functional styles
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FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Definition of a functional style Informal style colloquial words slang dialect words Formal style learned words archaisms and historisms poetic diction professional terminology Neutral vocabulary. S OCIOLINGUISTICS. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
FUNCTIONAL STYLES
Definition of a functional style Informal style1. colloquial words2. slang3. dialect words Formal style1. learned words2. archaisms and historisms3. poetic diction4. professional terminology Neutral vocabulary
SOCIOLINGUISTICS
studies variations in language according to uses depending on social, educational, sex, age, etc. stratification
studies correlation of linguistic facts with the life and attitudes of the speaking community
Linguostylistics
studies correlation of speech situation and linguistic means by speakers
different styles in speech and language
Functional Style
a system of expressive means peculiar to a specific sphere of
communication
Functional Stylesphere of communication –
circumstances attending the process of speech in each particular case
Informal Style
used in personal two-way every-day communication
vocabulary may be determined socially (educational and cultural background, age group, occupation) or regionally (dialect)
Informal Style gesture, tone, voice, situation are as
important as words careful choice of words plays a minor role vocabulary is much less variegated the same pronouns, auxiliaries,
postpositives, the same most frequent and generic terms are used again and again
Informal Style the same pronouns, auxiliaries,
postpositives, the same most frequent and generic terms are used again and again
they convey a great number of different meanings
some words are overused (e.g. thing, do, get, nice, really, etc.)
Informal Style characterized by imaginative phraseology
(e.g. a lot of moonshine), ready-made formulas of politeness and
tags, standard expressions of surprise, gratitude
(e.g. I‘m most grateful), apology, etc.
Informal Style substantives adjectives (e.g. greens for
’green leaf vegetables’, woolies for ‘woolen clothes’)
lexical intensifiers, emphatic verbs and adverbs with lost denotational meaning (e.g. awfully, lovely, terrific, grand, dead etc.)
Informal Style lexical expressions of modality (e.g.
definitely, in a way, I should think so, not at all, by no means , etc.)
Informal Style Colloquial words
1. literary colloquial (cultivated speech)
2. familiar colloquial
3. low colloquial (illiterate speech) Slang words Dialect words
Literary Colloquial Speech
used by educated people in the course of ordinary conversation or when writing letters to intimate friends
e.g. bite, snack – meal
to have a crush on smb – to fall in love with smb
phrasal verbs - to put up, turn up, do away
shortenings – pram, exam, flu
Familiar Colloquial Speech
more emotional, much more free and careless
used mostly by young and semi-educated characterized by a great number of jocular
or ironical expressions and nonce-words e.g. doc – doctor, ta-ta – good-bye
Low Colloquial Speech
illiterate unpopular speechcontains more vulgar wordssometimes contains elements of
dialect
Slang
contrasted to standard literary vocabulary mainly used by young and uneducated characterized by the use of expressive,
mostly ironical words which create fresh names for some usual things
Slang
most slang word are metaphors and jocular, often with a coarse, mocking, cynical colouring, produce shocking effect
e.g. money – beans, bras, dibs, dough, wads
drunk – boozy, cock-eyed, soaked
Slang slang words and idioms are short-lived,
soon they ether disappear or lose their peculiar colouring and become either colloquial or stylistically neutral
e.g. chap, fun, mob, shabby, hitch-hiker, once in a blue moon
Slang
general slang – specific for any social or professional group
special slang – peculiar for some groups: teenager slang, football slang, sea slang, etc.
Argot special vocabulary used by a particular
social or age group, the so-called underworld (the criminal circles)
its main purpose - to be unintelligible to the outsiders
argot words are non-motivated
e.g. shin – knife, book – life sentence
Dialect Words
Dialect is a variety of a language which prevails in a district, with local peculiarities of vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar
Dialect Words dialect words may enter colloquial speech,
slang, then neutral vocabulary and formal language
e.g. car, tram, trolley
Formal StyleEnglish vocabulary that occur in
books and magazines, that we hear from a lecturer, a public speaker, a radio announcement, in formal official talk
Formal Style used in monologues addressed by one
person to many, often prepared in advance
words are used with precision the vocabulary is elaborate,
generalized, not limited socially or geographically
Formal Style learned words1. literary words2. words of scientific prose3. official words4. poetic diction Archaic and obsolete words Professional terminology
Formal Style literary words – used in descriptive
passages of fiction mostly polysyllabic words from Romance
languages create complex and solemn associations
e.g. delusion, felicity, cordial, solitude
Formal Style words of scientific prose
e.g. experimental, divergent, heterogeneous, as early as, in terms of etc.
officialese (канцеляризмы) – words of official, bureaucratic language, peculiar to official documents, business correspondence
e.g. accommodation (room), donation (gift), comestibles (food), dispatch (send off)
Formal Style words of poetic diction are traditionally
used only in poetry characterized by a lofty, high-flown,
sometimes archaic colouring they are more abstract
e.g. array (clothes), steed (horse), lone (lonely), naught (nothing), albeit (although)
Archaic and Obsolete WordsObsolete words are words that
dropped from the language, “no longer in use, esp. for at least for a century”
Archaic and Obsolete Words Archaic words (archaism) are words
which survive in special contexts, “current in an earlier time but rare in present usage”
associated with poetic diction
e.g. aye (yes), nay (no), morn (morning), betwixt (between)
Historisms words denoting objects and phenomena
which are things of the past and no longer exist
they are names for social relations, institutions, objects of material culture of the past
Historisms names of ancient transport means, ancient clothes,
weapons, musical instruments, etc.e.g. landau ландо; четырехколесный экипаж или
автомобиль со съемным верхом, phaeton фаэтон ( четырехколесная открытая коляска ), hansom двухколесный экипаж ( с местом для кучера
сзади )calash легкая коляска ( имеющая низкие колеса и
складной верх )berlin старинный дорожный четырехколесный крытый
экипаж
Professional Terminology
specialized vocabularies term is a word or a word-group which is
specifically employed by a particular branch of science, technology, trade or the arts to convey a concept peculiar to this particular activity
Professional Terminology
terms should be monosemantic (polysemy may lead to misunderstanding)
independent of the context have only denotational meaning terms should not have synonyms
e.g. paint, tint, dye (краска) - colour
Neutral (basic) Vocabulary
opposed to formal and informal wordsused in all kinds of situations,
independent of the sphere of communication
stylistically neutral (lack connotations)
Neutral (basic) Vocabulary
constitute the core of the vocabulary, denote objects and phenomena of everyday importance
characterized by high frequency
e.g. to walk, summer, child, green
Interrelations between different strata of vocabularyBasic vocabulary
Informal Formal
begin Start, get started commence
Child, baby
Kid, brat, bearn (dialect)
Infant, babe (poetical)
Stylistically-neutral and stylistically-marked wordsStylistically-
neutral words
Stylistically-marked words
informal formal
Basic vocabulary