Functional Styles Revised Version

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES.
Course notes
Gabriela Nistor, PhD
FUNCTIONAL STYLES
Course Notes
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu

Sibiu
2016
Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes
Contents
Introductory course
Functional varieties of English
Standard English and Received Pronunciation
Register
General characteristics of style
Peculiarities of style
Variations and Variety in Registers
English as a World Language
Slang
Jargon
Dialect
Language for Special/Specific Purposes
1. The Language of Science
2. Medical Language
3. The Language of Religion
4. The Language of the Law
5. The Language of the Press
6. The Language of Advertising
Style is a matter of expression defined by the Websters as a mode of expressing thought in language;
esp.: one characteristic of an individual period, school, or nation.
In its most wide acceptation, stylistics is the study of language in action, the investigation of the way in
which the speakers make use of their idiom on one occasion or another. From this point of view,
distinction must be made among: standard English; vernacular; colloquial English; slang; cant, jargon
and argot; dialect.
Introductory Course
English has become the most widely spread language of the world. North or South, East or West, there
is practically no place on the Earth where you could not hear English spoken or where you could not
make yourself understood by speaking it.
However, whether written or spoken, we often ask ourselves why what we learn from books is
not always what people speak, why what people speak is not always what grammar books recommend,
or why language differs so much from one speaker to another.
There are many factors which can make language vary, such as:
1.
spoken forms and written forms;
2.
geographical areas;
3.
education;
4.
field of interest;
5.
relationship among people;
6.
level of knowledge, whether spoken as a native tongue or a second language;
7.
political and economical peculiarities;
8.
historic period, etc.

The perspective of English becoming a lingua franca, as a result of globalization, getting closer
and closer in time and space to everyone of us, will probably complicate things even more, giving birth
to even more variants of this language, as influenced by several unexpected factors. This is the reason
why nobody will ever be able to claim to be a thorough expert of this language. As a matter-of-fact,
this is a perfect example to demonstrate that a language is a dynamic system, forever changing,
improving, becoming.
3
Functional Varieties of English

Before defining a few core concepts to classify language, a few remarks must be made on the
key terms used to proceed to linguistic analysis. According to them, we can appreciate change and
variety in language.
Standard English and Received Pronunciation

Standard English (SE) is the form of English accepted as a norm. All the other forms of English
are compared to it. Standard English exists in a variety of forms itself: written or spoken, formal or
informal, personal or impersonal. What makes it unitary is the ability of being understood by
everybody, no matter if speakers sometimes meddle it with regional forms. SE is what we hear on the
radio and television, what is used in business letters or printed texts, such as essays. It is widely known
as BBC English or The Queens English.
Being associated with education, law, government, the Church or the financial field, it has
prestige and it is the form taught as a second language in schools. The varieties which do not have the
same grammar rules or basic vocabulary are considered to be non-standard, being different, rather
than wrong.
The standard form of pronunciation is given by Received Pronunciation (RP). RP reveals the
speakers social or cultural background, rather than the region from which he/she comes. There are
very few British speakers (only about 2 3%) who use RP in its pure form, in spite of the fact that it is
associated with respectability, good education, and high social status. What is nowadays more common
is what we call Modified Received Pronunciation (MRP), in which characteristics of RP were mixed
with regional forms, by educated speakers. Another variety of language, combining regional accents
with features of RP, was running in the 1990s, as a trendy accent, Estuary English.
The use of Standard English is, however, socially more important than RP.
But English, wherever spoken, varies according to the specific functions it has to fulfill
(purpose), the formality or informality of the occasion (context), or those who it addresses
(audience). Functional varieties range from the use of the language for everyday subjects to more
specialized spheres such as: science, legal affairs, business, official announcements, political topics,
military questions, cultural events, sports etc. Each speaker has a range of language forms called a
personal repertoire.
Register
The language variations characteristic of these differences in subject matter are also called
registers. They include words and phrases suited for the purpose. Thus, scientific registers contain
special terminology. It has been statistically stated that only about 25% of the vocabulary of the natural
science is made up of words of everyday conversation. For example, in medical texts, words like fever,
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artery, tissue, virus, diagnosis, and symptom occur ten times more often than common words like get,
down, full, short, turn etc.
In the social sciences the contrast is not so striking, but legal language (the register of internal
law), diplomatic communication, advertising English, with its new arbitrary coinages and word
formation patterns, as well as its thousands of trade names, abound in many individual features.
So, we can say that its possible to characterize a particular functional style of English by
describing the set of words, word-groups, and clichs, which it favors. Apart from lexis, registers may
also involve grammatical features. As a rule, certain syntactic constructions are more frequent in some
registers than in others. Scientific English, for example, develops a high percentage of passive
constructions. Together with the register of official written communication it prefers certain means of
informational conversation, for example, the frequent use of nonfinite clauses (-ing phrases, -ed
phrases).
Simple
sentence:
Compound
sentence:
Complex
sentence:
He comes here every summer.

He comes here every summer, but/ and doesnt stay long.
He comes here every summer but doesnt stay long as he doesnt like it
/not liking it .(non-finite clause)
He doesnt stay long here, though he comes here every summer.
Examples:
1.
The duration of various magnetic reversals is known from potassium dating of land-rocks and can be used
to put dates to the magnetic strips of the ocean floor and hence to estimate the rate of spreading. The age of the
rocks lying near to the ridge implied a rate of spreading of about 2- cm a year.
2.
Before making these nominations, each national group is recommended to consult its highest court of
justice, its legal faculties and schools of law, and its national academies and national sections of international
academies devoted to the study of law.
1st text
geology (register)
non-finite clauses
passive voice
vocabulary
2nd text
law (register)
non-finite clauses
passive voice
- vocabulary
Everyday English is much richer in finite verb clauses and complex sentences. It also uses a lot of
conjoiners, like on the contrary, also, and, but, or nevertheless. That is why sentences used
in the everyday conversation lack in the informational density, found in the scientific discourse.
Other syntactic features typifying newspaper English: headlines tend to be marked by reductions,
rarely found in other uses of English: Motor-workers Hitting Back; British Government Failure to
Free Internees Blamed; Obama for Brussels; Rise for Air Staff

Finite forms often lack, as well, if used as in Teacher Meeting Accepts Deal. They may have a
secondary function, namely present tense forms having past tense meaning. Teacher Meeting
Acceped Deal. Determiners are rare: The motor-workers are hitting back; The British
Government is blamed for the fact that it failed; Obama will visit Brussels. Other journalistic style
makers are the string compound or nominalizations, which help to save expensive newspaper space.
e.g. Meals ban on contract work only doctors Top Brussels bureaucrat Sir Christopher Soames
told a Conservative Party-sponsored seminar..
Any modern English grammar book will have to deal with such constructions. Their distribution
will vary from one type of text to another.
Registers differ according to the occurrence of particular lexical items and the frequency of
particular grammatical patterns.
General Characteristics of Style
Apart from the differences emerging from the subject matter or purpose for which they are used,
registers should still have in common the same characteristics.
However much a speaker may be concerned about the register he is using at a certain moment,
there are factors that can influence the shift from one register to another, sometimes involuntarily with
the same speaker, on the same occasion, at the same time. Among them we can enumerate subjective
factors, like the speakers state of mind, distress, other speakers interference, even noises going on,
divagations occasioned by the type of dialogue. Thus, a speaker can shift the register from formal to
informal or colloquial or vice-versa during the same communication opportunity. However, no matter
what register is being used, or whether the speaker is being formal/ informal, the general
characteristics of any style should be the same with every communicator/ emitter.
The message must therefore achieve:
1.
accuracy from morphological, syntactical, phonological, or spelling point of view;
2.
clarity, using those words or phrases which are best known to the speakers of the language both in
oral and written form. The following can be considered deviations from clarity:
a)
obscurity denominates a confusing, uneasy style;
b)
equivocation confusing in meaning (for example, the word people, in English, which can have
two different meanings: 1. Humans, generally speaking, and 2. Ethnic group defined as the majority
people inhabiting a country. Unless specified correctly in context, the meaning can arise
equivocation.);

c)
nonsense senseless constructions/ sentences (Noam Chomsky quotes the following example, a
sentence which is correct from grammatical point of view, but makes no sense from logical point of
view: Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.)
3.
appropriateness refers to using the words, phrases or grammatical constructions that best fit a
certain context;
E.g.
mentally disabled people = [scientific]

crazy, lunatic = [colloquial]
ape = [scientific language]
monkey = [everyday speech]
4.
precision consists of using the words most necessary to communicate; there are deviations
speakers should be able to avoid during communication.
a)
prolixity, bombasticism results in a useless agglomeration of words. Digressions are

frequently the cause and source of prolixity.
b)
redundancy a major flaw in communication since it hinders the logical perception of the
verbal message. It consists of repeating one or several ideas in too many words by means of pleonastic
constructions or by reiteration.
5.
purity of style using only those words which are admitted by the common sense language; too
many or unjustified use of regionalisms, neologisms, archaisms can become a major impediment in
both written and oral communication.
Obeying the above mentioned characteristics of style is obligatory for all types of communicators
or speakers and for all registers.
Peculiarities of Style
Peculiarities of style are specific of cultivated registers only. A message which has achieved all
the above general characteristics, is more or less likely to have a style of its own and peculiarities to
define it. Among these peculiarities, the following can be mentioned:
1.
Genuineness defines the natural fluent non-artificial expression. It involves good knowledge of
the language, experience in using it, practice and hard-working effort in writing. Deviations from
genuineness can result in affectation (for e.g. histrionics pretending to speak to audiences in theatres;
emphatics - the bombastic declamatory style.)
2.
Conciseness concentrated lapidary expression using only those words that are necessary to good
communication.
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3.
Simplicity quite related to conciseness, means not only the use of the most accessible words,
avoiding unnecessary stylistic artificiality, but also a serious and careful selection of the appropriate
vocabulary.
4.
Harmony regards the musical aspect of the language. A careful speaker will avoid using words
whose association will create an unpleasant or unwanted phonological effect (cacophony).
5.
Dignity requests the use of only those words that do not attempt to other interlocutors common
sense, bashfulness that rejects triviality. Delicacy, refinement, discreteness, elegance are qualities
going along or resulting from dignity.
6.
Innovation is a characteristic particularizing the speaker especially in written literary texts, but
not only. Being rhetorical or inspiring music, the inner resources of the language would be up to the
speakers themselves.
Variations and Variety in Registers
We often notice that speakers vary the registers in use. Quite often one and the same speaker can be
stiffly formal (stilted), even colloquial immediately after. A rough division of registers according to
social requirements, degree of school education or necessity of expression would be:
a)
formal language- written language, radio, TV, when address to large audiences;
b)
informal language- oral aspect of the language;

In their turn, these subdivisions can differ in degree but are also levels of transition between
them. Thus, a more detailed subdivision would include:
1
2
3
4
5
6
The stilted level

The formal level
The neutral level
The colloquial level
The intimate level
The vulgar level
E.g. Visitors should proceed at once to the upper floor by way of the staircase.
E.g. Visitors are requested to go up the stairs at once.
E. g. Would you mind going upstairs right away, please.
E.g. Now, time you all went upstairs!
E.g. Up you go chaps!
E.g. Get up them bloody stairs!
For a description of English it is important to recognize the respective code labels/ level
markers which signal to the native speaker the kind of communicative situation he is in. Just in a
particular register, both lexis and grammar carry this additional stylistic meaning. Note the downward
change from should to would, from visitors to you, from staircase to stairs, from at
once to right away and further to now. Apart from these relative marking devices there are also
absolute ones such as the reduction time from its time, or chaps, for the fronting up you go, or
the vulgar bloody stairs.
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If we compare the following 3 sentences:
1.
I believe that I can find one.
2.
I believe I can find one.
3.
Believe I can find one.

It is not a question of correctness, or not one which is at issue, but precisely a step down from neutral
(1,2) to colloquial (3).
The change of level is a communicative constraint upon grammar. Grammatical constructions
and lexical items vary in order to secure communicative adequacy. The communicational variation of
the grammar of English includes another fundamental distinction: that between the spoken and written
forms of the English language. These 2 varieties naturally cutting across register and stylistic level are
distinguished according to medium.
Register, stylistic level and medium together form a complex frame of reference. They are
interdependent and constitute a communicative grid giving each utterance a specific place. The
following diagram tries to take all types of communicative features described into account:
Level
Stilted
Formal
Neutral
Colloquial
Intimate
Vulgar
x
x
o
everyday
o
o
o
x
scientific
x
journalistic
official
literary
Register
Medium: - spoken = o
- written = x
An example as the one that follows:
1.
Army sources said tonight that the three men who died in a bomb explosion in the Roman Catholic
Falls area of Belfast this morning were members of the provisional IRA. (taken from an item in Times)
- can be characterized as journalistic, neutral and written.
This does not exclude the possibility of quoting from one and the same source varying as to their
characteristics.
2.
I saw a bright flash and heard a bang, I ran to the bedroom door and there was nothing outside.
This example has been taken from the same paper, but it is every day, colloquial and spoken.
To conclude, we can appreciate that any register can be defined within three component elements,
also known as dimensions of diatypical variations ( > dia = through, across; tipus = image/ typos =
model, Greek). These are:
Field (domain, theme);
Mode (written or oral);

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Tenor (style).
Generally speaking, individual speakers will be able to master one dialect which is permanent and
quite hard to change, but several diatypes, according to the above mentioned dimensions.
The interdependence between written and oral English is complex. Oral/Spoken English is
considered to be basic, because it is acquired before written English and is more frequently used.
Written English has a special place in the formal education system. Oral English will vary more
than written English will, because written language is formal, while oral language is spontaneous.
English as a World Language

In order for a language to become a world language, several conditions must be achieved: the number
of first-language speakers must be high (English has about 300-400 million worldwide); users must be
spread over a large geographical area; political and economic affairs must be stable, so that the
language can spread without impediments.
English began to be used as a world language during the growth of the British Empire and
colonization, when it spread to places like India, or Southern Africa, but it also got solid ground in
North America, starting with the 17th c. In time, a particular form of English with no geographical
markers came into being, standard international English. It is used by international organizations
and institutions (the UNO, NATO, air traffic companies, police involved in international
investigations, etc.).
Local varieties, marked by new historical, social, or geographical features developed: Australian
English, American English, Japanese English, etc. They are now considered to be local varieties of the
same language, international dialects of English.
The disadvantage of having a language spoken as a second language, so much more a world
language, is that there is a strong tendency of making it easier to learn. Thus, the subjunctive mood is
dying: even native speakers and writers are uneasy with it. It is considered to be a serious loss, as the
variety of distinctions we can make in a language decreases with the fading out grammar means of
expression.
Modern technology is having a profound effect on such points of language as punctuation and
spelling. In its turn, it is becoming simpler, in order to suit the needs of a text on TV, or computer
screen.
Mass communication has encouraged a monstrous growth of clichs. A new pop song or catchphrase, or vogue word is heard all around the world, as soon as it is uttered. It becomes a clich
overnight, but it dies almost as fast.
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There is more slang heard and written today than ever before, for two main reasons. We have
relaxed the taboos and thrown away the corsets of language, being more frightened these days of
seeming stuffy and of seeming low or vulgar.
The second reason for the profusion of slang is the proliferation of different national dialects and
registers of English. The slangs created by different speaking groups pour into the common pool of
English, are broadcast around the world by the mass media and almost immediately picked up by other
speakers. DJs and pop groups, rock groups, jazz, or house groups spread their native slangs in the same
way. Paradoxically, slang is a sign of healthy growth, not decadence.
Slang
The Oxford English Dictionary defines slang as the special vocabulary used by any set of persons of
a low or disreputable character; language of a low and vulgar type.
According to Wikipedia.org, slang has to meet at least two of the following criteria in order to be
classified as such:
It lowers, if temporarily, "the dignity of formal or serious speech or writing"; in other words, it is likely
to be considered in those contexts a "glaring misuse of register."
Its use implies that the user is familiar with whatever is referred to, or with a group of people who are
familiar with it and use the term.
"It is a taboo term in ordinary discourse with people of a higher social status or greater responsibility."
It replaces "a well-known conventional synonym". This is done primarily to avoid the discomfort
caused by the conventional item or by further elaboration.
A somewhat more intransigent definition of the term states that slang is language of a highly
colloquial type, considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting of either
new words invented for fun, or of current words used in some special sense. This kind of slang tends to
have a short life and a merry one, since it passes out of vogue almost as quickly as it goes in, following
the speed with which slang-makers get bored and move on to something else. The notion of slang as
language or idiom which is not appropriate in formal or in literary contexts is probably the dominant
meaning today. It tends to be more transitory and metaphorical than standard language. In fact, slang
has the quality of always bearing the meaning chosen by the speaker.
The question is WHY do people invent and use slang? One popular theory is that slang tends to be
the language of the poor and the criminal classes, who try to make their lives colourful through the
language they use. Unfortunately, this theory is self-sufficient and rather romantic, and not by far able
to meet a solid reasoning.
It is assumed that people using slang seek at least three things in various degrees of proportions:
novelty, vivacity, and intimacy. Public school slang is a form of cant (secret language). It is different
from one language to another, from Oxford to Cambridge, and from Liverpool to Leeds. Because slang
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is intimate, it is sometimes confined to a particular geographical community and thus acquires features
which are local and regional. That is why the boundaries between slang and dialect are often uncertain
and vague.
Slang and dialect meet and mingle in London Cockney. Manual workers, Dockers, postmen, retail
tradesmen, house decorators, sales representatives, printers, publishers, journalists, lawyers, medical
practitioners, politicians, artists, actors, sportsmen, and members of many other professions and
callings have their own varieties of slang.
Inasmuch as they are cryptic languages, Cockney rhyming slang, back slang, and centre slang lie
over the borderline separating slang from cant. For example, in Cockney rhyming slang vocabulary,
trouble-and-strife stands for wife, bees and honey stands for money, plates of meat stands for feet,
Oliver (Twist) stands for fist, and north (and south) stands for mouth.
Back slang reverses the order of sounds in a word, taking liberties in euphony and pronunciation.
Thus, game becomes emag, and market becomes tekram, while police becomes slop, and girl becomes
elrig. Back slang is kacab genals.
Varieties of Cockney slang and other lowly forms of speech emerged in the underworld during
WWI and WWII, and spread far and wide.
A deep root of slang in all languages is the need for criminals to have a private language, by which
they can communicate in an encrypted way.
Sexual and bawdy (i.e. referring to sex in a humorous way) terms constitute another sphere of
interest for slang-makers. Francis Grose, the first author of a dictionary of slang in English, assumed
that male chauvinism, anti-feminist bias were among the social causes of the invention of many slang
terms referring to sex, and especially parts of the womans body.
The illicit but trendy drug culture had an influence on the slang of low and high life in the 1960s
and 1970s.
Pop, rock, house, and especially hip-hop music are a prolific new source of slang in English.
Rockspeak is an efflorescent modern branch of slang; its roots lie deep in the jargon of jazz and in
the older seedbeds of slang.
There is a continuous and permanent fight of the teenagers to establish their own slang, and thus
become independent from the adult world.
World wars and national military service have been another potent new source of slang during the
20th c.
More recently, with the increasing popularity of internet and mobile communication, other types of
slang have included SMS language used on mobile phones, and "chatspeak," (e.g., "LOL", an acronym
meaning "laughing out loud" or "laugh out loud" or ROFL, "rolling on the floor laughing"), widely
used in instant messaging on the Internet.
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Jargon
The meaning of jargon depends on the context, and opinions and judgments of the person using it.
In English, jargon has come to mean language that sounds ugly and is hard to understand for
various reasons. It has been used to describe a hybrid speech of different languages.
Jargon is also used to describe the sectional vocabulary and register of a science, art, trade, class,
sect, or profession, full of technical terms and codes, and consequently difficult, or often
incomprehensible for those who are not in the know.
The jargon of business, sometimes called commercialese, is designed to impress and to sell, as
well as to convey information, and is composed of pomposity, obsequiousness (=keenness to please
someone, in a way that doesnt seem sincere), and circumlocution (=the use of too many words to say
something, especially in order to avoid saying something clearly). Corporatese is an alternate term
for the jargon used in corporations. Wikipedia.org quotes examples of corporatese like the following:
ASAP (as soon as possible), DBA (doing business as), ETA (estimated time of arrival), FY (fiscal
year), HR (human resources), etc. as acronyms; critical thinker, matrix organisation, re-engineer,
teamwork, etc. as nouns; deliver, emerge, generate, implement, etc. as verbs; authored, sustainable,
actionable, scalable, etc. as adjectives.
Here is an example of officese (jargon of the office), in a letter, from a department store to which
the author owed money:
Madam,
We are in the receipt of your favour of the 9th inst. [this month] with regard to estimate required for the
removal of your furniture and affects from the above address to Burbleton, and will arrange for a
Representative to call to make an inspection on Tuesday next, the 14th inst., before 12 noon, which we trust
will be convenient, after which our quotation will at once issue.
In plain English, this could simply have been reduced to:

Madam,
We have your letter of May 9th requesting an estimate for the removal of your furniture and
effects to Burbleton, and a man will call to see the next Tuesday forenoon if convenient, after which we
will send the estimate without delay.
Or even simpler:
Thank you for your letter of May 9th. A man will call next Tuesday, forenoon, to see our furniture and
effects, after which, without delay, we will send our estimate for their removal to Burbleton.
Journalism is another pseudo-science that creates its own jargons. Journalese is popularly
supposed to be one of them: the kind of English found in the tabloids and pops, featured by use of
colloquialisms, superficiality of thought or reasoning, clever or sensational presentation of material,
sentimentality and chauvinism, considered characteristics of newspaper writing. Another characteristic
is its ostentatious syntax.
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Headlines impose constraint of brevity on journalese. For example, headline jargon prefers
PROBE to INVESTIGATION, not simply because it sounds more sensational, but because it has five
letters instead of thirteen.
The jargon of science and technique is forever increasing. The latest and fastest growing of the
technical jargons is Computerese. Like many new jargons, deficient of vocabulary, it converts nouns
into verbs (e.g. to access, to format), and then the verb back into a gerund noun by adding ing.
The same general principles apply to all jargons. Every jargon, in greater or lesser proportion,
is a mixture of hard technical terms that are useful codes for the cognoscenti and gobbledygook that is
used to sound grand, and blind the eyes of the ignorant with long words.
Like slang, jargon, too, is a source of strength in the language.
Dialect
English as a world language, spoken by large populations of native speakers, on a wide geographical
area, having inventive genius and of industrial and commercial enterprise, a language which had a long
period of political and economic leadership, is a bunch of overlapping dialects. The English spoken in
Mumbay is a quite different and distinct dialect from the English they speak in Birmingham or in
Brisbane. Even if they may have some difficulty in understanding the speakers in Ulster or in
Glasgow, English speakers from Los Angeles will still communicate using the same language basis.
A dialect used to be considered the local variety of a language that occurred in a rural district. As
local dialect is fading away, national dialects grow stronger, as English-speaking countries develop
their peculiar core of literary and colloquial English spoken by all English speakers.
Today English has become a Commonwealth of languages. Around the central core, and
overlapping it and each other, are all the national dialects which enrich each other by borrowing and
lending.
The dominant dialect is American English, partly because so many millions are using the language
over there, and partly because they lead the way for the rest in science, arts, fashion. Vocabularies,
idioms, and grammar from tongues like Eskimo, Algonkian, and Hispanic English flow into the main
stream of English.
Yiddish is one of the strongest and liveliest sources of new English, or Yinglish (col. Hebronics). It is
not Yinglish vocabulary that is being adopted, but Yiddish grammatical structures, idioms. For
example, taking a predicate adjective or noun and sticking it in front of the sentence, for emphasis
(what has been called idiom topicalization or fronting) comes down from Yiddish and is common
in German, Danish, and other Germanic languages:
e.g. Smart, he isnt.
Beautiful, she is not.
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In Australian English (or Oz English), we particularly notice slang.
The first way in which a dialect develops out of English is to name the animals, birds, trees, plants,
and other creatures in the new world. Kangaroo, boomerang, billabong, corroboree, humpy, mulga, are
words taken from the native tongue of the Aborigenes.
Dialect developed from persons or place names, or from figures in Australian folklore. A Jacky
Howe is Australian slang for a sleeveless flannel shirt, named for its eponym, a shearer who lived
between 1855 and 1922.
A peculiarity of Australian dialect is its dislike of class distinction, its wish to sound like one of
the boys, and its foul-mouthedness. A high percentage of all slang is rude. Strine (Australian) slang is
ruder and better than most. It is notably male chauvinist.
In India, there are 15 official languages and a thousand or so others. English is the only common
linguistic ground. Like Yinglish, Indian English or MumbaySpeak has its idiosyncratic syntax, e.g. the
Indian habit of tagging the question isnt it? on the end of sentences, regardless of the number and
gender of the subject.
e.g. The women went shopping, isnt it?
Among the words that have come from India into the central core of English are: curry, jungle, khaki
(dusty).
As a peculiarity of Indian English, we notice its formality and old-fashioned correctitude. Most
Indians learn English at school, from books, and not in their homes. The consequence is its formality
and pedantry. In India, criminals do not flee, they abscond, the rupees are bucks, or chips, and the bus
is a lorry. It is also typical of Indian English to leave out the reflexive pronoun in reflexive verbs (to
enjoy, to exert) and to contract or delete longer phrases (e.g. key bunch for bunch of keys, God-love
for love of God, etc.). Yes/no confusion is also typical: You have no objection? Yes, I have no
objection.
The English spoken in Japan, Janglish, is also distinct, as it is the English in Sweden, Swinglish.
An interesting group of English dialects is Pidgin English, which used to be one spoken in different
forms around the world, from West Africa, to the South Pacific. A pidgin is an official language
composed of elements of two or more other languages, and used, usually for trading contracts, between
speakers of other languages. Or, as defined by Wikipedia, a grammatically simplified means of
communication that develops between two or more groups that do not have a language in common:
typically, a mixture of simplified languages or a simplified primary language with other languages'
elements included. Its name is said to be derived from Business English, the name given by the
Chinese to the Anglo-Chinese lingua franca. They pronounced it as pidgin.
Pidgin English is still current today in West Africa, in the wilder parts of Australia and in Papua
New Guinea. When a pidgin becomes the mother tongue of a community, it is called a creole. This
happened in the West Indies and the US South, and in Hawaii, as well as in Sierra Leone.
15

Like all the dialects of English, South African has developed its own grammar and colloquialisms.
It is idiomatic in South African English to say that one is bad friends with somebody else, meaning
that one is in a state of temporary enmity with him/her. It has a lively slang: a flat dog is a crocodile,
and a fuse is a cigarette. To come/slip on your guava means to make a fool of yourself.
In the apartment blocks in Watts County, Los Angeles, they speak Black English, a dialect said to
be peculiar to Afro-Americans, and peculiarly impenetrable by outsiders.
Still, it is unlikely that any of the above mentioned dialects, or others, apart from pidgins and
creoles, will ever break away from the main core and become a totally separate language.
Additional reading: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/oct/29/dont-neglect-uks-indigenous-languages
Language for Special/Specific Purposes

Linguistic difficulties are inevitable when there is an interaction between people from different,
regional, cultural, social, occupational backgrounds, something that is increasingly common in modern
society.
As people become more mobile and come into contact with diverse forms of linguistic behavior a
major aim of linguistic style is to investigate the factors that promote and maintain the existence of
varieties within a language and provide descriptions of their use. These studies provide a means of
observing change in contemporary culture and civilization, but they can also be of practical assistance,
clarifying the reasons for the use of unfamiliar language, and thus providing a perspective that may
help to resolve cases of linguistic conflict.
There is no theoretical limit to the number of special purposes to which the language can be put. As
society develops new faces, so language is device to express them. Lately whole new areas of
expression have emerged in relation to such domains as: computing, broadcasting, commercial
advertising and popular music. Over a longer time scale, special styles have developed associated with
religion, law, politics, commerce, the press, medicine and science.
Popular anxiety over special use of language is most markedly seen in the campaigns to promote
plain speaking and writing.
The main aim of these ones is to attack the use of unnecessarily complicated language
(gobbledegook) by governments, business and other authorities whose role puts them in linguistic
contact with the general public. Supporters of this campaign argue that such language, whether spoken
or written, should be replaced by clear forms of expression.
As a reaction against such campaigns, professionals in several specialized fields have defended
their use of technical and complex language as being the most precise means of expressing technical
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and complex ideas. Scientists, doctors, bankers etc. need their jargon in order to communicate with
each other succinctly and unambiguously.
1. The Language of Science
The aim of science is to determine the principles governing the psychical universe. Progress towards
this end is dependent of the use of the language. The knowledge base of a subject upon which all
scientists depend is accessible only if previous generations have managed to express their findings in a
precise and unambiguous manner.
Similarly, present-day scientists must satisfy the same linguistic constraints if their work is to be
correctly interpreted and accepted by their peers. Research findings are of limited value until they are
written up and published.
The methodology of science with its demand for objectivity, systematic investigation and exact
measurement has several linguistic consequences. There is an overriding concern for impersonal
statement, logical expression and precise description.
Emotional comment, humor, figurative expression and other aspects of personal language are
avoided. The mathematical expression of relationships promotes an extensive use of numerals,
operators, letters and other special symbols which are frequently used in word-like/sentence-like
combinations (formulae, equations): R - area of a circle.
Lengthy sentences of a text can be written in logo-graphic form: {(x-y+2)/2} thus giving the
language of science its highly valued status as a universal medium of expression.
Vocabulary and Grammar
In addition to this distinctive graphology, scientific language illustrates several important
features of vocabulary and grammar.
The large technical vocabulary is undoubtedly its most characteristic feature reflecting the
specialists subject matter of scientific domains of inquiry. Everyday words are too vague for many
scientific purposes. So, new ones have to be invented.This new vocabulary is largely based on
borrowings from Latin and Greek, showing the influence of classical languages during the period of
scientific discoveries, following the Renaissance. It contains many compound expressions some of
which, like those in chemistry, can be extremely long and unpronounceable, requiring abbreviations
for practical use: TNT trinitrotoluene.
At the other extreme, some fields delight in using everyday words to identify new hypotheses
and discoveries, notably in contemporary practical physics, where we find such terms as: strangeness,
flavor, color and charm.
17

Scientific vocabulary requires continuous updating (it is dynamic) following the process of
discovery.
The grammar also contains several distinctive features. Sentences are often long and have a
complex internal structure. The complexity is centered on the noun phrases, rather than on the verb
phrases. But probably the best known grammatical feature is the use of the passive construction: the
mixture was poured instead of we poured the mixture.
The intention behind this usage is straightforward. It enables a description to be made impersonal,
without an agent being expressed. However, the overuse of complex passive sentences in scientific
writing has attracted considerable criticism in recent years and there is now a marked tendency to
avoid them.
E.g. Smaller quantities of toray products are obtained and the reported yields of diary are
generally higher than the diazo- and azo- compounds discussed about.
2. Medical Language
The field of medicine is somewhat different from any other field as it faces the confrontation scientific
vs. everyday language. Outside the world of the research laboratory and clinic, there exists the daily
routine of medical practice. There occurs a communication situation in which a doctor attempts to
understand the problems of a patient and the patient attempts to understand the doctors diagnosis.
Language is involved at all points in the consultation. The initial statement of symptoms is of critical
significance as it guides the doctors search for the clinical signs of the condition.
The doctors explanations and his recommendations for treatment need to be clear and
complete if the patient is to understand and follow the correct course of action.
Communication Problems
Both parties need to listen carefully and express in a self-evident way in a field as sensitive and
serious as health. There are many problems arising in practice. Patients worried about their health
often seem uncertain or confused. Busy doctors will not have the time to take up every point that
the patient has attended to.
There is a tradition of medical interviewing which hinders the development of a genuine
communicative interaction.
A study of ten major medical journals found general agreement about the following
characteristics of doctor - patient communication.
Topics of conversation should be restricted to those dealing with the patients body and conditions
contributing to disease.
18
Conversation should only be with the patient, not with relatives and friends.
It is the task of the doctor not the patients to ask questions.
The doctor should avoid telling all the truth.
Patients should be told that they are ultimately responsible for the improvement of their own
health, which will occur only if they follow the doctors advice; this tradition is still widely
encountered.
Studies of medical communication have in view several types of situations in which there has
been a breakdown of communication and where the consultation has had an unsatisfactory result.
Regional, social and cultural differences between doctor and patient can all be sources of
linguistic difficulty especially in the case of immigrant patients.
Even age can intervene. An American study found the problems so serious that it suggested
devising a questionnaire phrased in appropriate slang to enable all the doctors to communicate with
inner-city teenage patients.
Medical interviews face many difficulties. Some people are naturally taciturn in formal
situations because their social/ cultural background has developed in them a sense of knowing their
place. Others find it necessary to talk at length about unrelated topics as a preliminary to introducing
their symptoms. Some play down the importance of these symptoms because they have been brought
up not to make a fuss. Each type of case presents doctors with a problem of communication analysis.
Linguistic problems continue to occur even when doctors and patients have the same social
background. Doctor need to be alert to pick up the linguistic queues that may express the patients real
reason for coming to the surgery or the issue that is causing the most subconscious worry (such as
repeatedly referring to the heart). They also need to anticipate points of potential misunderstanding
such as the common patients interpretation of the word growth (you have a small growth here) to
mean cancer, or thrombosis to mean heart disease.
Medical communication researchers have also drawn attention to several areas where medical
staff could promote their own communicative skills (by providing explanations of what they are doing
while they are doing it, by welcoming questions from patients rather than putting on the "doctor knows
best attribute, or by avoiding patronizing language: Drink it down like a good girl!).
Above all, medical staff needs to be aware of the many functions that language can perform
and, in particular that language may be used to signal desire for social contact and need not be taken
literally. For example, in one study, 40 hospital patients who asked for relief from pain were given
either routine nursing attention, or a visit from the nurse specially trained in communication skills.
Only 2 of the former group obtained immediate relief, whereas 14 of the latter group did so. And the
entire former group required analgesics, compared with the only 6 of the latter.
Such findings illustrate the need for a prospective on communication to be part of medical
training.
19
Vocabulary
A diagram of the muscles of the neck is showing the traditional use of Latin nomenclature
would make most people identify medical language with this kind of terminology or its vernacular
meaning: stylo-glassus, stylo-hyoid, obliquus capitis superior, transversalis cervicis, sterno-hyoid etc.
The labels of anatomy and philosophy do form the core of the subject indeed. However, the
kinds of conversation in hospitals and clinics introduce a wide range of additional terminology. People,
locations, routine objects and daily activities, all have their special labels, idioms or abbreviations:
E.g. intern, registrar, SRN, ENT, path lab, sluice, day room, theatre, medical records, op, scrub up,
draw-sheet, sample, drainage tube etc.
It is not difficult to hear sentences that are unintelligible say to the initiated: Staff wants you to
do the TRR on the four hourlies = The staff nurse wants you to take the temperature, pulses and
respiration of those patients who need this information recorded every four hours.
3. The Language of Religion
The relationship language-religious belief pervades cultural history. Frequently, a divine being
is believed to have invented speech or writing and given it as a gift to mankind. One of the first things
Adam has to do (Book of Genesis) is name the acts of creation. In the Egyptian mythology the god
Thoth is the creator of speech and writing, Brahma gives the knowledge of writing to the Hindu
people. Odin is the inventor of runic script in Icelandic sagas. A heaven sent water turtle, with marks
on its back, brings writing to the Chinese. All over the world the supernatural provides a powerful set
of beliefs about the origins of language.
Religious associations are particularly strong in relation to written language because writing is
an effective means of guarding and transmitting sacred knowledge. Literacy was available only to an
elite, in which priests figure prominently. Echoes of this link reverberate in the English vocabulary still
through such connections as: scripture and script, or the reference to scripture as Holy Writing. There
are wide spread sanctions for human action expressed in phrases like: for it is written = Holy
Scripture says it.
Sacred writings are at the center of all the worlds main religions; scrupulous attention is paid
to identifying and preserving the linguistic features of the original texts. Often the texts are
accompanied by a long tradition of commentary which may itself take on special religious
significance.
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The main sacred writings: Buddhism, Pali Canon based on oral traditions contains the teaching
of the Buddha. Pali became the canonical example for Buddhists from many countries but comparable
texts came to exist in other languages (Chinese, Japanese) as the religion evolved.
Christianity the Bible the 39 books of the Old Testament written in Hebrew and the 27
books of the New Testament written in Greek; several other writings known collectively as the
Apocrypha and preserved only in Greek have controversial status. A Latin translation of the Bible
(Vulgate) is prominent in the Roman Catholic tradition.
Hinduism the Vedas - a wide range of texts written in Sanskrit and preserved largely through
a meticulous tradition which take particular care over accuracy of pronunciation.
Islam - the Koran- which Muslims believe was dictated to the prophet Mohammed by Allah
during the month of Ramadan. It is written in a classical Arabic, in a style considered miraculous
beyond ability to imitate. The memorization of the text in childhood acts simultaneously as an
introduction to literacy.
Judaism - the Hebrew Bible / The Old Testament - especially as found in its first 5 books
traditionally said to be written by Moses. Later, varieties of Hebrew and some Aramaic form the
language of the large collection of oral and written commentaries on the Bible known as the Talmud.
Literacy is often introduced into a community by the spread of religion. As a result, the
distributing of writing system reflects the distribution of world religions far more clearly than does the
distribution of language families.
Translating the Word
Not all religions favor the translation of their sacred books. Judaism, Hinduism, Islam stress the
sacredness of the language itself and resist translation, whereas Buddhism and especially Christianity
actively promote it. Ultimately, all major religious works are translated from one language into
another, or from an older variety into a modern one.
The former process of religious translation is a long term frustrating task, usually carried out by
committees. Translators have to satisfy two criteria, which are always incompatible because one looks
backwards and the other forward. The translation must be historically accurate, faithfully representing
the meaning of the source, and integrate it within the religious tradition of which it is part. Secondly, it
must be acceptable to the intended users of the translation which in practice means that it must be
intelligible, esthetically pleasing and capable of relating to current trends in religious thought, social
pressures and the language changed. No translation can ever satisfy the demands of all these factors
and all are to some extent controversial.
The linguistic issues involved may relate to major conflicts of cultural or historical
interpretation, or be localized as problems of style. A phrase such as give us this day our daily bread
is not easy to translate in a language where the staple food is not bread. But even subtle, apparently
minor linguistic differences can become major prints of controversy. To address Divinity, as thou will
21

satisfy those who feel that religious language should adhere closely to tradition and especially set apart
from the everyday language. You will be preferred by those wishing religious language to have an
immediate contemporary meaning and application.
The thou/you debate has rumbled on for decades in English with echoes in other languages that
use a 2-nd person pronoun distinction.
Since printing was invented the Bible has been published entirely or partially in about 2000
languages.
Questions of level and accessibility remain central today. The religion translators can never
rest. For what might seem a safe world today may be loaded with irrelevant meaning tomorrow. A
contemporary e.g. is soul which has developed fresh meanings in Black American English, and which
requires the translator to look at any version in which traditional senses of soul might seem
misleading or laughable.
Varieties of Religious Language
The most striking feature is its heterogeneity derived from the wide range of activities involved
in public and private worship and the involvement of religion in all aspects of daily living and
thinking.
Several varieties are encountered:
Liturgical forms both spoken and sung, produced by individuals as monologue or dialogue and
including such acts as invocations, petitions, doxologies (statements of glory or praise), inter-sessions,
thanksgivings, rosaries, litanies, chants, psalms.
Preaching from formal written sermon to spontaneous monologues or even dialogues (as the
congregation reacts) and sometimes involving elements of songs, or chant, as in Black American
preaching.
Ritual forms - used in relation to cultural or social practices such as baptisms, funerals,
confessions, meal times, remembrance services, wedding, initiation ceremonies, circumcisions,
invocations, oaths, vows, exorcism and the blessing of people.
Readings from sacred texts is an original language or translation and varying degrees of formality
and modernity. The texts will contain a wide range of varieties such as parables, psalms, historical
narrative, apocalyptic description, poetry, and paradox.
Doctrinal statements as expanded in official canonical documents, articles of faith, courses of

instruction, catechism, teachings of TV cable. Closely associated with this theres the dimension of
theological language as expanded by theologians, biblical scholars etc. Private affirmations of belief in
supernatural beings, expressions of mystical power of identity and conversion (glossolalia)
prophesysing oracles, spirit possession and testimony hearing.
22
4.
The Language of the Law
Whatever the legal domain, i.e. government, legislation, court room activities, documentation that
constrains our daily life (regulation) we are faced with this is a fundamental principle: the words of the
law are, in fact, the law. There is no other variety where unstated intentions are so disregarded and
where the history of previous usage counts for so much.
The need and concern for precise and consistent linguistic interpretation has produced over the
centuries, a highly distinctive style, complex in appearance, mainly in written form. The lay public has
often criticized the style for being unnecessarily complex. D. MELLINKOFF (Prof. of Law) considers
his profession to display four linguistic mannerisms:
-
wordiness entirely and completely removed;
lack of clarity;
pomposity;
dullness.
Historical facts explain the character of present day legal language. Stylistic tradition is a major
influence here: null and void, rest, residuum and remainder can be traced back to Anglo- Saxon, old
French or Medieval Latin.
The repetition, the alliteration and rhythm of many expressions: the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth reflect the need for the law to be remembered clearly and passed on consistent at
a time when printing and general literacy were lacking.
The use of tautological expressions in English documents is often due to the influence of different
languages, for e.g. a French/ Latin term used alongside an Anglo-Saxon one: will/testament reflects
the uncertainty of early draftsman as to whether the 2 terms have the same meaning and it was safer to
use both.
Historical explanations do not stop the persistent call for change in legal language by eliminating
archaic or Latin expressions, simplifying grammatical structure and adding punctuation. Those in
favor of change argue that this would make legal language more intelligible to consumers, saving time,
anxiety and money and would also greatly simplify the job of lawyers.
Those who defend the complexity of legal language argue that its characteristics are the product of
centuries of effort to devise an unambiguous reliable and authoritative means of regulating human
society and resolving conflict. According to them, the need for consistency in legal interpretation and
for confidence in judgments (which they argue can save time, anxiety and money) outweigh the gain
that would come from an increase in popular understanding.
23

Although many lawyers agree to have a simplification of the legal language, theres a natural
caution about leaving the safe chartered domain of traditional legal language and entering into a world
of hidden, undiscovered linguistic pitfalls (capcane, curse).
A certain amount of planned change could undoubtedly be introduced without harm
(documents in simplified forms have already been in use lately), but this is a slow process which
cannot take place without considering the consequences of these changes.
Spoken Legal Language
The language of the courtroom is familiar to many people if only through the media or films
and TV, but systematic research into the complex rules of linguistic behavior that participants are
expected to follow is recent. Most lay people (nespecialiti) fail to grasp to the extreme of these rules
until they have had the experience of acting as a witness. After such an event, the almost universal
reaction is frustration of not being allowed to say what they wanted in the way they wanted. Once
people are in court, they must follow its procedures and use in language; if they do not, they may be
held in contempt (sfidare a curii).
There are several everyday functions of language that witnesses are not allowed to use. They
must not report what other people have said (hearsay), evaluate other people or events (opinion),
give their listeners extra-contexts (they must simply respond to the question) or show such emotions
as humor.
Similarly the legal experts are subject to linguistic constraints such as how to introduce
evidence or cross-examine witnesses. Books have been written on court tactics- how to manipulate
witnesses, impress judges, and influence juries.
At a trial, language counts for everything. In terms of structural analysis, a trial is little more
than a giant narrative, with a beginning (the opening statements), middle (the presentation of evidence)
and end (the closing arguments and verdict).
The Characteristics of Legal Language
1.
Common words with uncommon meaning: action = law suit; avoid = cancel; hand =
signature; presents = this legal document; said = mentioned before; specialty = sealed contract
(ratificat).
2.
Old and Middle English words no longer in general usage: aforesaid; forthwith at once;
without delay; thenceforth - de atunci nainte, ulterior; whereby prin care; cu ajutorul; (A law
whereby beggars are punished); hereafter - mai trziu; heretofore - pn acum, anterior; said (adj.);
thereby - prin/ din aceasta, drept urmare; witnesseth.
24
Some words and phrases, including some that have become part of the language as a whole (alibi,
alias, affidavit, corpus delicti, ejusdem generis, ex post facto, in personam, lex loci actus, per stirpes,
quasi)
words derived from French (many now in general use) : appeal, assault, counsel, crime, plaintiff
(reclamant) , verdict;
only in legal language:
demurrer (=prejudiciu, ofensa), easement (=servitute), fee simple,
estoppel, lien, tort.

Technical terms with precise and well-understood meanings (terms of art): appeal, bail,
contributory, negligence, and defendant, and felony, libel.
Less precise terms and idioms, in standard use in daily legal discussions (sometimes referred to
as legal argot): alleged, issue of law, objection, and order to show cause, Superior Court, without
prejudice.
Formal or ceremonial words and constructions in written documents and spoken courtroom
language: signed, sealed and delivered; whereas (used in contracts); you may approach the bench;
Your Honor (D-le judecator, Onorata Curte); may it please the court; I do solemnly swear..; the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
The conscious use of vague words and phrases to permit a degree of flexibility in interpretation
adequate cause; reasonable care; fair division; improper; malice ( intenie criminal, premeditare)
(subst); nominal sum.
3.
The use of slang, of words and phrases to express precise meaning: irrevocable, in
perpetuity, nothing contained herein.
This conversation motivates the use of long lists of near synonyms in documents.
5.
The Language of the Press
The language of newspapers and magazines has a large range of linguistically distinctive varieties.
Within the pages of a daily paper we can find such diverse comments, imaginative articles, reviews,
letters, captions (legenda la ilustraii), headlines, subheadings, announcements, TV program
descriptions, lists of sports results, cartoon dialogues, competitions, crossword clues and many kinds
of advertising.
It is therefore difficult to speak about a single style of writing used throughout a paper or to final
linguistic characteristics that are shared by all papers. Although each paper has its distinctive house
style and follows a set of general norms laid down by its editorial staff, the idea that there is a
25

homogeneous method of writing used by all journalists (journalese) seems to have little foundation.
Journalese likes jargon and several other labels are for many people no more than a loaded word,
identifying a style of newspaper writing they dislike.
There are certain superficial similarities between newspaper styles arising, out of the fundamental
constraints of the medium. Information has to be compressed into a limit space, usually in columns and
without loss of legibility. Interest has to be focused, captured and maintained throughout the use of
large type, dramatic headlines, frequent subheadings, short paragraphs, the recentness of the info
reported and the need to maintain human interest will, in various ways, influence the choice of
vocabulary and grammar. For example, most sentences will be narrative statements rather than
questions and exclamations, and the use of the past tense will dominate, except in headlines and
captions.
But apart from these general constraints there are stylistic preferences, which vary enormously. In
just a few instances, features of style have developed that are idiosyncratic to the genre of newspaper
or magazine writing and are frequently used, thus giving credence to the notion of journalese. Well
known examples from English are the altered order of subject and verb (commented Dr. B/ Dr. B
commented) and the use of long lists of descriptive adjectives (tall blue-eyed 32-year old publisher
J.B. said).
The distinctive grammar of headlines provides a further illustration, but, on the whole, there are a
few linguistic features that are restricted to the world of journalistic writing.
Headlines: Complaint on Eggs Upheld (= confirmed); Man Finds Girl in Car
Most headlines differ from everyday language by omitting many of the less important words in a
sentence to produce an elliptical telegraphic construction. They also display a very restricted range of
sentence structures. In recent decades, for e.g., the English press has made considerable use of the
word on in the sense of about, as part of headlines:Bishops Disagree On Divorce/ Protest On
Rail Cuts.
However, despite the syntactic restrictions there is still an opportunity for variation and, in fact, the
style chosen for headlines and subheadings often provides one of the most distinctive features of a
newspaper. At one extreme we find such plain/clear unemotional wordings (=formulri) as:
Christmas Unemployment Total at Record Level. At the other, we find such dramatic and if out of
context unintelligible items as: Crash, Bang, Wallop (= a snopi n btaie)/or Oh yes, She is.
There are papers adding interest to their headlines by making a distinctive use of word-play
Getting a True Bill of Fare (a foreigner who can afford his fare home tries to be deported by
deliberately not paying a restaurant bill) or Give Us This Way Our Daily Bread (an article on breadmaking).
Notes:
affidavit = dispozitie sub juramant
corpus delicti = corp delict, dovezi, evidente privind savarsirea unui delict
26

stirps, stirpes = (jur.) stramos (din care descinde o familie); stirpe neam , familie
quasi = ca si cum (am spune); cvasi-, semi-, aproximativ- in some ways partly
to demur = a ridica obiectii, a protesta
servitute = sarcina care gregheaza asupra unui bun imobiliar, izvorand din situatia naturala a bunului sau dintr-o conventie ,
care are ca scop sa serveasca utilitatea publica sau particulara
lien = garantie, zalog; drept de sechestru ( pe averea datornicului)
alleged = pretins, neconfirmat
to allege= a declara, a afirma fara dovezi; a pretinde
6. The Language of Advertising
The aim of advertising is to draw attention to a product, service in order to sell it. We cannot avoid
advertising, no matter where we are, or what we are doing. Advertising comes in an extraordinary
range of forms and contexts. The largest and most noticeable group belongs to commercial consumer
advertising but there are also categories like:
-
trade advertising (from manufacturers to retailers);
retail advertising (for shops to customers);
prestige advertising (e.g. by government departments);
classified advertising (want ads, house sales);
direct mailing.
The activities involve posters, signs, notices, show cards, samples, circulars, catalogues,
labels, wrapping paper, price tags, tickets, footballs shirts, bags etc.
Our ears can be assailed as well as the eyes with slogans, jingles, street cries, loudspeaker
messages, and the range of auditory effects hear in radio and TV advertising.
In most cases it is the visual contact and design of an ad that makes the initial impact and
causes us to take note of it. But in order to make people identify the product and remember its name
and persuade them to buy it, an ad relies almost totally on the use of language. Both the psychological
and the linguistic element are essential; they combine to produce a single brand image of a product.
A great deal of market research is carried out by firm advertising agencies but the link language
sales remains unclear.
Analyses of advertising style by linguists and professional copywriters have drawn attention to
several important features of this variety. Most obviously, the language is generally laudatory, positive,
unreserved and emphasizing the uniqueness of the product.
The vocabulary is vivid and concrete. Figurative expressions are common (eating sunshine
when referring to cereals, smiling color for hair shampoo).
Rhythm, rhyme and other phonetic effects are noticeable (Wot a lot I got; Milk has a lotta
bottle).
27

Deviant spellings may be used, especially in the brand names: Bar-B-Q, EZLearn, and
Savmor. Considerable use is made of inexplicit grammatical constructions which lend an ear of
vagueness and thus safety to the claims for the product: X gets cloth cleaner (cleaner than what?) or
X treats pains (all pains?).
The field of advertising is a controversial one, as people dispute the ethics and effects of hard
selling tactics, fraudulent claims, commercial sponsoring in sport, the intensiveness of advertising and
their effect on children. Its language requires then careful investigation and monitoring, which is not
easy, as the language of advertising lives with other forms of persuasive language (speeches,
ceremonies, public announcements). There is so much variation within the genre that it is impossible to
maintain a single attitude to encompass everything.
Television Advertising
It shares many of the linguistic features of consume advertising in general, but there are
important differences. Less use of written language, partly because of the limited size of the screen, but
also because of the limited time the viewer has to read lengthy materials. Besides, the medium makes
available the infinite possibilities of the spoken language, adventure, dramas and many other kinds of
interaction.
The simultaneous use of sound and visions can present problems however. Most
advertisements use speech to make their main linguistic claims and use a writing to reinforce what is
said or to add any disclaimers (e.g. battery not included).
Ignoring small print is easy. The viewer may turn away at a crucial moment. Also the fact
that TV advertising takes place in a real time can lead difficulties of comprehension and evaluation. In
printed advertising the advantage is that it can be revealed and what the ad actually says can be
analyzed. On TV, this opportunity is lacking, and theres little chance of evaluating the nature of claims
that are made.
Advertising Compounds
New compound words used as adjectives are probably the most noticeable features of
advertising language. Such compounds occasionally become part of the everyday language: topquality, economysize, day-in-day-out protection, satin soft skin, craftsman made furniture; chocolate
flavored cereals, etc.
28

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
David Crystal: The Encyclopedia of Language. CUP, 2 edition, 1997
Ion Coteanu: Stilistica funcional a limbii romne, Vol.1, Editura Academiei RSR,
Bucuresti, 1973
Davi-Ellen Chabner: The Language of Medicine. Saunders, 9 edition, 2011
Angela Goddard: The Language of Advertising. Routlege, 2 edition, 2002
George A. Hough: News Writing.Boston, 1995
Nuria Lorenzo-Dus. Television Discourse: Analysing Language in the Media. Palgrave
Macmillan; 1 edition, 2008
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Functional Styles Revised Version

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Functional Styles Revised Version

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Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES.

Gabriela Nistor, PhD

Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

spoken forms and written forms;

relationship among people;

level of knowledge, whether spoken as a native tongue or a second language;

political and economical peculiarities;

historic period, etc.

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

Functional Varieties of English

Standard English and Received Pronunciation

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

He comes here every summer.

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

General Characteristics of Style

accuracy from morphological, syntactical, phonological, or spelling point of view;

obscurity denominates a confusing, uneasy style;

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

mentally disabled people = [scientific]

prolixity, bombasticism results in a useless agglomeration of words. Digressions are

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

informal language- oral aspect of the language;

The stilted level

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

I believe that I can find one.

I believe I can find one.

Believe I can find one.

Field (domain, theme);

Mode (written or oral);

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

English as a World Language

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

In plain English, this could simply have been reduced to:

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

Language for Special/Specific Purposes

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

It is the task of the doctor not the patients to ask questions.

The doctor should avoid telling all the truth.

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

3. The Language of Religion

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

Doctrinal statements as expanded in official canonical documents, articles of faith, courses of

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

The Language of the Law

wordiness entirely and completely removed;

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

only in legal language:

demurrer (=prejudiciu, ofensa), easement (=servitute), fee simple,

estoppel, lien, tort.

The Language of the Press

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

Gabriela Nistor-FUNCTIONAL STYLES. Course notes

6. The Language of Advertising

trade advertising (from manufacturers to retailers);