Scientific functional style

I. General Notes

1.1. The language used in texts belonging to different branches of knowledge, both sciences and humanities [1] ⁾, is considered to be one of the major functional varieties of Modern English which is generally referred to as scientific functional style or scientific prose style.

Like any functional style of a literary language scientific prose style is characterised by the following extralinguistic styleforming factors:

· a certain functional-communicative aim,

· a form of cognition of objective reality underlying it,

· a certain sphere of application.

The scientific functional style aims at transmitting (passing on) a certain amount of scientifically relevant information in an objective, logically consistent, precisely formulated, matter-of-fact way.

The form of perceiving and knowing the world and its internal laws underlying the language of science is the process of scientific cognition on the basis of analysis and generalization of different phenomena of reality.

The sphere of application of scientific functional style is scientific and academic communication, both, written (different kinds of scientific publications) and oral ones (presentations of scientific information in public at conferences, symposia, congresses, lectures at Universities, etc.).

The requirements of objectivity, precision and logical consistency result in quite a definite range of language means typical of this functional style which tend to be devoid of any implicit, indirect, allegorical modes of expression, and are characterized by striving for stereotype, cliché d, i.e. regularly reproduced forms of conveying information in order to avoid ambiguity and misunderstanding.

This predetermines general linguostylistic peculiarities of a scientific text on all levels of its lingual structure, namely, lexical, morphological, syntactical ones. Besides, certain paralinguistic features of a scientific text also result from the above mentioned factors.

The functional style of scientific prose is characterized by its own genre specificity which appears to be one of its most noticeable differential features. Among the most important genres of scientific style are a monograph, a journal article, a thesis and its synopsis, a review, a paper presentation (at a conference).

1.2. Lexical peculiarities of a scientific text (ST). It has been shown by numerous investigations in the field that the vocabulary of a scientific text comprises the following three lexical strata (layers): 1) terminological layer; 2) general scientific layer; 3) general literary language units.

Terminological layer is the most conspicuous layer in the vocabulary of a ST, and it comprises the following three subgroups of terms: 1) special terminology, 2) general scientific terminology, 3) consubstantial terminology.

1. Special terminology. Though special terms, i.e. terms belonging to this or that branch of knowledge seem to be the most salient feature of a scientific text, they constitute only 20% of the lexical units of a ST. The majority of special terms are expressed by nouns, that is why special terminology is said to be mostly nominal in character. Nevertheless, verbs, adjectives can also be used as special terminological units. Special terminology is characterized by a tendency to make up certain derivational series comprising different parts of speech with the same root-morpheme: e.g. v. to absorb, n. absorption, adj. absorbable, absorptive.

Special terminology can be expressed both by individual terminological lexemes, e.g. laser, velocity, plasma, and terminological word-combinations, as well, e.g. laser pulse, phase velocity, active plasma medium, etc.

2. General scientific terminology, i.e. terms, denoting the most general notions of all sciences and humanities, are found in any scientific text irrespective of a branch of knowledge they refer to, e.g. system, structure, process, hierarchy, correlation etc.

3. Consubstantial terminology is a specific group of terms within a scientific text which by their graphic and sound form coincide with corresponding words of general literary language (общелитературный язык), but they function in a scientific text as either 1. special terms, e.g. linguistic terms: rhythm, melody, sound, speech, physical terms: pulse, speed, field, or as 2. general scientific terms, e.g. feature, variant, pattern, level, etc.

General scientific layer, first and foremost, diagnoses a text as a scientific one, as the amount of its units in the vocabulary of a ST is much greater than that of special terminology. General scientific units constitute 60% in the vocabulary of a ST and are characterised by the following features:

● by their obvious distinction from special terms, as they are found in different texts belonging to different branches of science;

● by their regular reproductivity as ready-made units in different scientific and humanities texts;

● by specific general scientific meaning different from that in general literary language, e.g. the noun ‘ look ’ denoting an optical process in general literary language acquires quite a different general scientific meaning within a scientific text, e.g. in “ to have a close look at smth. ”, the noun ‘ look ’ is used to denote a mental process. In “ to draw a comparison between smth. ”, “ to draw a conclusion ” the verb ‘ to draw ’ is used to denote mental, intellective operations, too.

General scientific units can be expressed by:

1) individual lexemes, functioning as adverbial connectors of various semantics, among them: parentheses, e.g. nevertheless, thus, hence, anyhow, indeed, etc.; conjunctions, e.g. but, while, whereas, whereby, etc.; adverbs, e.g. similarly, respectively, consequently, conversely, etc.

2) word-combinations, or word-groups of various character – substantive, verbal, adjectival, etc. e.g. verbal word-combinations: to draw a conclusion, to focus on smth, to be concerned with smth, etc.; substantive word-combinations: the literature on the subject, a close correlation between smth, the problem under consideration, etc.; adjectival word-combinations: finely graded, clearly marked, etc.

3) predicative polylexemic units, i.e. syntagmatic units which be extracted from the text as ready-made segments of sentences, and thus possess a Subject + Predicate structure, e.g. It would be more accurate to say that …; a good example of this is …; we can all recognize that …; this is not merely a question of … but that of …, etc.

Units of general literary language (общелитературные единицы) are found in any functional style, among them: 1) functional words – auxiliaries, modal and link verbs, articles, prepositions, conjunctions; 2) words of general use, e.g. verbs of saying, thinking, etc.

Since the main function of the language of science is that of intellective communication, the general mode of scientific reasoning is unemotional, generalized, devoid of the author’s stylistic idiosyncrasy. Hence the following general features of scientific vocabulary:

· words are mainly used in their direct nominative, not transferred meanings to ensure the adequate perception of scientific information. Hence a very important feature of scientific vocabulary – its stylistic neutrality.

· alongside stylistically neutral lexical units, bookish words of Greek, Latin or French origin are also used as part and parcel of a scientific text vocabulary. They are found both, within special and general scientific terminology, on the one hand, e.g. amplification, acceleration, method, analysis and in the general scientific stratum, on the other, e.g. heterogeneous, simultaneous, hierarchy, milieu, etc.

But it does not mean to say that stylistic neutrality ousts expressivity and stylistic imagery from a ST altogether. Means of expressivity are not entirely excluded, but they are of a specific character:

· quantitative expressivity predominates in a ST and is often conveyed by: a) adjectives in the Comparative or Superlative Degrees, e.g. much more numerous, finer differences, the most obvious distinctions, etc.; b) emphatic and limiting adverbs and particles: very, merely, simply, really, far (more), mainly, mostly, exactly, entirely, e.g. really effective, very far from conservative, much the same, etc.;

· metaphorical and metonymical imagery which is found in general scientific layer of the scientific vocabulary is mostly trite, e.g. to cast (throw) light on smth., to bear in mind, to draw a parallel, to exhaust a problem, the untrained ear, etc. All these units are traditionally used in a scientific text as stereotype, cliché d expressions.

Metaphorical imagery may also serve as a basis for creating new terms in different scientific areas, e.g. in medicine Adam’s apple, in electronics a black box, in linguistics an empty morph, etc.

Rather a rare use of genuine imagery in a ST should be treated as the manifestation of the author’s stylistic individuality.

· expressivity can take a form of subjective modal evaluation, as inexpressions of certainty/doubt, possibility/impossibility, necessity/absence of
necessity, usefulness/futility, e.g. there can be no doubt whatsoever that …, it is hardly acceptable that…, it is worth noting that …, it will be futile to …, it is quite possible to assume that…, etc.

· expressivity can be also presented by certain emotive lexemes, i.e. words with inherent expressive-evaluative connotations, e.g. It should be emphasized that …, the most interesting thing about it is that …, one of the striking peculiarities of … is …, etc.

However varied means of expressivity in the vocabulary of a ST may be, they never aim at rousing the reader’s aesthetic feelings. They are used to favour the cogency of scientific reasoning and to facilitate eliciting scientific information, otherwise stated, they directly serve the main functional-communicative aim of the scientific functional style.

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