Classification of Functional Styles of the English Language

The Belles - Lettres Functional Style.

a) poetry;

b) emotive prose;

c) drama;

3. Publicistic Functional Style,

a) oratory;

b) essays;

c) articles in newspapers and

magazines;

The Official Documents Functional Style.

a) diplomatic documents;

b) business letters;

c) military documents;

d) legal documents;

Scientific prose

a) humanization sciences.

b) “exact” sciences.

c) popular scientific prose.

2.The Belles-lettres Style

Aesthetic function is the main function of the belles-lettres style. Other functions: educational, informational, hedonistic (entertaining), evaluative. Stylistic peculiarities of the belles-lettres style: imagery, unity and indivisibility of artistic form and contents, completeness and integrity (hierarchy and systematic interaction of different levels of the belles-lettres text), artistic imagery produced by speech concreteness, stylistic integrity and multi-stylistic variation, (introduction of elements of other styles, e.g. of the colloquial style in the aesthetic function into the belles-lettres style), emotionality and evaluation, emphasis, and uniqueness. Sub-styles of the belles-lettres style: poetry, prose, drama. Poetic genres: ballad, ode, pastoral, sonnet, elegy, limerick, epigram, etc. Genres in prose: a story, a short story, a novel, etc. Genres in drama: comedy, tragedy, drama, dramatic monologue, dramatic dialogue. Stylistic difference of texts belonging to various sub-styles and genres, literary trends, artistic methods, (romanticism, realism, sentimentalism, etc.), displaying different types of presentation (narration, description), points of view of the speaker, (“I-speaking”, fairy-tale speaking), topics, ideas, compositional arrangements, systems of imagery, the authors’ ideostyles, presence or absence of stylization. Language means of the belles-lettres style:

• phonetic means - sound reiteration, onomatopoeia (sound imitation), alliteration, euphony, consonance, dissonance. Rhyme, rhythm and metre in poetry, the notion of rhythm in prose;
• vocabulary – priority of concrete words as ‘artistic speech concretization ’, unlimited choice of vocabulary (including non-literary means, jargon and slang words), multi-stylistic character, wealth of synonyms and variety of vocabulary, developed polysemy, no limits in the use of words, which belong to different functional stylistic groups of vocabulary, stylistic resources of ‘combinatory semantics” of language units, normative and irregular combinatory patterns, decorative and other functions of phraseology, decomposition of phraseology, rich, genuine imagery, the use of figures of speech or lexical stylistic devices, as a unique textual system;
• grammatical means of the language: in morphology a variety and wealth of stylistic effects of morphological forms and categories ‘for expressing ‘artistic speech concretization’ (diesis, specific use of aspect and temporal meanings of the verb, ‘verbal speech and plot development’ (increase in the role and currency of the verb, special use of morphological categories of number, case, degrees of comparison for emphatic and emotive purposes; in syntax a variety and wealth of syntactical constructions, colloquial speech stylization). Means of expressive syntax: inversion, parallelism, antithesis, parcellation, gradation, detachment, different models of author and character speech presentation, different models of homogeneous secondary parts of the sentence arrangement with the priority of double and triple patterns;
• compositional textual devices (three-part compositional canon – introduction, the main part and the ending with a more complex model of prologue and epilogue), deviations from the canon and their stylistic importance, the plot development the exposition, gradation, the climax and the outcome (the denouement), compositional peculiarities of a poetic text - rigidly fixed dimensions of textual arrangement (the fixed number of feet, lines, regular accentual models of the foot and line arrangement, the length and arrangement of a stanza, peculiar models of stanza and text arrangement, patterned rhyme, metre and syntax constructions), extensive use of foregrounding (coupling, antithesis, convergence, the effect of deceived expectancy), the effect of replenished expectancy, parallelism, irony, hyperbole as compositional devices;
• the system of stylistic devices: systemic use of imagery - textual, developed and simple non-developed metaphors, metonymies, epithets, similes, hyperboles, litotes, puns, oxymorons, zeugmas, different in form contact and distant repetitions (ordinary, anaphora, epiphora, framing, anadiplosis, chain, refrain) Intensification of the total aesthetic impact of the language means of the text.

Scientific Style

The main function of the scientific style is rational cognition and linguistic presentation of the dynamics of thinking.

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). 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.

4.Publicist Style (Journalese)

The major functions of the publicist style is social influence and public opinion manipulation; informative function. Additional functions are propaganda, popularization, education, organization, analysis and criticism, hedonism (entertainment). Stylistic features of the publicist style are interchange of standard and expressiveness, explicit evaluation, affective, impressive character, stylistic effects of "novelty", advertising, mass, group social orientation, factography (documentary precision, abundance of statistics, toponymic and proper names, factual data), neutral or formal manner of presentation, generalization, the use of arguments, multi-stylistic character.

Publicistic style and other functional styles. Publicist style as a sphere of intersection with the style of fiction / essay, sketch, lampoon, satirical article/ and scientific style /commentary, review/. Elements of conversational and official styles. Substyles and genres: publicist style proper /lampoons, articles, essays, sketches, travelogues, memoirs/, political propaganda /slogans, leaflets, proclamations/, journalese /, newspapers style - editorial (leader) article, brief news, or news columns, report, interview, reportage…/, oratory /speeches, parliamentary debates, TV discussions…/ TV and radio journalese, publicist cinematography (documentary, news-reel, etc.). New publicist genres: talk-show, reality-show, role-play show, game-show, debates, TV poll, TV commentary, new types of information programs. Inner differentiation of the publicist style and correlation of functional relevance of its different variations and genres.

5.Newspaper Style.

Graphic Means of the newspaper style: wide use of graphic means - change of prints, word-arts, italics, various graphic symbols (asterisks, etc.) used for the sake of text limitation as well as elements of compositional arrangement such as columns, titles, subtitles, parts and paragraphs.

Language Means of publicist style:

• vocabulary: priority of neutral and bookish vocabulary, wide use of language means to actualize chronotop (proper and geographical names, \abundance of statistics, toponymic and proper names, facts and data), means of evaluation, neologisms, social political terminology, a great number of loan-words and international words, use words and word-combinations of other styles (especially, conversational), against the general background of the bookish style vocabulary, including terminology as well as means of imagery to increase expressiveness / trite metaphors, metonymies, personification, metaphorical paraphrases, metaphorical use of terminology/, newspaper terms: newspaper vocabulary and clichés (journalese and bookish), decomposition of phraseological units. Word-building: loan suffixes and prefixes as well as combination of words;
• grammatical means: in morphology the use of the singular number of nouns in their collective meaning, plural number for the definition of generalization, wide use of the superlative degree of adjectives in order to reveal expressiveness as well as the use of adjectives-coloratives, substantiation and evaluation of the use of numerals, adjectives and participles. Average sentence length (9-11words) and average degree of complexity in the sentence structure. Wide use of declarative sentences. The use of questions, exclamatory sentences for the sake of expressiveness. Means of expressive syntax: inversions, parallelism, antithesis, parcellation, gradation, isolation, different types of the author's words presentation and conversational constructions, different patterns in the use of homogeneous parts of the sentence - double, three-element and multi-element;
• compositional and textual means: canonized three-part structure of publicist texts, the principle of “pyramid” and its effects in the composition of modern newspaper text, the use of compositional (foregrounding) devices.

6.Official Style. /The Style of Official Documents/

Regulative function is 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 are 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: temple (pattern) text composition, speech standard and stereotyped ways of expression and arrangement of the language means (clichés, 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:

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