Introduction

Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………….3

Language for Specific Purposes……………………………………………………

The style of official documents……………………………………………………

The scientific prose style………………………………………………………….

The publicistic style……………………………………………………………..

The newspaper style……………………………………………………………..

The belle-lettres style…………………………………………………………..

Conclusions………………………………………………………………………

Introduction

The theme of report is "Functional styles of English language".

The topicality of this theme is conditioned on the fact that besides a number of modern communication methods available today, the traditional business letter remains an important means of sending printed messages. Also it must be emphasised that the routine of the official or semi-official business letters requires certain accepted idioms, phrases, patterns, and grammar which are found in general use today. Therefore, certain skills must be acquired by practising, and some basic details of writing must be carefully learnt.

The object of the paper is the structure and semantics of business letter correspondence.

The subject matter of the course paper is the role of lexics and semantics in the case of business letter correspondence.

The aim of my course paper is to study business letters from the lexicological point of view and make the matter of business letter writing less complicated.

The aim was provided for the decision of such tasks:

- Critical study of the material on the theme;

- exposure of the aims, place, importance, role and contents of the aspect business letter-writing

- searching the peculiarities of the structure, manners and styles of business letters;

- defining and stating the rules of writing a business letter;

- arranging and classifying the business letters according to the sphere of usage;

- giving useful tips and advice to anyone interested in business letter writing.

The materials of research are a list of business books, various reference books, language textbooks, real pieces of business correspondence and different sites of the Internet.

The structure of the work. The work consists of the introduction, two chapters, the general conclusions and the list of the sources being used. The first chapter is dedicated to the meaning and importance of business correspondence, language and common principles of business writing and structure of a business letter. The second chapter include the types of a business letters,main rules how to write each type of letter mentioned and suitable lexics to use while writing them.

Language for Specific Purposes is probably the most challenging branch in linguistics. The term LSP has been in use for a quarter of a century now, and its definition can be found in many issues on the subject that followed the first, classical, edition by T. Hutchinson and A. Waters (English for Specific Purposes, CUP, 1987). Further development of the basic principles of LSP found its realization and understanding in great diversity of definitions and in a considerable difference of opinion as to its nature, status and subject matter.

Language for specific purposes belongs to language means used by experts communicating within their areas of expertise, that is why it is often referred to as an occupational variety.

In European linguistic tradition there are some more terms applied to this sphere of linguistic studies such as registers of speech, language varieties or functional styles. There is much divergence of opinion as regards the proper term and it is related to the general consideration of this linguistic phenomenon – whether it is treated as a scientific discipline, or as a professional area. The term that connects theory and practice and backs the dictum that language is a system of communication which is used by the people of a particular country, seems to be functional styles.

A functional style can be defined as a system of coordinated and interrelated language means intended to fulfill a specific function of communication and aiming at a definite effect. The peculiar choice of language means is primarily dependent on the aim of communication. Each style is recognized by the language community as an independent whole.

However, the most popular term employed in Europe is Language for Specific Purposes.

Language for specific purposes is a particular form of a general language, adjusted in such a way as to describe a certain area of knowledge or of activity as precisely as possible. It can be identified as a conventionalized semiotic system based on a natural language and characterized by a cognitive function which indicates the development of civilization, serves as an instrument of professional work and training.

Such Functional Styles are distinguished in English language: the style of official documents, the scientific prose style, the publicistic style, the newspaper style, the belle-lettres style. Most of these styles belong exclusively to writing, in so much as only in this particular form of human intercourse can communications of any length be completely unambiguous. Each style is characterised by a number of individual features which can be classified as leading or subordinate, constant or changing, obligatory or optional, essential or transitory. Each style can be subdivided into a number of substyles. The latter present varieties of the root style and have much in common with it. The root styles fall into the following substyles:

The style of official documents: business documents, diplomatic documents, legal documents, military documents.

The scientific prose style: the humanities, the exact sciences.

The publicistic style: speeches (oratory), essays, articles.

The newspaper style: newspaper headlines, brief news items, advertisements.

The belle-lettres style: poetry proper, emotive prose, drama.

Any comparison of the texts belonging to different stylistic varieties listed above will show that the first two of them – official documents and scientific style varieties – are almost entirely devoid of emotive colouring being characterised by the neutrality of style, whereas the last three are usually rich in stylistic devices.

Each functional style requires the choice of a special kind of grammatical forms and structures and most of all of vocabulary. Words or word groups which are specifically employed by a particular branch of science, technology, trade, or the arts to convey a concept peculiar to this particular activity are identified as terms. Terms are generally associated with a certain branch of science and therefore with a series of other terms belonging to that particular branch of science. They always come in clusters, either in a text or on the subject to which they belong, or in special dictionaries which unlike general dictionaries make a careful selection of terms. Taken together, these clusters of terms form a system of names for the objects of study of any particular branch of science.

Дата добавления: 2015-08-03