4. What is a functional style? Scientific Style. Sub styles, functions and features.

Functional Style is a system of interrelated language means serving a definite aim in communication. 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.

They are:

• 1) Official(documents and papers);

• 2) Scientific (brochures, articles, other scientific publications);

• 3) Publicistic (essay, public speech);

• 4) Newspaper style(mass media);

• 5) Belles-lettres style(genre of creative writing);

Scientific styles – classification – the lang of humanitarian sciences/ of exact sciences/ of popular scientific prose.

Function: To prove a hypothesis? to create new concepts to disclose the internal laws, development between different phenomena.

Features:

• The use of nouns and verbs in abstract meanin, special reference words – absence of non-literary vocabulary

• Clarity of expressions

• Logical coherence of ideas

• Use terms specific to each given branch of science.

• Footnotes

• Logical sentences

5 What is a functional style? Official Style. Sub styles, functions and features.

Functional Style is a system of interrelated language means serving a definite aim in communication. 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 recoquized by one or more leading features which are especially conspicuous. For instance the use of special terminology is a lexical characteristics of the style of scientific prose, and one by which it can easily be recognized.

According to T. Kuznetsov the division of functional styles is as follows: 1 Literary-bookish style and 2 Colloquial style. I. Sometimes distinguishing Neutral style as opposed to the two main groups. Neutral style is possible in any speech situation of any character. The literary style corresponds to a thought out speech, say, before a large audience, i.e. public speech, usually called bookish. The colloquial style – to an unprepared speech of every day communication.

Literary- bookish style can be subdivided into:

1. Publicistic style (essay, oratorical style)

2. Scientific (brochures, articles, other scientific publications);

3. The style of official documents

4. Newspaper style(mass media);

5 Belles-lettres style(genre of creative writing);

The main feature of these styles is strict conformity of all the forms of speech (the use of words, syntactical structures, phonetic side of speech) to the norm of standard English, striving to a precise expression of thought, removal of lowered words.

The Style of Official Documents

This FS is represented by the following substyles or variants:

1) the language of business documents;

2) the language of legal documents;

3) the language of diplomacy;

4) the language of military documents.

Function: to achieve the agreement between contrasting parts

Features: - imperative nature, stereotyped ways of expression

• Absence of subjective emotional appraisal

• Conventionality of expression

• Use of words in their logical dictionary meaning

• Large number of abbreviatns

6 What are the main subgroups of special literary vocabulary? Terms. Literary Coinages.

English language is divided into three main layers: the literary layer, the neutral layer and the colloquial layer.

The literary layer of words consists of groups accepted as legitimate members of the English vocabulary. They have no local or dialectal character.

The colloquial layer of words as qualified in most English or American dictionaries is not infrequently limited to a definite language community or confined to a special locality where it circulates.

The literary vocabulary consists of the following groups of words:

1 common literary; 2. terms and learned words; 3. poetic words; 4. archaic words; 5. barbarisms and foreign words; 6. literary coinages including nonce-words.

Terms One of the most characteristic features of a term is its direct relevance to the system or set of terms used in a particular science, discipline or art, i. e. to its nomenclature.

Terms are mostly and predominantly used in special works dealing with the notions of some branch of science. Therefore it may be said that they belong to the style of language of science. But their use is not confined to this style. They may as well appear in other styles—in newspaper style, in publicistic and practically in all other existing styles of language. But their function in this case changes. They do not always fulfill their basic function that of bearing exact reference to a given concept.

Such terms as ‘loan’, ‘rate of interest’, and the phrase ‘to secure for money’ are widely known financial terms which to the majority of the English and American reading public need no explanation.

Literary coinages . The coining of new words is dictated by the need to indicate new concepts as a result of the development of science. It may also be the result of a search for a more economical, brief form of utterance for expressiveness.

The first type of newly coined words may be named terminological coinages. The second i.e. words coined for expressiveness, may be named stylistic coinages.

New words are usually coined according to productive models for word-building. But new words of literary bookish type may be formed with the help of non-productive affixes and they will be immediately recognized because of their unexpectedness.

e.g. –ize moisturize, pedestrianize, villigize etc.

-ee interrodatee, enrollee, amputee etc.

-ship showmanship, supermanship

-ese translatese, Johnsonese

There is still another means of word-building in English - blending of two words into one.

e.g. avigation ( aviation + navigation )

brunch ( breakfast +lunch )

Usually newly coined words are heavily stylistically loaded, their major stylistic function being the creation of the effect of laconism, terseness and implication of witty humour and satire.

7 What are the main subgroups of special literary vocabulary? Poetic and Highly Literary Words.

English language is divided into three main layers: the literary layer, the neutral layer and the colloquial layer.

The literary layer of words consists of groups accepted as legitimate members of the English vocabulary. They have no local or dialectal character.

The colloquial layer of words as qualified in most English or American dictionaries is not infrequently limited to a definite language community or confined to a special locality where it circulates.

The literary vocabulary consists of the following groups of words:

1 common literary; 2. terms and learned words; 3. poetic words; 4. archaic words; 5. barbarisms and foreign words; 6. literary coinages including nonce-words.

Poetic and Highly Literary Words

Poetic words form a rather insignificant layer of the special literary vocabulary.

Poetic tradition has kept alive such archaic words as quath ( p. t. ) to speak; eftsoon – again, soon after – which are used even by modern ballad-mongers.

Poetic words and expressions are called upon to sustain the special elevated atmosphere of poetry. This may be said to be the main function of poetic words.

Such protests have had a long history. As far back as the 16th century Shakespeare in a number of lines voiced his attitude toward poeticisms, considering them as means to embellish poetry.

It is remarkable how Shakespeare though avoiding poetic words proper uses highly elevated vocabulary in his sonnets, such as ‘heaven’s air’, ‘rehearse’, ‘couplement’, ‘compare’ (noun), ‘rondure’, ‘hems’. The use of poetic words does not as a rule create the atmosphere of poetry in the true sense; it is a substitute for real art.

8 What are the main subgroups of special literary vocabulary? Archaic, Obsolescent and Obsolete Words.

Special literary vocabulary is divided into: terms, poetic and highly literary words, archaic obsolete words, barbarisms, foreignisms, and literary coinages.

The word-stock of a language is in an increasing state of change. Words change their meaning and sometimes drop out of the language altogether. New words spring up and replace the old ones. Some words stay in the language a very long time and do not lose their faculty of gaining new meanings and becoming richer and richer polysemantically. Other words live but a short time and are like bubbles on the surface of water — they disappear leaving no trace of their existence.

We shall distinguish three stages in the aging process of words:

The beginning of the aging process when the word becomes rarely used. Such words are called obsolescent, i.e. they are in the stage of gradually passing out of general use. To this category first of all belong morphological forms belonging to the earlier stages in the development of the language. In the English language these are the pronouns thou and its forms thee, thy – ‘your’ and thine - 'yours'; the corresponding verbal ending -est and the verb-forms art, wilt (thou makest, thou wilt); the ending -(e)th instead of -(e)s (he maketh) and the pronoun ye - 'you', used especially when you are speaking to more than one person

The second group of archaic words are those that have already gone completely out of use but are still recognized by the English-speaking community: e. g. methinks (=it seems to me); nay (—no). These words are called obsolete.

The third group, which may be called archaic proper, are words which are no longer recognizable in modern English, words that were in use in Old English and which have either dropped out of the language entirely or have changed in their appearance so much that they have become unrecognizable, e. g. troth (=faith); a losel (=a worthless, lazy fellow).

9: What are the main subgroups of special literary vocabulary? Barbarisms and Foreignisms.

Special literary vocabulary is divided into: terms, poetic and highly literary words, archaic obsolete words, barbarisms, foreignisms, and literary coinages.

Barbarisms are words of foreign origin which have not entirely been assimilated into the English language. They bear the appearance of a borrowing and are felt as something alien to the native tongue. Nevertheless most of what were formerly foreign borrowings are now, from a purely stylistic position, not regarded as foreign. But still there are some words which retain their foreign appearance to a greater or lesser degree. These words, which are called barbarisms, are, like archaisms, also considered to be on the outskirts of the literary language.

Most of them have corresponding English synonyms; e. g. chic (=stylish); Weltanschauung (=world-view); en passant (= in passing); ad infinitum (= to infinity) and many other words and phrases.

It is very important for purely stylistic purposes to distinguish between barbarisms and foreign words proper. Barbarisms are words which have already become facts of the English language. They are, part and parcel of the English word-stock, though they remain on the outskirts of the literary vocabulary. Foreign words though used for certain stylistic purposes, do not belong to the EV. They are not registered in dictionaries, whereas barbarisms are.

Foreign words are often italicized , barbarisms on the contrary, are not made conspicuous in the text.

There are foreign words in the EV which fulfil a terminological function (kolkhoz, ukase, udarnik) and reflect an objective reality of some country. Terminological borrowings have no synonyms; barbarisms- have.

Their functions: to express a concept non-existant in English reality, to supply local colour as a background to the narrative, reproduce actual manner of speech and environment of the hero, to elevate the language (words which we don’t quite understand have a peculiar charm), “exactifying” function – to express some exact meaning (au revoir vs. good-bye).

10 What are the main subgroups of Special Colloquial Vocabulary? Slang. Colloquial Coinages.

Special colloquial Vocabulary is divided into: slang, jargonisms, professionalisms, dialectal words, vulgar words, colloquial coinages. Slang - language peculiar to a particular group: as a: the special and often secret vocabulary used by a class (as thieves, beggars) and usu. felt to be vulgar or inferior: argot; b: the jargon used by or associated with a particular trade, profession, or field of activity; 2: a non-standard vocabulary composed of words and senses characterized primarily by connotations of extreme informality and usu. a currency not limited to a particular region and composed typically of coinages or arbitrarily changed words, clipped or shortened forms, extravagant, forced or facetious figures of speech, or verbal novelties usu. experiencing quick popularity and relatively rapid decline into disuse.

- words or expressions that are very informal and are not considered suitable for more formal situations. Some slang is used only by a particular group of people (Macmillan).

Slang words, used by most speakers in very informal communication, are highly emotive and expressive and as such, lose their originality rather fast and are replaced by newer formations. This tendency to synonymic expansion results in long chains of synonyms of various degrees of expressiveness, denoting one and the same concept. So, the idea of a "pretty girl" is worded by more than one hundred ways in slang.

In only one novel by S. Lewis there are close to a dozen synonyms used by Babbitt, the central character, in reference to a girl: "cookie", "tomato", "Jane", "sugar", "bird", "cutie", etc.

Colloquial coinages (nonce-words), unlike those of a literary-bookish character, are spontaneous and elusive. Not all of the colloquial nonce-words are fixed in dictionaries or even in writing and therefore most of them disappear from the language leaving no trace in it.

Unlike literary-bookish coinages, nonce-words of a colloquial nature are not usually built by means of affixes but are based on certain semantic changes in words that are almost imperceptible to the linguistic observer until the word finds its way into print.

11 What are the main subgroups of Special Colloquial Vocabulary? Jargonisms.

Special colloquial Vocabulary is divided into: slang, jargonisms, professionalisms, dialectal words, vulgar words, colloquial coinages.

Jargonism is a recognized term for a group of words that exists in almost every language and whose aim is to preserve secrecy within one or another social group. Jargonisms are generally old words with entirely new meanings imposed on them. Most of the jargonisms of any language, and of the English language too, are absolutely incomprehensible to those outside the social group which has invented them. They may be defined as a code within a code, that is special meanings of words that are imposed on the recognized code—the dictionary meaning of the words.

Thus the word grease means 'money'; loaf means 'head'; a tiger hunter is 'a gambler'; a lexer is 'a student preparing for a law course'.

Jargonisms are social in character. They are not regional. In Britain and in the US almost any social group of people has its own jargon. The following jargons are well known in the English language: the jargon of thieves and vagabonds, generally known as cant; the jargon of jazz people; the jargon of the army, known as military slang; the jargon of sportsmen, and many others.

Jargonisms, like slang and other groups of the non-literary layer, do not always remain on the outskirts of the literary language. Many words have overcome the resistance of the language lawgivers and purists and entered the standard vocabulary. Thus the words kid, fun, queer, bluff, fib, humbug, formerly slang words or jargonisms, are now considered common colloquial. They may be said to be dejargonized.

12 What are the main subgroups of Special Colloquial Vocabulary? Professionalisms.

Subgroups of Special Colloquial Vocabulary: Slang; Professionalisms; Dialectal Words;.Vulgar Words or Vulgarisms; Jargons; Colloquial coinages.

Professionalisms are the words used in a definite trade, profession or calling by people connected by common interests both at work and at home. Professionalisms are correlated to terms. Terms, as has already been indicated, are coined to nominate new concepts that appear in the process of, and as a result of, technical progress and the development of science. In distinction from slang, jargonisms and professionalisms cover a narrow semantic field, for example connected with the technical side of some profession.

Professional words name anew already-existing concepts, tools or instruments, and have the typical properties of a special code. The main feature of a professionalism is its technicality. Professionalisms are special words in the non-literary layer of the English vocabulary, whereas terms are a specialized group belonging to the literary layer of words. Professionalisms are not known to simple people

13 What are the main subgroups of Special Colloquial Vocabulary? Dialectal Words.

Subgroups of Special Colloquial Vocabulary: Slang; Professionalisms; Dialectal Words;.Vulgar Words or Vulgarisms; Jargons; Colloquial coinages.

Dialectal words are those which in the process of integration of the English national language remained beyond its literary boundaries, and their use is generally confined to a definite locality. We exclude here what are called social dialects or even the still looser application of the term as in expressions like poetical dialect or styles as dialects.

Dialectal words are normative and devoid of any stylistic meaning in regional dialects, but used outside of them, carry a strong flavour of the locality where they belong. DW has application limited to a certain group of people or to certain communicative situations.

14 What are the main subgroups of Special Colloquial Vocabulary? Vulgar Words or Vulgarisms.

Subgroups of Special Colloquial Vocabulary: Slang; Professionalisms; Dialectal Words;.Vulgar Words or Vulgarisms; Jargons; Colloquial coinages.

Vulgarisms are:

1) expletives and swear words which are of an abusive character, like 'damn', 'bloody', 'to hell', 'goddam' and, as some dictionaries state, used now, as general exclamations;

2) obscene words. These are known as four-letter words the use of which is banned in any form of intercourse as being indecent.

The function of expletives is almost the same as that of interjections, that is to express strong emotions, mainly annoyance, anger, vexation and the like. They are not to be found in any functional style of language except emotive prose, and here only in the direct speech of the characters.

15 Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices. Classification of EM and SD. Phonetic Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices (Onomatopoeia, Alliteration, Rhyme, Rhythm).

In linguistics there are different means by which a writer obtains his effect. Expressive means, stylistic devices tropes, figures of speech are all used indiscriminately. For our purposes it is necessary to make a distinction between expressive means and stylistic devices.

Expressive means of a language are those phonetic means, morphological forms, means of word-building and lexical, phraseological and syntactical forms, all of which function in the language for emotional or logical intensification of the utterance. These intensifying forms have been fixed in grammar books and dictionaries.

What is then a stylistic device? It is a conscious and intentional, literary use of some of the facts of the language ( excluding expressive means ) in which the most essential features ( both structural and semantic ) of the language forms are raised to a generalized level and thereby present a generative model.

Classification of EM and SD:

- Phonetic EM and SD

- Lexical EM and SD

- Grammatical or Syntactical EM and SD

- Lexico-grammatical(syntactical) EM and SD

- Graphic EM and SD

Onomotopeia is a combination of speech sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder), by people (sighing, laughter, patter of feet etc.) and by animals.

Alliteration – recurrence of an initial consonant in two or more words which either follow one another or appear close enough to be noticeable. We find it in poetry and in prose – more often than in other languages – very often in titles of books, in slogans, and in set phrases

A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words, most often in the final syllables of lines in poems and song

"Rhythm is a flow, movement, procedure, etc., characterized by basically regular recurrence of elements or features, as beat, or accent, in alternation with opposite or different elements or features" (Webster's New World Dictionary).

16 Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices Classification of EM and SD. Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices (Metaphor, Metonymy, Irony, Zeugma).

metaphor - transference of names based on the associated likeness between two objects, as in the "pancake", or "ball", or "volcano" for the "sun"; "silver dust", "sequins" for "stars"; "vault", "blanket", "veil" for the "sky".

Metaphor. The stylistic device based on the principle of identification of two objects is called metaphor. It is the interaction between the logical and contextual-logical meanings of a word which is based on a likeness between objects and implies analogy and comparison between them.

Metonymy. If instead directly naming an object of speech we use the name of some other object which is closely connected with it as a condition of its existence, or as its constant belonging, or as a result characteristic of it, the notion has a vivid expression.

Irony. (Greek eironeia – ‘mockery concealed’)

It denotes a trope / figure based on direct opposition of the meaning to the sense. It is the use of words, word-combinations and sentences in the meanings opposite to those directly expressed by them (i.e. opposite to their logical meaning) for purpose of ridicule. Thus in the sentence: ‘It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket.’ The word “delightful’ acquires a meaning quite the opposite to its primary dictionary meaning, that is ‘unpleasant’, ‘not delightful’.

Irony is generally used to convey a negative meaning.

Zeugma is use of a word in the same grammatical relation to the adjacent word in the context, one metaphoric and the other literal in sense. e. g. The boys took their books and places.

17 Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices. Classification of EM and SD. Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices (Pun, Epithet, Oxymoron, Antonomasia)

Epithet. Epithet is a stylistic device showing the purely individual emotional attitude of the writer or the speaker towards the object mentioned. e.g. Shining serenely as some immeasurable mirror beneath the smiling face of the heaven, the solitary ocean lay in unrippled silence

Antonomasia. Using a proper name as a common noun and vice versa using a descriptive word-combination instead of a proper noun is called antonomasia. Thus, a traitor may be referred to as Brutus, a ladies’ man deserves the name of Don Juan.

Oxymoron is a stylistic device the syntactic and semantic structures of which come to clashes. There are few colloquial oxymorons, all of them showing a high degree of the speaker's emotional involvement in the situation, as in "damn nice", "awfully pretty".

The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play that suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect.