Colloquial Style.

Colloquial Style

Functions

- provides information

- communicates

Forms

- primarily spoken

Substyles

- slang; dialect; jargon

- professionalisms; vulgarisms

General Characteristics

- informal, familiar, conversational

- paralinguistic context, non-verbal communication

Phonetic Features

- careless pronunciation /‘feller’ for ‘fellow’; ‘dunno’ for ‘don’t know’; ‘attaboy’ for ‘that’s a boy’/

- reduction, elision

- faster speech pace

- various noises (cough, rasp, chuck)

Morphological Features

- contractions /also ‘wanna; dunno; cuppa’/

Syntactical Features

- specific structures

- active rather than passive structures

- frequent conjunction ‘and’

- ellipsis, dropping of pronominal subject /‘Wanna tea?’/

Lexical Features

- specific vocabulary

- short and simple words

- words of Germanic origin rather than of Latin origin

- word with emotional meaning: familiar forms of address, vulgarisms, evaluating adjectives

- discourse markers = fillers /‘kind of, sort of, like, actually, you know, well’/

- parenthetical elements /‘indeed; sure; no doubt; obviously; perhaps; maybe’/

- idiosyncratic expressions characteristic of a particular speaker

- onomatopoeic words /‘drip drop; bow wow; splash’/

- nonce words = colloquial coinages: spontaneous attributing of new meanings to already existing words; elusive and readily disappearing from the language again

- interjections /‘oh my, gee, yeah’/

- phraseology, idioms

Special Nomenclature

- fashion terminology: a streetwise head-turner; fleeting flashbulb moments; a red-carpet goddess

- idioms: an armchair critic; a back-seat driver; an empty nester; too many chiefs and not enough Indians; keep a dog and bark yourself; give someone the hairy eyeball; chalk and talk; fit to be tied

 

Slang

Relations to Other Styles

- substyle of the colloquial style

Forms

- theatrical, commercial, internet, etc.

General Characteristics

- the core of the colloquial language outside of the conventional or standard usage

- deviation from the established form

- indicates membership in a particular social group

- developed from the attempt to find new, fresh, original, creative, playful, colourful and humorous expressions

- requires continuous innovation; never goes stable, gets dated very quickly

Syntactical Features

- multiple negation /‘I dunno know nothing’/

- present tense for the past /‘I’m at the mall, see this damn cool shirt and get it.’/

Lexical Features

- extensive use of fillers /‘stuff, thing, whatever’/

Special Nomenclature

- bottle (courage); lolly (money); yob (trouble-maker)

 

Dialect

Relations to Other Styles

- substyle of the colloquial style

Forms

- Cockney; Estuary English; Scottish English; etc.

General Characteristics

- cohesive regional and socio-economic variety of language

- confined to a particular location

- some dialect words have become generally understood as colloquial /‘lad’/

 

Jargon

Relations to Other Styles

- substyle of the colloquial style

Substyles

- computer jargon, jargon of musicians, of sportsmen, of students, etc.

- cant = the jargon of thieves and vagabonds /‘ain’t a lifer’ for ‘not sentenced to life imprisonment’; ‘get a stretch in stir’ for ‘be imprisoned’; ‘pulling a leather up’ for ‘stealing a purse’/

General Characteristics

- a special lexicon to preserve secrecy within a particular social group

- incomprehensible to people out of the group, needs translation (unlike slang)

- old words with entirely new meaning imposed upon them

- some words have become legitimate English words /‘kid, fun, humbug’/

 

Professionalisms

Relations to Other Styles

- part of the colloquial style

General Characteristics

- a special lexicon for a particular profession or trade

- aims at a quick and adequate grasp of the message, does not aim at secrecy

- designates working processes or implements of labour

- names anew already existing concepts (tools, instruments)

Morphological Features

- technical, unambiguous, not polysemic

Special Nomenclature

- tin fish (submarine); block-bluster (a bomb for a block of buildings); outer (a knockout blow)

 

Vulgarisms

Relations to Other Styles

- part of the colloquial style

Forms

- obscenities = four-letter words

- expletives = swear words /‘damn, bloody, to hell’/

General Characteristics

- a special lexicon for low colloquial speech

- also in emotive prose in direct speech of characters

- express strong emotions, esp. negative (anger, annoyance, hostility)