1.

Characterise the main differences and similarities between the scientific prose style
and the style of official documents.
- According to Galperin there are 5 functional styles in English and those are: scien -
tific,official,publicist, newspaper and belle-lettres.
The style of official documents is referred to as the most conservative, due to several
reasons: a) it preserves well-established and well-known forms of structuring and
clichés; b) it uses syntactical constructions and archaic words, which may not be ob-
served anywhere else. Emotive load and subjective modality are not usually employed
in this style.
The aim of this style is:
To reach an agreement between the 2 contracting parties participating in the creation of
the document;to state the conditions binding the two parties in a certain under-
standing.
Specific lexical features of the official documents
Each of the sub-styles of official documents makes use of specific terms and bookish,
elevated, discipline-specific, and obsolete terms.The documents employ obsolete set
expressions inherited from as early as the Victorian period. In diplomatic and legal
documents, vocabulary is often borrowed from Latin or French. There is a large num-
ber of abbreviations and conversational symbols in each of these sub-styles.

Specific grammar features

Each document has its own stereotyped form, which indicates the type of letter. For instance,
business letters are written according to a fixed structure with the following parts: heading,
addressing, salutation, opening, closing, complimentary clause, and signature. Syntactical
features reveal the predominance of extended, simple, and complex sentences, and
broad use of participial constructions, which make the letters impersonal. There is
also a tendency to avoid first-personal pronoun reference.
Scientific Prose Style

The main aim of the functional style of scientific prose is to prove а certain hypothe-
sis, to create and define new concepts, and to describe certain research. The language
means employed in this style, therefore, tend to be objective, precise, and less emo-
tional, devoid of any individuality. Due to the goals of this functional style, there is а
striving for the most generalized forms of expression.
The most noticeable features of this style аre the following:

The logical sequence of utterances with clear indications of their interrelations, co-
herence, and interdependence, with a highly developed and varied system of connec-
tives.The use of terms specific to each given branch of science. The use of quotations
and references based on а certain compositional pattern . The use of footnotes, digres -
sive in character. The impersonality and un-emotionality of a scientific text. The use
of personal pronouns in plural instead of singular is called ‘Solidarity we’ or ‘Modesty
we’ in academic circles.

Thus, the scientific style is employed in a professional discourse and aims at

creating new concepts as well as the introduction and substantiation of certain scien-
tific research. Consequently, these aims determine the choice of vocabulary and
grammar.Abundance of special terminology, lack of emotionality, and modality.Abundance
of bookish words, set phrases, and clichés.

The author’s speech is presented in the first person plural/singular.Impersonal sentences

and abundance of passive voice.Complex, extended sentences and logical cohesion.The
abundance of specific prepositions, conjunctions, connectives.

2. Describe the evolution of the terms style and stylistics.

-Style has been an object of study since immemorial times. At the dawn of our civi-
lization, Ancient Greek and Roman philosophers treated style as a ‘proper adornment of
thought’. (Aristotle)
The origin of the terms style and stylistics goes back to Latin stylus, which means a
stick for writing. However, the modern term ‘stylistics’ comes from the French Stylistique - a
writing instrument. Modern stylistics iseclectic in its use of theory, though it originated in
literary theories of formalism and took on the theory of structuralism as developed by Saus-
sure in the early 20th century. At its starting point, stylistics dealt with identifying the pre-
cise techniques of construction of stylistic means and their effects. However, stylistics later
shifted the focus and responded to the developing new theories about language (Semantics,
Pragmatics, (Critical) Discourse Analysis) by bringing the context of the utterance into play,
together with cognitive factors of encoding and decoding.
Stylistics in Russia was developed by the formalist school of literary criticism that
emerged in the early years of the 20th century in the works by Roman Jacobson, Victor Shk-
losvki and Boris Tomashevski. The school aimed at singling out the properties of literary texts
and, also, at exploring how the concept of defamiliarisation in art and literature defined the
artistic value of the work.
It is also well-known that the Russian linguistic school contributed to the develop-
ment of stylistics, introducing several interesting and elegant theories which discuss general
issues of stylistics and style.
Stylistics is currently considered to be a branch of applied linguistics, concerned with the
study of style in texts, especially, but not exclusively, in literary works. Also called liter-
ary linguistics, stylistics focuses on the figures, tropes, and other rhetorical devices used to
provide variety, originality of expression and distinctness to someone’s writing.

3.Describe the main features of bookish colloquial style.

-Galperin denies the existence of this functional style as he believes that functional
style can only exist written varieties of language. According to him, style is the result
of a careful selection of language means, which constitute a specific style in their cor-
relation. There is a discrepancy in Galperin’s theory. One of the sub-styles of the pub-
licistic style is oration, which is its oral subdivision.

Clearly, colloquial style is the type of speech which is used in situations that allow a
certain deviation from the rigid pattern of literary speech, used not only in a private
conversation, but also in private correspondence. So, the style is applicable both to
written and oral varieties, though the terms ‘colloquial’ and ‘bookish’ do not exactly
correspond to oral and written forms of speech. Maltzev suggests the terms ‘formal’
and ‘informal’ and states that colloquial style is the part of informal variety of English,
which is used orally in conversation . The major characteristics of this style is that it is
communicative, interactive and emotive. Arnold distinguishes literary and familiar
colloquial styles.

Bookish colloquial style has:standard pronunciation in compliance with the norm;

Phonetic contraction of frequently used forms (don’t, I’ve, haven’t);Omission of

unaccented elements due to the quick tempo.It uses regular morphological fea-
tures, with interceptive and evaluative suffixes ( doggie).

Uses simple sentences with a number of participial and infinitive constructions

and parentheses;syntactically correct utterances compliant with the norm;vari-
ous forms of syntactical contractions,special colloquial phrases: that friend of
 yours.Wide range of vocabulary strata in accordance with the register of the
communicative acts and participants roles (formal/informal; neutral/bookish),
topic-specific terms and foreign words;Basic stock of communicative vocabu-
lary is stylistically neutral;Use of socially accepted contracted forms and abbre-
viations: fridge; ice (for ice-cream);Extensive use of phrasal verbs (let somebody
down);Devoid of slang, vulgarisms, jargon, and dialect words;Use of phraseo-
logical units and idioms, trite figures of speech.

4. Characterise the functions and the main characteristics of the newspaper

style.

-The newspaper usually influences public opinion regarding specific political, social,
cultural, and other issues.It is also well-known that the headlines ofnews items, be-
sides informing the reader about the subject-matter of the item, also carry some eval-
uation expressed by the topography, size, font, and use of emotional lexical and syn-
tactic items). Because of their stylistic characteristics, newspaper articles, and editori-
als are considered to be part of the newspaper style. It is also maintained that while
editorials and other articles published in opinion columns are predominantly evalua-
tive, newspaper feature articles, as а rule, carry а considerable amount of information;
and the ratio of the informative versus the evaluative varies substantially from article
to article.
The main aim of the newspaper style is to inform and, to some extent, instruct the
reader, transferring this information objectively in an oral and/or written form with-
out introducing any subjective or emotional evaluation.
Lexical characteristics of newspaper functional style:
1. Proper names which include toponymy, anthroponomy, names of institutions and or-
ganisations;
2. Internationalisms
3. Neologisms which later become clichés (vital issue, pillar of society);
4. Specific vocabulary (political and economic terms, newspaper clichés, abbreviations);
5. Stylistically marked and expressive vocabulary.

Grammar characteristics:
1. Syntactic constructions and means indicating unbiased opinions;
 2. Complex sentences;
3. Syntactic, noun, and verbal constructions (infinitive, participial, gerundial), etc;
4. Quotations and set expressions.

More specifically, newspaper style is characterised by an extensive use of some lexical

items and grammatical structures:
Political, economic, and business terms (е.g. contradiction, conflict, opposition, busi-
ness plan, market, etc);
General vocabulary;
Newspaper clichés or stereotyped expressions (е.g. vital issue; declare war; informed
sources; stormy applause);
Abbreviations for names of various organizations, political associations, companies
such as UN (United Nations Organization), NAТО (North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-
tion), EU (European Union), etc;
Neologisms, such as а splash-down (the act of bringing а spacecraft to а water sur-
face).

5.Linguistic stylistics and literary stylistics: differences and similarities.

-Stylistics is currently considered to be a branch of applied linguistics, concerned with the
study of style in texts, especially, but not exclusively, in literary works. Also called literary
linguistics, stylistics focuses on the figures, tropes, and other rhetorical devices used to pro-
vide variety, originality of expression and distinctness to someone’s writing. Therefore, it can
be argued that stylistics combines linguistic analysis and literary criticism.

Stylistics can be defined as a branch of modern linguistics devoted to the detailed analy-

sis of linguistic choices made by speakers and writers while encoding literary and non-
literary (con)texts, and their subsequent decoding by readers and listeners . This defi-
nition includes the most prominent issues covered by stylistics and emphasizes that not
only fiction, but also scientific texts may give the stylisticians interesting material for
contemplation. In addition, as a branch of modern linguistics, stylistics does not deal with
a particular aspect of language, but investigates all levels of a language system (sounds,
words, their forms, word combinations, clauses, and sentences). Stylistics deals with the
entire structure of the language. 
The predominance of literary texts as the focus of study within stylistics is re-
flected in some of the alternative names by which stylistics sometimes is referred to;
these include literary stylistics, critical linguistics, literary semantics, literary pragmat-
ics, and poetics. All these terms (and the corresponding branches of linguistics behind
them) have one major goal, and that is to demarcate the full range of activities practised
by modern stylisticians, as well as acknowledge that stylisticians do not merely identify
formal features of style in language.
Specifically, literary stylistics studies texts from the point of view of a literary move-
ment, social situation, and the author. Linguistic stylistics, on the other hand, is fo-
cused on the language of the author, which, of course, includes his/her individual
style. Sometimes the distinction is made between literary and non-literary stylistics,
which refers to the kinds of texts studied.

6.Describe the main moments of the conceptual metaphor theory.

-The conceptual metaphor thesis, introduced in Lakoff and Jonson’s book in 1980. This
theory is also referred to as Cognitive Metaphor Theory (CMT). According to CMT,
metaphor is not limited to literary texts, but is a powerful instrument of cognition, en-
veloping all spheres of life. This happens because metaphors have entailments that organ-
ise and express our experiences and create necessary realities.
Specifically, the authors maintain that many of our activities are metaphorical in nature.
The metaphorical concepts that characterize these activities structure our present reality.
New metaphors have the power to create a new reality.
Cognitive Metaphor Theory provides a means of describing and explaining the preva-
lence of conventional linguistic metaphors in all discourse types. However, it does not ig-
nore that more obvious types of metaphor are typically found in literary language. New
and unusual metaphors often emerging in poetry, which may be explained using the same
principle cognitive metaphor theory uses to explain conventional linguistic metaphors.
Underlying all uncommon linguistic metaphors will be a novel conceptual metaphor.
Again, though novel metaphors are not restricted to literary language, and as with the ex-
amples of conventional metaphor, using a novel conceptual metaphor reveals something
about how the user conceptualises the world.

Types of metaphors (according to Lakoff and Johnson)

1. Orientational metaphors, relating mainly to spatial organisation (i.e. up and down,
front, and back, in and out, near for, etc.);
2. Ontological metaphors, associate with activity, motions, and personification;
3. Structural metaphors and overarching metaphors (building on the above two types),
which allow us to structure one concept in terms of another (i.e. argument is war,
life is a journey, etc.).
Lakoff and Johnson distinguish a number of different types of conceptual metaphors. To
illustrate this, below are several extracts from the book by Lakoff and Johnson,
Metaphors That We Live By.