Stylistics - what is it? You will receive the answer to the question asked from the materials in the presented article. In addition, we will tell you about what categories and sections of stylistics exist in the Russian language, and we will consider in detail the styles and techniques of English.
General information
Stylistics is a branch of linguistics, or a philological discipline that studies completely different conditions and principles for choosing linguistic communication, as well as methods for organizing linguistic units. In addition, the section identifies differences in the presented principles and methods of using styles.
There is the following division of such a philological discipline as stylistics: these are literary and linguistic sections. However, it should be noted that the named subtypes are not officially recognized.
Thus, the linguistic branch of stylistics examines all functional styles of speech, and the literary branch studies plots, a system of images, plot, etc. in a single work.
It must also be said that the practical stylistics of the Russian language is quite closely related to other sections of the course of this school subject. In this regard, it will not be possible to study it separately from grammar and theoretical lexicology. After all, they serve as a kind of basis for characterizing linguistic means.
Main categories
Now you know what stylistics is. This is a special section of linguistics, which has the following categories:
Main sections
The main sections of the presented discipline are:
- theoretical stylistics;
- stylistics (or the so-called stylistics of resources);
- practical style;
- stylistics of the varieties of use of the Russian language (or the so-called functional section).
Linguistic stylistics
As mentioned above, stylistics in the Russian language is unofficially divided into literary and linguistic. The latter is a whole science of speech styles. It studies the various capabilities of language, namely: expressive, communicative, evaluative, cognitive, emotional and functional. Let's look at it in more detail. After all, it is this opportunity of the Russian language that is given the most time in the secondary school curriculum.
Speech styles are functional
Russian stylistics clearly formulates the requirements for In this regard, it is extremely necessary to know that our native language has five main styles, namely:
To have an idea about each, let's look at them in more detail.
Scientific style
This style of speech is characterized by a number of features such as monologue character, preliminary thinking, strict selection of language techniques and statements, as well as standardized speech. As a rule, such texts fully and accurately explain all the facts, show all the cause and effect relationships between certain phenomena, identify patterns, etc.
Conversational style
This functional style of speech serves for informal or informal communication. It is characterized by the exchange of information on everyday issues, the expression of one’s thoughts or feelings. It should be especially noted that for such speech it is often used
Journalistic style
It is especially often used in various articles, essays, reports, feuilletons, interviews, during, etc. It is almost always used to influence people through magazines, newspapers, radio, television, booklets, posters, etc. It is characterized by solemn vocabulary, phraseology , emotionally charged words, as well as verbless phrases, the use of short sentences, “chopped” prose, rhetorical questions, repetitions, exclamations, etc.
Formal business style
This is a style of speech that is actively used in the field of official relations (law, international relations, military industry, economics, advertising, government activities, communication in official institutions, etc.).
Art style
This style of speech is used in fiction. It quite strongly influences the reader’s feelings and imagination, fully conveys the author’s thoughts, and also uses all the richness of vocabulary, and is characterized by emotionality of speech and imagery. It should be especially noted that other styles may be used.
Stylistics as a discipline
As mentioned above, such a section is mandatory in the school curriculum. However, several hours of study are not enough to fully study the features. That is why the program of some higher educational institutions with a humanitarian bias includes a course such as “Stylistics and Literary Editing.” Its goal is to familiarize yourself with the general theoretical issues of this discipline, as well as to develop practical skills in working with a specific text.
Stylistics of the English language
In order to achieve the highest possible level of proficiency in a particular foreign language, it is not enough just to master the basic grammatical rules, as well as learn several hundred or thousand words. After all, it is extremely important to master the special art of “speaking.” To do this, you need to use not only all kinds of stylistic techniques in your speech, but also know how to correctly use certain speech styles.
Which ones exist in English?
Having reached an intermediate level of English proficiency, you want to improve more and more. But for this you need to learn to understand and feel foreign languages well. Typically this is done through comparison and analysis. Let's look together at what stylistic devices are used in English:
Speech styles in English
As in Russian, speech styles in English differ from each other not only in expressive means and techniques, but also in general specifics. Let's look at them in more detail.
So, in English there are the following speech styles:
- Free, or so-called conversational style. It is distinguished by quite pronounced deviations from accepted norms and is divided into 2 subgroups: familiar-colloquial and literary-colloquial.
- Newspaper and information style. Designed for objective transmission of events (in written or oral speech). This style is not characterized by a subjective nature or emotional assessment.
- Official business. All important documents and all business correspondence are based on this style.
- Scientific and technical. This style is characterized by consistency and logic.
- Art. This style is used in literary works. It is characterized by subjectivity, emotionality, the use of phraseological units, expressive means, as well as detailed and complex sentences.
Functional style is a subsystem of a language that has individual characteristics in terms of lexical means, syntactic structures and even phonetics. The emergence and existence of styles is associated with the conditions of communication in various spheres of human life.
Styles differ not only in fact, but also in the frequency of use of the elements listed above. For example, some expressions may appear in a colloquial style, but are less likely to appear in a scientific style.
Classifying styles is a very difficult task. Let us turn to the opinion of I.V. Arnold and I.R. Galperin. Thus, Halperin considers functional styles as properties of written language, thereby excluding the colloquial style.
Both scholars agree that each functional style can be recognized by one or more key features. At the same time, Halperin pays more attention to the coordination of linguistic means and stylistic devices, while Arnold connects the features of each style with the features of its use in the field of communication.
According to Halperin, a functional style of language is a system of interconnected linguistic means that serves a specific purpose in human communication. Functional style should be considered as a product of a specific task set by the author of the message.
Functional styles are present mainly in the literary standard of the language. They represent different kinds of abstract invariant and may deviate from or even contradict it.
Each functional style is a relatively stable system at a specific stage of development of the literary language, but it can undergo significant changes from period to period. Thus, functional style is a historical category.
For example, in the 17th century it was believed that not all words could be used in poetry, and that there was a separate poetic style. Later, in the 19th century, romanticism rejected the norms of poetic style and introduced new vocabulary into poetry.
The development of each style is determined by changes in the norms of standard English. This is also greatly influenced by changing social conditions, scientific progress and the development of cultural life.
Each functional style is characterized by a special use of linguistic means and, thus, establishes its own norms, which, however, are subject to the invariant norm and do not violate the general literary norm. Writers of a particular period of literary language make a great contribution to the establishment of a system of norms for this period.
It is worth noting that studies of language norms of this period are largely based on literary works. Conscious choice of style and way of handling selected elements are the main features of individual style.
Individual style
Individual style is a unique combination of linguistic units, means of expression and stylistic devices that are characteristic of a given author and make the works or even statements of this author easily recognizable. (Galperin, p. 17)
Individual style is based on a thorough knowledge of the modern language and allows some justified deviations from strict norms. Individual style is the object of the study of stylistics, since it uses the potential of linguistic means.
Each author has a specific individual manner of using language to achieve the desired effect. The author makes a conscious choice of linguistic means. This process must be distinguished from idiolect - language features that appear in the everyday speech of a person.
Style classification
Neutral style
The term "neutral style" is used mainly to indicate the basis for the implementation of the features of stylistically colored elements. The neutral style is characterized by the absence of stylistic coloring and a high probability of use in any communicative situation. This is a deliberately simplified style.
Conversational style
While the neutral style is acceptable in any communicative situation, the conversational style is characteristic of situations of spontaneous everyday (informal) communication.
This division does not coincide with the division between oral and written speech, since the colloquial style can also be used in fiction, and some types of book style, for example, oratorical, exist only in oral form. At the same time, it must be remembered that colloquial speech in literature undergoes certain transformations: the writer, as a rule, compresses linguistic information, choosing typical elements and avoiding random ones.
Conversational style is divided into high colloquial, normal colloquial and low colloquial. The last two have their own characteristics, depending on the place of residence, gender and age of the speaker.
Book style
Book style covers scientific, official business, journalistic (newspaper), oratorical and poetic styles.
Arnold belongs to a group of scientists who deny the existence of an artistic style. Her opinion is that each literary work is an example of individual authorial speech and, thus, follows its own norms. Authors often combine different styles in one work.
Arnold introduces the concept of language function for various styles. The intellectual-communicative function is associated with the transfer of intellectual content. The voluntary function refers to the impact on the will and consciousness of the listener or reader.
| Intellectual and communicative | Voluntary | Emotive | Contact-establishing | Aesthetic | |
| Oratorical | + | + | + | + | + |
| Colloquial | + | + | + | + | - |
| Poetic | + | - | + | - | + |
| Journalistic and newspaper | + | + | + | - | - |
| Official business | + | + | - | - | - |
| Scientific | + | - | - | - | - |
Given the fact that functional style is a historical category, Arnold doubts that there is a separate poetic style in modern English. As can be seen from the table, oratorical and scientific styles are opposite to each other in that the first has all the functions of language, while the second has only one.
There are no strict boundaries separating one style from another. The oratorical style has many similarities with the journalistic style. The journalistic newspaper style is close to the conversational one. However, if we look at this problem more deeply, it becomes obvious that we are dealing with a combination of different styles in the speech of a particular person, since each style is characterized by specific parameters of vocabulary and syntax.
Art style
According to I. R. Galperin, this term combines three substyles: the language of poetry, the language of emotive (fiction) prose and the language of drama. Each of these substyles has both common and individual features for all three. The common features of these substyles are:
Aesthetic-cognitive function
It ensures that the reader's intention is gradually revealed and at the same time gives him a sense of satisfaction because he can penetrate the author's intention and form his own conclusions.
Certain linguistic features:
- Original, unconventional images created by purely linguistic means.
- The use of words in different meanings, highly dependent on the lexical environment (context).
- Vocabulary that, to a certain extent, reflects the author’s personal assessment of events or phenomena.
- Special individual choice of vocabulary and syntax.
- Introduction of features characteristic of spoken language. This applies to the greatest extent to drama, to a lesser extent to prose, and to the smallest extent to poetry.
The artistic style is individual in its essence. This is one of its main characteristics.
The language of poetry
The language of poetry is characterized by orderly form, based primarily on the rhythmic and phonetic construction of phrases. The rhythmic aspect determines syntactic and semantic features.
The restrictions imposed by style lead to brevity of expression, epigrammatic character of phrases and the creation of fresh, unexpected images. Syntactically, this brevity is expressed in elliptical sentences, isolated constructions, inversion, etc.
Emotive prose
Emotive prose has the same general features, but the relationship between these features is different than in poetry. The imagery of the prose is less rich, the percentage of words with contextual meaning is not so high. Emotive prose combines the literary version of the language with the colloquial one in both vocabulary and syntax.
But spoken language in an artistic style is not just a reproduction of natural speech; the author processes it and makes it “literary.”
In emotive prose there are always two forms of communication - monologue (author's speech) and dialogue (characters' speech). Emotive prose allows you to use elements of other styles, but all of these styles are, to a certain extent, influenced by emotive prose. Fragments written in other styles can only be considered as interpolations of those styles, but not like their samples.
Language of drama
The language of drama consists entirely of dialogue. The author's speech is practically absent, with the exception of stage directions and stage directions. But the speech of the characters does not exactly reproduce the norms of spoken language. Any type of artistic style uses the norms of the literary language of a given period. The language of the plays is always stylized and preserves the norms of literary English.
Journalistic style
The journalistic style became a separate linguistic style in the middle of the 18th century. Unlike other styles, it has two oral varieties, namely: the oratorical substyle and the substyle of radio and television announcer texts. Written substyles are essays (philosophical, literary, moral) and journalistic articles (political, social, economic).
The general goal of the journalistic style is to influence public opinion, to convince the reader or listener that the interpretation given by the author is the only correct one, and to encourage him to accept the point of view presented.
Journalistic style is characterized by a clear and logical syntactic structure with extensive use of connecting words and careful paragraphing. The power of emotional appeal is achieved by using emotionally charged words.
Stylistic techniques are generally traditional and the individual element is not too obvious. The journalistic style is also characterized by laconic expressions, sometimes this becomes its main feature.
Oratorical style
Oratorical style is an oral subcategory of journalistic style. Direct contact with listeners allows the use of a combination of syntactic, lexical and phonetic features of both written and oral speech. Typical features of this style are direct appeal to the public; sometimes - the use of contractions and colloquial words.
The stylistic devices involved in the oratorical style are determined by the communicative situation. Since the audience relies only on memory, the speaker often resorts to repetition so that listeners can follow the main points of his speech.
The speaker often uses analogies and metaphors, but usually traditional ones, since individual stylistic devices would be difficult to understand.
Essay
An essay is more a personal reflection than a complete presentation of an argument or a comprehensive examination of an issue. The characteristic language features of the essay are: brevity; speech in the first person singular; quite extensive use of connecting words; frequent use of emotional language; use of analogies and stable metaphors.
The language of journalistic articles largely depends on the nature of the newspaper or magazine, as well as the chosen topic. Literary reviews are stylistically closer to essays.
Newspaper style
The appearance of the first English newspapers dates back to the 17th century. The earliest English periodical is the Weekly News, first published in May 1622. The first English newspapers were only a means of disseminating information; comments appeared in them later.
However, by the middle of the 18th century, British newspapers in many ways resembled modern ones and contained foreign and local news, announcements, advertising, as well as articles with commentary.
Not all materials found in the press are newspaper style. It may only include materials that perform the function of informing the reader and assessing the published information.
English newspaper style can be defined as a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means that are perceived as a separate linguistic unit and serve to inform and instruct the reader. Information in an English newspaper is conveyed through:
- brief news notes;
- reporting;
- articles that are purely informational in nature;
- advertising and announcements.
The newspaper seeks to influence public opinion on political and other issues. Elements of evaluation can be observed in the selection and manner of presentation of news; use of specific vocabulary; expressing doubts about facts; syntactic constructions indicating the reporter’s lack of confidence in what was said or his desire to avoid responsibility.
The main means of evaluation and interpretation are the newspaper article and, in particular, the editorial article. An editorial is a leading article characterized by a subjective presentation of facts. The same goal determines the choice of linguistic elements, mostly emotionally charged.
Newspaper style has its own specific vocabulary and is characterized by the extensive use of the following words:
- special political and economic terms (president, election);
- non-terminological political vocabulary (nation, crisis, agreement, member);
- newspaper clichés (pressing problem, danger of war, pillars of society);
- abbreviations (NATO, EEC);
- neologisms.
Formal business style
This style is heterogeneous and is represented by the following substyles or varieties:
- language of legal documentation;
- language of diplomacy;
- language of military documentation.
Like other linguistic styles, it has a specific communicative purpose and its own system of interrelated linguistic and stylistic means. The main purpose of this type of communication is to determine the terms binding the two parties and to reach an agreement between the two contracting parties.
The most general function of the official business style also determines its features. Its most noticeable feature is a special system of cliches, terms and set expressions by which each of the substyles is easy to recognize.
In financial documents we may come across terms such as e xtra revenue, liability. Diplomacy is characterized by such expressions as high contracting parties, memorandum, to ratify an agreement. Examples of legal language: to deal with a case, a body of judges.
All of these substyles use abbreviations, conventions, and abbreviations, such as M.P. (Member of Parliament), Ltd (Limited), $. Abbreviations are found especially often in military documentation.
They are used not only as designations, but also as part of military code. Another feature of this style is the use of words in their direct dictionary meaning. It does not use figurative meaning.
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§ 6. conversational style
Interest in the peculiarities of spoken speech has not waned in linguistics for several decades now, and the linguistic literature on the issue is almost endless.
Stylistic differentiation is complicated by the fact that, as mentioned above, the boundaries of styles are very vague. It is possible to statistically establish the general characteristics of styles, but individual colloquial words in their stylistic characteristics are even more flexible than words of other styles, therefore the latest editions of Webster’s dictionary do not use the colloquial mark at all, citing the fact that the colloquialism of a word cannot be judged at all.
Differentiation within a conversational style is even more difficult. All authors almost unanimously distinguish literary-colloquial and familiar-colloquial (with a subgroup of children's speech); the identification of a third substyle - vernacular - turns out to be more controversial, but for the reasons stated above we do not abandon it.
It is very important to imagine the relationship between conversational style and the form and type of speech. Conversational style is generated by the oral form of speech, and its specific features largely depend on oral speech. But the forms and style of speech are not identical, and the possibility of using a colloquial style in writing is not excluded. It is found, for example, in private correspondence and advertising. As for the types of speech, that is, the dialogical or monologue type, the defining, formative type is dialogue, although monologue is not excluded. In literary works, this is mainly an internal monologue.
Thus, the terms “style”, “form” and “type” of speech are not synonymous, and the referents they denote can be combined in different ways.
The style-forming factors for colloquial style are the functions of the language realized in colloquial speech, and in colloquial speech all the functions of the language are realized with the exception of aesthetic ones. However, the exclusion of the aesthetic function is to a certain extent conditional, and it would be possible to cite cases where it is also realized, it’s just that this function is less characteristic here than in other styles, and its role here is much less than the role of contact-establishing and emotive functions.
Sociolinguistic factors play an extremely important role, i.e. accepted norms of speech behavior and the principle of politeness1.
A major style-forming role is also played by two opposing trends associated with specific conditions of communication (i.e., primarily with its oral form), namely compression, which leads to various kinds of incompleteness of expression, and redundancy. We will focus on them first.
Compression manifests itself at all levels - it can be phonetic, morphological, syntactic, and in all cases it obeys the laws of information theory in the sense that semantically redundant elements are subject to compression. The use of a truncated form, i.e. phonetic reduction of auxiliary verbs is a characteristic feature of the English colloquial form: it"s, it isn"t, I don"t, I didn"t, you can"t, you"ve, we"ll, etc. In those in cases where the truncated forms of the verb have I"ve and he"s are insufficient to convey the meaning of have, possess, a construction with the verb get is used: I"ve got, he"s got; the same construction also performs the modal function inherent in have + Inf.:
I "ve got to go now. Leveling the differences between shall and will when expressing the pure future contributes to the widespread use of form 11. This type of compression is equally common in all substyles of colloquial speech, with the only difference being that archaic forms of contraction are partially preserved in dialect and vernacular , namely ha.
Abbreviated structural variants of perfect forms with the omission of the auxiliary have are uncharacteristic for the literary-colloquial style and are possible only in familiar-colloquial and colloquial speech: “Seen any movies?” I asked (Gr. Greene). “Been traveling all the winter - Egypt, Italy and that - chucked America! I gather" (J. Galsworthy).
In both examples, not only auxiliary verbs are omitted, but also personal pronouns. The accelerated pace of speech leads, therefore, to the omission of semantically redundant unstressed elements, in these examples these are the personal pronouns of the 2nd and 1st persons - the subjects of the sentence; the presence of both interlocutors makes naming them redundant.
At the lexical level, compression is manifested in the predominant use of monomorphemic words, verbs with postpositives: give up, look out, abbreviations: frig, marg, vegs, ellipse like mineral waters - minerals or other types of ellipse: Morning!, words of broad semantics: thing, stuff , in the transitive use of intransitive verbs: go it, etc. The ellipse is especially characteristic of syntactic compression. The problem of compression at the syntactic level is interpreted very interestingly by K.G. Middle1. K.G. Seredina notes that many researchers, relying on the law of least effort proposed by A. Martinet, reduced various types of savings to omission, combination, representation: “You must not have got mixed in something in Chicago.” - “I guess so,” said Nick (E. Hemingway). In this example, the word so replaces the entire first statement. K.G. herself The middle offers another very important type of saving - simplicity. At first glance, the sentence The mother kissed the child's tears away seems compressed. However, this construction with its complex connections belongs to the book style; despite its brevity, it is complex and therefore less economical than its corresponding colloquial style: The mother kissed the child and he stopped crying.
“More economical,” she writes, “and therefore more common in spoken language is a construction that is syntactically simpler.” By compression, this author proposes to understand syntactic conciseness and simplicity of syntactic connections. Compression can manifest itself differently in different styles.
The opposite trend, i.e. the tendency towards redundancy is associated primarily with unpreparedness and spontaneity of spoken language. Redundant elements include, first of all, the so-called time fillers, i.e. “trash words” that have no semantic load such as well, I mean, you see and doubling of conjunctions: like as if. Elements that are redundant for subject-logical information can be expressive or emotional. In common parlance, this is a double negative: don"t give me no riddles, don"t bring no discussion of politics, pleonastic use of personal pronouns in imperative sentences: Don"t you call mother names. She"s had a hard life. Don't you forget it. (J. Saga), as well as the rude use of you: You, come here! or Come here, you!
Some important features of colloquial speech are generated by its predominantly dialogical nature.
The syntactic specificity of colloquial speech is that a unit larger than a sentence in it, as in dialogical speech, is a combination of a number of remarks connected by structural-semantic interdependence. N.Yu. Shvedova proposed calling them dialogical unity. In most cases, these are two-term units - question-and-answer, with pickup, with repetition, or syntactically parallel. This connection of cues is the reason for the prevalence of one-part sentences. Here are some examples from the works of J. Galsworthy, which we borrow from the article by S.S. Berkner: 1) Question-answer unity: “When do you begin?” - "Tomorrow," said the Rafaelite. 2) Unity formed by pickup: “So you would naturally say.” - “And mean.” 3) Unity formed by repetition: “There's - some - talk - of - suicide,” he said. James's jaw dropped. - “Suicide? What should he do that for? 4) Unity of syntactically parallel remarks: “Well, Mr Desert, do you find reality in politics now?” - “Do you find reality in anything, sir?”
C.C. Berkner believes that both pickup and repetition express an expressive reaction to the words of the interlocutor, but there is also a significant semantic and structural difference between them. The pick-up develops the dialogue, contains a new message, often ironically refuting the first: “...Americans are generally important, sooner or later.” - “To themselves,” said Fleur, and saw Holly smile.
Picking up sometimes interrupts the interlocutor and changes the direction of the dialogue: “I feel you"re a rock” - “Built on sand,” answered Jolyon...
Repeat, according to C.C. Berkner, is limited only to an assessment of what he heard and does not convey a new thought: “...But you"re the head of the family, Jon - you ought - to settle.” - “Nice head!” said Jon bitterly.
Repeated exclamations express indignation, ridicule, irony, and much less often a positive reaction. It is possible to repeat the question: “What do you call it?” - “Call it? "The big field."
The structural difference between pick-up and repeat is more noticeable. The pick-up syntactically continues the first remark and in the majority (85\%) of cases is connected to it with a connecting word, so that it turns out to be one sentence distributed between two interlocutors...
Contact-establishing and emotive functions play a specific and very important role in this style. They are recognized by society in the form of socially accepted norms and formulas of politeness and should be studied in sociolinguistics. Speech should be tactful, not too confident, not too categorical and harsh, and at the same time not indifferent to the interlocutor. Hence the variety of forms of polite modality, which can be expressed intonationally, lexically, morphologically and syntactically. Let's look at examples of the manifestation of these functions in a literary and colloquial style using the material of the verb do. In order to express, for example, some uncertainty in the answer and willingness to accept the objections or considerations of the interlocutor, the verb do can be used in an affirmative sentence, as in the example recorded by B. Charleston: “What has happened to your strange neighbor?” “I did hear he"d gone to Australia.”
Tactful interest in the opinion of the interlocutor and the subject of the conversation can be expressed in a remark that develops or illustrates what was heard and is reinforced by the same do, sometimes with the addition of a dissected question:
“You can"t blame anyone, it"s the war."
"The war does spoil everything, doesn't it?" (Gr. Greene)
Such a polite remark is often purely mechanical. In responses, the interlocutor can use do, expressing agreement, which can be sincere and complete or, on the contrary, ironic, as in the following example:
"Perhaps I"d better tell the police to call," he said. "You"d feel more comfortable, wouldn't"t you. Mr Jimson, if the police were in charge - less responsibility..." "Thank you," I said, "You"re a good chap. For I do certainly feel a lot of responsibility" (J. Cary. The Horse's Mouth).
Do is often used in remarks of mild reproach, admiration, irritation, and also if the speaker wants the interlocutor to show his understanding, agreement, trust.
In all the examples given, the intellectual-logical function does not disappear, but appears in combination with the emotive, contact-establishing and often, as in the last example, voluntarily. It is generally accepted that in these constructions do serves for emphasis. Amplification certainly takes place, but, as we have just seen, it is not only that, and the very need for amplification is dictated by different functions.
Emotive and contact-establishing do can be supported by a combination with words such as actually, in fact, indeed, really, undoubtedly, etc. and the verb seem.
Compare: Monica: I see her point, you know. You really did go a little too far (N. Coward. Present Laughter).
Let's first remove the softening a little and continue folding:
You really did go too far.
You did go too far.
You went too far.
The condensation carried out shows that by sequentially removing really and do, we do not weaken emphaticity, but, on the contrary, increase it; the statement becomes harsh and offensive.
Given the large role of the voluntary function in combination with the imperative mood, do, on the contrary, really becomes purely emphatic: “Oh go away, do, Mr Jimson” (J. Cary. The Horse's Mouth).
The same is true when strengthening the emotive function in exclamatory sentences: ...and then suddenly I sat up and called out as loud as I could, “I do want to go on a donkey. I do want a donkey ride!” (K. Mansfield. Lady's Maid).
The emotive function is the reason for the abundance of various types of amplifiers in colloquial speech, which can appear in various combinations and are different for literary-colloquial and familiar-colloquial styles. So, for example, in a familiar conversational style, how, when, where, who, which, what, why are combined with the word ever, or the suffix ever1, or with expressions such as: On earth, the devil, the hell, etc. . For example: Whatever are you doing? or What ever are you doing? Whoever"s that? However did you get in here? What on earth are you doing? Who the devil do you think you are? Who on earth can that be? Why the hell do you ask?
This type of emphasis is only possible in interrogative or exclamatory sentences. Emotionality in this case has a rude, impolite character, i.e. associated with irritation, impatience, reproach.
Such amplifiers as after all, actually, really, not really, certainly, surely, etc. are devoid of emotionality and depend on the contact-establishing function. Compare: I certainly admire your courage and I admire your courage. By including the word certainly, the speaker assures the interlocutor of his sincerity and understanding of his point of view.
The familiar conversational style, with its emotionality and emphaticness, also combines many swear words or their euphemisms: damn, dash, beastly, confounded, lousy. They are possible in sentences of any type, optional in their syntactic connections, syntactically multifunctional and can express both negative and positive emotions and assessments: damned pretty, damned nice, beastly mean, damn decent.
A variant of the familiar conversational style is the so-called baby-talk with its specific vocabulary, the most noticeable features of which are the abundance of onomatopoeic words: bow-wow (a dog) and words with diminutive suffixes: Mummy, Daddy, Granny, pussy, dearie , lovey, doggy, naughty, pinny, panties, etc.
A characteristic feature is the replacement of personal pronouns with full-valued words. When addressing a child, instead of you they say baby, Johnny, etc., instead of I, the speaker calls himself Mummy, nurse, etc. The first person plural pronoun we refers to the listener: Now we must be good and drink our milk.
In fiction, elements of baby-talk used by adults usually give an idea of the affectiveness or sentimentality, or insincerity of the speaker. In G. Green's novel "The Heart of the Matter," Freddie Begster approaches Mrs. Rolt Nissen's hut - "Let Freddie in," the voice wheedled.
In children's literature for younger children, for pedagogical reasons, a mainly neutral or literary-conversational style is used.
The following excerpt from Winnie-the-Pooh contains only the word Bother! refers to the familiar-conversational style.
"Is anybody at home?"
There was a sudden scuffling noise from inside the hole and then silence.
“What I said was “Is anybody at home?”” called out Pooh very loudly.
“No,” said a voice; and then added, “You needn"t shout so loud. I heard you quite well the first time.”
"Bother!" said Pooh. “Isn’t there anybody here at all?”
Winnie-the-Pooh ... thought for a little and he thought to himself.
"There must be somebody there, because somebody must have said "Nobody!"
“Hello. Rabbit, isn't that you?
"No," said Rabbit, in a different sort of voice this time.
“But isn't that Rabbit's voice?”
“I don’t think so,” said Rabbit. “It isn’t meant to be.”
"Oh!" said Pooh (A.A. Milne).
A pronounced emotional, evaluative and expressive character has a special, genetically very heterogeneous layer of vocabulary and phraseology, called slang, which exists in colloquial speech and is outside the limits of the literary norm. The most important properties of slangisms are their crudely cynical or rude expressiveness, dismissive and playful imagery. Slang is not distinguished as a special style or substyle, since its features are limited to only one level - the lexical one. There is an extensive literature on slang. A difficult question remains the question of the criteria for classifying words as slang, since the boundaries of slang, both general and special, i.e. limited to the professional or social sphere of use, are very vague. Slang words and expressions, as a rule, have synonyms in neutral literary or specialized vocabulary, and their specificity can be identified by comparison with this neutral vocabulary.
In numerous modern novels about the life of teenagers, teenage slang plays an important stylistic role. It has long been noted that slang is especially characterized by the phenomenon of synonymous attraction, i.e. large groups of synonyms for concepts that for some reason cause a strong emotional reaction (girl, money, intoxication, alcohol, drugs, theft have especially large groups of slang synonyms). In the novel by K. Mac Innes, where the narrator is a teenager and where the problems of generations and nonconformism are especially acute, there are a lot of synonyms to designate representatives of the older and younger generations: the oldies, the oldsters, the oldos, old hens, old numbers, old geezers and , on the other hand: kid, kiddo, sperm, chick, chicklet (girl), minors, beginners, debs.
People who obediently accept the existing order of things are called mugs, squares, tax-payers by the narrator.
That have a job like mine means that I don"t belong to the great community of the mugs: the vast majority of squares who are exploited. It seems to me this being a mug or a non-mug is a thing that splits humanity up into two sections absolutely. It"s nothing to do with age or sex or class or color - either you"re born a mug or a non-mug...
The stylistic structure of colloquial speech is thus heterogeneous. This includes various socially conditioned substyles that interact in it. The division of colloquial speech into dialects depends on the geographical factor. The most famous urban vernacular dialect is London Cockney.
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Functional styles of English
Introduction
1. Scientific style
2. Formal business style
3. Conversational style
4. Style of artistic speech
Conclusion
Introduction
The question of language styles and speech styles is one of the most complex, undeveloped and controversial in the stylistics of literary language.
Soviet linguists V.V. have repeatedly written about how diverse the concept of style is. Vinogradov, A.I. Efimov, V.G. Kuznetsov and others. M.N. Kozhina explains this situation, on the one hand, by “the very historical process of development of stylistics as a science, the presence in it of several directions, in each of which the subject of research is inadequately defined,” and on the other, by the complexity of the concept itself. There are quite a few definitions of the concept of style in linguistics. So, Yu.N. Karaulov gives two meanings of this concept.
According to him, style is “1) a socially conscious system of linguistic elements within a literary language, united by a certain functional purpose, methods of their selection, use, mutual combination and correlation; 2) a functional variety, or variant, of a literary language.”
The subject of functional stylistics is the style of language in the second meaning.
In our opinion, the most accurate definition of functional styles is the definition of V.G. Kuznetsova: “Functional styles are varieties of language that correlate with certain areas of social consciousness and linguistic functions.”
Researchers usually distinguish five functional styles: scientific, conversational, official business, newspaper journalistic, and artistic.
In this work we will give a linguistic and stylistic description of the styles of modern English.
1. Scientific style
The scientific style is characteristic of texts intended to convey accurate information from any special field and to consolidate the process of cognition. The main meaning of scientific works is the presentation of data obtained through research, introducing the reader to scientific information. This predetermines the monological nature of the language of science. The informative function of this style is also reflected in its genre uniqueness: it is represented by scientific literature (monographs, articles, abstracts), as well as educational and reference literature. The content and purpose of these types of literature are varied, but they are united by the nature of scientific thinking: its main form is the concept, and the linguistic expression of thinking is judgments and conclusions, following one after another in a strict logical sequence. This determines such features of the scientific style as abstraction, generalization; it structurally expresses the logic of presentation.
The characteristic features of the scientific and technical style are its information content (content), logic (strict consistency, clear connection between the main idea and details), accuracy and objectivity, and the clarity and intelligibility resulting from these features.
Scientific and technical people have a special, unique use of linguistic means that help meet the needs of this sphere of communication. This style of speech primarily uses terminology and so-called special vocabulary. So, for example, the terms are the following words and groups of words: cost - costs; stock exchange - commodity exchange; computer-aided design system - computer-aided design system.
The process of constructing a complex term can be presented in the following form: system - system; control system - control system; aircraft control system - aircraft control system; fly-by-wire aircraft control system - fly-by-wire aircraft control system, EDSU; digital fly-by-wire aircraft control system - digital fly-by-wire aircraft control system, digital EMSU.
From the above examples it is clear that a term can be single-word and consist of a keyword (first example), or represent a terminological group that includes a keyword or the core of a group, one (second) or several (third) left definitions. The number of left definitions attached to the core of the term in the process of its development can reach up to 10-12, however, with an increase in the number of attached left definitions, the term becomes cumbersome and begins to show a tendency to become abbreviated.
The general characteristics of the lexical composition of this or any other scientific text include the following features: words are used either in basic direct or terminological meanings, but not in expressive-figurative ones. In addition to neutral words and terminology, the so-called book words are used: automaton - automata, perform, cardinal, comprise, susceptible, analogous, approximate, calculation, circular, heterogeneous, initial, internal, longitudinal, maximum, minimum, phenomenon - phenomena, respectively, simultaneous . Words of other styles are not used. linguistic spoken English
If we consider the syntactic structure of scientific texts, we can note that complex sentences predominate in its text structure. And a few simple sentences are expanded using homogeneous members. There are very few short, simple sentences, but their very brevity highlights the very important ideas they contain. For example, This is the analogue of memory. They lend themselves very well to describe in physiological terms, etc.
A scientific text is characterized by double conjunctions: not merely... but also, whether... or, both... and, as... as... In many scientific texts there are also double conjunctions such as thereby, therewith, hereby, which in fiction have already become archaisms.
Word order is predominantly straight. The inversion in the sentence Between the receptor or sense organ and the effector stands an intermediate set of elements serves to provide a logical connection with the previous one.
The author's speech in this kind of texts is constructed in the first person plural: we are coming to realize, we have taken it to be, the tube has shown us, etc. This "we" has a double meaning. Firstly, N. Wiener everywhere emphasizes that the new science was created by the community of a large team of scientists, and, secondly, the lecturer’s “we” involves listeners and, accordingly, readers in the process of reasoning and proof.
In the scientific style, a noticeable preference is given to the passive, where the doer is not necessarily indicated, and impersonal forms of the verb. So, instead of “I use the same notation as previously” they write: “The notation is the same as previously used”. Along with the first person plural, the impersonal forms “It should be borne in mind”, “it may be seen” and constructions with one are widely used: one may write, one may show, one may assume, one can readily see. The content of verbs in the personal form is reduced, and interjections are completely absent.
This is a general characteristic of the scientific style in modern English.
2. Formal business style
In the English literary language, in the process of its development, another speech style has emerged, which is called the style of business speech, or the style of business documents (official style). Business speech has several varieties.
In the field of international relations, the style of diplomatic documents stands out; in the field of trade and economics - the style of commercial correspondence; in the field of jurisprudence - the language of codes, judicial procedural documents, government regulations, parliamentary decisions. The language of military documents: orders, regulations, reports, etc. is distinguished as a special type of business speech in modern English.
The main purpose of business speech is to determine the conditions that will ensure normal cooperation between the two parties, i.e. The purpose of a business speech is to reach an agreement between two interested parties. This applies to business correspondence between representatives of various companies, and to the exchange of notes between states, and to the establishment of the rights and obligations of a soldier, written down in the military regulations of the English army, and to the procedure of meetings. All these relations find one way or another expression in the form of an official document - a letter, note, agreement, pact, law, charter, etc.
In the official business style, as in the scientific style, there is specific terminology and phraseology. For example: I beg to inform you; I start to move; the above mentioned; on behalf of; to constitute a basis; to draw consequences; discontinue; negotiable; to second the motion; provided that; provisional agenda draft resolution adjournments; private advisory, etc.
This kind of phraseological combinations and individual words - terms can be found in reports, charters, laws, notes, etc., and each area has its own specific terminology. For example, in business documents of a financial and economic nature, terms such as extra revenue; taxable capacities; liability to profit tax, etc. In diplomatic terminology: high contracting parties; to ratify an agreement; memorandum; pact; Charge d'affaires; protectorate; extraterritorial status; plenipotentiary, etc. Legal documents often contain such terms and combinations as the international court of justice; casting vote; judicial body; to deal with a case; summary procedure; a body of judges ,ecc.
A significant number of archaic words and expressions are found in official business documents. In any business document you can find the use of words such as hereby; henceforth; aforesaid; beg to inform, etc.
The diplomatic language is characterized by the use of a certain number of Latin and French words and expressions, which have received a kind of terminological coloring in the language of diplomatic documents. The most common words and expressions are: persona grata; persona non grata; pro tempore; the quorum; conditio sine qua non; status quo; mutatis mutandis, etc.
Common to all types of business style is the presence of all kinds of abbreviations, abbreviations, compound words, etc. For example, M.P. (Member of Parliament); N.M.S. (His Majesty's Steamship); gvt (government); pmt (Parliament); i.e. (id est=that is); G.С.S.I. (Knight Grand Commander of the Star of India); U.N. (United Nations); D.A.S. (Department of Agriculture, Scotland); D.A.O. (Divisional Ammunition Officer).
In the style of business documents, words are used primarily in basic subject-logical meanings (except for those cases when derived subject-logical meanings are terminological in a given area of communication). In this regard, there is another feature of the style of business speech. This is the absence of any figurative means: in the texts of business documents there are no metaphors, metonymy or other techniques for creating figurative speech.
As for the syntactic features of business speech, the most common of them are long sentences, extended periods with an extremely branched system of conjunctions.
Commercial correspondence in modern English has developed its own particular features, of which, perhaps, the most characteristic are the formulas of address, conclusion and phraseological combinations opening the letter, for example: Dear Sir, Dear Sirs, Gentlemen, Yours very truly, We remain your obedient servants, Yours obediently, Yours faithfully, Yours respectfully, I am, dear sir, yours truly, etc.
Business letters are distinguished by their brevity, they rarely take more than 8-10 lines, but they also show the general pattern that was mentioned above, namely, an extensive system of conjunctions that precisely defines the relationship between sentences.
A business letter consists of a header, which indicates the place from where the letter is being written, the dates; followed by the name of the addressee (inside address), then successively the address, the contents of the letter itself, the polite form of the conclusion and, finally, the signature
A characteristic feature of the syntax of military documents is, unlike other types of business style, ellipticity. Here the modal verbs shall and will are often omitted, as are other members of the sentence.
Military documents are replete with special terminology relating both directly to military affairs and to various areas of technology used in the army. No norms of lively colloquial speech and, in particular, professionalisms, which are often referred to as “military slang” and which are very widely used in the live communication of soldiers among themselves, are not used in official documents.
3. Conversational style
The colloquial style of speech performs the main function of language - the function of communication, its purpose is the direct transmission of information, mainly orally (with the exception of private letters, notes, diary entries). The linguistic features of the conversational style determine the special conditions for its functioning: informality, ease and expressiveness of verbal communication, the absence of preliminary selection of linguistic means, automaticity of speech, ordinary content and dialogical form.
A major style-forming role in conversational style is played by two opposing trends associated with the specific conditions of communication (i.e., primarily with its oral form), namely compression, which leads to various kinds of incompleteness of expression, and redundancy. We will focus on them first.
Compression manifests itself at all levels - it can be phonetic, morphological, syntactic. The use of a truncated form, i.e. phonetic reduction of auxiliary verbs is a characteristic feature of the English colloquial form: it"s, it isn"t, I don"t, I didn"t, we"ll, etc. In cases where the truncated forms of the verb have I" ve and he"s turn out to be insufficient to convey the meaning of "have, possess", a construction with the verb get is used: I"ve got, he"s got; the same construction also performs the modal function inherent in have + Inf.: I"ve got to go now.
At the lexical level, compression is manifested in the predominant use of monomorphemic words, verbs with postpositives: give up, look out, abbreviations: frig, marg, vegs, ellipse like mineral waters - minerals or other types of ellipse: Morning!, words of broad semantics: thing, stuff etc. The ellipse is especially characteristic of syntactic compression.
The opposite trend, i.e. the tendency towards redundancy is associated primarily with unpreparedness and spontaneity of spoken language. Redundant elements include, first of all, the so-called time fillers, i.e. “trash words” that do not have a semantic load such as well, I mean, you see and doubling conjunctions: like as if. Elements that are redundant for subject-logical information can be expressive or emotional. In common parlance, this is a double negative: don"t give me no riddles, don"t bring no discussion of politics, pleonastic use of personal pronouns in imperative sentences: Don"t you call mother names. She"s had a hard life. Don't you forget it. (J. Saga), as well as the rude use of you: You, come here! or Come here, you!
The syntactic specificity of colloquial speech is that a unit larger than a sentence in it, as in dialogical speech, is a combination of a number of remarks connected by structural-semantic interdependence. They are called dialogical unity. In most cases, these are two-term units - question-and-answer, with pickup, with repetition, or syntactically parallel.
This connection of cues is the reason for the prevalence of one-part sentences. Here are some examples from the works of J. Galsworthy:
1) Question-answer unity: "When do you begin?" - "Tomorrow" said the Rafaelite.
2) Unity formed by pickup: "So you would naturally say." - "And mean."
3) Unity formed by repetition: “There’s - some - talk - of - suicide...” he said. James's jaw dropped. - "Suicide? What should he do that for?"
4) Unity of syntactically parallel remarks: “Well, Mr Desert, do you find reality in politics now?” - "Do you find reality in anything, sir?" .
The main function of spoken language is emotive. The emotive function is the reason for the abundance of various types of amplifiers in colloquial speech, which can appear in various combinations and are different for the literary-colloquial and familiar-colloquial substyles. So, for example, in a familiar conversational style, how, when, where, who, which, what, why are combined with the word ever, or the suffix ever, or with expressions such as: on earth, the devil, the hell, etc. . For example: Whatever are you doing? or What ever are you doing? Whoever"s that? However did you get in here? What on earth are you doing? Who the devil do you think you are? Who on earth can that be? Why the hell do you ask?
This type of emphasis is only possible in interrogative or exclamatory sentences. Emotionality in this case has a rude, impolite character, i.e. associated with irritation, impatience, reproach.
The familiar conversational style, with its emotionality and emphaticness, also combines many swear words or their euphemisms: damn, dash, beastly, confounded, lousy. They are possible in sentences of any type, optional in their syntactic connections, syntactically multifunctional and can express both negative and positive emotions and assessments: damned pretty, damned nice, beastly mean, damn decent.
A pronounced emotional, evaluative and expressive character has a special, genetically very heterogeneous layer of vocabulary and phraseology, called slang, which exists in colloquial speech and is outside the limits of the literary norm. The most important properties of slangisms are their crudely cynical or rude expressiveness, dismissive and playful imagery. Slang is not distinguished as a special style or substyle, since its features are limited to only one level - the lexical one. Thus, as we see, the stylistic structure of colloquial speech is heterogeneous. This includes various socially conditioned substyles that interact in it.
4. Style of artistic speech
The style of artistic speech is a complex unity of heterogeneous features that distinguish this style from all other styles of modern English literary language. The fact that this style allows the use of elements of other styles puts it in a somewhat special position in relation to other speech styles. Moreover, the style of artistic speech allows the use of such elements of language that are unacceptable at this stage of development of the literary norm of the language. Thus, in the language of literary works of modern English writers one can find linguistic facts that go beyond the norms of the literary language, for example, jargon, vulgarism, dialectism, etc. True, these elements in the style of artistic speech appear in a processed, typified, selected form. They are not used here in their, so to speak, natural form; such use of non-literary words would clog the language and would not contribute to the enrichment and development of the literary norm of the language.
The style of artistic speech has the following varieties: poetic speech, artistic prose and the language of drama.
The most significant characteristic of this style of speech is imagery. Along with a purely logical way of expressing thoughts, in which words are used in their subject-logical meanings, in the style of artistic speech there are often different shades of meanings: contextual meanings, emotional meanings of words - conductors of the author’s subjective evaluative views.
A poetic image is created in poetry not for the image itself. It, so to speak, performs a service function: it contains a thought. This image must be interpreted, and for this it must be understood. The more accurately the image is created, the easier it is perceived by our consciousness, the easier and more clearly the thought appears. The image is revealed by analyzing words, their contextual and emotional meanings.
For example, hyperbole is used in fiction for a variety of purposes, one of which is to express the emotional state of the narrator, as the following example from O. Wilde’s fairy tale “The Happy Prince” clearly shows. The swallow tells the prince about Egypt, where she dreams of flying: At noon the yellow lions come down to the water "s edge to drink. They have eyes like green beryls, and their roar is louder than the roar of the cataract" (O. Wilde. "The Happy Prince"). In artistic speech, hyperbole often interacts with other stylistic means - metaphor, personification, comparison. For example, at the beginning of the fairy tale “The Selfish Giant,” O. Wilde, telling about the Giant’s possession and trying to emphasize that the flowers in his garden were as huge as he himself, writes: “Here and there over the grass stood beautiful flowers like stars..." (O. Wilde. "The Selfish Giant". In this example, there is an obvious relationship between hyperbole and comparison.
The most stylistically significant is a figurative metaphor, which arises as a result of metaphorization of an identifying name in the position of a predicate referred to another, already named object or class of objects. The metaphor here is a search for an image, a method of individualization, evaluation, a search for semantic nuances. By appealing to the recipient's intuition, she leaves the recipient the opportunity for her creative interpretation.
Let us give an example of a metaphor from O. Wilde’s fairy tale “The Selfish Giant”: “Who hath dared to wound thee?” cried the Giant, "tell me, that I make take my big sword and slay him." "Nay," answered the child: "but these are the wounds of Love." .
Here the direct meaning of the verb wound has turned into the metaphorical noun the wounds of Love. The writer seems to want to say that love also hurts - just not physically, but mentally.
The style of artistic speech is often considered as a synthesis of various styles of literary language. Elements of other styles often become publicly accessible precisely through the style of artistic speech.
5. Newspaper and journalistic style
According to the definition of the encyclopedic dictionary-reference book "Culture of Russian Speech", newspaper-journalistic style is "a functional and stylistic variety of ... literary language, a set of linguistic means serving the sphere of mass information on topical, primarily socio-political issues." The written variety of journalistic style includes the language of essays, newspaper articles, magazine articles of a literary, critical and socio-political nature, pamphlets, essays, etc.
The function of the newspaper-journalistic style, which distinguishes it from other speech styles, I.R. Halperin formulates as follows: “the influence on the reader or listener in order to convince him of the correctness of the propositions put forward or to evoke in him the desired reaction to what was said, not so much by logically sound argumentation, but by the strength, emotional intensity of the statement, showing those features of the phenomenon that can most effectively be used to achieve the stated goal."
In newspaper vocabulary, researchers note a large percentage of proper names: toponyms, anthroponyms, names of institutions and organizations, etc., a higher percentage of numerals and, in general, words related to the lexico-grammatical field of plurality compared to other styles, as well as an abundance of dates. From an etymological point of view, it is characterized by an abundance of international words and a penchant for innovation, which, however, very quickly turn into cliches: vital issue, tree world, pillar of society, bulwark of liberty, escalation of war. The abundance of clichés has been noticed for a long time and is pointed out by all researchers. In terms of connotations, there is an abundance of not so much emotional, but rather evaluative and expressive vocabulary. Positive assessment: all-important fact, to the effect, etc. Negative: to cause mischief, to gravity endanger, etc.
The same term in a newspaper-journalistic style can receive different meanings depending on the ideological orientation of the text in which it is used. Thus, the term idealism can be used in a philosophical sense as the name of a worldview opposed to materialism, and have a positive or negative meaning depending on the ideological position of the author. But even more often it is used in a positive sense, directly relating to the concept of ideals - ideals and meaning "service (commitment) to high ideals (or principles)." For example: "The Foreign Secretary"s most elaborate and numerous speeches seem to prove that idealism is his guiding star."
A characteristic feature of the English newspaper and information style is the stylistic diversity of vocabulary. Along with book vocabulary, colloquial and poetic words and combinations are widely used here. For example, "The Tories hope to get away with it by invoking their old familiar maxim: When in trouble wave the Flag."
In the field of phraseology, newspaper information style is distinguished by the widespread use of “ready-made formulas,” or clichés. Here we find numerous introductory phrases indicating the source of information (it is reported; it is claimed; our correspondent reports from; according to well-informed sources), stable combinations with faded imagery (to set the tone; to throw light; to lay the corner-stone; to give the lie), as well as a whole series of political cliches such as: government reshuffle; vested interests; an unnamed Power; generation gap; a forego conclusion, etc. In newspaper information materials, some features of the syntactic organization of the text are noted: the presence of short independent messages (1-3 statements), consisting of long sentences with a complex structure (“Marooned by a gale on a skeleton of a fire-gutted Wyle light-house in Morecombe Bay, with their dingey swamped, nine workmen last night decided to risk the two-mile journey back over the sands to Fleetwood"), maximum division of the text into paragraphs, when almost every sentence begins on a new line, the presence of subheadings in the text body for increasing reader interest). The specificity of newspaper information style is especially clearly manifested in newspaper headlines.
The specific construction of English newspaper headlines serves various purposes: they should make the reader interested in the article and provide compression of information. For example: “Italy”s radio, TV workers on strike”, “Apollo trail-blazers back relaxed and joking”, “Back to work - to kill the bill”, etc. In a newspaper text, the reader can get a very general idea of the main events of the day by headings and subheadings and read in full only those that particularly interest him.
In the area of vocabulary, English newspaper headlines are characterized by the frequent use of a small number of special words that make up a kind of “headline jargon”: ban, bid, claim, crack, crash, cut, dash, hit, move, pact, plea, probe, quit, quiz , rap, rush, slash, etc.
Newspaper headlines also have a number of grammatical features. Thus, in English and American newspapers, verbal headlines like: Roods Hit Scotland predominate; William Faulkner Is Dead; Exports to Russia Are Rising. A specific feature of the English heading is the ability to omit the subject: Hues Teen-Agers as Scabs; Want No War Hysteria in Toronto Schools; Hits Arrests of Peace Campaigners, etc. The infinitive is widely used to indicate the future tense in headlines: for example, America To Resume Testing.
The journalistic style occupies a special place in the system of literary language styles, since in many cases it must rework texts created within the framework of other styles. If scientific and business speech is focused on the intellectual reflection of reality, and artistic speech is focused on its emotional reflection, then journalism plays a special role - it strives to satisfy both intellectual and aesthetic needs. To this we can add that journalism is the language of both thoughts and feelings.
Conclusion
The system of speech styles is constantly evolving. She is not closed. Some of the speech styles we have analyzed show a greater, others less, tendency towards strict isolation.
The blurring of lines between individual styles in modern English is not as intense as in Russian. There are reasons for this, arising from the peculiarities of the development of literary languages in England and Russia.
Speech styles in the English language show greater stability, greater resistance to the leveling tendency of the national literary language. Of course, these styles generally cannot completely dissolve in the literary language. This is prevented by the difference in goals and functions that are characteristic of each style. But the tendency to blur the sharp lines between speech styles is an undeniably progressive phenomenon.
List of used literature
1. Arnold I.V. Stylistics of modern English. - M.: Flinta: Nauka, 2002. - 384 p.
2. Galperin I.R. Essays on the stylistics of the English language. - M.: Publishing house of literature in foreign languages, 1958. - 460 p.
3. Golub I.B. Russian language and culture of speech. - M.: Logos, 2003. - 432 p.
4. Kozhina M.N. Stylistics of the Russian language. - M.: Education, 1977. - 223 p.
5. Kuznetsov V.G. Functional styles of modern French. - M.: Higher School, 1991. - 160 p.
6. Culture of Russian speech: Encyclopedic dictionary-reference book / Ed. L.Yu. Ivanova, A.P. Skovorodnikova, E.N. Shiryaeva and others - M.: Flinta: Nauka, 2003. - 840 p.
7. Russian language. / Ed. Yu.N. Karaulova. - M.: Bustard, 1998. - 703 p.
8. Wilde O. Fairz Tales ans Stories. - Czechoslovakia: Octopus Books, 1980. - 336 p.
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If you have to write a letter in English, the first thing you should think about is the style or register of writing your letter (register). How to determine register? Think about three aspects:
The less you know the recipient, the more formal your style should be. There are such styles of writing letters in English: formal (formal) and informal (informal). There is also a semi-formal or neutral (semi-formal or neutral) style, but in nature it is closer to formal. Some authors identify the following styles depending on the type of communication, addressee and linguistic means:
The formal style is inherent in documents (for example, legal), high-level business letters; in the formal style, all the rules of punctuation and grammar are observed. Semi-formal style is used for business correspondence and professional communication. Because the writer and recipient of the letter are typically busy business people, letters of this style are specific, fact-focused, and include standard, boilerplate language. And finally, the informal style is typical for correspondence between friends and communication on social networks. It involves the use of colloquial expressions, abbreviations, rules of grammar and punctuation are not always observed.
However, these are only general differences between styles. In this article, we will look at more fundamental features that will help you write quality letters in English.
1. Vocabulary
If you compare two letters of the same content, but written in different styles, then the informal letter will be shorter. Do you know why? Because the formal style involves the use of longer words, words of Latin origin. In contrast to the informal style, phrasal verbs are hardly used in the formal style, except those that cannot be replaced by a longer equivalent. The same goes for nouns: if, when writing an official letter, you have a choice between a short word and a long one, choose the longer one.
Let's look at some differences between formal and informal vocabulary:
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Verbs (Verbs) |
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Informal |
Translation |
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ask, request |
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be the cause of |
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check |
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deal with something |
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find out |
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repair |
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receive |
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get in touch with |
to contact |
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give, provide |
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decrease |
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increase |
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leave, miss |
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|
allow |
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need |
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apologize |
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|
seem |
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|
install |
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show |
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|
inform |
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Nouns |
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|
Informal |
Translation |
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boss |
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opportunity |
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facilities |
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aged people |
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2. Using passive voice
In informal letter writing style, the use of the active voice takes precedence over the use of . Informal letters are more personalized, while formal letters and documents are factual. Let's look at this with examples:
I invite you to come to my party Friday evening. - I invite you to come to my party on Friday evening.
You are invited to attend the annual conference. - You are invited to attend the annual conference.
The teacher told us to complete the test papers. - The teacher told us to finish the test assignments.
The students were told to complete the test papers. - The students were told to finish the test assignments.
The camera you delivered to me yesterday is broken. - The camera you delivered to me yesterday is broken.
The camera which was delivered to me yesterday is flawed. - The camera that was delivered yesterday is defective.
In each pair of sentences, the first one refers to the informal register. As you can see, every second sentence, written in a formal style, talks about facts and sounds more neutral and formal.
3. Appeals and stereotypes
A characteristic feature of the informal style is addresses in the first person, the use of I: I am sorry..., I think... and so on. While official letters are based on clichés, standard phrases of business communication. The informal style allows room for improvisation, while the formal style is more stereotypical.
I am sorry for my being late. - I'm sorry I'm late.
We apologize for the delay. - We apologize for the delay.
I am glad to tell you that I am coming soon. - I'm glad to tell you that I'm coming soon.
We take pleasure in informing you about our upcoming visit. - We are happy to inform you about our upcoming visit.
Typical of formal style is the use of the pronoun we. When a representative of one company writes a letter to another company, the letter is written not in the first person singular (I), but in the first person plural (we).
4. Slang expressions
Slang expressions are absent in the official style; they simply are not there. The same goes for most idiomatic expressions. Formal style is the language of specifics and business vocabulary, so the use of slang is unacceptable, it is a sign of unprofessionalism and disrespect for the recipient:
He wrote us about stuff. - He wrote to us about a lot of nonsense.
He sent us information on the question. - He sent us information on this issue.
5. Abbreviations
The informal style, along with slang expressions, allows the use of abbreviated forms of the verbs to be, have, has, would, will and others: I"m, we"ve, he"s and so on. The official style is never used; all forms must be written in full: I am, we have, he is, they will, she would and so on.
6. Specific appeals and impersonal constructions
In informal letters, to a friend, for example, we address a specific person, calling him by name in our letter. Official letters are impersonal, they are not addressed to anyone, the addressee's name is not used in the main part of the letter, only at the beginning. Imperative constructions in official letters and documents are replaced by passive ones, that is, you do not give instructions, but formulate a rule:
If you have questions, feel free to ask me. - If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me.
You will be contacted for further information. - You will be contacted for further information.
7. Coordination of ideas
Even unions of formal and informal styles have their differences. In informal communication, we use a familiar set of phrases and expressions to connect our ideas. Most of them are short: and, but, also, because. Conjunctions that are used in the formal register are usually long words or phrases. Let's look at the table and compare some of them:
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Informal |
Translation |
|
|
due to (the fact that) |
as a result because of |
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in addition |
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Thus |
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otherwise |
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provided that |
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moreover |
The word also as a conjunction should be avoided in formal style, but is perfectly acceptable when referring to a verb (in constructions or inverse sentences):
Also see the agenda attached. - Also check out the attached event plan.
Also covered accommodation expenses. - Accommodation expenses are also reimbursed.
As you can see, formal and informal styles in English are fundamentally different from each other. The main distinctive features are:
- vocabulary
- grammar, use of active and passive voice
- use of phrasal verbs, slang expressions
- use of speech patterns, clichés
- use of abbreviated forms
- coordination of ideas
Thus, when starting to write a letter in English, remember the differences in registers, follow the vocabulary, grammar, and other language means so that your letter is in the same style.
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