LECTURE 13
The Problem of Functional Styles
1. Functional style: definition.
2. Galperin’s classification of functional styles.
Peculiarities of belles-lettres and scientific prose
functional styles.
3. Arnold’s classification of functional styles.
4. Sublanguage definition. Skrebnev’s classification.
5. Register: foreign scholars’ interpretation.
Text Fragments
1. Jail for terror plan ‘to kill many’
A London dentist detained as he boarded a plane to Pakistan
carrying night sights and computer discs full of military information
was jailed yesterday for four and a half years.
Sohail Quereshi had admitted he was on his way to carry out a
terrorist mission and told fellow extremists he planned ‘to kill
many’, the Old Bailey heard. Scotland Yard’s anti-terror chief
yesterday suggested Quereshi may have been planning to target
British soldiers in Afghanistan.
2.
ROLEX
BRITISH OPEN, ST ANDREWS. Once again the cream of the world’s
golfers will encounter the Valley of Sin, the Elysian Fields, the
Grave, the Coffin, and Hell. And Rolex will be with them, every
stroke along the way.
Text Fragments
3. The 1998 well M-1S was due to be tested, but ran into
mechanical problems and only small amounts of
hydrocarbons were produced to surface. This may also have
been due to poor reservoir characteristics. Production from
this field in 1993 was reportedly 600 barrels per day from five
conventional wells, but recent scout data indicates that the
highly fractured crestal wells can produce at significantly
better rates.
4. Friendship, peculiar boon of heaven,
The noble mind’s delight and pride,
To men and angels only given,
To all the lower world denied.
FUNCTIONAL STYLE (FS): DEFINITIONS
• The phenomenon was thoroughly studied by Russian scholars
I.R. Galperin, I.V. Arnold, M.D. Kuznets, Y.S. Stepanov and
others.
• Galperin: Functional style of language is a system of
interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in
communication.
• Arnold: Functional style is a subsystem of language which
possesses specific lexical, syntactical, sometimes phonetic
features characteristic of a particular sphere of
communication.
E.g. Scientific prose FS – intellective function;
Publicistic FS – persuasion and emotional impact.
CLASSIFICATION OF FSs (Galperin):
introduction
• Most of the FSs included in the classification belong to
WRITING as only in this form of human intercourse
communication can be completely unambiguous.
• Each style is characterized by a number of individual features
which can be leading or subordinate, constant or changing,
obligatory or optional.
• Each style can be subdivided into substyles. Substyles retain
the most characteristic features of the root style, although
they can differ dramatically from it.
• FS is a historical category as it changes with time, but at the
given stage it represents a relatively stable system.
Galperin’s Classification of FSs
I. Belles-Lettres Style (стиль художественной литературы).
1. The language of poetry; 2. Emotive prose; 3. Drama.
II. Publicistic Style (публицистический стиль).
1. Oratory and Speeches; 2. The Essay; 3. Articles in magazines
and newspapers.
III. Newspaper Style (газетный стиль).
1. Brief News Items; 2. Headlines; 3. Advertisements and
Announcements; 4. The Editorial.
IV. Scientific Prose (стиль научной прозы).
V. Official Documents (стиль официальных документов).
The language of business, legal, diplomatic and military
documents.
The Problem of Belles-Lettres Style
• Many scholars deny the existence of belles-lettres style (V.
Vinogradov, A. Fyodorov, Y. Stepanov, I. Arnold, Y. Skrebnev).
• Arnold: Literary norm, which is stylistically neutral, is used in
fiction in combination with elements of different FSs. The
clash of different styles results in achieving the aesthetic
effect.
• Skrebnev: The diversity of what is met with in books of fiction
turns the notion of a belles-lettres style into something very
vague, possessing no features of its own.
Realistic writers quote extracts from legal documents, texts of
telegrams, slogans, headlines of daily papers, ads, private
letters.
The Problem of Belles-Lettres Style
E.g. In one of Sunday papers I saw an advert in
capitals in a page of houses for sale. I wasn’t
looking for them, this just seemed to catch my
eye as I was turning the page. “FAR FROM THE
MADDING CROWD?” it said. Just like that. Then it
went on –
Old cottage, charming secluded situation, large
garden, I hr by car London, two miles from
nearest village…
and so on. The next morning I was driving down
to see it. (Fowles The Collector)
Peculiarities of the Belles-Lettres Style
(Galperin)
1. The common function of the substyles is aesthetico-cognitive.
Texts of this FS engender a cognitive process which is
accompanied by a feeling of aesthetic pleasure, the pleasure
of evaluating the lingual FORM of the text in harmony with its
CONTENT.
The pleasure is also caused by the fact that we, readers, are
led to make our own conclusions about the purport of the
author.
2. The purpose of the belles-lettres FS is to suggest a possible
interpretation of the phenomena of life through the viewpoint
of the writer.
Peculiarities of the Belles-Lettres Style
(Galperin)
3. The use of genuine imagery achieved by purely
linguistic devices.
4. The use of words in contextual and often in more
than one dictionary meaning.
5. The use of vocabulary which will reflect the author’s
personal evaluation of the phenomena.
E.g. England is already a thing in a museum, a dying
animal in a Zoo. No pride left… and so all intent on
dying nice and quietly. (Fowles Daniel Martin)
Peculiarities of the Belles-Lettres Style
(Galperin)
6. The introduction of the typical features of colloquial language to a
full degree (in plays), or a lesser one (in emotive prose) or a slight
degree, if any (in poems).
E.g. MAGGY: I can’t hardly believe you came! Can you stay five
minutes? I’m a singer now, see? In fact I am in the top three. And
for a long time I been wanting to tell you… (A. Miller After the Fall)
E.g. Many windows
Many whistles
Many floors
Many clangings
Many people
Many, many, many, many –
Many stores
Many of everything, many of any.
Many streets
(D.J. Bisset)
And many hangings
(colloquial language in modern poetry)
Peculiarities of the Belles-Lettres Style
(Galperin)
7. Individual selection of vocabulary and syntax,
individual style (ideostyle).
E.g. Cannon, muskets, fire and smoke; but, still the deep ditch,
the single drawbridge, the massive stone walls, and the eight
towers. Slight displacements of the raging sea, made by the
falling wounded. Flashing weapons, blazing torches, smoking
waggon-loads of wet straw, hard work at neighbouring
barricades in all directions, shrieks, volleys, execrations,
bravery without stint, boom, smash and rattle, and the furious
sounding of the living sea; but, still the deep ditch, and the
single drawbridge, and the massive stone walls, and the eight
great towers…(Dickens A Tale of Two Cities)
Scientific Prose Style Peculiarities
(Galperin)
•
The aim of the FS is to prove a hypothesis, to create new concepts,
to disclose relations between different phenomena.
As a result, the language means tend to be objective, precise,
unemotional, generalized.
• Logical sequence of utterances, a developed system of
connectives
E.g. Up to now the discussion of lexical hierarchies has centered on the
branching variety. The present chapter will be devoted to the nonbranching variety. These fall into two major sub-types. First, there
are those which are closely bound up with branching hierarchies…
Second, there is quite a large family of independent non-branching
hierarchies, not derived from or connected in any way with
branching hierarchies, which arise from non-differentiable
relations of dominance (D.A. Cruse Lexical Semantics)
Scientific Prose Style Peculiarities
(Galperin)
• Use of special terminology, new coinages
E.g. Phoneme, morpheme, lexeme; polysemy, hyponym,
meronym, tautonym. Претекст, прецедентный текст;
наносема.
• The words employed tend to be used in their primary logical
meanings. New terms are explained and clearly defined
E.g. This relation will be called endonymy. It is based on the
notion of semantic encapsulation, and involves the
incorporation of the meaning of one lexical item in the
meaning of another. The term whose meaning is included in
this way will be called the endonym, and the containing term
will be called the exonym (Cruse Lexical Semantics)
Scientific Prose Style Peculiarities
(Galperin)
• Sentences are complete, compound or complex. Certain
sentence patterns are used (postulatory, formulative,
argumentative)
E.g. However, the predicate displays at least one of the
characteristics of a semantic dependant, and that is that it is
expected to bring to the construction semantic traits not
encapsulated in the subject; furthermore, in cases of
pleonasm, it is the predicate whose specificity must be
increased to achieve normality: ?The speaker is speaking →
The speaker is speaking French. (Cruse Lexical Semantics)
• Use of quotations, references and foot-notes
Scientific Prose Style Peculiarities
(Galperin)
• Impersonality (frequent use of passive constructions
and “we”)
BUT! In the Humanities sphere patterns can be more personal.
E.g. The gases can be made to react much more rapidly
by the use of a suitable catalytic agent… If a piece of
asbestos fibre is steeped in a solution of platinum
chloride in hydrochloric acid and then heated, the
asbestos becomes coated… (Chemistry Textbook)
Scientific Prose Style Peculiarities (Galperin)
E.g. О книге Кэрролла столько написано, среди его
вымышленных персонажей кого только не находят – и
реального шляпного мастера, и членов королевской
семьи, и королевских судей, и премьер-министра
Гладстона… и т.д., но я думаю, что суть их – подлинная
девочка Алиса, Алиса всегда и везде. И в своих
смешных, по-детски неправильных, речах, и в своих
манерах сидеть, смотреть, и в своей улыбке. И
«улыбка чеширского кота», существующая отдельно
от персонажа, ведь это тоже, хотя и смешно
выраженная, Алиса. Суть этой книги – в Алисе, и эта
суть – любовь (Ю. Степанов Концепты).
Classification of Functional Styles (Arnold):
introduction
• Borderlines between FSs are not clear-cut
E.g. Oratory style – ? – Publicistic style
Newspaper style – ? – Colloquial style
• Individual speech comprises a number of functional
styles
• Number of functional styles and their peculiarities
can vary depending on the historical period
Classification of Functional Styles (Arnold)
FORMAL STYLES
(NON-CASUAL)
(КНИЖНЫЕ)
NEUTRAL STYLE
NON-FORMAL
- unmarked member of
STYLES
the stylistic opposition;
(CASUAL)
- can be used in any
(РАЗГОВОРНЫЕ)
situation;
- serves as a background
for stylistically marked elements
Peculiarities of Formal Styles (Arnold)
• Prepared, mostly written speech;
• The moments of encoding and decoding can stand
apart in time;
• No territorial (dialectal) distinctions;
• Form of a monologue, which presupposes addressing
the audience;
• Absence of direct feedback → Use of varied and
precise vocabulary and syntax.
Peculiarities of Non-Formal (Colloquial) Styles
(Arnold)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Spontaneous, mostly oral speech;
Mostly form of a dialogue;
Feedback available;
Use of body language;
Situation as context;
Use of polysemantic words, words with broad
semantics;
• Use of cliches;
• Elliptical sentences.
Classification of Functional Styles (Arnold)
FORMAL STYLES
- Poetic diction (esp. in the 1819th centuries)
- Scientific style
- Official documentation
- Publicistic (Newspaper) style
- Oratory style
NON-FORMAL STYLES
- Literary colloquial
(литературно-разговорный)
- Familiar colloquial
(фамильярно-разговорный)
- Low colloquial
(просторечие)
Sublanguage: definition (Skrebnev)
• The term “sublanguage” (“подъязык”) was originally
introduced by N.D. Andreyev. In his conception, a
sublanguage is predetermined by the contents of the text.
Style is defined by emotional aims and refers to the form of
expression.
• Skrebnev: Sublanguage is a subsystem of language which
fully conforms with the aims of communication in a particular
sphere of speech. It embraces:
- CONTENT (thematic aspect);
- FORM (linguistic peculiarities);
- EXTERNAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COMMUNICATIVE
SITUATION.
Sublanguage and Style (Skrebnev)
• Style is what differentiates a given
sublanguage from all other sublanguages, a
text of one group from texts of other groups.
• Style is specificity of sublanguage as it is
formed by absolutely specific units.
E.g. Scientific prose style – use of terminology,
specific sentence patterns, abundance of
passive constructions, etc.
Classification of Sublanguages (Skrebnev)
THE SUBLANGUAGE OF
OFFICIAL INTERCOURSE
(THE OFFICIAL SPHERE)
THE SUBLANGUAGE OF
INFORMAL INTERCOURSE
(THE COLLOQUIAL SPHERE)
Classification of Sublanguages (Skrebnev)
The Official Sphere
- Private correspondence with a
stranger
- Business correspondence
- Diplomatic correspondence
- Legal documents
- Science and technology
- Newspaper texts
- Poetry and fiction
- Church service ………………
The Colloquial Sphere
- Colloquial SL
- Low-Colloquial SL(slang,
jargons)
- Dialects
Classification of Sublanguages (Skrebnev)
The central part of intersecting ellipses (sublanguages)
is made up by stylistically neutral units.
Sublanguages: theoretical aspects
• We can single out as many sublanguages as we think fit to
attain our objectives of linguistic research.
The number of SLs and styles is infinite.
E.g. telegraphic style, telephone conversation style,
Shakespearean style, the style of the novel, etc.
These styles characterize their respective sublanguages.
• There are as many norms as there are sublanguages. Each
sublanguage is subject to its own norm.
• The borderlines between SLs are not strict. There exist
‘borderlands’ (‘tolerance zones’) between SLs which include
units tolerable in both neighbouring spheres.
Comparative Overview of Classifications
GALPERIN
- Functional style
as basic unit
- Limited number
of FSs
- Written FSs
- Belles-Lettres FS
- Newspaper FS
ARNOLD
- Functional style
SKREBNEV
- Sublanguage (Stylespecificity of SL)
- Limited number - Unlimited number
of FSs
of SLs and styles
- Written + Colloq. - Written + Colloq.
- No Belles-Lettres - No Belles-Lettres
- Newspaper FS
- Newspaper style –
problematic
Register : definition
• The term ‘Register’ (‘регистр’) is used by foreign scholars in
stylistics and sociolinguistics to refer to a variety of language
defined according to the situation.
• The term was introduced in the 1950s and the phenomenon
thoroughly studied in the 1960s by M. Halliday, N.E. Enkvist, J.
Spencer and M.J. Gregory. The scholars created a codification of
significant linguistic features which determine the style of the
register.
• Other terms for Register: sublanguage, discourse genre, text type.
• “It is part of the communicative competence of every speaker that
we constantly switch usages, select certain features of sound,
grammar, lexis, etc in the different situations of life.” (Katie Wales)
E.g. a domestic chat, a telephone conversation, a business letter...
Register Parameters
4 main variables for the choice of situational features:
• FIELD, or SUBJECT MATTER;
• MEDIUM or MODE (e.g. speech or writing);
• TENOR (the relations between participants, their social
roles which influence the degree of formality).
• FUNCTION (didactic, informative, etc)
E.g. TV sports commentary:
•
•
•
•
Special vocabulary reflecting the subject;
Audio-visual medium;
Fairly informal relations with the audience;
Functions – describing, evaluating.
Register-switching
Changing or mixing different registers to achieve the desired
effect.
E.g. Lecture: Written form vs Oral presentation (different degree of
formality).
E.g. Two households – one olive and one dairy,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
Both born to strike…
Two star-crossed lovers conspire
To overthrow the grudge of generations…
The union of butter and oil. (a TV commercial for butter and olive
oil spread – an allusion to ‘Romeo and Juliet’)