English linguistics department

CHAPTER 1. SCIENTIFIC STYLES IN MODERN ENGLISH AND UZBEK


1.1 Scientific style in the English style system
Stylistic Encyclopedic Dictionary, ed. M.N. Kozhina defines "style" as "a socially conscious, historically established, united by a certain functional purpose and fixed by tradition for one or another of the most common areas of social life, a system of language units of all levels and ways of their selection, combination and use.
functional styles−scientific, colloquial, business, poetic, oratorical and journalistic−are subsystems of the language, each of which has its own specific features in vocabulary and phraseology, in syntactic constructions, and sometimes in phonetics. The emergence and existence of functional styles is due to the specifics of the conditions of communication in different spheres of human activity.
Functional style is an open system with its core and periphery. The core of the functional style is made up of the most typical reproducible ways and means of expressing typical functions; on the periphery there are atypical and borderline stylistic means.
The diverse forms of functioning of literary English gradually led to its differentiation. This differentiation consists in the stratification of the written and oral varieties of the language into separate styles of speech.
Speech styles differ depending on the purpose of communication and the scope of use. Their difference is mainly determined by the nature of the selection of means of expression that form a certain system, which is conscious of the collective speaking the given language. Speech styles, therefore, cannot be understood without analyzing the system of stylistic and other language means that form a given style.
The style of scientific prose takes shape as a kind of literary language in connection with the specific tasks that science sets itself in general. This is evidence, in the broad sense of the word, the systematization of objective knowledge about reality, the description of research results.
The style of English scientific prose owes much of its origin to the style of the essay. Gradually freeing itself from the a priori characteristic of the manner of presenting an essay, the style of English scientific prose became more and more “logicized”, i.e. statements took such a form that provided a sufficient number of illustrations, facts and generalizations for appropriate scientific conclusions.
Distinctive features of the style of scientific prose are the syntactic organization of sentences and the choice of vocabulary. In general, the most characteristic of the style of scientific prose is the use of words in the main subject-logical meanings. In this style, words are rarely used in figurative and other contextual meanings.
Style-forming factors are the need for intelligibility and logical sequence of presentation of complex material, great traditionalism. The lack of direct contact or limited contact with the recipient of speech (report, lecture) excludes or severely limits the use of extralinguistic means; lack of feedback requires more completeness. The syntactic structure should be harmonious, complete and, if possible, stereotyped [Arnold 2002: 277].¹
The nature of scientific presentation may vary depending on the special field to which it relates. This is due to the differences between the sciences themselves in their subject matter, range of concepts, technical methods of research and argumentation. Thus, a mathematical text often consists of a series of formulas with the most concise, introductory or commentary phrases. On the contrary, a text on history is usually a detailed description of events or a well-reasoned analysis of the historical process. However, there are some common features that unite all these diverse ways of presentation into a single scientific and professional style. These features are discussed below.