Phonetic styles and their classification.

Scholars distinguish a number of functional styles of the written language, such as belles-lettres style, publicistic style, newspaper style, the style of official documents and that of scientific prose, which have clearly distinguishable lexical and syntactical peculiarities. Apart from a few scattered studies of oratorial and conversational styles, the styles of the spoken language are not as yet unanimously defined, though we are well aware of the phonetic differences between, say, a casual conversation and an official exchange of views.

The main circumstances of reality that cause phonetic modifications in speech are as follows:

the aim of speech {which may be to instruct, to inform, to persuade, to narrate, to chat, etc.);

the extent of spontaneity of speech (unprepared speech, prepared speech, etc.);

the nature of interchange, i.e. the use of a form of speech which may either suggest only listening, or both listening and an exchange of remarks(a lecture, a discussion, a conversation, etc.);

social and psychological factors, which determine the extent of formality of speech and the attitudes expressed (a friendly conversation with close friends, a quarrel, an official conversation, etc.) (8, 221 ¦

These circumstances,or factors,are termed extralinguistic factors. Speaking is open to the influence of all these extralinguistic factors. Different ways of pronunciation, caused by extralinguistic factors and characterized by definite phonetic features,are called phonetic styles, or styles of pronunciation*.

The notion of styles of pronunciation was introduced by M.Lomonosov in the 18th century. Since then it has attracted many linguists. Though the differences in the styles of pronunciation are recognized by all, there is no generally accepted classification of styles of pronunciation as yet.

L. Shcherba [433, one of the first Soviet linguists to make a study of the styles of pronunciation, distinguishes two styles: the full style and the colloquial style. The full style is the pronunciation used in deliberately careful speech, while the colloquial style of pronunciation, as he defines it, is the pronunciation used in ordinary conversation. Cf. "Александр Александрович" and "Альсан Саныч" or "Сан Саныч". L.Shcherba notes that the colloquial style embraces different varieties of pronunciation which, as he says, are not easily differentiated one from another.

English phoneticians distinguish a greater number of styles of pronunciation, although among them there is no generally accepted classification of pronunciation styles either. Thus, D.Jones distinguishes five styles of pronunciation: (a) the rapid familiar style, (b) the slower colloquial style, (c) the natural style used in addressing an audience, (d) the acquired style of the stage, and (e) the acquired styles used in singing The term "style of pronunciation" is sometimes interpreted in a narrow sense, taking into account only the way vocabulary units are pronounced. Whereas the term "phonetic style" generally implies both segmental and prosodic phenomena

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