Gender markers of male language

- tend to change their expressions depending on the degree of their intimacy with the listeners

- use polite forms of making a request when the listeners are not intimate.

- if those who do them a favour are close friends, they will ask them in a more casual way, even bluntly without showing any politeness.

- generally use more polite expressions when they speak to female friends than to males

- choose from different expressions, depending on whom they are talking to

Ant.: <gender markers of female language>

See: <gender markers>

Gender markers of female language

- are found not to change their expressions as much depending on the sex of the persons they speak to

- generally use more polite expressions both to the male and female listeners alike.

- tend not to change their way of speaking, depending on whom they are talking to.

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1. The use of ‘hedges’ of ‘<parenthesis>’.

e.g. sort of, I guess, kind of, you know, well, you See, just

e.g. [u]Well[/u], we were, [u]uh[/u], very close friends. [u]Uh[/u], she was even [u]sort of like[/u] a mother to me. (Lady Diana Spencer)

2. Excessive use of super-polite forms of expression.

e.g. would you please; I’d really appreciate it if you would do smth; would you be so kind and do something, I awfully ask you to do smth …

3. The use of ‘tag questions’.

e.g. The crisis in Kosovo is terrible, isn’t it? But you can switch on the light, can you?

4. Speaking ‘in italics’, i.e. the use of emphatic so and very which is equivalent to [u]underlining[/u] words in written language, often followed by the sudden rise in intonation pitch:

e.g. This is a very important subject. This problem is of so much importance. It is a very very serious.

e.g. It took a long time to understand why people were so interested in me.(Lady Diana Spencer)

5. The use of the ‘empty’ adjectives or adverbs.

e.g. divine, daunting, charming, sweet, adorable, tremendous, significant, phenomenal, desperate, desperately

6. Hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation.

7. Lack of sense of humour which means that women are usually poor at telling jokes comparing to men.

8. Direct quotations.

e.g. I asked him: ‘Why did you come home so late?’ and he said: ‘I was in the pub having some beer with my friends’

e.g. ’It was a long way off’, I thought. ... I said to my husband: ‘What do I do now?’ and he said: ‘Go to the other side and speak to them’. (Lady Diana Spencer)

9. Special vocabulary, e.g. the use of diminutive forms of specialise colour terms.

e.g. piglet, kitty, chubby, sweetheart, honey

e.g. The Queen wore a yellow dress and a green hat. He was in a dark blue suit.

10. Question intonation in declarative contexts, which may cause a problem for interpreters desperately trying to figure out whether may cause what was said should be regarded as a statement or as a question.

Source: (Coats 1986, O’Barr 1982, Lakoff 1975) cit. by Максимов С.Є., Радченко Т.О. Перекладацький аналіз тексту. – К.: КНЛУ, 2001. – 105 с.

Ant.: <gender markers of male language>

See: <gender markers>

Mixed metaphor

two or more metaphors that sound strange or funny when you use them together

e.g. This is a great headache lifted off my shoulders. – С моих плеч свалилась ужасная головная боль.

Source: <MacMillan>, 895

e.g. Для того чтобы поставить детей на ноги, надо снять их со своей шеи.

e.g. Ни что так не ограничивает свободу слова, как набитый рот.

See: <metaphor>, <convergence>

Double predicate

двойное сказуемое, глагольно-именное сказуемое

a special type of predicate which presents a crossing of two predicates – a verbal predicate and a nominal predicate

e.g. The moon rose red. (= The moon was red when it rose)

e.g. She went away quite a child; she returned a grown-up woman.

e.g. In that part of Africa the natives go naked all the year round.

e.g. At this idea he went mad.

Source: Ганшина М.А. Василевская Н.М. Практ. грамм. англ. яз. М., 1964. C. 350

••

combines the features of two different types of predicate: the simple verbal predicate, expressed by a notional verb denoting an action or process performed by the person/non-person expressed by the subject, and the compound nominal predicate, expressed by a noun or an adjective which denotes the properties of the subject in the same way as the predicative of the compound nominal predicate proper does.

e.g. The moon was shining cold and bright.

e.g. My daughter sat silent.

e.g. He died a hero.

e.g. She married young.

e.g. The light came grey and pale.

e.g. The men stood silent and motionless.

e.g. They met friends and parted enemies.

e.g. The moon rose round and yellow.

There are a number of verbs that often occur in this type of predicate, performing the double function of denoting a process and serving as link verbs at the same time. They are: to die, to leave, to lie, to marry, to return, to rise, to sit, to stand, to shine, etc.. As in Modern English is a growing tendency to use this type of predicate, the verbs occuring in it are not limited by any particular lexical class.

Source: Кобрина Н.А. и др. Грамм. англ. яз. СПб., 2001. C. 342

••

В роли первого компонента выступает предикативная форма глаголов, имеющих значение: движения (to go, to come, to run, to fly, to ride, to rise, to fall, to return, etc.), положения в пространстве (to stand, to lie, to sit, to hang, etc.), состояния (to live, to die, etc.), проявления физических свойств, воздействия на органы чувств (to feel, to look, to ring, to smell, to taste, etc.), кажимости, видимости (to Seem, to appear), неожиданности, случайности (to prove, to turn out)

Source:Бархударов Л.С., Штелинг Д.А. Грамматика английского языка. М., 1965. С. 305

••

e.g. This will taste bad. (J. Steinbeck)

e.g. The sky shone pale... (Mansfield)

e.g. The sun rose brightly. (London)

e.g. The sun was shining bright and cold. (London)

e.g. The snow fell soft on his face and hair. (A. Maltz)

e.g. The moon shone peacefully. (Brontë).

e.g. She flushed crimson... (Galsworthy)

e.g. He looked stained and worried. (Galsworthy)

e.g. Dusk had gathered thick. (Galsworthy)

e.g. ...Soames stood invisible at the top of the stairs... (Galsworthy)

e.g. ... the poplar tops showed sharp and dense against the sky. (Galsworthy)

e.g. The sun shone out bright and warm... (Dickens)

e.g. Around and around the house the leaves fall thick. (Dickens)

e.g. He resigned his office and died an old man. (Daily Worker)

e.g. They \[carnations\] arrived perfectly fresh. (Mazo de la Roche)

e.g. Catherine's blood ran cold with the horrid suggestions which naturally sprang from these words. (J. Austen)

e.g. You've come home such a beautiful lady. (Taylor)

e.g. I sat down hungry, I was hungry while I ate, and I got up from the table hungry. (Saroyan)

e.g. She had set her feet upon that road a spoiled, selfish and untried girl, full of youth, warm of emotion, easily bewildered by life. (Dreiser)

See: <double passive>, <secondary predication constructions>

Double passive

двойной пассив

the construction whereby a passive infinitive directly follows a passive verb

Double passives are more acceptable when used in a reporting context. It is better to avoid the passive form of the verb as much as possible as it tends to convey a weak approach by the individual writing it.

e.g. The building is scheduled to be demolished next week.

e.g.
The contract is proposed to be withdrawn.

e.g. Their budget was expected to be reduced.

e.g. The mountain was attempted to be climbed.

e.g. A cheerful atmosphere was endeavoured to be created.

e.g. The piece was originally intended to be played on the harpsichord.

e.g. This topic was claimed to have been studied to death.

e.g. Three people are reported to have been drowned.

e.g. The building was expected to have been completed by then.

e.g. The manufacture of your goods is hoped to be resumed shortly.

Sources:

[url]http://www.oltuk.com/courses/communication/w-communication15.htm[/url]

The American Heritage Book of English Usage. A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.

[m4][url]http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/024.html[/url]

The Columbia Guide to Standard American English by Kenneth G. Wilson.

[m4][url]http://www.bartleby.com/68/5/2005.html[/url]

The Oxford Guide to English Usage.

[m4][url]http://koapp.narod.ru/english/diction/book6.htm[/url]

[m4][url]http://www.englspace.com/dl/files/oxfrd_gu.zip[/url]

See: <complex subject>, <secondary predication constructions>, <double predicate>

Double possessive

Double genitive

двойной генитив

the ’s construction after the of-construction

e.g. a friend of my father’s (= one of my father’s friends)

e.g. a play of Shakespeare’s (= one of Shakespeare’s plays)

This can happen because we usually put only one determiner in front of a noun.

e.g. this son of mine, a friend of yours, a cousin of hers,

e.g. Isn’t Frank Byers a friend of yours?

e.g. He’s no friend of mine. (= I don’t know him.) or (= He’s my enemy.)

The use of demonstratives often suggests criticism:

e.g. That silly uncle of yours has told me the same joke five times.

Source: Longman English Grammar by L.G.Alexander. L., 1988. P. 54

See: <morphological level>

Double negative

двойное отрицание

two negative words in a sentence

- can be used to express an affirmative, but this is rare or sometimes heard in joking;

e.g. Nobody did nothing. (=Everybody did something)

- is acceptable when there is co-ordination;

e.g. I’ve never had and never wanted a television set.

- is also possible in different clauses:

e.g. I can never get in touch with Thomas, as he has no telephone.

[m3]Note: the not in the if-clause does not make a true negative:

e.g. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t try to blackmail you. (i.e. if he tried to blackmail you.)

Source: Longman English Grammar by L.G.Alexander. L., 1988. P. 254, 277

••

- is possible in standard English, but then both words normally have their full <meaning>

e.g. Compare:

e.g. Say nothing. (=Be silent.)

e.g. Don’t just say nothing. Tell us what the problem is. (=Don’t be silent...)

- is sometimes used instead of simple positive structures for special stylistic effects

- is rather literary

- can Seem unnatural or old-fashioned in spoken English

e.g. Not a day passes when I don’t regret not having studied music in my youth. (More natural: Every day I regret not having studied music when I was younger. OR: I wish I had studied music when I was younger.)

Source: Practical English Usage by Michael Swan. L., 1996. P. 357

e.g. Nobody never went and hinted no such thing, said Peggotty; I can’t do nothing without my staff. (Hardy)

See: <negation>, <morphological level>

Continuous infinitive

in

e.g. I can recollect yet how I loved him; and can dimly imagine I could still [u]be loving[/u] him if - No, no! (E.Bronte)

gives more prominence to the idea of the continuity of her love, and this is obviously much stronger than the mere statement that love might still be there now. The stylistic difference is thus unquestionable, but there would Seem to be also a grammatical difference. The <meaning> of the continuous aspect is well brought out here, though the lexical meaning of the verb love would Seem to go against it.

Source: Ильиш Б.О. Строй современного английского языка. 2-е изд. Л., 1971. – С. 130

See: <morphological level>

Continuous participle

is occasionally found, but this use appears to be obsolete:

e.g. The younger Miss Thorpes [u]being[/u] also [u]dancing[/u], Catherine was left to the mercy of Mrs Thorpe and Mrs Allen, between whom she now remained. (J.Austin)

e.g. Catherine had no leisure for speech, [u]being[/u] at once [u]blushing[/u], [u]tying[/u] her gown, and [u]forming[/u] wise resolutions with the most violent dispatch. (J.Austin)

The use of the continuous participles Seems to be a means of giving prominence to the fact that the actions indicated were actually happening at that very moment.

Source:Ильиш Б.О. Строй современного английского языка. 2-е изд. Л., 1971. – С. 131

See: <morphological level>