literaturoznawstwo.doc

3.Literary language and the language of literature

Literary or standard language is a historical category and it is a variety of the national language.

The national language has two distinct varieties: the spoken and the written. The spoken variety is primary

and the written one is secondary.

*The spoken variety differs from the written one in many ways. One ofthe most obvious differences is the choice of words. Some words are characteristic only of the oral (or colloquial) variety whereas others are usually found in written texts only.

*The written language is more exact than the spoken one owing to a number of connective words,

such as eventually, possibly, likewise, therefore, thus, however, henceforward, etc. Sentences in the

written language are usually well-formed, complex, and coherent. Also the syntactical patterns of the

written language are different from the oral variety.

Literary (standard) language has a number of functional styles. We can distinguish at least the

following functional styles of modern standard English:

1) the style of imaginative literature

2) the style of science and scholarship

3) the style of official documents

4) the style of technical and commercial information.

The language of literature (fiction) is a complex category. It may include literary (standard)

language as well as many varieties of language: dialects, slang, etc. The language of literature may be

didactic, philosophical, lyrical (poetic) and satirical. Language may be employed in fiction as a tool for

retrospection and for the creation of specific imagery.

Among the various functions of language, we should mention at least two:

1) communicative function and

2) phatic function.

Communicative function means that language is used for communication, i.e. for the exchange

of information, feelings and thoughts.

The phatic function of language is used in order to establish social contact and to express sociability rather than specific meaning. An example of the phatic function of language is a baby’s babbling or the so-called small talk of adults, i.e. a conversation about everything and nothing in particular. Literary instances of the phatic function of language can be found in Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot.

4.Content and form in a literary text.

1. A literary work is a work of art.

2. A literary work does not exist independent of its contexts: social, historical or literary. At the same

time, neither does it assume a subservient role to those contexts.

3. All works of literature use certain conventions or techniques of expression.

4. In a literary work, form and content are fused together, and are integral parts of each other

5. Conflict and contrast are the most characteristic organising principles of literary works, especially of

dramatic and narrative texts.

5. Literature usually presents personal experience, although it is not as a rule a direct representation of

real-life events.

6. Literary works require analysis and interpretation because their statements are not always direct but are

ambiguous.

7. Literary works are artefacts of culture.

These characteristics apply generally to all forms of literature although individual characteristics

may not be easily detected in particular literary texts.

*STH ADDITIONAL: 

Terms to understand

Annotated bibliography: a bibliography which includes citation information and a brief commentary

about the book or article which is being cited.

Bibliography: a list of printed sources usually organised alphabetically by author’s last name. Most

research papers will have a bibliography indicating the materials which were used in writing the paper.

Your bibliography will consist of all of the works you referred to while writing the paper.

Citation: a reference to an item from which a quotation or information was taken or to which a person

is being directed. It includes enough information to locate the original item. For example, a book

citation would include author, title, place of publication, publisher and date of publication; an article

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citation would include author, title, name of periodical, date, and page reference.

Database: a collection of information in electronic format. Some databases have bibliographical

information relating to books, articles, and other published material. Other databases provide numeric

or statistical information. Databases are found both on CD-ROM discs and on the World Wide Web.

Draft: preliminary outline or first attempt at writing an essay or paper.

Electronic resources: information sources and tools for writing accessed through computer and

internet technology.

Endnote: note citing a particular source or making a brief explanatory comment and placed at the end

of the paper rather than at the bottom of a page.

Footnote: note citing a particular source or making a brief explanatory comment and placed at the

bottom of a page rather than at the end of the paper.

Internet directory: a type of Internet search engine that organises and lists Web sites by subject. It is

similar to the index at the back of a book. (See search engine).

Paraphrase: restatement in your own words of a phrase or idea that you found in your research

sources. When you paraphrase, you must footnote any ideas that you take from your sources.

Peer review: constructive examination of the written work of a student by another student.

Plagiarism: conscious or unconscious use of exact words or phrases from a source in your own work

without putting quotation marks and references; plagiarism of ideas means presenting someone else’s

ideas as your own.

Primary sources: original works of literature which are the subject of analysis and interpretation in

your research paper, e.g. Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

Publication: the act of sharing a final written product with an audience.

Record: the information which describes each book or article in an index. The record includes a

citation and descriptors. Some records include an abstract.

Reference: see citation.

Research paper: formal writing assignment on a specific theme that usually requires the reading and

analysing of primary and secondary sources. Each piece of information taken from sources must have

a footnote or an endnote.

Revision: change a piece of writing in order to make language and content corrections, improve the

clarity of ideas, organisation, style, etc.

Rough draft: first version of a written assignment. It is revised and improved in later drafts.

Search engine: a program that searches for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents, or

web sites, where the keywords were found. Google and Alta Vista are examples of effective search

engines which look for documents on the Internet. Compare with Internet directory.

Secondary sources: critical materials containing research findings concerning primary sources, a

literary epoch, movement, etc.

Theme: particular part of a general topic that you have chosen or been assigned for research. A

theme sets limits on the area to be investigated and the points that will be made.

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Topic: a general subject area chosen or assigned for preliminary research.

Writing outline: framework for writing a research paper / interpretive or critical essay / diploma

project. It serves as a guide in writing the rough draft of the paper / essay / project.

Writing process: a series of steps followed in producing a piece of writing (e.g., pre-writing, drafting,

revising, editing and publishing).17

17 Adapted in part from online Glossary of Library and Research Terms. Memorial Universities Libraries,

http://www.doingresearch/glossary/php (January 2004).