They relate to the branch of science that teaches the differentiated use of language in communication, and also provides knowledge regarding the language itself and the corresponding means necessary for its use. It is called “stylistics,” and its predecessor was rhetoric (the concept of oratory), which dealt exclusively with public speech. Stylistics as a science covers all systems of speech means. This is a kind of teaching regarding the most effective forms of expression of thoughts and feelings.
What are stylistically colored words?
They are used exclusively in specific styles, in particular:
- Scientific vocabulary. It includes words that are used in the field of education, science and technology (for example, range, laser, etc.).
- Political vocabulary. This includes words used in the public, political field (candidate, dissertation, Duma, etc.).
- Conversational vocabulary. It is represented by words that are used mainly in everyday communication, in oral form (great, pictures, internet, etc.). As part of fiction, it is used to characterize the main characters.
Summing up the above, we can formulate what stylistically colored words are. These are words that have an additional meaning, more precisely, they name an object and convey its corresponding assessment (neglect, approval, irony, etc.), as well as certain emotions in relation to it.
Variety of stylistic coloring
It is represented by two components:
1. Functional-target stylistic coloring (coloring of individual language units), which, in turn, is divided into three main types:
- conversational;
- book;
- neutral.
The first two types can be:
- grammatical forms (for example, agreements (neutral) - agreements (conversational);
- words (for example, place (neutral) - location (book);
- phraseological units (for example, stretch your legs (conversational) - rest in eternal sleep (book);
- suggestions (for example, due to non-flying weather conditions, the departure is delayed (neutral) - because of the fog I did not fly away (conversational).
2. Expressive-evaluative stylistic coloring (there is no reference to a specific style, is contained in the word itself) includes three types:
- reduced;
- increased;
- neutral.
Example: life (neutral) - life (reduced) - life (increased).
Neutral and stylistically colored words
The vocabulary in the literary language is usually divided into two main components: stylistically colored and neutral vocabulary.
Neutral vocabulary - words that are not tied to any of the existing styles of speech, that is, they can be used in any system of speech means, because they are expressively and emotionally not colored. However, these words have stylistic synonyms (colloquial, book, colloquial).
According to the theory of MV Lomonosov (“Three Calm”), all other words refer either to a high system of speech means (for example, to rest, homeland, etc.) or to a low one (for example, the other day, belly, etc. .).
In this regard, there is colloquial vocabulary (gray gelding, tsyts, etc.) and book vocabulary, which, in turn, is divided into the following types:
- official business (counterparties, protocol, etc.);
- vocabulary of fiction (eyes, purple, etc.);
- scientific (cathetus, thesis, etc.);
- journalistic (workers of fields, initiative, etc.).
Directions of linguistic stylistics
There are two of them, in particular:
- style of language;
- stylistics of speech (functional stylistics).
The first direction studies the stylistic means of vocabulary, grammar and phraseology, as well as the stylistic structure of the language.
The second - different types of speech and their conditioning by the various goals of expression.
Linguistic stylistics should contain the principle of consistency and functionality and reflect the interconnection of different types of speech for the purpose of utterance, its subject, communication conditions, author's attitude and addressee of speech.
Its most important category is functional styles (varieties of literary language that serve all sorts of aspects of public life).
Styles are various combinations of the use of language in the process of communication. Each system of speech means is characterized by the originality of the applied language means, as well as their unique combination among themselves.
Thus, it is worth formulating a definition of what linguistic stylistics is. This is, first of all, a section of linguistics that studies various styles (language, speech, genre, etc.). The subject of her research is the emotional, expressive and evaluative properties of linguistic units both in the paradigmatic plan (within the framework of the language system) and in the syntagmatic aspect (in various areas of communication).
The structure of the section of linguistics
The stylistics of modern Russian language consists of three main parts:
1. The style of the text, which studies its internal structure and the inextricability of the relationship of non-linguistic content (purpose, theme, etc.) with linguistic expression.
For this section, it is important to build the text, the interaction of its structural elements, the relationship of its form and content, the influence of the communicative intentions of the author and the addressee, as well as the influence of fundamental factors. In general, the degree of disclosure of a specific communicative task plays a significant role.
2. Functional stylistics is focused on the study of existing ways of using the language within the framework of specific areas of human activity (administrative and legal, scientific, socio-political and so on).
3. The stylistics of resources (practical stylistics) is engaged in the study of language tools from the standpoint of their stylistic coloring (emotionally expressive and functional style). It analyzes the points regarding the use of a language unit as a means of facilitating the expression of specific thoughts, emotions, as well as the transfer of information.
In other words, the style of the modern Russian language, as well as the culture of speech, and rhetoric, studies issues related to the degree of use and functioning of the language and its means in the framework of speech communication. She is interested in problems regarding the diversity and expressiveness of speech.
Thus, having deciphered all sections of the style, we can formulate its definition. According to the stylistic encyclopedic dictionary of the Russian language, it is a section of linguistics in which the possibilities of the language, its expressive means and the laws of functioning in various fields of human activity are studied.
The content of practical style
Firstly, this includes general information regarding language styles. Secondly, practical stylistics includes an assessment of the expressive-emotional coloring of existing language tools. Thirdly, this section contains the synonymy of language means.
The central place is reserved for the latter, as:
- in the language most often there are no absolute synonyms;
- synonymous variations must always correspond to the literary norm;
- it is allowed to compare synonyms both under the condition that they exist at the same time, and under the condition of their evolution.
In the framework of practical stylistics, the use of grammatical and lexical means of the language is also important.
History of the evolution of stylistics
As mentioned earlier, the predecessors of the modern form of stylistics were medieval and ancient poetics and rhetoric. The first was perceived as the science of poetry, and the second as the science of oratory, in which the teaching of verbal expression based on the selection of certain words, their phrases and speech figures occupied a central place.
Within the framework of Russian stylistics, a significant role is given to the theory of styles of the first Russian natural scientist M.V. Lomonosov.
The term itself appeared at the beginning of the XIX century. mainly in the works of German romantics, and already in the middle of the same century, attempts were made to scientifically substantiate stylistics ("Philosophy of Style" by Herbert Spencer (1852) and Hayman Steintal (1866).
The foundations of stylistics were laid in the writings of A. A. Potebni and A. N. Veselovsky (“From the History of the Epithet”).
In a narrower sense (as an arrangement of language elements in speech ranging from a morpheme to a whole sentence), this section of linguistics was applied by American descriptive linguistics (40-50s of the XX century).
In a broader sense, stylistics was understood by modern English linguistics of the text. At the same time, such conjugate concepts as variability, freedom of choice of forms and techniques by the author of the text or the speaker were greatly impaired, therefore, it was identified more with grammar (text stylistics).
As a teaching on comparing text with non-textual subsystems of the language (“code”, general language, etc.), the style was developed historically by representatives of the Prague linguistic school much earlier (30-40s of XX century). Here, in general, a speech act (oral or written) is understood as the result of the choice by the speaker himself of specific linguistic forms among the possibilities previously provided by the language (grammatical, syntactic, phonetic, lexical). And also as a combination of them within the framework of a speech act, of course, depending on its “function”.
The basis of this kind of interpretation of stylistics was the concept of a “functional” (“communicative”) style of speech. This was included in the concept of Charles Ballie: the language has concentrated multiple synonymous forms together with their series, one of which is a “neutral background”, and the rest are distinguished by varying degrees of additional coloring - stylistic.
Criteria for stylistic assessment of vocabulary
The most important are two of them, in particular:
- The presence or absence of a word belonging to a specific functional style of the Russian language.
- The presence of the emotional coloring of the word (expressive capabilities of a unit of language).
The concept of stylistic connotation
The stylistic meaning of a word is a property of the content or sound form of a language unit, which limits its use to a specific style. There is another name - connotation (associated value).
Very often there are times when it is difficult to distinguish between the stylistic and lexical meaning of a language unit. For example, words such as the forehead, cheeks and lips are anatomical concepts (part of the skull, parts of the face, skin and muscle folds), and the corresponding Church Slavs (brow, lanitis and mouth) are “a repository of thought”, “a source of wise speech”.
So, we can say that here the connotation merges with the lexical meaning of the word. However, the semantic differences of stylistic options can be minimal (for example, Breg - shore, cold - cold, etc.). In this regard, one can distinguish such a feature of stylistic significance as independence.
Connotation components
There are three of them:
- Functional style. It determines the affiliation of a language unit to a specific style.
- Emotionally evaluative. This component establishes the speaker's attitude to the speech object.
- Expressive (expressive). He shows the desire of the speaker, so to speak, to "decorate" the speech. In general, expressivity can be understood as actualization of the internal form of a word (the relationship between meaning and sound).
Stylistic functions of language units
There are a lot of them, but it is customary to distinguish the following:
- communicative function (communication process);
- cognitive (thought process).
- primary;
- derivatives (partial).
The stylistic functions of words (common to the language) are divided into three groups:
- nominative (designation of phenomena and objects of extralinguistic reality);
- emotional (expression of the speaker’s attitude to the object of speech);
- conative (orientation relative to the interlocutor).
Basic functions, as a rule, are classified as general linguistic, which are manifested in the framework of any statements (without reference to stylistic affiliation).
Speech stamps and stationery
What are stylistically colored words, was considered earlier, now it is worthwhile to deal with errors that are caused by their unjustified use. Particular attention is paid to such language units that are associated with the official business style.
Its elements, included in a stylistically unacceptable context for them, are usually called clericalism ("Russian language grade 10"). It is worth remembering that this term refers to speech means exclusively in those cases when they are used in speech that is not bound by the norms of this style.
It is customary to attribute words (phrases) to phraseological and lexical clericalism, having a coloration predominantly typical of a given system of speech means (for example, due to lack, if any, to withdraw, etc.). Their use in the framework of this style makes speech stylistically inexpressive.
It is worth recalling again what stylistically colored words are - language units that have an additional meaning.
The influence of the official business style is also expressed by the use of speech stamps (words that are very widespread, and expressions that have erased semantics and faded emotional coloring). For example, in a variety of contexts, the expression “get a residence permit” is often used (“A ball that flies into the goal, receives a residence permit in the tables”, “Aphrodite has become a permanent exhibit in the museum’s collection, thereby obtaining a residence permit in our city”).
Any frequently repeated means of speech, for example, template metaphors (definitions that have lost their figurative power due to their constant use in conversation), can also become a stamp. However, in the framework of practical stylistics, this term received a narrower interpretation: these are stereotypical expressions that have clerical coloring (“Russian language grade 10”).
Universal words used in indefinite meanings can also act as speech stamps (for example, series, question, expand, specific, event, hold, separate, and so on).
So-called linguistic standards (means of expression reproduced in speech that are used in a journalistic style) should be distinguished from them .
These include combinations of a sustainable nature (employment service, public sector workers, international humanitarian assistance , etc.). They are widely used by journalists because it is impossible to constantly invent fundamentally new means of expression.