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Functional Styles Revised Version
Functional Styles Revised Version
Functional Styles Revised Version
Course notes
FUNCTIONAL STYLES
Course Notes
Contents
Introductory course
Functional varieties of English
Standard English and Received Pronunciation
Register
General characteristics of style
Peculiarities of style
Variations and Variety in Registers
English as a World Language
Slang
Jargon
Dialect
Language for Special/Specific Purposes
1. The Language of Science
2. Medical Language
3. The Language of Religion
4. The Language of the Law
5. The Language of the Press
6. The Language of Advertising
Style is a matter of expression defined by the Websters as a mode of expressing thought in language;
esp.: one characteristic of an individual period, school, or nation.
In its most wide acceptation, stylistics is the study of language in action, the investigation of the way in
which the speakers make use of their idiom on one occasion or another. From this point of view,
distinction must be made among: standard English; vernacular; colloquial English; slang; cant, jargon
and argot; dialect.
Introductory Course
English has become the most widely spread language of the world. North or South, East or West, there
is practically no place on the Earth where you could not hear English spoken or where you could not
make yourself understood by speaking it.
However, whether written or spoken, we often ask ourselves why what we learn from books is
not always what people speak, why what people speak is not always what grammar books recommend,
or why language differs so much from one speaker to another.
There are many factors which can make language vary, such as:
1.
2.
geographical areas;
3.
education;
4.
field of interest;
5.
6.
7.
8.
Examples:
1.
The duration of various magnetic reversals is known from potassium dating of land-rocks and can be used
to put dates to the magnetic strips of the ocean floor and hence to estimate the rate of spreading. The age of the
rocks lying near to the ridge implied a rate of spreading of about 2- cm a year.
2.
Before making these nominations, each national group is recommended to consult its highest court of
justice, its legal faculties and schools of law, and its national academies and national sections of international
academies devoted to the study of law.
1st text
geology (register)
non-finite clauses
passive voice
vocabulary
2nd text
law (register)
non-finite clauses
passive voice
- vocabulary
Everyday English is much richer in finite verb clauses and complex sentences. It also uses a lot of
conjoiners, like on the contrary, also, and, but, or nevertheless. That is why sentences used
in the everyday conversation lack in the informational density, found in the scientific discourse.
Other syntactic features typifying newspaper English: headlines tend to be marked by reductions,
rarely found in other uses of English: Motor-workers Hitting Back; British Government Failure to
Free Internees Blamed; Obama for Brussels; Rise for Air Staff
Apart from the differences emerging from the subject matter or purpose for which they are used,
registers should still have in common the same characteristics.
However much a speaker may be concerned about the register he is using at a certain moment,
there are factors that can influence the shift from one register to another, sometimes involuntarily with
the same speaker, on the same occasion, at the same time. Among them we can enumerate subjective
factors, like the speakers state of mind, distress, other speakers interference, even noises going on,
divagations occasioned by the type of dialogue. Thus, a speaker can shift the register from formal to
informal or colloquial or vice-versa during the same communication opportunity. However, no matter
what register is being used, or whether the speaker is being formal/ informal, the general
characteristics of any style should be the same with every communicator/ emitter.
The message must therefore achieve:
1.
2.
clarity, using those words or phrases which are best known to the speakers of the language both in
oral and written form. The following can be considered deviations from clarity:
a)
b)
equivocation confusing in meaning (for example, the word people, in English, which can have
two different meanings: 1. Humans, generally speaking, and 2. Ethnic group defined as the majority
people inhabiting a country. Unless specified correctly in context, the meaning can arise
equivocation.);
nonsense senseless constructions/ sentences (Noam Chomsky quotes the following example, a
sentence which is correct from grammatical point of view, but makes no sense from logical point of
view: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.)
3.
appropriateness refers to using the words, phrases or grammatical constructions that best fit a
certain context;
E.g.
4.
precision consists of using the words most necessary to communicate; there are deviations
speakers should be able to avoid during communication.
a)
b)
redundancy a major flaw in communication since it hinders the logical perception of the
verbal message. It consists of repeating one or several ideas in too many words by means of pleonastic
constructions or by reiteration.
5.
purity of style using only those words which are admitted by the common sense language; too
many or unjustified use of regionalisms, neologisms, archaisms can become a major impediment in
both written and oral communication.
Obeying the above mentioned characteristics of style is obligatory for all types of communicators
or speakers and for all registers.
Peculiarities of Style
Peculiarities of style are specific of cultivated registers only. A message which has achieved all
the above general characteristics, is more or less likely to have a style of its own and peculiarities to
define it. Among these peculiarities, the following can be mentioned:
1.
Genuineness defines the natural fluent non-artificial expression. It involves good knowledge of
the language, experience in using it, practice and hard-working effort in writing. Deviations from
genuineness can result in affectation (for e.g. histrionics pretending to speak to audiences in theatres;
emphatics - the bombastic declamatory style.)
2.
Conciseness concentrated lapidary expression using only those words that are necessary to good
communication.
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Simplicity quite related to conciseness, means not only the use of the most accessible words,
avoiding unnecessary stylistic artificiality, but also a serious and careful selection of the appropriate
vocabulary.
4.
Harmony regards the musical aspect of the language. A careful speaker will avoid using words
whose association will create an unpleasant or unwanted phonological effect (cacophony).
5.
Dignity requests the use of only those words that do not attempt to other interlocutors common
sense, bashfulness that rejects triviality. Delicacy, refinement, discreteness, elegance are qualities
going along or resulting from dignity.
6.
Innovation is a characteristic particularizing the speaker especially in written literary texts, but
not only. Being rhetorical or inspiring music, the inner resources of the language would be up to the
speakers themselves.
Variations and Variety in Registers
We often notice that speakers vary the registers in use. Quite often one and the same speaker can be
stiffly formal (stilted), even colloquial immediately after. A rough division of registers according to
social requirements, degree of school education or necessity of expression would be:
a)
formal language- written language, radio, TV, when address to large audiences;
b)
E.g. Visitors should proceed at once to the upper floor by way of the staircase.
E.g. Visitors are requested to go up the stairs at once.
E. g. Would you mind going upstairs right away, please.
E.g. Now, time you all went upstairs!
E.g. Up you go chaps!
E.g. Get up them bloody stairs!
For a description of English it is important to recognize the respective code labels/ level
markers which signal to the native speaker the kind of communicative situation he is in. Just in a
particular register, both lexis and grammar carry this additional stylistic meaning. Note the downward
change from should to would, from visitors to you, from staircase to stairs, from at
once to right away and further to now. Apart from these relative marking devices there are also
absolute ones such as the reduction time from its time, or chaps, for the fronting up you go, or
the vulgar bloody stairs.
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2.
3.
x
x
o
everyday
o
o
o
x
scientific
x
journalistic
official
literary
Register
Medium: - spoken = o
- written = x
An example as the one that follows:
1.
Army sources said tonight that the three men who died in a bomb explosion in the Roman Catholic
Falls area of Belfast this morning were members of the provisional IRA. (taken from an item in Times)
- can be characterized as journalistic, neutral and written.
This does not exclude the possibility of quoting from one and the same source varying as to their
characteristics.
2.
I saw a bright flash and heard a bang, I ran to the bedroom door and there was nothing outside.
This example has been taken from the same paper, but it is every day, colloquial and spoken.
To conclude, we can appreciate that any register can be defined within three component elements,
also known as dimensions of diatypical variations ( > dia = through, across; tipus = image/ typos =
model, Greek). These are:
Tenor (style).
Generally speaking, individual speakers will be able to master one dialect which is permanent and
quite hard to change, but several diatypes, according to the above mentioned dimensions.
The interdependence between written and oral English is complex. Oral/Spoken English is
considered to be basic, because it is acquired before written English and is more frequently used.
Written English has a special place in the formal education system. Oral English will vary more
than written English will, because written language is formal, while oral language is spontaneous.
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Slang
The Oxford English Dictionary defines slang as the special vocabulary used by any set of persons of
a low or disreputable character; language of a low and vulgar type.
According to Wikipedia.org, slang has to meet at least two of the following criteria in order to be
classified as such:
It lowers, if temporarily, "the dignity of formal or serious speech or writing"; in other words, it is likely
to be considered in those contexts a "glaring misuse of register."
Its use implies that the user is familiar with whatever is referred to, or with a group of people who are
familiar with it and use the term.
"It is a taboo term in ordinary discourse with people of a higher social status or greater responsibility."
It replaces "a well-known conventional synonym". This is done primarily to avoid the discomfort
caused by the conventional item or by further elaboration.
A somewhat more intransigent definition of the term states that slang is language of a highly
colloquial type, considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting of either
new words invented for fun, or of current words used in some special sense. This kind of slang tends to
have a short life and a merry one, since it passes out of vogue almost as quickly as it goes in, following
the speed with which slang-makers get bored and move on to something else. The notion of slang as
language or idiom which is not appropriate in formal or in literary contexts is probably the dominant
meaning today. It tends to be more transitory and metaphorical than standard language. In fact, slang
has the quality of always bearing the meaning chosen by the speaker.
The question is WHY do people invent and use slang? One popular theory is that slang tends to be
the language of the poor and the criminal classes, who try to make their lives colourful through the
language they use. Unfortunately, this theory is self-sufficient and rather romantic, and not by far able
to meet a solid reasoning.
It is assumed that people using slang seek at least three things in various degrees of proportions:
novelty, vivacity, and intimacy. Public school slang is a form of cant (secret language). It is different
from one language to another, from Oxford to Cambridge, and from Liverpool to Leeds. Because slang
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12
Jargon
The meaning of jargon depends on the context, and opinions and judgments of the person using it.
In English, jargon has come to mean language that sounds ugly and is hard to understand for
various reasons. It has been used to describe a hybrid speech of different languages.
Jargon is also used to describe the sectional vocabulary and register of a science, art, trade, class,
sect, or profession, full of technical terms and codes, and consequently difficult, or often
incomprehensible for those who are not in the know.
The jargon of business, sometimes called commercialese, is designed to impress and to sell, as
well as to convey information, and is composed of pomposity, obsequiousness (=keenness to please
someone, in a way that doesnt seem sincere), and circumlocution (=the use of too many words to say
something, especially in order to avoid saying something clearly). Corporatese is an alternate term
for the jargon used in corporations. Wikipedia.org quotes examples of corporatese like the following:
ASAP (as soon as possible), DBA (doing business as), ETA (estimated time of arrival), FY (fiscal
year), HR (human resources), etc. as acronyms; critical thinker, matrix organisation, re-engineer,
teamwork, etc. as nouns; deliver, emerge, generate, implement, etc. as verbs; authored, sustainable,
actionable, scalable, etc. as adjectives.
Here is an example of officese (jargon of the office), in a letter, from a department store to which
the author owed money:
Madam,
We are in the receipt of your favour of the 9th inst. [this month] with regard to estimate required for the
removal of your furniture and affects from the above address to Burbleton, and will arrange for a
Representative to call to make an inspection on Tuesday next, the 14th inst., before 12 noon, which we trust
will be convenient, after which our quotation will at once issue.
Or even simpler:
Thank you for your letter of May 9th. A man will call next Tuesday, forenoon, to see our furniture and
effects, after which, without delay, we will send our estimate for their removal to Burbleton.
Journalism is another pseudo-science that creates its own jargons. Journalese is popularly
supposed to be one of them: the kind of English found in the tabloids and pops, featured by use of
colloquialisms, superficiality of thought or reasoning, clever or sensational presentation of material,
sentimentality and chauvinism, considered characteristics of newspaper writing. Another characteristic
is its ostentatious syntax.
13
Dialect
English as a world language, spoken by large populations of native speakers, on a wide geographical
area, having inventive genius and of industrial and commercial enterprise, a language which had a long
period of political and economic leadership, is a bunch of overlapping dialects. The English spoken in
Mumbay is a quite different and distinct dialect from the English they speak in Birmingham or in
Brisbane. Even if they may have some difficulty in understanding the speakers in Ulster or in
Glasgow, English speakers from Los Angeles will still communicate using the same language basis.
A dialect used to be considered the local variety of a language that occurred in a rural district. As
local dialect is fading away, national dialects grow stronger, as English-speaking countries develop
their peculiar core of literary and colloquial English spoken by all English speakers.
Today English has become a Commonwealth of languages. Around the central core, and
overlapping it and each other, are all the national dialects which enrich each other by borrowing and
lending.
The dominant dialect is American English, partly because so many millions are using the language
over there, and partly because they lead the way for the rest in science, arts, fashion. Vocabularies,
idioms, and grammar from tongues like Eskimo, Algonkian, and Hispanic English flow into the main
stream of English.
Yiddish is one of the strongest and liveliest sources of new English, or Yinglish (col. Hebronics). It is
not Yinglish vocabulary that is being adopted, but Yiddish grammatical structures, idioms. For
example, taking a predicate adjective or noun and sticking it in front of the sentence, for emphasis
(what has been called idiom topicalization or fronting) comes down from Yiddish and is common
in German, Danish, and other Germanic languages:
e.g. Smart, he isnt.
Beautiful, she is not.
14
17
2. Medical Language
The field of medicine is somewhat different from any other field as it faces the confrontation scientific
vs. everyday language. Outside the world of the research laboratory and clinic, there exists the daily
routine of medical practice. There occurs a communication situation in which a doctor attempts to
understand the problems of a patient and the patient attempts to understand the doctors diagnosis.
Language is involved at all points in the consultation. The initial statement of symptoms is of critical
significance as it guides the doctors search for the clinical signs of the condition.
The doctors explanations and his recommendations for treatment need to be clear and
complete if the patient is to understand and follow the correct course of action.
Communication Problems
Both parties need to listen carefully and express in a self-evident way in a field as sensitive and
serious as health. There are many problems arising in practice. Patients worried about their health
often seem uncertain or confused. Busy doctors will not have the time to take up every point that
the patient has attended to.
There is a tradition of medical interviewing which hinders the development of a genuine
communicative interaction.
A study of ten major medical journals found general agreement about the following
characteristics of doctor - patient communication.
Topics of conversation should be restricted to those dealing with the patients body and conditions
contributing to disease.
18
Conversation should only be with the patient, not with relatives and friends.
Patients should be told that they are ultimately responsible for the improvement of their own
health, which will occur only if they follow the doctors advice; this tradition is still widely
encountered.
Studies of medical communication have in view several types of situations in which there has
been a breakdown of communication and where the consultation has had an unsatisfactory result.
Regional, social and cultural differences between doctor and patient can all be sources of
linguistic difficulty especially in the case of immigrant patients.
Even age can intervene. An American study found the problems so serious that it suggested
devising a questionnaire phrased in appropriate slang to enable all the doctors to communicate with
inner-city teenage patients.
Medical interviews face many difficulties. Some people are naturally taciturn in formal
situations because their social/ cultural background has developed in them a sense of knowing their
place. Others find it necessary to talk at length about unrelated topics as a preliminary to introducing
their symptoms. Some play down the importance of these symptoms because they have been brought
up not to make a fuss. Each type of case presents doctors with a problem of communication analysis.
Linguistic problems continue to occur even when doctors and patients have the same social
background. Doctor need to be alert to pick up the linguistic queues that may express the patients real
reason for coming to the surgery or the issue that is causing the most subconscious worry (such as
repeatedly referring to the heart). They also need to anticipate points of potential misunderstanding
such as the common patients interpretation of the word growth (you have a small growth here) to
mean cancer, or thrombosis to mean heart disease.
Medical communication researchers have also drawn attention to several areas where medical
staff could promote their own communicative skills (by providing explanations of what they are doing
while they are doing it, by welcoming questions from patients rather than putting on the "doctor knows
best attribute, or by avoiding patronizing language: Drink it down like a good girl!).
Above all, medical staff needs to be aware of the many functions that language can perform
and, in particular that language may be used to signal desire for social contact and need not be taken
literally. For example, in one study, 40 hospital patients who asked for relief from pain were given
either routine nursing attention, or a visit from the nurse specially trained in communication skills.
Only 2 of the former group obtained immediate relief, whereas 14 of the latter group did so. And the
entire former group required analgesics, compared with the only 6 of the latter.
Such findings illustrate the need for a prospective on communication to be part of medical
training.
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Vocabulary
A diagram of the muscles of the neck is showing the traditional use of Latin nomenclature
would make most people identify medical language with this kind of terminology or its vernacular
meaning: stylo-glassus, stylo-hyoid, obliquus capitis superior, transversalis cervicis, sterno-hyoid etc.
The labels of anatomy and philosophy do form the core of the subject indeed. However, the
kinds of conversation in hospitals and clinics introduce a wide range of additional terminology. People,
locations, routine objects and daily activities, all have their special labels, idioms or abbreviations:
E.g. intern, registrar, SRN, ENT, path lab, sluice, day room, theatre, medical records, op, scrub up,
draw-sheet, sample, drainage tube etc.
It is not difficult to hear sentences that are unintelligible say to the initiated: Staff wants you to
do the TRR on the four hourlies = The staff nurse wants you to take the temperature, pulses and
respiration of those patients who need this information recorded every four hours.
The relationship language-religious belief pervades cultural history. Frequently, a divine being
is believed to have invented speech or writing and given it as a gift to mankind. One of the first things
Adam has to do (Book of Genesis) is name the acts of creation. In the Egyptian mythology the god
Thoth is the creator of speech and writing, Brahma gives the knowledge of writing to the Hindu
people. Odin is the inventor of runic script in Icelandic sagas. A heaven sent water turtle, with marks
on its back, brings writing to the Chinese. All over the world the supernatural provides a powerful set
of beliefs about the origins of language.
Religious associations are particularly strong in relation to written language because writing is
an effective means of guarding and transmitting sacred knowledge. Literacy was available only to an
elite, in which priests figure prominently. Echoes of this link reverberate in the English vocabulary still
through such connections as: scripture and script, or the reference to scripture as Holy Writing. There
are wide spread sanctions for human action expressed in phrases like: for it is written = Holy
Scripture says it.
Sacred writings are at the center of all the worlds main religions; scrupulous attention is paid
to identifying and preserving the linguistic features of the original texts. Often the texts are
accompanied by a long tradition of commentary which may itself take on special religious
significance.
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Liturgical forms both spoken and sung, produced by individuals as monologue or dialogue and
including such acts as invocations, petitions, doxologies (statements of glory or praise), inter-sessions,
thanksgivings, rosaries, litanies, chants, psalms.
Preaching from formal written sermon to spontaneous monologues or even dialogues (as the
congregation reacts) and sometimes involving elements of songs, or chant, as in Black American
preaching.
Ritual forms - used in relation to cultural or social practices such as baptisms, funerals,
confessions, meal times, remembrance services, wedding, initiation ceremonies, circumcisions,
invocations, oaths, vows, exorcism and the blessing of people.
Readings from sacred texts is an original language or translation and varying degrees of formality
and modernity. The texts will contain a wide range of varieties such as parables, psalms, historical
narrative, apocalyptic description, poetry, and paradox.
4.
Whatever the legal domain, i.e. government, legislation, court room activities, documentation that
constrains our daily life (regulation) we are faced with this is a fundamental principle: the words of the
law are, in fact, the law. There is no other variety where unstated intentions are so disregarded and
where the history of previous usage counts for so much.
The need and concern for precise and consistent linguistic interpretation has produced over the
centuries, a highly distinctive style, complex in appearance, mainly in written form. The lay public has
often criticized the style for being unnecessarily complex. D. MELLINKOFF (Prof. of Law) considers
his profession to display four linguistic mannerisms:
-
lack of clarity;
pomposity;
dullness.
Historical facts explain the character of present day legal language. Stylistic tradition is a major
influence here: null and void, rest, residuum and remainder can be traced back to Anglo- Saxon, old
French or Medieval Latin.
The repetition, the alliteration and rhythm of many expressions: the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth reflect the need for the law to be remembered clearly and passed on consistent at
a time when printing and general literacy were lacking.
The use of tautological expressions in English documents is often due to the influence of different
languages, for e.g. a French/ Latin term used alongside an Anglo-Saxon one: will/testament reflects
the uncertainty of early draftsman as to whether the 2 terms have the same meaning and it was safer to
use both.
Historical explanations do not stop the persistent call for change in legal language by eliminating
archaic or Latin expressions, simplifying grammatical structure and adding punctuation. Those in
favor of change argue that this would make legal language more intelligible to consumers, saving time,
anxiety and money and would also greatly simplify the job of lawyers.
Those who defend the complexity of legal language argue that its characteristics are the product of
centuries of effort to devise an unambiguous reliable and authoritative means of regulating human
society and resolving conflict. According to them, the need for consistency in legal interpretation and
for confidence in judgments (which they argue can save time, anxiety and money) outweigh the gain
that would come from an increase in popular understanding.
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Common words with uncommon meaning: action = law suit; avoid = cancel; hand =
signature; presents = this legal document; said = mentioned before; specialty = sealed contract
(ratificat).
2.
Old and Middle English words no longer in general usage: aforesaid; forthwith at once;
without delay; thenceforth - de atunci nainte, ulterior; whereby prin care; cu ajutorul; (A law
whereby beggars are punished); hereafter - mai trziu; heretofore - pn acum, anterior; said (adj.);
thereby - prin/ din aceasta, drept urmare; witnesseth.
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Some words and phrases, including some that have become part of the language as a whole (alibi,
alias, affidavit, corpus delicti, ejusdem generis, ex post facto, in personam, lex loci actus, per stirpes,
quasi)
words derived from French (many now in general use) : appeal, assault, counsel, crime, plaintiff
(reclamant) , verdict;
The use of slang, of words and phrases to express precise meaning: irrevocable, in
perpetuity, nothing contained herein.
This conversation motivates the use of long lists of near synonyms in documents.
5.
The language of newspapers and magazines has a large range of linguistically distinctive varieties.
Within the pages of a daily paper we can find such diverse comments, imaginative articles, reviews,
letters, captions (legenda la ilustraii), headlines, subheadings, announcements, TV program
descriptions, lists of sports results, cartoon dialogues, competitions, crossword clues and many kinds
of advertising.
It is therefore difficult to speak about a single style of writing used throughout a paper or to final
linguistic characteristics that are shared by all papers. Although each paper has its distinctive house
style and follows a set of general norms laid down by its editorial staff, the idea that there is a
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The aim of advertising is to draw attention to a product, service in order to sell it. We cannot avoid
advertising, no matter where we are, or what we are doing. Advertising comes in an extraordinary
range of forms and contexts. The largest and most noticeable group belongs to commercial consumer
advertising but there are also categories like:
-
direct mailing.
The activities involve posters, signs, notices, show cards, samples, circulars, catalogues,
labels, wrapping paper, price tags, tickets, footballs shirts, bags etc.
Our ears can be assailed as well as the eyes with slogans, jingles, street cries, loudspeaker
messages, and the range of auditory effects hear in radio and TV advertising.
In most cases it is the visual contact and design of an ad that makes the initial impact and
causes us to take note of it. But in order to make people identify the product and remember its name
and persuade them to buy it, an ad relies almost totally on the use of language. Both the psychological
and the linguistic element are essential; they combine to produce a single brand image of a product.
A great deal of market research is carried out by firm advertising agencies but the link language
sales remains unclear.
Analyses of advertising style by linguists and professional copywriters have drawn attention to
several important features of this variety. Most obviously, the language is generally laudatory, positive,
unreserved and emphasizing the uniqueness of the product.
The vocabulary is vivid and concrete. Figurative expressions are common (eating sunshine
when referring to cereals, smiling color for hair shampoo).
Rhythm, rhyme and other phonetic effects are noticeable (Wot a lot I got; Milk has a lotta
bottle).
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