Scientific Prose Style.

The Style of Official Documents.

 PLAN
1. Scientific prose style and its subdivisions. General peculiarities.
2. Graphical, morphological, lexical, syntactical and compositional
peculiarities of scientific prose style.
3. The style of official documents. General peculiarities.
4. Graphical, morphological, lexical, syntactical and compositional
peculiarities of official documents style.
 Scientific prose style
Scientific prose style is the style the language of which is
governed by the aim to prove a hypothesis, to create new
concepts, to disclose the internal law of existence,
development, relations between different phenomena.
Scientific style is employed in professional communication
and serves the needs of modern science. It’s the variant of the
national literary language.
The genre of scientific works exists for the most part within
the bounds of the written form of language (scientific
articles, monographs or textbooks), but it may also manifest
itself in its oral form (in scientific reports, lectures,
discussions at conferences, etc.); in the latter case this style
already has some features of colloquial speech.
 Subdivisions of the scientific style
1. the style of humanitarian sciences;
2. the style of exact sciences;
3. the style of popular scientific prose.

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.
 The following texts belong to the
scientific prose style:
1. articles in magazines or journals;
2. monographs;
3. theses and dissertations;
4. abstracts;
5. scientific reports;
6. textbooks.
 General peculiarities
of scientific prose style
 general function – intellectual communicative;
 the style is informative, persuasive, objective, precise,
unemotional; formal professional; prepared, mainly written;
 logical coherence and objectivity in stating the idea; rigour and
precision; impersonality;
 quotations, references, footnotes;
 sentence patterns of three types (postulatory, argumentative,
formulative).
 Graphical peculiarities
 types of print (definitions, keywords and materials for
memorizing are printed in bold type etc);
 layout (it’s different from artistic texts, it’s more dense,
there are no dialogues and there are more signs).
 Morphological peculiarities
 terminological word building and word-derivation:
neologism formation by affixation and conversion;
 Latin affixes;
 restricted use of finite verb forms;
 use of ‘the author’s we’ instead of I;
 frequent use of impersonal constructions;
 long words of many morphemes.
 Lexical peculiarities
 extensive use of bookish words (e.g. presume, infer,
preconception, cognitive);
 abundance of scientific terminology and phraseology,
often international;
 use of words in their primary dictionary meaning,
restricted use of connotative contextual meanings;
 use of numerous neologisms;
 Lexical peculiarities
 use of Latin abbreviations and shortenings;
 abundance of proper names;
 restricted use of emotive colouring, interjections, expressive
phraseology, phrasal verbs, colloquial vocabulary, seldom use of
tropes, such as metaphor, hyperbole, simile, etc.;
 extensive use of connectives (for logical argumentation);
 use of special set phrases and adverbs (e.g. to sum up, as we
have seen, so far we have been considering, finally, thus etc).
Latin abbreviations and expressions
cf. – confer
e.g. – exempli gratia
etc. – et cetera
ibid. – ibidem
i.e. – id est
N.B. – nota bene
viz. – videlicet
vs. – versus
Latin abbreviations and expressions
a posteriori in vivo
a priori ipso facto
ab initio per se
ad hoc post factum
ad infinitum pro rata
de facto; de jure
in vitro
 Syntactical peculiarities
 complete and standard syntactical mode of expression;
 syntactical precision to ensure the logical sequence of thought and
argumentation;
 direct word order;
 use of lengthy sentences with subordinate clauses;
 extensive use of participial, gerundial and infinitive complexes;
 extensive use of adverbial and prepositional phrases;
 frequent use of parenthesis introduced by a dash;
 Syntactical peculiarities
 use of extended attributive phrases, often with a number of nouns used as attributes to
the following head-noun (Noun + Noun construction);
 preferential use of prepositional attributive groups instead of the descriptive of phrase;
 avoidance of ellipsis, even usually omitted conjunctions like 'that' and 'which‘;
 prevalence of nominal constructions over the verbal ones to avoid time reference for
the sake of generalization;
 frequent use of passive and non-finite verb forms to achieve objectivity and
impersonality;
 use of impersonal forms and sentences such as mention should be made, it can be
inferred, assuming that, etc.
 Compositional (textual) peculiarities
 division into parts (subdivisions); definite structural arrangement in
a hierarchical order – introduction, chapters, paragraphs, conclusion;
 compositionally arranged sentence patterns – postulatory (at the
beginning), argumentative (in the central part), formulative (in the
conclusion);
 in scientific proper and technical texts – highly formalized text
with the prevalence of formulae, tables, diagrams supplied with
concise commentary phrases;
 Compositional (textual) peculiarities
 in humanitarian texts (history, philosophy) – descriptive
narration, supplied with argumentation and interpretation;
 extensive use of citation, references, footnotes and
commentary to the text;
 acknowledgements.
 OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS STYLE
The style of official documents (or official style) is the
style the aim of which is to state the condition binding two
parties into one (into an understanding) or to reach
agreement between two contracting parties.
It is the most conservative style. It preserves cast-iron forms of
structuring and clichés and uses syntactical constructions and words
long known as archaic and not observed anywhere else. It is used in
formal situations with the social roles of the communicants being
equal or non-equal.
Subdivisions of official style
 The following texts belong
to the official style:
1. legal documents (will, 7. memorandum;
contract, marriage contract, birth
or death certificate, license); 8. minutes;
2. governmental documents 9. application;
(constitution, amendments); 10. receipt;
3. decrees; edicts; 11. report.
4. treaties;
5. agreement, pact, note;
6. business correspondence;
 General peculiarities of official style
 official style is: prepared, mainly written;
prescriptive  it had encoded character
(symbols, abbreviations);
informative
 graphical peculiarities –
highly formal special layout;
unemotional  formulas of greeting, parting,
conventional politeness, gratitude.
 Lexical peculiarities
 each of sub-styles makes use of special terms and bookish words;
prevalence of stylistically neutral and bookish vocabulary;
 the documents use set expressions inherited from early Victorian
period, this vocabulary is conservative;
 a large proportion of formal and archaic words used in their
dictionary meaning (e.g. kinsman, thereof, fore mentioned etc);
 in diplomatic and legal documents many words have Latin and
French origin (e.g. status quo, persona non grata etc);
 Lexical peculiarities
 there are a lot of abbreviations and conventional symbols (e.g. MP
= Member of Parliament, Ltd = Limited etc);
 use of terminology;
 use of proper names and titles, abstraction of persons (use of party
instead of the name); seldom use of substitute words (it, that);
 use of words in their primary denotative meanings;
 absence of tropes, no emotive colouring of vocabulary.
 Syntactical peculiarities
 use of long complex sentences with several types of coordination
and subordination (up to 70 % of the text);
 use of passive constructions, numerous connectives;
 use of objects, attributes and all sorts of modifiers in the identifying
and explanatory function;
 extensive use of detached constructions and parenthesis;
 a general syntactical mode of combining several pronouncements
into one sentence;
 Syntactical peculiarities
 the frequent use of non-finite forms – gerund, participle, infinitive
(Considering that...; in order to achieve cooperation in solving the
problems), and complex structures with them, such as the Complex
Object (We expect this to take place), Complex Subject (This is
expected to take place), the Absolute Participial Construction (The
conditions being violated, it appears necessary to state that...).
 Compositional patterns
The most noticeable feature of official style 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.
Business correspondence
Legal document Memorandum
Minutes of the meeting
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