Stylistics of speech activity. The notion of Functional style. The problem of functional style classifacation.

General linguistic notions of stylistics: a) language system; speech activity; language material – speech;
Language is a system of mental associations of elementary and complex signs (speech sounds,
morphemes, word combinations, utterances, and combinations of utterances) with our mental picture
of objective reality. Language is a psychological phenomenon of social significance. It exists in individual
minds, but serves the purpose of social intercourse through speech. Language performs two functions:
communicative and cognitive. The communicative function is of great importance because language
arose from the needs of intercourse and social regulation. The cognitive function is also very important
as it due to existence of language that mankind has acquired its immense knowledge of the outside
world.

Language System is a set of elements (which cannot be chaotic) and rules which exist due to the possible
relations between the elements in the given language (O. Morokhovsky). Language System is a set of the
phonetic, grammatical and lexical data of the given language (I. Galperin). Speech Activity is the
realization of the models of generation of the speech units of the higher level with the help of
actualization of the language elements of the lower level (O. Morokhovsky).

As distinct from language, speech is not a purely mental phenomenon, not a system, but a
momentary, fleeting psycho-physiological action, a process of sending acoustic signals (messages),
perceptible to anyone within hearing. Speech is the realization of the language units in the speech
activity (O. Morokhovsky). Language units are invariants without any individual communicative
peculiarities. Speech units are variants which actualize language units and have individual
communicative peculiarities.

Functional Stylistics and its concern

Functional Stylisticsis a part of Stylistics studying different styles of language, their linguistic peculiarities
and functions, or to be more exact, its attention is centred on the message in its correlation
(*connection of cause and effect) with the communicative situation.

Language means, chosen and used in every functional style, depend on several factors. The most
important among them is the purpose of communication. A language stylecan be defined asasystem of
coordinative, interrelated and interconditioned language means, aimed at fulfilling a specific function of
communication and ensuring a definite effect.

Functional styles(FSs) are the subsystems of language, each having its specific features (phonetic, lexical
and grammatical), determined by the condition of communication in various spheres of human activity.
FSs should be distinguished from the varieties of language. The written and the oral varieties of language
are merely forms of communication which depend on the situation in which the communication is
maintained (i.e. on the presence or absence of the interlocutor), whereas FSs are patterns of the written
variety aimed at securing a desired purpose of communication.

2.2. The Classification of Functional Styles

The English literary language has evolved (*developed gradually by a long and continuous progress) a
number of FSs easily distinguishable one from another. Theyare nothomogeneousandfall into several
variants. The classification of FSs is one of the most disputable and difficult problems in Stylistics. The
reasons for it are as follows:

FSs are historically changeable categories;

The boundary lines between FSs are not clearly cut;

The criteria of classification of FSs have not been defined yet.

Each FS is a relatively stable system at given stage in the language development, but it changes in the
course of time, and sometimes considerably. The development of each style is predetermined by:

the changes in the norms of Standard English;

the changes of social conditions;

the progress of science and the development of cultural life in the country.

The boundary lines between FSs are rather vague, because some FSs have common features. For
example, the oratory style has much in common with thepublicistic style; while the latter has many
similar features with thescientific prosestyle. Up to now the criteria of FS classification remains
disputable. The majority of linguists speak about five FSs: the belles-lettresstyle, embracing all genres of
emotive prose; the style ofofficial documents; thescientific prosestyle; thepublicisticstyle;
thenewspaperstyle.