7. Oral & written types of speech

Writing is a fairly static form of transfer. Speaking is a dynamic transfer of information.

THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE can be significantly more precise. Written words can be chosen with greater deliberation and thought. These attributes of writing are possible because the pace of involvement is controlled by both the writer and the reader. The writer can write and rewrite at great length, a span of time which in some cases can be measured in years. Similarly, the reader can read quickly or slowly or even stop to think about what he or she has just read. More importantly, the reader always has the option of re-reading; even if that option is not exercised, its mere possibility has an effect upon a reader's understanding of a text.

Written speech implies the absence of feedback from the interlocutor. In addition, the written language does not have any additional means of influence on the recipient, except the words themselves, their order and organize sentence punctuation.

ORAL COMMUNICATION can be significantly more effective in expressing meaning to an audience. Oral communication uses words with fewer syllables than the written language, the sentences are shorter, and self-referencing pronouns such as “I” are common. Oral communication also allows incomplete sentences if delivered properly, and many sentences will begin with "and," "but," and "except."

8. Style as the main subject of stylistic studies

Stylistlcs is a branch of linguistics which investigates the entire system of expressive resources available in a particular language.

The main notion of stylistics is that of style. We speak of style in architecture, painting, clothes, behaviour, and work and so on. Thus style in its most general sense is a specific characteristic of human activity arising as a result of choice, within the accepted norms, of a definite mode or manner of conducting this activity.

STYLE (Galperin) - a set of characteristics by which we distinguish one author from another or members of one subclass from members of other subclasses, all of which are members of the same general class. In this respect one more definition of style connected with the individuality of the author can be presented.

Individual style of a writer is a unique combination of language units, EMs and SDs peculiar to a given author, which makes the writer's works or even utterances easily recognizable

So, style denotes the collective characteristics of writing, diction or any artistic expression and the way of presenting things, depending upon the general outlook proper to a person, a literary school, a trend, a period or a genre.

Functional style of a language may be defined as a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication. The main idea of the functional approach is the distinction between the language (as a symbolic system) and the speech (as the very process of discourse generation).

Hence, the style of a text is determined mainly by the communication context. Five functional styles are usually singled out, such as official style, scientific style, publicist style, colloquial style, and literary style.