Lecture 1

General Characteristics of Official Business Style

 Substyles of official documents

 diplomatic;
 juridical;
 office and business style.
 Galperin I. R [7] singles out these variants:

 the language of business documents;

 the language of legal documents;
 the language of diplomacy;
 the language of military documents.
 The main aim of this type of communication is to state the
conditions binding two parties in an undertaking.
These parties may be:

 the state and the citizen, or citizen and citizen (jurisdiction);

 a society and its members (statute or ordinance);
 two or more enterprises or bodies (business correspondence or
contracts);
 two or more governments (pacts, treaties);
 a person in authority and a subordinate (orders, regulations,
authoritative directions);
 the board and the assembly or general meeting (procedures acts,
minutes), etc.
 
The style of diplomacy is used within the sphere of international communication. It is characterized
by emphasized respect, tolerance, standard forms of the beginning and end of a document.

 Note
 Communiqué
 Agreement
 Memorandum
 Convention
 Declaration
 Protocol
The juridical substyle (=the style of legal
documents)
The language of law is characterized by generalization and
compositional expressiveness which correlates to
maximally precise formulation, absence of connotation
according to the regulations between juridical and natural
persons.
 decree
 law
 code
 regulations
The sphere of the office and business substyle

These documents presuppose keeping to certain requirements:

precision and particular structure.

 applications
 certificates
 references
 powers of attorney
 orders
 busi­ness correspondence
 contracts
 Features common to official business style

The main common requirements to the texts of

this style are: exactness, preciseness and laconic
brevity of the information transfer, which
presupposes no figurativeness, but confirmed
proofs, precise inner textual structure, adherence
to the formal requirements to documents drafting
(standards).
From the view-point of linguistics, the peculiar features common to all stylistic varieties of
official documents are the following:
 

 the use of neutral words in their logical dictionary meaning

(expressing neither emotiveness nor figurativeness);
 the choice of bookish words and phrases: plausible (=possible); to
inform (=to tell); to assist (=to help); to cooperate (=to work
together); to promote (=to help something develop); with the
following objectives/ends (=for these purposes); to be
determined/resolved (=to wish); to endeavor (=to try); to proceed
(=to go); inquire (to ask).
 the use of cliches and set expressions: we beg you to inform
us (business correspondence), under the provision (business
contract), hereinafter named (treaties), exercise of rights
(legal document);

 the use of specialized terminology: extra revenue, taxable

capacities, liability to profit tax (financial); high contracting
parties, to ratify an agreement, memorandum, pact, Charge
d'affaires, plenipotentiary (diplomatic); to deal with a case;
summary procedure; a body of judges (legal)
 the use of abbreviations, conventional symbols and
contractions :
Some of them are well-known, for example, M. P. (Member
of Parliament); Gvt. (government); $ (dollar); Ltd
(Limited).

Others can be mostly recognized by people involved in the

field: NRRC (Nuclear Risk Reduction Centre) D.A.O,
(Divisional Ammunition Officer); adv. (advance); atk
(attack); obj. (object); A/T (anti-tank).
 the use of verbal nouns: decision, agreement, requirement,
etc.;
 the use of the nouns specifying people by the indications of
their actions or relations with the other person: witness, agent,
client, executor, plaintiff, etc.;
 the use of set Attributive-and-Nominal expressions (general
scope of the Agreement) and Verbal-and-Nominal word
combinations (to facilitate the educational exchange of
students, to exercise the above right, etc.);
 the use of compound prepositions: in accordance with, in
order to, in connection with, etc.;
 the use mainly of simple sentences complicated by homogeneous parts of the
sentence (subjects, predicates, objects);
 the use of syntactical parallelism – sentence organization according to one
and the same pattern in order to make information perception easier;
 the use of shall/will + Verb has a modal meaning of obligation to fulfill this
or that requirement:
We will use all reasonable endeavours to enable the accuracy and
reliability of the Services.
Ми зобов’язуємось здійснювати всі резонні спроби для
забезпечення точності й надійності Послуг
 the use of lexical negation instead of the grammatical one:
The Agent shall be under no responsibility or liability for failure to perform the Manning
Agreement by reason of Force Majeure.
Агент звільняється від відповідальності за невиконання обов’язків за цією Угодою про
Найм на Роботу, у випадку якщо це невиконання зумовлено обставинами непереборної
сили;

 the frequent use of non-finite forms – Gerund, Participle, Infinitive (Considering that…; in
order to achieve cooperation in solving the problems…), and complex structures with them,
such as the Complex Object ( We expect this to take place), Complex Subject (This is expected
to take place), the Absolute Participial Construction (The conditions being violated, it
appears necessary to state that…)

 almost every official document has its own compositional design.

 CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS
We the People of the United Nations Determined
TO SAVE succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold
sorrow to mankind, and
TO REAFFIRM faith in fundamental rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights
of men and women and of nations large and small, and
TO ESTABLISH conditions under which justice and respect for obligations arising from treaties and other
sources of international law can be maintained, and
TO PROMOTE social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
And For These Ends
TO PRACTICE tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and
TO UNITE our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
TO ENSURE, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be
used, save in the common interest, and
TO EMPLOY international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all
peoples,
Have Resolved to Combine Our Efforts to Accomplish These Aims.
(The Random House Dictionary
of the English Language, N.Y., 1967)
 Classification of documents.

 something written or printed, esp. when it gives information

and can be used as evidence. Birth, marriage and death
certificates are documents.
 Requisites of documents

Permanent requisites are printed in the document blank, temporary ones are
fixed on the blank during the process of its filling-in.
The aggregate of requisites placed in a fixed order is called ―формуляр in
Ukrainian, in English this kind of document organization is called form (a
document with spaces (fields) to to be filled in or marked, for a series of
documents similar contents are typical.
Fill in the form and show your certificates witnessed by the attorney.
Заповніть цей формуляр і надайте ваші довідки, засвідчені нотаріусом.