Functional styles
Stylistics is a branch of linguistics
concerned with the study of
characteristic choices in use of
language, especially literary language,
as regards sound, form, or vocabulary,
made by different individuals or social
groups in different situations of use.
Functional styles are classified into bookish and
colloquial. The group of bookish styles embraces
the style of official documents, the style of
scientific prose, the newspaper style, the
publicistic style, and the belletristic style. The
group of colloquial styles includes the literary
colloquial (conversational) style, the informal
colloquial style, and substandard speech style.
Each style is exercized in two forms: written and
oral.
The speaker resorts to a certain functional style due to
such extralingual factors:
- the character of the situation in which communication
takes place (official, ceremonial, informal, private or
other);
- the relations between the communications (formal,
official, friendly, hostile, spontaneous);
- the aim of communication (transference of specific
information, emotional attitudes, establishment of
business, etc.);
- oral or written communication.
The style of official documents. This style aims
at establishing, developing and controlling
business relations between individuals and
organizations. Being devoid of expressiveness, it
is fully impersonal, rational and pragmatic. Its
special language forms are rather peculiar.
The style of scientific prose. This style
serves as an instrument for promoting
scientific ideas and exchanging scientific
information among people. It is bookish
and formal as the style of official
documents, that is why both styles have
much in common.
The newspaper style. The basic
communicative function of this style is to
inform people about all kinds of events and
occurrences which may be of some interest
to them. Newspaper materials may be
classified into three groups: brief news
reviews, informational articles, and
advertisement.
The publistic style. This style falls into the
following variants: the oratory style
(speeches, lectures and reports), the style
of radio and TV programs, the style of
essays and journalistic articles.
The belletristic style. This style attracts
linguists most of all because the authors of
books use the whole gamma of expressive
means and stylistic devises while creating
their images. The function of this style is
cognitive-aesthetic. The belletristic style
embraces prose, drama and poetry.
The colloquial style. These styles comply with
the regularities and norms of oral
communication. The vocabulary of the literary
colloquial style comprises neutral, bookish and
literary words, though exotic words and
colloquialisms are no exception. It is devoid of
vulgar, slangy and dialectal lexical units.
THANK YOU
