Lectures Functional Stylitics

8/10/2019 Lectures Functional Stylitics

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FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS

The term functional stylistics accounts for the uneasy, almost paradoxical,

relationship between a number of linguistic theories of the 1950s and 1960s and their

use in literary stylistics. These theories are for the most part functional, in that they

focus on the ways in which the linguistic system operates in terms of its utilitarian

functions. We choose this or that word or syntactic formation according to the

requirements of the context of their use and as a result of our desire to achieve an

effective, functional, transference of meaning. The use of these theories as a model for

literary-stylistic analysis is paradoxical because the context of, say, a real conversation

is grounded in our knowledge of its actual circumstances whereas in a novel its context

would be comprised of the stylistic keys and registers that constitute the fabric of the

text.

One of the underlying precepts of stylistics is that a natural human language

exists in and through a diversity of situationally grounded speech forms, which can be

roughly and very superficially reduced to a set of the so-called literary styles as

opposed to conversational (spoken, colloquial) styles. However, we can hardly allow

ourselves to stop at that. Naturally, in any developed modern language there are more

than two basic subdivisions (or functional styles). They are gradually formed in the

course of the historical development of a language and are connected with a certain

sphere of communication. Functional styles are characterized by definite linguistic

features which allow distinguishing them from each other.

In modern philology these functional subdivisions within the system of a national

language are best described and systematized on the categorial basis, which

presupposes that, both the linguistic and the conceptual, (extralinguistic) characteristics

of a speech-event are taken into account. Co-existing within the system of one

language, functional styles have many linguistic features in common. One should not be

surprised if in this or that functional style he would come across the features considered

as the invariant characteristics of another [A. I. Komarova, 1996]. All these principles

are revealed and established within a special philological discipline functional

stylistics.

There was a time when these considerations caused heated discussions amongthe leading philologists of the world. At present they seem to be quite obvious and

generally agreed upon. Functional stylistics has its well-elaborated theory which is not


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invalidated by the existence of some controversial points in it, like for example the one

concerning the functional-stylistic status of imaginative writing and the admissibility of

viewing it as a separate functional style.

These ideas have found practical application in multiple works devoted to

language teaching. On the basis of this theory the dichotomy of the language to be

spoken with and the language to be spoken about was introduced [O. S. Akhmanova,

1978] and many problems connected with optimizing foreign language acquisition were

solved. Today achievements of functional stylistics are great enough to allow scholars

concentrate on the pragmatic aspect of this discipline and work out a certain system of

style application.

1. Attempts to Categorize Functions of Language

More than half a century ago academician V.V.Vinogradov offered to define

functional styles on the basis of a trichotomy of language functions the

communicative, the intellective and the aesthetic ones. Today this trichotomy has

become so much part and parcel of a philologists professional experience, that

gradually the world of learning started accepting it as the indispensable foundation of

all stylistic studies, without bothering to really understand why it is the three functions

by Vinogradov and not the six functions by Jacobson or the four functions by Karl

Bhler that are considered to be the corner-stone of all further research. Lack of

interest to the background of Vinogradovs theory often led to different aberra tions anddistortions in its subsequent development by the followers of the Russian scholar. Since

it was not quite clear why there are three functions, nothing could prevent a scholar

from reducing the trichotomy in question to a simplistic dichotomy (intellective vs.

aesthetic functions) and beginning to compare various linguistic phenomena in order to

prove the obvious fact that in scientific prose and in artistic texts they function

differently.

Such studies were of a very limited value and did not bring the scholars anywhere

near the final goal of functional stylistics a description and systematization of the

functional styles of the English or any other language. The most essential point in


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Vinogradovs trichotomy is its catergorial nature, which means that this classification is

applicable to all linguistic facts and that these three functions can be treated (in a very

broad and general sense) as mutually exclusive catergorial forms possessing both the

linguistic expression and extra linguistic content.

In the list of functions the communicative one is ontologically the first among the

three. It is the unmarked member of the categorial opposition to be observed in the

situations of the non-specialized and non-artistic communication and is associated

with the notion of linguistic norm. The other two members of the opposition are marked:

the intellective function is performed in situations of specialized communication and is

characterized by a more restricted use of linguistic elements, while the aesthetic

function (the function of aesthetic impact) is connected with artistic communication and

with linguistic units displaying their metaphorical potential to the utmost, one way or

another violating and playing upon the norm. The existence of this opposition had been

discovered long before the theory of functional styles appeared. The famous Prague

linguist Bohuslav Havranek wrote about it as far back as 1932, describing the linguistic

phenomena in question as automatization for the communicative

function, intellectualization for the intellective function, and foregrounding for the

aesthetic function. However, neither he, nor any other scholar at that time succeeded in

applying this excellent theoretical proposition to the study of the actual linguistic

material. Only much later there appeared papers proving that this categorial trichotomyis manifested on all levels of linguistic organization of a text and that it creates the

proper basis for the functional-stylistic investigation of language in general.

As a categorial phenomenon, the trichotomy in question cannot be extended by

any other members or reduced to dualistic oppositions. Although, according to

Vinogradov, among the main six functional styles only the colloquial one (-

) is related to the communicative function while the other five are connected

with the marked members of the opposition [V.V.Vinogradov, 1968], still the

communicative function represents the linguistic norm and is therefore fulfilled by any

text and may be found in all functional styles. At the same time, one can easily find in

texts belonging to the colloquial functional style the elements associated with the other

two functions. Due to this fact the introduction of direct and straightforward correlation

between functions and functional styles is useful only to a certain extent, as a

methodologically convenient simplification of the actual state of affairs which is much

more complex.

For fear of making the specimens of one and the same functional style practically

indistinguishable from each other, the division of the enormous linguistic material into


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six basic functional styles cannot be based on too many distinctive features. Besides,

certain variability should be allowed even for those distinctive characteristics. Thus, for

example, some scientific articles can be more difficult for comprehension than others,

which happens not because the ideas contained in them are far and away more difficult,

but because their language is more complex. Very much the same applies to texts of

verbal art as well as to specimens of other functional styles. This brings us to the

understanding of the fact that functional styles are characterized by a fair degree of

heterogeneity and that in the course of the analysis of any functional style it is

necessary to study its possible subdivisions, to concentrate on its smaller parts (which

here for want of a better term would be called registers). Such a study enables the

scholar to find out 1) the features which are typical of a functional style as a whole and

should be regarded as its invariant characteristics, 2) the qualities which are present in

all texts but are distributed unevenly and should be regarded as its variable

characteristics and 3) the features which occur in the texts under analysis only

accidentally and are irrelevant to its global functional-stylistic description.

After the foregoing brief survey of some basic points of the functional -stylist ic

theory, it would be clear how the theoretical propositions concerning the categorial

nature of the trichotomy and the notion of functional-stylistic heterogeneity can

influence the actual practice of linguistic investigations. There are at least two main

directions of philological research which can seriously profit from th e application of thistheory:

1) the pragmalinguistically oriented description of all functional styles with the

exception of imaginative writing which is not supposed to be taught the way LSP or

Business English are, and

2) the linguopoetic analysis of works of verbal art.

In a recent research devoted to the theory and practice of studying LSP

A.I.Komarova has shown that intellective functional style contains texts with reduced

idiomaticity (no synonymic relations, no expressivity, restricted use of lexical-

phraseological and morpho-syntactic patterns), stylistically neutral texts (the above

restrictions already being leveled out) and stylistically marked texts free from the

restrictions mentioned. The conceptual orientation in all those types of texts remains

the same, but still one can observe in them the change of the prevailing function the

gradual movement from the intellective function to the communicative function (in some

cases combined with the aesthetic one). The conceptually predetermined use of


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linguistic units forms the invariant basis of the functional style, while the expressive

stylistic features and the extension of the patterns should be regarded as variable

characteristics slightly modifying the conceptual field and contributing to the functional-

stylistic heterogeneity of scientific texts.

Very much the same work has been done by B.A. Samadov in application to the

register of Business English, which proves the validity of the postulates in question and

makes it possible to speak about the way these findings may influence the teaching

practice. As any register or functional style of language turns out to be a heterogeneous

phenomenon, one should be very careful about the material to be brought to a

classroom not to choose it at random and not to take any text because it has the right

functional-stylistic orientation. This choice of the material should be made consciously

and rationally. It is advisable to begin with the idiomatically restricted texts, or

depending on the level of the learner, with the neutral ones, and only after it pass on to

those possessing certain expressivity and try to exclude those where one finds the use

of expressive elements, used, as it were, for their own sake, for such texts have a

different functional-stylistic orientation as compared to the scientific or official papers.

Everyone who is engaged in teaching foreign languages knows how extremely

difficult it is to find reliable material, for very often the compilers of most widely

advertised courses are not guided by any clear principles and present in their manuals

a weird mixture of disconnected texts, the studying of which leads a student tocomplete despair. Functional stylistics is ready to provide scholars with the necessary

theoretical propositions, but so far few scholars have availed themselves of the findings

in question [A.I.Komarova,1996], and the task of producing comprehensive courses in

various LSPs and other functional styles remains very urgent indeed.

When setting forth to study and teach literature a philologist often seeks to

explain to himself the nature of the aesthetic artistic impression a literary text produced

on him, and the set of questions he is confronted with here differs from the one

discussed during the investigation of LSP, but in answering them functional stylistics

would lend a helpful hand as well. As imaginative writing is highly heterogeneous, some

of literary texts may be based mainly on the communicative function with an

inconsiderable admixture of the aesthetic one, and the artistic impression they still

produce upon the reader would be connected with the peculiarities of their content or

composition.

In this case one would have very little to say about the role of linguistic elements

in creating aesthetic effect because these elements are fairly neutral. At the same time,

there are literary texts abounding in the elements of the aesthetic function, and the


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adequate understanding of them would be impossible without a close scrutiny of the

way they are used in a text. This scrutiny is the subject of linguopoetics which works

out special methods of establishing the function and the relative value of stylistically

marked linguistic elements in a literary text. Without the proper functional-stylistic

background such a work is simply unthinkable.

Roman Jakobson (1996, pp. 10-35) presents summary remarks about poetics in

its relation to linguistics. To outline the field of study of poetics, its aims and methods,

he focuses on the study of the poetic function of language, while emphasizing that

language must be investigated in all variety of its functions. An outline of the language

functions requires a detailed analysis of all factors which help to constitute any speech

event, any act of verbal communication. A simple model of a communication channel

consists of three phenomena: the addresser sends a message to the addressee. To be

operative the message requires a context referred to, graspable by the addressee

(either verbal or capable of being verbalized), a code fully (or at least partially) common

to the addresser and addressee, and, finally, a contact, a physical channel and

psychological connection between the two, enabling both of them to enter and stay in

communication. R. Jakobson (ibid., p. 12) offers a scheme presenting all these factors:

ADDRESSER CONTEXT

MESSAGECONTACT

CODE

ADDRESSEE

Table 11. Main Factors in Verbal Communication

These six factors determine the functions of language, each of them a differentone. R. Jakobson points out that even though we distinguish six basic aspects of

language, we could hardly find verbal messages that would fulfill only one function. It

should be emphasized that the diversity lies in a specific hierarchical order of the

functions, not in a monopoly of one of them. The verbal structure of a message

depends primarily on the predominant function. A set toward the referent , an orientation

toward the context, so called referential function, is the leading task of numerous

messages, but the accessory participation of the other functions must be taken into

account.


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The second, so called emotive or expressive function is focused on the

addresser. It aims a direct expression of the speakers attitude toward what he is

speaking about. It tends to produce an impression of certain emotion; therefore it is

termed emotive. This function is linguistically represented by the use of interjections.

As underlined by Jakobson (ibid.), the emotive function flavours to some extent all our

utterances, on their phonetic, grammatical, and lexical level. As for the amount of

information carried by language, the notion of information cannot be restricted to the

cognitive aspect of language. A speaker, using expressive features to indicate his angry

or ironic attitude, conveys ostensible information (Jakobson, ibid., p. 13).

The vocative and imperative sentences are the purest grammatical expression of

the conative function that is an orientation toward the addressee. The conative function

means to appeal to, or to influence the addressee. From this point of view, it is

important to realize that it is only declarative sentences (not imperatives) which are

liable to a truth test. An imperative sentence, for instance, Drink!, cannot be followed by

a question is it true or not . However, it is perfectly all right to ask this question after a

declarative sentence, for example: I ve had two glasses already.

The traditional model of language, as introduced by K. Buhler in his book

Sprachteorie. Die Darstellungsfunktion des Sprache (Jena, 1934), was confined to

these three functions emotive, conative and referential. Almost thirty years before R.

Jakobson, K. Buhler insisted that these three functions are not regarded as mutually

exclusive and pointed out that any speech event usually fulfills more than one function.

K. Buhlers practical classification was elaborated by the Prague School linguists1who

added the fourth category, known as the aesthetic function of language.

R. Jakobson observed three further constitutive factors of verbal communication

and three corresponding functions of language.

Considering the messages whose primary function is to establish, to prolong, or

to discontinue communication, to check if the channel works ( Hello, do you hear me? )

, to attract the attention of the interlocutor or to confirm his continued attention ( Are

you listening?), we recognize the set for contact reflected in the phatic function of

language. The phatic function of language may be displayed by a profuse exchange of

1The Prague School (like Russian formalism) was one of the most important linguistic and literary movements of the earlytwentieth century, and its work still continues to this day (e.g. functional sentence perspective, theme and rheme). Only

gradually did the ideas of Mathesius, Mukarsovsky, Trubetskoy and others become known in the west: partly through Roman

Jakobson who (like Trubetskoy) had moved from Moscow and helped found the Circle in 1926, later emigrating to the United

States at the outbreak of the Second World War, and also through the translations of their work into English in the early 1960s

(e.g. Vachek, 1964). Greatly influenced by the structuralism of Saussure, the Prague linguists made significant contributions to

phonetics, phonology and semantics. They developed Saussures ideas of language and parole along essentially functionalistlines, e.g. the functions that the language has to perform to shape its system.


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ritualized formulas and by entire dialogues with the mere purport of prolonging

communication(Jakobson p.15).

Whenever the addresser and/or the addressee need to check up their language,

that is whether they use the same code, their speech is focused on the code and their

verbal communication performs a metalingual function. Metalingual function is realized

by various inquiries, for instance, I cant follow you - what do you mean? or Do you

know what I mean? , etc.

The sixth factor involved in verbal communication is the message itself. The

poetic function (corresponds to the Prague Schools aesthetic function) needs to be

studied in connection with the general problems of language and vice versa, the

investigation of language has to account for its poetic function. As R. Jakobson points

out the poetic function cannot be reduced to the sphere of poetry, since it is not the

sole function of verbal art only its dominant, determining function, whereas in all other

verbal activities it acts as a subsidiary, accessory constituent (Jakobson p.15). This

function of language deepens the fundamental dichotomy of signs and objects and thus

cannot be confined to the field of poetry. Examples of verbal communication where the

speakers use particular sequences or collocations just because they come easily

through their mouth or simply sound good illustrate the non-literary use of poetic

function, for instance: Beastie Boys, highly likely, Mad Max, sloppy speech, unlikely

likely, etc. Many catch-phrases, proverbs, slogans and slang expressions function in

this way.

The scheme of main factors involved in verbal communication can be now

complemented by the six corresponding functions of language:

ADDRESSER

EMOTIVE

CONTEXT

REFERENTIAL

MESSAGE

POETIC

CONTACT

PHATIC

CODE

METALINGUAL

ADDRESSEE

CONATIVE

Table 12. Functions of Language. (Based on Jakobson, ibid., p. 16.)


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Functional-stylistic theory is a living and a developing discipline, and its findings

so far have not been duly appreciated by the specialists or actually put into practice. As

long as there are literary texts to investigate and functional styles to be described

pragmalinguistically, functional stylistics will be alive, not becoming a thing of the Past,

but remaining a thing of the Living Present.

2. Classification of Language Styles

Each style of the literary language makes use of a group of language means, the

interrelation of which is peculiar to the given style. It is the co-ordination of the

language means and stylistic devices which shapes the distinctive features of each

style, and not the language means or stylistic devices themselves. A style of language

can be defined as a system of co-ordinated, interrelated and interconditioned language

means intended to fulfill a specific function of communication and aiming at a definite

effect. The development of each style is predetermined by the changes in the norms of

Standard English.

There are a few traditional classifications of styles known in Czech and Slovak

linguistics (B. Havranek, E. Pauliny, F. Miko). The most representative and complex

approach is introduced by J. Mistrik. In his earlier works, Mistrik outlined two main

groups of styles, individual and interindividual. These groups were further specified as

shown in the following table:

Objective Objective Subjective Sub

jective

scientific administrative aesthetic publicistic rhetoric essayistic colloquial

Table 13. Classification of Styles. (Based on Mistrik, 1985, p. 423.)

In the study of English Functional Stylistics general characteristics of the belles-

letters style, publicist style, newspaper style, scientific prose style and the style of

official documents will be discussed.


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2.1 The Belles-Lettres Style

The term belles-lettres style may have become obsolete nowadays, but it is quite

useful when we need to indicate the difference between the artistic texts and other

literary texts (i.e. written in literary or standard language). The belles-lettres style, or

the language of literature, refers to the language of poetry, fiction and drama. Each

of these substyles has certain common features, typical of the general belles-lettres

style. They make up the fundamental characteristic of the style, by which it is made

recognizable and can be singled out. At the same time, each of the substyles also has

individual features and characteristics.

The main feature, which all substyles of the belles-lettres style have in common,

is the aesthetic-cognitive function. It is a double function that aims at the cognitive

process, which secures the gradual unfolding of the idea to the reader and at the same

time evokes feelings of pleasure .

The most characteristic linguistic features of the belles-lettres style can be

summarized as follows:

Sophisticated figurativeness, genuine imagery, meanings and

messages encoded between the lines and a specific discourse situation

between the author and the reader constructed by means of particular linguistic

devices, their unique selection and arrangement.

The use of lexical items in a contextual and very often in more than

one dictionary meaning, or at least greatly influenced by the lexical

environment.

A vocabulary which will reflect to a greater or lesser degree the

authors personal evaluation of things or phenomena.

A peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax, a kind of

lexical and syntactical idiosyncrasy.

The introduction of the typical features of colloquial language to a full

degree (in plays) or a lesser one (in emotive prose) or a slight degree, if any (in

poems).

The belles-lettres style is individual in essence. Individuality is one of its most

distinctive properties. It is reflected in the selection of the language means (including

116 stylistic devices) and is extremely apparent in poetic style, hardly noticeable in the

style of scientific prose and is entirely lacking in newspapers and in official style. The


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relationship between the general and the particular assumes different forms in different

styles and in their variants. This relationship is differently materialized even within one

and the same style. This is due to the strong imprint of personality on any work of a

poetic style. There may be a greater or lesser volume of imagery (but not an absence of

imagery), a greater or lesser number of words with contextual meaning (but not all

words without contextual meaning), a greater or lesser number of colloquial elements

(but not a complete absence of colloquial elements).

2.1.1. LANGUAGE OF POETRY

The first substyle we shall consider is v e r s e. Its first differentiating property is

its orderly form, which is based mainly on the rhythmic and phonetic arrangement of the

utterances. The rhythmic aspect calls forth syntactical and semantic peculiarities which

also fall into a more or less strict orderly arrangement. Both syntax and semantics

comply with the restrictions imposed by the rhythmic pattern, and the result is brevity of

expression, epigram-like utterances, and fresh unexpected imagery. Syntactically this

brevity is shown in elliptical and fragmentary sentences, in detached constructions, in

inversion, asyndeton and other syntactical peculiarities.

2.1.2. EMOTIVE PROSE

The substyle of emotive prose has the same common features as have been

pointed out for the belles-lettres style in general, but all these features are correlated

differently in emotive prose. The imagery is not so rich as it is in poetry, the percentage

of words with contextual meaning is not so high as in poetry, the idiosyncrasy of the

author is not so clearly discernible. Apart form metre and rhyme, that most of all

distinguishes emotive prose form the poetic style is the combination of the literary

variant of the language, both in words and syntax, with the colloquial variant. It would

perhaps be more exact to define this as a combination of the spoken and written

varieties of the language, inasmuch as there are always two forms of communication

presentmonologue (the writers speech) and dialogue (the speech of the characters).

It follows then that the colloquial language in the belles-lettres style is not a pure

and simple reproduction of what might be the natural speech of living people. It has

undergone changes introduced by the writer. The colloquial speech has been made

literature-like. This means that only the most striking elements of what might have

been a conversation in life are made use of, and even these gave undergone some kind


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of transformation. Emotive prose allows the use of elements from other styles as well.

Thus we find elements of the newspaper style in Sinclair Lewiss It Cant Happen

Here, the official style in the business letters exchanged between two characters in

Galsworthys novel The Man of Property , the style of scientific prose in Cronins

Citadel where medical language is used.

But all these styles under the influence of emotive prose undergo a kind of

transformation. Passages written in other styles may be viewed only as interpolation

and not as constituents of the style. Present day emotive prose is to a large extent

characterized by the breaking-up of traditional syntactical designs of the preceding

periods. Not only detached construction, but also fragmentation of syntactical models,

peculiar, unexpected ways of combining sentences, especially the gap-sentence link

and other modern syntactical patterns, are freely introduced into present-day emotive

prose.

2.1.3 LANGUAGE OF THE DRAMA

The stylization of colloquial language is one of the features of plays which (at

different stages in the history of English drama) has manifested itself in different ways

revealing, on the one hand, the general trends of the literary language and, on the

other, the personal idiosyncrasies of the writer. Thus the language of plays is a stylizedtype of the spoken variety of language. The analysis of the language texture of plays

has shown that the most characteristic feature here is to use the term of the theory of

information, redundancy of information caused by the necessity to amplify the

utterance. This is done for the sake of the audience.

The language of plays is entirely dialogue. The authorsspeech is almost entirely

excluded except for the playwrights remark and stage directions. The language of the

characters is in no way the exact reproduction of the norms of colloquial language,

although the playwright seeks to reproduce actual conversation as far as the norms of

the written language will allow. This variety of belles-lettres style has used the norms of

the literary language of the given period. So 16 thcentury drama is much different from

20 thcentury drama.

2.2 Publicist Style

Publicist style 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 which


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integrate them. Unlike other styles, the publicist style has spoken varieties, in

particular, the oratorical substyle. The development of radio and television has brought

about a new spoken variety, namely, the radio commentary. The other two are the

essay (moral, philosophical, literary) and articles (political, social, and economic) in

newspapers, journals and magazines. Book reviews in journals and magazines and also

pamphlets are generally included among essays.

The general aim of the publicist style, which makes it stand out as a separate

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,

essay or article not merely with logical argumentation, but through emotional appeal as

well (the brain-washing function). Due to its characteristic combination of logical

argumentation and emotional appeal, the publicist style has features in common with

the logical syntactical structure, with an expanded system of connectives and its careful

paragraphing, making it similar to scientific prose. Its emotional appeal is generally

achieved through the use of words with emotive meaning, the use of imagery and other

stylistic devices as in emotive prose; but the stylistic devices used in publicist style are

not fresh or genuine. The individual element essential to the belles-lettres style is, as a

rule, little in evidence here. This is in keeping with the general character of the style.

The manner of presenting ideas, however, brings this style closer to that of

belles-lettres, in this case to emotive prose, as it is to a certain extent individual.

Naturally, of course, essays and speeches have greater individuality than newspaper

and magazine articles where the individual element is generally toned down and limited

by the requirements of the style.

Some more features of the publicist style can be found out from the requirements

that are imposed on American radio and TV reporters. The following are ten aspects

that should be present in a report or commentary to make it successful:

1. immediacy ,

2. proximity (relation to recipient),

3. consequence (comment on consequences),

4. prominence (inform about the latest and interesting events),

5. drama (dramatic events),

6. oddity (originality),

7. conflict,

8. sex,


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9. emotions,

10. progress.

Publicist style is also characterized by brevity of expression. In some varieties of

this style it becomes a leading feature, an important linguistic means. The short report

is focused on five W s: who, what, where, when and why. In essays brevity sometimes

becomes epigrammatic.

Generally, we distinguish the most obvious subdivisions: oratory, i.e. speeches

and orations, essays and articles.

2.2.1. Oratory and speeches

The oratorical style of the language is the oral subdivision of the Publicist style.

Persuasion is the most obvious purpose of oratory.

Direct contact with the listener permits a combination of the syntactical, lexical

and phonetic peculiarities of both the written and spoken varieties of language. But in

its leading features 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. Typical features of

the spoken variety of speech present in this style are: direct address to the audience

(ladies & gentlemen, honorable members), contractions (Ill, wont, weve), the use of

colloquial words.

This style is evident in speeches on political and social problems of the day, in

orations and addresses on solemn occasions, in parliamentary debates, at meetings

and in election campaigns.

2.2.2. The essay

As a separate form of English li terature the essay dates back to the close of the

16th century. The name became common after the publication of Montaignes Essays,

a literary form created by this French writer.

An essay is rather a series of personal and wit ty comments than a finished

argument or a conclusive examination of any matter.

The most characteristic language features of the essay are:

Brevity of expression;


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The use of the first person singular, which justifies a personal

approach to the problems treated;

A rather expanded use of connectives, which stress the process of

correlation of ideas;

The abundant use of emotive words;

The use of similes and sustained metaphors.

Some essays, depending on the writers individuality, are written in a highly

emotional manner resembling the style of emotive prose, others resemble scientific

prose, and the terms review, memoirand treatise indicate these peculiarities throughout

the more profound study.

2.2.3 Journalistic articles.

All the already mentioned features of Publicist style are to be found in any article

irrespective of the character of the magazine and the article, though the latter affect the

choice of stylistic devices. Words of emotive meaning, for example, are few, if any, in

popular scientific articles. In a satiric article, on the contrary, their exposition is more

consistent and the system of connectives more expanded. Literary reviews stand closer

to essays both by their content and by their linguistic form .

2.3 Newspaper Style: Historical development

Newspaper style was the last of all the styles of written literary English to be

recognized as a specific form of writing standing apart from other forms.

English newspaper writing dates from the 17th century. The first of any regularseries of English newspapers was the Weekly News which first appeared on May 23,

1622. It lasted for some twenty years until it ceased publication in 1641. The first

English daily newspaper The Daily Courant was brought out on March 11, 1702. It was

principally a vehicle for information, commentary as a regular feature only found its way

into the newspapers later on.

It took the English newspaper more than a century to establish a style and a

standard of its own. And it was only by the 19th century that newspaper English may be

said to have developed into a system of language means which forms a separate

functional style.


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The English newspaper style may be defined as a system of interrelated lexical,

phraseological and grammatical means which is perceived by the community speaking

the language as a separate unity that basically serves the purpose of informing and

instructing the reader.

As stated earlier in this section, not all the printed matter found in newspapers

comes under newspaper style. The modern newspaper carries material of an extremely

diverse character. On the pages of a newspaper one finds not only news and comment

on it, but also stories and poems, crossword puzzles, chess problems, and the like.

Since these serve the purpose of entertaining the reader, they cannot be considered

specimens of newspaper style. Nor can articles in special fields, such as science and

technology, art, literature, etc. be classed as belonging to newspaper style.

The term newspaper style is traditionally used in English to denote the style of

newspaper writing. Since it evokes a feeling of excluding the style of magazine writing

(where the articles do not just bring information but also analyze or comment on

different things), some authors started to use the term journalistic style also in English.

However, this term has not been fully assimilated into English and the term newspaper

style is preferred.

J. Mistrik (1970) defines newspaper style as a purposeful and thematic

arrangement of language means in order to bring up-to-date, accurate and convincinginformation on current affairs. However, this concerns only news, commentaries and

articles, reports, etc. In present newspapers and magazines there is a number of

crosswords, sports results, TV or radio program listings and many others, which can

hardly be included in newspaper style.

What in English is put in different styles of newspaper and magazine writing, J.

Mistrik (ibid.) divides into three genre categories that cover all aspects of newspaper or

journalistic style. These categories are news genres, focusing on providing objectiveinformation (news story, interview), analytical genres, to some extent allowing

subjective opinion (leading articles, in English language press editorials, columns,

articles, gloss, commentary), and belletristic genres that are the most subjective from

all three categories (report, essay). All these genres differ in the language means they

use to bring some information, to convince the reader about something, and so on. As a

whole the journalistic style carries certain characteristic features. The first is the

purpose of informing the reader and the need of being up-to date. Then there is a great

variety of themes. On the other hand, there is the necessity of the text being compact

and coherent. In terms of lexical means, words with clear meaning are given priority,


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then there are terms which are used in popular-scientific texts, expressive words to

attract and keep the readers attention, neologisms and loan words. The sentence is

usually simple or coordinating clauses, with parenthesis. A special feature of this style

is the use of extra-linguistic expressive means such as pictures, diagrams, charts. Of

course, all these features depend on the genre and type of the text.

It is difficult for the English language press to make some generalization about

the characteristics of the newspaper style because, as Crystal says, the style of writing

of newspapers and magazines presents a wider range of linguistically distinctive

varieties than any other domain of language study (Crystal, Davy, 1993). In her

analysis of scientific and publicist texts, Tevkov points out, that the style of particular

newspapers or magazines differs so much that only certain features can be selected

and described as being typical for journalistic style.

2.3.1 Genres of newspaper style proper

Since the primary function of newspaper style is to impart information, only

printed matter serving this purpose comes under newspaper style proper. Such matter

can be classed as:

1. Brief news items.

2. Advertisements and announcements.

3. The headline.

4. The editorial.

The most concise form of newspaper information is the headline. The newspaper

also seeks to influence public opinion on political and other matters. Elements of

appraisal may be observed in the very selection and method of presentation of news, in

the use of specific vocabulary and special syntactic constructions. The headlines ofnews items, apart from giving information about the 120 subject matter, also carry a

considerable amount of appraisal (the size and arrangement of the headline, the use of

emotionally colored words and elements of emotive syntax), thus indicating the

interpretation of the facts in the news item that follows. But the principal vehicle of

interpretation and appraisal is the newspaper article and the editorial in particular.

Editorials, leading articles or leaders, are characterized by a subjective handling of

facts, political or otherwise, and therefore have more in common with political essays or

articles and should therefore be classed as belonging to publicist style rather than

newspaper style. Though it seems natural to consider newspaper articles, editorials


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included, as coming within the system of English newspaper style, it is necessary to

note that such articles are an intermediate phenomenon characterized by a combination

of styles, the newspaper style and the publicist style.

Brief news items.

The principal function of the genre is to inform the reader. It states facts without

giving explicit comments. It has its specific vocabulary features and is characterized by

an extensive use of:

special political and economic terms (socialism, constitution,

president, apartheid, gross output);

non-term political vocabulary (public, people, progressive, nation-

wide, unity, peace);

newspaper clichs /stereotyped expressions; commonplace phrases

familiar to the reader/ (vital issue, pressing necessity, informed sources, danger

of war, to escalate a war, war hysteria, captains of industry, pillars of society);

abbreviations (UNO, Trade Union Congress, NATO, UFO,

European Economic Community, Foreign Office, MP, VIP);

neologisms. The newspaper is very quick to react to any new

development in the life of society, science and technology. Hence, neologisms

make their way into the language of the newspaper very easily and often even

spring up on newspaper pages ( lunic a machine to study the Moon; a splash-

down a landing on water; a sit-in a strike when the strikers sit on their places

but do not work; stop-go policies contradictory, indecisive and inefficient

policies);


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complex sentences with a developed system of clauses ( There are

indications that BOAC may withdraw threats of all-out dismissals for pilots who

restrict flying hours,a spokesman for the British Airline Pilots Association said

yesterday.);

verbal constructions (he set this example by announcing the

disbandingof his faction numbering47 of the total of 95 conservative members of

the Lower House);

syntactical complexes, especially the nominative with the infinitive.

These constructions are largely used to avoid mentioning the source of

information or to shun responsibility for the facts reported (The condition of Lord

Samuel, aged 92, was saidlast night to bea little better);

attributive noun groups are powerful means of effecting brevity (heart

swappatient, the national income and expenditurefigures, Labour

backbenchdecision);

specific word-order. In one-sentence news paragraphs and in leads

\the initial sentences in longer news items\ is more or less fixed. Journalistic

practice has developed what is called the five -w-and-h-pattern rule (who-what-

why-how-where-when) and for a long time strictly adhered to it. (A neigh- bours

peep through a letter box led to the finding of a woman dead from gas and two

others semiconscious in a block of council flats in Eccles New Road, Salford,

Lanc., yesterday.).

Advertisements and Announcements

Advertisements made their way into the Brit ish press at an early stage of its

development (in the 17th century). Their principal function is to inform the reader. There

are two basic types of advertisements and announcements in the modern English

newspaper: classified and non-classified.

In classified advertisements and announcements various kinds of information are

arranged according to subject-matter into sections, each bearing an appropriate name.

in The Times, for example, the reader never fails to find several hundred

advertisements and announcements classified into groups, such as BIRTHS,

MARRIAGES, DEATHS, BUSINESS OFFERS, etc. (CULHANE on November 1st, to

BARBARA and JOHN CULHANE a son).

The tendency to eliminate from the sentence all elements that can be done

without has no stylistic function; it is purely technical to economize place, expensive


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in what newspaper men call advertising hole. The vocabulary of classified

advertisements and announcements is on the whole neutral.

The Headline

Headline English is something specific, which occurs only in the press. Since the function

of a headline is to catch the readers attention and at the same time to provide information about

the content of the article, some distinctive features have developed to fulfill this function.

According to M. McCarthy and F. ODell (1994) who briefly summarized these features, the

headlines usually contain as few words as possible and that is why grammar words like articles

or auxiliary verbs are often left out, simple present tense is used and infinitive is applied to

express the future event. The words used tend to be short and they sound dramatic. A headline

often contains a play with words or a pun. D. Crystal (1987) gives a similar description of

headlines saying they are more elliptical and adding also some examples of making a headline

as short as possible, for example, the preposition on means in fact about.

Syntactically headlines are very short sentences or phrases of variety of patterns:

full declarative sentences (Allies Now Look to LondonThe Times);

interrogative sentences (Do You Love War?- Daily World);

nominative sentences (Atlantic Sea Traffic- The Times);

elliptical sentences (Still in danger-The Guardian);

sentences with articles omitted (Stepto Overall Settlement Cited in TextofAgreement-

International Gerald Tribune);

phrases with verbals (KeepingPrices Down- The Times; To GetUS Aid-The

Guardian);

questions in the form of statements (Growl Now, Smile Later?- The Observer);

complex sentences (Army Says It Gave LSD to Unknown GIs- International Gerald

Tribune);

headlines including direct speech, as a full sentence or elliptically (The Queen: My

Deep Distress--The Guardian);

The headline in British and American newspapers is an important thing both for

information and appraisal; editors give it special attention. It takes a lot of skill on


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the part of the writer to make the reader look through the article or at least the

greater part of it.

The Editorial

Its function is to influence the reader by giving an interpretation of certain facts.

Editorials comment on the political and other events of the day. Their purpose is to give

the editors opinion and interpretation of the news published and suggest to the reader

that it is the correct one.

In addition to vocabulary typical of brief news items, writers of editorials make an

extensive use of emotionally coloured vocabulary (The long-sufferingBritish housewife

needs a bottomless purse to cope with this scale of inflation -Daily Mirror). The

language of editorial articles is characterized by a combination of different strata of

vocabulary, which enhances the emotional effect. Alongside political words and

expressions, terms, clichs and abbreviations one can find colloquial words and

expressions, slang and professionalisms. Emotional colouring in editorial articles is

achieved with the help of various stylistic devices, the use of which is largely traditional.

Yet, the role of expressive language means and stylistic devices in the editorial

should not be over-estimated. They stand out against the essentially neutral

background. Broadly speaking, tradition reigns supreme in the language of newspapers.

Original forms of expression and fresh genuine stylistic means are comparatively rare in

newspaper articles, editorial included.

2.4 Scientific Prose Style

Scientific style (or, according to P. Newmark (1995) technical style) is applied

when certain scientific knowledge or information obtained from scientific research has

to be conveyed. This style has some distinctive characteristics from which the most

important are the use of terms, objectivity, accuracy and expert knowledge (Mistrik,

1970). In terms of language means, the constructions of the gerund and participle are

used to make the text more condense and precise, and frequently occurring are also

parentheses. Then there are also compound words and derivates, loan words,

neologisms, etc.

One of the branches of the scientific style is popular-scientif ic style, the other

levels as suggested by P. Newmark (ibid.) can be academic and professional, all


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differentiated by the vocabulary, when the former uses transferred Latin and Greek

words and the latter operates with formal terms used by experts. The third category is

popular level. L. Tevkov studied linguistic characteristics of scientific and journalistic

texts and suggested that the division of the scientific style based on vocabulary is

probably not as exact as it might seem (2002). In her opinion, the division according to

the use of terms may fall on the argument that Latin and Greek terms can be used in

professional and popular texts too if they illustrate or emphasize something and are so -

called stylistically marked then; also terms f requently used in professional texts are not

omitted from the popular or academic texts. J. Mistrik, on the other hand, operates only

with two subdivisions where the scientific one is aimed at the expert public and the

popular-scientific one, also comprising of journalistic expressive means, is directed at

the general public. The function of bringing scientific knowledge in a comprehensible

and interesting way causes the popular-scientific style to be a compilation of various

devices such as the use of terms, description, shorter sentences, diagrams and

pictures, and from time to time expressive words as well (ibid. p 116).

As indicated above, the language of science is governed by the aim of the

functional style of scientific prose, which is to prove a hypothesis, to create new

concepts, to disclose the internal laws of existence, development, relations between

different phenomena, etc. The language means used, therefore, tend to be objective,

precise, and unemotional, devoid of any individuality; there is a striving for the mostgeneralized form of expression.

The first and most noticeable feature of this style is the logical sequence of

utterances with a clear indication of the interrelations and interdependencies. It will not

be an exaggeration to say that in no other functional style do we find such a developed

and varied system of connectives as in scientific prose.

A second and no less important feature and, perhaps, the most conspicuous, is

the use of terms specific to each given branch of science. No other field of human

activity is so prolific in coining new words as science is. The necessity to penetrate

deeper into the essence of things and phenomena gives rise to new concepts, which

require new words to name them. As has already been pointed out, a term will make

more direct reference to something than a descriptive explanation, a non-term.

Further, the general vocabulary employed in scientific prose bears its direct

referential meaning, that is, words used in scientific prose will always tend to be used in

their primary logical meaning. No words should be used in more than one meaning. Nor

will there be any words with contextual meaning. Even the possibility of ambiguity is

avoided. Furthermore, terms are coined so as to be self-explanatory to the greatest


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possible degree. But in spite of this a new term in scientific prose is generally followed

(or preceded) by an explanation.

In modern scientific prose an interesting phenomenon can be observed, the

exchange of terms between various branches of science. This is due to the

interpenetration of scientific ideas. Self-sufficiency in any branch of science is now a

thing of the past. Collaboration of specialists in related sciences has proved successful

in many fields. The exchange of terminology may therefore be regarded as a natural

outcome of this collaboration. For example, mathematical terms have left their own

domain and travel freely in other sciences, including linguistics.

A third characteristic feature of scientific style is what we may call sentence

patterns. They are of three types:

postulatory,

argumentative,

formulative.

A hypothesis, a scientif ic conjecture or a forecast must be based on facts already

known, on facts systematized and defined. Therefore every piece of scientific prose will

begin with postulatory pronouncements which are taken as self -evident and needing no

proof. The writers own ideas are also shaped in formulae, which represent a doctrine

or theory of a principle, an argument, the result of an investigation, etc. Here thesentences which sum up the arguments are used.

Some other features of scientific prose can be listed here. For example, the use

of quotations and references, the frequent use of foot-notes, digressive in character,

the impersonality of scientific writings which is mainly revealed in the frequent use of

passive constructions. Scientific experiments are generally described in the passive

voice. In connection with the general impersonal tone of expression, it should be noted

that impersonal passive constructions are frequently used with the verbs suppose,

assume, presume, conclude, infer, point out, and others, for example, it should be

pointed out, it must not be assumed, it must be emphasized, etc.

2.5 The Style of Official Documents

There is one more style that can be distinguished in the literary English language,

and that is the style of official documents. I. R. Galperin points out that this style, like

others, is not homogeneous. It is represented by the following substyles or variants:


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the language of business documents,

the language of legal documents,

the language of diplomacy,

the language of military documents.

I. R. Galperin sees the main communicative aim of this style in stating the

conditions binding two parties in an undertaking. Considering particular substyles, for

instance the legal language, or the language of the law, David Crystal and Derek Davy

point out that it would be quite misleading to speak of legal language as communicating

meaning. Of all uses of language, the language of the law is perhaps the least

communicative, since it is designed mainly to allow one expert to register information

for scrutiny by another. This causes much of its unusualness and oddity. In fact, the

legal writers use specific jargon which does not reflect the needs of a general public.

Another quality which determines the style of legal documents is the extreme linguistic

conservativism of legal English, apparent at the level of sentence structures and lexis

(Crystal, Davy, ibid.).

Some other peculiarities of the style of official documents can be mentioned here.

At the level of lexis the most striking feature is a special system of clichs, terms and

set expressions by which each substyle can easily be recognized (e.g. I beg to inform

you, I beg to move, provisional agenda, the above-mentioned, on behalf of, private

advisory, Dear Sir, We remain, your obedient servants, etc.) In fact, each of the

subdivisions of this style has its own peculiar terms, phrases and expressions which

differ from the corresponding terms, phrases and expressions of other variants of this

style. Thus in finance we find terms like extra revenue, taxable capabilities, liability to

profit tax, in legal language: to deal with a case, summary procedure, a body of judges .

Likewise other varieties of official language have their special nomenclature, which is

conspicuous in the text, and therefore easily discernible.

Besides the special nomenclature characteristic of each variety of the style,

there are certain features common to all varieties:

the use of abbreviations, symbols, contractions,

the use of words in their logical dictionary meaning (in military

documents sometimes metaphorical names are given to mountains, rivers, hills

or villages),


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no words with emotive meaning except those which are used in

business letters as conventional phrases of greeting or close, as Dear Sir,

yours faithfully.

The distinctive properties appear as a system. The style is not recognizable only

through its vocabulary. The syntactic pattern of the style is as significant as the

vocabulary though not perhaps so immediately apparent.

Obligatory Sources:

2. Amosova N. N. (1951) Rechevie stili Leningrad LGU

3. Arnold I. V. (1990)Stilistica sovremennogo angliiskogo iazika: Stilistica decodirovania

Moscva

4. Galperin I. R. (1977) Stylistics. Moscow, Higher School

5. Miles J. (1967) Style and Proportion Boston

6. Screbnev Y. M. (1994) Fundamentals of English Stylistics Moscow

7. Chloupek ,Nekvapil (2000) Studies in Functional Stylistics (Linguistic & Literary Studies

in Eastern Europe/John Benjamins Publishing Co. 296 pages

8. Eggins, S. (1994) An introduction to systemic-functional linguistics. London : Pinters.

9. David Crystal,Derek Davy (1969) Investigating English style.Studies in the History and

Theory of LinguisticsIndiana University

References

1. Bhatia, Vijay K. (1993) Analyzing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings. London and

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2. Connor, U. (1996) Contrastive Rhetoric. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

3. Enkvist, N.E. (1981) Experiential iconism in text strategy, Text 1: 97-111.

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Condit, S. (ed.) Empirical Research in Translation and Intercultural Studies. Tbingen: Gunter

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6. Galperin, I. R. (1977): Stylistics. Moscow.

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elementov v znanstvenih besedilih. Magistrsko delo. Ljubljana: Filozofska fakulteta.

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znanstvenih lankov'. Vestnik 36 (1-2):309-317

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Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

14. Crystal, D. and Davy, D. (1969) Investigating English Style. New York: Longman.

15. Haynes, J. (1992) Introducing Stylistics. London and New York: Routledge.

16. Haynes, J. (1995) Style. London and New York: Routledge.

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18. Moon, R. (1998) Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English.Oxford: Clarendon Press.

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Arnold.

Lectures Functional Stylitics

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