STYLISTIC SEMASIOLOGY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (CONTINUED)
1. FIGURES OF COMBINATION.
Figures of combinationare SD of semasiology. They are stylistically relevant semantic means of combining lexical, syntactical and other units (including EM) belonging to the same or different language levels. So, the realisation of the figures of combination is possible only in context. Frequently, these figures of speech are the result of the interaction of word meanings or the meanings of word-combinations, seldom - of paragraphs or larger text fragments .
There are three basic types of semantic relations between words, phrases, and utterances:
1) those involving similar (synonymous) meanings of such units. The speaker combines within an utterance or text the units whose meaning he/she considers similar, thus figures of identity are formed;
2) those based on opposite (antonymous) meanings of the units. The speaker combines within an utterance or text two semantically contrasting units. As a result, figures of opposition are formed;
3) those comprising somewhat different meanings of the units. The speaker combines within an utterance or text lexical units denoting different but close notions. As a result, the figures of inequality are formed.
2. FIGURES OF IDENTITY.
Relations of identity are realised in context where close or synonymous units referring to the same object, or phenomenon are used. Here we refer simile and two kinds of synonyms - specifying and substituting ones.
Simile (Latin: similie - similar) is a partial identification of two objects belonging to different spheres or bringing together some of their qualities. The objects compared are not identical, though they have some resemblance, some common features. Emphasising their partial identity gives new characteristics to the referent.
Simile is a structure consisting of two components: the subject of comparison, and the object of comparison which are united by formal markers: as, as...as, like, as though, as if, such as etc, e.g. Unhappiness was like a hungry animal waiting beside the track for any victim (G.Greene).
If formal markers are missing but the relations between the two objects are those of similarity and identity, we have implied simile. In such similes, notional or seminotional words (verbs, nouns etc.) substitute formal markers (Cf: to resemble, to remind, to seem, resemblance etc.: e.g. H.G.Weils reminded her of the nice paddies in her native California (A.Huxley).
We should distinguish simile which is stylistically charged from logical comparison which is not. The latter deals with the notions belonging to the same sphere and it states the degree of their similarity and difference. In case of comparison, all qualities of the two objects are taken into consideration, but only one is brought to the foreground, e.g. He was a big man, as big as Simon, but with sandy hair and blue eyes (D. Garett).
Both simile and metaphor are based on comparison. Metaphor is often called a compressed simile which differs from simile proper structurally. However, the difference between the two is not only structural but semantic as well. Simile and metaphor are different in their linguistic nature:
1) metaphor aims at identifying the objects; simile aims at finding some point of resemblance by keeping the objects apart;
2) metaphor only implies the feature which serves as the ground for comparison, simile, more often than not, indicates this feature, so it is semantically more definite.
Synonyms-substitutes (substituting synonyms) are words used to denote object or action, supplementing new additional details, which helps to avoid monotonous repetitions, e.g. But he had no words to express his feelings and to relieve them would utter an obscene jest; it was as though his emotion was so violent that he needed vulgarity to break the tension. Mackintosh observed this sentiment with an icy disdain (W. S.Maugham).
Substituting synonyms are characterised by contextual similarity giving rise to emotive-evaluative meaning.- Thai is why some synonyms can be treated as such only in context. Synonyms-substitutes are widely used in publicistic style. They are also regarded as situational synonyms.
Synonyms-specifiers (specifying synonyms) are used as a chain of words which express similar meanings. Such synonyms are used for a better and more detailed description of an object or person, when every other synonym adds new information about it. There are two ways of using specifying synonyms: 1) as paired synonyms, and 2) as synonymic variations, e.g.... the intent of which perjury being to rob a poor native widow and her helpless family of a plantation-patch, their only stay and support in their bereavement and desolation (M.Twain).
These synonyms specify the utterance, adding some new information. Though the given synonyms are very close in their meaning, they are different in stylistic colouring. Synonymic variations specify the utterance, intensifying its emotional value. Such synonyms are widely used in fiction and the publicistic style, in scientific prose and official style, their usage is limited.
3. FIGURES OF OPPOSITION.
This group of semasiological SD is characterised by the combination in context of two or more words or word-groups with opposite meanings. Their relations are either objectively opposite or are interpreted as such by the speaker. Here we refer antithesis and oxymoron.
Antithesis (Greek - opposition) is a stylistic device which presents two contrasting ideas in close proximity in order to stress the contrast. There are several variants of antithesis based on different relations of the ideas expressed:
1) opposition of features possessed by the same referent, e.g. Some people have much to live on, and little to live for (O.Wiide);
2) opposition of two or more different referents having contrasting features, e.g. Their pre-money wives did not go together with their post-money daughters (E.Hemingway);
3) opposition of referents having not only contrasting features but embracing a wider range of features, e.g. New England had a native literature , while Virginia had none; numerous industries, while Virginia was all agricultural (Th.Dreiser).
Antithesis often goes along with other stylistic figures: anaphoric repetition, parallelism, chiasmus, in particular. It is widely used in all kinds of speech: fiction, publicistic, scientific and colloquial English. It performs various stylistic functions: stressing the contrast and rhythmically organising the utterance. Due to the last quality antithesis is widely used in poetry in combination with anaphora, epiphora, and alliteration.
Oxymoron - (Greek: oxymoron - witty - foolish) is also a combination of opposite meanings which exclude each other. But in this case, the two semantically contrasting ideas are expressed by syntactically interdependent words (in predicative, attributive or adverbial phrases), e.g. He was certain the whites could easily detect his adoring hatred to them (R.Wright).
Oxymoron reveals the contradictory sides of one and the same phenomenon. One of its elements discloses some objectively existing feature while the other serves to convey the author's personal attitude towards this quality (pleasantly ugly, crowded loneliness, unanswerable reply). Such semantic incompatibility does not only create unexpected combinations of words, violating the existing norms of compatibility, but reveals some unexpected qualities of the denotatum as well.
As soon as an oxymoron gets into circulation, it loses its stylistic value, becoming trite: pretty bad, awfully nice, terribly good.
Original oxymorons are created by the authors to make the utterance emotionally charged, vivid, and fresh, e.g. Oh brawling love! Oh loving hate! Oh heavy lightness! Serious vanity! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! (W.Shakespeare).
4. FIGURES OF INEQUALITY.
Relations of inequality are the relations of meanings of words and word-combinations which differ in their emotive intensiveness or logical importance. To this group we refer:
1) figures based on actualising the emotional power of the utterance (climax or anticlimax);
2) figures based on two different meanings of words and word-combinations (pun, zeugma).
Climax or gradation (Latin: gradatio - gradualness; Greek: climax - a ladder) is a structure in which every successive word, phrase, or sentence is emotionally stronger or logically more important than the preceding one, e.g. Like a well, like a vault, like a tomb, the prison had no knowledge of the brightness outside (Ch.Dickens).
There are three types of climax:
1) the arrangement of some lexical units characterising the object in the same emotional direction, e.g. As he wondered and wondered what to do, he first rejected a stop as impossible, then as improbable, then as quite dreadful (W.S.Gilbert);
2) the arrangement of lexical units with logical widening of notions, e.g. For that one instant there was no one else in the room, in the house, in the world, besides themselves (M.Wilson);
3) emphatic repetition and enumeration, e.g. Of course it is important. Incredibly urgently, desperately important (D.Sayers).
Gradation is widely used in fiction and the publicistic style. It is one of the main means of emotional and logical influence of a text upon the reader and listener.
Anticlimax presents a structure in which every successive word, phrase, or sentence is emotionally or logically less strong than the preceding one, e.g. Fledgeby hasn't heard anything. "No, there's not a word of news," says Lammle. "Not a particle," adds Boots. "Not an atom," chimes in Brewer (Ch. Dickens).
We can distinguish two types of anticlimax:
1) gradual drop in intensity;
2) sudden break in emotive power. In this case, emotive and logical importance is accumulated only to be unexpectedly brought up to a sudden break, e.g. He was unconsolable - for an afternoon (J.Galsworthy).
Anticlimax is mostly used as a means of achieving a humorous effect. Pun is a device based on polysemy, homonymy, or phonetic similarity to achieve a humorous effect.
There are several kinds of pun:
1) puns based on polysemy. They had the appearance of men to whom life had appeared as a reversible coat - seamy on both sides. (O.Henry)
2) puns based on complete or partial homonymy: Diner: Is it customary to tip a waiter in this restaurant? Waiter: Why-ah-yes, sir.
Diner: Then hand me a tip. I've waited three quarters of an hour.
3) puns based on phonetic similarity:
- I've spent last summer in a very pretty city of Switzerland.
- Berne?
- No, I almost froze.
Pun is used for satirical and humorous purposes. Many jokes are based on puns.
Zeugma (Greek: zeugyana — to join, to combine) are parallel constructions with unparallel meanings. It is such a structural arrangement of an utterance in which the basic component is both a part of a phraseological unit and of a free word-combination. So, zeugma is a simultaneous realisation within the same short context of two meanings of a polysemantic unit. e.g. If the country doesn't go to the dogs or the Radicals, we shall have you Prime Minister some day (O.Wilde). The verb "to go" here realises two meanings: to go to the dogs (to perish) and to go to the Radicals (to become politically radical).
Zeugma combines syntactical and lexical characteristics. Syntactically, it is based on similar structures, semantically it comprises different meanings, which leads to logical and semantic incompatibility. Zeugma is mainly a means of creating a humorous effect.
| Л.П. Єфімов Стилістика англійської мови. – Вінниця: Нова книга, 2004. – 239 c. | ||
| Expressive means of a language are those phonetic, lexical, morphological and syntactic units and forms which make speech emphatic. Introduce connotational (stylistic, non-denotative) meanings into utterances. Stylistic devices (tropes, figures of speech) are not language phenomena. They are formed in speech and most of them don`t exist out of context. Are grouped into phonetic, lexico-semantic and syntactic types. Phonetic EM and SD: rhythm, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia. Lexico-semantic EM and SD (Figures of Substitution): Figures of Quantity (hyperbole, meiosis, litotes), Figures of Quality (metonymy, synecdoche, periphrasis, euphemism; metaphor, epithet, antonomasia, personification; irony). Figures of Combination: Figures of identity (simile, synonyms); Figures of contrast (oxymoron, antithesis); Figures of inequality (climax, anticlimax, zeugma, pun). Syntactic EM and SD: Reduction of the s-ce model (ellipsis, nominative s-ce, aposiopesis, asyndeton, parceling); Extension of the s-ce model (repetition, enumeration, tautology, polysyndeton, parallelism); Change of word-order (inversion, detachment); Transposition of s-ce meaning (rhetoric questions and other variants). Stylistic Lexicology Stylistic Lexicology deals with words which make up people`s lexicon. The majority of English words are: · neutral – form the lexical backbone of all functional styles, they are understood and accepted by all English-speaking people; being the main source of synonymy and polysemy, they easly produce and stylistic variants (mouse, child, kid, infant, parent, father, daddy). · Terms belong to particular sciences, used mostly in the scientific functional style; they`re monosemantic, have no synonyms (approbation, anomaly, interpretation, definition, vector, leg of a triangle). · Poetic words – create poetic images and make speech elevated. · Obsolete words have gone completely out of usage but they`re still recognized by the native speakers (thee, thy, thine, methinks = it seems to me, nay = no). · Archaic words belong to OE and are not recognized nowadays. · Barbarisms and foreignisms have the same origin; they`re borrowed from other languages (French, Latin) (protégé, a propos, beau monde, de novo, alter ego, datum). · Neologisms – newly born words (network, server, e-mail, site message). · Common colloquial vocabulary – familiar words and idioms used in informal speech and writing and unacceptable in polite conversations: · Jargonisms – non-standard words used by people of certain asocial group to keep their intercourse secret (candy – cocaine, snifter – a cocaine addict, candy man – drug seller). · Professionalisms – term-like words, are used and understood by members of a certain trade or profession (scalpel, carburetor). · Dialecticisms – words used by people of a certain community living in a certain territory. · Slang – non-standard vocabulary understood and used by the whole nation; vulgar, obscene words – a part of slang (money – moo, oof, boot, lettuce, green goods, hay, bean, rubbish, salad, soap, sugar, iron, etc.). · Idioms – fixed phrase which is only meaningful as a whole. Morphological Stylistics The main notion is the transposition – a divergence between the traditional usage of a neutral word and its situational / stylistic usage. Morpholoigical EM`s and SD`s: · Nouns form antonomasia and personification (he`ll never be a Shakespeare; snows, sands, waters). · Articles are used uncommonly (a Brown, a silly Jane, the John). · Verbs form lexical EM`s and SD`s (so it be; it is time I went). · Adjectives – epithets, comparison, attributes (crazy bicycle, tremendous achievements, idiotic shoe-laces, red colour, the most Italian car, beautifuller). · Pronouns (it`s me, him, her, them, us). Phonetic and Graphic EM`s & SD`s. · Rhyme – the accord of syllables in words (fact – attract, mood – intrude, news – refuse). · Rhythm – a recurring stress pattern in poetry. · Instrumentation – the act of selecting and combining sounds in order to make utterances expressive and melodic. · Alliteration – repetition of consonants (She sells sea shells on the sea shore). · Assonance – repetition of vowels (the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain). · Onomatopoeia – a combination of sounds, imitating natural sounds (cock-a-doodle-doo). · Punctuation: the full stop, the comma, brackets, tha dash, the exclamation mark, the interrogative mark, the hyphen, the colon, the semicolon, the apostrophe, capital letters, text segmentation, a paragraph, chapters / sections, a heading. Stylistic semasiology. Lexico-semantic SD`s. Figures of Substitution: 1. Figures of Quantity (hyperbole, meiosis, litotes), 2. Figures of Quality (metonymy, synecdoche, periphrasis, euphemism; metaphor, epithet, antonomasia, personification; irony). · Hyperbole – a deliberate exaggeration of a certain quality of an object or phenomenon (to be scared to death; to give the world to do smth.; to beg a thousand pardons); · Meiosis – a deliberate diminution of a certain quality of an object or phenomenon (to be the drop of water; a cat-size pony; to be situated in one minute from here; he is a real microbe). · Litotes – a specific variant of meiosis (to be not without sense of humour; to be not unreasonable, not impossible). · Metonymy – is the transference of a name of one object to another object based upon the principle of contiguity of the two objects. Lexical metonymy: table`s leg, teapot`s nose, hand, a hand (a worker), grave (death)); Contextual metonymy (the other voice shook his hand; to be followed by a pair of heavy boots). · Synecdoche – naming the whole object by mentioning part of it / using the name of the whole object to denote a constituent part of this object (the hall; the school; the blue suit; the museum). · Periphrasis – the replacement of a direct name of a thing or phenomenon by the description of some quality of this thing or phenomenon. Logical periphrasis is based upon one of the inherent properties of the object (weapons – instruments of destruction; love – the human weakness); Figurative periphrasis is based upon metaphor or metonymy (to marry – to tie the knot; money – root of evil). · Euphemism – used to replace an unpleasantly sounding word / word-combination (God – lord, heaven; to die – to be gone, to be no more, to go west, to join the majority, to pass away; idiots – mentally abnormal). · Metaphor – the result of transference of the name of one object to another object based upon similarity of the objects (time passes; the fire flashed from his eyes being able to melt the glasses). · Epithet – attributes which describe objects expressively (loud ocean; glorious sight; helpless loneliness; blank face; tremendous pressure; heart-burning desire; do-it-yourself command; go-to devil request; head-to-toe beauty; I-don`t-want-to-do-it feeling). · Antonomasia – the identification of human beings with things which surround them (John is a real Romeo/ Snake/ the Napoleon). · Personification – the speaker ascribes human behaviour, thoughts, and opinions to inanimate objects (Lie / Love is a strange creature). · Allegory – is antonomasia used in the whole text. · Irony – breaking the principle of sincerity of speech (favoured country, noble illustration). Stylistic semasiology: Figures of Combination: 1. Figures of identity (simile, synonyms); 2. Figures of contrast (oxymoron, antithesis); 3. Figures of inequality (climax, anticlimax, zeugma, pun). · Simile – the comparison of two objects having smth in common (as, as if, as though, like, so, to resemble). · Synonyms (John – he – the man – the victim - …) · Oxymoron – the combination of words which are semantically incompatible (adj + N; adv + adj: hot snow, pleasantly ugly). · Paradox – a ststement appears to be self-contradictory, but contains smth of a truth (Cowards die many times before their death). · Antithesis – an oxymoron realized in a phrase (the age of withdon, the age of foolushness; a happy, healthy man). · Climax (Gradation) – the arranging of the utterance so that each subsequent component of it increases significance, importance or emotional tension of narration (I`m sorry, so very sorry, so extremely sorry). · Anticlimax – the arranging of the utterance so that each subsequent component of it decreases significance, importance, emotional tension of narration (he cried, no doubt he`s been eating raw onions). · Zeugma – consists of three constituents: the basic word stands in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to a couple of adjacent words; the basic word combined with the first adjacent word forms a phraseological word-combinaton; the same basic word combined with the second adjacent word forms a free word-combination (Freddy got out of bed and low spirits). · Pun – a play of words (Is she engaged? – She`s already married. / Carry on, but Peter never ate carrion). Stylistic syntax Syntactic SD: 1. Reduction of the s-ce model (ellipsis, nominative s-ce, aposiopesis, asyndeton, parceling); 2. Extension of the s-ce model (repetition, enumeration, tautology, polysyndeton, parallelism); 3. Change of word-order (inversion, detachment); 4. Transposition of s-ce meaning (rhetoric questions and other variants). · Ellipsis – such a syntactic structure in which there is no subject, predicate or both (To the disco; The staff). · Nominative s-ce – one-member structure, having no subject, no predicate (April). · Aposiopesis (Break) – the sudden break of the narration (If you go on like this … ( - )). · Asyndeton – the omission of conjunctions. · Polysyndeton – the reprtition of conjunctions. · Parceling – the splitting of s-ces into smaller parts separated by full stops (Sally found John. Yesterday. In the pub.). · Repetition (I`m very, very, very sorry): · Anaphora – the repetition of the first element of each syntactic structure (Each… Each…); · Epiphora – the repetition of the final element (… a case like that. … a case like that.); · Framing – the initial part of a language unit is repeated at the end of this unit (Poor Mary. ……. Poor Mary.). · Linking or reduplication – the repetition of the final component at the beginning of the sequential syntactic structure (… that dreadful occurance. Tat dreadful occurance…). · Chiasmus – a reversed parallel construction (The lail must have been the infirmary, the infirmary might have been the jail). · Enumeration (There were cows, hens, goats, peacocks, sheep in the village). · Tautology – unintentional repetition (The name of my informant, the name of my informant, the name escapes me). · Parallel constructions – construction built according to the same syntactic pattern (The cock was crowing. The stream was flowing. The small birds twitter. The lake doth glitter.). · Inversion – the intentional change of the word-order (In came Jack. Little chances Benny had). · Detachment – a s-ce component independent from the word it refers to (There was a girl. I liked her name, Linda.). · Rhetoric questions - question requiring no answer. | ||
| V.A.Kukharenko A Book of Practice in Stylistics.-V.:Nova Knyha,2003.-p.117-119. | Ю.М. Скребнев Основы стилистики английского языка. Учебник для вузов. – М.: Астрель, АСТ, 2003. – С. 7; 77 – 120. | Л.П. Єфімов Стилістика англійської мови. – Вінниця: Нова книга, 2004. – C. 17 – 23. |
| Functional styles: 1. Scientific style is employed in professional communication; terms, clichés. 2. Official style – the style of official documents; archaic words 3. Publicist style – the historical changeability of stylistic differentiation of discourses (oratoric style). It`s marked by the explicit function of persuasion. 4. Newspaper style – is found in newspapers, informative materials, publications. 5. Belles-letters style - the style of literature, aims to impress the reader aethetically (prose, poetry). | K.A.Dolinin Stylistics of the French Language: The speech is characterized by the positive or negative distinctive features that presuppose it`s subdivision into emotional, spontaneous, normative. Types of speech: · Emotional normative conversation: literary colloquial speech; · Emotional non-normative conversation: familiar colloquial speech; · Emotional non-spontaneous literary speech: “publicistic style”, “oratorical style”, “style of literary narrative”; · Emotional non-spontaneous non-normative style; · Non-emotional normative talk; non-emotional non-normative talk; · Non-emotional, non-spontaneous, normative literary speech: “official business style”, “scientific style”; · Non-emot., non-spont., non-norm. speech: an official business letter of a semi-literate man. | Functional Styles are classified into bookish and colloquial. The group of bookish styles: the style of official documents, the style of scientific prose, the newspaper style, the publicistic style, the belletristic style. The group of colloquial style: the literary colloquial style, the informal colloquial style, the substandard speech style. The style of official documents aims at establishing, developing, controlling business relations. It`s impersonal, rational, pragmatic; It`s characterized by the usage of capital letters, abbreviations, the domination of bookish, borrowed, archaic words, professional terms, clichés (aviso, interest-free, status quo). The style of scientific prose serves as an important for promoting scientific ideas and exchanging scientific information among people. It`s characterized by the usage of the developed system of headlines, ttles, subtitles, footnotes, pictures, tables, schemes, formulae, the special terms of international origin. The usage of the scientific “we” – “the plural of modesty” in the meaning of “I”. The newspaper style aims to inform people about all kinds of events and occurrences which may be of some interest to them. It`s characterized by the usage the neutral common literary words, political / economic / social terms, borrowings, clichés. The publicistic style falls into the oratory style (speeches, lectures, reports), the style of radio and TV programmes, the style of essays and articles. The main feature is the direct contact with the audience. The belletristic style – the style of books full of EM`s and SD`s, it embraces prose, drama, poetry. The colloquial style complies with the regularities and norms of oral communication. The vocabulary – neutral, bookish, literary words, exotic words, colloquialisms, vulgar words, slang, dialects. |
STYLISTIC DIFFERENTIATION OF MODERN ENGLISH.
1. Stylistics analyses language from the functional point of view. That is why defining the notion of "function", its differentiation from the notion "aim" seems to be an essential starting point.
Speech activity, as any other human activity, is predetermined and conditioned by human needs and aims. The aim of human activity is a certain conceivable practical result which is considered to be desirable. Two types of hierarchically related aims should be distinguished: the main aim and the intermediate one, the latter presupposes creating and applying definite means of achieving the main aim. The main aim of verbal communication is of pragmatic (non-lingual) character, while the intermediate aim is of constructive (lingual) character. Commonly, the aim of communication is said to consist in conveying information, but it is not quite correct. Whenever the speaker intends to say something he intends to change either the psychological and mental state of the hearer or his physical state. To achieve this aim the speaker should first set a constructive (lingual) aim, i.e. constructing an utterance (a text) which is the most suitable for attaining the pragmatic aim in a concrete speech situation.
Function is usually defined either as a relation of one element to another or as a role of an element in a system as well as a role of the whole system in wider environment.
As modern linguistics distinguishes three areas of language, namely, language system (langue), speech activity (performance) and speech material (speech, parole), the notion of function has certain peculiarities when applied to each of these areas. Accordingly, three types of stylistics may be distinguished; stylistics of language, stylistics of speech activity, and stylistics of speech.
2. Language, being a system by itself, is part of other system of a higher order - language and reality, language and thinking, language and society. In relation to reality, thinking and society, language has two main functions - communicative and cognitive. These functions predetermine the properties of both language system and its components.
stylistics of language does not only cover the system of expressive means but also all language means which are used for nomination and communication.
As language is closely related to thinking, which may be logical and imaginative, at the very early stages of its development it developed two related subsystems - the practical language and the poetic language having different structural and functional organisation.
Each of the two subsystems first existed in the oral forms only. Much later, the written form came into being. Written language was used for specific purposes and became a type of language with its formal, structural, and semantic peculiarities, it is known as a bookish language. The oral language also became a type of language with its formal, structural, and semantic peculiarities, too. It is known as a conversational language.
The main unit of written language is the text, whereas that of oral type is the utterance. They differ in many respects: in substance, in functions, and in their norms.
Practical oral, practical written, poetic oral and poetic written subsystems can be defined as functional types of language. They constitute the basis for the stylistic differentiation of speech activity and speech.
3. The notion of functional style is interpreted in stylistics differently. There are two main approaches to its definition, both originating from Ac. V.V.Vinogradov's conception. According to the first approach, style is defined on the criterion of function as a socially accepted, functionally conditioned and internally organised system of the ways of usage, choice and combination of communicative verbal means which correlate with other similar systems serving other aims and fulfilling other functions in speech practice of a nation. According to the second approach style is defined with regard to its components. It is regarded as a system of language means united by the similarity of their function or by the sphere of usage.
Our interpretation of functional style somewhat differs from those mentioned above.
Any human activity, speech activity including, presupposes the existence of means or tools of such activity as well as devices or ways of using these means. As human activity is always purposeful, both means and devices are functionally oriented. So, if function is a role of units, style is their property. We are to distinguish styles as the properties of speech activity from styles as the properties of speech.
We define the speech functional styleas asocially accepted stereotype of speech behaviour closely connected with human social activity. These stereotypes are sets of norms and rules for generating utterances and texts together with the means and devices supplied by the language system for achieving various pragmatic aims. A functional style carries information about the speaker: the social role he has assumed, his social status, his psychological state, and his attitude to the hearer as well as to the subject-matter of speech. Its meaningfulness is a result of the speaker's choice of a certain manner of speech behaviour from the existing accepted stereotypes.
The choice of a stereotype is conditioned by many factors, the main of which are as follows: a) social roles (social relations) of the communicants, which may be equal and non-equal; b) social situation of communication, which may be formal and informal; c) pragmatic aims of the communicants. These factors do not exclude the influence of a personal factor, the factor of the author's or the speaker's personality.
4. The problem of functional style classificationis also very complicated. There are two approaches to it: deductive (from the general to the specific) and inductive (from the specific to the general). But, irrespective of the approaches adopted, scholars usually distinguish the following styles; conversational, publicistic and oratorical, official, scientific, newspaper style, and belles-lettres style.
The status of some of these styles seems refutable. Following the differentiation of the primary and secondary semiotic systems we assume that the poetic language, the language of fiction does not constitute a functional style comparable with other functional styles but it constitutes a functional type of language. Literary texts are objects of art which have their own specific structures whose functions differ in many respects from those of practical texts and utterances.
The status of the newspaper style is also doubtful. Some scholars consider that the existence of this style is conditioned by the specific aims of mass media and by the peculiarities of the linguistic means used in newspapers. But these peculiarities are confined to very limited newspaper units - headlines, brief news items and editorials Thus, it is more reasonable to speak about the newspaper language rather than about the newspaper style.
I.R.Galperin excludes conversational style from the inventory of functional styles, because his classification was based entirely on the written type of language. Though conversational style is used even more widely than written language and is not homogeneous at all.
The following speech functional styles can be distinguished:
Official style is based on the practical language and is absolutely impersonal. It is used in formal situations with the social roles of the communicants being equal or non-equal.
Scientific style is mainly based on the practical language, being mostly impersonal. It may include elements of the poetic language. The criteria of social situation and social roles are irrelevant for it.
Publicistic (oratorical) style is mainly based on the practical language, being personal. It may widely employ elements of the poetic language.
Literary conversational style is mainly based on the practical language. Mostly it widely employs elements of the poetic language. It is used in formal situations, where social roles of the communicants may be equal or non-equal.
Colloquial style is based on the practical language, though also employs elements of the poetic language. It is used in informal situations where the social roles of the communicants are as a rule equal.
5. A certain manner of behaviour results in the fact that the product of this activity -utterances and texts - have certain structural and semantic properties. These properties are the subject-matter of stylistics of speech.
Utterances and texts having similar or different semantic and structural properties conditioned by functional styles, they may be classified according to semantic and structural criteria. On the basis of these criteria, three major classes of texts hierarchically related to one another can be distinguished:
a) types of the texts. These are different classes of texts within a functional style which differ in their semantic and thematic characteristics. Thus, texts of official style may be subdivided into administrative, judicial, military, commercial, diplomatic etc;
b) genres of the texts. These are types of texts further subdivided according to their compositional and stylistic peculiarities. Thus, military texts are divided into orders, reports, instructions, regulations etc;
c) individual texts, mostly influenced by the author's personality. The study of such texts constitutes the subject-matter of stylistics of individual speech.