GG You’ve got to be cold, and you mustn’t get emotionally involved with your characters.
I So you have to preserve a distance from your characters?
GG You’ve got to preserve a distance. I mean, they’re going to come out your guts, as it were, and you’ve got to cut the umbili8cal cord very quickly.
I What about the kind of ice in the heart that you need when you’re listening to other people’s conversations, or observing the way they’re reacting…
GG Yes… actually, I used that phrase about er…when I was young and I was in hospital for appendicitis, and there was a small boy who had broken his leg at football, and he died in front of one’s eyes. And then the parents arrived, they’d been summoned to the hospital, and arrived too late, and the mother broke down, and wept by the bed, and use the kind of banal phrases that a bad writer would use in a book. And then, I mean, the fact…all the other people in the ward put on earphones over their ears, and I’m afraid I didn’t. I…I just…
I You listened because you felt it was something you could use.
GG …because it was something I could use.
I Do you observe yourself closely, too your own emotions? Are those important for a writer to use?
GG Erm…I probably do without knowing it, because I went through psychoanalysis when I was sixteen, and that probably gave me a habit of…of observing.
I How much do you use your own experience, then, I mean, places you’ve been to, people you’ve met, in your writing?
GG Not people, much. I mean except perhaps a very tiny, minor character, or somebody who passes across the stage, as it were, without any speech. But …the main character has to be imagined, and therefore some of one must be in him, but he’s a kind of composite figure, like we’re composite figure of our fathers and great-grandfathers.
I Graham Greene’s flat at Antibes in the South of France contains several abandoned, unfinished novels. Greene says that as he writes a novel, the narrative is outside his conscious control. He hands over that control to the story and the characters, and he never knows, therefore, until he’s at least a quarter of the way into a book, whether it will actually grow into a complete novel or not.
GG As a rule, one knows the beginning, and the middle, and the end. The great thing is to let the characters dictate…certain extent. They, they, they probably won’t dictate any change in as it were. But er…it’s a very pleasant sensation when one gets up from a day’s working. Well, I never though that er…I never thought of that!
I Ways of escape is the title of your second autobiographical book.
GG Yes.
I You said that a large part of your life, writing and traveling, is escape. Escape from what?
GG Boredom.
I Is that boredom with the world or with yourself?
GG …with both, probably.
I I find it hard to understand in a way how someone who has a great curiosity about people, and who also has the means and the opportunity to travel, can nevertheless be bored.
GG Well, I think one is born with a capacity for boredom. I’ve…I experienced it first, terribly, at the age of sixteen. And er…even…even danger doesn’t destroy boredom…for instance, during the Blitz, one could be afraid for about an hour or so, but then one became bored…became increasingly boring. And once when I was…I think it comes in Ways of escape, when I was caught in crossfire on the Suez Canal, one was afraid for a while. One was for about two hours or more on a sandbank, and then one got more and more bored. So I think…it is a disease, really.
I But you have sought danger as a way of…
GG Yes.
I …relieving boredom.
GG Yes, but then unfortunately the danger becomes boring! (29, 146-147).
Самый обычный заместитель для существительного – это местоимение 3-го лица единственного числа номинативном и объективном падежах, и соответствует притяжательному падежу в своей абсолютной форме.
Например: The mechanic is here. – Shall I ask him in?
Could you mend this chair? – I broke it yesterday.
“Here’s your money,” I said.
“You keep it,” Thompson said, in a panic.
“You keep it for me.”
***
His friend and mine
His son and hers
This method and the others (3, 30-31).
№3
Anna: Please, come in, Mike, and make yourself at home.
Mike: Thank you, Anna.
Anna: Here is the entrance way. Take off your hat and coat.
Mike: Thanks. What’s this?
Anna: It’s our living-room. It’s your room now. Is it nice?
Mike: Oh yes, thank you. What’s that?
Anna: Our bedroom. It’s messy. Please, don’t come in there.
Mike: Sorry, but where’s the toilet?
Anna: Sorry, I forgot. Here it is. (17, 39).
Местоимение «that» используется как «thattime» тоже выступает в роле проформы только для обстоятельства времени, где местоимение – это подлежащее, а глагол-сказуемое – Это глагол-связка.
“Yes”, “No” ‑ заменители повторения. Если ответ на вопрос полностью соответствует вопросу в положительной форме, то ответ можно полностью не повторять, а ответить просто «да». Тоже происходит и с отрицанием(4,35).
Этот диалог типичен в сфере бизнеса. Нужно знать специально-подобраную лексику, клише, фразы и т.д. В данном диалоге господин Клименко хочет забронировать комнату со всеми условиями и готов внести аванс:
№4
Reserving a room at the hotel
- Hello. Northern Star Hotel. Can I help you?
- Yes. I’d like to reserve a single room with bathroom, for three nights, from Wednesday, the 12th of February, to Friday, the 14th of February, inclusive.
- Let me see…Yes, sir. A single room for three nights with English breakfast, is that right?
- Yes.
- What is your name, please?
- It’s for Mr.Klimenko.
- Could you spell it, please?
- Yes, K-L-I-M-E-N-K-O.
- Thank you, sir.
- Shall I send a deposit?
- No. It isn’t necessary, sir.
- Thank you very much (2, 66-67).
Из этого подпункта мы узнали о словах-заместителях, которые типичны для разговорного английского языка, что совсем не характерно для русского языка. Очень удобно в разговорной речи использовать подобные слова, т.к. это экономит время, и разговор получается не «сухой».
2.1.2 Эллиптические формы
Самый яркий показатель «экономии слов» и времени – это эллипсы. Эллиптические формы типичны для диалогов. Они часто используются в вопросах и ответах на вопрос, и играют важную роль в связях между предложениями.
Предложение, сказанное в ответ говорящему, может содержать разные виды эллипсов для того, чтобы избежать повторения всей части сказанного первым говорящим. Однако некоторые виды эллипсов не зависят от лингвистического контекста для передачи информации(3, 35-36).
Этот диалог дает нам готовые выражения для представления персонала или друзей. Каждая фраза в ответ содержит в себе максимум этикета:
№5
Attheoffice
- I’d like you to meet Mr. Pospelov, our Director General.
- Glad to meet you, Mr. Pospelov.
- Glad to meet you too. Have you ever been to Kiev before, Mr. Cartwright?
- No, it’s my first visit to Kiev.
- What are your first impressions of Kiev?
- I like Kiev, it’s a very beautiful city and quite different from London.
- I hope you’ll enjoy your visit, Mr. Cartwright.
- …
- Let me introduce my staff to you. This is my secretary, Miss Krivenko.
- Nice to meet you, Miss Krivenko.
- Nice to meet you too. Call me Ann.
- I also want you to meet Victor Volgin, our Sales Manager. You’ve already met Mr. Ivanov.
- What does Mr. Ivanov do?
- He’s our Export-Import Manager…Do take a seat. Would you like a cigarette?
- Yes. Thank you.
- Would you like something to drink?
- Er…Yes. I’d like a cup of coffee.
- Ann, could you make coffee for us, please?
- Certainly, sir. How would you like your coffee, Mr. Cartwright, black or white?
- Black, please.
- With sugar?
- No, thanks.
- By the way, Mr. Cartwright, what is your profession?
- I’m an engineer, but at Continental Equipment I work as a Sales Manager. Here’s my card.
- Let’s get down to business, Mr. Cartwright. We’re extending our business and want to buy equipment for producing some goods in Ukraine, rather than importing them from western countries as we do now. We know that some companies, including yours, produce the sort of equipment we need. Your company provides advanced technology and efficient service, which small companies can’t provide. That’s why we’re interested in your company.
- Yes. I see. You’ll be pleased to hear that the service life of our equipment has been increased, and also prices have reduced.
- Would you mind speaking a bit slower, Mr. Cartwright? I’m not very good at English.
- Sure. I said we had increased the useful life of our equipment.
- Very interesting, but first I would like to know if it’s possible to adapt your equipment to our needs.
- To answer your question, Mr. Pospelov, I have to visit your factory and study requirements.
- I’ll show you our factory tomorrow.
- What time?
- Let me see…I have an appointment with my lawyer at 9 a.m.How about 10?
- That’s fine.
- At the moment we’re looking for a Commercial Director for this project so in the future you’ll have to deal with him. If we decide to buy your equipment, he’ll visit your company and you’ll discuss the contract with him in detail.
- Fine. I’ve got some advertising leaflets so you’ll be able to study the main characteristics of our equipment yourself.
- Thank you, Mr. Cartwright. Our driver is at your disposal during your visit. His name is Oleg.
- Thank you very much, Mr. Pospelov.
- Well. That’s all…our driver’s waiting for you. He’ll take you to your hotel.
- Goodbye, Mr. Pospelov.
- Goodbye, Mr. Cartwright. See you tomorrow (2, 10-14).
Хотя тенденция в современном разговорном английском языке предпочитает простые синтаксические конструкции, виды сложных предложений также используются в бытовом общении(2, 45).
Этот диалог повествует нам о тяжелом детстве главного героя Квентина Криспа, который в свою очередь дает сдельный совет по воспитанию детей:
№6
Interview with Quentin Crisp
P= Presenter
C= Quentin Crisp
I=Interviewer
P This is part of an interview with Quentin Crisp which was broadcast on LBC radio. The interviewer asked Quentin why he had always felt different and apart from other people.
C I really never had any option to do anything else. I was never going to be able to join the human race, and I realize that very early. When I was a child I was an object of scorn. I don’t ever remember not being laughed at, by my brother and my sister, my parents when I was a child, by the other boys at school, as you can well imagine, when I went to school, and by the people with whom I worked when I went out into to world. So that it seemed I either had to try and make a go of being myself or accept complete failure as being a real person.
I It sounds as though it was…very miserable childhood. Was it?
C It was a miserable childhood, but one must be careful. I wasn’t beaten. I wasn’t shut in dark cellars for days on end. You hear now of such terrible things happening to children that you have to be careful when you say “I had a rotten childhood”. It was, in a sense, my own fault. I was unable to learn how to be with other people in the sense of being like other people.
I When did that first hit you, when did you first realize that that’s how you felt?
C Well, I suppose mostly at school, when my appearance, which was just like, to me, I was just like everybody else. I mean, they wouldn’t have allowed me to grow my hair long, er, because as you know a public school is just like being in prison. But it still made no difference. People were saying “Why on earth do you say these things? Why do you stand like that? Why do you look like that?” I mean, it never stopped.
I Do you think this was with you from birth, I mean, if the rest of your family was so completely conventional and ordinary, how did you learn to be like that?
C I don’t know it happened, because, yes, my mother and father were middle-class, middle-brow, middling people and my sister was just like a human being all her life. My brothers were sort of part-time hooligans. When my…one of my niece went all the way to Chile to…er…see her cousin and see my brother, when she came back, she said “Oh, he’s a hooligan.” And I said “He can’t be, he’s been with the same firm for thirty years.” And she said “Well, he went to a board meeting wearing rope-soled sandals and one of his daughter’s jumpers.”
I But…I mean…I did…have you kept in touch with your family? Did you feel that you were rejected by your family, or did you reject your family?
С They were very good. They…my father died when I was 20, more or less in self-defense, I think. My mother lived until I was in my 50s, and of course, if you live long enough, you become the same age as your mother is thirty, she might be from another planet. If you’re fifty-three and your mother is eighty-three, what the hell, you’re just two little old people. So I got to know my mother, and indeed I knew her better than my sister, in a sense.
I Would you have liked more money though? I mean, would you…what would you have done with it if you’d had it?
C If I’d had a great deal of money, I wouldn’t have lived very differently. I would have lived in one room – never know what people do with the room they’re not in – I would have lived in a lager room, and it would have been made so that everything was very easy for me to do. I like the process of living to be reduced to an absolute minimum. But otherwise and that, I would have lived in America earlier, could have gone there, and should say if I was rich I would have been welcome come what may. Otherwise and that, I would have lived in one room, would have done whatever people found for me to do, and when I wasn’t doing it, I would have done a hell of a lot of nothing. I’m very good at doing nothing.
I One of the stories about you is that you lived in this room in Chelsea for thirty-seven years without ever cleaning it. Is that true?
C True. There’s no need to clean your room. All that’s a dream invented by your mother. Er, all…everyone who sees you in your room say “You can’t go on living like this. You’ll get some terrible disease…’ erm and so on. It’s all quite untrue. I’m still here, nearly eighty, and I’ve never cleaned any room lived in (29, 147-148).
Эллипсы тоже не характерны для русской речи, но в английской они звучат мелодично и опять же экономят время.
2.1.3 Междометия
Междометия служат для выражения чувств и побуждений, не называя их. Они не являются членами предложения. Междометия используются для того, чтобы выразить радость, сожаление, удивление, злость, раздражение или возмущение(4, 53).