Lexical peculiarities of colloquial style

LECTURE 3. FUNCTIONAL STYLES

Notion of a functional style.
The classification of functional styles.
Formal styles

a) scientific (learned) style;

b) business or official style;

c) poetical style;

d) publicistic style;

e) newspaper style;

f) oratorical style;

g) essays.

Informal styles

a) literary colloquial style;

b) familiar colloquial style.

Lexical peculiarities of colloquial style.
Grammatical peculiarities of colloquial style.

A functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means peculiar to a specific sphere of communication. A functional style is regarded as the product of a certain concrete task set by the sender of the message. Functional styles appear mainly in the literary standard of a language. In the English literary standard we distinguish the following major functional styles (hence FS): 1) The language of belles-lettres. 2) The language of publicistic literature. 3) The language of newspapers. 4) The language of scientific prose. 5) The language of official documents.

Each style is a relatively stable system at the given stage in the development of the literary language, but it changes, and sometimes considerably, from one period to another.

A functional style is a style characteristic of a certain sphere of communication, no matter whether the communication is achieved orally or in written form, it always has its own specific peculiarities.

Each functional style is characterized by specific language means used exclusively and predominantly for the given style. The choice of these specific means depends on the aim of communication.

The basic language material of any style is made up of language means common to all styles while only a smaller part consists of specific means which are called stylistically coloured.

All functional styles are constantly interacting. Modern linguists often use a new notion “register” instead of a “functional style”.

A register is a variety of a language distinguished according to use. It is a social variety of the language. Thus we can speak about church English, advertising English, the English of journalism, baby talk, the register of written instruction, civil service, broadcast talks and news, etc. The register varies according to the speaker, the hearer, and the circumstances. Every native speaker has intuitive knowledge about what register to employ.

The classification of Functional Styles

Formal Informal (col.)

Scientific Business Poetic Publicistic Literary col. Familiar col.

Exact (or Oratory,

Sciences, Official) Newspaper ,

Humanitarian Commercial, Essays

Sciences Legal,

Military,

Diplomatic

In modern English we distinguish 2 classes of Functional Styles: formal and informal. To formal kind of communication belong such forms as business style (official), scientific, newspaper style (publicistic), oratoric style, the style of literary prose, poetic style.

The development of each style is predetermined by the changes in the norms of standard English. It is also briefly influenced by changing social conditions, the progress of science and the development of cultural life in the country. The choice of words in formal styles is elaborate, the vocabulary is rich.

Scientific (learned) style

The aim of this style is to prove a hypothesis, to formulate the laws of existence, to create new concepts, to disclose the internal laws of existence, to show the relations between different phenomena. Scientific style is very logical, it appeals not to the emotions but to the mind of the interlocutor. This style is characterized by terminology. Terminology is a specific part of the vocabulary, it gives exact names to the things it denotes. Alongside with terms scientific style is characterized by bookish words. Most of the words are abstract. The word-building means are very peculiar: there are a lot of borrowed affixes of Greek, Latin, French origin. The style is also characterized by strings of attributive nouns (e.g. antiaircraft-fire-control system). As scientific style is logical, the construction of sentences and paragraphs is specific. Subordination prevails over coordination. Compound conjunctions are used (moreover, inasmuch as ( в виду того , что ), whereas ( не смотря на то , что ; принимая во внимание ; поскольку ). This style is impersonal and objective. The writers often use special verbs such as assume, presume, suppose, point out (often in the Passive voice).

The language means used, therefore, tend to be objective, precise, unemotional, 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. It will not be an exaggeration to say that in no other functional style do we find such a developed and varied system of connectives as in scientific prose. A second and no less important feature, and perhaps the most conspicuous, is the use of terms specific to each given branch of science. Further, the general vocabulary employed in scientific prose bears its direct referential meaning, that is, words used in scientific prose will always tend to be used in their primary logical meaning. Likewise, neutral and common literary words used in scientific prose will be explained, even if their meaning is only slightly modified, either in the context (by a parenthesis or an attributive phrase) or in a foot-note. In modern scientific prose an interesting phenomenon can be observed— the exchange of terms between various branches of science. This is evidently due to the interpenetration of scientific ideas. A third characteristic feature of scientific style is what we may call sentence-patterns. They are of three types: pоstulatory, argumentative and formulative. 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 also 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 year it was published, and the page of the excerpt quoted or referred to. A fifth feature is a frequent use of foot-notes. The impersonality of scientific writings can also be considered a typical feature of this style. This quality is mainly revealed in the frequent use of passive constructions.

Business or official style

It shares many features of scientific style. It’s also exact and governed by traditions. Business style is presented by the following forms: business letters, legal documents, military documents, and the language of diplomacy. The aim of communication in this style is to reach agreement between two contracting parties, to state conditions binding two parties in an undertaking all contracts, agreements.

The peculiarities of this style:

Squeezing the thoughts into one sentence (the sentences are very long).
Traditional usage of archaic words of foreign origin (status quo, persona non grata).
Frequent use of clichés or hackneyed phrases, or set expressions (I beg to inform you; Dear Sir, on behalf of…).
Use of abbreviations (MP – Member of Parliament; BA – British Admiralty; Ltd – limited).
Complete enumeration.
A definite fixed compositional pattern of business letters and other documents.

Official documents are written in a formal, “cold” or matter-of-fact style of speech. The style of official documents is not homogeneous and is represented by the following sub-styles, or varieties: the language of business documents, the language of legal documents, the language of diplomacy, the language of military documents. Like other styles of language, this style has a definite communicative aim and accordingly has its own system of interrelated language and stylistic means. The aim of communication in this style of language is to reach agreement between two contracting parties. The most general function of official documents predetermines the peculiarities of the style. The most striking, though not the most essential feature, is a special system of clichés, terms and set expressions by which each sub-style can easily be recognized, for example: I beg to inform you; Dear sir. In fact, each of the subdivisions of this style has its own peculiar terms, phrases and expressions which differ from the corresponding terms, phrases and expressions of other variants of this style. There are so many abbreviations and acronyms in official documents that there are special addenda in dictionaries to decode them. These abbreviations are particularly abundant in military documents. E.g. ATAS (Air Transport Auxiliary Service). As in all other functional styles, the distinctive properties appear as a system. It is impossible to single out a style by its vocabulary only, recognizable though it always is. The syntactical pattern of the style is as significant as the vocabulary though not perhaps so immediately apparent. Perhaps the most noticeable of all syntactical features are the compositional patterns of the variants of this style. Thus, business letters have a definite compositional pattern, namely, the heading giving the address of the writer and the date, the name of the addressee and his address. The usual parts of the business paper are: heading, date, name and address, salutation, reference, opening, body, closing. An official document usually consists of a preamble, main text body and a finalizing (concluding) part.

Poetic style

All functional styles are fulfilling some functions. Poetic style may not obligatorily be called a functional style, because it is limited historically. It is the style of the 18^th-19^th century’s poetry. Poetic elements may be found in grammar and vocabulary:

Pronouns: thou, thee (you), thy (your).

Verbs: he maketh, thou makest, behold (to see), to dwell (to live).

Nouns: Albion (England), woe (sorrow), array (clothes), mirth (merriment).

Adjectives: fair (beautiful).

Adverbs: ne (never), save (except).

Interjections: Ah! Oh! Alas!

Poetic words belong to a definite style of language and perform in it their direct function. If encountered in another style of speech, they assume a new function, mainly satirical, for the two notions, poetry and prose, have been opposed to each other from time immemorial.

Poetic language has special means of communication, i.e. rhythmical arrangement, some syntactical peculiarities and certain number of special words. The specific poetic vocabulary has a marked tendency to detach itself from the common literary word stock and assume a special significance. Poetic words claim to be, as it were, of higher rank.

Poetic words and ser expressions make the utterance understandable only to a limited number of readers. It is mainly due to poeticisms that poetical language is sometimes called poetical jargon.

Publicistic Style

The publicistic style of language became discernible as a separate style in the middle of the 18th century. It also falls into three varieties, each having its own distinctive features. Unlike other styles, the publicistic style has a spoken variety, namely, the oratorical substyle. The development of radio and television has brought into being another new spoken variety, namely, the radio and TV соmmеntary. The other two substyles are the essay (moral, philosophical, literary) and journalistic articles (political, social, economic) in newspapers, journals and magazines. The general aim of publicistic style, which makes it stand out as a separate style, is to exert a constant and deep influence on public opinion, to convince the reader or the listener that the interpretation given by the writer or the speaker is the only correct one and to cause him to accept the point of view expressed in the speech, essay or article not merely through logical argumentation but through emotional appeal as well.

The oratorical style of language is the oral subdivision of the publicistic style. Direct contact with the listeners permits a combination of the syntactical, lexical and phonetic peculiarities of both the written and spoken varieties of language. In its leading features, however, oratorical style belongs to the written variety of language, though it is modified by the oral form of the utterance and the use of gestures. This style is evident in speeches on political and social problems of the day. The stylistic devices employed in oratorical style are determined by the conditions of communication. If the desire of the speaker is to rouse the audience and to keep it in suspense, he will use various traditional stylistic devices. Repetition can be regarded as the most typical stylistic device of English oratorical style. The desire of the speaker to convince and to rouse his audience results in the use of simile and metaphor, but these are generally traditional ones, as fresh and genuine stylistic devices may divert the attention of the listeners away from the main point of the speech.

This style belongs to the written sphere of communication. English newspaper writing dates from the 17^th century. It is only in the 19^th century that English newspaper has developed into a separate functional style. The primary function of this style is to inform and to instruct. The general aim of publicistic style is also to influence public opinion, to convince the reader that the interpretation given by the writer or the speaker is the only correct one and to cause him to accept the point of view expressed in the speech, essay or article not merely by logical argumentation, but by emotional appeal as well. This brain-washing function is most effective in oratory, but here the most powerful instrument of persuasion is brought into play: the human voice. Publicistic style has features in common with the style of scientific prose, on the one hand, and that of emotive prose, on the other.

Newspaper style

Newspaper style was the last of all the styles of written literary English to be recognized as a specific form of writing standing apart from other forms. Newspaper style contains the following basic newspaper features: 1) brief news items; 2) advertisements and announcements; 3) the headline; 4) the editorial.

The principal function of a brief news item is to inform the reader. It states facts without giving explicit comments. News items are essentially matter-of-fact. The language of brief news items is stylistically neutral. Newspaper style has its specific vocabulary features and is characterized by an extensive use of: special political and economic terms (socialism, president); non-term political vocabulary (public, people); newspaper clichés (pressing problem, danger of war); abbreviations (UNO - United Nations Organization); neologisms (These are very common in newspaper vocabulary. The newspaper is very quick to react to any new development in the life of society, in science and technology. Hence, neologisms make their way into the language of the newspaper very easily and often even spring up on newspaper pages. The basic peculiarities of news items lie in their syntactical structure. The reporter is obliged to be brief, he naturally tries to cram all his facts into the space allotted. This tendency predetermines the peculiar composition of brief news items and the syntactical structure of the sentences. The size of brief news items varies from one sentence to several (short) paragraphs. And generally, the shorter the news item, the more complex its syntactical structure. The following grammatical peculiarities of brief news items are: a) complex sentences with developed system of clauses; b) verbal constructions (infinitive, participle, gerund); c) syntactical complexes; d) attributive noun groups (heart swap patient); specific word order (journalistic practice has developed what is called ‘five-w-and-h-pattern rule’- who-what-why-how-where-when).

The headline (the title given to a news item or an article) is a dependent form of newspaper writing. It is in fact a part of a larger whole. The specific functional and linguistic traits of the headline provide sufficient ground for isolating and analyzing it as a specific "genre" of journalism. The main function of the headline is to inform the reader briefly what the text that follows is about. But apart from this, headlines often contain elements of appraisal, i.e. they show the reporter's or the paper's attitude to the facts reported or commented on, thus also performing the function of instructing the reader. The practices of headline writing are different with different newspapers. Syntactically headlines are very short sentences or phrases of a variety of patterns: full sentence, interrogative sentence, nominative sentence, sentence with articles omitted, phrases with verbs, headline including direct speech.

The function of the editorial is to influence the reader by giving an interpretation of certain facts. Editorials comment on the political and other events of the day. Their purpose is to give the editor's opinion and interpretation of the news published and suggest to the reader that it is the correct one. Like any evaluative writing, editorials appeal not only to the reader's mind but to his feelings as well. Hence the use of emotionally coloured language elements, both lexical and structural. In addition to vocabulary typical of brief news items, writers of editorials make an extensive use of emotionally coloured vocabulary. Alongside political words and expressions, terms, cliches and abbreviations one can find colloquial words and expressions, slang, and professionalisms. The language of editorial articles is characterized by a combination of different strata of vocabulary.

Newspaper must carry any information in the most concise form and affect the reader.

Peculiarities of the newspaper style:

Newspaper clichés are used: pressing problem, to come to an agreement, free world, vital issue, war hysteria.
Special political and economic terms are used: tension, president.
Abbreviations: UNO (United Nations Organization), FO (foreign office), TUC (Trade Union Congress), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
Headlines are meant to draw the reader’s attention and at the same time to give a brief outline of information: e.g. Back-to-work! To Kill Bills! (This headline is noted for its rhythm and it calls to struggle against bills).
Neologisms: frosty reception.
Verbals.
Syntactical complexes.

Oratorical style

This style is evident in speeches on political and social problems of the day, on solemn occasions (public weddings, funerals, etc.). As the audience relies only on memory the speaker often resorts to repetitions in order to enable his listeners to follow him. Repetition is also used to persuade the audience.

he oratorical style of language is the oral subdivision of the publicistic style. It has already been pointed out that persuasion is the most obvious purpose of oratory.

Certain typical features of the spoken variety of speech present in this style are: direct address to the audience (ladies and gentlemen, honourable member(s), the use of the 2nd person pronoun you, etc.), sometimes contractions ( won't, haven't, isn't and,others) and the use of colloquial words.

The stylistic devices employed in oratorical style are determined by the conditions of communication.

Repetition can be regarded as the most typical stylistic device of English oratorical style. Almost any piece of oratory will have parallel constructions, antithesis, suspense, climax, rhetorical questions and questions-in-the-narrative. It will be no exaggeration to say that almost all the typical syntactical stylistic devices can be found in English oratory. Questions are most frequent because they promote closer contact with the audience. The change of intonation breaks the monotony of the intonation pattern and revives the attention of the listeners.

Essays

As a separate form of English literature the essay dates from the close of the 16^th century. The name appears to have become common on the publication of M. Montaigne’s “Essays”, a literary form created by this French writer. The essay is a literary composition of moderate length on philosophical, social, aesthetic or literary subjects. It never goes deep into the subject, but merely touches upon the surface.

An essау is rather a series of personal and witty comments than a finished argument or a conclusive examination of any matter. This literary genre has definite linguistic traits which shape it as a variety of publicistic style. The most characteristic language features of the essay, however, remain 1) brevity of expression, reaching in good writers a degree of epigrammaticalness, 2) the use of the first person singular, which justifies a personal approach to the problems treated, 3) a rather expanded use of connectives, which facilitate the process of grasping the correlation of ideas, 4) the abundant use of emotive words, 5) the use of similes and sustained metaphors as one of the media for the cognitive process. It is in the interrelation of these constituents that the real secret of the essay substyle consists. Some essays, depending on the writer's individuality, are written in a highly emotional manner resembling the style of emotive prose, others resemble scientific prose, and the terms review, memoir or treatise are more applicable to certain more exhaustive studies. In comparison with oratorical style, the essay aims at a more lasting, hence, at a slower effect. Epigrams, paradoxes and aphorisms are comparatively rare in oratory, as they require the concentrated attention of the listener. In the essay they are commoner, for the reader has opportunity to make a careful and detailed study both of the content of the utterance and its form.

Irrespective of the character of the magazine and the divergence of subject matter—whether it is political, literary, popular-scientific or satirical, all the already mentioned features of publicistic style are to be found in any article. The character of the magazine as well as the subject chosen affects the choice and use of stylistic devices. Words of emotive meaning, for example, are few, if any, in popular scientific articles. Their exposition is more consistent and the system of connectives more expanded than, say, in a satirical article. Literary reviews stand closer to essays both by their content and by their linguistic form. More abstract words of logical meaning are used in them; they often resort to emotional language and less frequently to traditional set expressions.

The most characteristic language features of the essay remain:

brevity of expression;
the use of the first person singular, which justifies a personal approach to the problems treated;
a rather expanded use of connectives;
the abundant use of emotive words;
the use of similes and sustained (prolonged) metaphors.

The essay nowadays is often biographical; persons, facts and events are taken from life. Epigrams, paradoxes and aphorisms are comparatively rare in oratory, as they require the concentrated attention of the listener. In the essay they are commoner, for the reader has an opportunity to make a careful and detailed study both of the content of the utterance and its form.

Informal Styles are characteristic of personal two-way and everyday communication. A dialogue is assisted by paralinguistic means (gestures and qualities of voice). There is constant feedback. The linguistic forms are characterized by emotional, emphatic forms, by a lot of pronouns and generic terms. Informal styles are subdivided into literary colloquial style and familiar colloquial style.

Literary colloquial style is reserved, polite; it is used by educated people in formal situations. It’s characterized by polite, conversational formulas, by neutral vocabulary; it doesn’t contain slang, vulgarisms, or colloquialisms.

Familiar colloquial style is used in intimate conversations especially by younger generation. It’s expressive, emotional, and characterized by:

1. vulgar or semi vulgar words (damned, beastly, lousy, rotten);

2. rich use of interjections (cool, sweet, great);

3. colloquial way of calling people (guys, chaps, old man; hi, kids, sons, etc.);

4. the use of diminutive suffixes (daddy, deary);

5. tautology (Mr. Brown he is an excellent man!).

6. slang and low colloquial words.

Lexical peculiarities of colloquial style

Ready-made lexical formulas of everyday usage. With familiar colloquial style these formulas are emotional and categoric (sure, rubbish), but in literary colloquial they are more polite, more reserved (I tend to agree with you).
Intensifiers – words which increase expressiveness (terribly sorry, awfully sorry, awfully nice, dead right, dead tired, ever, even, just, whichever way do you go, I never ever wonna see you again).
The use of emotional words.
Empty words (time fillers).

e.g. His door was open but I knocked on it anyway just to be polite and all.

To the same group we refer the so-called utterance initiators or hesitators (well, now then…). These words are used for the sake of rhythm or to conceal hesitation or embarrassment.

Nonce-words (слова, образованные только для данного случая):

You son of a bitch, don’t son-of-a-bitch me!

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