16. Stylistic functions of conversational words.

A great part of modern English vocabulary is taken by low-flown words, i.e. words of low stylistical tone. Here we refer colloquial words, general slang words (interjargon), special slang words (social and professional jargons), dialectal words and vulgarisms. Some linguists differentiate slang and jargon, but the difference is vague and is practically irrelevant for stylistics. Generally, colloquial words according to their usage may be divided into three big groups: literary colloquial (used by educated people in every day communication); familiar colloquial (are characterized by a purposeful acquisition of a conversational status.); low colloquial (slang, jargonisms, dialectal words, vulgarisms). According to the relations between their form and meaning, all colloquial words may be divided into three subgroups: - words which are based on the change of their phonetic or morphological form without changing their lexical and stylistic meaning; -words which are the result of the change of both their form and lexico-stylistic meaning; - words which resulted from the change of their lexical and/or lexico-stylistic meaning without changing their form. The first subgroup comprises such varieties of word forms change as: a)clipping (shortening): serge - sergeant, caff- cafeteria; doc - doctor; b)contamination of a word combination: leggo - let's go, c 'man - come on; de-jay - disk-jokey; c)contamination of grammatical forms: I'd go, there's, we 're going. These words have no lexico-stylistic paradigms. They possess denotative meaning only. Within the second group of colloquialisms, we may distinguish two varieties of the word-form change leading to the alteration of its lexico-stylistic meaning:a) the change of the grammatical form which brings the change of the lexico-stylistic meaning: bags, heaps - very many, a handful - a person causing a lot of trouble; b) the change of the word-building pattern which causes the emergence of another lexico-stylistic meaning through: - affixation (oldie – старая песня); - compounding (backroom boy – засекреченный парень); - conversion (teach-in – диспут); - shortening (Archie - Archibald); - telescopy (flush, motel, smog). All these words form a lexico-stylistic paradigm as they have synonyms among neutral and literary words and are characterized by various connotations while giving additional characteristics to the denotate. The third subgroup of colloquial words is the most numerous and comprises: a) words with emotive-expressive meaning only: oh, bach, ah as well as word combinations having a special expressive function: / never, Good (Great) heavens.. They serve to express feelings of the speaker. b) words and word combinations having both connotative and denotative meaning where the former one prevails. Here we refer set expressions denoting surprise, disbelief (really, would you believe it, you do not say so) regret, disappointment, indignation (do not be silly), and the words expressing emotions, like terribly, awfully, wonderfully; these words do not contain evaluative meaning but point out the degree of some quality (positive or negative). c) words in which denotative and connotative meanings interplay: colt team — young team; beak (jarg.) – teacher. d) words in which denotative meaning in certain contextual conditions gives rise to a new connotative meaning: affair - business, to have an a affair - to be in love. e) words denotative and connotative meanings of which are completely different from their former meanings: chanter (poetic) - a singer. Slang is composed of highly colloquial words whose expressiveness and novelty make them emphatic and emotive as compared to their neutral synonyms. We can distinguish two varieties of slang: general slang (interjargon) and special slang (social as well as professional jargons). General slang (interjargon) is constituted of words which are known to every member of speech community, but they are not commonly used. These words are concentrated around the notions which emphasize not social values but antivalues. The word "money" has the following jargon - synonyms: berries, cabbage, potatoes, smoker, bob. General slang can be used by all members of the community to make one's speech sound purposefully low-flown, sometimes rude. Special slang falls into three groups: -professional jargon; -social jargon; -age-group jargon (youth jargon). Professional jargon is used by musicians, doctors, athletes, journalists, teachers. They are colloquial words giving new names to objects of every day discourse. (red cap - a military policeman, red hat - staff officer and others, ; baby of the house - the youngest MP). Social jargon is used by definite social groups of people. Here we refer thieves and drug addicts. Social jargon differs from professional jargon by absence of expressiveness. The main function of social jargon is to conceal the true meaning of the whole utterance. (names of druggs: grass, pot, tea, weed, goofball.) The so - called youth jargon is close to professional jargons because it is a kind of social amusement, language play. (загреметь – быть отчисленным, возникать - шуметь). Vulgarisms are often used in conversation out of habit, without any thought of what they mean in order not to seem old - fashioned. Vulgarisms are the words which are not generally used in public. Vulgarisms are also known as four-letter words the use of which is banned. Dialectal words are used to intensify the emotive and expressive colouring of speech which is primarily determined by the peculiarities of social or geographical environment. When used in fiction dialectal words are meant to characterize the speaker as a person of a certain locality, breeding, education, etc.(hinny from honey; tittie from sister). Dialectal words, unlike professionalisms, are confined in their use to a definite locality and most of the words deal with the everyday life of the country. Colloqual words fulfill different functions in the emotive prose. One can distinguish three main spheres of their usage: direct speech, represented speech and the author's narrative. In poetry colloquial words are used to create: a) a true - to life atmosphere; b) a humorous effect. In newspaper style they are used: a) to express evaluation of the events described; b) to make the text sound more expressive; c) to imitate a friendly conversation. Conversational words of all kinds are widely used for stylistic purposes. There are four speech spheres in which they are most largely used: everyday speech, newspaper language, poetry and fiction. The function of emotional and expressive intensifiers.