The style of official docs (diplomatic and legal docs)

I.R. Galperin’s classification of substyles of the official documents style includes

-diplomatic documents,

-business documents,

-legal documents, and

-military documents.

Y.M. Skrebnev adds here personal documents (certificates, diplomas, etc.)

The main aim of this type of communication is to reach an agreement and to state the conditions binding two parties.

The objective, concrete, unemotional and impersonal, the style of official documents presupposes:

 - special compositional design (coded graphical layout, clear subdivision into units of information, logical arrangement of these units);

 -prevalence of stylistically neutral (used in direct meaning) and bookish vocabulary;

 -the use of terminology and officialese vocabulary (cliches, opening and conclusive phrases);

 -the use of conventional and archaic forms and words;

 -the use of foreign words (especially Latin and French);

-the encoded character of the language reflected in the use of abbreviations, contractions, conventional symbols, e.g. M.P. , Ltd (limited), $;

-absence of tropes and evaluative or emotionally coloured vocabulary;

 -a general syntactical mode of combining several pronouncements into one sentence;

-an accurate use of punctuation, etc.

To the style of diplomatic doc-s belong nearly 60 varieties: agreements, conventions, declarations, protocols, memoranda, acts, regulations, amendments, etc.

Traits of diplomatic docs: 1.The use of special terms. 2.The use of non-assimilated borrowings, mainly from Latin and French (e.g. status quo, force majeure, persona non grata, etc). 3. Frequent numbering of units. 4. A lot of obsolete and archaic words (e.g. hereto, thereon, whereof, whereupon) - very conservative style. 5. Syntax - predominance of simple, extended sentences and complex sentences, the abundance of homogeneous members.

Language of lawis peculiar and in most cases archaic. Whoever composes a legal document must ensure that it says exactly what he wants it to say and gives no opportunity for misinterpretation. Of all language styles this one is the least communicative.

· Not spontaneous but is “copied from the books” with established formulas.

· Very long sentences.

· Usually no punctuation marks are used mostly as legal documents are composed for reading. One more reason to prevent possible forgery by changing the places of punc-n marks.

· Lexically legal docs contain many archaisms, borrowings from French and Latin which add a touch of formality.

· Complete major sentences mostly in the form of statements.

But the integrating features of all substyles:

- conventionality of expression

- absence of any emotiveness

- the encoded character of language symbols

- a general syntactical mode of combining several pronouncements into one sentence

The belles-lettres style (emotive prose)

The belles-lettres style is a generic term for 3 substyles:

1. The language of poetry, or simply verse.

2. Emotive prose, or the language of fiction.

3. The language of the drama.

All of them perform the common aesthetico-cognitive function.

In spite of the diversity of genres, their common linguistic features are:

- Genuine imagery, achieved by linguistic devices.

-The use of words in contextual and very often in more than one dictionary meaning, greatly influenced by the lexical environment.

- A vocabulary which will reflect the author’s personal evaluation of things or phenomena.

- A peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax, a kind of lexical and syntactical idiosyncrasy.

-The introduction of the typical features of colloquial language to a full degree (in plays) or a lesser one (in emotive prose) or a slight degree, if any (in poems).

One of the most distinctive properties of the belles-lettres style is its being individual in essence.

Emotive prose - is sometimes termed fiction. The substyle of emotive prose possesses all the generic features pointed out above, but

· imagery is not so rich, as in poetry,

· the number of words with contextual meaning is not as high as in poetry,

· the peculiarity of the authors style is not so noticeable.

Emotive prose substyle is combination of the spoken and written varieties of the language, since there are always two forms of speech present — monologue (usually the author's speech) and dialogue (the speech of characters). The language of the author is expected to conform to the literary norms while the language of a character will rather present a stylised version of live oral discourse. It is necessary to stress that the colloquial language in the works of most writers is not an authentic reproduction of the natural speech of living people; it has been made "literaturelike", but still there always remain certain elements deliberately chosen so as to characterise the person himself.

The belles-lettres style (drama)

The belles-lettres style is a generic term for 3 substyles:

1. The language of poetry, or simply verse.

2. Emotive prose, or the language of fiction.

3. The language of the drama.

All of them perform the common aesthetico-cognitive function.

In spite of the diversity of genres, their common linguistic features are:

- Genuine imagery, achieved by linguistic devices.

-The use of words in contextual and very often in more than one dictionary meaning, greatly influenced by the lexical environment.

- A vocabulary which will reflect the author’s personal evaluation of things or phenomena.

- A peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax, a kind of lexical and syntactical idiosyncrasy.

-The introduction of the typical features of colloquial language to a full degree (in plays) or a lesser one (in emotive prose) or a slight degree, if any (in poems).

One of the most distinctive properties of the belles-lettres style is its being individual in essence.

The language of plays is entirely dialogue or polylogue. The author’s speech is almost entirely excluded except for the playwright’s remarks and stage directions. The lang of the char-s is always purposeful, or stylized. As words are to be spoken out in front of a large mass of people with differing cultural background, the playwright chooses thewords easily perceived and understood by everyone present. The stylization of colloquial language in drama is also revealed in the redundancy of information. The character’s utterances are generally much longer than in ordinary conversation. While the real spoken language tends to curtail utterances, sometimes simplifying the syntax to fragments of sentences. Besides, in lively conversation, even a prolonged utterance is interspersed with the interlocutor’s ‘signals of attention’ (e.g. yes, yeah, oh). In plays these ‘signals of attention’ are irrelevant and therefore are done away with. Further, the speech of the characters – unlike in real life – is never interrupted spontaneously. Dialogue in plays gradually flows into a monologue.

Therefore, sometimes the audience listens to a series of monologues still within the framework of a dialogue. The use of a succession of questions so much typical of drama.

The colloquial style

The term ‘colloquial speech’ is applied by researchers to careless, unconventional, free-and-easy everyday speech of only those who are well educated and can speak 'correct' literary English perfectly well, whenever it is necessary.

It exists in written and spoken varieties: dialogue, monologue, personal letters, diaries, various notes, etc.

The function of the colloquial style is to render the specificity of everyday conversation and informal speech.

It also penetrates other speech varieties (e.g. the belles-lettres works, journalistic articles, etc.) to realistically reproduce the typical features of the colloquial speech.

The specific features of the colloquial language are:

1) the spontaneous character of communication;

2) the private character of communication;

3) face-to-faceness or immediacy.

These features are reflected in the following peculiarities:

*Prefabrication: has a great amount of ready-made formulae and clichés or stereotyped units.

*Creativity: E.A. Zemskaya concludes that the colloquial system displays a greater freedom of choice and creation than do literary spheres.

*Compression:

The colloquial speech is usually economical and laconic:

-contracted forms, abbreviations and clipped words

-words of broad semantics with the meaning specified by the situation (e.g. do, get, fix, nice, some, one).

– extensive use of phrasal verbs (e.g. let smb down, put up with);

– simplicity of syntax.

Сolloquial sentences are seldom long and practically never elaborately structured.

Emphatic intonation as a powerful semantic and stylistic instrument capable to render subtle nuances of thought and feeling.

Vocabulary is a noticeable aspect of the colloquial style. It may be subdivided into:

a) literary,

b) familiar, and

c) low colloquial layers.