17. Phonostylistics as a science.

Variety of pronunciation depends on many factors (political, social, cultural, educational, etc) having no connection with linguistics proper. Phonostylistics – phonetical organization of prose and poetic texts. Here are included rhythm, rhythmical structure, rhyme, alliteration, assonance and correlation of the sound form and meaning. Also studies deviation in normative pronunciation.

Phonostylistics is a branch of linguistics which includes the analysis of various extra-linguistic factors instead of systematically excluding them.To extra-linguistic factors scholars refer firstly different personal characteristics of the speaker (his age, his educational and social status, his occupation), as well as different voice qualities (dry, flat, husky, etc.) together with different features of voice dynamics (loudness, tempo, continuity, rhythmicality, register) and, secondly, the factors belonging to the situation proper which is bound to determine this or that variation of usage (the form of speech, the degree of formality or spontaneity, etc.) – that is all those forming the extra-linguistic context. The range of concepts phonostylistics includes is as follows: the phonetic norm and deviation from the norm; phonetic synonyms; euphonology; sound symbolism, etc. It is only in the context of a communicative situation that the essential properties of the linguistic system can be discovered and analysed. The extra-linguistic situation can be roughly defined by the following factors: purpose, participants and setting. It is also important to consider the speaker’s attitude to the situation

18. Phonetic functional styles.

While classifying various speech realizations from phonostylistic point of view an analyst should single out criteria that are different from the ones used as a basis for distinguishing functional styles of L. we might suggest that various speech realizations can be grouped on the basis of some most general common phonetic characteristics. Thus such speech realizations as informative reading over radio and TV, a text produced behind the screen, lectures, reports, etc. can be grouped together since they are monologues with reference to the written texts. From the point of view of functional sphere of publicistics, while a lecture is referred to scientific functional style.

Texts that are traditionally referred to different functional styles turn out to have identical phonetic

organization. For instance, the phonetic experiments carried out recently show that texts belonging to different functional styles (an extract from ? extract from a guide for tourists) read with identific aim don’t reveal any difference in phonostylistic aspect.

One of the well-known classification of phonetic styles is a classification by SM Gaiduchic. He distinguishes five phonetic styles:

• solemn торжественный

• scientific business научно-деловой

• official business официально-деловой

• everyday бытовой

• familiar непринужденный

As we may see the above-mentioned phonetic styles on the whole correlate with functional styles of L.

They are differentiated on the basis of spheres of discourse.

The other way of classifying phonetic of classifying phonetic styles is suggested by JA Dubovsky who discriminates the following five styles:

• informal ordinary

• formal neutral ( )

• formal official

• informal familiar

• declamatory (artistic, stage style) mostly concerns theatrical activities, screen productions, TV and all sort of recitations.)

The division is based on different degrees of formality or rather familiarity between the speaker and the listener. With each styles subdivisions are observed. But as a author himself writes it is rather the principle of presenting the text for description and analysis because “no theory has yet created a completely symmetrical classification of speech acts”.

When we consider the problem of classification phonetic styles according to the criteria described above we should distinguish so far between segmental and suprasegmental level of analysis because some of them (the aim for the utterance for example) result in variations of mainly suprasegmental level, while others (the formality of situation, for instance) reveal segmental varieties. So for the sake of describing and explaining phonostylistic varieties it seems preferable to consider each level separately until a more adequate system of correlation is found.

The style – differentiating characteristics mentioned above give good grounds for establishing intentional styles suitable not only for sociolinguistic research but also for the purpose of learning and teaching a foreign L.

It might be generally assumed that there are five intentional styles singled out mainly according to the purpose of communication and to which we could refer all the main varieties of the texts generated in everyday communication of a modern man. In oral speech we realize different types of information (intellectual, emotional, volitional) which may be rendered by different prosodic means. In every stylistic register there must exist a certain invariant – an ideal norm of speech behaviour in a certain situation.

They are as follows:

1 Informational style The most neutral among styles is informational style (formal, neutral) which is employed in educational descriptive narratives, press reporting and broadcasting.

2 Academic style (Scientific) Academic style characterizes lectures, scientific discussions, conferences, classes to entertain. It is used to deliver this message to the audience, to establish a contact with the listeners. The speaker must sound self-assured, authoritative, instructive.

3 Publicistic style (Oratorial) The aim of the speaker using publicistic style is to persuade and influence the audience, to substantiate his arguments. Oratorical skills need special training. Speech of this kind is always prepared.

4 Declamatory (Artistic) (artistic, stage style) mostly concerns theatrical activities, screen productions, TV and all sort of recitations.

5 Conversational (Familiar)

Conversational style is very frequent because a lot of English speaking people use it in their everyday speech. It is often called informal, as we use it in family circles, among friends and acquaintances. The speakers are comparatively free, they do not control their linguistic behaviour, they sound natural, use non-standard forms of speech. Much depends on their social background, their social status. This kind of speech greatly depends on the situation and the complex study of conversational style is important from the didactic point of view, though the emotional part of conversational style is equally important.

But differentiation of intonation according to the purpose of communication only is definitely not enough.

As was mentioned above, there are other factors, that affect intonation in various extralinguistic situations.

We could add that any style with very little exceptions is seldom realized in its pure form. Each generated text is likely to include phonetic characteristics of different styles. In such case we talk about over lapping (fusion) of styles.

To summarize we could say that the distinction of phonetic styles is a purely formal one because any particular theory while in use should control and give meaning to the descriptive statement. So in this respect the suggested classification is near to adequate way on reflecting numerous speech realizations, on the one hand, and on the other, it is the way to understand and interpret the system.