Functional Styles of the English Language
Each style makes use of a group of means the interrelation of which is peculiar to the style. It is the coordinator of the I-ge means and stylistic devices which shapes the distinctive features of each style. Each style is recognized by one or more leading features, which are especially conspi conspicuou cuous. s. A style style of l-ge l-ge can he define defined d as a system system of coordin coordinate ated, d, interr interrela elated ted and interconditioned I-ge means intended to fulfill a specific function of communication and aiming at a definite effect. It is relatively stable at a given stage in the development Of the literary -ge, but it may change from one period to another, thus making the -ge style a historical category. !he development of each style is predetermined by the .hanges in the norm of "tandard English. !he English English liter literary ary -ge -ge has evolve evolved d a number number of styles styles easily easily disti distingui nguisha shable ble from from One another. !hey are not homogeneous and fall into several variants. !he e#istence of functional styles is conditioned by the specific peculiarities of communication in the large diversity of human activity spheres. !he styles differ in bot. possibility and impossibility of using certain elements and structures in a given conte#t. The Publicist Publicistic ic Style Style started to be recognized as a separate style in the middle of the $th century. It is characteristic of radio commentaries, essays and newspaper articles. %nlike other styles, the publicistic style has a spoken variety, namely, the oratorical substyle. &ook reviews in 'ournals, newspapers and magazines and also pamphlets are generally included among essays. Its aim is to e#ert a constant and deep influence on public opinion, to convince the reader or listener that the writer(s or speaker(s interpretation is the only acceptable one and to cause him to accept the point of view e#pressed in the speech, essay or article not only by logical argumentation, but by emotional influence too. !his brain-washing function is most effective in oratory, for here the most powerful instrument of persuasion, the human voice, is brought into play. )ue to this combined influence *logical and emotional+, the p.s. has eatures in common with the style of scientific prose through its coherent and logical syntactical structures with an e#panded system of connectives and careful paragraphing and that of emotive prose through the use of words with emotive meaning and of imagery. !he manner of presenting ideas, however, brings this style closer to that of belles-lettres, in this case to emotive prose, as it is to a certain e#tent individual. aturally, aturally, of course, essays and speeches have greater individuality than newspaper or magazine articles where the individual element is generally toned down and limited by the reuirements of the style. One of the leading features of the p.s. is brevity of e#pressions. In essays brevity sometimes becomes epigrammatic.
The oratorical substyle is substyle is the oral subdivision of the p.s. having the purpose of persuasion. It belongs to the written variety of the l-ge, but it is modified by the oral form of the utterance u tterance and the use of gestures. In oratories the speaker addresses directly to the audience *dear guests, ladies and gentlemen+, uses the /nd person pronoun you, sometimes contractions and collouial words. (!he substyle is especially made use of in political speeches and those on social problems, in speeches on solemn occasions *weddings, funerals, anniversaries+, in speeches in parliament and courts of law. !he sphere of application of oratory is confined to appeal to an audience and
therefore matters on science, business, art, literature should not been mentioned here. As the speaker can only rely on the memory of the audience, he will often make use of repetitions to enable his listeners to follow him, retain the main points of his speech and to persuade and add weight to the speaker(s opinion. In order not to bore the speaker with mere repetitions, synonyms are used instead, thus filling tip the speech with details and embellishing it. Any piece of oratory will contain parallel constructions, antithesis, suspense, clima#, rhetorical uestions and uestions-in-the-narrative. 0uestions are more freuent as they promote closer contact with the audience. Essays started to he distinguished linguistically at the end of the 1 th century. !he essay is a literary composition on philosophical, social, aesthetic or literary sub'ect dealing with it only superficially. !he most obvious characteristics of the essay arc personal approach in treating the problem and natural way of e#pression. In order to achieve this brevity of e#pression, the use of the first person singular, an e#panded use of connectives to facilitate the process of grasping the ideas, an e#tensive use of emotive words and similes and metaphors are vital in writing an essay. In comparison with the oratorical substyle, which aims at an immediate effect, essays aim at a more lasting, thus slower effect. !he language of articles is characterized by all the features of the publicistic style. !he character of the magazine or newspaper and the sub'ect chosen influences the choice and use of stylistic devices. In articles one can freuently find rare and bookish words, neologisms, parentheses, various word combinations. !he emotional appeal is achieved by emphatic constructions, periphrasis etc. Newspaper style was the last to be recognized as a specific form of writing, dating from the 2 th century. Its purpose is to inform the reader about the events of the day and to make the reader have an attitude towards these events. !o serve this purpose the newspaper style makes use of a system of interrelated le#ical, phraseological and grammatical means. ot everything that is printed belongs to newspaper style as a modern paper publishes articles on various topics *poems, stories, crosswords, science, and art+. Only the printed material which imparts information belongs to n.s. !hus, brief news items and communiu3s, press reports, informational articles and advertisements and announcements are attributed to this style. !he most concise form of newspaper information is the headline, which is the title given to a news item or a newspaper article. Apart from giving info about the sub'ect-matter, headlines also carry a considerable amount of appraisal, thus indicating the interpretation of the facts in the news item that follows. English headlines are short and catching, sometimes sounding sensational. 4eadlines are critical, summarizing and drawing attention to the story. !heir telegraphic style is the best-known feature of news reporting. !hey may contain emotionally coloured words and phrases. "yntactically headlines are very short sentences or phrases which may be declarative sentences *5hannel !unnel 6ill not 7eet+, interrogative sentences *)o 8ou 9ove 6ar:+, nominative phrases *;oyal "candal atigue+, elliptical sentences *"till in )anger+, sentences with articles omitted *"tolen
most often employed figure of speech in creating headlines is the pun *!raffic )ead ;ise "lowly, Irai 4ead "eeks Arms+. A brief news items only states facts without giving any comments. !his accounts for the total absence of any individuality of e#pression and the almost complete lack of emotional colouring. !he bulk of employed vocabulary is neutral and common literary. Apart from this, special political and economic terms *parliament, code, output+, non-term political vocabulary *public, peace, opposition+, newspaper clich3s *vital issue, overwhelming ma'ority, war escalation+, abbreviations *%O, E%+, neologisms are made use of in newspaper style and in brief news items. 4owever, some popular papers tend to insert emotionally loaded vocabulary. !he basic peculiarity of news items lie in their syntactical structure. As the reporter is constrained in space, he tries to cram all the facts in the space allotted. or that he uses comple# sentences with many clauses, verbal and noun constructions, nominative with infinitive constructions, specific word order. =ournalistic practice has developed the pattern called five-wand-h-pattern rule *who-what-why-how-where-when+ > sub'ect-predicate-adverbial modifier of reason? manner- adverbial modifier of place- adverbial of time. Advertisements and announcements appeared in the &ritish press in the 2th century. !heir function is to inform the reader as well. !here are classified and non-classified ads and announcements. In classified ads various kind of info is arranged according to sub'ect-matter into sections *&irths, 7arriages, )eaths, &usiness Offers etc+. All announcements are built on an elliptical pattern so that all elements that can be done without are eliminated. !he elliptic sentence structure is done purely technically to economize space. !he vocabulary of classified announcements is on the whole neutral with some emotional colouring to attract the reader(s attention, especially in the section 'oy, green > calm, white > comfort. Editorials are articles which comment on the political and other events of the day. !heir function is to influence the reader by giving interpretation of certain facts and to present the editor(s opinion and interpretation of the news published and to suggest to the reader that this is the correct one. !hey appeal to both the reader(s mind and his feelings. 4ence, the use of emotionally coloured language elements, both le#ical and structural. Editorials abound especially in metaphors and epithets *international climate, price e#plosion, crazy policies+.
to be used in their primary logical meaning without taking in consideration the conte#t. !erms are coined so as to be self-e#planatory to the greatest possible degree. Even though, a new term is usually followed by an e#planation. Another feature of scientific style is the sentence-patterns, which are of three types@ postulatory, argumentative and formulative. !his style also makes use of uotations and references, which sometimes may occupy half a page. !he impersonality of any scientific writing is another feature typical of the style *I we, active passive+. In connection with the general impersonal tone of e#pression, it should be noted that impersonal passive constructions are freuently used with the verbs ascertain, assume, compare, conclude, construct, describe, determine, estimate, e#plain, infer, note, point out, record, suppose, test, verify*h should be assumed+. erbs of warning and advising *avoid, check, ensure, notice, prevent, remember+ and of manipulation *ad'ust. assemble, begin, boil, connect, cover, decrease, dilute, release, rotate+ are often employed. The Style of Official Documents. !he style of official documents is one of the most important functional styles of the English language. It is sometimes called BofficialeseB. !he official style is subdivided into several substyles which represent the features of the root style and therefore they have much in common. !hese substyles are@ C the language of business documents C the language of legal documents C the language of diplomacy C the language of military documents. !he official-administrative style is the style of official documents, office acts, diplomatic and 'uridical te#ts, business correspondence, of different provisions, decrees, resolutions, contracts, declarations, government notes. Otherwise said, the specific nature of this style is determined by the functioning sphere of the language, thus, manifesting in the field of political, 'uridical, administrative, diplomatical activities etc. !he communicative aim of official style is to state the conditions binding two parties in an undertaking. B!hese parties may be@ the state and the citizen, or citizen and citizen *'urisdiction+D a society and its members *statute or ordinance+D two or more enterprises or bodies *business correspondence or contracts+D two or more governments *pacts, treaties+D a person in authority and a subordinate *orders, regulations, instructions, authoritative directions+D the board or presidium and the assembly or general meeting *procedures acts, minutes+, etc. In other words the aim of communication in this style of language is to reach agreement between two contracting parties. Even protest against violations of statutes, contracts, regulations, etc., can also be regarded as a form by which normal cooperation is sought on the basis of previously attained concordance.
In a document or office act the word must be used in such a way mat the interpretation of its significance should not lead to ambiguity. !he necessity of rendering, the ideas with a ma#imum accuracy imposes the elimination of any secondary semantic development, canceling by this any possibility of ambiguous interpretation of the utterance.
which often cannot be e#pressed in all their scope, in all their unfolding, as it is in the scientific prose style. BThe official-administrative style is one of bookish styles and it figures, as a rule, in written form. !his style doesn(t recognize e#pressions with emotive meaning, artistic methods etc. !he use of such attributes of &elles-9ettres style would make them seem uncertain, because the te#t would become hard to understand, and it will not e#clude false and doubtful interpretations. Even it seems to be unitary, the official style is heterogeneous, it caters three main spheres of activity, which helps to distinguish in this style three substyles@ legal, diplomatic and administrative. "ince all these stylistic subdivisions are characterized by common fundamental features, as accuracy, stereotyped and standard e#pression, they cater the domain of social activity including the official relations sustained both locally and internationally.B 7arin .D FFD G$H One of the most striking functions of the style of official documents is a special stem of clich3s, terms and set e#pressions. e.g. I beg to inform you private advisory )ear "ir Abbreviations, conventional symbols and contractions are also used in this style@ e.g. fo.b. *free on board+ . v. t. *government+ 9.t.d. *limited+ 7.<. *7ember of
C conventionality of e#pressionD C absence of any emotivenessD C the encoded character of languageD symbols *including abbreviations+ C a general syntactical mode of combining several pronouncements into one sentence. The official style is subdivided into several substyles which represent varieties of the root style and therefore have much in common with it. !hey are as follows@
- !he language of business documents - !he language of legal documents - !he language of diplomacy - 7ilitary terms. !his style has a definite communicative aim and accordingly has its own system of interrelated language and stylistic means. !he aim of this style is to state the conditions binding two parties and to reach agreement between them. !his aim predetermines the peculiarities of the style. A striking feature is a special system of clich3s, terms and set e#pressions by which each substyle is easily recognized, for e#ample the above mentioned, private advisory, ta#able capacities, a body of 'udges etc. Another characteristics of this style is the e#tensive use of abbreviations, conventional symbols and contractions, for e#ample 7< *member of parliament+, vt *government+, 9td *limited+, " *dollar+ etc. !he third feature of the style is the use of words in their logical dictionary( meaning. !here is no room here for words with conte#tual meaning or for any kind of simultaneous realization of two meanings. 6ords with emotive meaning are also not to be found in the style of official documents. !hese are the words which reveal the attitude of the writer, his individual evaluation of the facts and events, e#cept for those which are used in business letters as conventional phrases of greeting or closing, such as )ear "ir, 8ours faithfully. All these properties appear as a system. A style cannot be singled out only( by its vocabulary. !he syntactical pattern of the style is as significant as the vocabulary though not so immediately apparent. !he most noticeable of all syntactical features are the compositional patterns. !hus, 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. !he &elles 9etters "tyle. !his is a generic term for three substyles in which the main principles and the most general properties of the style are materialized. !hese three substyles are@ the language of poetry, emotive prose *the -ge of fiction+ and the -ge of drama. Each substyle has certain common features, typical of the general belles-letters style, but they are also individual. !he first common feature is the function of all three substyles, which is aesthetic and cognitive. !his function aims at the cognitive process, which secures the gradual unfolding of the idea to the reader and at the same time creates a feeling of pleasure, which is derived from the content. !his pleasure is caused by both
the admiration for the -ge means selected and their peculiar arrangement and by the fact that the reader is allowed to form his own conclusions. !he purpose of this style is not to prove, but to suggest a possible interpretation of the phenomena of life by forcing the reader to see the writer(s opinion. !his means selecting a system of -ge means which will secure the effect sought. !he indispensable linguistic features of the style are - genuine, not trite imagery, achieved by purely linguistic devicesD - the use of words in conte#tual and very often in more than one dictionary meaningD - a vocabulary which reflects the author(s personal evaluation of things or phenomenaD - a peculiar individual selection of le#ical and syntactical means, sometimes idiosyncraticD - the introduction of the typical features of collouial -ge to a full degree. !he belles-letters style is individual in essence. !his individuality is illustrated by the selection of I-ge means, mainly of stylistic devices.