Functional styles and functional stylistics

Functional Style is a system of interrelated language means serving a definite aim in communication. It is the coordination of the language means and stylistic devices which shapes the distinctive features of each style and not the language means or stylistic devices themselves.

Each style, however, can be recoquized by one or more leading features which are especially conspicuous. For instance the use of special terminology is a lexical characteristics of the style of scientific prose, and one by which it can easily be recognized.

A style of language can be fined as a system of coordinated, interrelated and inter-coordinated language means intended to full-fill a specific function of communication and aiming at a defined effect. Style of language is a historical category.

The English literary system has evolved a number of styles easily distinguishable one from another. They are not homogeneous and fall into several variants of having some central point of resemblance or better to say. All integrated by the invariant - i.e. the abstract ideal system.

They are:

· 1) Official(documents and papers);

· 2) Scientific (brochures, articles, other scientific publications);

· 3) Publicistic (essay, public speech);

· 4) Newspaper style(mass media);

· 5) Belles-lettres style(genre of creative writing);

Each of mentioned here styles can be expressed in two forms: written and oral.

Stylistics is a sides that examines the complex of stylistically marked elements of any language level.

· 1) scientific style is employed in professional communication to convey some information. It’s most conspicuous feature is the abundance of terms denoting objects, phenomena and processes characteristics of some particular field of science and technique. Also precision clarity logical cohesion.

· 2) Official style is the most conservative one. It uses syntactical constructions and archaic words. Emotiveness is banned out of this style.

· 3) Publicistic style is famous for its explicit pragmatic function of persuasion directed at influencing the reader in accordance with the argumentation of the author.

· 4) Newspaper style - special graphical means are used to attract the readers attention.

· 5) Belles-lettres style - the richest register of communication besides its own language means, other styles can be used besides informative and persuasive functions, belles-lettres style has a unique task to impress the reader are aesthetically.

41. The second, somewhat smaller, group of syntactical SDs deals not so much with specificities of the arrangement as with the completeness of sentence-structure. The most prominent place here belongs to ellipsis, or deliberate omission of at least one member of the sentence, as in the famous quotation from Macbeth: What! all my pretty chickens and their dam // at one fell swoop?

In contemporary prose ellipsis is mainly used in dialogue where it is consciously employed by the author to reflect the natural omissions characterizing oral colloquial speech. Often ellipsis is met close to dialogue, in author's introductory remarks commenting the speech of the characters. Elliptical remarks in prose resemble stage directions in drama. Both save only the most vital information letting out those bits of it which can be easily reassembled from the situation. It is the situational nature of our everyday speech which heavily relies on both speakers' awareness of the conditions and details of the communication act that promotes normative colloquial omissions. Imitation of these oral colloquial norms is created by the author through ellipsis, with the main function of achieving the authenticity and plausibility of fictitious dialogue.

Ellipsis is the basis of the so-called telegraphic style, in which connectives and redundant words are left out. In the early twenties British railways had an inscription over luggage racks in the carriages: "The use of this rack for heavy and bulky packages involves risk of injury to passengers and is prohibited." Forty years later it was reduced to the elliptical: "For light articles only." The same progress from full completed messages to clipped phrases was made in drivers' directions: "Please drive slowly" "Drive slowly" "Slow".

The biggest contributors to the telegraphic style are one-member sentences, i.e. sentences consisting only of a nominal group, which is semantically and communicatively self-sufficient. Isolated verbs, proceeding from the ontological features of a verb as a part of speech, cannot be considered one-member sentences as they always rely on the context for their semantic fulfilment and are thus heavily ellipticized sentences. In creative prose one-member sentences are mostly used in descriptions (of nature, interior, appearance, etc.), where they produce the effect of a detailed but laconic picture foregrounding its main components; and as the background of dialogue, mentioning the emotions, attitudes, moods of the speakers.

In apokoinu constructions the omission of the pronominal (adverbial) connective creates a blend of the main and the subordinate clauses so that the predicative or the object of the first one is simultaneously used as the subject of the second one. Cf: "There was a door led into the kitchen." (Sh. A.) "He was the man killed that deer." (R.W.) The double syntactical function played by one word produces the general impression of clumsiness of speech and is used as a means of speech characteristics in dialogue, in reported speech and the type of narrative known as "entrusted" in which the author entrusts the telling of the story to an imaginary narrator who is either an observer or participant of the described events.

The last SD which promotes the incompleteness of sentence structure is break (aposiopesis). Break is also used mainly in the, dialogue or in other forms of narrative imitating spontaneous oral speech. It reflects the emotional or/and the psychological state of the speaker: a sentence may be broken because the speaker's emotions prevent him from finishing it. Another cause of the break is the desire to cut short the information with which the sentence began. In such cases there are usually special remarks by the author, indicating the intentional abruptness of the end. (See examples in Exercise IV). In many cases break is the result of the speaker's uncertainty as to what exactly he is to promise (to threaten, to beg).

To mark the break, dashes and dots are used. It is only in cast-iron structures that full stops may also appear, as in the well-known phrases "Good intentions, but", or "It depends".

42. A work of creative prose is never homogeneous as to the form and essence of the information it carries. Both very much depend on the viewpoint of the addresser, as the author and his personages may offer different angles of perception of the same object. Naturally, it is the author who organizes this effect of polyphony, but we, the readers, while reading the text, identify various views with various personages, not attributing them directly to the writer. The latter's views and emotions are most explicitly expressed in the author's speech (orthe author's narrative).

The uhfoldinof me plot is mainly concentrated here, personages are given characteristics, the time and the pla'ce of action are also described here, as the author sees them. The author's narrative supplies the reader with direct information about the author's preferences and objections, beliefs and contradictions, i.e. serves the major source of shaping up the author's image.

In contemporary prose, in an effort to make his writing more plausible, to impress the reader with the effect of authenticity of the described events, the writer entrusts some fictitious character (who might also participate in the narrated events) with the task of story-telling. The writer himself thus hides behind the figure of the narrator, presents all the events of the story from the latter's viewpoint and only sporadically emerges in the narrative with his own considerations, which may reinforce or contradict those expressed by the narrator. This form of the author's speech is called entrusted narrative. The structure of the entrusted narrative is much more complicated than that of the author's narrative proper, because instead of one commanding, organizing image of the author, we have the hierarchy of the narrator's image seemingly arranging the pros and cons of the related problem and, looming above the narrator's image, there stands the image of the author, the true and actual creator of it all, responsible for all the views and evaluations of the text and serving the major and predominant force of textual cohesion and unity.

Entrusted narrative can be carried out in the 1st person singular, when the narrator proceeds with his story openly and explicitly, from his own name, as, e.g., in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, or The Great Gatsby by Sc. Fitzgerald, or All the King's Men by R.f.Warren. In the first book Holden Caulfield himself retells about the crisis in his own life which makes the focus of the novel. In the second book Nick Carraway tells about Jay Gatsby, whom he met only occasionally, so that to tell Gatsby's life-story he had to rely on the knowledge of other personages too. And in the third book Jack Burden renders the dramatic career of Willie Stark, himself being one of the closest associates of the man. In the first case the narration has fewer deviations from the main line, than in the other two in which the narrators have to supply the reader also with the information about themselves and their connection with the protagonist.

Entrusted narrative may also be anonymous. The narrator does not openly claim responsibility for the views and evaluations but the manner of presentation, the angle of description very strongly suggest that the story is told not by the author himself but by some of his factotums, which we see, e.g., in the prose of Fl. O'Connor, C. McCullers, E. Hemingway, E. Caldwell.

The narrative, both the author's and the entrusted, is not the only type of narration observed in creative prose. A very important place here is occupied by dialogue, where personages express their minds in the form of uttered speech. In their exchange of remarks the participants of the dialogue, while discussing other people and their actions, expose themselves too. So dialogue is one of the most significant forms of the personage's self-characterization, which allows the author to seemingly eliminate himself from the process

Two other forms - description and argumentation - are static. The former supplies the details of the appearance of people and things "populating" the book, of the place and time of action, the latter offers causes and effects of the personage's behaviour, his (or the author's) considerations about moral, ethical, ideological and other issues. It is rather seldom that any of these compositional forms is used in a "pure", uninterrupted way. As a rule they intermingle even within the boundaries of a paragraph.

43. Represented speech

Represented, or reported speech, is a stylistic device peculiarly combining characteristic features of direct and indirect speech. It is a comparatively “young” stylistic device dating its increasing popularity from the end of the last century. Introducing represented speech into his narration the author creates the effect of the hero’s immediate presence and participation.

The morphological structure is that of indirect speech: the hero is referred to in the third person singular the verbs and pronouns are, too, of the same form. But though the quotation marks are absent and though the structure of the passage does not indicate the hero’s interference into the writer’s narration, still there are certain features which enable us to distinguish it from the author’s indirect speech proper. The exclamatory sentences help to reflect the emotional state of the hero. Parallel constructions, repetitions – all take part in bringing in the character himself with his ideas, dreams and sentiments. The writer does not eliminate himself completely from the narration as it happens with the introduction of direct speech but coexist with the personage.

“So” at the beginning of the sentence has the function of summing up certain preceding meditations and arguments.

Turning from the structure of affirmative sentences to that of interrogative and exclamatory the writer marks off the introduction of an emotive passage, which more often than not represents reported speech.

Represented speech can be divided into 2 uneven groups: represented inner speech and represented uttered speech.

The first group is incomparably larger, it enables the writer to give a fuller and more complete picture of the hero’s state of mind as if from within.

Represented uttered speech is a mental reproduction of a once uttered remark or even a whole dialogue.

“You know” serves the same purpose of intermixing elements of direct and indirect speech, which creates represented speech, so narrowing the distance between the character and the reader.

Close to represented speech stands the effect of immediate presence. Its function is similar to that of represented speech: to show a certain picture through the eyes of immediate direct participant, and in this way to involve the reader into proceedings.

e.g. “… he was telling her of his prospective art studies, and talking of Paris. What a wonderful thing!”

four types of narration briefly described above are singled out on the basis of the viewpoint commanding the organization of each one. If it is semantics of the text that is taken as the foundation of the classification then we shall deal with the three narrative compositional forms traditionally singled out in poetics and stylistics. They are: narrative proper where the unfolding of the plot is concentrated. This is the most dynamic compositional form of the text. Two other forms - description and a rgumentation - are static. The former supplies the details of the appearance of people and things "populating" the book, of the place and time of action, the latter offers causes and effects of the personage's behaviour, his (or the author's) considerations about moral, ethical, ideological and other issues. It is rather seldom that any of these compositional forms is used in a "pure", uninterrupted way. As a rule they intermingle even within the boundaries of a paragraph.

All the compositional forms can be found in each of the types of narration but with strongly varying frequences.

44. I nversion is every noticeable change in the word-order. Stylistic inversion differs from grammatical inversion. Grammatical inversion brings about a cardinal change in the grammatical meaning of the syntactical structure (e.g. an interrogative sentence).

Stylistic inversion does not change the grammatical essence (the grammatical type) of the sentence:
it consists in an unusual displacement of words in order to make one of them more conspicuous, more important, more emphatic, to make a logical stress on it or to add some expressive and emotive colour.

Cf. In they came sounds stronger than They came in.

Hence, an inverted word-order, or inversion, is one of the forms of what are known as emphatic constructions.Inversion may be complete – when the predicate is displaced,

and partial – with the displacement of secondary members of the sentence,

E.g. In the first place his red beard, ragged and untrimmed, hid much of his face … (Maugham)

There are 5 most frequent structural types of inversion:

¨ the object is placed in pre-position: E.g. Over everything she brooded and brooded.

¨ the attribute is placed after the word it modifies: E.g. …Dirk Stroeve, eager for praise and naively self-satisfied, could never resist displaying his work.

¨ the predicative is placed before the subject: E.g. A good, generous prayer it was. (Twain)

¨ the adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence: E.g. Never had she hated London so much. (Priestley)

¨ both the modifier and predicate stand before the subject: E.g. There was a rustling in the bushes on his left and suddenly like a cuckoo from a nursery clock out popped a large black bird.

Detachment is an attribution of greater significance to а secondary member of the sentence, usu. an attribute or an adverbial modifier, due to which it is formally separated from the word it syntactically depends on.

E.g. And there he lived, unmindful of the world and by the world forgotten. (Maugham)

Due to the special stress laid on it, the detached word (phrase) often appears to be opposed to what precedes or follows it. Hence, the stylistic effect of detachment is strengthening, emphasizing the word (phrase) in question. E.g. He’s read this. More or less.

Y.M. Skrebnev believes that inversion is also a sure sign of detachment.

According to I.R. Galperin the ground for the discrimination between detachment and inversion is that detachment produces a stronger effect and sounds more independent. In oral speech a detached unit is marked by prominent intonation which in writing is indicated by the use of such punctuation marks as commas, full stops or dashes.

A variant of detachment is parenthesis. It is an explanatory or qualifying remark put into a sentence.

In writing parenthesis is also indicated by commas, brackets or dashes.

E.g. You would not have noticed him in a crowd – and a great deal of his time was spent in a crowd – but if your attention had been called to him … (Priestley)

In Russian detachment is termed обособление, приложение.

syntactical patterns in two or more successive units.

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