Lesson two stylistics Functional Styles in Modern English

“Functional style is a system of linguistic means peculiar to a certain sphere of communication”. (Ю.М.Скребнев)

“Functional style of speech is a special social differentiation of speech, corresponding to a definite sphere of activity, having a special stylistic coloring, determined by the aims and a corresponding sphere of communication”. (М.Н.Кожина)

According to I.R.Galperin: 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 recognized by one or more leading features which are especially conspicuous (заметный, бросающийся в глаза). For instance the use of special terminology is a lexical characteristics of the style of scientific prose.

FSs appear mainly in the literary standard of a language.

The Standard English literary language in the course of its development has fallen into several subsystems each of which has acquired its own peculiarities which are typical of the given functional style. Each FS is subdivided into a number of substyles.

1. The belles-lettres style [ˌbel'letrə], ['bel'letr] художественная литература,

беллетристика:

a) Poetry

b) Emotive prose эмоциональная.экспрессивная проза

c) Drama

2. Publicistic style

a) Oratory and speeches речь, спич

b) The essay очерк, эссе

c) Articles

3. Newspaper style

a) Brief news items Краткие новостные сообщения

b) The headlines заголовок

c) Advertisements and announcements реклама и объявления

d) The editorial передовая статья

4. Scientific prose style

a) Exact sciences

b) Humanitarian sciences;

c) Popular- science prose;

5. The style of official documents

a) Diplomatic documents;

b) Business letters;

c) Military documents;

d) Legal documents;

Stylistic functions:

1. Communicative – i.e. communicating some primary information. (Language is a means of communication.)

e.g. The former method allows direct interpretation.

2. Conative – expressing one’s intention, urging, inducing people to some kind of action.

e.g. “Inform us of your intentions!”

3. Phatic – attracting smb’s attention to make the situation natural, establishing and maintaining communication. e.g. “I say, you know that …”

4. Aesthetic – appealing to people’s heart, deriving the effect of beauty and emotional response. e.g. “Tired with all these, for restful death I cry!”

5. Expressive/Emotive  (expression of moods, emotions).

I.V. Arnold

Styles Functions	Commu-nicative	Conative	Emotive	Phatic	Aesthetic
Oratory Colloquial Poetic Publicist and newspaper Official Scientific	+ + + + + +	+ + - + + -	+ + + + - -	+ + - - - -	+ - + - - -