The Style of Official documents:

 

a) business documents;

b) legal documents;

c) the language of diplomacy;

d) military documents.

Prof. Galperin differs from many other scholars in his views on functional styles because he includes in his classification only the written variety of the language. In his opinion style is the result of creative activity of the writer who consciously and deliberately selects language means that create style. Colloquial speech, according to him, by its very nature will not lend itself to careful selection of linguistic features and there is no stylistic intention expressed on the part of the speaker. At the same time his classification contains such varieties of publicist style as oratory and speeches. What he actually means is probably not so much the spoken variety of the language but spontaneous colloquial speech, a viewpoint which nevertheless seems to give ground for debate. As we pointed out in sections two and three of this chapter individual speech, oral variety included, is always marked by stylistic features that show the speaker's educational, social and professional background. Moreover we always assume some socially determined role and consciously choose appropriate language means to perform it and achieve the aim of communication.

Scholars' views vary on some other items of this classification. There is no unanimity about the belles-lettres style. In fact Galperin's position is not shared by the majority. This notion comes under criticism because it seems rather artificial especially in reference to modern prose. It is certainly true that many works of fiction may contain emotionally coloured passages of emotive writing that are marked by special image-creating devices, such as tropes and figures of speech. These are typically found in the author's narrative, lyrical digressions, expositions, descriptions of nature or reflections on the characters' emotional or mental state.

The other classification was given by M. D. Kuz netzov and Y. M. Skrebnev. They distinguished:

1. Literary or Bookish Style:

a) publicist style;

b) scientific (technological) style;

c) official documents.

2. Colloquial  Style:

a) literary colloquial style;

b) familiar colloquial style.

As can be seen from this classification, both poetry and imaginative prose have not been included (as non-homogeneous objects) although the book is supplied with a chapter on versification.

Next comes the well-known work by I. V. Arnold «Stylistics of Modern English» (decoding stylistics) published in 1973 and revised in 1981. Speaking of functional styles, Arnold starts with the a kind of abstract notion termed 'neutral style'. It has no distinctive features and its function is to provide a standard background for the other styles. The other 'real' styles can be broadly divided into two groups according to the scholar's approach: different varieties of colloquial styles and several types of literary bookish styles.

1. Colloquial Styles:

a) literary colloquial;

b) familiar colloquial;

c) common colloquial.

2. Literary Bookish Styles:

a) scientific;

b) official documents;

c) publicist (newspaper);

d) oratorical;

e) poetic.

This system presents an accurate description of the many social and extra-linguistic factors that influence the choice of specific language for a definite communicative purpose. At the same time the inclusion of neutral style in this classification seems rather odd since unlike the others it's non-existent in individual use and should probably be associated only with the structure of the language.

One of the relatively recent books on stylistics is the handbook by A. N. Morokhovsky and his co-authors O. P. Vorobyova, N. I. Lik-nosherst and Z. V. Timoshenko «Stylistics of the English language» published in Kiev in 1984. In the final chapter of the book «Stylistic Differentiation of Modern English» a concise but exhaustive review of factors that should be taken into account in treating the problem of functional styles is presented. The book suggests the following style classes:

Official business style.