8.2. Functional Styles

According to I.R.Galperin, functional style is a system of interrelated language means that serves a definite purpose in communication. Each functional style is a relatively stable system at the given stage of development of language, but it changes from one period to another. Therefore FS is a historical category. The development of style is predetermined by changing of social conditions, progress of science, and cultural life. Every functional style is marked by specific use of language means, thus establishing its own norms.

Functional styles are classified into two general groups: bookish and colloquial. The group of bookish styles embraces: academic / scientific, official / business, mass media / publicist, and literary styles. The colloquial style is subdivided into literary, informal, and substandard. Both bookish and colloquial styles exist in written and oral forms. The only known written form of the colloquial style is personal letters.

The academic style, or the style of scientific prose, serves as an instrument for promoting scientific ideas and exchanging scientific information among researchers. Its main function is to transmit intellectual knowledge and to inform about results of research as well as to give its explanation. The stylistic factors is the necessity of clarity and logical consequence of presentation of complex ideas, inferences, and thoughts.

The academic style is represented in the following academic genres: papers, monographs, theses, conference abstracts, scientific reviews, scientific reports (wr.); lectures, disputes, colloquys, scientific conferences, ritualized procedures like defending a thesis (or.).

Structural peculiarities of this style is number- or letter-indexed paragraphs, a developed system of headlines, titles and subtitles, footnotes, references, quotations, tables, schemes, graphs and formulae.

Vocabulary. A great part of the vocabulary is constituted of special terms of international origin. Most of them are borrowed from Greek and Latin and are not translated into English, e.g.: a fortiori, a priori, a posteriori, ab initio, ab ovo, ad hoc, ad infinitum, alter ego, bona fide, casus belli, de bene esse, erratum, in situ, in vitro, in vivo, ipso facto, jus soli, per capita, per diem, pe se, post factum, pro rate, sic. Here also belong Latin abbreviations widely used in academic writing: cf., e.g., et al., etc., ibid., i.e., loc. cit., N.B., op. cit., viz., vs. So-called general scientific words (загальнонаукова / міжгалузева лексика) is of French and Latin origin is also used in scientific writing in all branches of science, e.g.: to account for, to assume, to deduce, to estimate, to focus on, to identify, to infer, to investigate, to occur, to refer to, etc. As a whole, words are used in their direct or terminological meaning. Bookish words comprise the major bulk of the vocabulary, e.g.: susceptible, approximate, heterogeneous, phenomenon, simultaneously, the former, the latter. Set-phrases and clichés are also common, e.g.: to sum up, as we have seen, so far as we have considered, note that, another point of consideration, it is worth emphasizing that, etc. Metaphoric terms in English can be also observed. They are represented either by language metaphors, e.g.: coal basin (вугільний басейн), captan’s bridge, or by speech metaphors, e.g.: alligator skin (дефект поверхні), snow (TV) – сніг (на екрані).

Morphological feature of academic style is the usage of personal pronoun we in the meaning of I. It is explained by two reasons: the 1^st – that the science is created by a community of scientists, the 2^nd – to invite the reader to the process of reasoning and argumentation.

Syntax: composite sentences, esp. complex, prevail. They are used to represent logical relations between objects, actions, events, and facts which is trypical for scientific reasoning. Simple sentences are developed by means of homogeneous sentence members. Short simple sentences are implied sporadically to intensify the importance of a thought, e.g.: This is the analogue of memory (N.Winer). Preferance is given to passive constructions, e.g.: The notation is the same as it has been previously used, or impersonal forms, e.g.: It should be born in mind; One may assume that, to neglect the agent of the action. The Present Continuous and the Future Simple tense instead of the Present Simple tense form are rather frequent, e.g.: The obtained data will very well prove that. Nominative sentence members have several pre- or post attributes, e.g.: anti-craft fire control system, to define the notions precisely and in full. Many words are explained by Participle, Gerund or Infinitive constructions. Links between parts of a sentence as well as between sentences and paragraphs are expressed in explicit way by means of simple and double conjunctions, e.g.: that, or, if, as; not merely… but also, both… and, as… as. The double conjunctions, like hereafter, hereby, herein, thereby, thereof, therewith, used in academic writing are considered archaic in other styles.

Logical connectors which establish logical relationship between ideas within a sentence or between them are also typical here. They improve the flow of writing and help the reader to follow the text better. They are grouped according to their functions:

- addition: furthermore, moreover, in addition;

- cause and effect: because of, due to, as, since, whereas;

- comparison: likewise, similarly;

- concession: nevertheles, although, even though, in spite of, despite of;

- conclusion: therefore, thus, in conclusion, consequently, hence;

- contrust: on the other hand, on the contrary, in contrust, otherwise;

- enumeration: firstly, secondly, lastly;

- illustration: for example, for instance;

- intensification: as a matter of fact, in fact, in this case;

- reformulation: in other words, i.e., in brief;

- relation: regarding, concerning, as to, accordingly;

- summation: overall, finally, on the whole;

- time: meanwhile, at the same time, as long as, whereas, while.

Colloquial style is a type of speech used in situations that allow certain deviations from rigid patterns of literary speech both in private conversation and correspondence. Subtypes: literary, informal, and substandard.

Literary colloquial: neutral, bookish, and literary words; reduction of grammatical forms – omission of subject-pronoun: Want to have a look at it; Just looking; sentences are short and elliptical, omission of the predicate or part of it: How much? – Ten pounds; asyndetic composite sentences: I think he’ll come soon.

Informal colloquial: words with connotative meaning: jolly, rotten, foul, swell, smash; words with wide meaning: thing, business, stuff, get, fix (Am.), nice; phrasal verbs: to give up, to take out, to put down; dialectal words: ghost, E – bogle, Scot.; regional varieties of speech: subway, Am. – tube, Br.; pleonastic expressions: dead & gone, good & well, lord & master, far & away; time fillers / parasitic words: well, I mean, you see, you know; interjections: wow! dear me! oh my! oh God!; contractions: don’t, can’t, I’ve got; abbreviations: doc, vegs, fringe, Frisco; ITALY – I trust and love you, KISS – Keep it simple, Stupid; ellipsis: Morning! Evening!; disjunctive questions: Nice weather, isn’t it?; baby-talk, diminutive suffixes: mummy, daddy, dearie, lovey.

Substandard (special coll.): vulgarisms: hell, damn, lousy, shit; slangy words: cabbage (money), frog-eater (a French man); contaminated speech patterns: more better; pleonastic forms: Let’s us have a drink; reduced forms: feller (fellow), dunno (don’t know), gonna, wonna; constructions with how, what, why + ever: What ever are you doing?; simplified substitute ain’t for am / is / are not, was / were not, have / has / had not, will not.