General characteristics of conversational style. Linguistic features of conversational style

Examples of texts conversational style speeches are present in fiction and journalistic literature. There is no universal language suitable for every situation. Therefore, elements of conversational style, characteristic of everyday communication, are found in the media and works of art.

Briefly about speech styles

There are several of them. Each of them has its own purpose. For artistic style characterized by emotional coloring and imagery. It is used by authors of prose and poetic works. Scientific speech is found in textbooks, dictionaries, reference books and encyclopedias. This style is also used in meetings, reports and formal conversations.

The author of an article written in a scientific style sets himself the goal of accurately conveying knowledge and information, and therefore uses a large number of terms. All this allows you to clearly express thoughts, which is not always possible to achieve using spoken language.

IN colloquial speech There may be words that are not found in reference books. At the same time, approximately 75% of units of the Russian literary language are used by people in any style of speech. For example, words like I, walked, forest, look, earth, sun, long ago, yesterday. They are called commonly used.

Words like rectangle, pronoun, multiplication, fractions, set, refer to scientific terms. But about 20% of words in the Russian literary language are used only in colloquial speech. Thus, “electric train” does not appear in the railway directory. Here this word replaces the term “electric train”. What are the features of spoken language?

It is implemented mainly orally. This is precisely what distinguishes spoken language from written language. In the book style, literary norms are strictly observed at all language levels. Among the styles of speech, as already mentioned, there are scientific, journalistic, and official business. They all have more common name, namely, bookish. Sometimes artistic style is distinguished as a functional style. However, this point of view raises objections among many linguists. More on the art style below.

Spontaneity

Conversational speech falls into the category of unprepared speech. It is spontaneous, involuntary. It is created simultaneously with the thought process. That is why its laws differ significantly from the laws of the journalistic style. But they still exist, and even in everyday communication You should remember the norms of literary language.

Examples of conversational style texts are found in public and public speeches. politicians. Some of them have gained fame among the people as the authors of unique sayings and aphorisms. “We wanted the best, it turned out as always,” this phrase became famous. However, it is worth saying that its creator committed a gross stylistic error. Oratory speech should consist exclusively of elements of journalistic style. The incompleteness of the phrase and emotionality are unacceptable for it.

Expressiveness

Using everyday conversational speech, people easily share information, thoughts, feelings with loved ones and acquaintances. It is not applicable in every situation. One of the main features of the conversational style of speech is emotionality. It is appropriate in any informal setting.

In everyday communication, people constantly express their feelings, preferences, preferences or, on the contrary, indignation, irritation, hostility. In the examples of conversational style texts there is an emotionality that is not found in journalism.

Without expressiveness it is impossible to create advertising slogans. The main task of a marketer is to instill confidence in consumers, and this can be done by using texts created in the language spoken by potential buyers. An example of a conversational text: “Fly with Aeroflot planes!” If this phrase is clothed in journalistic style, then it will turn out “Use the services of Aeroflot!” The second option is more difficult to perceive and hardly evokes positive emotions.

Jargons and dialectisms

Spoken speech is not codified, but it has norms and laws. Certain taboos exist for her too. For example, contrary to generally accepted opinion, profanity should not be present not only in journalistic, but also in colloquial speech. In the dialogue of educated people there is no place for jargon and rude vernacular, unless, of course, these linguistic elements carry a certain emotional connotation. There should be no dialectisms in colloquial speech - signs of lack of mastery of the orthoepic norms of the Russian language. Although in some cases they are also irreplaceable.

Examples of conversational style of speech are present in prose. In order to be convinced of this, you just have to open any book by Bunin, Kuprin, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky or any other Russian writer. Creating a portrait of the characters, the author endows them with characteristic features that manifest themselves best in the dialogues. In this case, colloquial speech may include both jargon and dialectisms.

The norms of the literary language do not include vernacular language. But they are also often found in everyday speech. Example: “I came from Moscow.” It is worth knowing that the incorrect use of verbs is outside the norms and conversational style.

Art style

Writers use a variety of linguistic means to the maximum extent. Artistic style is not a system of homogeneous linguistic phenomena. He is devoid of stylistic closure. Its specificity depends on the individual style of a particular author. And, as already mentioned, examples of conversational style texts are present on the pages of works of fiction. Below is one of them.

Reading Mikhail Bulgakov’s famous novel “The Master and Margarita”, you can already come across many examples of conversational style texts in the first chapter. Elements of everyday language are present in the dialogues. One of the characters says the phrase “You, professor, have come up with something awkward. It may be smart, but it’s painfully incomprehensible.” If you “translate” this phrase into journalistic language, you get: “Professor, your point of view deserves attention, but raises some doubts.” Would Bulgakov's novel have gained the interest of millions of readers if the characters had expressed their thoughts so dryly and formally?

Such elements of language as jargon and dialectisms have already been mentioned above. In another work of Bulgakov, namely in the story “ dog's heart», main character- Polygraph Poligrafovich - actively uses profanity in communication with the professor and other characters.

We will not give examples of texts in a colloquial style of speech with an abundance of obscene expressions, which the author included in the work in order to emphasize Sharikov’s lack of education and rudeness. But let us remember one of the phrases uttered by Professor Preobrazhensky, a hero in whose speech, unlike the speech of Poligraf Poligrafovich, there are no syntactic, spelling and other errors.

“If, instead of operating, I start singing in chorus in my apartment, devastation will come,” said Philip Philipovich in a dialogue with his assistant. What is the importance of colloquial speech in fiction? It is impossible to overestimate her role in prose. Being in a state of emotional excitement, the professor, an extremely educated person, makes a semantic mistake (singing in chorus) intentionally, thereby giving the speech a certain irony, without which he would not be able to express his indignation and indignation so clearly.

There are two forms of oral speech: written and oral. We looked at the first one above. Every person uses spoken language every day. It is worth talking in more detail about other features of this important layer of language.

Using pronouns

Authors of journalistic and scientific texts, as a rule, appeal to a wide audience of readers. In colloquial speech, pronouns occur quite often, especially in the first and second person. This is explained by the fact that communication takes place in an informal setting, and a small group of people takes part in it. Conversational speech is personalized.

Diminutive forms and metaphors

In modern colloquial speech there are a large number of zoomorphic metaphors. Bunny, kitty, bird, cat, mouse- all these are words that are not found in scientific articles. A person uses the name of animals in relation to his interlocutor mainly in diminutive forms, and he does this in order to express his favor and sympathy.

But other words are also found in colloquial speech. For example: goat, donkey, ram, snake, viper. If these nouns are used as zoomorphic metaphors, then they have a pronounced negative character. It is worth saying that in colloquial speech there are much more words of negative evaluation than positive ones.

Polysemy

In the Russian language there is such a commonly used word as “drum”. The verb “drum” is derived from it, which in colloquial speech is used in completely different meanings. It can be used in relation to both a person and natural phenomenon. Examples:

Don't drum your fingers on the table.
The rain drums on the glass for half a day.

It is one of the few verbs that has multiple meanings in colloquial speech.

Abbreviations

First names and patronymics are used in a truncated form. For example, San Sanych instead of Alexander Alexandrovich. In linguistics, this phenomenon is called prosyopesis. In addition, in everyday speech, “dad” and “mam” are more often used than the words “mom” and “dad”, “mother” and “father”.

In conversation, people actively use aposiopesis, that is, intentionally breaking off a phrase. For example: “But if you’re not home by two, then...” Sometimes authors of fiction and literature also resort to this linguistic device. journalistic texts(“If there are no major changes in the economy, then...”). But first of all, aposiopesis is characteristic of colloquial speech.

Verb

If you look at one of the examples of conversational texts, you will find that verbs appear more often than nouns or adjectives. In everyday communication, people for some reason prefer words that denote actions.

According to statistics, only 15% of total number nouns As for verbs, preference is given to the present tense in cases where it would be more correct to use the future. For example: “Tomorrow we are flying to Crimea.”

Other features of spoken language

The conversational style is a full-fledged functional style of language, but it lives according to slightly different laws than the written one. When communicating freely, a person creates statements spontaneously, and therefore they do not always sound perfect. However, even colloquial speech should be monitored so that phrases such as “We wanted the best, but it turned out as always” do not appear.

Conversational style is a functional style of speech that serves for direct communication, when the author shares his thoughts or feelings with others, exchanges information on everyday issues in an informal setting. It often uses colloquial and colloquial vocabulary.

The usual form of implementation of the conversational style is dialogue; this style is more often used in oral speech. There is no preliminary selection of language material.

In this style of speech, extra-linguistic factors play an important role: facial expressions, gestures, and the environment.

The conversational style is characterized by emotionality, imagery, concreteness, and simplicity of speech. For example, in a cafe the phrase “Two coffees, please” does not seem strange.

The relaxed atmosphere of communication leads to greater freedom in the choice of emotional words and expressions: colloquial words (stupid, rotozey, talking shop, giggle, cackle), colloquial words (neighing, rokhlya, ahovy, ruffled), slang words (parents - ancestors, iron, worldly) are more widely used. .

Colloquial words and phraseological units: vymahal (grown), elektroichka (electric train), vocabulary with an emotional-expressive coloring (cool, smart, terrible), diminutive affectionate suffixes (gray).

Conversational style, as one of the varieties of literary language, serves the sphere of casual communication between people in everyday life, in the family, as well as the sphere of informal relations in production, in institutions, etc.

The main form of implementation of the conversational style is oral speech, although it can also appear in written form (informal friendly letters, notes to household topics, diary entries, remarks of characters in plays, in certain genres of fiction and journalistic literature). In such cases, the features of the oral form of speech are recorded.

The main extralinguistic features that determine the formation of a conversational style are: ease (which is possible only in informal relations between speakers and in the absence of an attitude towards a message of an official nature), spontaneity and unpreparedness of communication. Both the sender of the speech and its recipient directly participate in the conversation, often changing roles; the relationships between them are established in the very act of speech. Such speech cannot be pre-thought out; the direct participation of the addresser and addressee determines its predominantly dialogical nature, although a monologue is also possible.

A monologue in a conversational style is a form of casual story about some events, something seen, read or heard and is addressed to a specific listener (listeners) with whom the speaker must establish contact. The listener naturally reacts to the story by expressing agreement, disagreement, surprise, indignation, etc., or by asking the speaker about something. Therefore, a monologue in spoken speech is not as clearly opposed to dialogue as in written speech.

A characteristic feature of colloquial speech is emotionality, expressiveness, and evaluative reaction. So, they wrote to the question! Instead of No, they didn’t write, usually followed by emotionally expressive answers like Where did they write there! or they wrote it straight!; Where did they write!; That's what they wrote!; It's easy to say - they wrote it! and so on.

A major role in spoken language is played by the environment of verbal communication, the situation, as well as non-verbal means of communication (gestures, facial expressions, the nature of the relationship between the interlocutors, etc.).

The extralinguistic features of the conversational style are associated with its most general linguistic features, such as standardity, stereotypical use of language means, their incomplete structure at the syntactic, phonetic and morphological levels, intermittency and inconsistency of speech from a logical point of view, weakened syntactic connections between parts of the utterance or their lack of formality , sentence breaks with various kinds of insertions, repetitions of words and sentences, widespread use of linguistic means with a pronounced emotional and expressive coloring, activity linguistic units concrete meaning and passivity of units with abstract generalized meaning.

Colloquial speech has its own norms, which in many cases do not coincide with the norms of book speech recorded in dictionaries, reference books, and grammars (codified). The norms of colloquial speech, unlike books, are established by usage (custom) and are not consciously supported by anyone. However, native speakers sense them and perceive any unmotivated deviation from them as a mistake. This allowed researchers (and others) to claim that modern Russian colloquial speech is standardized, although the norms in it are quite unique. In colloquial speech, to express similar content in typical and recurring situations, ready-made constructions, stable expressions, and various kinds of speech cliches are created (formulas of greeting, farewell, appeal, apology, gratitude, etc.). These ready-made, standardized speech means are automatically reproduced and help strengthen the normative nature of colloquial speech, which is distinctive feature its norms. However, the spontaneity of verbal communication, the lack of preliminary thinking, the use of non-verbal means of communication and the specificity of the speech situation lead to a weakening of norms.

Thus, in a conversational style, stable speech standards coexist, reproduced in typical and repeated situations, and general literary speech phenomena that can be subject to various shifts. These two circumstances determine the specificity of the norms of conversational style: due to the use of standard speech means and techniques, the norms of conversational style, on the one hand, are characterized by a higher degree of binding compared to the norms of other styles, where synonymy and free maneuvering with a set of acceptable speech means are not excluded . On the other hand, general literary speech phenomena characteristic of the conversational style may, to a greater extent than in other styles, be subject to various shifts.

In a conversational style, compared to a scientific and official business style, it is significantly higher specific gravity neutral vocabulary. A number of stylistically neutral words are used in figurative meanings, specific to this particular style. For example, the stylistically neutral verb to cut off (“to separate something, a part of something”) in a conversational style is used in the meaning of “to answer sharply, wanting to stop the conversation” (Said - cut off and did not repeat it again), fly (“to move, move around air with the help of wings") and in the meaning of "to break, deteriorate" (The engine flew internal combustion). See also: blame (“shift the blame, responsibility onto someone”), throw (“give, deliver”), put (“appoint to a position”), remove (“dismiss from a position”), etc.

Everyday vocabulary is widely used: greedy, bother, instantly, tiny, unaware, rightly so, slowly, train, potato, cup, salt shaker, broom, brush, plate, etc.

In the style under consideration, the use of words with a concrete meaning is widespread and limited with an abstract one; It is uncharacteristic to use terms and foreign words that have not yet become commonly used. Author's neologisms (occasionalisms) are active, polysemy and synonymy are developed, and situational synonymy is widespread. A characteristic feature of the lexical system of the colloquial style is the wealth of emotionally expressive vocabulary and phraseology (hard worker, parasite, old man, silly; fool, frizzy, cast a shadow on the fence, take by the throat, climb into the bottle, starve to death).

Phraseologisms in colloquial speech are often rethought, change their form, the processes of contamination and comic renewal of the phraseme are active. A word with a phraseologically determined meaning can be used as an independent word, while preserving the meaning of the whole phraseological unit: don’t meddle - stick your nose into someone else’s business, slipped off - slip off the tongue. This expresses the law of economy of speech means and the principle of incomplete structure. A special type of colloquial phraseology consists of standard expressions, familiar formulas of speech etiquette such as How are you?; Good morning!; Be kind!; Thank you for attention; I apologize, etc.

The use of non-literary vocabulary (jargon, vulgarisms, rude and abusive words, etc.) is not a normative phenomenon of conversational style, but rather a violation of norms, just like the abuse of book vocabulary, which gives colloquial speech an artificial character.

Expressiveness and evaluativeness are also manifested in the field of word formation. Formations with suffixes of subjective assessment with the meaning of endearment, diminutive, disdain, (dis)approval, irony, etc. are very productive (daughter, daughter, daughter, hands, furious, enormous). The formation of words with the help of affixes is active, giving a colloquial or colloquial connotation. This includes nouns with suffixes - ak(-yak): weakling, good-natured; - unit: stove, wall; - sh-a: cashier, secretary; - an(-yan); old man, troublemaker; - un: braggart, talker; - ysh: strong, baby; - l-a: imagined, bigwig; relative: running, hustle; adjectives with suffixes usch(-yush): enormous, thin; with the prefix pre-: very kind, most unpleasant; verbs of prefix-suffix formation: walk, walk, condemn, whisper; verbs to - to be fashionable, to grimace, to wander, to carpenter; na (a)-nut: push, scold, scare, mutter, gasp. Spoken speech in to a greater extent than the book, it is characterized by the use of multi-prefix verb formations (re-elect, hold back, reflect, throw away). Prefix-reflexive verbs with vivid emotional-evaluative and figurative expression are used (to run up, to work out, to agree, to think of something), and complicated prefix-reflexive formations (to dress up, to invent, to talk).

To enhance expression, doubling of words is used, sometimes with prefixation (big-big, white-white, quickly-fast, small-very-small, high-high). There is a tendency to shorten names, to replace non-one-word names with one-word ones (a grade book is a record book, a ten-year school is a ten-year school, nautical school* seafarer, surgical department * surgery, specialist eye diseases- ophthalmologist, patient with schizophrenia - schizophrenic). Metonymic names are widely used (Today there will be a meeting of the trade union bureau - Today the trade union bureau; Dictionary of the Russian language compiled by Ozhegov).

In linguistic literature The question of the legitimate identification of artistic style remains debatable. A number of scientists do not distinguish artistic styles among functional styles, citing the fact that language fiction incorporates other functional styles, does not have specific linguistic features, and performs a special aesthetic function.

Others include functional styles and artistic style. Their arguments are that artistic speech, occupying a special position in the system of styles, turns out to be one of them. Artistic speech uses only individual features and elements of other styles that are used for aesthetic function. The dominant artistic style is the imagery and aesthetic significance of each element.

Lexical features artistic style knows no limitations: neologisms, individual images, vernacular, jargon, dialectisms, speech irregularities (to characterize a character). Vocabulary is mostly specific, important small parts, details in the description.

How morphological feature One can note the activity of verb forms, which helps to activate the imagination of the reader, who visually and figuratively represents the picture of events.

A variety of linguistic means are widely used; the language of fiction is not stylistically closed.

Colloquial speech- a specific variety of literary language, used in conditions of casual communication and contrasted within the literary language with codified book speech (E. “Russian Language”, P. 249).

Should be distinguished conversational style and colloquial speech. Conversational style is a special functional system with a lesser degree of normalization (does not include rough vernacular).

Extralinguistic factors:

Spontaneity, unpreparedness,

Informality

Personality,

Situational,

Emotionally expressive coloring,

Spoken speech is carried out mainly in oral form, involves direct contact between communicants. The addresser and the addressee often change roles, the relationships between them are established in the very act of speech, speech cannot be pre-thought out.

Communication takes place in a specific situation, so speakers have a certain common stock of knowledge, which is called background knowledge. They allow you to construct such reduced (abbreviated) statements that are incomprehensible without background knowledge.

Colloquial speech refers to a style that in various manuals is called colloquial, colloquial-everyday, colloquial-everyday.

Dominant language function- exchange of opinions, the main form of speech is oral, the typical type of speech is dialogue, polylogue, the method of communication is personal, contact, the tone of speech is situationally determined.

The conversational style serves the sphere of everyday everyday communication, characterized by the absence of formal relations between speakers.

Conversational speech has its own norms. The norm is something that is constantly used in speech and “does not hurt the ear.” They are established by usage (custom) and are not consciously supported by anyone.

Phonetic norms. Colloquial pronunciation is understood as one that is characterized by less tension in the speech organs and less clarity of pronunciation, which leads to a change in the quality of sounds up to their loss. For example, plane, university, degrees, in general, trip, student, today.

In everyday conversation, intonation plays an exceptional role. Speech is accompanied by a sharp rise and fall in tone, “stretching” of vowels, lengthening of consonants, chanting (clearly pronouncing) syllables, pauses, changes in the tempo of speech, and rhythm.

Lexical features. A characteristic feature is its lexical heterogeneity: there are general book vocabulary, terms, foreign words, words of high stylistic coloring, vernacular, dialects, jargons.

Lexical norm is the use of neutral vocabulary. However, its use reveals the specificity of colloquial speech.

Specific vocabulary is widely used (person, work, home, yes). Household vocabulary (cabbage soup, potatoes, train, greedy), vocabulary of family relationships (mom, dad, son, daughter), proper names, animal names.

It is possible to use words with a colloquial connotation (living creatures, parasite, ogrest).

Polysemy and synonymy, incl. situational (remove - dismiss from a position, pay - salary, catch a cold - catch a cold).

Rich in emotional and expressive coloring (careless, seedy, hard worker, hard worker, mediocrity, money scrounger). The combinations of words are wider than the normative general linguistic ones.

The use of abstract ones is limited. Rich phraseological units(grab your head, catch your eye, kick your ass). They are often reinterpreted, change form, and can be used as an independent unit, retaining the meaning of the whole phraseological unit (don’t poke your nose in, don’t stick your nose out, it’s not your business to poke your nose in).

Word formation.

Researchers note two types of word formation models:

1) something that is constantly used in colloquial speech and is neutral in it (newspaper, condensed milk),

2) what in colloquial speech stands out as reduced or expressive (canteen, boredom). Word-formation possibilities are associated with its expressiveness and evaluativeness.

Suffixes are productive with the meaning of endearment, diminutive, augmentative, disapproval (granddaughter, house, hefty, thin). Suf active. -ak (yak), -un, -an (yan), -ysh, -sh(a), -l(a), -ag(a), -uh(a), -ul(ya), -ovk (a), -ikh (a), -n (ya), -ozh (hedgehog), -nothing, -nut: weakling, baby, cashier, rude, bigwig, goner, chernukha, fashionable, shake. Colloquial speech is characterized by: sentence (prefix-suff.), darkness-darkness (repetition of the same root), abbreviation of names and replacement with one word: diploma, record book, reader, offset; mass worker, core worker, seasonal worker, correspondence student; release (about goods in the store), arrive, mark, meet (on time).

Morphological features. A morphological norm consists of a specific relationship between parts of speech.

Verbs prevail over nouns, activity of personal forms of the verb. Proverbs and gerunds are rarely used. in its direct functions, only as an adj. and adverbs (shaky voice, spoke without thinking).

Rare short adjectives, are active only in amplifying structures (well, smart, things are bad).

The predominance of them is typical. pad. (there is a traffic light, a house, a pharmacy...), the presence of a special vocative form (Tan, Kol!). Rarely - gen. fallen, no creative pad.

Plural them. fall of the form into -a, instead of -s: instructor, vacation; in generation and before. pad. M.R. on-y: in the workshop, on vacation; in genus pad. plural in place of -ov - zero inflection: one hundred grams, five kilograms.

Two milk, three borscht - substances. noun in counting form.

Pronouns are widely used: that's how it is, such beauty.

There is an active tendency towards inclination of the first part of compound names (to Mary Petrovna) and compound numbers. (five hundred sixty rubles).

Relatives- words used as a response to a situation or a statement from an interlocutor: Well, well!, Of course... of course.

Syntactic features. Spontaneity and unpreparedness determine syntactic originality.

Characteristic incomplete sentences: It’s scary to leave. But we have to. Don't know…

They - to the station (non-substitution of the predicate verb); every day - English, music (to study), we already - and to the teacher (addressed), let's keep it short, otherwise it's the same thing (speech), we have an exam tomorrow.

Short simple sentences: one day we came to school / it was just freezing / we were studying in the second grade / well, physical education / skiing / was cancelled...

However there may be repeated questions on the part of the interlocutor, sometimes the addresser himself makes an addition to the speech (you need to think about the vacation in advance / it’s written / the announcement was posted. It is possible to use inserted constructions and introductory words.

Characteristic is the restructuring of the phrase on the fly (the phone is his), a broken structure with interruptions in intonation.

Observed activity of interjection phrases (oh?), predicate phrases (that’s what he said!), the presence of words-sentences (Yes. No. Why?).

The word order is free. More often the noun comes to the fore. in them fallen, prepositive position can be adj. (Is your Kiev cake fresh?).

The use of constructions with a relative pronoun or adverb as a noun. (buy something for washing, put it somewhere in the closet).

Characteristic words-actualizers (pronouns, negative or affirmative particles): So they wrote it? Yes?

Actual components can be repeated (Such a goal was scored. A beautiful goal).

In the SPP, placing the union before subordinate clause and at the end: he apologized, because he was wrong.

Short ones are used non-union proposals: If you arrive, call, if you see our people, say hello.

The main form of implementation of the conversational style is oral speech, although it can also manifest itself in written form (informal friendly letters, notes on everyday topics, diary entries, remarks from characters in plays, in certain genres of fiction and journalistic literature). In such cases, the features of the oral form of speech are recorded.

A monologue in a conversational style is a form of casual story about some events, something seen, read or heard and is addressed to a specific listener (listeners) with whom the speaker must establish contact. The listener naturally reacts to the story, expressing agreement, disagreement, surprise, indignation, etc. or asking the speaker about something. Therefore, a monologue in spoken speech is not as clearly opposed to dialogue as in written speech.

A characteristic feature of colloquial speech is emotionality, expressiveness, and evaluative reaction. Yes, to the question Wrote! instead of No, they didn't write usually followed by emotionally expressive responses like Where did they write it? or Directly¾ written!; Where did they write!; That's what they wrote!; It's easy to say¾ written! and so on.

The extralinguistic features of the conversational style are associated with its most general linguistic features, such as standardity, stereotypical use of linguistic means, their incomplete structure at the syntactic, phonetic and morphological levels, intermittency and inconsistency of speech from a logical point of view, weakened syntactic connections between parts of the utterance or their lack of formality , sentence breaks with various kinds of insertions, repetitions of words and sentences, widespread use of linguistic means with a pronounced emotional-expressive coloring, activity of linguistic units with a specific meaning and passivity of units with an abstract-generalized meaning.

Colloquial speech has its own norms, which in many cases do not coincide with the norms of book speech recorded in dictionaries, reference books, and grammars (codified). The norms of colloquial speech, unlike books, are established by usage (custom) and are not consciously supported by anyone. However, native speakers sense them and perceive any unmotivated deviation from them as a mistake. This allowed researchers (O.B. Sirotinina, A.N. Vasilyeva, N.Yu. Shvedova, O.A. Lapteva, etc.) to assert that modern Russian colloquial speech is standardized, although the norms in it are quite unique. In colloquial speech, to express similar content in typical and repeated situations, ready-made constructions, stable phrases, and various kinds of speech cliches are created (formulas of greeting, farewell, appeal, apology, gratitude, etc.). These ready-made, standardized speech means are automatically reproduced and help strengthen the normative nature of colloquial speech, which is the distinctive feature of its norm. However, the spontaneity of verbal communication, the lack of preliminary thinking, the use of non-verbal means of communication and the specificity of the speech situation lead to a weakening of norms.

In the conversational style, compared to the scientific and official business style, the proportion of neutral vocabulary is significantly higher. A number of stylistically neutral words are used in figurative meanings specific to a given style. For example, a stylistically neutral verb cut off(‘to separate something, part of something’) in a colloquial style is used in the meaning of ‘to answer sharply, wanting to stop the conversation’ (Said¾ cut off and did not repeat), fly(‘move, move through the air with the help of wings’) ¾ in the meaning of ‘break, deteriorate’ (The internal combustion engine flew away.) See also: get out(‘to shift the blame, responsibility onto someone’), toss(‘give, deliver’), put(‘to appoint to a position’), take off(“dismiss from position”), etc.

Everyday vocabulary is widely used: greedy, bother, instantly, tiny, unaware, serves it right, slowly, train, potato, cup, salt shaker, broom, brush, plate and so on.

In the style under consideration, the use of words with a concrete meaning is widespread and limited with an abstract one; It is uncharacteristic to use terms and foreign words that have not yet become commonly used. Author's neologisms (occasionalisms) are active, polysemy and synonymy are developed, and situational synonymy is widespread. A characteristic feature of the lexical system of conversational style is the wealth of emotionally expressive vocabulary and phraseology (a hard worker, a parasite, an old man, a fool; a fool, a frizzy one, casting a shadow on a fence, taking him by the throat, climbing into a bottle, starving him to death).

Phraseologisms in colloquial speech are often rethought, change their form, the processes of contamination and comic renewal of the phraseme are active. A word with a phraseologically determined meaning can be used as an independent word, while maintaining the meaning of the whole phraseological unit: don't pry¾ meddle¾ poking your nose into your own business, it went wrong¾ roll off the tongue. This expresses the law of economy of speech means and the principle of incomplete structure. A special type of colloquial phraseology consists of standard expressions, familiar formulas speech etiquette type How are you?; Good morning!; Be kind!; Thank you for attention; I'm sorry and so on.

Expressiveness and evaluativeness are also manifested in the field of word formation. Formations with suffixes of subjective assessment with the meaning of endearment, diminutive, disdain, (dis)approval, irony, etc. are very productive. (daughter, daughter, daughter, hands, furious, enormous). The formation of words with the help of affixes is active, giving a colloquial or vernacular tone. This includes nouns with suffixes -ak(-yak): weakling, good-natured; -k-a: stove, wall; -sh-a: cashier, secretary; -an(-yan); old man, troublemaker; -un: braggart, talker; -ish: strong, baby; -l-a: imagined, bigwig; relative: running, hustle; adjectives with suffixes thinness: enormous, thin; with attachment pre-: most kind, most unpleasant; verbs of prefix-suffix formation: walk, walk, say, whisper; verbs in - to be fashionable, to grimace, to wander, to carpenter; on (-a)-nut: push, scold, scare, mutter, gasp. Colloquial speech, to a greater extent than book speech, is characterized by the use of multi-prefix verb formations (re-elect, hold back, reflect, throw out). Prefix-reflexive verbs with vivid emotional, evaluative and figurative expression are used (to run around, to work out, to agree, to come up with ideas), complicated prefix-return formations (dress up, make up your mind, talk).

To enhance expression, word doubling is used, sometimes with prefixation (big-big, white-white, fast-quick, small-very-small, tall-very tall). There is a tendency to shorten titles, replace non-one-word titles with one-word ones (grade book ¾ record book, ten-year school ¾ ten year old nautical school ¾ sailor, surgical department ¾ surgery, eye specialist ¾ oculist, patient with schizophrenia ¾ schizophrenic). Metonymic names are widely used (Today there will be a meeting of the trade union bureau¾ Today the trade union bureau; Dictionary of the Russian language compiled by S.I. Ozhegov¾ Ozhegov).

In the field of morphology, one can note, firstly, grammatical forms that function primarily in a conversational style, and secondly, the use of stylistically unmarked grammatical categories, their relationship here is different compared to other functional styles. This style is characterized by shapes on -A V nominative case plural, where in book styles the normative form is -s (bunkers, cruisers, searchlights, instructors), forms on -y in genitive and prepositional cases (a kilogram of sugar, a glass of tea, a bunch of grapes, in the workshop, on vacation); zero inflection in genitive case plural (five grams, ten kilograms, a kilogram of tomato, compare books: grams, kilograms, tomatoes).

The quantitative distribution of case forms of nouns is specific: the nominative case is in first place in terms of frequency, the genitive case is rarely used with the meaning of comparison, qualitative characteristic; The instrumental is not used with the meaning of the subject of the action.

Possessive adjectives are used, synonymous with the indirect case forms of nouns: Pushkin's poems (Pushkin's poems), the brigadier's sister (the foreman's sister), Katya's brother (Katya's brother). In the predicative function it is usually used not short form adjective, but the full one: The woman was a woman of few words; The conclusions are indisputable(compare books: True wisdom is terse; The conclusions are indisputable). Short forms of adjectives are active only in intensifying constructions, where they are characterized by a pronounced expressive coloring: What a cunning one!; It's too simple; Your business is bad!

One of the characteristic features of colloquial speech is the widespread use of pronouns, which not only replace nouns and adjectives, but are also used without relying on context. For example, the pronoun such may mean positive quality or serve as an amplifier (She's such a woman!¾ beautiful, magnificent, smart; There is such beauty all around!). A pronoun in combination with an infinitive can replace the name of an object, i.e. exclude the noun. For example: Give me something to write; Bring something to read; Do you have something to write about?; Get something to eat. Due to the use of pronouns in colloquial speech, the frequency of use of nouns and adjectives is reduced. The low frequency of the latter in colloquial speech is also due to the fact that objects and their signs are visible or known to the interlocutors.

In conversational style, verbs take precedence over nouns. The activity of personal forms of the verb increases due to the passivity of verbal nouns, as well as participles and gerunds, which are almost never used in colloquial speech. Of the forms of participles, only the short form is active passive participle past tense neuter singular (written, smoked, plowed, done, said). Significant number of adjectival participles (a knowledgeable specialist, a hard-working person, a wounded soldier, torn boot, fried potatoes). A striking feature of colloquial speech is the use of multiple and single action verbs (read, sat, walked, spun, whipped, fucked), as well as verbs with the meaning of ultra-instantaneous action (knock, clink, jump, jump, fuck, walk).

Spontaneity and unpreparedness of the statement, the situation of verbal communication and others character traits conversational style especially affect its syntactic structure. At the syntactic level, more actively than at other levels of the language system, the incomplete structure of expressing meaning by linguistic means is manifested. Incompleteness of constructions, ellipticity ¾ is one of the means of speech economy and one of the most striking differences between colloquial speech and other varieties of literary language. Since the conversational style is usually realized in conditions of direct communication, everything that is given by the situation or follows from what was known to the interlocutors even earlier is omitted from the speech. A.M. Peshkovsky, characterizing colloquial speech, wrote: “We always do not finish our thoughts, omitting from speech everything that is given by the situation or the previous experience of the speakers. So, at the table we ask: “Are you coffee or tea?”; Having met a friend, we ask: “Where are you going?”; Having heard boring music, we say: “Again!”; offering water, we’ll say: “Boiled, don’t worry!”, Seeing that the interlocutor’s pen doesn’t write, we’ll say: “And you use a pencil!” and so on."

In conversational syntax, simple sentences predominate, and they often lack a predicate verb, which makes the statement dynamic. In some cases, statements are understandable outside the situation and context, which indicates their linguistic consistency (I'm going to the cinema; He's going to the hostel; I would like a ticket; Tomorrow to the theater), in others ¾ the missing predicate verb is suggested by the situation: (at the post office) ¾ Stamped envelope please(give). Sentence words used (affirmative, negative, motivating): ¾ Will you buy a ticket?¾ Required; Can you bring a book?¾ Of course;¾ Did you read the note?¾ Not yet;¾ Get ready! March! Only colloquial speech is characterized by the use of special words and corresponding sentences expressing agreement or disagreement (Yes; No; Of course; Of course), they are often repeated (¾ Shall we go to the forest?¾ Yes Yes!;¾ Are you buying this book?¾ No no).

From complex sentences In this style, compound and non-union compounds are more active. The latter often have a pronounced colloquial coloring, and therefore are not used in book speech (You'll come¾ call; There are people¾ do not feel sorry for themselves). Unpreparedness of the utterance and the inability to think through the phrase in advance prevent the use of complex syntactic structures in a conversational style. The emotionality and expressiveness of colloquial speech determines the widespread use of interrogative and exclamatory sentences. (Have you really not watched this film? Do you want to watch it? Let’s go to “October” now. Why are you sitting at home! In this weather!). Interjective phrases are active (No matter how!; Come on!; Well, yes?; Of course!; Oh, really?; Wow!); connecting structures are used (The plant is well equipped. By last word technology; He's a good person. And also funny).

The main indicator of syntactic relations in colloquial speech is intonation and word order, while morphological means of communication - the transfer of syntactic meanings using word forms - are weakened. Intonation, closely related to the tempo of speech, tone, melody, timbre of voice, pauses, logical stresses, etc., in a conversational style carries a huge semantic, modal and emotionally expressive load, giving speech naturalness, ease, liveliness, expressiveness. It fills in what is left unsaid, enhances emotionality, and is the main means of expressing actual articulation. The topic of the statement is highlighted using logical stress, so the element acting as a rheme can be located anywhere. For example, the purpose of the trip can be clarified using questions: Are you going to Moscow on a business trip? ¾ Are you going on a business trip to Moscow?¾ Are you going on a business trip to Moscow? ¾ Are you going on a business trip to Moscow? Circumstance (in business trip) can occupy a different position in a statement, since it is highlighted by logical stress. Isolating a rheme using intonation allows you to use question words where, when, why, why etc. not only at the beginning of a statement, but also in any other position (When will you go to Moscow? - When will you go to Moscow?¾ When will you go to Moscow?). A typical feature of conversational syntax is the intonation separation of theme and rheme and their formation into independent phrases (- How to get to the circus?¾ To the circus? Right; How mach is this book?¾ This? Fifty thousand).

The order of words in colloquial speech, not being the main means of expressing actual division, has high variability. It is freer than in book styles, but still plays a certain role in the expression of actual division: the most important, essential element that has the main meaning in the message is usually placed at the beginning of the statement: It was snowing heavily in the morning; He's strange; The Christmas tree was fluffy; You need to run faster. Often the noun in the nominative case comes first, as it serves as a means of actualization: Station, where to get off?; Shopping mall, how to get?; The book was lying here, didn’t you see it?; The bag is red, please show me!

For the purpose of expressive emphasis, a complex sentence often begins with a subordinate clause in cases where in other styles its postposition is the norm. For example: What to do¾ Don't know; That I wasn't scared¾ Well done; Who's brave¾ come out.

The simultaneity of thinking and delivering speech during direct communication leads to frequent rearrangements of the phrase on the go. In this case, the sentences are either broken off, then additions to them follow, or their syntactic structure changes: But I don’t see any particular reason to worry so much... although, by the way...; They recently bought a cat. So cute and so on.

Table of differential features of functional styles

Conversational style 1, as one of the varieties of the literary language, serves the sphere of casual communication between people in everyday life, in the family, as well as the sphere of informal relations in production, in institutions, etc.

A characteristic feature of colloquial speech is emotionality, expressiveness, and evaluative reaction. So, they wrote to the question! Instead of No, they didn’t write, usually followed by emotionally expressive answers like Where did they write there! or Directly - they wrote it!; Where did they write!; That's what they wrote!; It's easy to say - they wrote it! and so on.

Colloquial speech has its own norms, which in many cases do not coincide with the norms of book speech recorded in dictionaries, reference books, and grammars (codified). The norms of colloquial speech, unlike books, are established by usage (custom) and are not consciously supported by anyone. However, native speakers sense them and perceive any unmotivated deviation from them as a mistake. This allowed researchers (O. B. Sirotinina, A. N. Vasilyeva, N. Yu. Shvedova, O. A. Lapteva, etc.) to claim that modern Russian colloquial speech is standardized, although the norms in it are quite peculiar. In colloquial speech, to express similar content in typical and recurring situations, ready-made constructions, stable phrases, and various kinds of speech cliches are created (formulas of greeting, farewell, appeal, apology, gratitude, etc.). These ready-made, standardized speech means are automatically reproduced and help strengthen the normative nature of colloquial speech, which is the distinctive feature of its norm. However, the spontaneity of verbal communication, the lack of preliminary thinking, the use of non-verbal means of communication and the specificity of the speech situation lead to a weakening of norms.

In the conversational style, compared to the scientific and official business style, the proportion of neutral vocabulary is significantly higher. A number of stylistically neutral words are used in figurative meanings specific to a given style. For example, the stylistically neutral verb cut off ('to separate something, a part of something') in a conversational style is used in the meaning of 'to answer sharply, wanting to stop the conversation' (Said - cut off and did not repeat it again), fly ('move, move around air with the help of wings') - meaning 'to break, deteriorate' (the internal combustion engine flew). See also: blame (‘shift the blame, responsibility onto someone’), throw (‘give, deliver’), put (‘appoint to a position’), remove (‘dismiss from a position’), etc.

Everyday vocabulary is widely used: greedy, bother, instantly, tiny, unaware, rightly so, slowly, train, potato, cup, salt shaker, broom, brush, plate, etc.

Phraseologisms in colloquial speech are often rethought, change their form, the processes of contamination and comic renewal of the phraseme are active. A word with a phraseologically determined meaning can be used as an independent word, while retaining the meaning of the whole phraseological unit: don’t meddle - meddle - stick your nose into someone else’s business, slipped off - slip off the tongue. This expresses the law of economy of speech means and the principle of incomplete structure. A special type of colloquial phraseology consists of standard expressions, familiar formulas of speech etiquette such as How are you?; Good morning!; Be kind!; Thank you for attention; I apologize, etc.

Expressiveness and evaluativeness are also manifested in the field of word formation. Formations with suffixes of subjective assessment with the meaning of endearment, diminutive, disdain, (dis)approval, irony, etc. are very productive (daughter, daughter, daughter, hands, furious, enormous). The formation of words with the help of affixes is active, giving a colloquial or vernacular tone. This includes nouns with the suffixes ‑ak (‑yak): weakling, good-natured; -k-a: stove, wall; -sh-a: cashier, secretary; -an(-yan); old man, troublemaker; -un: braggart, talker; ‑ish: strong, baby; -l-a: imagined, bigwig; relative: running, hustle; adjectives with suffixes ush(-yush): enormous, thin; with the prefix pre-: very kind, most unpleasant; verbs of prefix-suffix formation: walk, walk, sentence, whisper; verbs ending in fashion: to fashion, to grimace, to wander, to carpenter; na (‑a)‑nut: push, scold, scare, mutter, gasp. Colloquial speech, to a greater extent than book speech, is characterized by the use of multi-prefix verb formations (re-elect, hold back, reflect, throw away). Prefix-reflexive verbs with vivid emotional-evaluative and figurative expression are used (to run up, to work out, to agree, to think of something), and complicated prefix-reflexive formations (to dress up, to invent, to talk).

To enhance expression, doubling of words is used, sometimes with prefixation (big-big, white-white, quickly-fast, small-very-small, high-high). There is a tendency to shorten names, replacing non-word names with single-word ones (grade book - record book, ten-year school - ten-year school, naval school - sailor, surgical department - surgery, specialist in eye diseases - ophthalmologist, patient with schizophrenia - schizophrenic). Metonymic names are widely used (Today there will be a meeting of the trade union bureau - Today the trade union bureau; Dictionary of the Russian language compiled by S.I. Ozhegov - Ozhegov).

Notes:

1. For this variety in linguistics there is no single terminological designation: colloquial, colloquial-everyday, colloquial-everyday style. The term “colloquial speech” is also used synonymously with it.

2. Conversational style should not be identified with the oral form of speech. Oral speech, as O. B. Sirotinina rightly notes, “is divided into spoken and non-spoken. Non-spoken oral speech, in turn, can be divided according to the principle of stylistic affiliation into scientific (scientific discussion, to some extent the teacher’s speech when explaining new material and the student’s speech during a detailed answer on any topic can be attributed to it), journalistic (public lecture, speech at a meeting), business (speech in trial, business negotiations between the dispatcher and the pilot, driver, etc.), fiction (oral stories, anecdotes)” (Russian Colloquial Rech. M, 1983, p. 16). Non-spoken oral speech is characterized by the features of book styles with individual deviations from the norms of the latter due to the oral form.

T.P. Pleschenko, N.V. Fedotova, R.G. Taps. Stylistics and culture of speech - Mn., 2001.