Stylistic Classification of the English Vocabulary

Stylistic Classification of the English Vocabulary

In order to get a more or less clear idea of the word stock of any language, it must be presented as a system the elements of which are interconnected, interrelated and interdependent.

The word stock of any literary language can be represented as a definite system in which different aspects of a word may be singled out as interdependent. Lexicology has greatly contributed to classification of the English vocabulary. For stylistics, the reference to the problem of Stylistic classification of the vocabulary is vital.

The whole of the word-stock of the English language can be roughly divided into 3 main layers:

1)    The literary layer;

2)    The neutral layer;

3)    The colloquial layer

The literary and colloquial layers contain a number of subgroups.

Each of them has a property it shares with all the subgroups within the layer.

This common property which unites different groups of words within the layer may be called its aspect.

The aspect of the literary layer is its markedly bookish character that makes it more or less stable.

The aspect of the colloquial layer is its lively spoken character that makes it unstable (fleeting).

The aspect of the neutral layer is its universal character. It can be employed in all styles of human activity. This layer is considered as the most stable of all.

The literary layer consists of the groups of words accepted as the legitimate members of the English vocabulary. They have no local or dialectal character. Literary stratum serves to satisfy communicative demands of official, scientific poetic messages.

The colloquial layer of words as qualified in most English or American dictionaries is not infrequently limited to a definite language community or confined to a special locality where it circulates. This stratum is employed in non-official everyday communication. 

Though there is no immediate correlation between the written and the oral forms of speech on the one hand, and the literary and colloquial words, on the other, yet, for the most part, the first ones are mainly observed un the written form, as most literary messages appear in writing. And vice versa: though there are many examples of colloquialisms in writing (informal letters, diaries, social-net messages), their usage is associated with the oral form of communication. Consequently, taking for analysis printed materials we shall find literary words in authorial speech, descriptions, considerations, while colloquialisms will be observed in the types of discourse, simulating (copying) everyday oral communication – i.e. dialogue (or interior monologue) of a prose work.

The literary vocabulary distinguishes between the following groups of words:

a)    Common literary;

b)    Terms and learned words;

c)     Poetic words;

d)    Archaic words;

e)     Barbarisms and foreign words

f)      Literary coinages including nonce-words.

The colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups:

a)    Slang;

b)    Jargonisms;

c)     Professional words;

d)    Dialectal words;

e)     Vulgar words;

f)      Common colloquial words;

g)    Colloquial coinages.

The common literary, neutral and common colloquial words are grouped under the term – Standard English vocabulary. Other groups in the literary layer are regarded as special vocabulary (or special literary and special non-literary vocabulary).

Neutral words forming the bulk of the English vocabulary are used in both literary and colloquial language. Neutral words are the main source of synonyms and polysemy. Neutral stock is so prolific of new meanings and the wealth of this layer is often overlooked. This is due to their inconspicuous character but their power for generating new stylistic variants is amazing.  

Unlike the other groups, the neutral group of words can’t be considered as having a special stylistic colouring, while both literary and colloquial words have a definite stylistic colouring.

Common literary words are chiefly used in writing and the so-called “polished” speech. One can always feel whether the word is literary or not. The reason lies in certain objective features of the given layer.

The following row of synonyms illustrates the relations existing between the neutral, literary and colloquial words in the English vocabulary.

Colloquial                                Neutral                         Bookish

Kid                                           child                                  infant

Daddy                                      father                                parent

Chap                                         fellow                               associate

Get out                                    go away                             retire

Go on                                      continue                             proceed

Go ahead                                begin                                  commence

There is no doubt that these synonyms are not only stylistic but ideographic as well because there is a definite though slight semantic difference between them, but this is almost always the case with synonyms.

There are only a few absolute synonyms in English just in any other language. The main distinction between synonyms remains stylistic. But stylistic difference may be of different kinds: is may lie in the emotional tension connoted in a word, or in the sphere of application or in the degree of the quality denoted.

Colloquial words are always more emotionally coloured than literary ones. The neutral stratum of words, as the term itself implies, has no degree of emotiveness.

Both literary and colloquial words have their upper and lower ranges. The lower range of the literary words approaches the neutral layer and has a tendency to pass into this layer.

The distinctive lines between the common colloquial and neutral on the one hand, and common literary and colloquial on the other hand are blurred. It is here that the process of interpretation of stylistic stratum becomes most apparent.

The neutral vocabulary may be viewed as the invariant of the Standard English Vocabulary. The stock of words forming the neutral stratum should be regarded as an abstraction. The words of this are generally deprived of any associations and refer to the concept more or less directly.

Synonyms of neutral words, both colloquial and literary assume a far greater degree of concreteness. Sometimes an impact of a definite kind on the reader is the aim lying behind the choice of a colloquial or a literary words rather than neutral words.

The difference in the stylistic aspect of words may colour the whole of an utterance. In the following example belonging to the pen of a famous British writer B. Shaw the difference between the common colloquial vocabulary is clearly seen.

DORA: Oh, I’ve let it out! But he is the right sort: I can see that. You won’t let it out downstairs, old man, will you?

JUGGINS: the family can rely on my absolute discretion. (Fanny’s First Play)

The words in Juggin’s answer are on the borderline between common literary and neutral X words used by Dora are clearly common colloquial not bordering neutral.

When classifying some speech/text fragment as literary or colloquial it does not imply that the words constituting it have a corresponding stylistic meaning. More than that: words with a pronounc4ed stylistic connotation are few in any type of discourse. The overwhelming  majority of its lexis being neutral.  Academician L.V. Shcherba gave a perfect observation that “a stylistically coloured word is like a drop of paint added to a glass of pure water band colouring the whole of it”.