45. The problem of speech functional style classification.
The problem of the speech functional styles classification is very complicated. There are 2 approaches to solve it: deductive (from the general to the specific) & inductive (vice versa). But irrespective of their approaches scholars usually distinguish the following styles: conversational, publicistic and oratorical, official, newspaper style and belles – letters style. The status of some of these styles is refutable (опровержимы). Following the differentiation of the primary & secondary semiotic systems we assume that the poetic language, the language of fiction does not constitute a functional style comparable with other functional styles it constitutes a functional type of language. Poetic texts are objects of art which have their own specific structures whose functions differ in many respects from those of practical texts and utterances. The status of the newspaper style is also doubtful. Some scholars consider that the existence of this style is conditioned by the specific aims of mass media and by peculiarities of the language means used in newspaper. It is reasonable to speak not about the newspaper style but about the language taking into account both peculiarities of the language & the peculiarities of the genre.
Prof. Galperin: belles – letters, publicistic, newspaper, scientific & style of official documents. He excludes conversational speech, because his classification is based on the written type of language.
Marakhovskij: official – based on the practical lang, impersonal/ scientific – practical lang, impersonal, may include poetic lang/ publicistic – practical lang, personal, may widely use poetic lang/ literary conversational – practical lang, widely employs poetic lang, used in formal situations/ colloquial – based on practical lang, employs poetic lang, in informal situations when communicants are equal.
46. Stylistics of speech. Types of texts. Genres of texts. Stylistics of individual speech.
A certain manner of behavior results in the fact that the products of this activity - utterances and texts - have certain structural and semantic properties. These properties are the subject - matter of stylistics of speech.
Utterances and texts having similar or different semantic and structural properties conditioned by functional styles, may be classified according to semantic and structural criteria. On the basis of these criteria, three major classes of texts hierarchically related to one another can be distinguished:
types of the texts. These are different classes of texts within a functional style which differ in their semantic and thematic characteristics. Thus, texts of official style may be subdivided into administrative, judicial, military, commercial, diplomatic, etc;
genres of the texts. These are types of texts further subdivided according to their compositional and stylistic peculiarities. Thus, military texts are divided into orders, reports, instructions, regulations, etc.
individual texts. These types of texts are mostly influenced by the author's personality. The study of such texts constitutes the subject-matter of stylistics of individual speech.
47. Official style in Modern English. In standard literary English official style is the style of official documents. It is not homogeneous and is represented by the following substyles or variants:
1. the language of business documents;
2. the language of legal documents;
3. that of diplomacy;
4. that of military documents.
The main aim of this type of communication is to state the conditions binding two parties in an undertaking. The most general function of the style of official documents predetermines the peculiarities of the style. The most noticeable of all syntactical features are the compositional patterns of the variants of this style.
These parties may be: the state and the citizen, or citizen and citizen (jurisdiction); a society and its members (statute or ordinance); two or more enterprises or bodies (business correspondence or contracts); two or more governments (pacts, treaties); a person in authority and a subordinate (orders, regulations, instructions, authoritative directions); the board or presidium and the assembly or general meeting (procedures acts, minutes), etc. The aim of communication in this style of language is to reach agreement between two contracting parties.
This most general function of the style of official documents predetermines the peculiarities of the style. The most striking, though not the most essential feature, is a special system of cliches, terms and set expressions by which each substyle can easily be recognized. Other varieties of official language have their special nomenclature. Besides the special nomenclature characteristic of each variety of the style, there is a feature common to all these varieties — the use of abbreviations, conventional symbols and contractions (M. P. (Member of Parliament), Gvt (government). 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. Ex. 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.
48. Publicistic and oratoric styles in Modern English. 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 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, essays or article. Due to its characteristic combination of logical argumentation and emotional appeal, publicistic style has features in common with the style of scientific prose, on the one hand, and that of emotive prose, on the other. Its emotional appeal is generally achieved by the use of words with emotive meaning; but the stylistic devices are not fresh or genuine. Publicistic style is also characterized by brevity of expression.
1. Oratory and speeches. Oratorical style is the oral subdivision of the publicistic style.
Direct contact with the listeners permits the combination of the syntactical, lexical and phonetic peculiarities of both the written and spoken varieties of language. Certain typical features of the spoken variety of speech present in this style are: direct address to the audience (ladies and gentlemen, honorable member(s), the use of the 2nd person pronoun you, etc.), sometimes contractions (I’ll, won’t, haven’t, isn’t and others) and the use of colloquial words.
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 is evident in speeches on political and social problems of the day, in orations-and addresses on solemn occasions as public weddings, funerals and jubilees, in sermons and debates and also in the speeches of counsel and judges in courts of law.
Political speeches fall into two categories: parliamentary debates • and speeches at rallies, congresses, meetings and election campaigns. 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.
2. The essay .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. Personality in the treatment of theme and naturalness of expression are 2 of the most obvious characteristics of the essay. An essay 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 the essay as a variety of publicistic style.
In the 19th century the essay as a literary term gradually changed into what we now call the journalistic article or feature article which covers all kinds of subjects from politics, philosophy or aesthetics to travel, sport and fashions. Feature articles are generally published in newspapers, especially weeklies and Sunday editions.
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. In comparison with oratorical style,
the essay aims at a more lasting, hence at a slower effect.
3. ArticlesIrrespective of the character of the magazine and the divergence of subject matter – whether it is political, literary, popular-scientific or satirical, all the features of publistic 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. There are popular scientific articles, satirical articles, political magazine articles, newspaper articles, etc. Literary reviews stand closer to essay both by their content and by their linguistic form. More abstract words of logical meaning are used in them, they more often resort to emotional language and less frequently to traditional set expressions.