer’s selection of words and style.

3.How many ways can we use to represent varieties of language?

The so-called ungrammatical sentences are used to represent the different varieties of language according to register and dialect. In literary works, dialectal and personal features of speech are often used to depict the personality of the characters. In poetry, the poet often uses deviant grammatical structures to achieve special effects, make lines terse and concise, to make it rich in meaning.

4.What are the characteristics of expository writing?

An expository essay takes a topic and exposes it, or rather explains it, to the reader. One of the easier essays to write, the expository essay does not require the writer to defend a particular stance or give her opinion of the topic she is describing. Not polarizing in the least, the essay seeks to inform readers.

5.What is the function of rhetorical question?

The function of a rhetorical question is to make a declarative sentence more powerful, to attract the listeners’ attention, or to induce others’ sympathy.