Tynbayeva G.S, Yakhina S.B.

Boketov Karaganda State University, Kazakhstan

Stylistic Features of Language

Speech communication employs a host of expressive means ranging from linguistic to paralinguistic and extra linguistic features. It is the natural language, however, whose systematic variation on all levels of its structure (phonology, morphology, lexicology and syntax) offers the widest possibilities of suiting its use to fit communicative functions of discourses in various contexts. Thus linguistic expressive means, which are systematically identified and categorized by linguistic stylistics, lie at the core of stylistic variation. However, it should be noted that as stylistically relevant are considered those linguistic variations which perform similar or alternative communicative functions and which are, in fact, competitors within a particular paradigm or category. From this perspective, there are language units which occur in all types of texts due to their neutral stylistic value (hence stylistically neutral units, e.g., notional words, -s plural marker). On the other hand, other language units bear a stylistic marker already before they are actually used, and so they tend to occur only in some types of texts. Further, not all levels of language system offer equal possibilities of choice: the most differentiated level is the word stock, and the fewest possibilities of selection are on the phonological plane (phonemic variations).

The possibilities of stylistic variations are not unlimited and some authors maintain that the importance of style is often overestimated.

The analysis of connected speech identifies the constructional units on the phonetic/phonological plane which are either segmental - phones (realizations of abstract phonemes) and syllables (basic rhythmical units), and suprasegmental (prosodic), which result from three types of sound variation (modulation): temporal (speed/rate, pause, rhythm), force (loudness, stress, emphasis) and tone (pitch, tune) modulation. Since the majority of the segmental phonological variation is offering no stylistically relevant options (it is primarily engaged in the differentiation of meaning, i.e., phonemes function as minimum functional units capable of distinguishing meaning), it is stylistically neutral.

Some suprasegmental phonemes, besides having a grammatical function (segmentation of syntactic units, signaling their pragmatic function), are open to stylistic exploitation, e.g., melody (tune, intonation), stress (prominence) and pause, while others have mainly stylistic function - rhythm, tempo (rate, speed), voice intensity (loudness) and timbre (voice quality: rich, soft, harsh, hoarse). When combined, they impress a distinguishing mark upon users of language by which, together with their physiological traits (face, posture), humans are recognized as individuals. Also, an ´accent´ (i.e., a particular way of pronunciation, emphasis pattern and intonation characteristic of the speech of a particular person, group, or locality) identifies one as belonging to a particular region (e.g., Southern accent), social class (e.g., Cockney) or whether one is a native speaker or a foreigner (e.g., to speak with an accent). The three types of speech modulation (generally also called intonation) are important sources of stylistic variation:

Force Modulation is characterized by the presence of (word and/or sentence) stress which is often accompanied by paralanguage. The phenomenon of New English Gradation along with the tendency towards isochronicity, shape the marked rhythmical character of the English language. Of significant stylistic value is the stress pattern exploited in such instances of language use where it conforms to the accepted metrical rules (metre) and structure (poetry, advertising slogans, chants, jingles, etc.). Variation in loudness (amplitude) level is used to emphasize an idea. Tone Modulation is reflected in changing pitch (relative height of speech sounds); the basic unit of intonation is the tone unit (or breath group intonation contour which is marked by pitch change and pause). Pitch is to a certain degree a physiological feature (e.g., women speak with a higher pitch), but its range may be functionally varied as to its a) height (higher than normal suggests solemnity, expressiveness, as in public speeches while lower height may indicate sadness), b) range (greater range in conversations or in emotionally charged utterances, lower range in official political talks, monotonous pitch level may signal speaker´s inhibitions, variation in pitch is effectively used by skilled orators), c) movement, or different types of tone, such as fall (signals completeness, determination and assurance), rise (signals questioning, hesitancy, doubt, incompleteness, surprise), level (has linking function), fall+rise (signals limited agreement, response with reservations), rise+fall (strong approval or disapproval, surprise, but also irony, sarcasm and subtle meanings). Falling tune is an important signal of the end of the turn constructional unit in dialogue. Tone fluctuation (intonation) performs attitudinal, accentual, and grammatical and discourse functions.

It should be noted that, in the flow of speech, the prosodic features are exploited simultaneously to produce a synergistic effect; for example, in expressing emotions (anger, fear), all three systems of modulation, such as speed, loudness, tone variation, voice quality along with paralinguistic means (facial expressions, gestures and posture) interact. Also, prosody correlates with the situational variables; for example, the level of loudness (whisper, soft voice, low volume, slight loudness, full voice) is a function of interpersonal distance (intimate, personal, social, official), audience size (dyad, small group, small audience, large audience), message type (secret, confidential, personal, non-personal, public) and style (intimate, personal, conversational, public conversational, public elevated).

Verbal communication proceeds through two primary media, spoken and written, which differ in channel, circumstances, purposes, format, and in many linguistic aspects. Written text emerges by the application of the graphic substance of writing onto a surface. Analogously to the phone/phoneme and phonetics/phonology dichotomies in the spoken language, we differentiate between graphemes as abstract units of graphological plane capable of distinguishing meaning, and graphs as their realizations in concrete (handwritten, typed, scratched, etc.) writing. It should be realized that writing (i.e., using an alphabet as a system of characters representing the sounds of a language) holds a central place among other modes (pictorial and schematic) of graphic expression in this visual medium. English makes use of the Latin alphabet; due to the historical development of the language, one phoneme may have more than one grapheme and, conversely, one grapheme may represent more than one phoneme. There are tendencies toward simplification of English writing, i.e., towards establishing the simple grapheme-phoneme correspondence. Graphic symbolism (similar to sound symbolism) is a purposeful manipulation of graphic resources aimed at achieving an effective transmission of a message or a special effect (wordplay, humour). It should be noted that readers often unconsciously transfer between several symbolic modes (lexical, social-gestural, iconic, logico-mathematical and musical), yet a message is comprehended as a homogeneous whole .

Speech and Writing. It is useful to treat speaking and writing as two principal cultural-social technologies separately, although the existence of a strict line of demarkation between the two has often been denied (cf. intermediary cases like secret messages written on slips of paper passed during classes, or internet chat). Over centuries they have evolved into two complementary media with their own distinct properties, functional justification and independent spheres of operation - in particular situations and for particular purposes either one or the other is preferred. The technology of writing employs graphic expressive means (esp. the alphabet, but also some metagraphological means, such as punctuation) as a way of bridging the gap between the time and place of message production and the time and place of message reception. In the course of human history various systems of writing have been designed (e.g., pictographic, ideographic, logographic, syllabic, alphabetic); however, none of them has managed to attain a perfect correspondence between the spoken (phoneme) and the written (grapheme) form of language. Further, writing provides only a poor system of means for expressing emotional or volitional aspects of a message. The system of conventional punctuation marks (apostrophe, colon, exclamation mark, semicolon, comma, dash, hyphen, parentheses, period, question mark, quotation marks) is used to represent suprasegmental features like intonation, tempo, timbre, stress, intensity, and to signal the pragmatic meaning of utterances (e.g., interrogation, exclamation). As a graphic means of signaling the suprasegmental features of language, punctuation is primarily the matter of grammar - one of the properties of a ´good style´ is a certain minimum of punctuation which is necessary to secure the intelligibility of writing. Secondarily, punctuation is also a concern of stylistics since, for example, the degree of presence of punctuation (dashes) is the function of emotional/personal involvedness. Orthography as a prescriptive area of study is concerned with the rules (applied to all levels of language structure) of transferring speech into writing (proper capitalization, spelling and punctuation) according to the rules of accepted usage. The level of mastering the written medium of language in a literate society is associated with social prestige and/or stigmatization. The permanence of writing enables it to perform some specific cultural functions (esthetic function in literature, historical records, contracts, sacred writings, etc.). The essential differences between speaking and writing caused by the conditions in which communication takes place may be presented in the form of several dichotomies. Also, as a lecture is an instance of transactional use of spoken language, it is expected that students write down their notes and keep the written record for their future reference. For the same reason (i.e., the transience of speech), radio and/or TV newscasters tend to repeat the headlines of news stories. Consequently, it is of greater use to talk about a continuum between speech and writing rather than about their polarity and to identify their more or less typical examples: conversation in a pub, seminar, telephone conversation, personal letter, job interview, radio discussion, television advertisement, lecture, sermon, script of a play, television news, newspaper, business letter, this book. An attempt to cope with the not entirely satisfactory speech vs. writing dichotomy is the notion of mode which includes a complex of linguistic features associated with either one of the two media. For example, a lecture read before a class is obviously of spoken medium but of written mode (as it contains a host of features of written language). Conversely, casual e-mail correspondence or internet chat is produced in the written medium, but its mode is spoken. The advantage of this approach is that while medium offers the either/or choice, mode provides a scale of continuous gradation.

One of its primary concerns is the relation between a sentence as a systemic (langue) unit and a sentence as its textual realization. Obviously, the employment of abstract sentence patterns in esp. casual spontaneous speech is associated with various irregularities and modifications of underlying clause patterns, e.g., reduction (in elliptical constructions, minor sentences such as Want some? are, however, communicatively complete), expansion (insertion of parentheses), detachment, appendage, peripheral elements (prefaces, tags, vocatives, discourse markers), etc. From hypersyntax there is but a short step to the investigation of the ´text level´ of language with the aim of describing the ´grammar of text´ (see 5). The multifaceted nature of naturally occurring (spoken or written) language has led to the rise of a number of competing approaches which, by employing various perspectives, pursue the study of how samples of language-in-use are structured, what various factors are involved in their production and interpretation and how these factors are related to form meaningful wholes.

Literature:

1. Ulrich Ammon, Status and Function of Languages and Language Varieties, Walter de Gruyter, 1989, p 518. 

2.  Katie Wales, A Dictionary of Stylistics, Pearson Education, 2001, p 315.  Rob Pope, The English Studies Book: an Introduction to Language, Literature and Culture, Routledge, 2002, p 88.

3.  Richard Bradford, A Linguistic History of English Poetry, Routledge, 1993, p 8.