Neutral words and stylistically marked words. Functional styles and registers in the English language

In a highly developed language like English (or Russian), the same idea may be differently expressed in different situations. Of course, there are words equally fit to be used in any sphere of communication, whether delivering a lecture or talking to a child. Such words are called stylistically neutral and form the core of the language. They are typically high - frequency words, forming the larger part of every utterance. The rest of the vocabulary are stylistically marked words, mostly restricted to certain spheres of communication, certain topics or certain audiences, and so probably unfamiliar to some, or even most, speakers. Due to their expressive character and restricted use, stylistically marked words are a powerful tool in a professional’s hands; a layman, however, is well-advised against the use of such words unless he knows precisely when, where and how to use them – otherwise he is simply not understood, or sounds ridiculous. To prevent misuse, dictionaries usually label such words as colloquial, poetry, familiar, slang, professional jargon, terminological etc. Traditionally, such words are classified as belonging to various functional styles.

" Style" is a widely used word, and, as many such words, is open to various interpretations. Coming from the Italian " stylus" – a sharp instrument for writing on a wax-covered surface – it has come to mean the collective characteristics of writing, diction, or indeed any artistic expression of a definite period. One could speak of Dickens’ or Chaucer’s style, of classical style in literature – or of current styles in hats and clothes. Prom the point of view of linguistics, a functional style is a system of expressive means (words, phrases, constructions) peculiar to a specific sphere or manner of communication.

The broadest possible classification of the English vocabulary is into formal and informal (or colloquial) words. Those belonging to the first group usually occur in print or public speech (as the Queen addressing the Parliament); those in the second group are mostly restricted to personal two-way oral communication. Apart from the choice of words, the formal and informal speech (and, to a lesser extent, writing) also differ in other properties, such as peculiarities of phonetics and grammar (which need not concern us here).

A further analysis reveals a number of subsets of the English vocabulary varying in their stylistic properties, which are often referred to as registers and are predominantly used in texts belonging to the corresponding functional style. If their stylistic properties are obvious enough, such words are regarded as stylistically marked, and dictionary-makers recognize their restricted use by labelling them poetic, learned, official, professional, on one hand, and colloquial, jargon, slang, on the other.

Poetic words are those traditionally restricted for poetry, with an elevated meaning and strongly archaic connotations, like slay for kill and hapless for unhappy. Their use was obligatory for poetic speech until the early XIX ^th century, but now even poets avoid them, unless they want to sound pathetic or ironic. Learned words are mostly scientific terms, typically of a Latin or Greek origin (like streptococcus or haemophilia), or words of a similar character that have become less specialized (like educate or internal), but also some archaic connectives not used elsewhere but retained in learned and official speech for their precision: thereby, whereupon, hereafter, etc. Formal words are those used in official documents and business correspondence but typically avoided in everyday conversation where they would sound either pompous or silly: accommodation for room, obtain for get, donation for gift, etc. As arule, they are more abstract in character than the corresponding neutral words. Cliché s like We are in receipt of your letter аlsо belong here. Professional words are closely related to terms but are less formal; unlike terms, they are more frequently used in oral speech, as airspeed, rate of climb or glidepath by pilots.

Sometimes, however, a professional word is not so much a precise expression of meaning as an attempt to conceal it from thoseoutside the trade – in which case it is rather a jargon word (a jargonism). In most cases there is no hard and fast line between jargon and professional speech, with the possible expresstion of argot – the secret language of the underworld. Argot is definitely outside standard language, as are the so-called vulgar words (vulgarisms) – the use of both is strictly taboo for most social groups, both in oral speech and in writing. Standing a bit higher on a scale of social acceptability is slang – a group of highly expressive, mostly ironwords restricted to oral speech where they serve to give lively, " off-beat" tone to the conversation (off-beat is itself slang). Slang is further classified into general slang, special slang, the latter peculiar to a certain social professional group (as teenagers, college students, sailors, soldiers, etc.) and so standing close to a jargon. The space between slang and the literary norm is filled by the so-called colloquial words, variously classified into standard colloquial, low colloquial, literary colloquial, familiar colloquial, etc. The substandard vocabulary, with all its subdivision, proves a rich field of study for a branch of linguistics called sociolinguistics. Both standard and literary words in different ways opposed to the neutral segment of the vocabulary, and are thus both stylistically marked – i.e. their use in either oral speech or writing calls forth definite stylistic connotations, as the age of the speaker, his education, his social status, the emotional state he is in, his intended (especially emotional) meaning, etc.