Functional style of the tongue in linguistics

Functional styles. Certain varieties of speech that correspond to certain spheres of human activity and possess original stylistic nuances due to the particularities of functioning in these spheres of idiomatic media and to the specific organization of speech; These structures have their rules of choice and combination of idiomatic units that are in accordance with the purposes of communication in the corresponding sphere.

Summary

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• 1 Classification of functional styles
  • 1 Secondary factors involved in its classification
• 2 Styles and sub-styles
• 3 See also
• 4 External links
• 5 Sources

Classification of functional styles

With the development of the human community, four forms of social consciousness were highlighted and formed: politics, law, science and art, which determine the spheres of communication and their function. Thus, the basic extralinguistic complex is made up of the following elements: form of social consciousness; social sphere of activity; main function performed by the language in the given sphere, or the tasks of communication.

Four fundamental functional styles correspond to the four social spheres: scientific style, official style, publicist style, literary or artistic style. The basis of the fifth style, the colloquial, is constituted by the daily relationships of human life.

• The objective of the scientific styleis to inform about the achievements of the development of this or that science and therefore its communicative function is informative.
• The official style tries to regulate, direct the conduct of the members of a social community, imposing or establishing laws, codes, instructive documents, that is, it fulfills the directive function of communication.
• The publicist pursues the purpose of convincing, of uniting men on the basis of a concrete ideology, it is not pure information, but the informative function of propaganda is verified in it.
• The artistic or literary one is nourished by individual, subjective perceptions and descriptions, of the personal understanding of the surrounding world, trying to create in the mind of the receiver not concepts, but aesthetic translational images that favor a complete understanding of the social position of the emitter. The aesthetic function is what characterizes this language.

If each style was deprived of its corresponding functional addition, it would become the colloquial register.

Secondary factors involved in its classification

The scrupulous analysis of the extralinguistic makes it possible to highlight a group of minor factors that allow us to penetrate into the interior of each style modality. That is, they serve not to isolate the independent styles, but their subvariants and are determined by the set of conditions in which the communication takes place:

• Issuer’s attitude to the content.
• Relations between the sender and the receiver of the information.
• Presence or absence of the receiver in the communication.
• Personal relationships between the sender and the receiver.
• Degree of preparation of the issuer.
• Social category of the sender and receiver.
• Form of communication: description, exposition, narration, argumentation, dialogue, etc.

Styles and sub-styles

The aforementioned factors give the possibility of affirming that next to the universality that functional styles represent, more or less isolated units arise within them, which are called sub-styles of genres, sometimes quite numerous. Seen in this way, the following nomenclature of functional styles is proposed:

• The scientific stylecontains three sub-styles:

1. Properly scientific, represented by the genres of article, report, monograph, thesis, etc.
2. Of scientific popularization, destined to propagate and popularize the achievements of science among the masses, among which are school manuals, study materials prepared for higher education, etc.
3. Scientific-administrative, which includes scientific documentation such as instructions, letters-patents, procedure manuals for scientific activity, etc.

• The official style is also separated into three sub-styles:

1. Legal, which considers all the documentation of the higher organs of power: edict, decrees, laws, codes, statutes, etc.
2. Administrative, represented by the official correspondence of the different instances of power: orders, requests, circulars, certificates, etc.
3. Diplomatic, genres of international documentation: conventions, conventions, agreements, communications, etc.

• The literaryor artistic style is subdivided into three sub-styles:

1. Prose, which includes genres such as short stories, novels, essays, fables, etc.
2. Poetry, with a number of genres: lyrical, satire, political, heroic, etc.
3. Dramatic, represented by genres such as comedy, tragedy, etc.

• The advertising styleappears as the most complex and divergent due to its structure and includes:

1. Journalism, which is carried out in genres such as editorial, news, commentary, criticism, chronicle, etc.
2. Publicist, properly speaking, where genres such as essay, pamphlet, sketch, etc. are included.
3. Political-ideological, represented by appeals, political programs, party documents, statutes, etc.
4. Advertising, intended for propaganda proper.

The question of classifying functional styles is extremely difficult because the spheres of application of the language that develop by entering into very complex reciprocal relationships are limitless. It should be taken into account that both in real life and in speech there are no marked limits, but transitory, mixed phenomena. Taking this into account, when classifying styles, one must first of all rely on the stable phenomena that serve as the basis for the classification scheme.