Lecture 11. Stylistically marked & stylistically neutral words (2 hrs)

Objective. To inform the students of the English language functional styles; to raise the students’ awareness of the stylistic oppositions in modern English; to develop cognitive skills of analyzing & summarizing information, distinguishing between major & minor aspects, categorizing & estimating relevant facts.

Glossary: functional style, literary standard of the language, neutral style, colloquial style, bookish style, belles-lettres style, register, learned words, official vocabulary, poetic diction, slang, publicistic style, emotive prose, newspaper style, officialisms; literary / refined words, literary colloquial, familiar colloquial, low colloquial, argo

Plan

1. Functional styles & neutral vocabulary

2. Learned words & official vocabulary

3. Poetic diction

4. Colloquial words & expressions

5. Slang

11.1. Functional styles & neutral vocabulary

FS are the subsystems of language with their own peculiar features in vocabulary means, syntactical constructions & phonetics. The existence of FS is due to the specific conditions of different spheres of human communication life. I. Galperin: a FS is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication. FSs appear mainly in the literary standard of the language.

Each FS is a relatively stable system at the given stage in the development of the literary language, but it changes from 1 period to another. → FS is a historical category. 17^th century: not all Ws can be used in poetry → a separate poetic St. 19^th century romanticism rejected the norms of poetic St & introduced new vocabulary to poetry.

The development of each St is predetermined by the changes in the norms of standard English. It is also influenced by changing social conditions, the progress of science & the development of culture.

Neutral style: absence of St coloring & the possibility to be used in any communicative situation.

Colloquial St serves situations of spontaneous everyday communication (casual, non-formal). Bookish St corresponds to public speech (non-casual, formal). This division ≠ the division into spoken & written language: colloquial St can be used in fiction, bookish St represented by oratorical St exists in the oral form only.

Colloquial St: upper colloquial, common colloquial & low colloquial.

Bookish St: scientific, official, publicistic (newspaper), oratorical, poetic styles.

I. Arnold rejects the existence of belles-letres St: each work of literature is an example of the author’s individual speech; authors often use different FS. She doubts that in ME there is a separate poetic St.

There are no strict boundaries separating 1 FS from another. The oratorical St has much in common with a publicistic one. The publisictic newspaper St is close to the colloquial St. Each FS is characterized by certain parameters concerning vocabulary & syntax.

I. Galperin: belles-letres St is a generic term for 3 subSts: the language of poetry; emotive prose (the language of fiction); the language of the drama. Each of these subSts has certain common features; each of them enjoys some individuality. The common features:

1. the aesthetic-cognitive function (aims at the cognitive process, which secures the gradual unfolding of the idea to the reader & calls forth a feeling of pleasure & satisfaction);

2. definite linguistic features:

• genuine, not trite, imagery, achieved by purely linguistic devices;

• the use of Ws in different meanings, greatly influenced by the lexical environment;

• a vocabulary reflects the author’s personal evaluation of things / phenomena;

• individual selection of vocabulary & syntax;

• the introduction of the typical features of colloquial language to a full degree (drama), to a lesser degree (prose), to a slight degree (poetry).

The publicistic St became a separate St in the mid 18^th century. 2 spoken varieties: oratorical subSt; radio & TV commentary. The other 2 subSts are the essay (moral, philosophical, literary) & journalistic articles (political, social, economic). The general aim of publicistic St is to influence the public opinion, to convince the reader / listener. Publicistic St is characterized by coherent & logical syntactical structure, an expanded system of connectives & careful paragraphing. Its emotional appeal is achieved by Ws with the emotive meaning. St devices are not fresh / genuine. The individual element is not very evident. Publicistic St is characterized by the brevity of expression, sometimes a leading feature.

Newspaper St. Not all the printed materials in newspapers comes under newspaper St, only materials which perform the function of informing the reader & providing him with an evaluation of information published. English newspaper St is a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological & grammatical means which serves the purpose of informing & instructing the reader. Information in the English newspaper is conveyed through: 1) brief news items; 2) press reports; 3) articles purely informational in character; 4) advertisements & announcements.

The newspaper also seeks to influence public. Elements of appraisal are observed in the very selection & way of presenting news, the use of specific vocabulary, & syntactical constructions. Newspaper vocabulary is characterized by an extensive use of: 1) special political & economic terms; 2) non-term political vocabulary (nation, crisis, agreement, member); 3) newspaper clichés (pressing problem, danger of war, pillars of society); 4) abbreviations; 5) neologisms.

The St of official documents is represented by the following subSts: 1) the language of business documents; 2) the language of legal documents; 3) the language of diplomacy; 4) the language of military documents. The main aim is to state the conditions binding 2 parties & to reach agreement between 2 contracting parties. The most striking feature: a special system of clichés, terms & set expressions. In finance extra revenue, liability. In diplomacy high contracting parties, memorandum, to ratify an agreement. In legal language to deal with a case, a body of judges. All these varieties use abbreviations, conventional symbols & contractions: M.P., Ltd, $. Abbreviations are especially abundant in military documents, used not only as conventional symbols, but also as signs of military code. Another feature is the use of Ws in their logical dictionary meaning.