Учебно-методический комплекс по учебной дисциплине «стилистика» для специальности «современные иностранные языки (перевод)»

LECTURE 9 
 
THE COLLOQUIAL STYLES 
 
Literary colloquial style. Informal Colloquial Style. Substandard Colloquial Style. 
Language means of the colloquial style. The notion Substandard English speech. 
 
The colloquial style 
consists of:
 
•
literary colloquial style 
•
informal colloquial style 
•
substandard colloquial style. 
These styles comply with the regularities and norms of oral communication. Their main 
function is communication, realization of practical activity of a person. It is used in 
everyday life.
Extra-linguistic features
: informality, spontaneous character of speech, 
interpersonal contact and direct involvement in the process of communication. 
The vocabulary of the literary colloquial style
comprises neutral, bookish and literary 
words, though exotic words and colloquialisms are no exception. It is devoid of vulgar, 
slangy and dialectal lexical units.
Reduction of grammatical forms makes the style morphologically distinguished, putting 
it in line with other colloquial styles. Sentences of literary colloquial conversation tend to be 
short and elliptical, with clauses connected asyndetically.
The vocabulary of 
the informal colloquial style
is unofficial. Besides neutral words, it 
contains lots of words with connotative meanings.
Expressiveness of informal communication is also enhanced by extensive use of 
stylistic devises. The speaker chooses between the literary or informal colloquial style 
taking into account the following situational conditions: aim of communication, place of 
communication, presence or absence of strangers, personal relations, age factor, sex factor, 
etc. One of the variants of the informal colloquial style is the dialect.

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Dialects are regional varieties of speech which relate to a geographical area. The term 
dialect used to refer to deviations from Standard English which were used by groups of 
speakers. 
The lowest level in the hierarchy of colloquial styles is occupied by substandard or