The problem of classification of styles

• According to the historical period

• According to individual authors (Dickensian style – flowery constructions, parallelisms, exhaustive descriptions; Joyce’s style – stream of consciousness; Hemingway’s style – iceberg technique)

• According to the level (M. Lomonosov) – grand/sublime style – poetry, epic; middle style – drama; low – comedy.

• According to the language (scientific, poetic, referential, etc.)

• Y.M. Skrebnev

Binary division into formal and informal

• I.V. Arnold – 4 types: poetic, scientific, newspaper, colloquial

• I.R. Galperin – 5 types: belles-letters, publicistic, newspaper, scientific prose, style of official documents

Function of language – a definite aim in a particular sphere of life

• Cognitive function (interrelation b/w language and mind – with the help of cognitive function we realize our wish to know more about the world, it is through the language that we perceive the world)

• Metalanguage function consists in using the language in order to describe and classify the language phenomena (it’s based on the specific type of relationships b/w the object of analysis and the instrument of analysis, which in the science of linguistic is one and the same – language)

• Communicative function serves to convey one’s thoughts, colitions, emotions and orders to the mind of the 2^nd person

• Phatic function consists in establishing contacts with members of speech community (Ex.: How do you do?)

• Emotive/expressive function consists in expressing the speaker’s feelings, emotions, his attitude to the addressee or the message (interjections, swear words, exclamations)

• Voluntative/appellative is the function of inducement, of urging the addressee to action (Imperative Mood and Complex object constructions)

• Aesthetic function is prominent in artistic literature and peculiar imaginative utterances

• Magic function – non conventional treatment of the language sign (in taboos, spells, incantations, euphemisms)

Performative Words:

• Sold!

• With this ring I thee wed!

Stylistic differentiation of the English vocabulary

1. Neutral – Stylistically Colored Words

(answer – reply – response – rejoinder – retort – return)

2. Social prestige

• The subject of the speech

• The character of the communicative sphere

• The participants of the communication

Elevation vs. Degradation

Skrevnev’s division of vocabulary

Maximum elevation – poetic words (morn)	Superneutral
Medial elevation – expressively bookish and official (sagacity, somnolent)
Minimal elevation – slightly bookish (prevail, inherent)
Neutral
Minimal degradation – colloquial words	Subneutral
Medial degradation – jargon, slang, nonce-words
Maximum degradation – indecent, vulgar, swear words

Galperin’s layers of vocabulary

• The literary layer

• The neutral layer

• The colloquial layer