The Consultative Style

The consultative level of language usage occurs between people who do not know each other and who are talking about something that is neutral in emotive value. This style is the most neutral of all the levels, and in fact it is most easily defined by the absence of features which are typical of the other levels.

This variety, right in the middle of the scale, is the ?getting- things-done? variety. We shop and sell in consultative; we make routine requests for information (and provide answers to such requests) in consultative; we answer and place most telephone calls in consultative; we spend most of our ordinary time speaking and hearing consultative. It is the style most open to the give-and-take of everyday conversation.

Both the formal and frozen styles are likely to occur in monologues, but the consultative is for conversation. It does not require careful planning or rehearsal nor employment of routinized formulas. When people are using this level of language, the focus is normally on the message, and hence there is no need for rhetorical elaboration.

There are, however, frequent occurrences of the so-called ?contact language? in which the respondent employs such expressions as yes, I know, well, and that's interesting, as a means of showing that he is participating in the conversation. The setting for this type of language is not formal, and therefore the source is not expected to employ formal language.

Consultative style is characterized by false starts, backtracking, interruption, ellipses, and so on. The feedback from one speaker to another is also characteristic of the style.

The Casual Style

The casual level of language normally occurs between people who know each other and in settings where the participants are relaxed. The casual style is for fun, relaxation, use with close friends and relatives - it is our leisure speech. Furthermore, the topic of the communication is normally not too urgent and therefore one can employ a degree of verbal play.

The language of the casual is devoid of specialist jargon (unless specialist friends are relaxing together), and there is a great deal of generalization and use of pronouns - we expect listeners to understand without elaborate reference. First names or even nicknames rather than titles and last names are used in addressing one another.

Slang and profanity occur with a great deal of regularity, as do proverbial and folk phrases that are fully integrated into conversation. Syntactic structures are reduced.

Thus, the two principal characteristics of this level are ellipsis and slang, often including some taboo terminology.

This casual level of language may also occur between persons who do not know each other, but who are operating in a very familiar setting - bargaining in a market or store, in which case the conversation may include such clipped expressions as How much? One dollar each. Too much! How about these? Only two bits each. Okay, gimme four.

The Intimate Style

The intimate style is our closest friendliest most trusting variety. The intimate level of language occurs only between people who are well acquainted and who have shared many linguistic and non-linguistic experiences. As a result they may employ extreme ellipses which would not be intelligible to outsiders.

Persons employing intimate level of language often use highly specialized names, not only for one another but also for common objects, especially body parts. In intimate language much is communicated by supplementary codes of proximity (such as facial gestures, smell and touch), so that language becomes quite secondary for conveying messages. For example, the wife of one author calls him pumpkin seed.

Linguistically, intimate language, filled as it is with deletion, ellipsis, rapid and slurred pronunciation, nonverbal communication, and private code characteristics, is often unintelligible outside the smallest social units.

The selection of an appropriate style is no easy. First the five styles do not have sharp boundaries between them, and second, some of the styles appear to have little practical value at the productive level (e.g., the frozen), and others cannot be taught due to their idiosyncrasy (e.g., the intimate). Many language learners are satisfied between the ?formal? and ?informal? - roughly a division between the formal (and, in speech, the upper reaches of the consultative) and the casual and most of the consultative.

Registers

Language use depends on the relationship of the speaker and addressee and on the situation in which language is being used. The situation of use is important to an understanding of appropriate ways of speaking. Situation of use has a technical term - register. Register is a language variety that depends on the use that one is making of language. No matter what social or geographical background a speaker may have, that person may use different registers with different people and in different situations. In other words, language registers are language uses that depend on the situation of use and on the relationship between the two speakers.

One of the most important dimensions of registers in English is the degree of formality between the speakers. W. Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, S. M. Gass and N. Lefkowitz and others consider that a certain style of speech is often used in more formal situations (talking to the leader of your country), a more informal style is often used when talking with our friends or family members.

We can think of a continuum of styles ranging from formal to informal; however, the picture is not so simple since we might also need to consider the occasion of a conversation. We speak one way to our children, another way to strangers or our teachers. We may vary the register used with these same people in a different situation. For example, we might speak differently to a family member at a party in the presence of others as opposed to in the privacy of our own homes. Each of these styles is generally characterized by differences in vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar.

As an example of vocabulary differences S. M. Gass and N. Leftowitz (Varieties of English. P.19-20) discuss English words for someone who is not generous with money: frugal, stingy, miserly, thrifty, cheap, sparing, economical, tight, unwasteful, conserving, resourceful. Different contexts will require different uses. These words, while expressing basically the same meaning, are not functionally equivalent. In other words, they have connotative as well as denotative meanings. Denotative meanings have to do with the literal meaning of a word; connotative meanings often reflect value judgments or emotions. Therefore, word choice may be indicative of the attitude that a speaker has toward the person being described. If a person is referred to as stingy, the speaker is expressing a negative attitude; if a person is described as economical, the same negative connotations do not apply. Thus, while many words refer to the same state of affairs, they are used in different situations and display different attitudes.

Certain vocabulary words and pronunciations are associated with different situations. Formal situations require specific vocabulary and ?more careful? pronunciations. In informal situations, other vocabulary and a ?more relaxed? pronunciation are often used.

The language used in formal situations can sometimes be used in informal situations. However, the language of very informal situations is often inappropriate in formal situations. To take a simple example, when greeting someone, we can say, ?Hi, how are you?? or ?Hello, how are you?? or?What's up?? or ?Whatcha doin?? or?What's happenin?? or?How's ithangin?? or ?Hi, how'reyou doin?? Some of these are formal and some are informal. The most formal is ?Hello, how are you?? and the least formal is probably ?How's it hangin?? while the ?Hello, how are you?? is most appropriate in a formal situation between two individuals who do not know each other well, it can also be safely used in any situation. On the other hand,?How's it hangin??is restricted to only a very few informal situations.

There are still other differences between formal English and informal English. The situation of use is important to an understanding of appropriate ways of speaking.

To summarize, language varieties refer to all differences in language. Dialects refer to the language variety based on the user. Registers refer to the language variety based on the use of language. Stylistic features relate to constraints on language use and identify personal preferences in usage or the varieties associated with occupational groups.

In learning a foreign language the problem of using the appropriate level is particularly acute. ?Proper words in proper places,? to use Swift's phrase, is the principle to follow. By reading a wide variety of authors and various types of writing you can build up your vocabulary and acquire the necessary skill in the proper choice of words.

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 324