Distinctive features of the functional styles

Publicist style

1. Phonetic features (in oratory)

- Standard pronunciation, wide use of prosody as a means of conveying the subtle shades of meaning, overtones and emotions.

- Phonetic compression.

2. Morphological features

- Frequent use of non-finite verb forms: gerund, participle, infinitive, non-perfect verb forms.

- Omission of articles, link verbs, auxiliaries, pronouns.

3. Syntactical features

- Frequent use of rhetorical questions and interrogatives in oratory speech.

- In headlines: use of impersonal sentences, elliptical constructions, interrogative sentences, infinitive complexes and attributive groups.

- In news items and articles: usually comprise 1-3 sentences.

- Absence of complex coordination with chain of subordinate clauses, of exclamatory sentences, break-in-the narrative.

- Precise syntactical organization and logical arrangement.

4. Lexical features

- Newspaper cliches and set phrases, abbreviations and acronyms.

- Proper names, toponyms, anthroponyms, names of enterprises, institutions, international words, dates and figures.

- In headlines: frequent use of pun, violated phraseology, vivid stylistic devices.

- In oratory speech: elevated and bookish words, colloquial phrases, metaphor, alliteration, allusion, irony.

- Terminological variety: scientific, sports, political, technical.

5. Compositional features

- Text arrangement is marked by precision, logic and expressive power.

- Carefully selected vocabulary, variety of topics, wide use of quotations.

- In oratory: simplicity of structural expression, clarity, argumentative power.

- In headlines: use of devices to arrest attention: rhyme, pun, puzzle, high degree of compression, graphical means.

- Articles: strict arrangement of titles and subtitles, emphasis on the headline.

- Careful subdivision into paragraphs, clearly defined position of the sections of the article: most important information – in the opening paragraph.

Scientific style

1. Morphological features

- Terminological word building and word-derivation: neologism formation by affixation and conversion.

- Restricted use of finite verb forms, impersonal constructions.

- “ The author’s we” instead of “I”.

2. Syntactical features

- Direct word order, use of lengthy sentences with subordinate clauses.

- Extensive use of participial, gerundial, infinitive complexes, adverbial and prepositional phrases.

- Preferential use of attributive groups instead of the descriptive ‘ of phrase’.

- Prevalence of nominal constructions for the sake of generalization.

- Passive and non-finite verb forms – to achieve impersonality.

- Impersonal forms and sentences: assuming that, mention should be made.

3. Lexical features

-Bookish words: presume, infer, preconception, cognitive; scientific terminology and phraseology.

- Neologisms, proper names, words – in their primary dictionary meaning.

- Restricted use of emotive colouring, interjections, expressive phraseology, phrasal verbs and colloquial vocabulary; seldom use of tropes.

4. Compositional features

- Logical and consistent narration, sequential presentation of facts.

- extensive use of citation, references, foot-notes, - restricted use of expressive means and stylistic devices.

- Conventional set phrases.

- Special set of connective phrases: on the contrary, likewise, consequently, double conjunctions: as…as, either…or, both…and.

- Compositionally arranged sentence patterns: postulatory (at the beginning), argumentative (central part), formulative (in the conclusion).

- Types of texts compositionally depend on the scientific genre: monograph, article, presentation, thesis, dissertation.

- Proper scientific texts: mathematics: highly formalized, with prevalence of formulae, tables, diagrams with concise commentary phrases.

- In humanitarian texts: descriptive narration with argumentation and interpretation.

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