A Stylistic Approach To Est Texts

EST is a functional variety of modern English; it came into being and developed accompanying the appearance and development of science and technology, it gradually draws the attention from the scientists and linguists. It is a scientific and technological register formed by the scientists and technicians to meet the needs of scientific communication. EST is a cover term, are mainly used in the in the following fields of discourse: the English of mathematics, the English of medicine, the English of engineering, the English of psychology and the English of linguistics, etc. As a major sub-division of ESP, EST has its specific linguistic features on the levels of lexis, syntax, semantic and discourse. In a broad sense, the main characteristics of EST are as following: technical terms, passive voice and nominalization are widely used in EST texts, frequently use of longer sentences and non-finite structure.Generally speaking, EST is a formal writing style of language, the main linguistic features of EST is exactness, objectivity and professionalism. So, in order to have of better understanding of EST texts, it is necessary for us to make a relatively systematic and objective study of the stylistic features of ESTBased on the former research, after the general elaboration of language variety, register theory and the three situational context factors (field of discourse, tenor of discourse and mode of discourse), I explored stylistics analysis to analyze the style markers and their stylistic effects of EST texts at the three levels: lexical level, syntactical level and semantic level. Lexically, highly technical words are often used for a specific scientific discipline, symbols, formulae and charts are widely adopted in EST texts, EST possesses unique word-formation devices. Syntactically, passive voice, simple present tense, impersonal subject, nominalization and long sentences are frequently used in EST texts. Semantically, more frequently use of connectives and seldom use of rhetorical devices, such as hyperbole and personification. These typical style markers fully illustrate the major stylistics features of EST as a formal language variety: clarity, accuracy, conciseness and strictness. Getting familiar with these markers will provide a guideline for both the science writer and the ordinary people to enhance their sense of style and sensitivity to EST texts so as to understand and apply these texts in a more efficient way.