Scientific Prose style

 

Style of scientific prose

 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 their future 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 main function of scientific prose is proof. The selection of language means must therefore meet this principle requirement. The genre of scientific works is mostly characteristic of the written form of language (scientific articles, monographs or textbooks), but it may also be found in its oral form (in scientific reports, lectures, discussions at conferences, etc.); in the latter case this style has some features of colloquial speech.

The language of science is governed by the aim of the functional style of scientific prose, which is to prove a hypothesis, to create new concepts, to disclose the internal laws of existence, development, relations between different phenomena, etc. The language means used, therefore, tend to be objective, precise, unemotional, and devoid of any individuality; there is a striving for the most generalized form of expression.

 The first and most noticeable feature of this style is the logical sequence of utterances with clear indication of their interrelations and interdependence, that is why in no other functional style there is such a developed and varied system of connectives as in scientific prose. The most frequently words used in scientific prose are functional words; conjunctions and prepositions. The first 100 most frequent words of this style comprises the following units:

a) prepositions: of, to, in, for, with, on, at, by, from, out, about, down;

b) prepositional phrases: in terms of; in view of, in spite of, in common with, on behalf of, as a result of; by means of, on the ground of, in case of;

c) conjunctional phrases: in order that, in case that, in spite of the fact that, on the ground that, for fear that;

d) pronouns: one, it, we, they;

e) notional words: people, time, two, like, man, made, years.

As scientific prose is restricted to formal situations and, consequently, to formal style, it employs a special vocabulary which consists of two main groups: words associated with professional communication and a less exclusive group of so-called learned words. A particularly important aspect of scientific and technological language is the subject-neutral vocabulary which cuts across different specialized domains. In particular, a great deal of scientific work involves giving instructions to act in a certain way, or reporting on the consequences of having so acted.

Several lexical categories can be identified within the language of scientific instruction and narrative:

-Verbs of exposition: ascertain, assume, compare, construct, describe, determine, estimate, examine, explain, label, plot, record, test, verify.

 -Verbs of warning and advising: avoid, check, ensure, notice, prevent, remember, take care; also several negative items: not drop, not spill.

-Verbs of manipulation: adjust, align, assemble, begin, boil, clamp, connect, cover, decrease, dilute, extract, fill, immerse, mix, prepare, release, rotate, switch on, take, weigh.

- Adjectival modifiers and their related adverbs: careful(y), clockwise, continuous(ly), final(ly), gradual(ly), moderate(ly), periodic(ally), secure(ly), subsequent(ly), vertical(ly).

A second and no less important feature and, probably, the most conspicuous, is the use of terms specific to each given branch of science. A third characteristic feature of scientific style is special sentence-patterns. They are of three types: postulatory, argumentative and formulate.

A hypothesis, a scientific conjecture or a forecast must be based on facts already known, on facts systematized and defined. Therefore every piece of scientific prose will begin with postulator statements which are taken as self-evident and needing no proof.

 A reference to these facts is only preliminary to the exposition of the writer’s ideas and is therefore summed up in precisely formulated statements accompanied, if considered necessary, by references to sources.

The syntax of scientific speech is characterized by the use of complete (non-elliptical) sentences, the use of extended complex and compound sentences without omission of conjunctions, as they enable the author to express the relations between the parts more precisely (as different from the asyndetic connection typical of colloquial speech), the use of bookish syntactic constructions with non-finite forms of the verb, the use of extended attributive phrases, often with a number of nouns as attributes to the head-noun, e.g. the germ plasma theory; the time and space relativity theory; the World Peace Conference; a high level consensus; the greenhouse effect; carbon dioxide emission; fossil fuel burning; deforestation problems.

A fourth observable feature of the style of modern scientific prose, and one that strikes the eye of the reader, is the use of quotations and references. These sometimes occupy as much as half a page. The references have a definite compositional pattern, namely, the name of the writer referred to, the title of the work quoted, the publishing house, the place and the year it was published, and the page of the excerpt quoted or referred to.

A fifth feature of scientific style, which makes it distinguishable from other styles, is the frequent use of foot-notes, not of the reference kind, but digressive in character. This is in full accord with the main requirement of the style, which is logical coherence of ideas expressed. Anything that seems to violate this requirement or seems not to be immediately relevant to the matter in hand but at the same time serves indirectly to back up the idea will be placed in a foot-note.

The impersonality of scientific writings can also be considered a typical feature of this style. The author of scientific works tends to sound impersonal. This quality is mainly revealed in the frequent use of passive constructions.  Of the twenty-two different drugs in opium that we know of, including codeine and papaverine, the active ingredient or dominant one is morphine. But morphine and opium affect the same person quite differently. The synergy among morphine and the other drugs changes its effects. Foxglove contains digitalis, one the most important heart medications. But because foxglove also contains verodoxin, a supposedly inert substance, a lower dosage of the intact plant form achieves the same results as a higher dose of the extract.

(b) We measured the regional CBF (cerebral blood flow) during each of the experimental conditions, on the same day, with a 60–75 min interval between measurements. The CBF was assessed using a single photon tomograph (TOMOMATIC 64, Medimatic, Copenhagen) and intravenous injection of Xenon 133 (2200 Mbeq). Data were collected from three transverse slices, each of 2cm thickness, parallel and centred at 1.5 and 9cm above the orbito-metal plane respectively. The in-plane resolution was about 1.7cm FWHM. During the 4 min data collection, PCO2 was continuously monitored using a cutaneous electrode and a Kontron 634PCO2 monitor. (From Celcis P., et al. (1991), p.256.)

The remarkable difference between the two samples lies in the fact that the second one requires a far greater amount of preliminary knowledge than the first one. The samples differ in the amount of objectivity, the first being less objective in stating data. Further, in the first excerpt, views and opinions are expressed, in the second none are given. In both samples the syntax is governed by logical reasoning, and there are no emotional elements whatsoever.

However emotiveness is not entirely or categorically excluded from scientific prose. There may be hypotheses, statements and conclusions which, being backed up by strong belief, therefore call for the use of some emotionally-coloured words. Our emotional reaction to facts and ideas may bear valuable information, as it itself springs from the inner qualities of these facts and ideas. We depend to no small degree upon our emotional reactions for knowledge of the outer world. In modern scientific prose emotional words are very seldom used. At least they are not constituents of the modern scientific style. Nor can we find emotional structures or stylistic devices which aim at rousing aesthetic feelings.