-
Unit 5
Word Choice
Objectives: 1) to know the levels of
diction;
2) to know how to choose the right
words in English writing.
Word choice is very
important for the development of a mature prose
style. Indeed, to communicate
effectively, you need to understand the
different levels of diction:
formal and
informal, abstract and
concrete, and
general and specific
. You need to be
able to appreciate the connotative as well as the
denotative meanings of words, to prune
the prose of wordiness and redundancy, and to
watch out for
slang, jargon, and
clich
é
.
1. Levels of Diction
1.1 Formal and
Informal
In
terms
of
formality,
English
words
can
be
categorized
as
formal
and
informal.
Formal
diction
is
used
in the standard discourse suitable for academic or
business writing. Rather formal diction is used in
the following
“
thank-
you
”
letter to
the CEO of a company after a job interview:
Thank you very
much for giving me an opportunity to discuss my
application and credentials with you.
I
enjoyed
meeting
you
and
other
senior
executive
officers
and
I
trust
that
my
experience
in
market
analysis will prove
useful in helping your company expand your market
share among the competitors. I
look
forward to hearing from you soon.
Informal
diction
is
more
conversational
and
reflects
a
more
casual
relationship
between
writer
and
audience, as shown in
the following
“
thank-
you
”
note to
someone the writer knows:
Thanks much for writing that big
reference letter for me. It means so much to me. I
believe my work in
market analysis will
be quite useful for ATM South. I hope they will
consider my application seriously
and
offer the position to me.
If
the same job applicant writes to a personal friend
about the same topic, the diction used could be
even more informal, or colloquial:
I
’
ve got all the
right stuff for them at ATM South, Bob, and I
wouldn
’
t be surprised if I
get another call
form them soon. They
must be nuts if they pass me up. Oh, I need this
job badly. Wish me luck!
In
fact,
colloquial
expressions
are
quite
popular
on
college
campuses
in
the
United
States.
For
example,
you
may often overhear conversations between a
professor and a student somewhat like the
one in the following:
Student:
Hi, prof, do you have a
sec?
Professor: Hey, Jimmy,
what
’
s up?
Student:
Well, I
was wondering if I
’
d flunk
bio this sem.
Professor: What made you
worried?
Student:
I
’
m
having a rough time, you know, with everything
going on, and all the courses
I
’
m taking,
like
psych, lit, stats, phys, ed, and all that stuff.
In this conversation, prof stand for
professor, sec for second, bio for biology, sem
for semester, psych
for psychology, lit
for literature, stats for statistics, and phys. ed
for physical education.
1
Even
more
informal
than
colloquialism
is
slang,
a
vocabulary
of
playful
but
often
short-lived
“
subs
tandard
”
words
and phrases which sometimes carry with them
intense vividness and deliberate
irreverence (see fuller discussion on
the topic in the following).
Abbreviations
are
usually
considered
as
less
formal
than
full
forms.
Thus
sec.
is
informal,
while
section
is
formal;
vol.
informal
and
volume
formal.
Informal
style
may
rely
partly
on
abbreviations,
others being contractions and short
sentences.
The formality or
informality of diction or language is not
absolute, but relative. Much writing you do
everyday is neither exclusively formal
nor completely informal. However, you should be
aware of and
be
sensitive
to
the
different
levels
of
formality,
choose
words
that
are
appropriate
to
your
rhetorical
context (subject, audience, and
purpose), and try to maintain a consistent level
of formality. Check your
academic
writing
for
any
excessively
informal
words
or
phrases.
Similarly,
check
for
excessive
formality in your informal writing.
Strive to keep the level of formality appropriate
to the context and
consistent in each
piece of writing. To use overly formal expressions
on a very informal occasion would
be
no
different
from
wearing
suit
and
tie
and
shiny
leather
shoes
at
a
get-together
of
old
friends.
Conversely,
to
use
extremely
informal
or
slang
expressions
on
a
very
formal
occasion
would
be
like
wearing T-shirts, baggy
jeans, and dirty sneakers at a rather fancy
weeding party in a five-star hotel.
An
essay written with a mixture of formal,
informal, colloquial, and slang expressions would
taste like
a drink mixed with expensive
French wine and cheap locally brewed
beer.
The
following example may give you a feel of what it
would taste like if you mix different levels of
diction together:
Mr. John Smith proclaims
that he is concerned with ecology and the
preservation of natural beauty.
But
he
doesn
’
t
give
a
flip
about
littering
public
places.
Johnny
purchases
clothes
from
the
most
extravagant store in
town yet he is a happy brown bagger when it comes
to lunch. I am clueless about
this
dude; he is full of contradictions.
In this short paragraph,
the mixture of formal and informal expressions
(Mr. John Smith/Johnny/this
dude; is
concerned with/doesn
’
t give
a flip) gives it a neither-fish-nor-fowl flavor.
Trying to maintain a
consistent level of formality may prove
particularly challenging for non-native
speakers.
If
you
are
not
sure
of
the
usage
of
a
word
or
expression,
be
sure
to
look
it
up
in
an
English-English
dictionary.
More examples:
1. 1
）
My beloved
parent has just perished from the earth to his
heavenly reward.
(
吾之先考猝然逾越红尘往受上苍之嘉奖。
)
1a) My dear father has just expired.
(
先父适才气绝。
)
1b) My dear father has just passed
away. (
我亲爱的父亲刚刚离去。
)
1c) My dad has just died.
(
我爸爸刚死。
)
1d) My old man has just kicked the
bucket.(
我那老子刚才蹬腿了。
)
2
．
2
）
As regards the man I deem him
an incredible one.
(
论及此人，鄙人以为难以信赖。
)
2a) In my opinion he is not of the
individual who we desire.
(
以我之见，他并非我们期望之人。
)
2b) I believe that he is
not the man we want.
（我认为他不是我们所要的人。
)
2c) I don
’
t think
he
’
s the man
we
’
re looking for.
(
我看他不是我们要找的人。
)
2d)
’
fraid
he
’
s not our man.
(
恐怕他不是我们要的那号人。
)
以上五句句意相差无几，但它们文体的正式程度不同，自上而下由正式到非正式依次递降
。
2
Task 1
1. Distinguish between the
informal and the formal words in the following
pairs:
boss, superior;
brainy, intelligent; friend, pal; fail, flunk;
relatives, folks; position, job; kid, child; knock
off,
stop
working;
mean,
ill-natured;
meagre,
skimpy;
sloppy,
untidy;
nap,
snooze;
bike,
bicycle;
laboratory, lab;
exam, examination; man, guy.
2.
Classify the
following as formal, informal, slang, etc.
1)
cash,
currency,
dough,
legal
tender,
lucre,
money,
sugar;
2)
all
in,
exhausted,
fagged out,
fatigued,
tired,
weary;
3)
apparel,
clothes,
garments,
rags,
raiment,
clothing;
4)
cinema,
films,
flickers,
motion
pictures, movies, photoplays, pictures;
5) job, place, position, post, situation, station.
3.
The following is a
student
’
s essay in which the
author uses a mixed style. Revise the essay,
making
it consistent in style.
Practice Makes Perfect
A
famous
saying
goes
that
“
practice
makes
perfect
”
.
It
means
that
when
people
are
learning
to
do
something new, they will be good at it
only after having lots of practice over and over
again.
I have had such experiences for many
times. In learning English
it
’
s especially true. To
learn English
well, we must read more,
speak more, listen more and write more. At the
beginning, I couldn
’
t speak
English
fluently,
so
I
took
every
chance
to
practice,
such
as
going
to
the
English
corner,
talking
to
foreigners, reading English aloud in
the morning, and even speaking to myself from time
to time. I kept
the practice for a long
time and to my delight, my spoken English was much
better than before. It
’
s
also
the same in English listening and
writing.
Another
example, when people first learn to type, they are
not familiar with the keyboard and
can
’
t
type very
fast. As long as they keep on practicing, they are
sure to learn the skill and type fast enough.
I
like
the
saying
–
practice
makes
perfect,
which
encourages
me
to
practice
more
till
I
reach
perfectness.
1.2
General/Abstract and Specific/Concrete
General
words
identify
broad
categories
(people,
place,
and
fruit)
while
specific
words
identify
individual members of broad categories
(John, Shanghai, and apple). Abstract words
identify ideas and
ideals
that
cannot
be
perceived
by
the
senses
(love,
patriotism,
and
honesty)
while
concrete
words
identify
things
tangible
to
the
senses
(rose,
battle
wound,
and
returned
money).
Successful
writers
employ a broad spectrum of words, using
abstract and general terms to represent ideas,
explain attitudes,
and explore
relationships such as contingency (if something
will happen), causality (why it occurs), and
priority (what is first in time or
importance); using concrete and specific words to
clarify and illustrate
general ideas
and abstract concepts.
General/Abstract:
Technology has impacted
every aspect of life in Chinese society today.
Specific/Concrete:
Millions of residents in
both the country and the city have had telephone
services
installed in their homes.
Note that the
language used in the second sentence gives
specific/concrete information to illustrate the
first sentence. The following sentence
gives even more specific/concrete information to
illustrate both
the first and second
sentences:
Specific/Concrete:
Now a farmer in a small
village in Anhui Province can simply pick up the
phone
to order the seeds or fertilizers
from the comfort of his home instead of having to
get on crowded buses
3
and travelling for hours if not days.
Concrete images and specific details
can help make your writing clearer and more vivid.
Consider the
following sentence:
specific,
but
it
is
not.
Aren't
there
different
ways
to
And
what
restaurant
did
Mary
enter?
Because the sentences below use more
specific diction, they answer both of these
questions.
Mary
staggered(
蹒跚
) into Denny's.
Mary
paraded(
炫耀
) into Red
Lobster.
Mary shuffled
(
慢吞吞地走
) into McDonald's.
Mary
sashayed(
滑步走
) into Oogies.
Mary
strutted(
大摇大摆地走
) into The
Red Door.
Mary
limped(
跛行
) into Burger King
Mary
waddled(
蹒跚
) into Oink's
Gourmet Bar-B-Que.
Mary
sauntered
（漫步，闲逛）
into Subway.
Mary
crept
（匍匐爬行）
into Monari's
101.
Mary
marched
（长驱直入）
into Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Mary
tiptoed
（用脚尖走）
into Pizza Hut.
Mary
strolled
（散步，闲逛）
into Hardee's.
Mary slinked
（溜走）
into Uptown Bar & Grill.
Mary
swaggered
（大摇大摆，趾高气扬地走）
into Verucchi's Ristorante.
Mary
trudged
（步履艰难地走）
into Wendy's.
Mary
pranced
（昂首阔步地走）
into Taco Bell.
More
examples:
General: John is
a good student.
Specific:
In college, John has been rewarded a scholarship
over five years.
General: Your relative is nice to me.
Specific: Your aunt Betty
always stops and talks to me when she meets me in
the street.
General: He has a big house.
Specific:
He
has
a
two-
storeyed
house
with
four
bedrooms,
two
living-rooms,
a
dining-room
and
a
kitchen.
General: We had fun at the beach.
Specific: Last Sunday night
we barbecued hamburgers at Sagamore Beach, played
volleyball, and then
sat around singing
and telling ghost stories.
General: It was such a nice thing to
do. It made me feel grand.
Specific: It was such a generous remark
that it brought tears to my eyes.
Task 2
1.
List
enough
specific,
concrete
details
to
make
each
of
the
following
abstractions
meaningful
and
tangible.
1) virtue
2) unselfish
3) beautiful
4) happiness
5) brotherly
love
6) evil
7)
sexy
8) reality
9) difficult
10) important
2. Decide which word in each group is
more general.
1)
book, publication, Huckleberry Finn,
novel
2)
clothing, men
’
s
wear, jeans, trousers
4