THE FUNCTIONAL STYLES IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH

ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНЫЕ СТИЛИ В СОВРЕМЕННОМ АНГЛИЙСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ

Ишекенов Никита Александрович

студент, факультет иностранных языков, Тульского государственного педагогического университета им. Л.Н. Толстого

РФ, г. Тула

Кузьмина Полина Александровна

студент, факультет иностранных языков, Тульского государственного педагогического университета им. Л.Н. Толстого

РФ, г. Тула

Чурилова Людмила Александровна

студент, факультет иностранных языков, Тульского государственного педагогического университета им. Л.Н. Толстого

РФ, г. Тула

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the peculiarities of the stylistic forms of the English language. The study was conducted by analyzing functional styles and their definitions, their underlayings and their distinctive features.

АННОТАЦИЯ

В данной работе рассматриваются особенности стилистических форм английского языка. Исследование проведено путем анализа функциональных стилей и их определений, их подстилей и их отличительных особенностей.

Keywords: functional styles, belles-lettres, neutral style, publicistic style.

Ключевые слова: функциональные стили, беллетристика, нейтральный стиль, публицистический стиль.

Introduction.

The appearance and existence of functional styles is associated with specific conditions of communication in various spheres of life in our society. The coordination of linguistic means and stylistic techniques form the distinctive features of each style, and not the linguistic means or stylistic techniques themselves. However, each style can be recognized by one or more leading features that are particularly striking. Each functional style has its own peculiarities in terms of vocabulary and syntactic constructions.

The notion of functional style.

According to I. R. Galperin: «Functional Style is a system of interrelated language means serving a definite aim in communication» [2, p. 32]. Thus, the functional style should be considered as the result of a certain specific task set by the sender of the message.

Each functional style is a relatively stable system at this stage of the development of the literary language, but it changes, and sometimes significantly, from one period to another, as it happened in history in different centuries. It is also greatly influenced by changing social conditions, the progress and the development of different spheres of life. Each functional style of language is characterized by a specific use of linguistic means, thus establishing its own norms. Writers of each period make a great contribution to the establishment of the system of norms of their period, and also establish their own individual style, which is «a unique combination of linguistic units, expressive means and stylistic devices peculiar to a given writer, which makes the writer’s works or even utterances easily recognizable» [2, p.17]. Naturally, the individual style of a writer will never be completely independent of the literary norms and canons of this period. But adaptations of these canons will always be peculiar and, therefore, distinguishable. The individual style is based on a thorough knowledge of the modern language and allows certain justified deviations from strict norms.

Neutral style. Colloquial style. Bookish style.

Functional styles include neutral, colloquial, and bookish styles. Neutral style designates the background for the implementation of stylistic features of stylistically coloured elements. And it is characterized by the absence of stylistic colouring and the possibility of use in any communicative situation.

Colloquial style differs from neutral in that it is used in everyday communication. This style is divided into upper colloquial, common colloquial and low colloquial. Common colloquial and low colloquial have their own characteristics related to the region, gender, age of the speaker.

The bookish style corresponds to public speech and covers scientific, official, journalistic (newspaper), oratorical and poetic styles.

However, this division into styles cannot be equated to the division into oral and written language, since neutral, colloquial and bookish styles can be used both in oral and written languages.

Belles-letters style.

According to I. V. Arnold each literary work is an example of the author's individual style and she rejects the existence of the belles-letters style. However, according to I. R. Galperin, the belles-letters style is a term that generalizes three substyles: the language style of poetry, the language style of emotive prose and the language style of drama.

These substyles share some common features:

1. Aesthetic-cognitive function (a function aimed at a process that provides a gradual unfolding of the idea to the reader and causes a sense of pleasure that the reader experiences).
2. Definite linguistic features (genuine imagery, achieved by specific linguistic devices; the   use   of   words   in   different   meanings, influenced   by   the   lexical environment; a distinctive individual selection of vocabulary and syntax).

Nevertheless, the three substyles also have their own distinctive features which differentiate them from each other.

The language of poetry is characterized by its order, which is based mainly on the rhythmic and phonetic arrangement of utterances. The rhythmic aspect causes syntactic and semantic features. There are certain limitations that lead to brevity of expression and new, unexpected images.

In emotive prose, imagery is not as extensive as in poetry. Emotional prose is characterized by a combination of the literary version of the language, in words and in syntax, with the spoken version. In emotive prose, unlike poetry, there are always two forms of communication - a monologue and a dialogue.  Emotive prose allows the use of elements from other styles. But all these styles are transformed in certain ways under the influence of emotive prose.

The language of drama is mostly a dialogue, in which the author's speech is almost excluded, except for the playwright's remarks. But the language of the characters follows the norms of the literary language of the given period.

Publicistic style.

The publicistic style of the language appeared in the 18th century. Unlike other styles, it has two colloquial varieties, namely the oratorical substyle and the radio and television commentary. The other two substyles are essays (moral, philosophical, literary) and journalistic articles (political, social, economic). The main goal of the publicistic style is to have a deep and lasting influence on public opinion, to convince the reader or listener that the interpretation of events proposed by the author is the only correct one. The author forces the reader to accept his point of view not only with the help of logical arguments, but also through emotional influence. The style is characterized by a consistent and logical syntactic structure, with an extended system of connectives and careful division into paragraphs. Its emotional appeal is achieved through the use of words with emotional meaning, but the stylistic techniques are not fresh or authentic. Usually the leading feature is brevity of expression.

The oratorical style is an oral substyle of the journalistic style. Direct contact with the listeners allows to combine syntactic, lexical and phonetic features of both written and oral varieties of the language.  The features of this style are: direct appeal to listeners; some contractions; the use of colloquial words. The speaker can often use repetitions for listeners to memorize the main points of his speech. The speaker often uses simple expressions and metaphors to facilitate the understanding of speech.

The essay differs from other substyles by such characteristics as brevity of expression; the presence of the author, a wide use of conjunctions and emotionally coloured words.

The language of journalistic articles is defined by the subject and by the kind of newspaper, magazine.

Newspaper style.

Newspaper style is a system of interrelated and interdependent lexical, grammatical and phraseological means, the purpose of which is to inform and interest the reader, as well as to give him an assessment of the published information. Information in an English newspaper is transmitted through brief news; press reports; articles with purely informational character; advertisements and announcements. The information in the newspaper is usually presented in a concise and accessible form, which leads to the use of standard syntactic templates and lexical stamps. Ordinary verbs in the newspaper language are often replaced by template phrases that give the impression of smoothness. Longer phrases are used instead of short words. Along with traditional information materials, the newspaper publishes editorials.

The main purpose of the newspaper is to influence public opinion on various issues. The way how the author evaluates the news can be traced in the choice and method of news presentation, in the use of specific vocabulary and syntactic constructions. The main means of interpretation and evaluation is a newspaper article and an editorial, the style of which is close to journalistic, as well as ads that have their own characteristics and make up a special litter within the newspaper style. An editorial is characterized by a subjective attitude to presented facts. This goal determines the choice of language elements that are mostly emotionally coloured.

Scientific and official styles.

In the scientific style, the main aim is to create an objective picture of a state or phenomenon. Therefore, the scientific style is characterized by objectivity, accuracy, lack of emotionality and individuality. The scientific style is characterized by the presence of a logical connection between statements due to the widespread use of conjunctions and connectives; the use of special words – terms; the presence of speech stamps and standard phrases; the use of quotations and references that have a certain structure; frequent use of footnotes; lack of emotionality and subjectivism; the use of passive constructions.

The official style resembles the scientific style, as it also is characterized by existence of objectivity, impartiality and lack of emotionality. Moreover, the official style consists of the substyles:

1. The language of official documents.
2. The language of legal documents.
3. The language of diplomacy.
4. The language of military documents.

The main aim of the official style is to set out the conditions binding the two parties and to reach an agreement between the two contracting parties.

The most distinctive features of the official style are a special set of clichés, terms and stereotyped phrases; frequent use of abbreviations and symbols; the use of words in their direct dictionary meaning to avoid misinterpretation or ambiguity; specific syntactic arrangement of texts with long, logically constructed sentences, an extensive system of subordinate clauses connected by conjunctions and bundles.

Conclusion.

Each functional style has its own distinctive features and characteristics, methods and uses, situations when these styles may be used. Even though there are styles that are similar in some characteristics to each other, they still differ in their own ways.

The use of a certain style in a necessary situation is an integral part of the life of society. The existence of various functional styles facilitates the life of society by distinguishing between different situations in which the dominance of one style is a necessity.

References:

1. Арнольд И.В. Стилистика. Современный английский язык: Учебник для вузов. − М.: Флинта: Наука, 2002. − 384 с.
2. Гальперин И.Р. English Stylistics: Учебник для вузов. − М.: URSS, 2010. − 331 c.
3. Знаменская Т.А. Стилистика английского языка. Основы курса − М., 2004. − 343 с.