FUNCTIONAL STYLES: E

THE STYLE OF OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

The style of official documents or officialese [o’fi oli:z] is one more style within the boundaries of standard literary English.

It is not homogeneous. It is represented by the following sub-styles (variants):

1. the language of business documents;

2. the language of legal documents;

3. the language of diplomacy [ou];

4. the language of military documents.

Like other styles of the language, this one has a definite communicative purpose and its own system of interrelated language and stylistic means. The main aim of this type of communication is to state the conditions binding two parties in an undertaking. These parties can be the state and a citizen, or citizen and citizen; two enterprises or bodies (in business correspondence or contracts), etc.

The aim of communication in this style is to reach agreement between two contracting parties.

Even protest against violations of contracts, regulations etc. can be regarded as a form by which normal co-operation is sought on the basis of previously attained concordance.

The most general function of the style of official documents predetermines the peculiarities of this style.

1. The most striking, though not the most essential feature, is the special system of cliches, terms and set expressions, by which each sub-style can be easily recognized,

e.g. I beg to inform you,

Dear Sir, we remain your obedient servants…

In finance, for instance, we find terms like extra revenue [‘revinju:] –годовой доход, taxable (облагаемый налогом) capacities.

Diplomacy: extra-territorial status, memorandum, pact, etc.

Legal language: to deal with a case, a body of judges, etc.

2.Another feature common to all these varieties is the use of abbreviations, conventional symbols and contractions:

e.g. MP – Member of Parliament

Gvt – government

H.M.S. – His Majesty’s Steamship

Ltd – Limited, etc.

Abbreviations are particularly abundant in military documents:

e.g. D.A.O. – Divisional Ammunition Officer

atk – attack

adv – advance

A/T – anti-tank

ATAS – Air Transport Auxiliary Service, etc.

3. Another feature of this style is the use of words in their logical dictionary meaning. Just as in the other matter-of-fact styles, there is no room for contextual meaning or any kind of interplay of 2 meanings here. In military documents metaphorical names are sometimes given to mountains, rivers, etc. but these metaphors are perceived as code signs and have no aesthetic value.

4. Words with emotive meaning are not to be found in the style of official documents either, except those used in business letters as conventional phrases of greetings and close such as:

e.g. Dear Sir, …

Yours faithfully, …

As in all other functional styles, the distinctive properties here appear as a system. We cannot single out a style by its vocabulary only. The syntactical pattern of the style is as significant as its vocabulary though, perhaps, not so apparent

Each of the sub-styles of the official style is characterized by its own terminology and compositional form, and its own variety of syntactical arrangements. But the intergrating features of all these sub-styles emanating (происходить, проистекать) from the general aim to achieve agreement between the parties involved, remain the following:

1. conventionality of expression;

2. absence of emotiveness;

3. the encoded character of language symbols;

4. a general syntactical mode of combining several pronouncements into one sentence.