On the varieties of the official functional style of the English language

Malyshkin Dmitriy Vladimirovich ORCID: 0009-0000-7900-1134 Postgraduate student, Department of English Linguistics, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory, 1s51 d.malyshkinn@mail.ru

The study of the functional and stylistic properties of language began in 1920-1930, when there was a "reorientation of research from the study of structure to the study of functions" ^{[1, pp. 7-8]}. Philologists have moved from an empirical perception of style to a more accurate and in-depth understanding of it. However, any work in the field of functional stylistics encourages the researcher to pay special attention to the chosen methodology, since there are many different approaches to understanding style. The issue of heterogeneity of approaches remains relevant due to the heterogeneity of functional styles, since stable criteria for distinguishing varieties within functional styles have not yet been determined.

The difficulties in establishing criteria for distinguishing particular varieties of functional styles are due to the dissimilarity of the parameters underlying each concept. From the point of view of many authors, the vocabulary of functional styles is formed and develops primarily under the influence of extralinguistic factors: "... speakers select the means they need, using them to construct speech in accordance with the communication needs of this sphere – its extralinguistic factors" ^{[2, p. 288]}. Each concept chooses its basic characteristics, the list of which remains open – in I. R. Galperin this is the "purpose of communication" ^{[3, p. 32]}; M. N. Kozhina names the sphere of communication, communication tasks and communicative and cognitive features ^{[2, p. 287]}.

As O. V. Lapteva rightly noted, despite the fact that the role of extralinguistic factors is recognized as decisive, their influence is not graded in any way in the process of describing the vocabulary of functional styles ^{[4, p. 55]}. For example, I. R. Galperin divides the "style of official documents" into "the language of business documents"; "the language of legal documents"; "the language of diplomacy" and "the language of military documents" ^[3]. Such a classification, based on a thematic criterion, does not give a clear idea of systematically reproducible linguistic units in each of the "subfields".

M. N. Kozhina suggests a more complex division of the official-business functional style. Although the author separately noted that in the book "Stylistics of the Russian language" she considers functional styles "in their purest form" ^{[2, p. 285]}, that is, without borderline cases, she offers a fairly extensive and detailed table of genres in accordance with the highlighted "subfields": "legislative", "jurisdictional", "administrative" and "diplomatic"; and functions: "prescription", "petition" and "informing" ^{[2, pp. 330-332]}. Despite the fact that such a division gives an idea of the thematic and functional branching of the official business style, as well as its genre diversity, it, like the previous classification, does not demonstrate the linguistic specificity of each of the varieties.

The complexity and heterogeneity of functional styles are the reasons for the appearance of excessively fractional classifications, therefore, special attention should be paid to the conceptual basis of the classification of functional styles proposed by academician V. V. Vinogradov.

Going back to the ideas of B. Gavranek ^[5], the classification of functional styles has a categorical character and is based on three main functions of language: "communication function"; "message function"; "impact function" ^{[6, pp. 5-93]}, where each function is implemented in specific functional styles.

A. A. Lipgart drew attention to the categoricity of the trichotomy of language functions in his PhD thesis: "the classification of language functions proposed by academician V. V. Vinogradov, in addition to the logical conceptual basis reflected in the names of these functions themselves, has stable characteristics at the linguistic level, that is, it differs in categorical character" (Lipgart A. A. Linguopoetic comparison of literary texts in English: abstract. diss. ... PhD in Philology : 02/10/04. – Moscow State University, 1994. 6 p.). Linguistic units are differentiated according to the type of transmitted content, reflecting the objective opposition of neutral, emotional and special linguistic elements both at the level of vocabulary and grammar.

The differentiation of styles performing the same linguistic function is based not only on the conceptual and linguistic criteria, but also on conceptual differences. For example, scientific and official business functional styles differ in that the former reports objective facts of reality, while the latter defines socially due/improper, and, despite the presence of some common linguistic features, they are clearly distinguished in terms of systematically used linguistic elements.

This methodology formed the basis of the doctoral dissertation of A. I. Komarova (Komarova, A. I. Theory and practice of language learning for special purposes : diss. ... doctor of Philology : 02/10/04. – Moscow State University, 1996.) and the PhD thesis of V. V. Khurinov (V. V. Khurinov Functional and stylistic differentiation of English-language scientific and newspaper-journalistic texts (based on the material of the English language) : diss. ... PhD in Philology : 02/10/04. – Moscow State University, 2009.), where the authors showed the heterogeneity of scientific and journalistic functional styles.

The main attention in the works of A. I. Komarova and V. V. Khurinov is directed to the search for proper linguistic criteria that contribute to the identification of ontological features of the studied styles. The works propose a multidimensional method of functional and stylistic analysis of texts in order to establish their identity and belonging to a certain functional style based on a number of established features.

The task set by the researchers is to discover invariant and variable features of varieties of scientific and journalistic functional styles.

Based on a detailed analysis, the authors came to the conclusion that there are four levels of texts within the framework of scientific and journalistic functional styles.

The scientific functional style is divided by A. I. Komarova into the following levels (the terminology used by her is somewhat clarified) ^[7]:

1. Definitive scientific texts;

2. Encyclopedic scientific texts;

3. Stylistically neutral scientific texts;

4. Stylistically labeled scientific texts.

The journalistic functional style, according to V. V. Khurinov's classification, is implemented in the following varieties ^[7]:

1. directive newspaper and journalistic texts;

2. stating newspaper and journalistic texts;

3. Descriptive newspaper and journalistic texts;

4. Analytical newspaper and journalistic texts.

If we follow the principle of analogy, we can assume that the official business functional style is also characterized by internal heterogeneity and contains several levels of linguistic organization. In this paper, three types of texts of the official business functional style are identified.

The first level is "prescriptive texts". Their category includes the section "Corporate officers" from "USA Swimming corporate bylaws":

«1 The President & CEO is the chief executive officer of USA Swimming. The President & CEO shall have all the duties incident to that office; those specifically assigned by the Board of Directors; and those specified in the USA Swimming Policy Manual. The President & CEO shall serve at the pleasure of the Board of Directors. For international purposes, the President & CEO shall be recognized as the Secretary General of USA Swimming. The President & CEO serves as an ex-officio, non-voting member of the Board of Directors /…/» (Corporate officers // USA Swimming corporate bylaws (2020) Corporate officers. Available at: https://www.usaswimming.org/docs/default-source/governance/governance-lsc-website/bylaws/corporate-bylaws.pdf (accessed 20 September 2020) p. 4-5).

The variety in question represents the level of official texts at which the function of the message manifests itself in its purest form.

First of all, it is necessary to take into account the subject of the relevant section of the charter — "Corporate officers", which specifies the powers of officials. Accordingly, a layer of monolingual terms related to this thematic area is highlighted: "president", "authority", "power". Despite the fact that some of these terms are not used in their nominative meanings, the terminological use becomes obvious, since they are included in the general terminological system of the text by combining with other terms within the framework of regularly reproduced combinations with nouns:

1. noun + verb-copula + noun: "the President & CEO is the chief executive officer"; "the Vice President & COO is the chief operating officer";

2. noun + of + noun: "... of USA Swimming"; "duties of ... the President & CEO";

3. verb + preposition + noun: "assigned by the Board of Directors"; "specified in the USA Swimming Policy Manual".

Some nouns are part of phraseologically related polylexemic terminological combinations: "Chief executive officer"; "Board of directors".

There are only two neutral nouns in the text: "pleasure" and "purpose". The first is part of the formal idiom "at somebody's pleasure", and the second becomes conceptually oriented by combining it with the terminological adjective "international".

At the level of special nouns, there is a large number of repetitions in the text, which indicates the absence of terminological synonymy: "the President & CEO is the chief executive officer...", "the President & CEO shall have all the duties", "... when the President & CEO is absent or incapacitated". These nouns also express only one terminological meaning, which allows us to conclude that there is no polysemy in relation to them.

When describing the use of adjectives, first of all, attention should be paid to their limited number, which can be tentatively attributed to the variable features characteristic of this type of official texts.

From a conceptual point of view, adjectives are divided into two main groups: "limiting" and "descriptive". The first group includes several adjectives – "international", "responsible", "incident" and "ex-officio", where the first acts as a syntactic definition for the noun "purposes", and the second is used as part of a compound nominal predicate in a construction with the modal verb "shall be responsible". The adjective "incident" is used in the singular meaning with the particle "to". There is one formal adjective "ex-officio" in the text. It would seem that adjectives such as "financial" and "legal" can also be attributed to this group, but in fact they are part of the poly-family terms: "legal affairs", "chief financial officer", "chief legal officer".

There are only two adjectives in the text that belong to the "descriptive" group: "absent" and "incapacitated". Both adjectives are used after the copula verb and function as part of a compound nominal predicate - "...when the President & CEO is absent or incapacitated".

The description of verbs, due to their complexity, also deserves close attention.

The predominant form of verbs are participles II: "assigned", "specified".

It is important to note the high level of precriptivity of the text provided by the modal verb "shall", which is used eleven times. Such a high degree of precriptivity at the verb level indicates that the text belongs to the narrative type of "expression of will". Moreover, in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary, the stylistic status of this verb is defined as "formal" and "old-fashioned" (Oxford Learner's Dictionary. Available at: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/shall?q=shall (accessed 20 September 2020)). This indicates a low probability of using this verb in the everyday functional style.

Verbs, like nouns, show a high degree of repeatability: "...specifically assigned by the Board of Directors", "...specifically assigned by the President & CEO".

Referring directly to the verbs used in the texts allows us to assert that in the latter there are a significant number of special verbs: "serve", "assign", "preform", which express the meanings associated with the performance of duties.

Among other groups, a group of formal verbs stands out: "exercise", "set forth".

The group of neutral verbs includes two verbs: "have" and "specify".

The analysis will not be complete without considering morphosyntactic models of verb usage, among which the following combinations attract attention:

1. verb + direct complement: "shall have all the duties"; "exercise the power";

2. verb + preposition: "assigned by..."; "serves as..."; "specified in...".

The analysis of the functional and stylistic characteristics of this text should be completed with a description of adverbs, which will be extremely brief: only one adverb is found in the texts – "specifically" (used three times) - necessary for expressing modality by lexical means.

The second kind of official business functional style consists of "descriptive official texts". The material for demonstrating this kind of official texts is the "Foreword" section from "Country Reports on Terrorism 2019":

«In 2019, the United States and our partners made major strides to defeat and degrade international terrorist organizations. Along with the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, in March, the United States completed the destruction of the so-called “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria. In October, the United States launched a military operation that resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed “caliph” of ISIS. As part of the maximum pressure campaign against the Iranian regime – the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism – the United States and our partners imposed new sanctions on Tehran and its proxies. In April, the United States designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including its Qods Force, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) – the first time such a designation has been applied to part of another government. And throughout the year, a number of countries in Western Europe and South America joined the United States in designating Iran-backed Hizballah as a terrorist group in its entirety /…/» (Foreword // Country Reports on Terrorism 2019 (2019). Available at: https://www.state.gov/reports/country-reports-on-terrorism-2019/ (accessed 20 September 2020).

Comparing texts of different levels allows us to establish an invariant basis for an official business functional style.

As in the texts of the previous level, the special content in descriptive texts is transmitted due to the large number of specialized units among both nouns and verbs. There is also a large number of repetitions among the same parts of speech.

Nouns that are not included in the terminological class are combined with special words, which gives them conceptual significance.

Verbs in texts of this level are also similar to verbs from prescriptive texts. Thus, there is a significant number of non-personal verb forms, polysemous verbs are used only in one, often specialized, meaning. At the same time, the formality remains at the verb level.

However, we can also talk about the differences between second-level texts and first-level texts.

The most significant difference between the texts of these levels is quite predictably the orientation of the descriptive texts to the narrative type "description", which leads to an increase in the number of neutral nouns: "strides", "branches", "scale", "ability". However, they all follow the general semantic orientation of the text, as can be seen from the example of the noun "strides". Although this word expresses its derivative meaning of "an improvement in the way something is developing", in this context this lexical unit is used in the cliched phrase "made strides" and combined with the special words "defeat"; "ISIS".

The movement towards the neutrality of the content is confirmed by the presence in the text of phrases with two neutral nouns: "number of new branches".

Another important difference between second-level texts is the presence of formal nouns, which can occur in prescriptive texts, but only on an episodic basis. The following formal nouns are found in the text: "designation", "entirety", "affiliates", "facilitation".

The texts of the first level are characterized by a deepening of qualification relations, which is expressed in a greater number of adjectives in the syntactic role of the definition: "major strides", "international terrorist organization", "global coalition", "new sanctions".

The verb level is also characterized by some changes: for example, as was observed in the situation with nouns, the number of neutral verbs increases: "complete", "result", "adapt", "join", "continue". The number of personal verb forms and simple morphosyntactic constructions based on the "verb + direct complement" model is increasing: "continue the fight", "inspiring followers", "permit an al-Qa'ida", "carried out attacks".

The third level should include "evaluating official texts". As illustrative material for this type of official texts, let's turn to the section "Our role in government" from Companies House's Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20:

«Companies House plays a pivotal role in driving confidence in the UK economy. Our role is vital to ensuring the UK’s business environment has, and maintains, a high standard of corporate governance relating to those entities that enjoy the benefits of limited liability. These benefits are conferred in exchange for standards of transparency and accountability which are essential to give confidence to business, investors, society, consumers and the economy /…/» (Our role in government // Annual report and accounts : presented to Parliament pursuant to section 4(6) of the Government Trading Funds Act 1973 as amended by the Government Trading Act 1990. – Cheshire.: APS Group, 2020. p. 118).

Based on the analysis carried out, it can be said that even stylistically labeled official texts retain features that are invariant for this functional style. First of all, we mean the frequent use of terminological nouns and polylexic terms.

Nevertheless, while maintaining the invariant basis of the official business functional style, it is not difficult to see an increase in variable features in this type of text.

The nouns used in the text demonstrate a clear increase in the level of abstraction due to the use of neutral nouns that are not directly related to the conceptual orientation of the text: "confidence", "standard", "vision", "future".

The analysis of adjectives showed the appearance of evaluation units: "pivotal role", "role is vital", "brilliant people", "brilliant systems", "brilliant services", "significant culture", "stronger contribution".

At the verb level, there is also a slight increase in the degree of labeling due to combination with abstract nouns. One of the most important differences is that at the level of this part of speech, the function of communication is enhanced, which is expressed in the frequent use of verbs characterized by extensive polysemy and a large number of idiomatic connections: "have", "give", "see", "set", "make".

The description, definition and classification of functional styles are difficult tasks. Often, various techniques are used to carry out these research procedures, and sometimes a whole range of methods is needed. In this regard, very fractional classifications are proposed, the practical application of which is problematic.

A. A. Lipgart's view on functional styles in this case seems to be the most consistent due to its categoricity, manifested in a consistent and consistent description of the system of functional styles of developed national languages, including the study of the heterogeneity of functional styles and the identification of invariant and variable characteristics of texts.

The functional and stylistic analysis carried out in this article showed that within the framework of the official functional style, texts of at least three levels can be distinguished, and allowed us to identify those linguistic and stylistic characteristics that allow not only to substantiate the thesis of the heterogeneity of the style, but also to define criteria for the allocation of levels within it.

As invariant features indicating that the texts belong to the official business style, the following are distinguished:

1. The trend towards global nominative utterance – each official business text contains global polylexive terms;

2. formality at the verb level;

3. the prevalence of terms at the noun level;

4. Limited terminological synonymy and polysemy.

The variability of the varieties of the official business functional style consists in a gradual movement from the function of communication to the function of communication. So, in the texts of the first level, the function of the message and, accordingly, the special content are most clearly expressed. These texts are characterized by the limited use of adjectives, especially in the role of definition; a small amount of neutral vocabulary; the predominance of close complementary relationships.

In official texts of the second type, there is a slight decrease in the specialization of the content, which is expressed in a more active use of neutral vocabulary both at the level of nouns and verbs, and neutral combinations with them. At the level of adjectives, there are developed qualification relations, which is expressed in the appearance of a large number of neutral adjectives that perform the syntactic function of definition. The most obvious difference between descriptive texts and prescriptive texts at the verb level is the appearance of simple morphosyntactic models "verb + direct complement".

Evaluating official texts show an even greater decrease in the specialization of content due to the use of abstract vocabulary among nouns. At the level of adjectives, the function of influence is expressed in the form of stylistically labeled vocabulary.

Among verbs, while maintaining morphosyntactic models of prescriptive and descriptive official texts, there is an active use of basic verbal units of the English language in evaluating texts.