LECTURE 2: FUNCTIONAL STYLES

2.1. Functional Styles of the English Language

2.2. The classifications of functional styles
2.3. Literary Styles
2.3.1. The Style of Official Documents
2.3.2. The Scientific Prose Style
2.3.4. The Publicist Style
2.3.5. The Newspaper Functional Styles
2.3.6. The Belles-lettres Style
2.4. Colloquial styles
2.4.1. Literary Colloquial Style
2.4.2. Familiar Colloquial Style
2.1. Functional Styles of the English Language
Functional stylistics, which has become and remains an international, very
important trend in style study, deals with sets, "paradigms" of language units of all
levels of language hierarchy serving to accommodate the needs of certain typified
communicative situations. This theory of style study involves consideration of such
notions as NORM and FUNCTION in their relation to STYLE.
There are a great many classifications of language varieties that are called
sublanguages, sub-styles, registers and functional styles that use various criteria
for their definition and categorization. The term generally accepted by most Russian
scholars is functional styles.
According to I. R. Galperin functional style is defined as "a system of
coordinated, interrelated and interconditioned language means intended to fulfill a
specific function of communication and aiming at a definite effect." It is the
coordination of the language means and stylistic devices which shapes the distinctive
features of each style and not the language means or stylistic devices themselves.
Each style, however, can be recognized by one or more leading features which are
especially conspicuous.
Language means which we choose for communication depend on several
factors, the most important among them being the situation of the communication act.
Indeed, depending on the situation (which includes the purpose of the communication
and its participants) we adhere either to informal, or to formal manner. The former is
observed in everyday non-official communication which is known as colloquial
speech. Colloquial speech occupies a prominent place in our lives, and is viewed by
some linguists as a system of language means so strongly differing from those
presented in the formal (literary) communication that it can be classified as an
independent entity with its own peculiar units and rules of their structuring. (See the
works of O. Lapteva, O. Sirotinina, L. Zemskaya.)
The literary communication, most often (but not always) materialized in the
written form, is not homogeneous, and proceeding from its function (purpose) we
speak of different functional styles. As the whole of the language itself, functional
styles are also changeable. Their quantity and quality change in the course of their
development.
2.2. The classifications of functional styles
 The problem of functional styles classification is also very complicated.
It is due to several reasons:
1) functional styles intertwine,
2) functional styles are historically inconstant,
3) functional styles are connected with genres.
A functional style may comprise several genres, e.g. the belles-lettres is
manifested in a novel, short story, poem, etc.
Styles are not isolated, but what should be kept in mind is that they have there
own peculiarities.
The two main subdivisions of functional styles recognized by the majority of
linguists are
1) literary (bookish) styles, characterized by preliminary reflection and analysis,
deliberate selection of language means,
2) colloquial (free) styles characterized by spontaneity and dialogues.
I. R. Galperin distinguishes 5 functional styles:
1) scientific,
2) official,
3) publicist,
4) newspaper,
5) belles-lettres.
In his view on functional styles he differs from many other scholars because he
includes in his classification only the written variety of the language. In his opinion
style is the result of creative activity of the writer who consciously and deliberately
selects language means that create style.
I.R. Galperin excludes conversational style from the inventory of functional
styles. Colloquial speech, according to him, by its very nature will not lend itself to
careful selection of linguistic features and there is no stylistic intention expressed on
the part of the speaker. At the same time his classification contains such varieties of
publicist style as oratory and speeches. What he actually means is probably not so
much the spoken variety of the language but spontaneous colloquial speech. This
viewpoint nevertheless gives grounds for debate, since individual oral speech shows
the speaker's educational, social and professional background.
Yuri Skrebnev distinguishes the following styles and their varieties:
1) Literary or Bookish Style
a) publicist style
b) scientific (technological) style
c) official documents style
2) Free or Colloquial Style
a) literary colloquial style
b) familiar colloquial style
It is obvious from the classification that poetry and imaginative prose are not
included as they are not homogeneous in their structure. Prof. Skrebnev uses the term
sublanguages in the meaning that is usually attributed to functional styles. The
major difference in his use of this term is that he considers innumerable situational
communicative products as sublanguages, including each speaker's idiolect. Each act
of speech is a sublanguage. Thus, it is quite difficult to define the notion of the
functional style. At the same time he recognizes the major opposition of 'formal' and
'informal' sphere of language use.
Irina Arnold singles out such a notion as a "neutral style", which does not have
any distinctive features. Its function is to provide a standard background for the other
styles, which are divided into 2 groups, describing many social and extralinguistic
factors that influence the choice of specific language for a definite communicative
purpose.
1) Literary Bookish Styles:
a) scientific
b) official documents
c) publicist (newspaper)
d) oratorical
e) poetic
2) Colloquial Styles:
a) literary colloquial style
b) familiar colloquial style
c) common colloquial
The publicist style, distinguished by Arnold, fell under the criticism of Skrebnev
who argues that the diversity of genres in newspapers is evident. Political observers,
essays on economics, law, moral, art, various stories and advertisements may be met
on the pages of the newspapers. Thus, we can not speak of such FS at all, to the mind
of Skrebnev. At that, Arnold means that the newspaper material is specific of the
newspaper only and it has forming features including a special choice of words,
abundance of international words, newspaper clichés, nonce-words, etc. Many
scholars consider the language of the press as a separate style.
The status of some of these styles seems refutable. There is no unanimity about
the belles-letters style since in modern works of fiction we may encounter
practically any functional speech type imaginable. It is certainly true that many works
of fiction contain emotionally colored passages of emotive writing marked by
expressive means and stylistic devices. But at the same time many writers reproduce
their character’s direct speech, quote extracts from legal documents, newspaper
items, headlines, etc, which do not belong to belles-letters style in its traditional
meaning. We assume that the poetic language, the language of fiction does not
constitute a functional style comparable with other functional styles but it constitutes
a functional type of language. Literary texts are objects of art which have their own
specific structures whose functions differ in many respects from those of practical
texts and utterances.
The status of the newspaper style is also doubtful. Some scholars consider that
the existence of this style is conditioned by the specific aims of mass media and by
the peculiarities of the linguistic means used in newspapers. But these peculiarities
are confined to very limited newspaper units - headlines, brief news items and
editorials Thus, it is more reasonable to speak about the newspaper language rather
than about the newspaper style.
Finishing this brief outline of functional styles observed in modern English, it is
necessary to stress, again, two points. The first one concerns the dichotomy
"written // oral", which is not synonymous to the dichotomy "literary //
colloquial", the former opposition meaning the form of presentation, the latter - the
choice of language means. There are colloquial messages in the written form (such as
personal letters, informal notes, diaries and journals) and vice versa: we have
examples of literary discourses in the oral form (as in a recital, lecture, report, paper
read at a conference etc.).
The second point deals with the flexibility of style boundaries: the borders
within which a style presumably functions are not rigid and allow various degrees of
overlapping and melting into each other. It is not accidental that rather often we speak
of intermediate cases such as the popular scientific style which combines the features
of scientific and belles-lettres styles, or the style of new journalism which is a
combination of publicist, newspaper and belles-lettres styles, etc.
It should be mentioned that all the classifications have their right to exist.
In this course of lectures we mainly deal with the classification of I.R. Galperin,
though the overview of Colloquial styles will be given too.
2.3. Literary Styles
2.3.1. The Style of Official Documents
Official style, or the style of official documents, is the most conservative one. It
preserves cast-iron forms of structuring and clichés and uses syntactical constructions
and words long known as archaic and not observed anywhere else. Addressing
documents and official letters, signing them, expressing the reasons and
considerations leading to the subject of the document/letter – all this is strictly
regulated both lexically and syntactically. As any document should provide complete
clarity of the subject matter all emotiveness and subjective modality are completely
banned out of this style. It is used in formal situations with the social roles of the
communicants being equal or non-equal.
The aim:
1) to reach agreement between two contracting parties;
2) to state the conditions binding two parties in an understanding.
The sub-styles are:
1) style of business letters,
2) style of legal documents,
3) style of diplomacy,
4) style of military documents.
Vocabulary peculiarities:
1. Each of sub-styles of official documents makes use of special terms and
bookish words.
2. The documents use set expressions inherited from early Victorian period. This
vocabulary is conservative.
3. Legal documents contain a large proportion of formal and archaic words used
in their dictionary meaning.
4. In diplomatic and legal documents many words have Latin and French origin.
5. There are a lot of abbreviations and conventional symbols.
Grammar peculiarities:
 1. The most noticeable feature of grammar is the compositional pattern. Every
document has its own stereotyped form. The form itself is informative and tells you
with what kind of letter we deal with. Business letters contain: heading, addressing,
salutation, the opening, the body, the closing, complimentary clause, the signature.
2. Syntactical features are – the predominance of extended simple and complex
sentences, wide use of participial constructions, homogeneous members.
3. Morphological peculiarities are passive constructions, they make the letters
impersonal. There is a tendency to avoid pronoun reference.
2.3.2. The Scientific Prose Style
Scientific style is employed in professional communication. It's a variant of the
national literary language, the main aim of which is creating new concepts,
disclosing the international laws of existence and grounding some scientific research,
which predetermines the choice of vocabulary and grammar.
The style of scientific prose has 3 subdivisions:
1) the style of humanitarian sciences,
2) the style of exact sciences,
3) the style of popular scientific prose.
General peculiarities:
1. The only function is intellectual communicative.
2. The necessity to state the complicated material in an intelligible, consistent
and precise manner.
3. Every passage begins with the key sentence rendering the core idea.
4. Meets the requirements of logical coherence and objectivity in stating the
ideas.
5. Reflects the intellectual processes and is addressed to intellect.
6. Lack or limitation of contact with an addressee.
7. Use of quotations and references.
8. Use of foot-notes helps to preserve the logical coherence of ideas.
Vocabulary peculiarities:
1. The most conspicuous peculiarity is the abundance of special terms denoting
objects, phenomena and processes characteristic of some particular field of science
and technique. The scientific prose style consists mostly of ordinary words which
tend to be used in their primary logical meaning or terminological meaning.
Emotiveness depends on the subject of investigation but mostly scientific prose style
is unemotional.
2. Special set phrases and adverbs: to sum up, as we have seen, so far we have
been considering; finally, again, thus.
3. The use of bookish words: automata, perform, comprise, susceptible,
approximate, calculation, heterogeneous, maximum, minimum, phenomenon -
phenomena, simultaneous.
4. The logical emphasis may be expressed lexically: note that..., I wish to
emphasise..., another point of considerable interest is ..., an interesting problem is
that of ..., one of the most remarkable of...
5. Quantitative expressiveness exceeds qualitative one: very far from
conservative, much less limited, almost all of which, much the same, most essential.
 Grammar peculiarities:
Morphology:
1. The author's speech is presented in the 1st person plural "we", which is
conditioned, first, by the assumption that science is created by a great number of
scientists, and second, by the aim to involve the reader in the process of reasoning
and argumentation: we are coming to realise, the tube has shown us, we are
beginning to see, we deal with.
2. Impersonal sentences with "it" and constructions with "one" are widely used:
It should be borne in mind, it may be seen; one may write, one may show, one may
assume, one can readily see.
3. The preference is given to the passive voice and non-personal forms of the
verb: The notation is the same as previously used I use the same notation as
previously
4. The use of noun phrases instead of verbal constructions gives more
possibilities of generalization : at the time of our arrival will be used instead of when
we arrived.
5. Present Continuous and Future tenses are used more often than Present
Simple tense: To-day we are coming to realize that ... . We are beginning to see
that ... . Finally, as long as the automaton is running, ...
Syntax:
1. Syntactic structure: complete and stereotypic. The sentences used are mainly
complex and if simple, rather extended.
2. The word order is mainly direct.
3. The wide use of attributes, almost each noun has a post- or prepositional
attribute, prepositional, participial, gerundial or infinitive construction:
To cover this aspect of communication engineering we had to develop a
statistical theory of the amount of information, in which the unit of the amount of
information was that transmitted as a single decision between equally probable
alternatives.
4. The use of specific prepositional groups: anti-aircraft fire-control systems,
automatically-controlled oil-cracking stills, ultra rapid computer machines.
5. The abundance of conjunctions and connectives : that, and that, than, if, as,
or, nor; not merely ... but also, whether ... or, both ... and, as ...as ...; thereby,
therewith, hereby.
Documents written in Humanities in comparison with exact sciences employ
more emotionally coloured words, fewer passive constructions. Scientific popular
style has the following peculiarities: emotive words, elements of colloquial style.
2.3.3. The Publicist Style
Publicist style is a perfect example of the historical changeability of stylistic
differentiation of discourses. In ancient Greece, e.g., it was practiced mainly in its
oral form and was best known as oratorical style, within which views and sentiments
of the addresser (orator) found their expression. Nowadays political, ideological,
ethical, social beliefs and statements of the addresser are prevailingly expressed in the
written form, which was labelled publicist in accordance with the name of the
corresponding genre and its practitioners.
 Publicist style is famous for its explicit pragmatic function of persuasion
directed at influencing the reader and shaping his views, in accordance with the
argumentation of the author. Correspondingly, we find in publicist style a blend of the
rigorous logical reasoning, reflecting the objective state of things, and a strong
subjectivity reflecting the author's personal feelings and emotions towards the
discussed subject. The Publicist Style treats certain political, social, economic,
cultural problems.
The general aim 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 … not
merely by logical argumentation, but by emotional appeal as well (brain-washing
function). It is widely used for propaganda.
Features of publicist style:
1) combination of logical argumentation and emotional appeal – features,
common with the style of scientific prose and emotive prose;
2) coherent and logical syntactical structure, expanded system of connectives
and careful paragraphing;
3) use of words with emotive meaning, the use of other stylistic devices (SDs) as
in emotive prose, but the SDs are not fresh or genuine;
4) individual element is little in evidence here, generally toned down and
limited;
5) leading feature – brevity of expression (sometimes epigrammatic).
Sub-styles of the Publicist Style:
Oral form:
1) the oratory/ public speeches;
2) radio and TV commentary.
Written form:
3) essays (moral, philosophical, literary; reviews in journals and magazines,
pamphlets);
4) journalistic articles (political, social, economic).
Oratory – is an oral prepared speech aimed at informing the listener, elucidating
and affecting him/ her. Due to the direct contact with the audience the oratory vastly
employs syntactic, lexical and phonetic expressive means. The oratory vocabulary
comprises neutral and literary words, terms and colloquial expressions, but the slang
should not be used. It is characterized by modality of expression. It makes use of a
great number of expressive means to arouse and keep the public's interest: repetition,
gradation, antithesis, rhetorical questions, inversion, and emotive words. (e.g. We
meet under the shadow of a global crisis, small and medium enterprises may be
starved of credit. Countries and their governments must be in a driving seat. What is
it we have observed? What might countries look for in such a development
framework? How can this be scaled up to cover the country?) It should also be noted
that logical and clear conclusions are necessary.
Radio and TV commentary is less impersonal and more expressive and
emotional.
The essay is a small piece of prose on abstract philosophical, literary critical or
ethical topic. An essayist may not go deep into the problem, he gives his appraisal. It
is very subjective and emotional and the most colloquial of the all sub-styles of the
publicist style. It makes use of expressive means and tropes (sustained metaphors,
epithets). The range of vocabulary is rather wide; both used literary words and
colloquial expressions. The syntax is rather complicated. The authors use imperative
sentences and an appeal to the reader. (e.g. Today is such a time, when the project of
interpretation is largely reactionary, stifling. Like the fumes of the automobile
effusion of interpretations of art today poisons our sensibilities. In a culture whose
already classical dilemma is sensual capability, interpretation is the revenge of the
intellect upon art. Even more. It is the revenge of the intellect upon the world. It is to
turn the world into this world.)
The journalistic articles are more impersonal. The main aim is to transfer the
information. Irrespective of the character of the magazine and the divergence of
subject matter – whether it is political, literary, popularscientific or satirical – all the
already mentioned features of the publicist style are to be found in any article. The
character of the magazine as well as the subject chosen affects the choice and use of
stylistic devices. Words of emotive meaning, for example, are few, if any, in popular
scientific articles. Their exposition is more consistent and the system of connectives
more expanded than, say, in a satirical style.
The language of political magazines articles differs little from that of newspaper
articles. But such elements of the publicist style as rare and bookish words,
neologisms (which sometimes require explanation in the text), traditional words
combinations and parenthesis are more frequent here than in newspaper articles.
Literary reviews stand closer to essays both by their content and by their linguistic
form. More abstract words of logical meaning are used in them; they more often
resort to emotional language and less frequently to traditional set expressions. (e.g.
And the list of unwelcome Russians goes on. The country’s movers and shakers were
stunned last month when former Kremlin property manager Pavel Borodin was
arrested in New York. U.S. law-enforcement authorities were honoring a request by
their Swiss counterparts, who want to put Borodin on trial for money laundering.
(Russian prosecutors dropped their own charges against Borodin in the same case
last December.) The Borodin imbroglio has prompted an outcry in the Russian media.
etc.)
2.3.4. The Newspaper Functional Styles
Newspaper style, as it is evident from its name, is found in newspapers. You
should not conclude though that everything published in a newspaper should be
referred to the newspaper style. The paper contains vastly varying materials, some of
them being publicist essays, some – feature articles, some – scientific reviews, some
– official stock-exchange accounts, etc., so that a daily (weekly) newspaper also
offers a variety of styles. When we mention "newspaper style", we mean informative
materials, characteristic of newspaper only and not found in other publications.
The main aim is to inform and instruct the reader, to transfer the information
objectively in oral and written form without introducing any subjective or emotional
evaluation.
The Sub-styles of Newspaper Functional Style
 1) brief news items and communiqués;
2) advertisements and announcements;
3) headlines;
4) the editorial.
Lexical peculiarities:
1. Proper names: toponymy, anthroponomy, names of institutions and
organizations.
2. A lot of numerals and dates.
3. Abundance of internationalisms.
4. Tendency to produce neologisms which then become clichés (e.g. Vital issue,
pillar of society).
5. A great number of special political and economic terms, non-term political
vocabulary, abstract words, newspaper clichés, abbreviations.
6. The abundance of not so much emotional rather than evaluative and
expressive vocabulary (e.g. When the last Labour Government was kicked out)
Grammar peculiarities:
1) syntactic constructions, indicating a lack of assurance of the reporter as to the
correctness of the facts reported or his desire to avoid responsibility;
2) complex sentences with a developed system of clauses;
3) syntactical complexes: verbal constructions (infinitive, participial, gerundial)
and verbal noun constructions;
4) specific word order – five-w-and-h-pattern rule: (who-what-why-howwhere-
when);
5) attributive noun groups (e.g. leap into space age, the паtiопаl income and
expenditure figures);
6) a lot of quotations and direct speech, a developed system of direct speech
rendering;
7) a simple verb is often substituted by a set expression: e.g. make contact with,
be subjected to, have the effect of, exhibit a tendency to, serve the purpose of; greatly
to be desired, a development to be expected.
Brief news items: their function is to inform the reader. They state only facts
without giving comments. This accounts for the total absence of any individuality of
expression and the almost complete lack of emotional coloring.
A brief news item is essentially matter-of-fact, and stereotyped forms of
expression prevail. The vocabulary used is neutral and common literary. The basic
peculiarity of the brief news items lies in their syntactical structure. As the reporter is
obliged to be brief, he naturally tries to cram all the facts into the space allotted. All
the stated above peculiarities of newspaper style are inherent to brief news items.
Headline is а dependent form of newspaper writing because its specific
functional and linguistic traits provide sufficient ground for isolating and analyzing it
as а specific "genre" of journalism. The main function is to inform the reader briefly
of what the news to follow is about. Sometimes headlines contain elements of
appraisal, i.e. they show the reporter's or paper's attitude to the facts reported.
Nowadays sensational headlines аге quite cоmmоn, especially in "yellow" press (e.g.
BRITAIN ALMOST "CUT IN HALF")
 Syntactically headlines are very short sentences, or phrases of a variety of
patterns:
1. Full declarative sentences.
2. Interrogative sentences.
3. Nominative sentences.
4. Elliptical sentences.
5. Sentences with articles omitted.
6. Phrases with verbals.
7. Questions in the form of statements.
8. Complex sentences.
9. Headlines including direct speech.
Advertisements and announcements. The function of advertisements and
announcements is to inform the reader. There are two types of them: classified and
non-classified. In classified the information is arranged according to the subject
matter: births, marriages, deaths, business offers, personal etc.
BIRTHS
CULHANE.-On November 1st, at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, to BARBARA and
JOHN CULHANE- а son.
Specific peculiarities:
1. Elliptical pattern: all elements that сan bе done without tend to bе eliminated
from the sentence.
2. Brevity of expression: the absence of articles and some punctuation marks,
which makes the statement telegram-like.
3. On the whole essentially neutral vocabulary with а sprinkling of emotionally
coloured words or phrases used to attract the reader's attention, especially in the
PERSONAL section, for example:
PERSONAL
ROBUST, friendly student, not entirely unintelligent, seeks Christmas vacation
job. No wife, will travel, walk, ride оr drive and undertake аnу domestic, agricultural
оr industrial activity. Will bidders for this curiously поrтаl chap, please write Box С.
552, (The Тiтes, E.G. 4.)
As for non-classified advertisements and announcements, the variety of
language form and subject-matter is so great that hardly any essential features
common to all may be pointed out. The reader's attention is attracted by every
possible means: typographical, graphical and stylistic, both lexical and syntactical.
Here there is no call for brevity, as the advertiser may buy as much space as he
chooses.
WHAT WE WANT
А bank's business is with other people's money, so we want people whose
integrity is beyond quest ion. money is а very personal business, so we want people
who like people. Banking is work that calls for accuracy, so we want people who сап
work accurately. Our staff has to have integrity, personality, accuracy. We want them
to have imagination too.
The Editorial
Editorials are intermediate phenomenon bearing the stamp of both the
newspaper style and the publicist style.
The function of the editorial 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 editor's opinion and interpretation of news published, and
suggest to the reader that it is the correct one.
Like any evaluative writing, editorials appeal not only to the reader's mind but to
his feelings as well. Along with common peculiarities stated above such specific
features can be mentioned:
1. Emotionally coloured vocabulary (colloquial words and expressions, slang
and professionalisms).
2. Stylistic devices, both lexical and syntactical, the use of which is largely
traditional. Editorials abound in trite stylistic means, especially metaphors and
epithets, e.g. а price spiral, а spectacular sight, an outrageous act, brutal rulе, ап
astounding stateтent, crazy policies.
3. But genuine stylistic means аге also sometimes used, which helps the writer
of the editorial to bring his idea home to the reader. Two types of allusions can bе
distinguished in newspaper article writing:
· Allusions to political and other facts of the day which аre indispensable.
· Historical, literary and biblical allusions which аге often used to create а
specific stylistic effect, largely satirical.
2.3.5. The Belles-lettres Style
Belles-lettres style, or the style of imaginative literature, may be called the
richest register of communication: besides its own language means which are not
used in any other sphere of communication, belles-lettres style makes ample use of
other styles too, for in numerous works of literary art we find elements of scientific,
official and other functional types of speech. We may call this style eclectic. Besides
informative and persuasive functions, also found in other functional styles, the
belles-lettres style has a unique task to impress the reader aesthetically.
So the main function of belles-lettres style is cognitive-aesthetic.
The Sub-styles of Belles-lettres Functional Style
1. Poetry
2. Emotive Prose
3. The Drama
Each of these sub-styles has certain common features, typical of the general
belles-lettres style.
The belles-lettres style rests on certain indispensable linguistic features, which
are:
1 . Genuine, not trite, imagery achieved by purely linguistic devices.
2. The use of words in contextual and very often in more than one dictionary
meaning, or at least greatly influenced by the lexical environment.
3. A vocabulary which will reflect to a greater or lesser degree the author's
personal evaluation of things or phenomena.
4. A peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax, a kind of lexical and
syntactical idiosyncrasy.
5. The introduction of the typical features of colloquial language.
 Poetry
The first differentiating property of poetry 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 more or
less strict orderly arrangement. Both the syntactical and semantic aspects of the
poetic sub style may be defined as compact, for they are held in check by rhythmic
patterns. 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.
Rhythm and rhyme are distinguishable properties of the poetic sub-style
provided they are wrought into compositional patterns. They are typical only of this
one variety of the belles-lettres style.
Emotive Prose
Emotive prose has the same 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 from metre and rhyme, what most of all distinguishes
emotive prose from 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.
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
constructions, but also fragmentations of syntactical models, peculiar, unexpected
ways of combining sentences are freely introduced into present-day emotive prose.
The Drama
The third subdivision of the belles-lettres style is the language of plays. Unlike
poetry, which, except for ballads, in essence excludes direct speech and therefore
dialogue, and unlike emotive prose, which is a combination of monologue and
dialogue, the language of plays is entirely dialogue. The author's speech is almost
entirely excluded except for the playwright's remarks and stage directions, significant
though they may be. The language of a play has the following peculiarities:
· It is stylized (retains the modus of literary English).
· It presents the variety of spoken language.
· It has redundancy of information caused by necessity to amplify the utterance.
· Monologue is never interrupted.
· Character's utterances are much longer than in ordinary conversation.
2.4. Colloquial Styles
Colloquial style is the type of speech which is used in situation that allows
certain deviations from the rigid pattern of literary speech used not only in a private
conversation, but also in private correspondence. So the style is applicable both to the
written and oral varieties of the speech. The terms "colloquial" and "bookish" do not
exactly correspond to the oral and written forms of speech. Maltzev suggests terms
"formal" and "informal" and states that colloquial style is the part of informal variety
of English which is used orally in conversation.
The main functions of this style: communicative, contacting and emotive.
Following Arnold and Skrebnev we distinguish Literary and Familiar colloquial
styles.
E.g. They are holding a meeting to discuss the issue. (Standard) They are getting
together to talk it over. (Literary colloquial) They are sitting down to wrap about it.
(Familiar colloquial)
2.4.1. Literary colloquial style
Phonetic features:
1. Standard pronunciation in compliance with the national norm, good
enunciation.
2. Phonetic compression of frequently used forms: e.g. it’s, don’t, I’ve
3. Omission of unaccented elements due to the quick tempo: e.g. you know
him?
Morphological features:
1. Use of regular morphological features, with interception of evaluative
suffixes: e.g. deary, doggie.
Syntactical features:
1. Use of simple sentences with a number of participial and infinitive
constructions and numerous parentheses.
2. Syntactically correct utterances compliant with the literary norm.
3. Use of various types of syntactical compression, simplicity of syntactical
connection.
4. Prevalence of active and finite verb forms.
5. Use of grammar forms for emphatic purposes, e.g. progressive verb forms to
express emotions of irritation, anger, etc. e.g. You are always loosing your keys.
6. Decomposition and ellipsis of sentences in a dialogue.
7. Use of special colloquial phrases, e.g. that friend of yours.
Lexical features:
1. Wide range of vocabulary strata in accordance with the register of
communication and participants’ roles: formal and informal, neutral and bookish,
terms and foreign words.
2. Basic stock of communicative vocabulary is stylistically neutral.
3. Use of socially accepted contracted forms and abbreviations: e.g. Fridge for
refrigerator, ice for ice-cream, TV for television, CD for compact disk.
4. Use of etiquette language and conversational formulas: e.g. nice to see you,
my pleasure, on behalf of.
5. Extensive use of intensifiers and gap-fillers: e.g. absolutely, definitely,
awfully, kind of, so to speak, I mean, if I may say so.
6. Use of interjections and exclamations: e.g. Dear me, My God, Goodness,
well, why, now, oh.
7. Extensive use of phrasal verbs: e.g. let smb down - подвести, put up with –
терпеть, мириться; stand smb up – казаться правдоподобным.
 8. Use of words of indefinite meaning: e.g. thing, stuff.
9. Devoid of slang, vulgarisms, dialect words, jargon.
10. Use of phraseological expressions, idioms and figures of speech.
Compositional features:
1. Can be used in written and spoken varieties: dialogue, monologue, personal
letters, diaries, essays, articles, etc.
2. Prepared types of texts, such as letters, presentations, articles, interviews
may have thought out and logical composition, to a certain extent determined by
conventional forms.
3. Spontaneous types have a loose structure, relative coherence and uniformity
of form and content.
2.4.2. Familiar Colloquial Style (represented in spoken variety)
Phonetic features:
1. Casual and often careless pronunciation, use of deviant forms: e.g. gonna
instead of going to, whatcha instead of what do you, dunno instead of don’t know.
2. Use of reduced and contracted forms: e.g. you’re, they’ve, I’d.
3. Omission of unaccented elements due to quick tempo: e.g. you hear me?
4. Emphasis on intonation as a powerful semantic and stylistic instrument
capable to render subtle nuances of thought and feeling.
5. Use of onomatopoeic words e.g. whoosh (свист), hush (ш-ш! Тс!), yum (ням-
ням).
Morphological features
1. Use of evaluative suffixes, nonce words formed on morphological and
phonetic analogy with other nominal words e.g. mawkish – 1) вызывающий
тошноту, противный на вкус; приторный; 2) сентиментальный, слащавый,
слезливый, moody: 1) легко поддающийся переменам настроения 2) унылый,
угрюмый; в дурном настроении, hanky-panky – мошенничество, обман,
надувательство, проделки, helter-skelter – беспорядок, суматоха, hugger-mugger
– секрет, тайна.
2. Extensive use of collocations and phrasal verbs instead of neutral and literary
equivalents: e.g. to turn in instead of to go to bed.
Syntactical features
1. Use of simple short sentences.
2. Dialogues are usually of the question-answer type.
3. Use of echo questions, parallel structures. Repetitions of various kinds
4. In complex sentences asyndetic coordination is the norm
5. Coordination is used more often than subordination, repeated use of
conjunction and is a sing of spontaneity rather than an expressive device.
6. Extensive use of ellipsis, including the subject of the sentence: e.g. Can’t say
anything.
7. Extensive use of syntactic tautology: e.g. That girl, she was something else!
8. Abundance of gap-fillers and parenthetical elements, such as sure, indeed,
okay, well.
Lexical features
1. Combination of neutral, familiar and low colloquial vocabulary, including
slang, vulgar and taboo words.
2. Extensive use of words of general meaning, specified in meaning by the
situation: e.g. guy, job, get, do, fix, affair.
3. Limited vocabulary resources, use of the same word in different meaning it
may not possess e.g. ‘some’ in the meaning ‘good’ – Some guy! Some game!, ‘nice’ in
the meaning ‘impressive, fascinating, high quality’ – Nice music!
4. Abundance of specific colloquial interjections e.g. boy, wow, hey, there, ahoy.
5. Use of hyperbole, epithets, evaluative vocabulary, trite metaphors and simile:
e.g. if you say it once more I’ll kill you. As old as the hills. Horrid, awesome, etc.
6. Tautological substitution of personal pronouns and names by other nouns: e.g.
you-baby, Johnny-boy.
7. Mixture of curse words and euphemisms: e.g. damn, dash, darned - Dashed if
I know. – Будь я проклят, если я знаю.
Compositional features
1. Use of deviant language on all levels.
2. Strong emotional coloring.
3. Loose syntactical organization of an utterance.
4. Frequently little coherence and adherence to the topic.
5. No special compositional patterns.