The Problem of Colloquial Style

I. Galperin denies the existence of this functional style. He thinks that functional style can be singled out in the written variety of language. He defines the style as the result of a deliberate careful selection of language means which in their correlation constitute this style.

Maltzev thinks that style is a choice but this choice is very often done unconsciously, spontaneously He thinks that the main aim of functional style is to facilitate a communication in a certain sphere of discourse. But the rigid lay outs of business and official letters practically exclude the possibility of deliberate, careful selection. One more example the compression in the newspapers headlines where there is a tendency to abbreviate language.

There's a difference in Galperin's theory. One of the substyles of the publicistic style is oratory which is its oral subdivision. Kuznetz and Skrebnev give the definitions of bookish and colloquial styles. The bookish style is a style of a highly polished nature that reflects the norm of the national literary language. The bookish style may be used not only in the written speech but in oral, official talk.

Colloquial style is the type of speech which is used in situation that allows certain deviations from the rigid pattern of literary speech used not only in a private conversation, but also in private correspondence. So the style is applicable both to the written and oral varieties of the terms "colloquial" and "bookish" don't exactly correspond to the oral and written forms of speech. Maltzev suggests terms "formal" and "informal" and states that colloquial style is the part of informal variety of English which is used orally in conversation. Now there is one more type of communication ICQ and it a type of colloquial communication in written contracted form and new form is the Internet Chats.

 

The Belles - Lettres Style, its Substyles and its Peculiarities

The term "Belles - lettres" is generic for 3 substyles:

- poetry;

- emotive prose;

- drama;

The Belles-lettres style has its own specific function which is double -phoned. Besides, informing the reader, it impresses the reader aesthetically.

Its function is aesthetico - cognitive, cognitive on the one hand and receiving pleasure on the other.

The means of this functional style are:

- genuine imaginative means and SDs;

- the use of words in its contextual meaning;

- the individual choice of vocabulary which reflects the author's personal evaluation;

- a peculiar individual selection of syntax;

- the introduction of elements of other styles;

Poetry. Peculiarities - rhythm and rhyme. As a SD rhythm is a combination of the ideal metrical scheme and its variations governed by the standard.

Emotive prose. Emotive prose is a combination of literary variant of the language and colloquial, which is presented by the speech of the characters which is stylized that means it has been made "literature like" and some elements of conversational English were made use of. Emotive prose allows the use of elements of other styles but the author changes them and fulfils a certain function. SDs used: in emotive prose style are represented speech, detached constructions, gap - sentence link.

Drama - the language of plays mainly consists of dialogues. The author's speech is in the form of stage remarks. Any presentation of a play is an aesthetic procedure. The language of a play has the following peculiarities:

- it is stylized (retains the modus of literary English);

- it presents the variety of spoken language;

- it has redundancy of information caused by necessity to enlarge the utterance;

- monologue is never interrupted;

- character's utterances are much longer than in ordinary conversation;

 

The Pubicistic Style, its Substyles, and their Peculiarities

The Pubicistic Style treats certain political, social, economic, cultural problems. The aim of this style is to form public opinion, to convince the reader or the listener.

Substyles: The oratory essays, journalistic articles, radio and TV commentary.

Oratory. It makes use of a great hummber of expressive means to arouse and keep the public's interest: repetition, gradation, antithesis, rhetorical questions, emotive words, elements of colloquial speech.

Radio and TV commentary is less impersonal and more expressive and emotional. Some TV programes present official style (new coverage) some present colloquial style (DOM 2).

The essay is very subjective and the most colloquial of the all substyles of the publicistic style. It makes use of expressive means and tropes.

The journalistic articles are impersonal.

The Newspaper FS, its Ssubstyles and their Peculiarities

To understand the language peculiarities of English newspaper style it will be sufficient to analyse the following basic newspaper features:

1) brief news items;

2) advertisements and announcements;

3) headlines;

Brief items: its function is to inform the reader. It states only facts without giving comments. The vocabulary used is neutral and common literary. Specific features are:

a) special political and economic terms;

b) non-term political vocabulary;

c) newspaper clichms;

d) abbreviations;

e) neologisms.

Headlines. The main function is to inform the reader briefly of what the news is to follow about. Syntactically headlines are very short sentences, interrogative sentences, nominative sentences, elliptical sentences, sentences with articles omitted, headlines including direct speech.

Advertisements and announcements. The function of advertisements and announcements is to inform the reader. There are two types of them: classified and non-classified. In classified the information is arranged according to the subject matter: births, marriages, deaths, business offers, personal etc.

 

The Scientific Prose Style, its Substyles and their Peculiarities

The style of scientific prose has 3 subdivisions:

1) the style of humanitarian sciences;

2) the style of "exact" sciences;

3) the style of popular scientific prose.

Its function is to work out and ground theoretically objective knowledge about reality.

The aim of communication is to create new concepts, disclose the international laws of existence.

The peculiarities are: objectiveness; logical coherence, impersonality, unemotional character, exactness.

Vocabulary. The use of terms and words used to express a specialized concept in a given branch of science. Terms are not necessarily. They may be borrowed from ordinary language but are given a new meaning.

The scientific prose style consists mostly of ordinary words which tend to be used in their primary logical meaning. Emotiveness depends on the subject of investigation but mostly scientific prose style is unemotional.

Grammar: The logical presentation and unity of thought manifests itself in a developed feature of scientific syntax is the use of established patterns.

- postulatory;

- formulative;

- argumentative;

The impersonal and objective character of scientific prose style is revealed in the frequent use of passive constructions, impersonal sentences. Personal sentences are more frequently used in exact sciences. In humanities we may come across constructions but few.

The parallel arrangement of sentences contributes to emphasizing certain points in the utterance.

Some features of the style in the text are:

- use of quotations and references;

- use of foot-notes helps to preserve the logical coherence of ideas.

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