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

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