Signs of the scientific style of the text. The main features of the scientific style of speech

In modern Russian, it is common to distinguish five basic styles of speech. Each of them is peculiar to certain segments of the population and types of journalism. The most difficult for perception is the scientific style of speech. The reason for this is a large number of inclusions in the text of specialized terms.

General concepts

Scientific language is a means of communication in educational and research and professional-analytical activities. With this style of writing texts in real life, for one reason or another, every person encountered without exception. Many people better perceive the scientific language orally. To date, mastering the norms of this style is one of the most important components of Russian culture. Scientific speech is often referred to literary (book) language. The reason for this are such operating conditions and stylistic features as monologic character, the desire for the normalization of terminology, the reflection of each utterance and the strict list of means of expression.

History of the origin of style

The scientific speech came about thanks to the rapid development of various fields of knowledge in the new narrowly specialized spheres of life. Initially, this style of presentation could be compared to an artistic narrative. However, in the Alexandrian period the scientific language gradually separated from the literary one. In those days, the Greeks often used a special terminology that ordinary people simply could not take properly. Also in this period began to reveal signs of scientific style.

The original specialized terminology was only in Latin. However, soon scientists from around the world began to translate it into their own languages. Nevertheless, Latin is the only international way to transmit scientific information to this day. In the Renaissance many professors aspired to the accuracy and conciseness of writing texts in order to deviate as much as possible from the artistic elements of the exposition, since literary emotionality contradicted the canons of logical representation of things.

The "liberation" of the scientific style proceeded very slowly. An example is Descartes's unflattering statements about Galileo's works, that his texts are too fictionalized. This opinion was shared by Kepler, believing that the Italian physicist unjustifiably often resorted to an artistic description of the nature of things. Over time, Newton's work became a model of style. Russian scientific language began to take shape only in the early 18th century. During this period, the authors of profile publications and translators began to create their own terminology. In the mid-18th century, Mikhail Lomonosov, along with his followers, gave impetus to the formation of a scientific style. Many masters relied on the works of the Russian naturalist, but finally the terminology was combined only in the late 19th century.

Types of scientific style

At the moment there are 2 classifications: traditional and extended. According to modern standards of the Russian language, four types of scientific style are distinguished. Each of them has its own specifics and requirements.

Traditional classification:

1. Popular science text. Its target audience is an audience that does not have special skills and knowledge in a certain field. The popular scientific text retains most of the terms and clarity of the presentation, but its character is greatly simplified for perception. Also in this style it is allowed to use emotional and expressive forms of speech. Its task is to acquaint the general public with some facts and phenomena. Not without reason in the late 1980s appeared a subset of style - scientific and artistic text. It minimizes the use of special terms and figures, and their availability has a detailed explanation.

For the popular scientific style, the following features are characteristic: comparisons with everyday objects, ease of reading and perception, simplification, narrative of particular phenomena without classification and general review. Expositions of this orientation are most often printed in books, journals, children's encyclopedias.

2. Educational and scientific text. The addressee of such works are students. The purpose of the message is to get acquainted with the facts necessary for the perception of a certain material. Information is presented in general form with a large number of sample examples. This style is characterized by the use of professional terminology, strict classification and smooth transitions from the review to particular cases. Works are printed in educational and methodical manuals. 3. Actually scientific text. Specialists in this field and scientists act as addressees. The purpose of the work is to describe specific facts, discoveries and patterns. The scientific style, examples of which can be found in dissertations, reports and reviews, allows us to use not only terminology, but also personal, emotionless conclusions.

4. Technical and scientific text. Works of this type of style are addressed to specialists of a narrow profile. The goal is to apply knowledge and achievements in practice.

In the expanded classification, in addition to the above-mentioned species, there are also informative and reference scientific texts.

Fundamentals of scientific style

The variability of the species of this language is based on the generally linguistic properties of speech activity, manifesting independently of the region (humanitarian, exact, natural) and genre differences.

The scope of the scientific style of communication is significantly different in that its goal is a unique logical expression of thought. The primary form of such a language will be concepts, conclusions, dynamic judgments that appear in strict sequence. Scientific speech should always be filled with arguments that would emphasize the logic of reflection. All judgments are based on the synthesis and analysis of available information.

The signs of the scientific style of the text take an abstracted and generalized character. Common extralinguistic traits and properties of speech are:

1. Abstractness and generality of presentation. Virtually every word stands for some term or abstract object. In narrow circles one can hear such a notion as generalized scientific style. Examples of its distinctive features: the predominance of nouns in the text, the use of generally accepted concepts, the use of verbs in personal forms, passive phrases.
2. Logical presentation. All statements are built consistently and consistently, the facts are linked. This is achieved through the use of special syntactic constructions and characteristic means of communication.
3. Accuracy of exposition. This property of the scientific style of speech is achieved through the frequent use of terms, unambiguous expressions and lexically understandable words.
4. Proof of the exposition. Each reasoning must be supported by appropriate arguments. Saturation of presentation. The semantic load of the report completely exhausts the chosen field of science.
5. Objectivity of presentation. Lack of personal view when conveying the meaning of the text. All statements are focused on the subject of the report and acquire an impersonal form of speech.

Language characteristics

The scientific style finds its expression and system in certain units of speech. Its language characteristics can be of 3 types:

1. Lexical units. Define the functional-style color of the text. They have specific morphological forms and syntactic constructions.
2. Stylistic units. Responsible for the neutral-functional load of the text. Thus, the determining factor is their quantitative preponderance in the report. Separately marked units occur in the form of morphological forms. Less often they can acquire syntactic constructions.
3. Interstyle units. They are also called neutral language elements. Used in all types of speech. They occupy the largest part of the text.

Scientific style and its features

Each form and type of speech has its own indicative properties. The main features of the scientific style: lexical, linguistic and syntactic.

The first type of properties include the use of specialized phraseology and terminology. Lexical signs of the scientific style of speech are most often found in words with a specific meaning. Examples: "body" - a term from physics, "acid" - from chemistry, etc. Also, these signs are inherent in the use of generalizing words, such as "usually", "usually", "regularly." Expressive and colloquial vocabulary should not be used. On the other hand, phrases-cliches, various drawings and symbols are allowed. In this case, references to information sources should be present. It is important that the speech was filled with international words. The narrative comes from a third person without the frequent use of synonyms. Lexical signs of scientific style are a sixth grade in high school, so it should be a popular language. Narrow profile terminology is not common. Linguistic signs of the scientific style of the text must meet such requirements as objectivity and bezemotsionalnost. It is important that all phrases and concepts are unambiguous.

Syntactic signs of the scientific style: the use in the special sense of the pronoun "we", the predominance of complex sentence constructions, the use of composite predicates. The information is given in an impersonal form with the standard word order. Explanatory, passive and plug-in constructions of sentences are actively used.

All the main features of the scientific style of speech suggest a special composition of the text. The report should be divided into parts with the appropriate title. It is important that the text consist of an introduction, a basis and a conclusion.

Scientific style: lexical signs

In professional speech, the main form of thinking and expression is the concept. That is why the lexical unit of this style denotes an abstract object or phenomenon. Unequivocally and precisely such specialized concepts allow us to uncover the terms. Without these words or phrases denoting this or that action in a narrow field of activity, one can not imagine a modern scientific style. Examples of such terms: numerical methods, zenith, atrophy, range, radar, phase, prism, temperature, symptom, laser and many others.

Within the lexical system, these expressions are always single-valued. They do not require expression and are not considered neutral with respect to stylistics. The terms are usually called the conventional language of the scientific field of activity. Many of them came to the Russian lexicon from English or Latin.

Today the term is considered a separate conceptual unit of communication between people. Such lexical signs of a scientific style in quantitative terms in profile reports and works significantly prevail over other types of expressions. According to statistics, the terminology is about 20% of the entire text. In a scientific speech, she embodies homogeneity and specifics. Definition of terms gives a definition, that is, a brief description of the phenomenon or object. Each concept in a scientific language can be identified.

The terms have a number of specific features. In addition to uniqueness and accuracy, this is simplicity, systematic and stylistic certainty. Also one of the main requirements for terms is modernity (relevance), so that they are not obsolete. As is known, in science it is customary to replace certain concepts with newer and more capacious ones. In addition, the terms should be as close as possible to the international language. For example: a hypothesis, technology, communication and others. It should be noted that today most of the terms have common international word-building elements (bio, extra, anti, neo, mini, marco and others).

In general, narrow-profile concepts can be general and inter-scientific. The first group includes such terms as analysis, problem, thesis, process, etc., to the second - economics, labor, value. The most difficult for perception are narrowly specialized concepts. The terms of this lexical group are characters only for a particular area of science.
Concepts in professional speech are used only in one particular meaning. In the event that the term is multi-valued, it must be accompanied by a defining word that specifies its direction. From the concepts that need specificity, we can distinguish the following: body, strength, movement, size.

Generality in the scientific style is often achieved by the use of a large number of abstract lexical units. In addition, the professional language has its own specific phraseology. It includes such phrases as "solar plexus", "gerundive turnover", "inclined plane", "represents itself", "applies to", etc.

Terminology provides not only an informational understanding at the international level, but also the compatibility of normative and legislative documents.

Scientific style: linguistic features

The language of the narrow-profile sphere of communication is characterized by its morphological features. The generality and abstractness of speech are manifested in separate grammatical units, which are revealed in the choice of forms and categories of presentation. The linguistic features of the scientific style are characterized by the frequency of repetition in the text, that is, the quantitative degree of the load.

The unspoken law of saving lexical means makes use of brief variations of phrases. One of these ways to reduce the language load is to change the form of nouns from the feminine gender to the male (for example: key-keys). The situation is similar with the plural, which is replaced by a single number. Example: a lime blossom only in June. In this case, we mean not one specific tree, but the entire family of plants. Real nouns can sometimes be used in the plural: large depths, noises in the radio, etc.

Concepts in scientific speech significantly prevail over the names of actions. This is done artificially to reduce the use of verbs in the text. Most often these parts of speech are replaced by nouns. In the scientific style, the use of verbs leads to a loss of lexical meaning, translating the exposition into an abstract form. Therefore, these parts of speech in reports are used only for the connection of words: to appear, to become, to be, to be called, to be made, to be, to possess, to reckon, to be determined, etc.

On the other hand, in scientific language there is a separate group of verbs that act as elements of nominal combinations. In this case, they convey the linguistic meaning to the exposition. Examples: lead to death, perform calculations. Often in the scientific style of communication verbs of abstract semantics are used: to have, to exist, to continue, to happen, and others. Also allowed is the use of grammatically weakened forms: distillation is made, the conclusion is drawn, etc.

Another linguistic feature of the style is the use of a timeless part of speech with a qualitative meaning. This is done to indicate the characteristics and properties of the phenomena or objects being studied. It should be noted that verbs in the past timeless meaning can include only a scientific text (examples of texts: test reports, research reports). In a professional language, nominal predicates are used in imperfect form in 80% of cases, so that the presentation should be more generalized. Some verbs of this form are used in the future tense in steady turns. For example: consider, prove, etc.

As for personal pronouns, they are used in the scientific style in accordance with the nature of the abstractness of the text. In rare cases, such forms as "we" and "you" are used, as they specify the narrative and the treatment. In the professional language, pronouns of the third person are widely distributed.

Scientific style: syntactic features

This type of speech is characterized by the desire for complex designs of sentences. This allows you to more accurately convey the meaning of concepts, establish a connection between terms, causes, consequences and conclusions. Syntactic signs of the scientific style of the text are characterized by the generality and homogeneity of all parts of speech.

The most common types of sentences are compound subordinates. Complex forms of unions and adverbs also form part of the exposition (scientific text). Examples of texts of a general orientation can be seen in encyclopedias and textbooks. To unite all parts of speech, we use binding phrases: in conclusion, thus, etc.

Proposals in the scientific language are constructed monotonously with respect to the chain of utterance. An obligatory requirement is a consistent narrative. Each sentence must be logically related to the previous one. Interrogative forms are used very rarely in scientific speech and only to attract the attention of the audience.

To betray the text of an abstract timeless nature, certain syntactic expressions (impersonal or generalized) are used. There is no acting person in such proposals. Attention should be focused on the action and its circumstances. Generalized and indefinite-personal expressions are used only when terms and formulas are introduced.

Genres of the scientific language

Texts of this style are made in the form of finished works with the appropriate structure. One of the most common genres is primary. Such a scientific speech (examples of texts: an article, a lecture, a monograph, an oral presentation, a report) are compiled by one or more authors. The account gets public for the first time.

The secondary genre includes texts that are compiled on the basis of available information. This is an abstract, and abstract, and abstract, and abstracts.

Each of the genres has certain style features that do not violate the structure of the scientific style of the narrative and inherit common features and attributes.