Филологические науки/7. Язык, речь, речевая коммуникация
Cand.Sci.(Philology) Tsapenko L.E., Lebedeva
E.V., Larina L.A.
Odessa National Polytechnic
University, Ukraine
CONCEPT OF
STYLE IN LINGUISTICS
The modern stage of the development of style is characterized
by an increasingly deep penetration into the polyfunctional nature of language.
Style has transformed from the science of language peculiarities of
belle-lettres into the science of functional differentiation of language in its
various manifestations [4, p.4]. It poses a number of challenges to stylistics,
the solutions of which involve the approach to the language as to a set of
large systems.
The following clear division of style into two
directions is observed: the research of specific means of language (stylistics
of resources) and the study of functional differentiation of language as a mean
of the most precise and effective way to achieve the communication objectives
under certain social conditions (functional stylistics) [9, p.6].
It is conventional to consider the first direction
as a style of language, and the second one as a style of speech. However, the
stylistics of resources acquires more and more functional features, since the
shift from the analysis of separate isolated units to consideration of the linguistic
means combinatorics with a focus on identifying their semantic and pragmatic
characteristics is observed at all language levels. This fact is specified by
A.A. Leontyev's statement "... if the style of speech refers to the system
of capabilities, potencies, then the language style is the possibility of
possibilities, and the potency of potencies" [11].
Functional and stylistic
research should involve several levels of abstraction: from the identification
of actual combinatorics of linguistic means in a particular text to the
definition of stylistic features of text groups, and then to the formulation of
functional style features, its functional attributes [2, p. 10]. In other words,
there is no and cannot be any text distinctions between the so called resource stylistics
and functional stylistics. Stylistics of resources and functional stylistics
are inconceivable without effective research on functional and stylistic linguistic
differentiation.
The concept of functional style in modern linguistics has no unified
interpretation [1; 4; 5; 9; 13]. By the
nature of the language means organization, functional styles are not considered
to be unclosed systems, fuzzy sets [13], they are mutually permeable and
historically volatile. One and the same elements in different styles are in
different correlation; they group differently i.e. they are subject to
probability laws; style as a specific system of correlative use of language
elements characterizes a particular text [3;7; 8; 9].
The style forming elements include both lexical units and phraseology. Morphology
and language syntax are involved in style formation as well.
One of the
challenges of functional stylistics is the classification of functional styles.
Here, so far there has been outlined a number of approaches that reflect both trends in the development of functional
stylistics itself, and achievements of
functional grammar, semantic syntax, speech act theory, text linguistics and
related sciences, i.e. sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and others.
The classification of functional styles is believed
to be associated with the particular spheres of language functioning [10, p.142-
181]. Nevertheless, there has not been any unified opinion in linguistics about
their taxonomy so far. There are deviations and differences in the known classifications
of many authors [14, p.10-18]. The number of distinguished functional styles
vary from two [3] to the "indefinite set " [15, p.33].
However, the belles-lettres style, newspaper and journalistic
style, scientific style, style of official documents and style of colloquial
speech are well-known and indicated in practically any classification.
Numerous researches on stylistics [4; 5; 12; 17], in
which a statistical texts survey were carried out, show clearly, that in each
of the studied styles the units at all the levels of the language structure,
from phonemic to syntax, do not function in the same way, and this can be explained
by the specificity of each style in the aspect of language functioning.
Until now, it is up to debate whether there exists
a single monolithic style of scientific speech or there are a large number of
sub-styles of some individual sciences, and what are the trends of their
development, i.e. whether the processes of divergence or convergence act in it at
present [16].
According to the concept of V.V. Vinogradov [6,
p.224), scientific style stands out as one of the functional styles on the
basis of its main functions – delivering new information in the rigorous, logically organized,
concise and objective manner. In this form the natural language is able to
fully and adequately perform the communication tasks of scientific information
exchange.
Style, as a form of language functioning incorporates
the specificity of both social function, and linguistic construction [1, p.225].
In the works of R.A.Budagova [3], scientific style is defined even more precisely
as some set of general-literary means of language, that has a certain
communicative task, namely, reflecting the rigorous scientific information in
the most objective and generalized form.
This basic communicative function determines not
only the selection of a particular set of general-literary means of language (lexical,
grammatical and stylistic) by which scientific information is transmitted, but
also the functioning of this set, the interconnection and interdependence of
its elements.
The main features of scientific style of speech is
more concise and brief, emotionally neutral form of narration together with clarity,
objectivity, thoroughness and consistency.
It's obvious that such characteristics determine
the "demand" for those grammatical models that can meet these
requirements [16, p.58-63].
Thus, there comes an increased need for certain
forms of expression, specific for the style of scientific speech, determined by
objectives and contents of scientific and technical texts, which naturally
manifests itself in an increased frequency of usage of certain grammatical
patterns and other linguistic resources.
So, it is arguable that the statistical measure of
frequency and probability can serve as a characteristic of the scientific
style.
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