Comparison of conversational style of speech with other styles. Originality of conversational style.

Spoken speech functions only in the private sphere of communication: everyday life, everyday professional, friendly, family, etc. Most often, the subject of conversation is the weather, health, news, any interesting events, purchases, prices... However, this does not mean that the conversational style is limited to everyday topics. Conversational speech can also touch on other topics: for example, a conversation between people in informal relationships about art, science, politics, etc. But these topics are also subject to the rules of conversational style, its syntactic structure, although in such cases the vocabulary of conversations is enriched with book words.

The conversational style performs the main function of language - the function of communication, its purpose is the direct transmission of information. This style is used not only in everyday life, but also in the professional sphere. In everyday life, it has an oral form - monologue or dialogic speech, and a written form - private letters, notes, diary entries. In the professional sphere - only oral. The linguistic features of the conversational style determine the special conditions for its functioning: informality, ease, expressiveness, lack of preliminary selection of linguistic means, automaticity of speech, ordinariness of content. In everyday communication, a concrete, associative way of thinking and a direct, expressive nature of expression are realized. Hence the disorder, fragmentation of speech forms and emotionality of style.

One of the most important features of colloquial speech is its reliance on an extra-linguistic situation, i.e. the real, objective context of speech in which communication takes place. This allows you to extremely shorten a statement that may lack individual components, which, however, does not interfere with the correct perception of colloquial phrases.

For example, in a bakery we don’t find the phrase strange:

- Please, with bran, one.

At the station at the ticket office:

- Two to Svetlogorsk.

Outside of these situations, these statements lose meaning.

In the conversational style, for which the oral form is primordial, the sound side of speech plays an important role, and above all intonation: it is this (in interaction with a peculiar syntax) that creates the impression of conversationality. Relaxed speech is characterized by sharp increases and decreases in tone, lengthening, “stretching” of vowels, scanning of syllables, pauses, and changes in the tempo of speech. Less tension in the speech organs leads to changes in the quality of sounds and sometimes even to their complete disappearance: “hello”, not “hello”, not “says” but “grit”, “buim” instead of “let’s be”, etc. This simplification of orthoepic norms is especially noticeable in non-literary forms of colloquial style, in common parlance.

Colloquial style vocabulary is divided into two large groups: 1) common words ( day, year, work, early, possible, good, new etc.); 2) colloquial words ( potato, reader, record book, real, perch). It is also possible to use colloquial words, dialectisms, jargon, i.e. extraliterary elements. All this vocabulary is predominantly of everyday content, specific. However, the thematic diversity of colloquial speech, which is not limited to everyday topics, involves the inclusion of different style groups of vocabulary: terms, abstract vocabulary, foreign borrowings (although their range is quite narrow). The activity of expressive-emotional vocabulary (familiar, affectionate, disapproving, ironic) is indicative. Evaluative vocabulary usually has a reduced connotation here ( awesome, blond, homely, talkative and so on.). It is interesting to use occasional words (neologisms that we come up with on occasion) - “opener” - a can opener, “adopt” - modeled after “adopt”» Metaphors are widely used ( vinaigrette, porridge, okroshka, - about the confusion ; jelly, weakling - about a sluggish, characterless person) against the background of neutral vocabulary. A feature of conversational style texts are the so-called empty words, which can replace any other words. Their meaning is specified in the situation: “thing”, “thing”, “deed”, “bandura”, “clunker”. For example:

-Where are we going to put this bandura?(About the closet).

- I don’t need sugar, but with this thing(pie).

In everyday communication, it is possible to name objects in a special way:

-Give me something to cover myself with.(blanket).

In the colloquial style, the law of “saving speech means” applies, therefore, instead of names consisting of two or more words, one is used: evening newspaper - “vecherka”, condensed milk - “condensed milk”, utility room - “back room”, five-story building - “ five-story building." In other cases, stable combinations of words are transformed: academic council - “advice”, sick leave - “sick leave”. The conversational style is rich in phraseology. Most Russian phraseological units are of a colloquial nature ( just a stone's throw away, unexpectedly, like water off a duck's back etc.), colloquial expressions are even more expressive ( There is no law for fools, in the middle of nowhere and so on.). Colloquial and colloquial phraseological units give speech vivid imagery. They differ from book and neutral phraseological units not in meaning, but in special expressiveness and reduction. Compare: to die is to play the game, to mislead is to hang noodles on one’s ears.

At the word-formation level, the emotionality and evaluativeness of the conversational style are realized with the help of suffixes of subjective evaluation with the meaning of endearment, disapproval, magnification, etc. ( mommy, honey, sunshine; pretense, vulgarity; home, cold etc.), as well as suffixes with a functional connotation of colloquiality (-k -“locker room”, “overnight”, “stove”;- ik "knife", "rain""; - un " talker"; - Yaga " hard worker"). Suffixless formations are used ( snoring, dancing), compounding ( couch potato, windbag). You can also indicate the most active ways of word formation for adjectives of evaluative meaning ( big-eyed, toothy, biting, pugnacious; thin, healthy etc.), as well as verbs - prefix-suffical ( play naughty, talk, play), suffixes ( speculate, hello), prefix ( is-to-lose weight, to-buy). In order to enhance expression, doubling words are used - adjectives, sometimes with additional prefixation ( black-black, smart-premium), acting as superlatives.

The morphological norm of conversational style, on the one hand, corresponds to the general literary norm, on the other hand, it has its own characteristics. For example, verbs are used here more often than nouns. The particularly frequent use of personal and demonstrative pronouns is also indicative. As Professor G.Ya. says Solganik, “personal pronouns are widely used due to the constant need to designate the participants in a conversation. Any dialogue (and this is the main form of conversational speech) presupposes I - the speaker, YOU - the listener, who alternately takes on the role of the speaker, and HE - the one who is not directly involved in the conversation. Any content can be put into the formula I – YOU – HE.” Demonstrative pronouns and others are needed in conversational style due to their inherent breadth and generality of meaning. They are concretized by a gesture, and this creates the conditions for a very compressed transmission of this or that information (for example: “It’s not here, but there”). Only the conversational style allows the use of a pronoun accompanied by a gesture without prior use of a specific word: “ I won't take it. This one doesn't suit me».

Possessive adjectives are used in colloquial speech ( mom's dresses, father's work), but short forms are rarely used. Participles and gerunds do not occur at all, and for particles and interjections, colloquial speech is their native element. ( What can I say! That's the thing! Surprise for you!)

In conversational style, preference is given to variant forms of nouns ( on vacation´; locksmith´), numerals ( fifty, five hundred), verbs ( I will read, but I will not read; raise, not seen, not heard). In live conversation, truncated forms of verbs are often found that have the meaning of instant and unexpected action: grab, jump, jump and so on. For example: And this one grabs him by the sleeve! The grasshopper hops and hits the grass. We use colloquial forms of degrees of comparison of adjectives ( better, shorter), adverb ( quickly, more conveniently). In colloquial speech, zero endings in the genitive plural of such nouns as gram, orange, tomato and so on. ( one hundred grams of butter, five kilograms of orange).

Under the influence of the law of economy of speech means, the conversational style allows the use of real nouns in combination with numerals ( two milks, two coffees– meaning “two servings”). Here, peculiar forms of address are common - truncated nouns: Mom! Dad! Linen! Roll!

Colloquial speech is no less original in the distribution of case forms: the nominative dominates here, which in oral remarks replaces the book controlled forms. For example: He built a dacha - a station nearby; I bought a fur coat – gray astrakhan fur. The nominative case is especially consistent in replacing all others when using numerals in speech: The amount does not exceed three hundred rubles (instead of: three hundred); Had three dogs (three dogs).

The syntax of colloquial speech is very unique, which is due to its oral form and vivid expression. Simple sentences dominate here, often incomplete, of the most varied structure (definitely personal, indefinitely personal, impersonal and others) and extremely short.

In oral speech, we often do not name an object, but describe it: In Hat haven't been here? They love to watch up to sixteen(meaning movies). As a result of unprepared speech, connecting constructions appear in it: We must go to St. Petersburg. To the conference. This fragmentation of the phrase is explained by the fact that the thought develops associatively, the speaker seems to recall details and complements the statement. Complex sentences are not typical for colloquial speech; if they are used, then more often than others they are non-conjunctive: If I leave, it will be easier for you; You speak, I listen.

The order of words in live speech is also unusual. As a rule, the most important word in the message is put first: I saw Oleg yesterday; Buy me a computer; Are we going to study today? At the same time, parts of a complex sentence (main and subordinate clauses) are sometimes intertwined: I don’t even know where to get water. Typical colloquial complex sentences are characterized by a weakening of the function of the subordinate clause, its merging with the main one, and structural reduction: You will work with whomever they order; Call whoever you want.

A number of colloquial types of sentences can combine question-answer constructions and reflect the features of conversational speech, for example: Who I need is you; Whom I respect on the course is Ivanov.

The following features of conversational syntax should be noted:

Using a pronoun that duplicates the subject: Vera, she comes late.

Placing an important word from the subordinate clause at the beginning of the sentence: I like bread to always be fresh.

Use of sentence words: OK; Clear; Can; Certainly.

Activity of introductory words: May be; So to speak; You know.

The conversational style is contrasted with book styles, since they function in one or another sphere of social activity. However, colloquial speech includes not only specific colloquial means, but also neutral ones, which are the basis of the literary language. Therefore, this style is associated with other styles that also use neutral language means. Within a literary language, colloquial speech is contrasted with codified language as a whole. But codified literary language and colloquial speech are two subsystems within the literary language. As a rule, every native speaker of a literary language speaks both of these varieties of speech.

Summary

The colloquial style, to a greater extent than all other styles, has a striking originality of linguistic features that go beyond the scope of the standardized literary language. It can serve as convincing evidence that the stylistic norm is fundamentally different from the literary one. Each of the functional styles has developed its own norms that should be taken into account and has its own characteristics. In colloquial speech this is:

· unpreparedness, spontaneity;

· direct nature of the speech act;

· great influence of extra-linguistic factors;

· widespread use of everyday and emotionally expressive vocabulary and phraseology;

· implementation of evaluativeness and expressiveness at the morphological and syntactic level.

But this does not mean that colloquial speech always conflicts with literary language rules. Deviations from the norm may vary depending on the intra-style stratification of the conversational style. It contains varieties of reduced, rude speech, vernacular speech that has absorbed the influence of local dialects, etc. But the colloquial speech of intelligent, educated people is quite literary, and at the same time it differs sharply from bookish speech, bound by the strict norms of other functional styles.

Questions for control and self-control

1. In what area of ​​communication does spoken language function?

2. What conditions for the functioning of a conversational style determine its linguistic features?

3. What role do extra-linguistic factors play in the formation of spoken language?

4. In what forms is the main function of the conversational style implemented?

What is characteristic of orthoepy in colloquial speech?

5. How is the expressiveness and evaluativeness of the colloquial style of speech determined in vocabulary and word formation?

6. What is the uniqueness of the morphology of the conversational style?

7. What syntactic structures are characteristic of colloquial speech?

8. What is the relationship between conversational style and other speech styles?

9. Is the colloquial style of speech included in the literary language?

LITERATURE

1. Golub I.B. Russian language and culture of speech: Textbook, - M.: Logos, 2004.

2. Vvedenskaya L.A., Pavlova L.G., Kashaeva E.Yu. Russian language and speech culture for engineers: Textbook, - Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 2003.

3. Maksimov V.I. and others. Russian language and speech culture: Textbook. - M.: Gardariki, 2001.

4. Zemskaya E.A. Russian colloquial speech: linguistic analysis and learning problems. – M., 1997.

5. Golub I.B., Rosenthal D.E. Secrets of good speech. – M., 1993.

Under conversational style speeches are usually understood by the features and flavor 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:

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, pauses, the emphasis of certain words in the voice, acceleration and deceleration of the rate of speech, strengthening and weakening of the strength of the voice become of great importance.

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 the attention of listeners on the main information, intonation emphasis is used. 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!

Stylistics

Stylistic features of conversational style of speech

A high culture of spoken and written speech, good knowledge and development of a flair for the native language, the ability to use its expressive means, its stylistic diversity is the best support, the surest help and the most reliable recommendation for every person in his social life and creative activity.

V.A. Vinogradov

Introduction

My work is devoted to the study of conversational style of speech.

The main goal is to identify the stylistic features of a given style of speech, to understand how colloquial differs from other styles. My task is to define the colloquial style of speech, divide it into types, determine the specifics and intra-style features of the colloquial style.

Language is a means of communication between people, a tool for the formation and expression of thoughts and feelings, a means of assimilation of new information, new knowledge. But in order to effectively influence the mind and feelings, the native speaker of a given language must be fluent in it, that is, have a speech culture.

M. Gorky wrote that language is the primary element, the main material of literature, i.e. that vocabulary, syntax, the entire structure of speech is the primary element, the key to understanding the ideas and images of a work. But language is also an instrument of literature: “The struggle for purity, for semantic precision, for the sharpness of language is a struggle for an instrument of culture. The sharper this weapon is, the more accurately it is aimed, the more victorious it is.”

Stylistics (the word “style” comes from the name of the needle or stiletto with which the ancient Greeks wrote on waxed tablets) is a branch of the science of language that studies the styles of literary language (functional styles of speech), the patterns of language functioning in different spheres of use, the peculiarities of the use of linguistic means depending on the situation, content and purpose of the statement, the sphere and condition of communication. Stylistics introduces the stylistic system of the literary language at all its levels and the stylistic organization of correct (in compliance with the norms of the literary language), accurate, logical and expressive speech. Stylistics teaches the conscious and purposeful use of the laws of language and the use of linguistic means in speech.

There are two directions in linguistic stylistics: stylistics of language and stylistics of speech (functional stylistics). Language stylistics examines the stylistic structure of language, describes the stylistic means of vocabulary, phraseology and grammar. Functional stylistics studies, first of all, different types of speech and their dependence on different purposes of utterance. M. N. Kozhina gives the following definition: “Functional stylistics is a linguistic science that studies the features and patterns of language functioning in various types of speech corresponding to certain spheres of human activity and communication, as well as the speech structure of the resulting functional styles and “norms” “selection and combination of linguistic means” 1. At its core, stylistics must be consistently functional. It should reveal the connection between different types of speech with the topic, the purpose of the statement, with the conditions of communication, the addressee of the speech, and the attitude of the author to the subject of speech. The most important category of stylistics is functional styles - varieties of literary speech (literary language) serving various aspects of social life. Styles are different ways of using language when communicating. Each style of speech is characterized by the originality of the selection of linguistic means and their unique combination with each other.

The classification of styles is based on extralinguistic factors: the scope of use of the language, the subject matter determined by it and the goals of communication. The areas of application of language correlate with types of human activity corresponding to forms of social consciousness (science, law, politics, art). Traditional and socially significant areas of activity are: scientific, business (administrative and legal), socio-political, artistic. Accordingly, they also distinguish between the styles of official speech (book): scientific, official business, journalistic, literary and artistic (artistic). 1

Functional style ¾ is a historically established and socially conscious variety of a literary language (its subsystem), functioning in a certain sphere of human activity and communication, created by the peculiarities of the use of linguistic means in this sphere and their specific organization 2.

Chapter 1. Conversational style of speech

Conversational style is a functional style of speech that serves for informal 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 vernacular vocabulary.

The usual form of implementing 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, a big role is played extra-linguistic factors: facial expressions, gestures, environment.

The conversational style is characterized by emotionality, imagery, concreteness, and simplicity of speech. For example, in a bakery it doesn’t seem strange to say: “Please, with bran, one.”

The relaxed atmosphere of communication leads to greater freedom in the choice of emotional words and expressions: colloquial words are used more widely ( be silly, talkative, talkative, giggle, cackle), vernacular ( neigh, weakling, awsome, disheveled), slang (parents - ancestors, iron, world).

In a conversational style of speech, especially at a fast pace, a smaller reduction of vowels is possible, up to their complete elimination and simplification of consonant groups. Word-formation features: suffixes of subjective evaluation are widely used. To enhance expressiveness, doubling words is used.

Oral speech is a form of speech activity, including understanding sounding speech and the implementation of speech utterances in audio form ( speaking). Oral speech can be carried out through direct contact between interlocutors or can be mediated by technical means ( phone etc.) if communication occurs at a considerable distance. Oral speech, in contrast to written speech, is characterized by:

redundancy (presence of repetitions, clarifications, explanations);

usage nonverbal means of communication (gestures, facial expressions),

economy of speech utterances, ellipses(the speaker may not name, skip what is easy to guess).

Oral speech is always determined by the speech situation. There are:

unprepared oral speech ( conversation, interview, performance in discussions) and prepared oral speech ( lecture, report, performance, report);

dialogical speech (direct exchange of statements between two or more persons) and monologue speech (a type of speech addressed to one or a group of listeners, sometimes to oneself).

Literary conversational style

Literary language can be divided into two functional varieties - bookish and spoken.
Calling this division of the literary language “the most general and most indisputable,” D.N. Shmelev wrote about this: “At all stages of the development of a literary language, even when overcoming the alienation of the written language in one way or another, when the halo of simply literacy and proficiency in a special book language fades, speakers in general never lose the feeling of the difference between “how can be said" and "how to write".
The next level of division of the literary language is the division of each of its varieties - book and spoken languages ​​- into functional styles. The spoken variety of a literary language is an independent and self-sufficient system within the general system of a literary language, with its own set of units and rules for combining them with each other, used by native speakers of a literary language in conditions of direct, unprepared communication in informal relations between speakers.
A spoken literary language is not codified: it certainly has certain norms (thanks to which, for example, it is easy to distinguish the oral speech of a native speaker of a literary language from the oral speech of a native speaker of a dialect or vernacular), but these norms have developed historically and are not consciously regulated by anyone or enshrined in in the form of any rules and recommendations.
Thus, codification - non-codification is another, and very significant, feature that distinguishes bookish and colloquial varieties of a literary language. Conversational style is a special type of language that is used by a person in everyday, everyday communication.
The main difference between the conversational style and the book styles of the Russian language is the different manner of presenting information. So, in book styles, this manner is subject to the rules of language recorded in dictionaries. Conversational style is subject to its own norms, and what is not justified in book speech is quite appropriate in natural communication.

Colloquial style

The colloquial style functions in the sphere of everyday communication. This style is implemented in the form of casual speech (monologue or dialogue) on everyday topics, as well as in the form of private, informal correspondence. Ease of communication is understood as the absence of an attitude towards a message of an official nature (lecture, speech, answer to an exam, etc.), informal relations between speakers and the absence of facts that violate the informality of communication, for example, strangers. Conversational speech functions only in the private sphere of communication, in everyday life, among friends, family, etc. In the field of mass communication, colloquial speech is not applicable. However, this does not mean that the colloquial style is limited to everyday topics. Conversational speech can also touch on other topics - a conversation with the family or a conversation between people in informal relationships: about art, science, politics, sports, etc.; conversation between friends at work related to the speaker’s profession, conversations in public institutions, such as clinics, schools, etc.
The colloquial and everyday style is contrasted with book styles, since they function in the same areas of social activity. Colloquial speech includes not only specific linguistic means, but also neutral ones, which are the basis of the literary language. Therefore, this style is associated with other styles that also use neutral language means.

The colloquial and everyday style is contrasted with book styles, since they function in certain areas of social activity. However, colloquial speech includes not only specific linguistic means, but also neutral ones, which are the basis of literary language. 3
Within a literary language, colloquial speech is contrasted with codified language. (The language is called codified because work is being done in relation to it to preserve its norms, its purity). But codified literary language and colloquial speech are two subsystems within the literary language. As a rule, every native speaker of a literary language speaks both of these varieties of speech. With
The main features of the everyday conversational style are the already mentioned relaxed and informal nature of communication, as well as the emotionally expressive coloring of speech. Therefore, in colloquial speech all the riches of intonation, facial expressions, and gestures are used. One of its most important features is its reliance on the extra-linguistic situation, i.e. the immediate context of speech in which communication takes place. For example: (Woman before leaving home) What should I wear? (about the coat) This is it, or what? Or that? (about the jacket) Won't I freeze? Listening to these statements and not knowing the specific situation, it is impossible to guess what they are talking about. Thus, in colloquial speech, the extra-linguistic situation becomes an integral part of the act of communication.

3 - Russian language and culture of speech: Textbook (edited by Prof. V. I. Maksimov. - M.: Gardariki, 2002. - 89 - 93 p.

Everyday conversational style of speech has its own lexical and grammatical features. A characteristic feature of colloquial speech is its lexical heterogeneity. Here you can find the most diverse thematic and stylistic groups of vocabulary: general book vocabulary, terms, foreign borrowings, words of high stylistic coloring, as well as facts of vernacular, dialects, jargons. This is explained, firstly, by the thematic diversity of colloquial speech, which is not limited to everyday topics and everyday remarks; secondly, the implementation of colloquial speech in two tones - serious and playful, and in the latter case it is possible to use a variety of elements.
Syntactic constructions also have their own characteristics. For colloquial speech, constructions with particles, with interjections, constructions of a phraseological nature are typical: “They tell you and tell you, but it’s all to no avail!”, “Where are you going? There’s dirt!” and so on.

There are different styles of speech in the Russian language. Each of them has its own characteristic features that make it possible to distinguish them from each other. One of these is the conversational style of speech. It also has its own language features and functions. What is conversational style of speech?

The style of speech, the functions of which is to enable people to exchange thoughts, knowledge, feelings, impressions, and also simply maintain contact with each other, is called colloquial.

This includes family, friendly, everyday business, and informal professional relationships. This style is mainly used in everyday life, which is why its second name is “household”.

The conversational style of speech, the definition of its main features and the identification of features have been developed by ordinary people over many years. Much has changed, but the main features that are not found in other styles of speech have remained unchanged:

• Ease. A person may, in the process of communication, express his opinion about certain events, or he may not. Therefore, such communication is informal.
• Spontaneity. This sign is that the speaker does not prepare to express his opinion, but does it spontaneously during a conversation. At the same time, he thinks more about the content of his words than about their correct presentation. In this regard, when people communicate, there is often inaccuracy in phonetic and lexical terms, as well as carelessness in the construction of sentences.
• Situational. It assumes dependence on the existing situation in which contact between people occurs. Thanks to the specific setting, time and place of communication, the speaker can shorten his statement. For example, when going shopping at a store, a person can briefly say to the seller: “Please, one sliced ​​​​and a carton of milk.”
• Expressiveness. The characteristics of spoken language are also different in that when communicating, people dramatically change their tone of voice, intonation, rhythm, pause, and logical emphasis.
• Use of non-verbal means. During a conversation, people very often use facial expressions and gestures that help them better express their feelings.

The conversational style of speech, the definition of its main features, allows you to understand how it differs from other text styles.

What genres is the style used in?

Spoken language describes how people interact with each other. In this regard, there are certain substyles and genres of such language. Substyles of conversational style of speech are divided into colloquial-official and colloquial-everyday.

Genres of conversational style of speech are represented by the following categories:

Genres and substyles of colloquial speech allow us to understand how language is used in a given situation and how it differs. After all, text in different styles is characterized differently.

Linguistic features of everyday language

Features of the conversational style of speech lie primarily in pronunciation. Often people put the wrong emphasis, which is unacceptable for more rigorous texts, for example, written in a scientific style.

Lexical features

Lexical features in colloquial speech indicate the ease of communication and its expressive flavor. During a conversation, people often change words in one part or another, for example, they say angry, smart, wise, sarcastic, jabber, bother, quietly, little by little, well, and so on.

In everyday speech, phraseological units are often used, because a person has a dominant way of thinking in everyday communication. Observing some phenomenon, he makes a generalization. Examples: “There is no smoke without fire”, “The grave will straighten the hunchback”, “Slower than water, lower than the grass” and so on.

The linguistic features of the conversational style also lie in the fact that this style of text has its own word formation. Nouns often change their suffixes, for example, good man, old man, huckster, reveler, feeder, and so on.

A conversational style text may also contain words that designate feminine persons by their specialty, position, occupation, for example, director, secretary, doctor. In addition, there are suffixes of subjective assessment, thanks to which the message acquires the greatest color, for example, thief, naughty girl, little house, feisty and others.

Colloquial adjectives can also change their suffixes like this: big-eyed, big-tongued. In addition, people often apply the prefix “pre” to adjectives, resulting in pre-kind, pre-nice, pre-unpleasant, and so on. Verbs that speak about everyday speech look like this: to misbehave, to wander, to cheat.

Morphological features

Morphological features of the colloquial style of speech imply the use of parts of speech in the wrong case. For example, nouns in the prepositional case: he is on vacation, a plural noun in the nominative or genitive case: agreements, not contracts, several tomatoes, not tomatoes, and so on.

Syntactic features

The characteristic features in the field of syntax in the colloquial style of speech are very unique. The linguistic features of the conversational style are expressed as follows:

• the most common form of dialogue is used;
• they speak in monosyllabic sentences, and if they use complex constructions, they are mostly complex and non-conjunctive;
• often use interrogative and exclamatory sentences;
• use sentence words that express affirmation, negation, etc.;
• make extensive use of incomplete sentence structures;
• interrupt communication or abruptly switch to another thought for some reason, for example, due to excitement;
• use introductory words and phrases that have different meanings;
• use inserted sentences that break the main structure in order to explain something, clarify something, and so on;
• often use emotional and imperative interjections;
• repeat words such as “No, no, no, that’s not true.”
• inversion is used to emphasize the meaning of a particular word;
• use special forms of the predicate.

The syntactic characteristics of the conversational style include the use of complex sentences in which parts are connected by lexical-syntactic means. So, in the first part there is an assessment of the action, and the second part substantiates the first, for example, “Good girl, she did everything right.”

In order to better understand what kind of language this is, an example of a colloquial style of speech should be given:

“Can you imagine, Petrovna, I go into the barn today, and Mikey is gone! I screamed and screamed at her, but she didn’t respond! Then I went to all the neighbors and asked them if anyone had seen it. But alas... Then I decided to go to our local police officer, he accepted the application and promised to sort everything out.”

Another example of a conversational style of speech in the form of dialogue:

- Hello! Are there tickets to Nizhny Novgorod for tomorrow evening?
- Good afternoon! Yes, at 17.30.
- Great! Please reserve one for me at this time.
- Okay, give me your passport and wait.
- Thank you!

Having considered what a conversational style of speech is, it becomes clear that this is simple arbitrary communication between people, which has its own characteristic features. The functions of the conversational style are to enable members of society to interact with each other in an informal setting.

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 forms on ‑а in the nominative plural, where in book styles the normative form is ‑у (bunker, cruiser, searchlight, instructor), forms on ‑у in the genitive and prepositional cases (a kilogram of sugar, a glass tea, a bunch of grapes, in the workshop, on vacation); zero inflection in the genitive plural (five grams, ten kilograms, kilogram tomato, compare book: 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 characteristics; The instrumental is not used with the meaning of the subject of the action.

Possessive adjectives are used, synonymous with the oblique case forms of nouns: Pushkin's poems (Pushkin's poems), Brigadier's sister (the foreman's sister), Katya's brother (Katya's brother). In the predicative function, it is usually not the short form of the adjective that is used, but the full one: The woman was a woman of few words; The conclusions are indisputable (compare the books: True wisdom is laconic; 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 can denote a positive quality or serve as an amplifier (She is such a woman! - beautiful, magnificent, smart; Such beauty is all around!). A pronoun in combination with an infinitive can replace the name of an object, that is, exclude a noun. For example: Give me something to write; Bring something to read; Do you have something to write about?; Get something to eat. By using 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 of the passive past participle of the neuter singular is active (written, smoked, plowed, done, said). There is a significant number of adjectival participles (a knowledgeable specialist, a hard-working person, a wounded soldier, a torn boot, fried potatoes). A striking feature of colloquial speech is the use of verbs of multiple and single action (read, sat, walked, spun, whipped, fucked), as well as verbs with the meaning of ultra-instantaneous action (knock, clink, jump, skip, fuck, shake).

The spontaneity and unpreparedness of the utterance, the situation of verbal communication and other characteristic features of the 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 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: “Do you want coffee or tea?”; When we meet 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: “You use a pencil!”, etc.” 1

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 systematicity (I’m at the cinema; He’s going to the hostel; I would like a ticket; Tomorrow to the theater), in others - the missing predicate verb is suggested by the situation: (at the post office) - Please , stamped envelope (give me). Sentence words are used (affirmative, negative, incentive): - Will you buy a ticket? - Necessarily; Can you bring a book? - Of course; — Did you read the note? - Not yet; - 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 (- Shall we go to the forest? - Yes, yes!; - Are you buying this book? - No, no ).

Of the complex sentences in this style, compound and non-union ones are more active. The latter often have a pronounced colloquial coloring, and therefore are not used in book speech (If you arrive, call; There are people who 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!). Interjection phrases are active (No matter how it is!; Come on!; Well, yes?; Of course!; Oh, is it?; Wow!); connecting structures are used (The plant is well equipped. With the latest technology; He is a good person. He is also cheerful).

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, and 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? — Are you going on a business trip to Moscow? — Are you going on a business trip to Moscow? — Are you going on a business trip to Moscow? The circumstance (on a 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? - When will you go to Moscow?) . A typical feature of conversational syntax is the intonational separation of theme and rheme and their formation into independent phrases (- How to get to the circus? - To the circus? To the right; How much does this book cost? - This one? 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 expressing the actual division: the most important, essential element, which has the main meaning in the message, is usually placed at the beginning of the statement: There was heavy snow 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, since it serves as a means of actualization: Station, where to get off?; Shopping center, how to get there?; 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: I don’t know what to do; Well done for not being scared; Who is brave - come out.

The simultaneity of thinking and delivering speech during direct communication leads to frequent rearrangements of the phrase on the go. At the same time, 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, however...; They recently bought a cat. So cute, etc.

Note:

1. Peshkovsky A. M. Objective and normative point of view on language // Izbr. works. M, 1959. P. 58.

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