THE STYLE OF OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

I.R. Galperin’s classification of substyles of the official documents style includes

-diplomatic documents,

-business documents,

-legal documents, and

-military documents.

Y.M. Skrebnev adds here personal documents (certificates, diplomas, etc.)

The main aim of this type of communication is to reach an agreement and to state the conditions binding two parties (the state and the citizen, the citizen and the citizen, the state and the state) in an undertaking.

Generally objective, concrete, unemotional and impersonal, the style of official documents presupposes

-stylistically neutral and bookish vocabulary;

-the use of terminology and officialese vocabulary (cliches, opening and conclusive phrases);

-the use of foreign words (especially Latin and French);

-absence of tropes and emotionally coloured vocabulary;

The Style of Diplomatic Documents

nearly 60 varieties: treaties, agreements, conventions, declarations, protocols, memoranda, acts, engagements, etc.

they consist of

-the preamble or preliminary recitals, setting out the names of parties (Heads of State, States or Governments), the purpose for which the document was concluded;

- the body;

- the formal (or final) clauses: the date of the documents, the mode of acceptance, opening of the documents for signature, entry into force, duration, etc;

-formal acknowledgment of signature;

-signature by the plenipotentiaries.

Among other traits can be named:

- special terms;

- non-assimilated borrowings, mainly from Latin and French (status quo, force majeure, etc).

-Frequent numbering of units.

- archaic words (whereof, whereupon)

-simple extended sentences

The Style of Legal Documents

the least communicative style. legal documents are supposed to say exactly what is meant. They are highly formulaic, accept no informality or spontaneity, and often contain the precise copying ‘from the book’.

-very long sent- ces

-few punctuation marks

-Capitalization

-many archaisms, borrowings from French and Latin.

- complete major sentences, mostly in the form of statements.

8. THE BELLES-LETTERS STYLE (THE SUBSTYLE OF EMOTIVE PROSE)

The sphere-verbal art. The main function-aesthetico-cognitive, aims at the cognitive process and receiving pleasure.

It is sometimes termed fiction since most of the works reflect fictitious facts, events and characters which have never lived in reality.

The imagery is not so rich as in poetry, the number of words with contextual meaning is not as high as in poetry.

It is always a combination of the spoken and written varieties of the language, in as much as there are always two forms of communication present – monologue (usually the writer’s speech) and dialogue (the speech of the characters).

The language of the author is expected to conform to the literary norms while the language of a character will rather present a stylized version of the colloquial speech.

It is not a pure and authentic reproduction of what might be the natural speech of living people. The colloquial speech is made ‘literature-like’ and the words are purposefully chosen to characterize the personage of a novel, or of a story.

Emotive prose allows the use of elements from other styles as well: newspaper, official, scientific, though they undergo a kind of transformation.

It abounds in all sorts of imagery creating devices: metaphors often turning into symbols, etc.; syntactical patterns all together producing a certain atmosphere; emotionally colored elements all playing on the reader’s emotions.

9. THE BELLES-LETTERS STYLE (THE SUBSTYLE OF DRAMA)

The sphere-verbal art. The main function-aesthetico-cognitive, aims at the cognitive process and receiving pleasure.

The language of plays is entirely dialogue or polylogue.

The author’s speech is almost entirely excluded except for the playwright’s remarks and stage directions.

But the language of the characters is always purposeful, or stylized, i.e. it resembles colloquial language but in no way it is its the exact reproduction, it strives to retain the modus of literary English, unless the playwright has a particular aim which requires the use of non-literary forms and expressions.

As words are to be spoken out in front of a large mass of people with differing cultural background, the playwright chooses the words easily perceived and understood by everyone present.

The stylization of colloquial language in drama is also revealed in the redundancy of information.

The character’s utterances are generally much longer than in ordinary conversation. While the real spoken language tends to curtail utterances, sometimes simplifying the syntax to fragments of sentences.

Besides, in lively conversation, even a prolonged utterance is interspersed with the interlocutor’s ‘signals of attention’ (e.g. yes, yeah, oh). In plays these ‘signals of attention’ are irrelevant and therefore are done away with.

Further, the speech of the characters – unlike in real life – is never interrupted spontaneously.

Dialogue in plays gradually flows into a monologue (a ‘false dialogue’, or ‘monological dialogue’) with the remarks being a kind of linking sentence between the two parts of the monologue.

Therefore, sometimes the audience listens to a series of monologues still within the framework of a dialogue.

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