Бердақ атындағы Қарақалпақ Мәмлекетлик университети шет тиллери факультети

4.Functional styles of the English language. A style of language can be defined as a system of co­ordinated, interrelated and interconditioned language means intended to fulfill a specific function of communi­cation and aiming at a definite effect.

Each style is a relatively stable system at the given stage in the development of the literary language, but it changes, and sometimes considerably, from one period to another. Therefore the style of a language is a historical category. Thus the style of emotive prose actually began to function as an independent style after the second half of the 16^l century; the newspaper style budded off from the publicist style; Jive oratorical style has undergone considerable changes.

In English literary language we distinguish the fol­lowing major functional styles

1. The belles-lettres style.

2. Publicistic style.

3. Newspaper style

4. Scientific prose style.

5. The style of official documents.

Each functional style may be characterized by a num­ber of distinctive features and each functional style may be subdivided into a number of sub styles.

B. The Belles-Lettres Style

The belles-lettres style is a generic term for three sub-styles:

1. The language of poetry;

2. Emotive prose, or the language of fiction;

3. The language of the drama.

Each of these substyles has certain common features, typical of the general belles-lettres style. Each of them also enjoys some individuality.

The purpose of the belles-lettres style, unlike scienti­fic, is not to prove but only to suggest a possible interpre­tation of the phenomena of life by Forcing the reader to see the viewpoint of the writer.

The belles-lettres style has certain linguistic features, which are:

1. Genuine, not trite, imagery, achieved by linguistic devices.

2. The use of words in contextual and very often in more than one dictionary meanings.

3. A vocabulary which will reflect to a greater or les­ser degree the authors personal evaluation of things or phenomena.

4. A peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax.

5. The introduction of the typical features of a colloquial language to a full degree (in plays) or a lesser one in emotive prose) or a slight degree (in poems).
a) Language of Poetry

The first substyle is verse. Both the syntactical and se-Niantic aspects of the poetic substyle may be defined as compact. The most important feature of the poetic sub-style is imagery, which gives rich additional information. This information is created by specific use of words and expressions. This information is to be conveyed through images. Images are mostly built on metaphors, metony­mies, similes and epithets etc. So the language of poetic style is rich in stylistic devices: repetition, grammar constructions, phonetic stylistic devices, etc.

Rhythm and rhyme are immediately distinguishable properties of the poetic substyle. The various composi­tional forms of rhythm and rhyme - are generally studied
under the terms versification or prosody. English verse, like all verse, emanated from song.
b) Emotive Prose.

In emotive prose imagery is not so rich as in poetry. The percentage of words with contextual meaning is not so high as in poetry. There is a combination of spoken and written varieties of the language, as there are always two forms of communication - monologue (the writers spe­ech) and dialogue (the speech of the characters). The language of the writer conforms to the literary norms of the given period in the development of the English literary language. The language of the hero of a novel or a story is chosen in order to characterize the man himself.

Emotive prose allows the use of elements from all the other styles as well. Thus we find elements of the newspaper style, the official style, the style of scientific prose, but they all are subjected to the purposes of the belles-lettres style. Under the influence of emotive prose they undergo a kind of transformation. It is rich in repre­sented speech too.

Emotive prose as a separate form of fiction came into being rather late in the history of the English literary lan­guage. It began its existence in the second half of the 15¹ century. With the coming of 16V century English emotive prose progressed rapidly. A great influence on the further development of the characteristic features of the belles-lettres style was made by Shakespeare, although he never wrote prose.

The seventeenth century saw a considerable de­velopment in emotive prose and in prose as a whole. The influence of the Bible on English emotive prose is particu­larly striking in this period.

Eighteenth century emotive prose when compa­red to mat of the seventeenth is in its most essential, lea­ding features. The history of the English literature of this period is characterized with such prominent men-of-letters as Defoe, Swift, Fielding etc. This period is regarded as the century, which formed the emotive prose as a branch of belles-lettres style.

In nineteenth century the general tendency in English literature to depict the life of English society cal-

led forth changes in the language. Standard English begins to absorb elements of the English vocabulary which were banned in earlier periods from the language of emotive prose, that is jargonisms, professional words, slang, dialectal words and vulgarisms, though the latter were used euphemistically - damn was printed d-; bloody - b~ etc. Illiterate speech finds its expression in emotive prose by distorting the spelling of words, by using Cockney and dialectal words; there appears a clear difference between the speech of the writer and that of his characters. Language means typical of other styles of literary language are drawn into the system of expressive means and stylistic devices of this substyle.

The present-day emotive prose is characterized by the breaking-up of traditional syntactical designs of the preceding periods. Not only detached construction, but
also unexpected ways of combining sentences, especially the gap-sentence link and other modern syntactical patterns, are freely introduced into present-day emotive
prose. Its advance is very rapid.
c) Language of the Drama

The language of plays is entirely dialogue. The author's speech is almost excluded except for the play-right's remarks and directions.

But the language of characters is not the exact repro­duction of the norms of colloquial language. Any variety of the belles-lettres style will use the norms of the literary language of the given period. Nevertheless there will be departures from the established literary norms. But these departures will never go beyond the boundaries of the norms, lest the aesthetic aspect of the work should be lost. It shows that the language of plays is always stylized.

The stylization of colloquial language is one of the features of plays, which at different stages in the history of English drama showed itself in different ways.

In the 16* century the stylization of a colloquial language was maintained due to several facts: plays were written in haste for the companies of actors eagerly wai­ting for them, and they were written for a wide audience, most the common people. Plays were staged in public squares on a raised platform.

The colloquial language of the 16^r century therefore enjoyed freedom and this found its expression in the dialogue of plays. The general trends in the developing literary language were reflected in the wide use of biblical and mythological allusions, evocative Renaissance tradi­tions, abundant use of compound epithets.

The influence of Renaissance traditions can be seen in a rich injection of oaths, curses, swearwords and other vulgarisms into the language of the English drama of this period.

The 16^th century plays are mostly written in verse. The plays of this period therefore were justly called dra­matic poetry.

The revival of drama began in the second half of the 18 century. But the ultimate shaping of the plan as an independent form of literary work with its own laws of functioning, with its own characteristic language features was actually completed only at the end of the 19^th century.

d) Publicistic Style

Publicistic style of a language may be divided into the following substyles:

1. 
   Oratorical style;
   

2. The essay;

3. 
   Articles.
   

The aim of publicistic style is to exert a deep influence on public opinion, to convince the reader or the listener that the interpretation given by the writer or the speaker is the only correct one and to cause him to accept the point of view expressed in the speech, essays or article.

Publicistic style has features in common with the style of scientific prose, on the one hand, and that of emotive prose, on the other. An expanded system of connectives and careful paragraphing makes it similar to scientific prose. Its emotional appeal is generally achieved by the use of words with emotive meaning, the use of imagery and other stylistic devices as in emotive prose; but the stylistic devices used in publicistic style are not fresh and genuine.

Publicistic style is also characterized by brevity of expression.

1. 
   Oratorical Style
   

The oratorical style is the oral subdivision of the publicistic style. Persuasion is the most obvious purpose of oratory.

Direct contact with the listeners permits the combination of the syntactical, lexical and phonetic peculiarities of both the written and spoken varieties of language.

Oratorical style belongs to the written variety of language, though it is modified by the oral form of the utterance and the use of gestures. Certain typical features of the spoken variety of speech are: direct address to the audience, sometimes contractions and the use of colloquial words.

The style is employed in speeches on political and social problems of the day, in oration and addresses on solemn occasions as public weddings, funerals and jubilees, in sermons and debates and also in the speeches of counsel and judges in courts of law.

The speaker often resorts to repetition to enable his listeners to follow him and retain the main points of his speech.

Epigrams, aphorisms are comparatively rare in oratory, they require the concentrated attention of the listener.

Special obligatory forms open the oration: My Lords; Mr. President; Mr. Chairman; Your Worship; Ladies and Gentlemen, etc.

At the and of his speech the speaker usually thanks the audience for their attention by saying: Thank you or Thank you very much.

2. 
   The Essay
   

The essay is a literary composition on philosophical, social, aesthetic or literary subjects. It never goes deep into the subject, but merely touches upon the surface.

The essay was very popular in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. In the 17^th century essays were written on topics connected with morals and ethics, while those of the 18^th century focused attention on political and philosophical problems.

The 18^th century was the great age of essay writing. The essay became a dominant force in English literature of this period.

In the 19^th century the essay as a literary term gradually changed into what we now call the journalistic article.

The most characteristic language features of the essay remain 1) brevity of expression; 2) the use of the first person singular; 3) a rather expanded use of connectives, which facilitate the process of grasping of ideas; 4) the abundant use of emotive words; 5) the use of similes and sustained metaphors.

The essay in our days is often biographical; persons, facts and events are taken from life.

Epigrams, allusions and aphorisms are common in the essay, for the reader has opportunity to make a careful and detailed study both of the content of the utterance and its form.

3. 
   Article
   

All the features of publicistic style are to be found in any article. Words of emotive meaning are few in popular scientific articles. The system of connectives is more expanded here.

The language of political magazine articles differs little from that of newspaper articles. Bookish words, neologisms, traditional word combinations are more frequent here than in newspaper articles.

In an article dealing with forthcoming presidential elections in the USA we find such bookish and high-flown words as ambivalent, exhilarated, appalled, etc. humorous effect is produced by the use of words and phrases as melancholy, graciously, extending his best wishes, etc.
I. Questions and Tasks

1. What is the belles-lettres style?

2. What are the sub styles of belles-lettres style?

3. What are the distinctive features of belles-lettres style?

4. What is the most important feature of a poetic sub style?

5. On what stylistic devices are images mostly built in poetry?

6. Speak about immediately distinguishable properties of the poetic sub style?

7. What is the emotive prose characterized by?

8. Speak about two forms of communication in emo­tive prose.

9. Does emotive prose allow the use of elements from other styles as well? If the answer is affir­mative, call those styles.

10. When did emotive prose begin its existence in the " English literary language?

11. Are the lexical and grammatical meanings polysemantic or monosemantic?

12. What types of lexical meanings are there in the language?

13. What is the logical meaning of a word?

15. Characterize the primary and secondary (derivative) logical meanings. Give illustrations.

16. How does the contextual meaning of a word appear?

17. What is stylistics?

18. What does stylistics investigate?

19. What is the task set before stylistics?

20. Characterize two fields of investigation of stylistics.

Lecture II