In different
situations of communication people use different manners of expressing their
thoughts, which, in the Russian linguistic
tradition, are usually called styles or functional styles ,
and in the linguistic tradition abroad
— registers of speech.
Stylistics is a branch of linguistics that
studies the various functional styles of
speech and also the various expressive means and devices of language. Apart from that, some linguists
apply the term 'stylistics' to the study of various stylistic peculiarities of
the language of works of fiction.
The
distinction between a lofty style and a low style of speech was put forward as far back
as in the 18,h century by Michail Lomonosov. However, stylistics as
a special branch of linguistics was singled out only towards the middle of the 20"'
century. Academician V.V. Vinogradov was among
the first linguists to describe the different styles of speech in
respect to their functions (= aims). He distinguished, in particular:
1)
the colloquial style, which has the function of communicating;
2)
the official and scientific styles, which have the
function of informing;
3)
the publicist and belle-lettres styles, which have the
function of producing an emotional impact on the listeners.
This classification
undoubtedly reflects certain differences between speech styles, although its
criteria for the opposition of functions are rather confusing. Thus, for
example, the functions of informing and communicating are present in any style (colloquial, official, scientific,
publicist, belles-lettres), as speech always contains some information and is
used for communicating. Therefore it would probably be more precise to say that
the colloquial style is characteristic of the situation of direct
communication (when the listener/interlocutor is present during speech),
while the other, more bookish styles (official, scientific, publicist) are used
in situations of indirect communication (without any
listener/interlocutor present during speech).
Moreover, production of
emotional impact on the listener/ reader is not so much the aim of a special
style of speech, but rather the aim of
publicist or fiction (belles-lettres) works, which represent particular
literary genres. It goes without
saying that such works (texts) have also the function of informing. One more
point to mention here is that the study of the language of various works of
fiction constitutes a special branch in both linguistics and also in literature
theory, and that fiction
works themselves generally comprise samples
of both colloquial style (the speech of the characters)
and of bookish style (the speech of the author).
