Belles letters style of English Plan: Introduction Main Body The belles-letteres Style

The belles-letteres Style
The belles- letters style is a genetic term for three substyles in which the main principles and the most general properties of the style are materialized. These three substyles are:
The language of poetry, or simple version.
Emotive prose or the language of fiction.
The language of drama.
Each of these substyles has certain common features, typical of the general belles letters style, which make up the foundation of the style, by which the particular style is made recognizable and can therefore be singled out. Each of them also enjoys some individuality. This is revealed in definite futures typical only of one or another substyle. This correlation of the general and the particular in each variant of the belles letters style had manifested itself differently at different stages in its historical development. The common features of the subsyles may be summed up as follows.
First of all comes the common function, which may broadly be called “aesthetico-cognitive”. This is a double function, which aims at the cognitive process, which secures the gradual unfolding of the idea to the reader and at the same time calls forth a feeling of pleasure, a pleasure, which is derived from the form in which the content is wrought. Since the belles- letters style has a cognitive function as well as an aesthetic one, it follows that it has something in common with scientific style. The purpose of science as a branch of human activity is to disclose by research the inner substance of things and phenomena of objective reality and find out the laws regulating them, thus enabling man to predict, control and direct the further development in order to improve the material and social life of mankind. The style of scientific prose is therefore mainly characterized by an arrangement of language means which will bring proofs to clinch a theory. The selection of the language means must therefore meet this principle requirement. The purpose of the belles letters style is not to prove but only to suggest a possible interpretation of the phenomena of life by forcing the reader to see the viewpoint of the writer. This is the cognitive function of the belles-letters style. From all this it follows, therefore, That the belles- letters style must select a system of language means which will secure the effect sought, which is an aesthetico- cognitive effect.
The belles letters style rests on certain indispensable linguistic features which are:
Genuine, not trite imagery, achieved by purely linguistic devices.
The use of words in contextual and very often in more than one dictionary meaning, or at least greatly influenced by the lexical environment.
A vocabulary which will reflect to a greater or lesser degree the author’s personal evaluation of things or phenomena.
A peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax, a kind of lexical and syntactical idiosyncrasy.
The introduction of the typical futures of colloquial language to a full degree, (in plays or a lesser one in emotive prose) or a slight degree, if any (in poems).
The belles letters style is individual in a sense. This is one of its most distinctive properties. Individuality in selecting language means (including stylistic devices), extremely apparent in poetic style, becomes gradually less in , let us say, publicist style, is hardly noticeable in the style of scientific prose and is entirely lacking in newspapers and in official styles
The Belles - Letteres Style, its Substyles and its Peculiarities
The term "Belles - letteres " is generic for 3 substyles:
- poetry;
- emotive prose;
- drama;
The Belles-letteres style has its own specific function which is double -phoned. Besides, iriformingthe reader, itirnpresses the reader aesthetically.
Its function is aesthetico - cognitive, cognitive on the one hand and receiving pleasure on the other
The means of this functional style are:
- genuine imaginative means and SDs;
- the use of words in its contextual meaning;
- the individual choice of vocabulary which reflects the author's personal evaluation;
- a peculiar individual selection of syntax;
- the introduction of elements of other styles;
Poetry. Peculiarities - rhythm and rhyme. As a SD rhythm is a combination of the ideal metrical scheme and its variations governed by the standard.
Emotive prose. Emotive prose is a combination of literary variant of the language and colloquial, which is presented by the speech of the characters which is stylized that means it has been made "literature like" and some elements of conversational English were made use of. Emotive prose allows the use of elements of other styles but the author changes them and fulfils a certain function. SDs used: in emotive prose style are represented speech, detached constructions, gap - sentence link.
Drama - the language of plays mainly consists of dialogues. The author's speech is in the form of stage remarks. Any presentation of a play is an aesthetic procedure. The language of a play has the following peculiarities:
- it is stylized (retains the modus of literary English);
- it presents the variety of spoken language;
- it has redundancy of information caused by necessity to amplify the utterance;
- monologue is never interrupted;
- character's utterances are much longer than in ordinary conversation;
3. The Pubicistic Style, its Substyles, and their Peculiarities
The Pubicistic Style treats certain political, social, economic, cultural problems. The aim of this style is to form public opinion, to convince the reader or the listener.
Substyles: The oratory essays, journalistic articles, radio and TV commentary.
Oratory. It makes use of a great hummber of expressive means to arouse and keep the public's interest: repetition, gradation, antithesis, rhetorical questions, emotive words, elements of colloquial speech.
Radio and TV commentary is less impersonal and more expressive and emotional.
The essay is very subjective and the most colloquial of the all substyles of the publicistic style. It makes use of expressive means and tropes.
The journalistic articles are impersonal.
The Newspaper FS, its Ssubstyles and their Peculiarities
To understand the language peculiarities of English newspaper style it will be sufficient to analyse the following basic newspaper features:
1) brief news items;
2) advertisements and announcements;
3) headlines;
Brief items: its function is to inform the reader. It states only facts without giving comments. The vocabulary used is neutral and common literary. Specific features are:
a) special political and economic terms;
b) non-term political vocabulary;
c) newspaper clichms;
d) abbreviations;
e) neologisms.
Headlines. The main function is to inform the reader briefly of what the news is to follow about. Syntactically headlines are very short sentences, interrogative sentences, nominative sentences, elliptical sentences, sentences with articles omitted, headlines including direct speech.
Advertisements and announcements. The function of advertisements and announcements is to inform the reader. There are two types of them: classified and non-classified. In classified the information is arranged according to the subject matter: births, marriages, deaths, business offers, personal etc.
2.Definition of Belles-Letteres in English Grammer
In its broadest sense, the term belles-letteres (from the French, literally "fine letters") can refer to any literary work. More particularly, the term "is now generally applied (when used at all) to the lighter branches of literature" (The Oxford English Dictionary, 1989). Until recently, belles-letteres has similarly been used as a synonym for the familiar essay. Adjective: belletristic. Pronunciation: bel-LETR(ə).
From the Middle Ages until the late 19th century, notes William Covino, belles-letteres and rhetoric "had been inseparable subjects, informed by the same critical and pedagogical lexicon" (The Art of Wondering, 1988).
Usage note: Though the noun belles-letteres has a plural ending, it can be used with either a singular or plural verb form.
Examples and Observations
"The emergence of a literature of belles-letteres in Anglo-America reflected the success of the colonies: it meant there now existed a community of settlers who took settling in the New World enough for granted not to write about it. Instead of histories, they wrote essays in which style mattered as much as content and sometimes more . . ..
"'Belles-letteres ,' a literary mode that originated in 17th-century France, signified writing in the style and service of cultivated society. The English mostly kept the French term but on occasion translated it as 'polite letters.' Belle-letteres denotes a linguistic self-consciousness testifying to the superior education of both writer and reader, who come together more through literature than through life. Or rather, they meet in a world reconstructed by literature, for belles-letteres makes life literary, adding an aesthetic dimension to morality." (Myra Jehlen and Michael Warner, The English Literatures of America, 1500-1800. Routledge, 1997)
"Reporting trained me to give only the filtered truth, to discern the essence of the matter immediately and to write about it briefly. The pictorial and psychological material which remained within me I used for belles-letteres and poetry." (Russian author Vladimir Giliarovskii, quoted by Michael Pursglove in Encyclopaedia of the Essay, ed. by Tracy Chevalier. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997)
Examples of Belle-Lettrists
"Often the essay is the favoured form of the belle-lettrist. The works of Max Beerbohm provide good examples. So do those of Aldous Huxley, many of whose collections of essays . . . are listed as belles-letteres . They are witty, elegant, urbane and learned--the characteristics one would expect of belles-letteres ." (J.A. Cuddon, A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, 3rd ed. Basil Blackwell, 1991)