28) Functional styles of English and their main stylistic devices. standard English, dialects of British and American English, Pidgin and Creoles

**Prague linguistic school**

An academic group establishing the idea of functional styles through a structural functional approach, consisting of focusing specifically on the exact function of a particular style.

**Saussure’s structuralism**

A base linguistic approach utilized by the Prague linguistic school, consisting of adding a specific function to the words to understand why they are used.

**Bohuslav Havránek's functional styles**

A classification created by the founder of functional linguistics consisting originally of exactly three functional styles (conversational, work-a-day, scientific/poetic) to which the newspaper style was added later, strictly connecting each style with its purpose.

**Josef Vachek's criteria**

A classification of styles consisting of exactly three criteria: the medium/mode (written vs. spoken), the approach to the recipient (plain vs. propagandist), and the approach to the subject matter (formalist, description/narration/argumentative, or purely informative).

**Formalist styles**

A stylistic approach consisting of the form being significantly more important than the content, such as in communist articles or propagandist styles.

**Description/narration/argumentative style**

A stylistic approach consisting of the author paying equal attention to both the form and the content.

**Purely informative style**

A stylistic approach consisting of the content being exclusively important, completely without any attention paid towards the form.

**Matter-of-fact styles**

A broad group of functional styles focused mainly on information, consisting exactly of conversation/colloquial, administrative, scientific, newspaper, and publicist styles.

**Styles with aesthetic function**

A group of styles focused strictly on aesthetic information, which exclusively includes the belles-lettres style.

**Style of conversation (Colloquial style)**

The most neutral and unprepared style of English, consisting of mostly oral, immediate turn-taking face-to-face communication, which heavily relies on extralinguistic context and is characterized by fillers, hedges, repetitions, pauses, and simple or unfinished sentences based on everyday topics.

**Scientific style**

An objective, precise, abstract, impersonal, and unemotional style consisting of defining concepts, reporting experiments, and providing instructions, which strictly avoids ambiguity by utilizing self-explanatory terminology, complex syntax, and visual structures like graphs, tables, and bibliographies.

**Academic prose**

A substyle conveying scientific information strictly for experts, consisting of logical progression (hypothesis -> research -> conclusion -> summary), condensation, Latin compound words, collocations, neologisms, and a high lexical density.

**Popular scientific style**

A substyle aimed at the wide public consisting of presenting scientific knowledge comprehensibly and interestingly, utilizing comparisons and descriptions significantly more frequently than complex terminology.

**Textbook substyle**

A substyle tailored strictly to the age and knowledge level of students, consisting of clear explanations, examples, tasks introduced by imperatives, comprehension questions, and a highly specific layout using different fonts and colours to help memory.

**Administrative style**

An extremely conservative, formal, and objective written style recording undertakings between participants, consisting of a prescribed layout, passive voice, declarative mood, special jargon, basic dictionary meanings (denotations), and the strict avoidance of emotiveness.

**Business substyle**

An administrative substyle dealing with negotiations and contracts between two parties, consisting of strict graphical layouts, specified paragraph lengths, fixed opening/closing phrases (e.g., "Dear Sir"), and hand signatures.

**Substyle of legal documents**

A highly conservative substyle consisting of exact, objective formulas, utilizing long words of French/Latin origin, archaic words, precise terminology, numbered paragraphs, absent punctuation in older documents, and completely lacking personal pronouns.

**Substyle of patterns and announcements**

A substyle dealing with describing inventions precisely, consisting frequently of included technical drawings.

**Substyle of diplomacy and directives**

Substyles aimed at the wide public, consisting of appealing vocabulary for treaties (diplomacy) and a heavy reliance on modal verbs and imperatives to state exactly what must or mustn't be done (directives).

**Publicist style**

A persuasive style combining the provision of information with emotional appeal and logical argumentation, consisting exactly of political speeches, newspaper articles, sport comments, and personal essays.

**Newspaper style**

A publicist substyle aimed at informing, entertaining, and engaging the public, consisting of specific layouts, attention-catching headlines with large bold fonts, and utilizing linguistic playfulness like puns, neologisms, alliteration, omissions, and passive constructions.

**Tabloids vs. Broadsheets**

A categorization of newspaper styles consisting of popular newspapers focused heavily on gossip (tabloids), and quality newspapers strictly providing objective, unbiased information (broadsheets).

**Belles-lettres style (Style of fiction)**

A style consisting of a primary aesthetic function alongside secondary cognitive and persuasive functions, aiming strictly to show reality from a subjective viewpoint and please the reader through emotive language, contextual meanings, and associations.

**Poetry**

A belles-lettres substyle consisting of language entirely based on rhythm, rhythmical repetition, patterns of meter, figures of speech, ellipses, and structural division into stanzas or free verses.

**Prose**

A highly individual belles-lettres substyle consisting of informal language and varying syntax that attempts to completely pretend to be authentic.

**Drama**

A spoken belles-lettres substyle consisting of frequent imperatives and heavily relying on context and extralinguistic reality, which can also be written in verses.

**Dialect**

An informal, uncodified regional language variety consisting of differences strictly in vocabulary, grammar, syntax, and pronunciation, which is perceived as a norm in a specific region.

**Dialectology**

A linguistic discipline consisting of exploring regional and social variations in language.

**Dialect atlas**

A visual guide consisting of a collection of maps that specifically show how exactly language varies by location.

**Slang**

A social variety of language consisting of being closely connected strictly to a particular social status or profession.

**Cockney**

A regional and social dialect of the lower working classes in the East-End of London, consisting of h-dropping, wider diphthongs, rhyming slang, and back slang.

**Back slang**

A linguistic feature of Cockney consisting of strictly pronouncing words backwards (e.g., yob

**Yorkshire accent**

A non-rhotic accent consisting of dropping the letter "h" and utilizing a linking "r" specifically between certain words.

**Geordie (Northern English)**

A cheerful accent from the Newcastle area consisting of rising intonation in declarative sentences, making them strictly sound like questions, and pronouncing final "-er" and "th" sounds differently.

**West Country accent**

A rhotic accent consisting of clearly pronounced "r" sounds, archaic word forms like "thee" and "thy", and a slow speech pace often difficult for native speakers to understand.

**Scottish English**

A rhotic Celtic-influenced accent consisting of specific vocabulary (lad, ken, bairn, loch) and specific grammar like multiple negation and extended use of progressive forms.

**Irish English**

A rhotic Celtic-influenced accent consisting of pronouncing "th" as /d/, special vocabulary (rashers, cat), and grammar rules like omitting "do" in short answers and repeating adverbs for heavy emphasis.

**Welsh English**

A Celtic-influenced accent consisting of special vocabulary (nain, taid, bach) and grammar rules like inversion and extended progressive forms.

**Northern American dialect**

The basis for general American English consisting of inland northern speech patterns, specifically using phrases like "you guys".

**North Central English**

A rhotic Great Lakes dialect consisting of initial "th" stopping and utilizing "then" instead of "them".

**Midland American Dialect**

A rhotic Midwest dialect consisting of an intrusive "r" between vowels and specific vocabulary like "blinds" or "sack".

**Southern American Dialect**

A dialect consisting of slower speech, the complete absence of the diphthong "ai", and short vowels pronounced almost exactly like diphthongs.

**Western American Dialect**

A dialect consisting of vocabulary heavily influenced by Spanish and cowboy jargon (e.g., mustang, greenhorn, hella).

**Australian English**

A regional variety consisting of non-rhotic, flattened "I" and long vowel sounds, strictly following British spelling, and heavily utilizing distinct slang like "barbie" or "arvo".

**Indian English**

A regional variety consisting of identical pronunciation for /v/ and /w/, and a vocabulary heavily influenced by local Indian culture (e.g., sari, masala).

**Standard English (SE)**

A socially prestigious and officially codified dialect consisting of language used by media and educated people, which originally developed from the London South-East dialect but is completely disconnected from any specific region today.

**Queen’s English**

A posh variety of Standard English consisting of language used strictly by the upper classes and prestigious universities like Cambridge, Oxford, and Eaton.

**Received Pronunciation (RP)**

A prestigious social accent consisting of being directly connected to Standard English.

**New Englishes (World Englishes)**

Non-native varieties consisting of English spoken in former British colonies, strictly representing English as the main language used for global communication.

**English as a native language (ENL)**

An English variety consisting of serving exactly as the mother tongue and primary language for populations like the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia.

**English as second language (ESL)**

An English variety consisting of an official language strictly used for international communication in countries with many nationalities and no shared local language, like India and Nigeria.

**English as a foreign language (EFL)**

An English variety consisting of being taught directly in schools.

**English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)**

An English variety consisting of a common communication tool strictly for people with completely different mother tongues.

**Europe English**

An English variety consisting of marginal usage strictly among the European Union.

**Pidgin**

A newly developed, restricted, and non-native language variety consisting of basic communication strategies between people with completely different mother tongues (like slaves or original inhabitants), which heavily utilizes English strictly as a lexifier language but completely lacks native speakers.

**Lexifier language**

A language role consisting of providing the base vocabulary for a Pidgin.

**Creolization**

A linguistic process consisting of a Pidgin developing into a fully formed language and becoming the mother tongue for the children of Pidgin speakers.

**Decreolization**

A reverse linguistic process consisting of a Creole gradually losing its specific regional features and turning entirely into Standard English.

**Creole**

A fully developed language born from creolization, consisting of having native speakers and the complete ability to express all grammatical and morphological categories without restrictions.

**Hawaiian Creole**

A specific Creole language consisting of an English lexifier combined with Hawaiian words, and distinct grammatical modifications like utilizing "get" for existence, "gonna" for future, "nat" for negation, and completely omitting "did" and "do".