The notion of Style

A functional style of a language is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication. Each style is recognized by the language community as an independent whole. One system of language means is set against other systems, having different aims, and consequently, different choice and arrangement of language means. These systems exist within the national language.

Some points of this definition must be cleared up.

The choice of language means within a functional style is not determined by the wish of the speaker to make his speech expressive, but it fully depends on the estimation of the situation. It depends:

• on the character of the situation (i.e. whether it is formal or intimate, serious or free and easy, etc.);

• on the relationship between the speaker and the addressee (i.e. whether they are close friends or mere acquaintances, or people who have, never before met each other); it also depends on the number of people the speaker addresses to;

• on the aim of communication (example: business or scientific information, or exchange of opinions, or exchange of emotions, etc.) Thus, the notion of "situation" consists of 3 points: the aim of communication, the addressee and the circumstances in which the act of communication occurs. The estimation of the situation occurs very quickly, instantly, and a person speaks the kind of language, which he considers proper under the circumstances. Another person would use the same manner of speaking under the same circumstances.

1. One must not confuse a functional style and an individual style, which is also a system of language means within the national language. A person may have a rich or poor vocabulary, may be fond of certain syntactical patterns, may use bookish or slang words, may speak carefully or slowly, etc. It depends on his education, social and family background, profession, character and other factors. Individual peculiarities of speech (idiolect) are not functional style, as they are not determined by a definite aim or recognized by the language community.

2. Each functional style makes use of a group of language means the interrelation of which is peculiar to the given style. It is the coordination of the language means themselves.

3. Each style is a stable system at the given stage in the development of the language, but it changes from one period to another. Therefore style of language is a historical category. Example: The style of emotive prose in the English language actually began functioning as an independent style in the second half of the 16th century; the newspaper style budded of from the publicistic style, and so on. There are also changes within styles.

The classification of functional styles is a most complicated problem, as there exists an enormous number of different kinds of speech depending on the situation, and boundaries between them are blurred.

All the styles of language are traditionally divided into 2 groups: bookish (or written, formal, non-casual) and colloquial (spoken, casual, non-formal). The terms "bookish" (written) and "colloquial" (spoken) are misleading, as the so-called written (bookish) English is not restricted to books. It is a style used by educated people in their business and social activities in the oral form. Spoken (colloquial) is used in writing, e. g. in informal letters and diaries.

Most linguists accept this division. Subdivision within each of the two groups is different with different scholars. The most typical are the following:

Bookish (formal) Colloquial (casual)

a) scientific prose 1. literary colloquial

b) official documents 2. Familiar colloquial (sub standard)

c) publicistic 3. Low colloquial (non standard).

d) (newspaper)

e) (belles-lettres).

The disputable points are the belles-lettres and the newspaper style. Some scholars consider that the language of belles-lettres can not be considered a functional style, others insist that it should be included into the system of functional styles.

Boundaries between different styles are not clearly observed. It is difficult to draw a line of demarcation between the publicistic and newspaper styles, or publicistic and scientific prose style used in humanitarian science, poetry and emotive prose, familiar colloquial and low colloquial, etc.

Professor Galperin admits the existence of the colloquial style, but he doesn't include it into his classification of functional styles on the ground that it has not yet been properly subjected to scientific analysis. He confines his attention to written language because "only written communication can be completely unambiguous". He distinguishes:

1. The belles-lettres style:

a) poetry;

b) emotive prose;

с) the drama.

2. The publicistic functional style:

a) oratory (speeches);

b) essays;

c) articles in newspapers and journals.

3. The newspaper functional style:

a) brief news items;

b) advertisements and announcements;

c) headlines;

d) the editorial.

4. The scientific prose functional style:

a) the style of humanities;

b) the style of sciences;

5. The style of official documents:

a) the style of diplomatic documents;

b) the style of business documents;

c) the style of legal documents;

d) the style of military documents.

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