16. The style of official documents.

This FS is not homogeneous and is represented by the following substyles or variants:

1. the language of business documents;

2. the language of legal documents;

3. the language of diplomacy;

4. the language of military documents.

Like other styles of language, this style has a definite communicative aim and its own system of interrelated language and stylistic means. The main aim of this type of communication is to state the conditions binding two parties and to reach agreement between two contracting parties. These parties may be: the state and the citizen, or citizen and citizen; a society and its members (statute or ordinance); two or more enterprises or bodies (busi­ness correspondence or contracts); two or more governments (pacts, trea­ties); a person in authority and a subordinate (orders, regulations, ins­tructions, authoritative directives); a board or presidium and an assemb­ly or general meeting (procedures acts, minutes), etc.

The most general function of the style of official documents predetermines the peculiarities of the style. The most striking feature is a special system of cliches, terms and set expressions by which each substyle can be easily recognized. Thus in finance we find terms like extra revenue, liability. In diplomacy such phrases as high contracting parties, memorandum, to ratify an agreement are found. In legal language, examples are to deal with a case, a body of judges.

All these varieties use abbreviations, conventional symbols and contractions, for example, M.P. (Member of Parliament), Ltd (Limited), $. Abbreviations are especially abundant in military documents. They are used not only as conventional symbols, but also as signs of military code.

Another feature of the style is the use of words in their logical dictionary meaning. There is no room here for the realization of any other meaning here.

Perhaps the most noticeable of all syntactical features are the com­positional patterns of the variants of this style. Thus, business letters have a definite compositional pattern, namely, the heading giving the address of the writer*, the date, the name of the addressee and his address.

17. Newspaper style.

English newspaper writing dates from the 17^th century. The first of any regular English newspapers was the Weekly News which first appeared in May, 1622. The early English newspaper was principally a vehicle of information. Commentary found its way into the newspapers later. But as far back as the middle of the 18^th century the British newspaper was very much like what it is today, carrying foreign and domestic news, advertisements, announcements and articles containing comments.

English newspaper style can be defined as a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means which is perceived by the community as a separate linguistic unity that serves the purpose of informing and instructing the reader.

Newspaper style has its specific vocabulary features and is characterized by an extensive use of:

1. special political and economic terms (president, election);

2. non-term political vocabulary (nation, crisis, agreement, member);

3. newspaper cliches (pressing problem, danger of war, pillars of society);

4. abbreviations (NATO, BBC);

5. neologisms.

To understand the language peculiarities of English newspaper style it will be sufficient to analyze the following basic newspaper fea­tures:

1) brief news items,

2) advertisements and announcements,

3) the headline,

4) the editorial.

The headline is the title given to a news item or an article. The main function of the headline is to inform the reader briefly what the text that follows is about. Composing headlines is a real art demanding much creativity on the author’s part. They’re usually written in a sensational way in order to arouse the reader’s curiosity. As headline writers try to catch the reader’s eye by using as few words as possible the language headlines use is jocularly called Headlinece. This sublanguage is characterized by a number of peculiarities:

1. concise syntax presented by different kinds of sentences:

• full declarative sentences (“Allies Now Look to London”);

• interrogative sentences (“Do You Love War?”);

• rhetorical questions (“The Worth the Better?”);

• nominative sentences (“Gloomy Sunday”);

• elliptical sentences:

1. with an auxiliary verb omitted (“Initial Report Not Expected Until June”);

2. with the subject omitted (“Stole Luxury Cars by Photos”);

3. with the subject and part of the predicate omitted (“Still in Danger”);

• complex sentences;

2. specific use of grammar:

• simple verb forms used (“Queen Opens Hospital Today”)

• sentences with articles omitted (“Royal Family Quits”)

• phrases with verbals:

1. infinitive standing for “going to happen” (“President to Visit Russia”)

2. participial and gerundial constructions expressing present time (“Speaking Parts”)

• use of direct speech;

• emotive syntax and vocabulary suggestive of approval or disapproval;

• allusive use of set expressions and sayings;

• their deliberate braking-up (“Cakes and Bitter Bear”)

• deformation of special terms (“Conspirator-in- Chief”)

• use of stylistic devices producing a strong emotional effect.

The principal function of a brief news items is to inform the reader. It states facts without giving explicit comments. The basic peculiarities of news items lie in their syntactical structure.

• absence of any individuality of expression and lack of emotional coloring;

• matter-of-fact and stereotyped forms of expression;

• peculiar syntactical structure as the reporter is obliged to be brief:

1. complex sentences with a developed system of clauses;

2. verbal constructions (infinitive, participial, gerundial) and verbal noun constructions;

3. syntactical complexes, especially the nominative with the infin­itive used to avoid mentioning the source of information;

4. attributive noun groups;

5. specific word-order;

The principal function of advertisements and announcements is to inform the reader. There are two basic types of advertisements and announcements in the modern English newspaper: classified and non-classified.

In classified advertisements and announcements various kinds of information are arranged according to subject-matter into sections, each bearing an appropriate name. This classified arrangement has resulted in a number of stereotyped patterns regularly employed in newspaper advertising.

Features:

• mostly neutral vocabulary with rare usage of emotionally colored words or phrases used to attract the reader's attention.

• fixed, often elliptical, pattern;

• telegram-like statements , with articles and punctuation marks omitted.

As for the non-classified advertisements and announcements, the variety of language form and subject-matter is so great that hardly any essential features common to all may be pointed out. The reader's attention is attracted by every possible means: typographical, graphical and stylistic, both lexical and syntactical. Here there is no call for brev­ity, as the advertiser may buy as much space as he chooses.

The function of the editorial is to influence the reader by giving an interpretation of certain facts. Editorials comment on the political and other events of the day. Their purpose is to give the editor's opinion and interpretation of the news published and suggests to the reader that it is the correct one. Like any evaluative writing, editorials appeal not only to the reader's mind but to his feelings as well.

• combination of different strata of vocabulary;

• use of emotionally colored language elements, both lexical and structural;

• accepted usage of colloquial words and expressions, slang, and professionalisms;

• usage of various stylistic devices but trite and traditional in nature;