«Comparison of two writing styles: Classical and Contemporary».

РОССИЙСКАЯ ФЕДЕРАЦИЯ

Ханты-Мансийский автономный округ – Югра (Тюменская область)

Муниципальное Бюджетное Образовательное Учреждение «Средняя общеобразовательная школа №23 с углубленным изучением иностранных языков»

Научно-исследовательская работа

на IX городской Слёт

научных обществ обучающихся

образовательных учреждений

города Нижневартовска

Исследовательская работа

«Comparison of two writing styles: Classical and Contemporary».

Секция: Филология. Иностранные языки

Автор:                                    Евдокименко Анастасия
10«б» класс

Руководитель:                            Валиева Гульназ Нафисовна

Учитель английского языка

2013г.                         

«Comparison of two writing styles: Classical and Contemporary».

Евдокименко Анастасия Валериевна

Ханты-Мансийский автономный округ-Югра (тюменская область), г. Нижневартовск

Муниципальное   Бюджетное   Образовательное   Учреждение   «Средняя общеобразовательная школа №23 с углубленным изучением иностранных языков»

АННОТАЦИЯ

Сегодня структура английского языка является видоизмененной по сравнению со структурой, которая была два века назад. Выявление наиболее ярких различий стало целью представленной работы. При исследовании мною были проанализированы отрывки из романов: «Гордость и Предубеждение» и «Остров». В своем исследовании я представила таблицу наиболее явных различий английского языка, путем анализа отрывков. В качестве методов я использовала метод сравнения и анализа, и провела небольшой эксперимент. Практическая значимость моей работы заключается в том, чтобы привлечь внимание людей к изучению английского языка для чтения английской литературы в оригинале, а также в качестве эксперимента провести пробу пера.

«Comparison of two writing styles : Classical and Contemporary».

Евдокименко Анастасия Валериевна

Ханты-Мансийский автономный округ-Югра (тюменская область), г. Нижневартовск

Муниципальное   Бюджетное   Образовательное   Учреждение   «Средняя общеобразовательная школа №23 с углубленным изучением иностранных языков»

Research Plan

The main idea of my work is to compare passages written by two authors : Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) and Victoria Hislop (The Island). I have chosen four types of passages for comparison : the descriptions of love, unhappiness, nature and appearance.  “Pride and Prejudice” was written in the beginning of 19th century and “the Island” was written in the beginning of 21st century, that is why I would like to compare the style and the language of these books.

 I would like to make a first attempt at writing a literary work:  test of the pen; It is my literary debut. As a result, they also should be compared and analyzed according to  subsequent criteria.  

The aim of my research work is to compare two styles of writing imaginative literature and to investigate changes in English for the last two centuries.

To reach this aim I should solve the following tasks:

1. To compare and analyze passages from two books.
2. To define changes in these passages.
3. To write my own passages.
4. To compare my writing style with the styles of passages from previously stated books.

The methods that were used in this research work are listed below:

• Theoretical review
• Analyses
• Method of comparison
• Experiment

Bibliography:

1. Jane Austen. “Pride and Prejudice”.  KAPO. 2011
2. Victopia Hislop. “The Island”. 2005

Contents

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………….5
2. Part1………………………………………………………………………………6
3. Part2…………………………………………………………………..…………..7
4. Part3……………………………………………………………………………...12
5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………...……..16
6. Bibliography………………………………………………………………..……17

Introduction

The main idea of my research work is to compare writing styles of passages written by two authors : Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) and Victoria Hislop (The Island). I have chosen four types of passages for comparison: descriptions of love, unhappiness, nature and appearance.  “Pride and Prejudice” was written in the beginning of 19th century and “the Island” was written in the beginning of 21st century that is why I would like to compare the style and the language of these books.

 I would like to introduce you passages written by me. As a result, they also will be compared and analyzed with subsequent criteria.  

The aim of my research work is to compare two styles of writing imaginative literature and to investigate changes in English for the last two centuries.

To reach this aim I should solve the following tasks:

1. To compare and analyze passages from two books.
2. To define changes in these passages.
3. To write my own passages.
4. To compare my writing style with the styles of passages from previously stated books.

The methods that were used in this research work are listed below:

• Theoretical review
• Analyses
• Method of comparison
• Experiment

    Part 1. Theoretical Review

Passages can be compared by using different comparison criteria. Firstly, figurative – expressive means should be used. With the help of figurative – expressive means we can see the difference between a contemporary passage and a passage, which was written two thousand years ago.

Figurative – expressive means:

• Epithet
• Gradation
• Antonym
• Metonymy
• Comparison
• Antithesis
• Metaphor
• Inversion
• Rhetorical questions
• Hyperbole
• Exclamatory sentences
• Impersonation

Also I have compared passages grammatically. There are a lot of grammar rules and constructions. I tried to see, whether the writers used short forms (it’s, I’m, I’ve etc.) or not. Moreover, as was previously stated, I tried to see the difference between grammar constructions in the books, especially conditions, complication of sentences. What is more, I have investigated, what tenses are used : past, present, future, simple, continuous, perfect.  In addition to this, I have compared the length of sentences, especially how many words an average sentence has.

I could not have left without attention the language of passages. It was extremely important to compare the variety of vocabulary, the range of synonyms.

I have compared “Pride and Prejudice” with the contemporary book: “The Island”. There is a probability of slang in “The Island”.

 Part 2. Comparison and analysis.

Firstly, I would like to compare two passages about the weather:

1. Pride and Prejudice

Here, leading the way through every walk and across walk, and scarcely allowing them an interval to utter the praises he asked for, every view was pointed out with a minuteness which left beauty entirely behind. He could number the fields in every direction, and could tell how many trees there were in the most distant clump. But of all the views which his garden, or which the country or the kingdom could boast, none were to be compared with the prospect of Rosings, afforded by an opening in the trees that bordered the park nearly opposite the front or his house. It was a handsome modern building, well situated on rising ground.

2. The Island

Early May brings Crete its most perfect and heaven-sent days. On one such day, when the trees were heavy with blossom and the very last of the mountain snows had melted into crystal streams, Eleni left the mainland for Spinalonga. In cruel contrast to this blackest of events, the sky was brilliant, a cloudless blue. A crowd had gathered to watch, to weep, to wave a final goodbye. Even if the school had not officially closed for the day out of respect for the departing teacher, the classrooms would have echoed with emptiness.

The results are presented below in the table.

Then, I have compared the passages about love:

1. Pride and Prejudice

To Mr. Darcy it was welcome intelligence – Elizabeth had been at Netherfield long enough. She attracted him more than he liked – and Miss Bingley was uncivil to her, and more teasing than usual to himself. He wisely resolved to be particularly careful that no sign of admiration should now escape him, nothing that could elevate her with the hope of influencing his felicity: sensible that if such an idea had been suggested, his behavior during the last day must have material weight in confirming or crushing it. Steady to his purpose, he scarcely spoke ten words to her through the whole of Saturday, and through they were at one time left by themselves for half-an-hour, he adhered most conscientiously to his book, and would not even look at her.

2. The Island

In all her life Maria had not felt this unfamiliar mingling of emotions. Her heart felt like a cauldron of ingredients that declined to blend. Her chest tightened with anxiety. What was this? Was happiness meant to feel so like nausea? Just as she could not imagine someone else’s pain, Maria did not hard to do so. But her whole future with him? A host of worries began to gnaw at her. What would happen to her father? She voiced her anxieties immediately.

The following step was the passages about the appearance:

1. Pride and Prejudice

Mr. Collins was punctual to his time, and was received with great politeness by the whole family. Mr. Bennet indeed said little: but the ladies were already enough to talk, and Mr. Collins seemed neither in need of encouragement, nor inclined to be silent himself. He was tall, heavy-looking young man of five-and-twenty. His air was grave and stately, and his manners were very formal.

2. The Island

She was wearing a blouse similar to the one she had lent Alexis, though Fortini’s was in shades of ochre that matched the full skirt that billowed out from her slender waist and nearly reached her ankles. The first impression of her beauty that had struck Alexis so forcibly the night before in the kindly dusk light had not been wrong. The Cretan woman’s statuesque physique and large eyes reminded her of the imaged on the great Minoan fresco at Knossos, those vivid portraits which had survived several thousand years of time’s ravages and yet had a remarkable simplicity that made them seem so contemporary.

The last but not the least passages are  about unhappiness.

1. Pride and Prejudice

She was now, on being settled at home, at leisure to observe the real state of her sister’s spirits. Jane was not happy. She still cherished a very tender affection for Bingley. Having never even fancied herself in love before, her regard had all the warmth of first attachment, and, from her age and disposition, greater steadiness than most first attachments often boast: and so fervently did she value his remembrance, and prefer him to every other man, that all her good sense, and all her good attention to the indulgence of those regrets which must have been injurious to her own health and their tranquility.

2. The Island

Alexis’s lips had dried and she hardly trusted herself to speak in case no sound came. To help the moment pass, she moved her empty cup towards Fortini, who filled it once more and pushed it back across the table. As she carefully stirred sugar into the dark swirling liquid, Alexis felt herself being pulled into Eleni’s vortex of grief and suffering.

  Part 3. Experiment

I would like to present a first attempt at writing a literary work:  test of the pen; It is my literary debut.

Nature.

Never you know, what intangible feelings you have, while observing motions of the ocean. Every time, taken by qualms, she visits this place. And that day weather seemed to be adapted to her mood. Have you ever met a person, so killed by grief, that face features don’t express any emotions? Like a lifeless mask. Actually, that day, the sky was the same: gloomy and tight, as if the shower was coming. What about the ocean, it was always steady, resolute/ then, it wasn’t rough, but neither a calm bottom was visible even on the shoal. Presumably, because of yesterday tempest. Everything was grey and thick, even the sand. No sunshine, as no thoughts in Lily’s head, only the ocean – infinite, limitless and omnipotent. There was no sense of time. Tell me, who  keeps the track of time at that moment?

Love

I didn’t know, what it was; so many years passed, but I still don’t know, what it is. People call it “love”, but I suppose, 4 letters are too miserable for the palette of emotions that one experiences. Wasn’t the society capable enough of thinking a more relevant word? Therefore, I don’t give any name for that. It’s something that gathered together, everything at once. It’s like to be drunk, but without a headache, although the mind doesn’t work.  She always lost her keys in the cutest way, and this trifle made me fascinated. I’ve become weak, and that’s only she was to blame! She sang my favorite song too emotionally, all in all, I remember her every habit, every bagatelle. What happened to me? “4 letters” – you would say, but no, those’re billions of letters, billions of words. Even her name doesn’t include everything, although her name sounds special. So, that’s a story of me, how I have become insecure, a tender pushover. But I don’t

know, why I’m telling you this, maybe because you are aware of this thrice cursed 4 letters much more better than me?

A woman’s appearance

She was a woman in her mid-forties, looked rather young, but the age is hard to be hidden. Especially, for women. Lily was very debonair and beautiful, as gorgeous as a woman in 30, though not everyone succeeds in looking that way.  I have never seen Lily unkempt. Actually, she was forbidden to be so. She had too high status in the society. I can call her a “dictator of tastiness”. I have no idea, what fashion is, but I’m sure, she was fashionable. That day, she was in a black dress, rather modest and strict. And it really suited her, as her shoes and giant necklace with huge numbers of gems, which seemed to fit no one, but Lily was overwhelming, wearing it. Lily was always polite, smart and discreet. Her hair was always neat, as Lily at all. If I had a choice before my birth, I’d like to have exactly such personality.

Fear

Hello, my name is Daniel and it’s 4 a.m. right now. I haven’t been sleeping  for 2 days. Physically, I can’t fall asleep. I lie on my back and try to see at list some miserable dream. But the only thing  I can see-is my fear. The only thing I can hear-is my fear. Something very tremendous “bits” in my ears. It keeps me awake. . Fear creates troubles, Hemingway said so. And firstly I considered it as a delusion, but now I comprehend, he was absolutely right. If you have nothing to be afraid of, nothing dreadful will happen. But I’m from the group of people who don’t listen to Bob Marley – “don’t worry, be happy”. It’s impossible, we always worry, we always bother for things to go wrong, and we are always frightened. Definitely those thoughts don’t let me sleep, therefore I have coffee for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner. And I would retire with  great pleasure, but I’m not capable of becoming irresponsible. I’m too mature, too grown-up for the spontaneous actions. So, when that English poet with Hemingway asked, for whom the bell tolls, I can reply – now it tolls for me.

Part 4. Conclusion

I have compared two styles of literary passages : contemporary style by Victoria Hislop and an old style by Jane Austen.  Epithets are used more frequently, than other figurative – expressive means in both styles.

Jane Austen used gradation, hyperbole, antithesis and inversion, Victoria Hislop used in these passages comparison and rhetorical questions. Both of authors used impersonation in their passages.

None of authors used short forms, passages are written in formal style. An average sentence of classical literature (Pride and Prejudice) is much more longer than an average sentence written by  Victoria Hislop. There is no doubt, that in the book by Jane Austen there are more complicated grammar constructions.

What about my passages, I tried to involve different grammar constructions, conditionals, and different tenses, however I used short forms, therefore my writing style was semi - formal. In my passages I used rhetorical questions, comparison, inversions, hyperbole, gradation and impersonation. The fruits of my work are presented for your consideration and judgment.

Bibliography:

1. Jane Austen. “Pride and Prejudice”.  KAPO. 2011
2. Victopia Hislop. “The Island”. 2005.