Student Question
How does the language of literature differ from that of science?
Quick answer:
The language of literature and science differs primarily in style and purpose. Literary language often uses active voice, figurative language, and literary devices to evoke emotions and convey themes, while scientific language prioritizes objectivity, specificity, and passive voice to focus on actions and facts. Literature engages readers with imagery and emotional depth, whereas science uses precise terminology to classify and explain phenomena without embellishment.
Scientific language tends to use predominantly the agentless passive voice while literary language tends to use more active voice. If you are writing a science report, the emphasis is on the action rather than the agent (or actor).
For example: The cup was broken (says what happened but doesn't say who did
it). In order to get the agent of the action into the sentence, you must
include the information in a prepositional phrase.
or: David broke the cup (tells immediately who performed the act).
The distinction is important because each discipline favours language that fits with their values. In writing about literature, we use the active voice because the characters or the agents of an act are as important as the act itself. In writing about science, we wish to eliminate the agents because the action and not the scientist or the agent is what is really important.
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difference between the language infiction and science is that science would more likely use a specific kind of vocabulary that might not be known to the average reader.
Another difference is that the language used in fiction is often full of 'literary devices' such as figurative language (alliteration, personification for example) and might use irony or sarcasm. An article written for science would not use figurative language or other rhetorical devices.
Finally, a difference would be that papers written for a science publication are usually written in the passive tense and in third person. It is objective. A work of fiction can be either in first, second (rare) or third person and usually active and may be subjective.
How does the language of literature differ from the language of science?
The language of literature is steeped in metaphor, imagery and poetry. The literary author wants to affect the reader on an emotional level, to touch into feelings of sympathy, pity, anger, outrage, humor, etc.. in order to express themes appropriate to the time period and subject matters addressed. Irony, understatement, overstatement, paradox, and blatant contradiction are often used to accomplish these goals, to unsettle the reader, to effect change. Strongly worded and elaborate sections of imagery are often used to express ideas - consider the entire first chapter of The Scarlet Letter in which Hawthorne is reminding readers that while crime is always an element of any civilization, the goodness of human nature will rise above it. However, instead of simply saying that, he spends the chapter simply describing a prison door and a solitary rose growing by it.
The language of science is designed to catalog experience. Science wants to find order in chaos, and explanations for mysteries. As such, the scientist is going to use specific and concise language. The scientist will not attempt to beautify or humanize an object, but only to classify it as specifically as possible. A rabbit is a mammalian quadraped in the family of leporidae, as far as the scientist is concerned. However, a rabbit could be the furry companion of all energetic and wily creatures, a four-legged bringer of luck and prosperity... at least he could be when the poet gets a hold of him!
So, the language of literature is based in imagery and figurative language in order to touch into the emotional base of humanity. The language of science is based in jargon and specificity in order to catalog objects, living creatures and experience into neat, orderly, and easy to understand classifications.