Style of official documents

S. of official Documents here are included the language of business documents, the language of legal documents, diplomacy, military, the function – to achieve the agreement between contrastive parts; has very strict organization. All the words are used in the dictionary meanings, a large number of abbreviation, terms, cliches.

Official Style. / The Style of Official Documents /. Regulative function as the main one, i.e. the establishment of norms and rules in the sphere of public relations (e.g. the relations of individuals, group – individual relations, the relations of social groups and institutions, etc.). Substyles and genres: the style of law documents / laws, legislative acts, codes, instructions, orders…/, the style official documents / applications, references, protocols, questionnaires, profiles, autobiographies, agreements, contracts…/, the style of diplomatic documents / agreements, pacts, communiqués, note, memoranda, declarations…/.

Considerable inner differentiation, i.e. considerable genre-stylistic distinctions depending on the functional purpose of the text, themes, sphere of use, character of the institution issuing a publication.

Stylistic features: standard, imperative and prescriptive nature, ascertaining as leading method of presentation, precision which does not admit misinterpretation, non-personal character. Specific features of the official style characteristic of all its varieties and genres: templet ( pattern) text composition, speech standard and stereotyped ways of expression and arrangement of the language means (cliches, standard vocabulary). Use of the language means belonging to the style of official documents as negative development in speech culture, especially within the norms of publicist style.

Language means of the style of official documents:

Graphic means: wide use of graphic means - change of the print, italics, the use of graphic delimitation means - various graphic symbols (asterisks, lines, patterns, etc.) which clearly demonstrate text limitation ( columns, division into parts, sections, elements, paragraphs), means of graphic design which reveal the representational form of the templet;

Lexical means: bureaucratic cliches ( words or word-combinations), the use of special terminology to express precision, repetitions, the use of constructions with archaic elements, wide spread of vocabulary units, expressing obligation, absence of subjective emotional appraisal;

Grammatical means: nominal character / predominance of nouns, a great number of nominal prepositions and conjunctions/, wide use of the genitive case, different forms of expressing imperative / verbs with the meaning of obligation, verbs of instruction, prescription, future tense forms, the imperative mood, infinitive and infinitive constructions/, absence of the first and second person presentation and correlated pronouns, the use of collective nouns for the expression of impersonality, different patterns of statement and ascertaining, specific use of aspect and tense forms ( future in conditional sentences, wide use of conditional sentences in connection with the necessity of detailed exposition and proviso, rare use of complex sentences, especially with subordinate sentences of cause because of the absence of the necessity to explicate logical operations of analysis and reasoning;

Compositional devices: the patterned structure of texts of all the genres and substyles, declarative, ascertaining nature, neglect of narration and discussion.

This FS is not homogeneous and is represented by the following substyles or variants:

1)    the language of business documents;

2)    the language of legal documents;

3)    the language of diplomacy;

4)    the language of military documents.

Like other styles of language, this style has a definite communicative aim and its own system of interrelated language and stylistic means. The main aim of this type of communication is to state the conditions binding two parties and to reach agreement between two contracting parties. The most general function of the style of official documents predetermines the peculiarities of the style. The most striking feature is a special system of cliches, terms and set expressions by which each substyle can be easily recognized. Thus in finance we find terms like extra revenue, liability. In diplomacy such phrases as high contracting parties, memorandum, to ratify an agreement are found. In legal language, examples are to deal with a case, a body of judges.

All these varieties use abbreviations, conventional symbols and contractions, for example, M.P. (Member of Parliament), Ltd (Limited), $. Abbreviations are especially abundant in military documents. They are used not only as conventional symbols, but also as signs of military code. Another feature of the style is the use of words in their logical dictionary meaning. There is no room here for the realization of any other meaning here.

Scientific prose style

Scientific style is the style of reporting and conveying serious scientific idea. It is connected with oral and written forms. Here are included seminars, sc. Articles, discussions, written form – monograph, brochures, all kinds of academic publications. The aim is to prove a hypothesis. The use of large number of terms. Clarity of expression. The use of references, logical connection with the previous one, interdependance the speeches is usually produced in the second person – we.

Scientific Style. The main function of the scientific style: rational cognition and linguistic presentation of the dynamics of thinking. Other communicative tasks.

 Inner differentiation and the formation of the sub-styles and genres of the scientific style used in different fields of science, characterized by different manners of scientific presentation. Sub-styles and genres: scientific style proper \ thesis, abstract of thesis, monograph, article, report, abstract of a report...\ popular scientific \ an article, annotations, review, etc.).”Sub-languages” of scientific styles: law, political, medical, economic, technical, computer, linguistic, etc.

Types of presentation: description and argumentation ( deduction, induction).

Different degree of polemics. Popularization of the scientific text. The addressee factor. Peculiarities of scientific communication: planned, prepared delayed in time communication (except for lectures and reports).

Style-forming features: great role of tradition in the use of language means, objective and non-categorical presentation, specific means of expression, a certain extent of emphasis, restrictions in the use of intensification, evaluation, emotional language means, absence of imagery. Language means of the scientific style:

Lexical means - highly specialized scientific terminology, terminological groups, revealing the conceptual systems of the scientific style, the peculiarities of the use of terms in scientific speech, the use of nouns and verbs in abstract meanings, special reference words, scientific phraseology - clichés, stereotyped and hackneyed word combinations and idioms, priority of neutral vocabulary, limitations in the use of emotional- evaluative and expressive vocabulary and phraseology, absence of non-literary vocabulary and phraseology ( slang words, vulgarisms, obscene words),

 peculiarities in word- building (standard suffixes and prefixes, mainly of Greek and Latin origin – tele-, morpho, philo- -ism, etc.), peculiarities in the scarce use of imagery (usually trite and hackneyed, the priority of the functions of intensification and decoration, non-systematic, narrow contextual character, absence of rich associations, schematic and generalized character);

grammatical means: nominal character ( the predominance of nouns over verbs) in the use of parts of speech, the use of prepositional “of-phrases” to substitute the genitive case, transposition of the classes of nouns, wide use of the Passive Voice, Indefinite Tenses, specialization of pronouns in demonstrative and intensification functions, numerous conjunctions revealing the logical order of the text as well as double conjunctions ( not merely... but also, whether ... or both... and, as...as), adverbs of logical connection ;

syntactical means: priority of full, logically correct, regular syntactical models, the syntax of simple sentence in the scientific speech - extensive use of extended two-member sentence, priority in the use of compound sentences, extensive use of secondary predicative constructions (Complex Object, Participial and Gerundial Constructions), wide use of conjunctions and denominative prepositions, concise expression of syntactical connection in word combinations, sentences, groups of sentences, absolute priority of declarative sentences in the use of communicative types of sentences;

composition of scientific text as an explication of the stages of cognition and productive thinking, the usual model is presented by the following scheme - a problem situation, idea, hypothesis, proof, conclusion, compositional speech forms of discussion, argumentation and description, conclusion, types of narration, wide-spread co-referential repetition as a specific method of text development.

Functional restrictions: strong objections to the use of non-literary vocabulary, scarce use of emotional and intensification units of vocabulary and phraseology, and stylistic devices (metaphors, metonymies, etc.), absence of the second person form and corresponding personal pronouns, scarce use of “I-speaking”, limited use of incomplete and non-declarative, and one-member sentences.