Ministry of Education Russian Federation
Tolyatti State Academy of Service
Department of Russian and foreign languages»
Discipline: “Russian language and culture of speech.”
On the topic: “Features conversational style».
Completed by: student
Groups T – 301
Averyanova E. V.
Checked by: Konovalova E.Yu.
Togliatti 2005
1. Features of conversational style………………………………………… 3
2. Colloquial vocabulary……………………………………………………… 6
3. Morphology of conversational style……………………………………….. 8
4. Syntax of conversational style…………………………………………… 10
List of references…………………………………………………………… 14
1. Features of conversational style.
Conversational style is a style that serves the field of oral communication or oral communication.
Conversational style (colloquial speech) is used in a wide range of personal, i.e., informal, non-work relationships. This style is more often called colloquial-everyday, but it would be more accurate to call it colloquial-everyday, since it is not limited only to household side, and is used as a means of communication in almost all spheres of life - family, industrial, socio-political, educational, scientific, cultural, sports.
The function of the conversational style is the function of communication in its “original” form. Speech is generated by the needs of direct communication between two interlocutors or more and acts as a means of such communication; it is created in the process of speaking and depends on the response of the interlocutor - speech, facial expression, etc.
Intonation, logical stress, tempo, and pauses play a huge role in spoken speech. In conditions of relaxed communication, a person, to a much greater extent than in the presence of official relationships, has the opportunity to express his personal qualities- temperament, emotionality, sympathies, which saturates his speech with emotional and stylistically colored (mainly stylistically reduced) words, expressions, morphological forms and syntactic constructions.
IN colloquial speech the communication function can be supplemented by the message function or the influence function. However, both the message and the impact are manifested in direct communication, and therefore occupy a subordinate position.
The most common factors of the colloquial style are the personal, informal nature of the relationship between the participants in communication; their direct participation in communication; continuation of speech during communication without prior preparation.
Although these factors are closely related to each other, their role in the formation of the actual linguistic features of the conversational style is far from uniform: the last two factors - direct participation in communication and lack of preparation for communication - are closely related to the oral form of speech and are generated by it, while the first factor - the personal, informal nature of the relationship also applies to written communication, for example in personal correspondence. On the contrary, with oral communication, the relationship between its participants can be official, official, “impersonal”.
Linguistic means used during personal, everyday, informal relationships between speakers are characterized by additional shades - ease, a sharper evaluative moment, greater emotionality compared to neutral or book equivalents, i.e. these language means are colloquial.
Such linguistic means are widely used outside of colloquial speech - in artistic and journalistic, as well as scientific texts.
The norms of colloquial style in oral form differ significantly from the norms of other functional styles, for which the written form is decisive (although not the only one). The norms of colloquial style are not established and are not officially regulated, that is, they are not subject to codification, which gives rise to a very widespread illusion among non-specialists that colloquial speech has no norms at all: whatever you say, so be it. However, the very fact of automatic reproduction of ready-made constructions in speech. Phraseological phrases, various kinds of cliches, i.e. standardized linguistic means corresponding to certain standard speech situations indicates the imaginary or, in any case, limited “freedom” of the speaker. Colloquial speech is subject to strict laws and has its own rules and norms, as evidenced by the fact that factors from book and written speech in general are perceived as alien in colloquial speech. Strict (albeit unconscious adherence to ready-made standards is the norm for oral speech that is not prepared in advance.
On the other hand, the unpreparedness of the speech act, its attachment to the situation, along with the lack of a clear idea of the norm, determine a very wide freedom in choosing options. The boundaries of the norm become unsteady and vague, and normativity itself sharply weakens. Relaxed everyday dialogical speech consisting of short remarks allows for significant deviations from generally accepted norms due to its inherent impulsive nature.
2. Colloquial vocabulary.
Colloquial style vocabulary is divided into two large groups: 1) commonly used colloquial words; 2) colloquial words, socially or dialectally limited.
Commonly used vocabulary, in turn, is divided into colloquial-literary (bound by the norms of literary use) and colloquial-everyday (not bound by strict norms of use), the latter is adjacent to vernacular.
Colloquial vocabulary is also heterogeneous: 1) colloquialism, on the verge of literary use, not rude in nature, somewhat familiar, everyday, for example: potatoes instead of potatoes, ingenuity instead of intelligence, become instead of happen, get fined instead of to be at fault; 2) extraliterary, rude colloquialism, for example: drive up instead of to achieve, to plop instead of fall, weave instead of talk nonsense, wander around, wander around instead of walk around without la; This includes vulgarisms themselves and swear words: thorns (eyes), die, die; weakling, lackey etc. Such words are used for certain stylistic purposes - usually when depicting negative phenomena of life.
Colloquial vocabulary, socially or dialectally limited, includes V themselves such lexical groups as colloquial professionalisms (for example, the names of varieties of brown bear: vulture, fescue, antbird etc.), dialectisms (talk - talk, veksha - squirrel, stubble - stubble), slang vocabulary (pleisir - pleasure, fun; plein air - nature), argotic (split - betray; new guy, new guy - young, inexperienced; crusts - boots). Many jargons arose even before the revolution in the speech of the ruling classes; some argotisms were preserved from the speech habits of declassed elements. Slang vocabulary can also be associated with the age community of generations (for example, in the language of youth: cheat sheet, pair (deuce). All these categories of vocabulary have a narrow sphere of distribution; in terms of expression, they are characterized by extreme reduction. The main lexical layer of the colloquial style consists of commonly used words, both colloquial and colloquial. Both of these categories of words are close to each other, the line between them is unsteady and mobile, and sometimes elusive; it is not for nothing that in different dictionaries many words are labeled with different marks (for example, the words squat, really in "Explanatory Dictionary" ed. D. N. Ushakova are classified as colloquial, and in the four-volume “Dictionary of Modern Russian Literary Language” - as colloquial; words richer, carminative, sour V " Explanatory dictionary"edited by D. N. Ushakova are assessed as vernacular, but in the “Dictionary of the Modern Russian Literary Language” they do not have a mark, i.e. they are classified as interstyle - stylistically neutral). In “Dictionary of the Russian Language,” ed. S.I. Ozhegova expanded the boundaries of colloquial vocabulary: many words noted in other dictionaries as colloquial are classified as colloquial. Some colloquial words in dictionaries have a double label - colloquial and regional, since many common dialectisms pass into the category of colloquial words. The colloquial style is characterized by the predominance of words with an emotionally expressive connotation, marked “affectionate”, “playful”, “abusive”, “ironic”, “diminutive”, “contemptuous”, etc.
In a conversational style, words with specific meanings are usually used (storage room, locker room), names of persons (Chatterbox, couch potato) and much less often - words with an abstract meaning (superlity, boasting, nonsense). In addition to specifically colloquial words (krohobor, ogoro sew), There are words that are colloquial only in one of the figurative meanings, and 8 others are perceived as stylistically neutral (for example, the verb unscrew e meaning “to lose the ability to restrain”). Colloquial words, as a rule, are synonymous with neutral ones and relatively rarely - with book ones. Sometimes there is a complete correspondence of stylistic opposites (for example: eyes - eyes - peepers).
3. Morphology of conversational style.
The distinctive features of the morphology of colloquial style are associated with the peculiarities of the functioning of the parts of speech in it. The relative activity of morphological categories of words and individual word forms in the colloquial style is different than in other functional styles. Verb forms such as participle and gerund are practically not used in colloquial speech. The absence of gerunds can be compensated to some extent by the second predicate, expressing the “accompanying” feature: “And I’m sitting writing”; "They have
they punish me, but I regret not punishing”; “I see: he’s walking unsteadily.”
A well-known analogy (but, of course, not identity) with revolutions like
“Please take out the pliers that are on the shelf.”(or
"lying on the shelf") makes up the design: "Please get it
pliers... they’re on the shelf over there.”(or: "over there on the shelf")
In colloquial speech, forms in -а(-я), (-в)shi(с),
resembling participles: “I haven’t gotten up all day on Monday
lay”, “go further without turning back to the store.” Such forms
are considered adverbs of the adverbial form. Forms of the same type:
“Is he a knowledgeable specialist?” - of course they are adjectives.
The ratio of full and short adjectives in the colloquial style is different than in other styles. Short forms most qualitative adjectives are not used, preference is given short adjective type grateful, faithful, satisfied, needed, for which full forms are not typical, as well as an adjective meaning that the measure does not correspond to the quality of the type “The dress is too short for you.”
In colloquial and everyday style, non-nominal words (pronouns, particles) have become more common; significant words are used less frequently. With situational attachment of colloquial speech, pronouns with their generalized semantics are used instead of nouns and adjectives: “Please, get me that... well... the one on the top shelf... on the left” (book), “What is he like? - Yes, like that... you know...”, “Hello... It’s you... where is he?” etc. In almost 25% of cases, non-significant words are used not so much to express some shades of meaning, but to fill forced pauses in conversational speech: “Well... since you came... well... be, well... consider yourself guest"; “Well... I don’t know... do as you want”; “But Pavel is right... but he still... found it, that means... solved the problem.”
According to E.A. Stolyarova, there are on average 142 nouns per 1000 words in colloquial speech, whereas in artistic speech- 290, in oral speech - 295, in written scientific speech - 386; There are respectively 39-82-114-152 adjectives per 1000 words.
Among the case word forms of a noun, the most active is the form nominative case, which is explained by the peculiarities of conversational syntax, i.e. prevalence of constructions with “nominative themes” (“buy there... well, kefir, cheese... yes... here's another... sausage... don't forget it”; “And the Palace of Congresses... did you get there?") as well as the use of nouns in the nominative case with various kinds of additions and clarifications (“And you go straight, straight... there’s a house there... so you’re passing by”; “Well, You can’t remember everyone... Sveta... I know her”).
In colloquial speech, a certain group of material nouns is used in countable form in the meaning of “portion of this substance”: two milks(two bags or bottles), two sour cream, two borscht and so on.
The form is also activated female when designating a profession or position: cashier(instead of the official "cashier"), librarian(instead of "librarian"), doctor(instead of “doctor”).
4. Conversational style syntax.
The most unique feature of the colloquial style is its syntax. And this is not surprising: the unpreparedness of spoken language is especially strongly reflected in its syntax.
Direct contact between participants in a speech act, instantaneous consideration of the interlocutor’s extra-linguistic reaction (facial expressions, gestures, etc.), communication in the form of dialogue, and attachment to the situation determine various kinds of incompleteness and understatement of the message.
In colloquial speech, in particular, they are widespread
structures capable of performing the functions of the missing part
statements, for example, the so-called main independent and subordinate independent. So, at the end of a conversation that touches on complex, conflicting issues, the solution of which turned out to be problematic, or even after a significant time after such a conversation, a person says: “Oh, I don’t know, I don’t know.” Thanks to its special intonation, this structure performs the function
not only the main clause, but also the unsubstituted subordinate clause: “...what will happen next (...what will come of it).” There are even more reasons to talk about the main independent thing when a pronoun is used in a sentence such or adverb So, i.e. demonstrative words, after which, however, in in this case none subordinate clauses: “Your ones are not so dirty
hands...", "I can sew so well..."
Sentences are used as “independent subordinate clauses” only in cases where the content of the unsubstituted main element included in them is expressed in intonation and a conjunction or a conjunction word or is suggested by the structure of the sentence itself: that she is, that she is not(instead of "It doesn't matter that she exists, that she is not there").
The colloquial style is distinguished by a variety of types of incomplete constructions or “unsubstituted syntactic positions.” They are studied in particular detail in the monograph “Russian Colloquial Speech”.
For example, the unsubstituted syntactic position of the predicate verb in constructions like he's home. The fact that such a statement will be correctly understood outside the context proves its systematic linguistic nature. A wide variety of categories of verbs can be unsubstituted - verbs of motion: “ Where are you going?" - “Only to the store”; verbs of speech: " Not very interesting - keep it short »; « Well, this is my praise to you »;
verbs with a meaning close to the meaning "address": “We are already with this in the district committee and in the newspaper”; “to practice, to study”: “She does gymnastics every morning. Regularly"; with a value close to the value "read, study": “Well, with my knowledge of German, I could probably read this book in a week”; with a value close to the value “beat”: “It’s great that they hit him”, “I think it’s his stick” etc. The verb in indefinite form: “We should go to the theater tomorrow,” “I couldn’t talk about that.”
It is known that colloquial speech is characterized by increased emotionality, which is achieved different ways. Word order and intonation play an important role. So, in order to focus attention on that part of the message that is expressed by the adjective as a predicate, it is made the beginning of the sentence; it takes over the logical stress and is separated from the unstressed noun by a connective be: there was a small river; they were great mushrooms. As noted by O.A. Laptev, of particular interest are constructions in which the only purpose of the adverbial word is to fill the empty stressed link in order to preserve the expression of speech: “So I like her!”, “Try and take her, so she will start biting! Use of stressed pronouns such as, some, no allows you to maintain the appearance of constant emotional intensity of speech: “It was so hot, terrible”; “there was such a noise”; “And we bought these flowers.”
Expressive constructions are used in colloquial speech in which the informative center of the utterance strives for maximum formal independence from the rest of the utterance, for example, the so-called nominative topic. True, the “nominative theme” is also used in other functional styles, both in written and oral form, representing stylistic device, the purpose of which is to attract
the reader's or listener's attention to the most important, from the point of view
the speaker's point of view, part of the utterance. A.M. Peshkovsky suggested that the use of the nominative theme in
lecturer's speech “arises from the desire to highlight a given representation and thereby facilitate the upcoming connection of this representation -
with another. The idea is presented in two steps:
first an isolated object is put on display, and the listeners only know that something will now be said about this object
it is also said that for now this object must be observed; Next
moment the thought itself is expressed.”
In colloquial speech, this process of dividing the utterance into parts occurs automatically. What is done in lecture speech to facilitate the listener, in colloquial speech can be done by the speaker to facilitate himself, for example: The sky/it everything is in clouds; Lecture/where will it be?; Nikolai Stepanovich/ Nikolai Stepanovich will not be there today; Sausage / cut, please; She I really liked the picture. ABOUT. Sirotina identifies “nominative themes” in “qualitative situations”, widespread not only in oral (literary and dialect) but also in written speech. These constructions are characterized by a pronounced meaning of the qualitative characteristics of the subject: Grandma - she will talk everyone out(i.e. chatty).
Characteristic of colloquial speech and addition construction (And your daughter, is she a historian?); interrogative constructions with an additional phrasal boundary (You did this on purpose, right? Damp log (dragged); non-union subordinating constructions (Want \did grandma bake a pie?); overlay designs (This is the TV center, and her - tower, she asked); bipredicative constructions with who (Come in - those who are going to the procedures!).
In colloquial speech there is no strictly fixed arrangement of the components of a phrase, therefore the main means of actual division is not word order, but intonation and logical stress. This does not mean at all that in colloquial speech the order of words does not play a role at all in the expression of actual division. There are certain trends here: the informatively important part of the statement is located as close as possible to the beginning of the sentence; there is a desire for preposition of that part of the syntactic association that is more strongly accented (while bookish-literary speech is characterized by the opposite principle, corresponding to the rhythmic-intonation structure of bookish-literary speech - the postposition of the member that is more strongly accented). For example: I like it very much this theater(in neutral written speech it would probably sound like this: I really like this theater); In Sochi... no... I won’t go to Sochi; It was a difficult year, difficult; Oddly enough, but he gets more tired in the 100-meter race than in the 200-meter race. Active means of actual division of colloquial speech are special emphatic words and repetitions: What about the teachers' council? Today will not be?; For how many years now he has been vacationing in Gelendzhik every year... in Gelendzhik.
Bibliography
1. Barlas L.G. Russian language. Stylistics. M.: Education, 1978. – 256 p.
2. Valgina N.S., Rosenthal D.E., Fomina M.I. Modern Russian language. M.: Logos, 2001. – 528 p.
3. Goykhman O.Ya., Goncharova L.M. and others. Russian language and speech culture. - M.: INFRA - M, 2002. -192 p.
4. Grekov V.F., Kryuchkov S.E. A manual for Russian language classes. - M.: Education, 1984. – 255 p.
5. Pustovalov P.S., Senkevich M.P. A guide to speech development. – M.: Education, 1987. – 288 p.
If book styles (scientific, official business, newspaper journalistic, artistic) are used primarily in official settings and in writing and require constant care about the form of expression, then conversational style used in informal settings. The degree of speech preparedness may vary. In everyday conversation, she is usually completely unprepared (spontaneous). And when writing a friendly letter, pre-written drafts can also be used. But this preparedness never reaches the degree that is characteristic of book styles.
All this leads to the fact that the dominant of the conversational style, especially colloquial speech that exists in the oral form of informal personal communication, is to minimize concern about the form of expression of thoughts. And this, in turn, gives rise to a number of linguistic features of the conversational style.
On the one hand, the colloquial style of speech is characterized by high degree language standardization. Typical, standard constructions are convenient for spontaneous (unprepared) speech. Each typical situation has its own stereotypes.
For example, etiquette stereotypes include the following phrases: Good afternoon!; Hello!; What's new?; Bye! Stereotypes used in urban transport: Are you leaving next?; in the shop - Weigh the oil, three hundred grams etc.
On the other hand, in a relaxed atmosphere, the speaker is not limited by the strict requirements of official communication and can use untyped, individual means.
It should be remembered that spoken language serves not only the purposes of communication, but also the purposes of influence. Therefore, the conversational style is characterized by expressiveness, clarity and imagery.
Among characteristic features conversational style can be distinguished as follows:
| Language means | Examples |
|---|---|
| Language level: Phonetics | |
| Incomplete pronunciation type. | Grit instead of speaks; hello instead of Hello. |
| Intonation as one of the main means of expressiveness and organization of speech: rapid changes in intonation, timbre, tempo, play of intonation colors, etc. |
The organizing role of intonation in non-union proposals, in sentences with free combination of parts, etc. ( We walked / it was raining; Subway/here?) Faster pace when pronouncing greetings, farewells, first names and patronymics ( Tanya, hello!); when expressing motivation, especially when combined with the emotion of irritation. ( Shut up!) Slow pace with lengthening of vowels while emphasizing conviction - lack of conviction ( Yes. Of course); to express surprise ( - He has already arrived. - Are you here?) and etc. |
| Language level: Vocabulary and phraseology | |
| A large percentage of neutral, specific, commonly used vocabulary. | Sofa, bed, sleep, get dressed, faucet. |
| Neutral colloquial vocabulary. | Doctor, usherette, knife, understand. |
| Some socio-political and general scientific terms, nomenclature names. | Revolution, administration, governor, analysis, radiation, bulldozer, excavator. |
| Emotional-evaluative colloquial vocabulary. | Hard worker, headless, poor fellow, parasite. |
| Standardized figurative means. | Metaphors: get stuck in the city; what a bug you are!; phraseological units: bend your back; fill your pocket; hyperbole and litotes: terribly fun; terribly funny; You can go crazy from this computer science; I could eat a bull right now and etc. |
| Interspersed with professionalisms, jargon, colloquial words, etc. | We have four today couples. Yes with window. I wouldn't go crazy by the evening! |
| Language level: Morphology | |
| Frequency of the nominative case compared to other cases. | There's a store there/ Groceries// and the entrance is on the left/ under the stairs// |
| Frequency of personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns and adverbs, particles. | Granny// Played cards with me/ fooling around// We were left... we were left alone/ me/ and her// And also John’s dog, that means// We fed this John/ and then sat down... I ran to her for cigarettes/ and we sat down to play/ the fool// Well, ten games a day// Here// |
| Lack of gerunds, rare use of participles (only past passive). | You gave me a broken chair! Is it sewn or ready-made? |
| Free handling of tense forms (change of tenses, use of a tense form not in its meaning). | And there we met. “Kolya, hello”... And we sit, or rather stand, chatting there, sitting on the bench for literally three hours. As we begin to remember how our bus got stuck, how they pulled us out. |
| Use of verbal interjections. | Jump, jump, walk, bang, fuck. |
| Language level: Syntax | |
| Short simple sentences, as if strung on top of each other. | We lived in the country. We lived at the dacha. We always left early for the dacha. We also had a doctor. |
| Incomplete sentences, especially those with major clauses missing. | - Tea? - I'll have half a cup. |
| Restructuring of phrases on the fly, broken structure with interruptions in intonation. Activity of connecting structures, with introductory words and particles. | My husband was a soldier. He served in the artillery. Five years. And so. They told him: “Here is a bride for you. Growing. Very good". |
| Activity of interjection phrases. | Oh? What a strength! |
| More free order words (words are arranged in the order in which thoughts are formed). In this case, everything important moves to the beginning of the sentence. | Well, naturally, we lost money there. Because they were simple workers. I was a turner there. She handed me such a wicker basket. He was in Moscow then. |
It should be remembered that, on the one hand, almost all norms of colloquial style are optional (optional), and on the other, the features of colloquial speech and colloquial style in general should not be transferred to official oral speech, especially - written speech. The use of elements inherent in the conversational style in other styles (journalistic, artistic) must be stylistically justified!
Features of conversational style.
Completed by: Nikitina E.V. student 11a
general characteristics conversational style.
Conversational style is a style of speech that serves for direct communication between people. Its main function is communicative (information exchange). The conversational style is presented not only in oral speech, but also in written speech - in the form of letters, notes. But this style is mainly used in oral speech - dialogues, polylogues. It is characterized by ease, unpreparedness of speech (lack of thinking over the proposal before speaking and preliminary selection of the necessary language material), informality, spontaneity of communication, mandatory transmission of the author’s attitude to the interlocutor or the subject of speech, economy of speech effort (“Mash”, “Sash”, “San”) Sanych" and others). The context of a certain situation and the use of non-verbal means (reaction of the interlocutor, gestures, facial expressions) play a big role in conversational style. Linguistic differences in spoken speech include the use of non-lexical means (stress, intonation, rate of speech, rhythm, pauses, etc.). TO linguistic features colloquial style also includes the frequent use of colloquial, colloquial and slang words (for example, “start” (start), “today” (now), etc.), words with a figurative meaning (for example, “window” - meaning “break” "). The conversational style of the text is distinguished by the fact that very often words in it not only name objects, their characteristics, actions, but also give them an assessment: “dodgy”, “good fellow”, “careless”, “clever”, “cheerful”, “cheerful” ". The syntax of this style is characterized by the use simple sentences(most often complex and non-conjunctive), incomplete sentences (in dialogue), widespread use of exclamatory and interrogative sentences, lack of participles and participial phrases in sentences, the use of words-sentences (negative, affirmative, incentive, etc.). This style is characterized by breaks in speech, which can be caused by various reasons (excitement of the speaker, looking for the right word, unexpected jumping from one thought to another). The use of additional constructions that break the main sentence and introduce into it certain information, clarifications, comments, amendments, and explanations also characterizes the conversational style. In colloquial speech there may also be complex sentences, in which the parts are interconnected by lexical-syntactic units: the first part contains evaluative words (“clever”, “well done”, “stupid”, etc.), and the second part substantiates this assessment, for example: “Well done, that helped!" or “Fool Mishka for listening to you!” . Conversational style features:
A common form is dialogue, less often - monologue.
A loose selection of linguistic means and simplicity (and slang words, and professional terms, and dialectisms, and curses), imagery and emotionality.
Colloquial simplification of words (now - right now, what - what), sentences (one cup of coffee - one coffee). Phrases are often truncated and “tailored” to a specific situation in which clarification and details are not needed (closed the door, stood up and left); Doubling words is common (yes, yes, right, right).
Unclear adherence to logic and specificity of speech (if the interlocutors lose the thread of the conversation and move away from the initial topic).
The situation is important verbal communication– facial expressions and gestures of interlocutors, emotional reactions.
Frequent use of exclamation and interrogative sentences.
Scope of application:Household
Functions: Direct everyday communication, exchange of information.
Main style features: ease, simplicity of speech, specificity.
Genre: friendly conversation, private conversations, everyday story.
Word formation. Many words of colloquial style are formed using certain affixes (in most cases - suffixes, less often - prefixes). Thus, in the category of nouns, the following suffixes are used with a greater or lesser degree of productivity, giving the words a colloquial character:
Ak(-yak): good-natured, healthy, simpleton;
An(-yan): rude, old man;
Ach: bearded man, circus performer;
Ash: trader;
Ak-a (-yak-a) - for words throughout the city: reveler, bully, onlooker;
Ezhk-a: sharing, cramming;
En: darling;
L-a: tycoon, thug, crammer;
Lk-a: locker room, smoking room, reading room;
N-I: fussing, bickering;
Relative: running around, getting dirty;
Ty: lazy, sloppy;
Un: chatterbox, talker, screamer, dirty talker;
Wow: dirty, fat;
Ysh; silly, naked, strong, baby;
Yag-a; poor fellow, hard worker, hard worker.
Examples of the functioning of the conversational style:
1) As an example, we can cite the statement of one of the characters in A. P. Chekhov’s story “Revenge”:
Open it, damn it! How long will I have to remain frozen in this through wind? If you knew that it was twenty degrees below zero in your corridor, you wouldn’t have made me wait so long! Or maybe you don't have a heart?
This short excerpt reflects the following features conversational style: - interrogative and exclamatory sentences, - colloquial style interjection "damn it", - personal pronouns of the 1st and 2nd persons, verbs in the same form.
2) Another example is an excerpt from a letter from A. S. Pushkin to his wife, N. N. Pushkina, dated August 3, 1834:
It's a shame, lady. You are angry with me, not deciding who is to blame, me or the post office, and you leave me for two weeks without news of yourself and the children. I was so embarrassed that I didn't know what to think. Your letter reassured me, but did not console me. The description of your trip to Kaluga, no matter how funny it may be, is not funny to me at all. What kind of desire is there to drag yourself to a nasty little provincial town to see bad actors playing a bad old opera badly?<…>I asked you not to travel around Kaluga, yes, apparently, that’s your nature.
In this passage, the following linguistic features of a colloquial style appeared: - the use of colloquial and colloquial vocabulary: wife, to hang around, bad, to drive around, what kind of hunt, the union yes in the meaning of 'but', the particles are not at all, the introductory word is visible, - the word with evaluative word-building suffix gorodishko, - inversion of word order in some sentences, - lexical repetition of the word bad, - address, - presence of an interrogative sentence, - use of personal pronouns 1st and 2nd person singular, - use of verbs in the present tense, - use of something absent in the language plural forms of the word Kaluga (to drive around Kaluga) for convoy Syntactic features of colloquial speech in combination with expressive vocabulary create a special, unique flavor of colloquial speech:
Syntactic features of colloquial speech in combination with expressive vocabulary create a special, unique flavor of colloquial speech:
A: Are you cold? B: Not at all! ; A: Did you get your feet wet again? B: Why! What a rain! ; A: How interesting it was! B: Lovely! -, A: The milk has run away! B: Nightmare! The entire slab was flooded //; A: He almost got hit by a car! B: Horrible! , A. They gave him a D again // B: Crazy! . A: Do you know who was there? Efremov // B: Wow! . A: Let’s go to the dacha tomorrow! B: Coming!
4) An example of a conversational style of speech, small text: - Have you tried it? - I glanced at the cheese. - Dad said it was delicious. - Of course, it’s delicious, since he devoured it yesterday on both cheeks! - But now you don’t hamster like you’re in last time“You’re having lunch,” I laughed. It clearly highlights slang expressions that are not applicable anywhere else than in everyday dialogue.
5) Dragon Chronicles
“Yulia Galanina in her “Chronicles of Dragons” boasts a unique atmosphere, because she used a conversational style not only in dialogues, but throughout the book. Here are short examples of texts:
“And as always, I need more than everyone else. Besides me, not a single fool climbed the fence.” “And dragons are dangerous things. And harmful, and nasty, and frankly selfish, and also a dragon!”
The conversational style of communication is used in informal settings. It is typical for oral speech, but can be expressed in writing (the text of a note, Personal diary, informal correspondence). In the process of communication, common vocabulary is used. The conversational style is actively accompanied by gestures and facial expressions, and is also influenced by the emotionality of the interlocutors and circumstances.
Main features of colloquial speech:
- Reducing sentences to simple ones, and removing some members of the sentence if the meaning of the statement is clear without them. Example: I miss you - I miss you.
- Short phrases, abbreviated to one word, are used. An example of a similar word: maternity leave - maternity leave.
- Pronunciation of the word in simplified form. This abbreviation is used in colloquial, familiar communication. An example of a similar word: “right now” instead of “now”.
The linguistic features of the conversational style are expressed in the simplification of statements based on the spontaneity of conversational speech. Few people can speak coherently and beautifully without preparation, and spontaneous speech presupposes a certain development of speech abilities.
To avoid the appearance of unrelated parts, pauses, clauses, and profanity, abbreviations are used. Examples of how the law of “economy of speech” works: a five-story building - a five-story building, a utility room - a utility room.
- Label cliches. A set of template phrases used in recurring situations of daily communication. Example: “Are you going out? Hello".
- Close contact of communicating people. Information is transmitted verbally and non-verbally.
- Expressiveness or specific expressiveness of statements with the use of reduced expressions (example: go crazy, go crazy).
- Everyday content.
- Imagery.
Linguistic features of conversational style are expressed in specific pronunciation (example: emphasis on the wrong syllable), lexical heterogeneity, morphology and syntax. Everyday style is not used for writing scientific literature, when preparing documents.
Signs of everyday style
Main features of conversational style:
- a relaxed, familiar form of communication;
- evaluativeness;
- emotionality;
- inconsistency, from a logical point of view;
- intermittency of speech.
The conversational style is most clearly manifested in oral speech in the form of dialogue.
The signs that determine the conversational style are situational, informal and natural communication. This includes the lack of preparatory thinking about speech, the gestures and facial expressions used. Particles, sentence words, interjections, introductory words, connecting constructions, and repetitions are actively used.
Everyday style involves the use polysemantic word, word formation is evaluative in nature: suffixes of diminutive or augmentative, disdainful, and endearing are used.
Functions and purpose of everyday style
Main functions of conversational style:
- transfer of information;
- communication;
- impact.
The goal pursued by the everyday style of interaction between people is communication, mutual exchange of impressions and feelings.
Analysis of conversational genres
The characteristics of conversational style are a narrower concept than colloquial speech. In colloquial speech, non-literary components are used (examples: vernacular, slang words, dialect). Conversational style is expressed by linguistic means.
Genres of colloquial speech characterize interactions between people. These include:
- Conversation. Popular genre, represents communication for communication. This is an exchange of impressions, emotions, points of view. The conversation is characterized by a calm manner, it is a pleasant pastime.
- Story. A monologue dedicated to some event. All aspects of the event are covered in detail and an assessment is expressed.
- Dispute. Here, each interlocutor defends his own view. In colloquial speech, a dispute is characterized by the informality of the relationship between the disputants and the ease of communication.
- Letter. The text of the letter has a specific purpose: reporting events, conveying feelings, establishing or maintaining contact, calling for something. It is assumed that the etiquette formula must be used - greeting and farewell; further content of the text is free. This is one of the written genres of colloquial speech, informal epistolary interaction. The topics of such texts change arbitrarily, incomplete sentences and expressive expressions are used.
- A note. Distinctive feature genre - brevity. This is a small everyday text, the purpose of which is a message about what needs to be done, a warning, an invitation, gestures of politeness. Example text: “I’ll be there soon, don’t forget to buy milk.” Sometimes the text of a note is presented as a hint of something.
- Diary. The genre differs from the others in that the recipient and the author are the same person. The text of the diary is an analysis of past events or one’s own feelings, creativity that contributes to the improvement of words and the personality itself.
Analysis of conversational genres contributes to understanding the style of speech behavior and the structure of natural communication.
Functional styles speeches help determine the type of language used in various areas of communication. The sphere of interaction between people at the everyday level presupposes the included functions of the conversational style of statements or texts.
Under conversational style speeches are usually understood by the features and coloring of oral speech of native speakers of a literary language. The spoken language developed in an urban environment; it is devoid of dialectal features and has fundamental differences from the literary language.
Conversational style presented both orally and in writing - notes, private letters.
The sphere of conversational style of speech is the sphere of everyday relations, professional (oral form).
General signs: informality, ease of communication; unpreparedness of speech, its automaticity; the predominant oral form of communication (usually dialogical), a monologue is possible.
Emotionality, gestures, facial expressions, the situation, the nature of the relationship between the interlocutors - all this affects the characteristics of speech, allows you to save the actual linguistic means, reduce the linguistic volume of the statement, and simplify its form.
The most characteristic linguistic means that create style features:
| In vocabulary and phraseology | words that have a colloquial connotation, including everyday content; specific vocabulary; a lot of words and phraseological units with expressive-emotional overtones (familiar, endearing, disapproving, ironic). Limited: abstract, foreign language origin, terminological vocabulary; book words. However, the overwhelming majority of words are commonly used and neutral. |
Synonymy | more often (situational). |
Word formation features | conversational style are associated with its expressiveness and evaluativeness. Formation of adjectives of evaluative meaning ( big-eyed, skinny, hefty), verbs ( play pranks, talk, get healthy, lose weight). To enhance expression, word doubling is used ( big-big, big-eyed-big-eyed, black-black). |
| In morphology: | there is no predominance of the noun over the verb. Verbs are more common here. More often (than in artistic style speech) personal pronouns and particles are used (including colloquial ones: well, there you go). Possessive adjectives are very common ( Petya's sister, Fedorov's wife). Participles are rare, gerunds are almost never found. Short adjectives are rarely used. Among the case formations, variants of the forms of the genitive and prepositional cases in -y (from home, on vacation, no sugar). Tendency: not to decline the first part of one’s own name (to Ivan Ivanovich), not to decline compound numerals (from two hundred and thirty-five), to decline abbreviations (in RAI). The tense meanings of the verb are varied (past and future in the meaning of the present). Verbal interjections (jump, hop, bang) are widely used. |
Characteristics syntax | incomplete sentences, interrogative and imperative sentences. |
Order of words in a sentence | free |
Simple verbal predicates expressed by an infinitive ( she's crying again); interjection ( and he hits the ground); repetition of the predicate ( and don't do).
Impersonal sentences are widespread in colloquial speech. In oral speech great importance they acquire pauses, the emphasis of certain words in the voice, acceleration and deceleration of the tempo of speech, strengthening and weakening of the strength of the voice.
In oral colloquial speech there are many peculiar turns of phrase that are not characteristic of book speech.
For example:
People are like people; And the boat floated and floated; The rain keeps pouring down; Run and buy some bread; Wow, smart girl! So I will listen to you! And he was also called a comrade! What a man! I found someone to be friends with! Good helper!
Conversational speech is also characterized by emotionally expressive assessments of a subjective nature, since the speaker acts as a private person and expresses his personal opinion and attitude. Very often this or that situation is assessed in a hyperbolic way: “Wow the price! Go crazy!”, “There’s a sea of flowers in the garden!” , "I am thirsty! I’ll die!” It is typical to use words in a figurative meaning, for example: “Your head is a mess!”
The conversational style of speech is characterized by rich figurative and expressive capabilities of the language. Poets, writers, and publicists often turn to the means of verbal expression.
The word order in spoken language is different from that used in written language. Here the main information is specified at the beginning of the statement. The speaker begins his speech with the main, essential element of the message. To focus listeners' attention on main information, use intonation emphasis. In general, word order in colloquial speech is highly variable.
So, the dominant of the colloquial style, especially colloquial speech that exists in the oral form of informal personal communication, is to minimize concerns about the form of expression of thoughts, hence phonetic vagueness, lexical imprecision, syntactic carelessness, widespread use of pronouns, etc.
Sample conversational style text
- What time is it already? Something is hunting. I'd like some seagull.
- Out of idleness, people have developed the habit of chattering, as Gogol said. I'll put the kettle on now.
- Well, you and I have worked a lot today, but do you know what idleness is?
- I guess.
- and what would you do then when idleness sets in?
- I can not even imagine. You have to study, it's idleness!