FINALS: I. FUNCTIONAL STYLES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 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. A functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication. A functional style is thus to be regarded as the product of a certain concrete task set by the sender of message. It is the coordination of the language means and stylistic devices which shapes the distinctive features of each style and not the language means or stylistic devices themselves. The notion using English, involves much more than using our knowledge of its linguistic factor. Prof. Galperin differs many scholars in his views on the 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. In the English literary standard we distinguish the following major functional styles: The Belles-Lettres Functional Style a) poetry b) emotive prose c) drama 2. Publicistic Functional Style a) oratory b) essays c) articles in newspapers and magazines 3. The Newspaper Functional Style a) brief news items b) advertisements and announcements c) headlines 4. The Scientific Prose Style a) exact sciences b) humanitarian sciences c) popular-science prose 5. The Official Documents Functional Styles a) diplomatic documents b) business letters c) military documents d) legal documents 1.

TASK: Determine what functional style is being possessed of the following excerpts. 1. A news article about "Gambling in a Culture of Poverty". 2. A science-fiction novel "2007: Space Odyssey" by Arthur C. Clarke. 3. An invitation for a birthday party. 4. Act 3 of "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare. 5. A letter of request asking for a sample of products.

II. THE PROBLEM OF COLLOQUIAL STYLE Functional style can be singled out in the written variety of language. Style is the result of a deliberate careful selection of language means which in their correlation constitute this style. (Galperin) Style is a choice but this choice is very often done unconsciously, spontaneously. The main aim of functional style is to facilitate a communication in a certain sphere of discourse. (Maltzev) Kuznetz and Skrebnev give the definitions of bookish and colloquial style. BOOKISH STYLE is a style of a highly polished nature that reflects the norm of the national literary language. 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 private conversation but also in private correspondence.

TASK: Underline the colloquial expressions. Discuss the meaning of the expressions and what they mean in everyday situations. 1. Sitting here talking, and thinking about stuff, and --- 2. If someone has passed away and everything, and in heaven, then it isnt really ---- 3. Just because somebodys dead, you dont just stop loving them, for Gods sake - especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know theyre alive at all. 4. Stop swearing. All right, name something youd like to be, like a scientist, or a lawyer or something. 5. and Im standing on the edge of some crazy cliff . Taken from J. D. Salingers The Catcher in the Rye.

A. THE LANGUAGE OF BELLES-LETTRES Of all the functional styles of language, the most difficult to define is the belles-lettres style. Franz Kafka defines this style as organised violence done on ordinary speech. The Belles-Lettres has its own specific function which is double-phoned; informing the reader and impresses the reader aesthetically. 1. Aesthetico-cognitive function-a function which aims at the cognitive process, which secures the gradual unfolding of the idea to the reader and at the same time calls forth a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction which a reader experience because he is able to penetrate into the authors idea and to form his own conclusions. Definite linguistic features. The means of this functional style are: Genuine imaginative means and stylistic devices The use of words in its contextual meaning The individual choice of vocabulary which reflects the authors personal evaluation A peculiar individual selection of syntax The introduction of elements of other styles

2.

Poetry Poetry is often regarded as a mystery, and in some respects it is one. No one is quite sure where poetry comes from, no one is quite sure exactly what it is, and no one knows, really, how anyone is able to write it. It is characterized by its orderly form, which is based mainly on the rhythmic and phonetic arrangement of utterances. Task: Read Edwin A. Robinsons Richard Cory. Observe the rhyming of words and its rhythmic aspects (syntax and semantics) through poetry interpretation.

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 means it has been made literature-like and some elements of conversational English were made use of. The substyle of emotive prose has the same common features as have been pointed out for the belles-lettres style in general; but all these features are correlated differently in emotive prose. The imagery is not so rich as it is in poetry; the percentage of words with contextual meaning is not so high as in poetry; the idiosyncrasy of the author is not so clearly discernible. Apart from meter and rhyme, what most of all distinguishes emotive prose from the poetic style is the combination of the literary variant of the language, both in words and syntax, with the colloquial variant. Task: Listen to the speech of the presidents SONA. Take note of the important details, how the speaker delivers his speech and the peculiar use of colloquial constructions.

Drama The language of plays mainly consists of dialogues. Drama is often combined with music and dance: the drama in opera is generally sung throughout; musicals generally include both spoken dialogue and songs; and some forms of drama have incidental music or musical accompaniment underscoring the dialogue. The authors speech is in the form of stage remarks. The language of play has the following peculiarities; It is stylized It presents a variety of spoken language It has redundancy of information caused by necessity to amplify the utterance Monologue is never interrupted Characters utterances are much longer than in ordinary conversation

Task: Read Henrik Ibsens famous play A Dolls House. Observe the following: 1. The style of play 2. The spoken language of characters 3. Observe redundancy of information 4. The relationship of characters in the play

B. THE PUBLISCISTIC STYLE The publicistic style is used in public speeches and printed public works which are addressed to a broad audience and devoted to important social or political events, public problems of cultural or moral character. The aim of publiscistic style is to exert constant and deep influence on public opinion, to convince the reader or the listener that the interpretation given by the writer or the speaker is the only correct one and to force him to accept the point of view expressed in speech, essay or article not merely through logical argumentation but through logical emotional appeal as well. It treats certain political, social, economic and cultural problems. Oratory It is the oral subdivision of publicist style. Persuasion is the most purpose of oratory. Direct contact with the listeners permits a combination of the syntactical, lexical and phonetic peculiarities of both written and spoken language. It makes use of a great number of expressive means to arouse and keep the publics interests: repetition, gradation, antithesis, rhetorical questions, emotive words and elements of colloquial speech.

Essay An essay is generally a short piece of writing written from an author's personal point of view, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of an article and a short story. It is a literary composition of moderate length on philosophical, social, aesthetic or literary subjects. It is very subjective and the most colloquial of all the substyles of the publiscistic style. It never goes deep into the subject, but merely touches the surface. An essay is rather a series of personal and witty comments than a finished argument or a conclusive examination of any matter. In comparison with oratorical style, the essay aims a lasting, hence, at a slower effect. The reader has opportunity to make careful and detailed study both the content of the utterance and its form.

Journalistic Articles This is impersonal. Irrespective of the character of the magazine and the divergence of subject matterwhether it is political, literary, popular-scientific or satirical-all the already mentioned features of publicist style are to be found in any article. The characters of the magazine as well as the subject chosen affect the choice and use of stylistic devices.

Task: Look for an example of a speech or oration, newspaper/magazine article, and an essay. Compare their structure, content, form and emotional appeal to readers. Consider also the subject being emphasized and the purpose of the writers in writing such form.

C. THE NEWSPAPER FUNCTIONAL STYLE Newspaper style was the last of all the styles of written literary English to be recognized as a specific form of writing standing apart from other forms. Thus, English newspaper style may be defined as a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological, and grammatical means which is perceived by a community as separate linguistic unity that serves the purpose of informing and instructing the reader.

http://www.studymode.com/essays/Major-Functional-Styles-Of-English-1592236.html www.durov.com/study/Otvety_po_stilistike.doc http://podelise.ru/docs/70314/index-4718-1.html?page=24 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essay