Official business style of speech. Official business style of speech, its main features. Genres of official business style

Formal business style

General characteristics of the official - business style of speech.

Basic language features.

Brief description of substyles and genres.

The official business style serves the sphere of administrative and legal activities. It satisfies the need of society for documenting various acts of state, social, political, economic life, business relations between the state and organizations, as well as between members of society in the official sphere of communication. Genres perform informational, prescriptive, ascertaining functions in various spheres of business life.

General stylistic features of official business speech: 1) accuracy of presentation, not allowing the possibility of other interpretations, detail of presentation; 2) stereotyping, standard presentation; 3) obligatory-prescriptive nature.

2. Basic language features.

Vocabulary:

The official business style system consists of the following linguistic means:

Having the appropriate functional and stylistic coloring (vocabulary and phraseology), for example: plaintiff, defendant, protocol, job description, delivery, prepayment, identity card and etc.;

Neutral, interstyle, as well as general book language means;

Linguistic means that are neutral in color, but in terms of the degree of usage in the official business style, have become its “sign”, for example: raise a question, express disagreement;

There is a tendency to reduce the number of meanings of words, to make the words and phrases used unambiguously, and to terminology p eat. Texts of this style provide precise definitions or explanations of the terms used (terminological combinations) if they are not commonly used, for example: The short delivery was caused by force majeure (the access roads were washed away by heavy rains);

Many of the words have antonymous pairs: rights - obligations, acquittal - indictment, action - inaction; synonyms are rarely used and, as a rule, belong to the same style: supply = supply = provision; depreciation = depreciation; repayment = creditworthiness.

To convey the accuracy of the meaning and unambiguous interpretation, complex words formed from two or more words are used: tenant, employer, above, above mentioned

And stable combinations: tax return, destination, joint stock company. The uniformity of such phrases and their high repetition lead to the clichédness of the linguistic means used, which gives the texts of an official business style a standardized character;

Preference is given to generic concepts: arrive (to arrive, to arrive, to come), transport means (bus, plane, train), populated paragraph (city, village, town), etc., because official business speech reflects social experience; the typical comes to the fore here to the detriment of the individual, peculiar, specific, since the legal essence is important for an official document.

Morphology:

The use of common nouns as proper names for the purpose of generalizing and standardizing the document: this Agreement, composition of the Contracting Parties;

Preferred use of prepositional - case forms of verbal nouns: based on, in relation to, by virtue of;

Many verbs contain the theme of prescription or obligation: prohibit, allow, oblige, indicate, assign and under.;

The verb form does not denote a permanent or ordinary action, but an action that is prescribed by law under certain conditions: The accused is guaranteed the right to defense;

When naming a person, nouns are most often used, denoting a person on the basis of an action or relationship, which is intended to accurately indicate the “roles” of the participants in the situation: applicant, tenant, tenant, executor, guardian, adoptive parent, witness, etc.

Nouns denoting positions and titles are used in the masculine form even when they refer to female persons: police officer Smirnova, defendant Proshina, etc..

The use of verbal nouns and participles is typical: arrival of transport, filing claims, serving the population, replenishing the budget; given, indicated, assigned.

Syntax:

Phrases including complex denominative prepositions: in part, along the line, on the subject, in order to avoid, and also with the pretext By and prepositional case, expressing temporary meaning: upon return, upon reaching;

Use of complex syntactic structures, impersonal and incomplete sentences: Listened..., Decided...;

Clichéd phrases: Please accept me for a position... in a department... at a rate... with....

Business speech is characterized by impersonal presentation and lack of evaluation. There is an unhindered statement, a presentation of facts in a logical sequence.

So, accuracy, unambiguity and standardization of the means used are the main features of the official business style of speech.

2. Brief description of substyles.

Diplomatic substyle found in diplomatic documents: diplomatic note, government statement, credentials. It is distinguished by specific terms, most of which are international: status quo, persona non grata, ratification, preamble etc. Unlike other substyles, in the language of diplomatic documents there is a high, solemn vocabulary to give the document emphasized significance, and etiquette formulas of politeness are also used in international public communication: I ask you, Mr. Ambassador, to accept the assurances of my highest respect... or The Ministry of Foreign Affairs pays its respects... .

Communiqué– official communication about important events for the state.

Convention– an international treaty, an agreement on any issue.

Memorandum– 1) memorandum, official certificate on any issue; 2) a document outlining the essence of the issue being discussed in diplomatic correspondence; 3) a letter with a reminder of something; 4) a list of circumstances in the insurance policy that are not covered by insurance.

Note- an official diplomatic written statement from one state to another.

Legislative (documentary) substyle is the language of legislative documents related to the activities of official bodies. It is characterized by the vocabulary and phraseology of civil and criminal law, various acts, codes and other documents serving the official and documentary activities of state and public organizations, as well as citizens as officials.

Constitution- the fundamental law of the state, establishing the foundations of the political and social structure.

Law- an official state document regulating any area of ​​public life and intended to be observed by all residents of the state.

Decree- an official government document prescribing the implementation, creation, etc. anything at the state level.

Charter- an official legislative document of an internal nature that establishes standards of behavior, business communication, rights and obligations of members of a society, work collective, etc.

Stationery substyle found in business correspondence between institutions and organizations and in private business papers. In this substyle, the rigor of document preparation is somewhat relaxed; business letters and other papers can be written in any form.

Power of attorney- a personal business document that entrusts something to someone.

Agreement– a written or oral agreement about future actions or mutual obligations that is accepted by two or more persons, enterprises, states, etc.

Statement- a business paper containing a request (to issue or allocate something, to accept somewhere) to a superior person or to a higher authority.

Order- an official business document containing an order from management.

Protocol– 1) a document containing a record of any factual circumstances, official statements (at a meeting, court, interrogation, etc.); 2) an act of a commission or official containing a description of the actions performed and the facts established.

Receipt- a business paper of a personal nature, which is drawn up by a person who takes something for temporary use from someone.

Agreement- an official agreement about something with someone.

Negotiation– a type of business conversation that involves an official meeting of representatives of enterprises, various organizations, etc. with the aim of making or developing mutually beneficial decisions.

Official business style is a style that serves the legal and administrative and public spheres of activity. It is used when writing documents, business papers and letters in government agencies, courts, as well as in various types of business oral communication.

Among book styles, the official business style stands out for its relative stability and isolation. Over time, it naturally undergoes some changes, but many of its features: historically established genres, specific vocabulary, morphology, syntactic phrases - give it a generally conservative character.

The official business style is characterized by dryness, the absence of emotionally charged words, conciseness, and compactness of presentation.

In official papers, the set of linguistic means used is predetermined. The most striking feature of the official business style is linguistic cliches, or so-called cliches (French. clich). A document is not expected to show the individuality of its author; on the contrary, the more clichéd a document is, the more convenient it is to use (see examples of clichés below)

Formal business style- this is the style of documents of different genres: international treaties, state acts, legal laws, regulations, charters, instructions, official correspondence, business papers, etc. But, despite the differences in content and variety of genres, the official business style as a whole is characterized by common and most important features. These include:

1) accuracy, excluding the possibility of other interpretations;

2) locale standard.

These features find their expression a) in the selection of linguistic means (lexical, morphological and syntactic); b) in the preparation of business documents.

Let's consider the features of vocabulary, morphology and syntax of the official business style.

§2. Linguistic signs of official business style of speech

Lexical features of official business style of speech

The lexical (dictionary) system of the official business style, in addition to general book and neutral words, includes:

1) language stamps (bureaucracy, clichés) : raise a question based on a decision, incoming and outgoing documents, control over execution is assigned upon expiration of the deadline.

2) professional terminology : arrears, alibi, black cash, shadow business;

3) archaisms : I certify this document.

In an official business style, the use of polysemantic words, as well as words with figurative meanings, is unacceptable, and synonyms are used extremely rarely and, as a rule, belong to the same style: supply = supply = collateral, solvency = creditworthiness, depreciation = depreciation, appropriation = subsidy and etc.

Official business speech reflects not individual, but social experience, as a result of which its vocabulary is extremely generalized. In an official document, preference is given to generic concepts, for example: to arrive (instead of arrive, arrive, arrive etc.), vehicle (instead of bus, plane, Zhiguli etc.), populated area (instead of village, town, village etc.) etc.

Morphological characteristics of an official business style of speech

The morphological features of this style include the repeated (frequency) use of certain parts of speech (and their types). These include the following:

1) nouns - names of people based on a characteristic determined by the action ( taxpayer, tenant, witness);

2) nouns denoting positions and titles in the masculine form ( Sergeant Petrova, inspector Ivanova);

3) verbal nouns with a particle Not-(deprivation, non-compliance, non-recognition);

4) derived prepositions ( in connection with, due to, by virtue of, to the extent of, in relation to, on the basis of);

5) infinitive constructions: ( conduct an inspection, provide assistance);

6) present tense verbs in the meaning of a commonly performed action ( behind non-payment will be subject to a fine…).

7) compound words formed from two or more stems ( tenant, employer, logistics, repair and maintenance, above, below and so on.).

The use of these forms is explained by the desire of business language to accurately convey meaning and unambiguous interpretation.

Syntactic features of official business style of speech

The syntactic features of the official business style include:

1) the use of simple sentences with homogeneous members, and the rows of these homogeneous members can be very common (up to 8–10), for example: ... fines as an administrative penalty may be established in accordance with Russian legislation for violation of safety and labor protection rules in industry, construction, transport and agriculture;

2) the presence of passive structures ( payments are made at the specified time);

3) stringing the genitive case, i.e. use of a chain of nouns in the genitive case: ( results of the activities of the tax police authorities…);

4) the predominance of complex sentences, especially complex sentences, with conditional clauses: If there is a dispute about the amount of amounts due to the dismissed employee, the administration is obliged to pay the compensation specified in this article if the dispute is resolved in favor of the employee.

Writing business style texts in the correct format is not for everyone. The main trap that thousands of authors fall into every day is a completely incorrect interpretation of business texts and a misunderstanding of the principles of their work.

According to official sources:

Official business style text is the main means of communication in business, legal and other environments that involve the exchange of impersonal official information.

Pretty simple definition, right?! And yet, for some unknown reason, thousands of lawyers, economists, managers and even diplomats try every day to add the same erroneous feature to such texts. Do you know which one?

The Fallacy of Modern Business Correspondence is that people deliberately complicate it. For some reason, it is generally accepted that the more complex the message, the more cunning the terminology and the longer the sentences, the more vigorous the material will be. They say you can’t spoil porridge with butter.

In this material we will try to talk about what a truly good business style text should be, what its structure should be, what you should pay attention to and what mistakes you should not make. We promise that after this note you will be able to look at the rules of writing business texts a little differently.

Requirements for business text and its structure

In general, many documents are written in an official business style, from the constitution and state acts to explanatory and dismissal documents. We are primarily interested in texts for business and therefore the main emphasis will be placed on it.

Business text has its own distinctive features that other styles do not have. Here are the main signs:

Conciseness. Creating business text requires pity for the reader. If bureaucrats can afford to create “masterpieces” on many sheets, then this is not welcome in the business environment. Since businessmen are busy people, the texts should be made in such a way that a person can read them without Corvalol. Only facts, only numbers, only important details.

Please understand: brevity does not mean leaving out some important details. All explanations must be given and important points mentioned. Laconism in this case is the rejection of verbiage for the sake of verbiage.

Clear structure. You need to think about the structure of your business letter in advance. There is nothing worse than text in which the meaning constantly jumps from place to place. We recommend choosing a starting point from which to develop your narrative.

If you mention a fact, try to immediately write down everything you want to report about this fact. : There is nothing worse than reading an unstructured “sheet” of text. It is ideal if there is one complete thought in each paragraph. This will make reading much easier.

Lack of emotions. When writing a text in a business style, we recommend remembering the English lords, who cannot be embarrassed even by a bomb explosion. No emotions, just facts with an impartial face. However, there are exceptions here too: if you are corresponding with a person you like, but the format of business communication does not allow special liberties, you can only hint at obvious sympathy.

For example, put exclamation marks in two sentences in a row or introduce some word from the literary style. It seems like a small thing, but a person experienced in business correspondence will understand everything perfectly.

Simplicity of presentation. If you respect the person who will be reading your text, keep the material simple. Not simplified, but simple. Despite the fact that the rules for writing texts in a business style allow the use of bureaucratic language and special terms, you should not complicate the material with complex structures. Alas, sentences are often so confusing and long that at the end you forget the beginning.

Do you see that the proposal is too complicated? Break it down into two or three smaller sentences. It won’t cost you anything, but it will be convenient for the person.

Using prepositions and complex conjunctions. Perhaps business texts are the only format where the massive use of prepositions (based on, in accordance with, etc.) and conjunctions (due to the fact that, due to the fact that, etc.) is allowed. Of course, you don’t need to put them every other word, but to give the text the appearance of a business message, it’s a very, very good technique.

So, let's once again repeat the basic rules for creating business text:

It should be a clearly structured material of small size.

In such a text there is no place for emotions and loss of logical threads.

You should strive for simplicity of presentation, avoiding complex sentences.

Your goal is to convey business information to people, but make it as simple as possible.

Three examples of mini-texts in business style

Example one. Business letter to client:

Dear Sergey Sergeevich! In response to your request to install a new door, we inform you that a representative of our company will visit you on December 25th. Typically, door installation time is no more than one hour. We hope that you will be satisfied with the quality of our work.

Example two. A short business text for company employees:

On December 5, 2015, Company N begins participating in the annual social marathon “Feed the Cat.” In this regard, the company management recommends that all employees bring 2 liters of milk with a fat content of at least 2.5% to the workplace every day.

If you find a cat of any age, you should immediately give the animal milk. Employees who water the maximum number of animals will receive bonuses at the end of the current quarter.

Third example. Letter to the manager:

I, Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov, from December 5 to February 12 this year, as part of the social marathon “Feed the Cat,” I gave milk to 12 cats and 10 cats. I spent the bonuses I received for winning a corporate competition for personal purposes.

Since the animals are accustomed to receiving milk from me, and I do not have money for their subsequent feeding, I ask you to allocate the amount of 100,000 rubles to purchase milk at the expense of the company.

Rules for writing business letters

If you didn't already know, business style is divided into two different types:

Official business style.

Casual business style.

The first is zero emotions, a jacket with all buttons and the facelessness of the author. The second is more democratic and emotional (if that can even be said about business texts). By the way, most business letters are written in everyday style. Moreover, interestingly, business correspondence often develops as follows:

Stage one. Official business style;

Stage two. Casual business style;

Stage three. Interspersed with elements of informal communication;

Stage four. Informal communication “without ties”.

It is clear that if in your first letter you write something like “Hello, Kolya! What prices do you have for combine harvesters?”, then it will not be properly appreciated. If you go through all stages of business correspondence “by the rules,” then over time the format of communication can change significantly. This is a common trend.

We have already discussed the rules for writing business texts, and therefore we will not repeat ourselves: letters are written in the same way as texts. However, there are also some unspoken rules of correspondence that we have not yet talked about. Since not everyone knows them, it’s worth talking about them separately:

A business letter must contain a subject. It is bad form to leave the Subject field blank.

You should not change the subject of a business letter or delete your correspondence history without a serious reason. Yes, you may remember all the details of the communication, but the person on the other side of the mailbox may not remember them.

Neutral emotionality. Even if you are actually ready to take a sledgehammer to the recipient, this should not be tracked in any way in a business letter. Corporate culture teaches you to “put your interlocutor in his place” using more cunning techniques: “forgetting” to mention a name, avoiding exclamation marks at the beginning of a letter, ignoring some questions, and so on.

Lack of emoticons. No emoticons until the communication format has reached at least the third stage (elements of informal communication).

Sending a letter with errors is the height of ignorance.

Explanation of refusal. It is enough that banks do not explain the reason for refusal when issuing loans. Be more friendly: even if you are forced to refuse, be sure to soften the tone of the letter and explain the reason.

See for yourself:

First example of a business letter

Hello! We are not planning to buy crushed stone this year. All the best.

Second example of a business letter

Hello, Ivan! Unfortunately, our company does not plan to purchase additional quantities of crushed stone this year. This is due to the fact that we have already fully agreed on the entire list of future expenses, and the company has no funds left for the purchase of crushed stone. We sincerely hope that next year we will agree with you in advance on the purchase of crushed stone in order to budget the necessary funds in advance.

I think you can see for yourself that the first version was written by a soulless robot, and the second by a person who sincerely regrets. Two business style letters on the same topic, but they are so different!

There is no need to start from afar. If you have something to say, say it right away. When a person starts coming from afar, it becomes more unnerving.

These are the most important rules for writing letters in business style that you will definitely need. The main thing is to remember that some kind of obvious officialdom is not always expected from you. If you see that a person is not averse to moving to a more informal level of communication, feel free to move on. There's nothing wrong with that.

That's all friends. We told you everything we wanted to tell you about creating texts in a business style. If you have questions, comments or additions, do not be lazy to write a comment. We are sure this will only benefit the material.

Characteristic for legal, administrative and social activities. For such a phenomenon as the culture of speech, the official business style is very important, because with its help documents and business papers relating to government tasks, court cases and diplomatic communication are drawn up. It is characterized by isolation, stability of many speech patterns, specific vocabulary and special syntactic patterns. Documents written in a formal business manner are compact and filled with cliches and linguistic cliches. These are international treaties, government decrees and acts, legal laws and court decisions, various charters and official correspondence, as well as other types of business papers that differ in the accuracy of presentation and language standard.

This is a special culture of speech. The official business style, in addition to cliches and language clichés, includes an abundance of professional terminology and archaisms. When using this style, ambiguous words are not used at all. Documents also avoid synonyms, and if they are used, their style is also strictly adhered to and the vocabulary is, as it were, shackled within a framework, beyond which it is prohibited.

But the official business style uses nouns in abundance, naming people based on their activities; positions are always called in the masculine gender. Words with a particle are often used not as antonyms for the same words when they are used without a negative particle. Complex and infinitives are also popular in business documents to denote actions performed or being performed. Quite a large place in this style of speech is given to complex words.

Formal business style gives preference to homogeneous members. Passive constructions are also often used, that is, impersonal sentences without indicating the person performing the action. The genitive case of nouns forms a chain of syntactic constructions; sentences are often very common and burdened with a subordinate clause.

The official business style has two varieties: official-documentary and everyday business. The first group is the language of such legislative acts as the Constitutions of the Russian Federation and its constituent entities, charters and programs of parties, as well as diplomatic documents of international importance, such as communiqués, memorandums, conventions, etc. The second group includes the language used in the process of conducting official correspondence and drawing up private business papers. These include various certificates, business letters, powers of attorney, advertisements, statements, receipts, autobiographies, etc. It is known how standardized the listed papers are, which greatly facilitates their preparation. The information they contain is brief and used in minimal quantities.

It is known that English is a means of international communication. Therefore, the official business style of the English language is used in the diplomatic context, when business papers are subject to translation. The types of business speech in this case are determined by the sphere of use. Trade agreements and contracts are conducted in the style of commercial correspondence. In the legal field, the language of codes, statutes, state and parliamentary decisions is used. The language of militarized business papers stands out separately.

Thus, the official business style of the English language is intended to serve as a tool with the help of which the parties understand the essence of the matter, which leads to the signing of various agreements.

Business style - what is it?

Business style– one of the functional styles of language that “serves” the sphere of official business relations.

Business style is standardization, information content, logic and etiquette.

Business style is:

1) actually formal business style(or, as it is often called, clerical);

2) legal style(language of laws, legislative and by-laws);

3) diplomatic style.

Business style is used in business communication situations:

• organization - organization (business letter);
• person – organization (application, resume);
• organization – person (order, job description).

The communication situation determines the genre of the business document. The content of a particular document covers a variety of business circumstances, but the document does not correspond to each individual circumstance, but to the standard situation as a whole. Therefore, a standardized (corresponding to a single sample) document form and a standardized document language are selected.

From a formal point of view, a document is a set of details (elements of content).

What is standardization?

There are three types of standardization:

First type - sample-matrix. It is characterized by the fixity of three parameters of the text: a set of details, their sequence, and their spatial arrangement. A passport, a voting ballot, a tax return - this is a matrix.

Second type - sample model. It has a greater level of flexibility compared to the matrix sample. The wording may be more free, the spatial arrangement of details may not be strict. The application, power of attorney, and resume are written according to the model.

Third type - sample diagram. This is the least rigid type of document organization, characterized by only one parameter of fixation of a set of details (elements of content). The explanatory note is built according to the scheme.

With the transition to a more flexible design and the complexity of the content, the range of search and the possibility of choosing linguistic means to convey the specific circumstances of an official business speech situation increases.

What is information content?

A document is a business document that has legal force. A document always requires detailed and complete presentation so that the business situation is restored to the reader in all details and becomes clear to him.

Information content is:

• use of stylistically neutral and bookish elements;
• lack of expressively colored vocabulary and interjections;
• unambiguousness of what was said (written).

In business speech, the use of personal pronouns (he, she, they, it) is avoided, since their use in context may contradict the requirements for accuracy and clarity of presentation. Business speech is characterized by the use of terms and close to unambiguous special words of the language, for example: decree, resolution(in stationery style), show someone deep respect(in diplomatic style).

What is logic?

Logical and well-reasoned presentation in business speech is:

• correct use of complex subordinate sentences with conjunctions conveying logical relationships (causes, consequences, conditions);
• correct use of all kinds of clarifications, participial phrases, plug-in constructions;

development of semantic relationships using complex conjunctions and prepositions ( due to the fact that; on the subject of what and so on.).