LESSON 4 STYLES OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE. SCIENTIFIC STYLE.

PLAN.

1. Basic terms: STYLISTICS AND STYLE

2. Functional style
3. Types of functional style
4. Scientific style
5. The typical syntactical features of Scientific style

Stylistics

Firstly, we would like to mention what the term stylistics means. The word ‘stylistics’ was used
in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1882 for the first time and its meaning was ‘the science of
literary style’.

Stylistics is a relatively modern discipline of literary studies and a technical branch of applied
linguistics which focuses on the study of style in texts and their analysis. Stylistics is dealing
with the way of interaction between the reader and the language in the texts for the purpose of
explanation how the reader understands and how is the reader affected by these texts when he
reads them.

According to Crystal, the stylistics is defined as “the systematic study of style, using the
principles and procedures of linguistics. ‘Style’ here includes a range of senses, from the
features of language which identify an individual (as in ‘Shakespeare’s style’) to those which
identify major occupational groups within the community (as in ‘legal style’, ‘scientific
Style’).The main influence of linguistics is in phonological, syntactical and lexical features.
Also, other levels of language can be identified in the stylistic analysis – these are i.e.
phonetics, graphology, morphology, semantics or pragmatics.

We will be engaged in the pragmatic aspect of the communication which is called the functional
style of language.

Style

The term ‘style’ is one of the terms which are used in many spheres of human culture (i.e. style
of clothing, lifestyle or architecture style), not only in language terminology and that may be a
little ambiguous. And even in this branch, there are many conceptions of style and the linguists
define style differently.

The style is the manner of utilization of language means and their organization which is used
for text genesis.

The style is used either for a written document or spoken language. “Individual style of a
writer is a unique combination of language units, expressive means and stylistic devices peculiar
to a given author, which makes the writer‘s works or even utterances easily recognizable
[Galperin, 1977,p. 17].”
Functional style

There are differences between styles which are caused by stylistic factors. On the basis of
which the choice of language means is being given. These factors may include, for example,
whether it is an audio or graphical material, the presence of the addressee, the preparedness of
the speech or the function of the message.

The most important of them is the last mentioned factor and by the most important functions of
language, the main styles were developed, called functional styles.

Borders of these styles are not fixed, they are still developing and changing more quickly than
other systems.

Every functional style is characterized by the use of its special language means – that may be
emotional words, figures, special terminology, journalistic clichés, etc.

The English language is an example of many types of the functional styles and the classification
is a very difficult and disputable issue among the style theoreticians. The basic classification
of the functional styles includes official style (or administrative), scientific style, publicist
(or publicistic) style, newspaper style, belles-lettres style.

Official style, known as an administrative style, is described as a style of official documents,

papers, questionnaires or notices. The second one is a scientific style which can be found in
brochures, monographs, academic or scientific publications. We should mention that every
branch of science has a different style of writing – i.e. in chemistry papers occur more
specialized terms and it is harder to read and to understand the text for the general reader than for
example some article about linguistics. Public speeches or essays belong to the publicist style
and most of the contents in newspapers represent the newspaper style (journalistic style).

These two types of style are particularly linked and frequently we can find just one of them or
the option of sub-styles. And finally, the last functional style is a literary style which is
observed in prose and poetry.

From the measure of expressiveness we can assume the involvement of the author, the bias in the
newspaper style or the point of view in the literary style.

We will aim at four of these styles and these are administrative, scientific, journalistic and the
belles-lettres style.

Types of functional style

As we mentioned before, we decided to describe four basic types of functional styles and

these are:

 Scientific style
 Newspaper style
 Administrative style
 The belles-lettres style
Scientific style

The most notable feature of the scientific style, in English also known as a scientific prose style,
is a matter-of-factness, which is an effort to achieve the objectivity of the contents of linguistic
expression.

This style belongs to the technical styles – especially to the informative styles.

The main feature of this style is to provide the information precisely and logically. We can
distinguish two sub-styles of scientific style:

 The style of exact science, which is more impersonal; and

 The style of humanities, which has closer to the publicistic style and to the belles-lettres
style.

This educative style can be differentiated into scientific and popular scientific style. The second
mentioned one shares some characteristic features with publicist style and colloquial style. It
also provides information and presents some complicated topics and developments in scientific
fields but in the way the general public can understand. There is no specific terminology or if
some appears in the sentence, the author explains it in the article. Also, some emotional words
are not prohibited.

But we would like to concentrate on the real scientific style.

The most frequent form of the scientific style is primarily written. That means, for example,
some essays, textbooks, scientific studies, articles, and so on. Of course, we can find the
scientific style in spoken form too – like in conferences or presentations. It does not exist the
feedback between the author and the addressee because the issue is that it is a monolog. The
author cannot depend on intonation, gestures and facial expressions, so the speech has to be
exact and complete. The connectors are used, as well as the subordinate conjunctions for
achieving the hierarchy within the text. The language means used are precise, unemotional,
objective, clear and unambiguous.

According to Galperin, another feature is the “use of terms specific to each given branch of
science. Concerning the humanities, the style is rather essayistic than the one which regards the
exact sciences. On one hand, there occurs some technical or scientific terminology (i.e.
mathematics). The impersonality can be considered as a typical feature of this style, the author’s
personality is suppressed and the statement is concentrated on facts and phenomena. For this
reason, the most common form of writing is passive but it is also possible to use an active form
with general pronominal subject ‘we’ referring to the author, like ‘we deduced’, ‘we observe’,
‘we define’, ‘we placed’, ‘we note’, etc…

The main word class, which is used in the scientific style, are substantives and adjectives, the
technical terms, and the repetition of them, are used very frequently. The impersonal sentences
(eg. It is obvious that…) serves for introducing the basic idea.

The typical syntactical features are:

 Declarative sentences
 No ellipsis and no omission of ‘that’ and ‘which’ in relative clauses

 ‘there’ constructions, impersonal sentences

 Connectors – very frequent are thus, however, therefore or ever moreover, furthermore,

on the other hand, furthermore, still, while, besides, etc.

 Expressions – in fact, in general, in other words, etc.

 Modal verb (should, ought to, might, etc)

 The verb ‘would’ is used for repetition

 The use of nouns and verbs in abstract meaning

 Limitation of the use of emotional-evaluative and expressive vocabulary

 Absence of non-literary vocabulary and phraseology, for example some slang words or

vulgarisms

 The use of passive voice and indefinite tenses

The terminology, the words with fixed meaning in a scientific discipline, is also the main feature
of the scientific style.

We can find there some half-terms and bookish words. “Each technical branch has its own
terminology. The term should meet the following conditions: have a precise meaning, be
unambiguous within its field, be stable, have no emotional connotation and be suitable for
making derivatives and compounds from it.”

The English terminology is mainly borrowed from Latin and Greek.

To summary, the main features of the scientific style are logical structure, linking, objectivity,
impersonality, no emotional words, density, exactness and unambiguity.

Newspaper style (journalistic)

We would like to present some common features of the newspaper style:

 Wide use of graphic means – e.g. italics, graphic symbols, fonts, size, etc.

 The most significant role has the headlines – there is no typical form of writing, these

headlines are various in the type of font, size or spacing. The main functions are

aesthetic and informative.

 The headlines share some characteristic features like elliptical sentences, omission of

articles, change of time (the past simple is usually transformed into the present simple,

the present continuous into the present simple, etc.), the headlines can include the direct
speech, rhetorical questions, nominal, declarative or interrogative sentences, etc. [34]

 The use of short words is typical for saving space.

 In the newspaper style, we can find a large proportion of dates, names of countries,

institutions or individuals.

 Sometimes, the author is unknown to achieve an effect of the objectivity.

 The vocabulary which is used in text is neutral, standard and common literary, we can

find also the political and economical terms, newspaper clichés, abbreviations or

neologisms, acronyms or international words.

o Acronym means “a word formed from the first letters of the words that make up

the name of something” [35]. The well-known acronyms are e.g. UNESCO

(United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), UN (United

Nations), EU (European Union), USA (the United States of America), NAFTA

(North American Free Trade Agreement) or NATO (North Atlantic Treaty

Organization).

o Newspapers are very useful means in spreading the new words or expressions,

so called neologisms. In the past, most neologisms were from the field of science

but nowadays it is rather technology and social networking. From these we can

mention for instance (to) Google, crowdsourcing, spam, app, etc. [36]

 The language should be objective, comprehensible for the general reader and should

be written without emotions.

 In headlines and quotations, the colloquial language, slang or dialect can be found.

The most usual forms of the newspaper style are feature articles, reports and editorials. A feature

article is focused on a specific issue where the author gives the analysis, comments and opinions

on the issues of his concern. A report usually presents an account of events – it is supposed to

be objective but some comments are not forbidden. The last one is an editorial which is a

newspaper article in which the editor gives the newspaper’s opinion about current issues.

Administrative style

The administrative style is the youngest style and is very similar to the scientific prose style,
they share many features like unambiguity, matter-of-fact and it is well-arranged and clear style.

In English, it is also called the style of officialese or the style of official documents.

The form of administrative style is mostly written, the documents can be for example letters,

declarations, certificates, application forms, regulations, orders, reports, contracts and many

others.

Some major features are:

 Fixed paragraphing – the graphical layout is very important, also the text limitation

(e.g. the division into parts, sections, articles or paragraphs)

 The use of abbreviations, acronyms, conventional symbols (eg. M.P. = member of

Parliament, Ltd = Limited, $ = dollar, atk = attack, et al. = and others; etc.)

 Obligatory forms of address, opening and concluding

 No emotional words, no phraseology, non-personal character

 Special terminology, set expressions, bureaucratic clichés

 Archaic words (especially compounds like ‘hereinafter’, ‘therewith’ or ‘aforesaid’)

 The use of Latin words (‘ad hoc’, ‘pro rata’) or French words (‘force majeure’)

 The use of the imperative mood, infinitive and also infinitive constructions

The belles-lettres style

The name of this functional style is a French borrowing – the phrase means the beautiful or the

fine writing. The belles-lettres style, known as the style of literature or style of arts, is the most

original of all functional style and it emphasizes the aesthetical function. The text is expressive,

ambiguous and has a fictional character. The repetition is low, there are no patterns to follow

and the figures of speech can be found in the text – like metonymy, metaphor, personification,

oxymoron, comparison, etc. Each text is an individual work of its author and his usage of

colloquial language, slang or terminology from science.

The language means that are used in the literary texts are:

 Phonetic means – like sound repetition, sound imitation (onomatopoeia), alliteration,

consonance, metaphor, metonymy, litotes or oxymoron, etc. Also the rhymes and meter

in poetry or the notion of rhythm in prose;

 Vocabulary – concrete words, unlimited choice of vocabulary that includes slang,

jargon, etc., many synonyms, no restrictions or limits. The use of figures of speech is

very frequently in the literary texts; the use of words in contextual and very often in

more than one dictionary meaning, or at least influenced by the lexical environment.

Conversational Style(Colloquial)

The conversational style is a functional style of language used in informal, everyday communication. It is
the most natural and spontaneous form of speech and writing, characterized by ease, expressiveness,
and personal engagement.

Key Features of Conversational Style:

✔ Informal and Relaxed Tone – Conversational style mirrors natural spoken communication. It avoids
overly complex structures and maintains a friendly, engaging tone.
✔ Use of Contractions & Slang – Words are often shortened or combined (e.g., I’m, don’t, gonna,
kinda). Slang and idioms are common in casual speech.
✔ Simple and Short Sentences – Sentences are usually straightforward, with minimal complexity. Run-
on sentences and fragments are also frequent.
✔ Interactive & Engaging – Conversational speech includes direct addresses (Hey, you know what?),
rhetorical questions (Guess what happened?), and informal fillers (like, well, you see).
✔ Emotional & Expressive – Tone varies depending on context. Exclamations, repetition, and
onomatopoeia are used for emphasis (Wow! That’s crazy!).
✔ Non-standard Grammar – In casual speech, some grammatical norms are relaxed. People often use
ain’t, gonna, wanna, lemme in informal settings.

Examples of Conversational Style:

🗣 Spoken Example:
"Hey, what’s up? I was just thinking about that movie we saw last night—so good! We should totally
watch something again this weekend."

📝 Written Example (Text Message):

"Hey! U free 2nite? Let’s grab coffee ☕😊"

Where is Conversational Style Used?

✅ Everyday conversations (face-to-face, phone, video calls)

✅ Social media & texting
✅ Blogs & informal articles
✅ Dialogue in novels & scripts
✅ Advertisements & marketing (to create a friendly, relatable tone)

Comparison with Other Styles

Feature Conversational Style Scientific Style Official Style

Tone Informal, personal Formal, objective Strict, impersonal

Grammar Flexible, relaxed Precise, structured Rigid, standardized

Vocabulary Everyday words, slang Technical, academic Bureaucratic, legal

Sentence Length Short, fragmented Long, complex Long, complex

Purpose Casual communication Information sharing Legal, administrative

Examples

1. Scientific Style (Used in academic and research settings)

🔹 Example:
"The results of the experiment indicate a significant correlation between temperature increase
and reaction rate, confirming the hypothesis that kinetic energy plays a crucial role in molecular
interactions."
🔹 Features:

 Formal and precise vocabulary

 Logical structure
 Use of passive voice
 Objective tone

2. Official/Business Style (Used in legal and administrative documents)

🔹 Example:
"Hereby, the undersigned party agrees to the terms and conditions set forth in the agreement,
effective from January 1, 2025, and remains in force until further notice."
🔹 Features:

 Standardized phrases
 Long, complex sentences
 Impersonal and formal tone
 Lack of emotional language

3. Journalistic Style (Used in news articles and reports)

🔹 Example:
"A breakthrough in medical research has been announced, as scientists develop a new vaccine
with a 95% success rate. Experts believe this could revolutionize the fight against infectious
diseases."
🔹 Features:

 Clear and concise language

 Informative and engaging tone
 Mix of objective reporting and slight emotional appeal
 Can include rhetorical questions or quotes

4. Literary (Artistic) Style (Used in fiction, poetry, and drama)

🔹 Example:
"The golden sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky with hues of crimson and violet, as a
gentle breeze whispered through the trees, carrying the scent of blooming jasmine."
🔹 Features:

 Vivid imagery and figurative language (metaphors, similes)

 Expressive and emotional tone
 Creative and varied sentence structures
 Focus on aesthetics

5. Conversational (Colloquial) Style (Used in everyday speech and informal

writing)

🔹 Example:
"Hey, did you hear about the new café downtown? Their coffee is amazing! We should totally go
sometime."
🔹 Features:

 Informal, relaxed language

 Use of contractions, slang, and idioms
 Short and simple sentence structures
 Interactive and expressive tone

Practical Application: Rewriting Informal Sentences in Scientific Style

Informal: "People are looking into how genes work, and they think some might be more
important than others when it comes to diseases."

Informal: "We tried out different chemicals, and some reacted in a cool way."

Informal: "The study showed that working out makes you healthier."
Example 1:

Scientific: "Researchers are investigating gene function and hypothesize that certain genes may
play a more significant role in disease development."

Example 2:

Scientific: "Various chemical compounds were tested, and certain reactions exhibited notable
properties."

Example 3:

Scientific: "The study demonstrated that regular physical exercise contributes to improved
health outcomes."

"A breakthrough in medical research has been announced, as scientists develop a new vaccine
with a 95% success rate. Experts believe this could revolutionize the fight against infectious
diseases."

"Hereby, the undersigned party agrees to the terms and conditions set forth in the agreement,
effective from January 1, 2025, and remains in force until further notice."

"The golden sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky with hues of crimson and violet, as a
gentle breeze whispered through the trees, carrying the scent of blooming jasmine."

"Hey, did you hear about the new café downtown? Their coffee is amazing! We should totally go
sometime."

"The results of the experiment indicate a significant correlation between temperature increase
and reaction rate, confirming the hypothesis that kinetic energy plays a crucial role in molecular
interactions."
References.

CRYSTAL, David and DAVY, Derek. Investigating English Style. Repr. 1st Ed. Longman

Group Ltd, 1969. ISBN 0-582-55011-4. [PDF document online] Available from:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/170870199/Crystal-Davy-Investigating-English-Style-pdf

GAIMAN, Neil. Norse Mythology. Ed. 1. London/New York: W. W. Norton & Company,

Inc. ISBN: 978-0-393-60910-3 (e-book). Available from: http://ebook3000.biz/norsemythology-

neil-gaiman/

GALPERIN, I.R. СТИЛИСТИКА: АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА. 1981, Moscow. [PDF

document online] Available from: http://www.studfiles.ru/preview/4538381/

SACHKOVA, E.V. Lectures on English Stylistics. 2012, Moscow. [PDF document online]

Available from: http://library.miit.ru/methodics/28112016/12-1127.pdf