Functional Styles in Modern English

Functional stylistics. Functional styles of the English languages

Stylistics is a branch of general linguistics. It has mainly with two tasks:

Stylistics – is regarded as a lang-gescience which deals with the results of the act of communication.

There are 2 basic objects of stylistics:

- stylistic devices and figures of speech

- functional styles

- Lexical stylistics – studies functions of direct and figurative meanings, also the way contextual meaning of a word is realized in the text. L.S. deals with various types of connotations – expressive, evaluative, emotive; neologisms, dialectal words and their behavior in the text.

- Grammatical stylistics – is subdivided into morphological and syntactical

Morphological s. views stylistic potential of grammatical categories of different parts of speech. Potential of the number, pronouns…

Syntactical s. studies syntactic, expressive means, word order and word combinations, different types of sentences and types of syntactic connections. Also deals with origin of the text, its division on the paragraphs, dialogs, direct and indirect speech, the connection of the sentences, types of sentences.

- Phonostylistics – phonetical organization of prose and poetic texts. Here are included rhythm, rhythmical structure, rhyme, alliteration, assonance and correlation of the sound form and meaning. Also studies deviation in normative pronunciation.

- Functional S (s. of decoding) – deals with all subdivisions of the language and its possible use (newspaper, colloquial style). Its object - correlation of the message and communicative situation.

- Individual style study –studies the style of the author. It looks for correlations between the creative concepts of the author and the language of his work.

- stylistics of encoding - The shape of the information (message) is coded and the addressee plays the part of decoder of the information which is contained in message. The problems which are connected with adequate reception of the message without any loses (deformation) are the problems of stylistics of encoding.

Stylistics is not equal to linguistics science, such as phonetics, linguistics disciplines – lexicology, morphology, syntax because they are level disciplines as they treat only one linguistic level and stylistics investigates the questions on all the levels and different aspects of the texts in general. The smallest unit of lang-ge is the phoneme. Stylistics must be subdivided into separate, independent branches – stylistic phonetics, Stylistic morphology, Stylistic lexicology, Stylistic syntax

Functional styles (FS) are the subsystems of language, each subsystem having its own peculiar features in what concern vocabulary means, syntactical constructions, and even phonetics. The appearance and existence of FS is connected with the specific conditions of communication in different spheres of human life. FS differ not only by the possibility or impossibility of using some elements but also due to the frequency of their usage. For example, some terms can appear in the colloquial style but the possibility of its appearance is quite different form the possibility to meet it in an example of scientific style.

The classification of FS is a very complicated problem, that is why we will consider ideas of I.V.Arnold and I.R. Galperin, bearing in mind that Galperin treats functional styles as patterns of the written variety of language thus excluding colloquial FS. Both scholars agree that each FS can be recognized by one or more leading features. ButGalperin pays more attention to the coordination of language means and stylistic devices whereas Arnold connects the specific features of each FS with its peculiarities in the sphere of communication.

According to I.R. Galperin, a functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication. A functional style should be regarded as the product of a certain concrete task set by the sender of the message. Functional styles appear mainly in the literary standard of the language. These represent varieties of the abstract invariant and can deviate from the invariant, even breaking away with it.

Each FS is a relatively stable system at the given stage in the development of the literary language, but it changes, and sometimes considerably, from one period to another. Therefore FS is a historical category. Thus, for example in the 17th century it was considered that not all words can be used in poetry, and that a separate poetic style exists. Later, in the 19th century romanticism rejected the norms of poetic style and introduced new vocabulary to poetry. The development of each style is predetermined by the changes in the norms of standard English. It is also greatly influenced by changing social conditions, the progress of science and the development of cultural life.

Every functional style of language is marked by a specific use of language means, thus establishing its own norms which, however, are subordinated to the norm-invariant and which do not violate the general notion of the literary norm. The writers of the given period in the development of the literary language contribute greatly to establishing the system of norms of their period. It is worth noting that the investigations of language norms at a given period are to great extent maintained on works of men of letters. Selection, or deliberate choice of language, and the ways the chosen elements are treated are the main distinctive features of individual style.

Individual style is a unique combination of language units, expressive means and stylistic devices peculiar to a given writer, which makes that writer's works or even utterances easily recognizable. (Galperin, p.17) Naturally, the individual style of a writer will never be entirely independent of the literary norms and canons of the given period. But the adaptations of these canons will always be peculiar and therefore distinguishable. Individual style is based on a thorough knowledge of the contemporary language and allows certain justifiable deviations from the rigorous norms. Individual style requires to be studied in a course of stylistics in so far as it makes use of the potentialities of language means, whatever the characters of these potentialities may be.

       All men of letters have a peculiar individual manner of using language means to achieve the effect they desire. Writers choose language means deliberately. This process should be distinguished from language peculiarities which appear in everyday speech of this or that particular individual (idiolect).

Functional Styles in Modern English

The Notion of Functional Style. Functional style as “having social relevance, functionally determined, displaying inner coherence combination of ways of usage, choice and combination of means of speech communication in the domain of a certain national language, correlated with other ways of expression of the same type, which attain other aims and fulfill other functions in the social communicative experience of the people”\V.V.Vinogradov\.

Functional style as the arrangement of language means in speech ( in the text), built up as the result of the working principles of language means choice and combination in a certain sphere of communication in accordance with the tasks and conditions of communication \ M.N.Kozhina\. The extra-linguistic basis of a functional style, i.e. the tasks and aims of communication in a certain social sphere, determined by the purpose of the correlated form of public thinking, a type of mentality, current in the sphere, typical patterns of contents. Systematic character of a functional style in speech ( functional stylistic correlation of the units on the basis of common communicative purport).

Functional Styles as speech systems. Functional styles as styles of language and speech. The notion of ‘register’ ( similar to that of the notion of style) , as series of situational factors, which determine the use of specific language means \G.Leech\. General classification of functional styles. Linguistic and extra-linguistic factors in the classification of functional styles.

The role of extra-linguistic factors in style studies ( the Prague Linguistic Circle). Style – forming factors of a functional style. Universal, normative-stylistic character of the style-forming factor of a functional style (emotiveness, evaluation, rationality, imagery, logic, exactness) and their difference in accordance with the purport of communication. Functional analysis of the style-forming factors of a functional style \ V. Shneider.