Conversational speech and its features. Style and language features of colloquial speech

Spoken language is a functional variety of the literary language. It performs the functions of communication and influence. Conversational speech serves such a sphere of communication, which is characterized by the informality of relations between the participants and the ease of communication. It is used in everyday situations, family situations, at informal meetings, meetings, informal anniversaries, celebrations, friendly feasts, meetings, during confidential conversations between colleagues, a boss with a subordinate, etc.

The topics of colloquial speech are determined by the needs of communication. They can vary from narrow everyday to professional, industrial, moral and ethical, philosophical, etc.

An important feature of colloquial speech is its unpreparedness, spontaneity(lat. spontaneous - spontaneous). The speaker creates, creates his speech immediately "clean". As the researchers note, linguistic conversational features are often not recognized, not fixed by consciousness. Therefore, often when native speakers are presented with their own colloquial statements for normative assessment, they evaluate them as erroneous.

The next characteristic feature of colloquial speech is the direct nature of the speech act, that is, it is realized only with the direct participation of the speakers, regardless of the form in which it is realized - in dialogic or monologue. The activity of the participants is confirmed by utterances, replicas, interjections, and simply sounds made.

The structure and content of colloquial speech, the choice of verbal and non-verbal means of communication are greatly influenced by extralinguistic (extralinguistic) factors: the personality of the addresser (the speaker) and the addressee (the listener), the degree of their acquaintance and proximity, background knowledge (the general stock of knowledge of the speakers), the speech situation (the context of the utterance). For example, to the question "Well, how?" depending on the specific circumstances, the answers can be very different: “Five”, “Met”, “I got it”, “Lost”, “Unanimously”. Sometimes, instead of a verbal answer, it is enough to make a gesture with your hand, give your face the right expression - and the interlocutor understands what the partner wanted to say. Thus, the extralinguistic situation becomes an integral part of communication. Without knowledge of this situation, the meaning of the statement may be incomprehensible. Gestures and facial expressions also play an important role in colloquial speech.

Spoken speech is uncodified speech, the norms and rules for its functioning are not fixed in various dictionaries and grammars. She is not so strict in observing the norms of the literary language. It actively uses forms that are qualified in dictionaries as colloquial. "Litter unfold does not discredit them, - writes the famous linguist M.P. Panov. - The litter warns: do not name the person with whom you are in strictly official relations dove, don't offer him anywhere penetrate, don't tell him that he lanky and at times grumbler... In official papers, do not use the words look, relish, go home, penny ... Sound advice, isn't it?


In this respect, colloquial speech is opposed to codified book speech. Conversational speech, like book speech, has oral and written forms. For example, a geologist is writing an article for a special journal about mineral deposits in Siberia. He uses book speech in writing. The scientist makes a presentation on this topic at an international conference. His speech is bookish, but the form is oral. After the conference, he writes a letter to a work colleague about his impressions. The text of the letter - colloquial speech, written form.

At home, in the family circle, the geologist tells how he spoke at the conference, which old friends he met, what they talked about, what gifts he brought. His speech is colloquial, its form is oral.

Active study of colloquial speech began in the 60s. XX century. They began to analyze tape and manual recordings of natural natural speech. Scientists have identified specific linguistic features of colloquial speech in phonetics, morphology, syntax, word formation, and vocabulary. For example, in the field of vocabulary, colloquial speech is characterized by a system of its own methods of nomination (naming): various types of contraction (evening - evening newspaper, motor - powerboat, act- to an educational institution); non-one-word phrases (there are what to write?- pencil, pen, Give how to hide- a blanket, a blanket, a sheet); one-word derived words with a transparent internal form (opener - can-opener, ratchet - motorcycle), etc. Spoken words are highly expressive (porridge, okroshka- about confusion jelly, slurry- about a sluggish, spineless person).

There are different styles of speech in Russian. Each of them has its own characteristic features that make it possible to distinguish them from each other. One of these is the conversational style of speech. It also has its own language features and functions. What is a conversational style of speech?

The style of speech, the functions of which are so that people can exchange thoughts, knowledge, feelings, impressions, and also simply keep in touch with each other, is called colloquial.

This includes family, friendships, everyday business, informal professional relationships. Basically, this style is used in everyday life, so its second name is “household”.

The colloquial style of speech, the definition of its main features and the identification of features has been developed by ordinary people for many years. Much has changed, but the main features that are not found in other styles of speech have remained unchanged:

  • Ease. A person may, in the process of communication, express his opinion about certain events, or may not do so. Therefore, such communication has an informal character.
  • Spontaneity. This sign lies in the fact that the speaker is not preparing to express his opinion, but does it spontaneously during the conversation. At the same time, he thinks more about the content of his words than their correct presentation. In this regard, when people communicate, inaccuracies in phonetic and lexical terms are often noted, as well as carelessness in the construction of sentences.
  • Situation. It involves dependence on the existing situation in which contact between people occurs. Due to the specific setting, time and place of communication, the speaker can shorten his statement. For example, when shopping in a store, a person can briefly say to the seller: “Please, one rifled and a carton of milk.”
  • expressiveness. The characteristic of the spoken language is also different in that when people communicate, they sharply change the tone of voice, intonation, rhythm, make pauses, and logical stress.
  • The use of non-verbal means. In the course of a conversation, people very often use facial expressions and gestures that help them better express their feelings.

The conversational style of speech, the definition of its main features, allows you to understand how it differs from another style of text.

In what genres is the style used?

Spoken language characterizes how people interact with each other. In this regard, there are certain sub-styles and genres of such a language. The substyles of the colloquial style of speech are divided into colloquial-official and colloquial-everyday.

Genres of colloquial style of speech are represented by the following categories:

Genres and sub-styles of the colloquial style of speech allow you to understand how the language is used in a given situation, how it differs. After all, the text in different styles is characterized in different ways.

Linguistic features of everyday language

Features of the colloquial style of speech are primarily in pronunciation. Often people put the wrong emphasis, which is unacceptable for more strict texts, for example, written in a scientific style.

Lexical Features

Lexical features in colloquial speech speak of the ease of communication and its expressive coloring. During a conversation, people often change words in one part or another, for example, they say wicked, good fellow, tricky, sarcastic, chatter, slow down, quietly, little by little, well, and so on.

Phraseologisms are often used in colloquial everyday speech, because a certain way of thinking dominates in everyday communication in a person. Observing some phenomenon, he makes a generalization. Examples: “There is no smoke without fire”, “The humpbacked grave will fix”, “Quieter than water, lower than grass” and so on.

The linguistic features of the conversational style also lie in the fact that this style of text has its own word formation. Nouns often change their suffixes, for example, good-natured man, old man, shopkeeper, reveler, feeding, and so on.

The text of the colloquial style may also contain words that designate female persons according to their specialty, position, occupation, for example, director, secretary, doctor. In addition, there are suffixes of subjective assessment, due to which the message acquires the greatest color, for example, a thief, a rascal, a little house, a furious one, and others.

Colloquial adjectives can still change their suffixes like this: big-eyed, tongued. In addition, people often use the prefix “pre” with adjectives, resulting in kind, sweet, obnoxious, and so on. Verbs that speak about the everyday language of speech look like this: misbehave, wander, cheat.

Morphological features

Morphological features of the colloquial style of speech imply the use of parts of speech in the wrong case. For example, nouns in the prepositional case: he's on vacation, a plural noun in the nominative or genitive case: contracts, not contracts, a few tomatoes, not tomatoes, and so on.

Syntactic features

Characteristic features in the field of syntax in the colloquial style of speech are very peculiar. The language features of the conversational style are expressed as follows:

  • most of all use the form of dialogue;
  • they speak in monosyllabic sentences, and if they use complex constructions, they are mostly compound and non-union;
  • often use interrogative and exclamatory sentences;
  • use sentence words that express affirmation, negation, and so on;
  • widely use incomplete constructions of sentences;
  • interrupt communication or abruptly switch to another thought for some reason, for example, due to excitement;
  • use introductory words and phrases that have different meanings;
  • use insert sentences that break the main structure in order to explain something, clarify, and so on;
  • often use emotional and imperative interjections;
  • repeat words, such as "No, no, no, it's not like that."
  • use inversion to emphasize the meaning of a particular word;
  • use special forms of the predicate.

The syntactic characteristic of the colloquial style also includes the use of complex sentences in which parts are connected by lexical and syntactic means. So, in the first part there is an assessment of the act, and the second part substantiates the first, for example, "Clever girl, she did everything right."

In order to better understand what kind of language it is, an example of a conversational style of speech should be given:

“Imagine, Petrovna, I go into the barn today, but Mikey is not there! I screamed at her, screamed, but she did not respond! Then she went to all the neighbors, asked them if anyone had seen it. But alas... Then I decided to go to our district police officer, he accepted the application and promised to look into everything.”

Another example of a conversational style of speech in the form of a dialogue:

- Hello! Are there any tickets to Nizhny Novgorod for tomorrow evening?
- Good afternoon! Yes, at 17.30.
- Fine! Please book me one for this time.
— Okay, give me your passport and wait.
- Thanks!

Having considered what a conversational style of speech is, it becomes clear that this is a simple arbitrary communication between people, which has its own characteristic features. The functions of the conversational style are to enable members of the society to interact with each other in an informal setting.

Examples of texts of colloquial style of speech are present in fiction and journalistic literature. There is no universal language suitable for every situation. Therefore, elements of conversational style, characteristic of everyday communication, are found in the media and works of art.

Briefly about speech styles

There are several of them. Each of them has its own purpose. The artistic style is characterized by emotional coloring, imagery. It is used by authors of prose and poetry. Scientific speech is found in textbooks, dictionaries, reference books and encyclopedias. This style is also used in meetings, reports and official conversations.

The author of an article written in a scientific style aims to accurately convey knowledge and information, and therefore uses a large number of terms. All this allows you to express thoughts unambiguously, which is not always possible to achieve using spoken language.

In colloquial speech, there may be words that are not found in reference books. At the same time, people use approximately 75% of the units of the Russian literary language in any style of speech. For example, words like I, walked, forest, look, earth, sun, long ago, yesterday. They are called common.

Words like rectangle, pronoun, multiplication, fractions, set, referred to as scientific terms. But about 20% of the words of the Russian literary language are used only in colloquial speech. So, "electric train" is not found in the railway directory. Here, this word replaces the term "electric train". What are the characteristics of spoken language?

It is carried out mainly orally. Spoken language differs from written language in this respect. In the book style, literary norms are strictly observed at all language levels. Among the styles of speech, as already mentioned, there are scientific, journalistic, official business. All of them have a more general name, namely - book. Sometimes artistic style is distinguished as a functional style. However, this point of view is objected to by many linguists. Read more about the art style below.

Spontaneity

Conversational speech belongs to the category of unprepared. It is spontaneous, involuntary. It is created simultaneously with the thought process. That is why its laws differ significantly from the laws of journalistic style. But they still exist, and even in everyday communication one should remember the norms of the literary language.

Examples of texts of colloquial style of speech are found in the speeches of public and political figures. Some of them among the people gained fame as authors of unique statements and aphorisms. “We wanted the best, it turned out as always,” this phrase became famous. However, it is worth saying that its creator made a gross stylistic mistake. Oratorical speech should consist exclusively of elements of journalistic style. The incompleteness of the phrase, emotionality are unacceptable for her.

expressiveness

Using everyday colloquial speech, people easily share information, thoughts, feelings with relatives and friends. It is not applicable in every situation. One of the main features of the colloquial style of speech is emotionality. It is appropriate in any informal setting.

In everyday communication, people constantly express their feelings, preferences, addictions, or, on the contrary, indignation, irritation, hostility. In the examples of texts of the colloquial style of speech, there is emotionality, which is not found in journalism.

Without expressiveness, it is impossible to create advertising slogans. The main task of a marketer is to inspire confidence in consumers, and this can be done using texts created in the language spoken by potential buyers. An example of the text of a colloquial style of speech: "Fly Aeroflot planes!". If this phrase is dressed in a journalistic style, then it will turn out “Use the services of the Aeroflot company!” The second option is more difficult to perceive and hardly causes positive emotions.

Jargons and dialectisms

Spoken language is not codified, but it has norms and laws. Certain taboos exist for her. For example, contrary to the generally accepted opinion, profanity should not be present not only in journalistic, but also in colloquial speech. In the dialogue of educated people there is no place for jargon, rude vernacular, unless, of course, these linguistic elements carry a certain emotional coloring. There should not be dialectisms in colloquial speech - signs of not mastering the orthoepic norms of the Russian language. Although in some cases they are irreplaceable.

Examples of colloquial style of speech are present in prose. In order to be convinced of this, one has only to open any book by Bunin, Kuprin, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky or any other Russian writer. Creating a portrait of the characters, the author endows them with characteristic features that manifest themselves in the best possible way in the dialogues. Colloquial speech in this case may include both jargon and dialectisms.

The norms of the literary language do not include vernacular. But they are often found in everyday speech. Example: "I came from Moscow." It is worth knowing that the incorrect use of verbs is outside the norms and colloquial style.

Art style

Writers use the variety of language means to the maximum extent. The artistic style is not a system of homogeneous linguistic phenomena. It is devoid of stylistic isolation. Its specificity depends on the peculiarities of the individual style of a particular author. And, as already mentioned, examples of colloquial style texts are present on the pages of works of art. Below is one of them.

Reading the famous novel by Mikhail Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita", you can already find in the first chapter many examples of texts of a colloquial style of speech. Elements of everyday language are present in the dialogues. One of the characters says the phrase “You, professor, have come up with something awkward. It may be clever, but painfully incomprehensible. If you "translate" this phrase into journalistic language, you get: "Professor, your point of view deserves attention, but raises some doubts." Would Bulgakov's novel have acquired the interest of millions of readers if the characters had expressed their thoughts so dryly and officially?

We have already mentioned such elements of the language as jargon and dialectisms. In another work by Bulgakov, namely in the story "Heart of a Dog", the main character - Polygraph Poligrafovich - actively uses profanity in communication with the professor and other characters.

Examples of texts of colloquial style of speech with an abundance of obscene expressions, which the author included in the work, in order to emphasize the lack of education, rudeness of Sharikov, will not be given here. But let us recall one of the phrases uttered by Professor Preobrazhensky - a hero in whose speech, unlike the speech of Polygraph Poligraphovich, there are no syntactic, orthoepic and other errors.

“If I, instead of operating, start singing in chorus in my apartment, devastation will come,” Philip Philippovich said in a dialogue with his assistant. What is the importance of colloquial speech in fiction? It is impossible to overestimate its role in prose. Being in a state of emotional excitement, the professor, an extremely educated person, makes a semantic mistake (to sing in chorus) intentionally, thereby giving the speech a certain irony, without which he could not express his indignation and indignation so vividly.

There are two forms of oral speech: written and oral. We discussed the first one above. Every person uses oral colloquial speech every day. It is worth talking in more detail about other features of this important layer of the language.

Use of pronouns

The authors of journalistic and scientific texts, as a rule, address a wide audience of readers. In colloquial speech, there are pronouns, especially in the first and second person, quite often. This is due to the fact that communication takes place in an informal setting, a small group of people takes part in it. Spoken language is personalized.

Diminutive forms and metaphors

In modern colloquial speech there is a large number of zoomorphic metaphors. Bunny, cat, bird, cat, mouse- all these words are not found in scientific articles. A person uses the name of animals in relation to his interlocutor mainly in diminutive forms, and he does this in order to express his favor, sympathy.

But there are other words in colloquial speech. For example: goat, donkey, ram, snake, viper. If these nouns are used as zoomorphic metaphors, then they have a pronounced negative character. It is worth saying that in colloquial speech there are much more negative appraisal words than positive ones.

Polysemy

In Russian there is such a common word as "drum". The verb "drum" is formed from it, which is used in colloquial speech in completely different meanings. You can use it in relation to both a person and a natural phenomenon. Examples:

  • Don't drum your fingers on the table.
  • The rain is drumming on the glass for half a day.

This is one of the few verbs that has multiple meanings in colloquial speech.

Abbreviations

The truncated form uses given names and patronymics. For example, San Sanych instead of Alexander Alexandrovich. In linguistics, this phenomenon is called prosiopesis. In addition, “dad” and “mum” are more often used in everyday speech than the words “mother” and “dad”, “mother” and “father”.

In a conversation, people actively use aposiopesis, that is, an intentional break in a phrase. For example: "But if you're not home by two, then...". Sometimes the authors of fiction and journalistic texts also resort to this linguistic means (“If there are no serious changes in the economy, then ...”). But above all, aposiopesis is characteristic of colloquial speech.

Verb

If you look at one of the examples of conversational style texts, you can find that verbs are more common in it than nouns or adjectives. In everyday communication, for some reason, people prefer words denoting actions.

According to statistics, only 15% of the total number of nouns are used in colloquial speech. As for verbs, preference is given to the present tense in cases where it would be more correct to use the future. For example: "Tomorrow we fly to the Crimea."

Other features of colloquial speech

Conversational style is a full-fledged functional style of the language, but living according to slightly different laws than written. With free communication, a person creates statements spontaneously, and therefore they do not always sound perfect. However, even colloquial speech should be monitored so that such phrases as “We wanted the best, but it turned out as always” were not born.

Colloquial speech is a special functional variety of the literary language. If the language of fiction and functional styles have a single codified basis, then colloquial speech is opposed to them as an uncodified sphere of communication. Codification is the fixation in various dictionaries and grammar of those norms and rules that must be observed when creating texts of codified functional varieties. Norms and rules of colloquial communication are not fixed. Here is a small conversational dialogue that allows you to verify this:

A. "Arbat" (metro station) is it better for me (to take the metro)?

B. "Arbat" - this is the "Library", "Borovitskaya" / it's all the same / Here "Borovitskaya" is more convenient for you //.

The translation of this text into the codified language could be as follows:

A. What is the best way for me to take the metro to Arbatskaya station? B. The Arbatskaya station is connected by passages with the stations "Library named after V.I. Lenin", "Borovitskaya", and therefore you can go to any of these stations. It is most convenient for you to get to Borovitskaya.

Grammatical codified norms prohibit the use of the nominative case in the first statement of A. ("Arbat") and the last statement of B. ("Borovitskaya"). A strong semantic reduction (compression) of B.'s first statement is also excluded from the codified texts.

The well-known Russian psychologist and linguist N. I. Zhinkin once remarked: “It is paradoxical as it may seem, I think that linguists have been studying a silent person for a long time.” And he was absolutely right. For a long time it was believed that they speak the same or about the same as they write. Only in the 60s. of our century, when it became possible to record colloquial speech with the help of tape recorders and this speech came to the full attention of linguists, it turned out that the existing codifications are not quite suitable for linguistic comprehension of colloquial speech. So what is colloquial speech?

Conversational speech as a special functional variety of language, and, accordingly, as a special object of linguistic research, is characterized by three extralinguistic, external to language features. The most important feature of colloquial speech is its spontaneity, unpreparedness. If, when creating even such simple written texts as, for example, a friendly letter, not to mention complex texts such as a scientific work, each statement is considered, many “difficult” texts are first written in draft, then a spontaneous text does not require such operations. The spontaneous creation of a spoken text explains why neither linguists, nor even just native speakers, noticed its great differences from codified texts: linguistic spoken features are not recognized, not fixed by consciousness, in contrast to codified linguistic indicators. Such a fact is interesting. When native speakers are presented with their own colloquial statements like “House of Shoes” for normative assessment, how can they get there? (a codified version of How to get to the "House of Shoes"), then often these assessments are negative: "This is a mistake", "They don't say so", although for colloquial dialogues such a statement is more than usual.

The second distinguishing feature of colloquial speech is that conversational communication is possible only with informal relations between speakers.

And, finally, the third sign of colloquial speech is that it can be realized only with the direct participation of the speakers. Such participation of the speakers in communication is obvious in dialogic communication, but also in communication, when one of the interlocutors speaks mainly (cf. genre, colloquial story), the other interlocutor does not remain passive; is he. so to speak, has the right, in contrast to the conditions for the implementation of a monologue official speech, to constantly “intervene” in communication, whether agreeing or disagreeing with what was said in the form of replicas Yes, Of course, Good, No, Well, this, or simply demonstrating their participation in communication interjections like Ugu, the real sound of which is difficult to convey in writing. The following observation is noteworthy in this regard: if you talk on the phone for a long time and do not receive any confirmation from the other end that you are being listened to - at least in the form of Uh-huh - then you begin to worry about whether they are listening to you at all, interrupting themselves with remarks like Can you hear me? Hello, and the like.

The pragmatic factor plays a special role in colloquial communication. Pragmatics are such communication conditions that include certain characteristics of the addresser (speaking, writing), addressee (listening, reading) and situations that affect the language structure of communication. Conversational informal communication with the direct participation of speakers is usually carried out between people who know each other well in a particular situation. Therefore, speakers have a certain common stock of knowledge. This knowledge is called background knowledge. It is background knowledge that makes it possible to build such reduced statements in colloquial communication that are completely incomprehensible outside of this background knowledge. The simplest example: your family knows that you went to take the exam, and they are worried about you, returning home after the exam, you can say one word: “Excellent” - and everything will be very clear to everyone. The situation can have an equally profound influence on the linguistic design of a colloquial utterance. Passing by an old mansion, you can say to your companion: "Eighteenth century" - and it will become clear that we are talking about an architectural monument of the XVIII century.

As already mentioned, the spontaneity of colloquial speech, its great differences from codified speech, lead to the fact that spoken texts fixed in writing in one way or another leave native speakers with the impression of some disorder, much in these texts is perceived as speech carelessness or simply as a mistake. This happens precisely because colloquial speech is evaluated from the standpoint of codified prescriptions. In fact, it has its own norms, which cannot and should not be assessed as non-normative. Conversational features regularly, consistently manifest themselves in the speech of native speakers who are fluent in codified norms and all codified functional varieties of the literary language. Therefore, colloquial speech is one of the full-fledged literary varieties of the language, and not some kind of language formation, which, as it seems to some native speakers, is on the sidelines of the literary language or even beyond its borders.

What is a conversational norm? The norm in colloquial speech is that which is constantly used in the speech of native speakers of the literary language and is not perceived as a mistake during spontaneous perception of speech - “does not hurt the ear”. In colloquial speech, such pronunciations as stock (instead of codified so much), kada, tada (instead of codified when, then) are often found - and all this is an orthoepic colloquial norm. In colloquial speech, a special morphological form of address is more than usual - a truncated nominative case of personal names, sometimes with repetition: Kat, Mash, Volodya, Mash-a-Mash, Len-a-Len - and this is a morphological norm. In colloquial speech, the nominative case of a noun is consistently used where only the indirect case is possible in codified texts: Conservatory / how can I get closer? (How can I get closer to the conservatory?), We have a large pack of sugar (We have a large pack of sugar), and this is a syntactic norm.

Norms of colloquial speech have one important feature. They are not strictly obligatory in the sense that a general literary norm can be used instead of a colloquial one, and this does not violate the colloquial status of the text: there are no prohibitions on saying in an informal setting. trolleybus is better for you Kazan // There is, however, a large number of such words, forms, turns that are intolerable in colloquial speech. Everyone, presumably, will easily feel the unnaturalness for a conversational situation of such a statement as It is more convenient for you to get to the Kazansky railway station if you use the trolleybus route number fourteen.

So, colloquial speech is a spontaneous literary speech, implemented in informal situations with the direct participation of speakers based on pragmatic conditions of communication.

The linguistic features of colloquial speech are so significant that they gave rise to the hypothesis that the basis of colloquial speech is a special system that cannot be reduced to the system of a codified language and cannot be derived from it. Therefore, in many studies, colloquial speech is called colloquial language. This hypothesis may or may not be accepted. In all cases, it remains true that colloquial speech, compared with codified language, has its own characteristics. Let's consider the main ones.

Phonetics. In colloquial speech, especially at a fast pace of pronunciation, a much stronger reduction of vowels is possible than in a codified language, up to their complete loss.

In the field of consonants, the main feature of colloquial speech is the simplification of groups of consonants.

Many phonetic features of colloquial speech act in combination, creating a very "exotic" phonetic appearance of words and phrases, especially frequency ones.

Morphology. The main difference between colloquial morphology is not that it has any special morphological phenomena (except for the already mentioned vocative forms of address such as Mash, Mash-a-Mash, it is difficult to name anything else), but that some phenomena in she is missing. So, in colloquial speech such verbal forms as participles and gerunds are rarely used in their direct functions associated with the creation of participial and participle phrases, which in works on syntactic stylistics are rightly characterized as purely bookish phrases. In colloquial speech, only such participles or gerunds are possible that perform the functions of ordinary adjectives or adverbs and are not the center of participles or participles, cf. knowledgeable people, crucial, close-fitting dress, trembling voice, shiny glass; lay without getting up, poured a full cup without measuring, walked without turning, came at the same time without saying a word, answers without hesitation. The absence of gerunds in colloquial speech has one important syntactic consequence for it. Those relations that are conveyed in the codified language by gerunds and participles, in colloquial speech are formed by a construction with double heterogeneous verbs, which is completely intolerable in the codified language, cf. Yesterday I was lying on my head, I couldn't raise it //; Write two phrases, don't be lazy //; I was sitting here surrounded by dictionaries //; And then such a manner / did and does not remove anything leaves // (cf. the codified leaves without removing anything).

Syntax. Syntax is that part of grammar in which colloquial features manifest themselves most clearly, consistently and diversely. Features of colloquial syntax are found primarily in the field of connection between words and parts of a complex sentence (predicative constructions). In a codified language, these connections are usually expressed by special syntactic means: prepositional-case forms, conjunctions and allied words. In colloquial speech, the role of such syntactic means is not so great: in it, semantic relations between words and predicative constructions can be established on the basis of the lexical semantics of the connected components, an example of which is the nominative case of a noun, which can be used, as can be seen from many examples already given, on the spot many indirect cases. Languages ​​with explicit syntactic links are called synthetic, languages ​​in which links between components are established based on the lexico-semantic indicators of the components are called analytical. Russian belongs to synthetic languages, but some elements of analyticism are not alien to it. It is the tendency towards analyticism that is one of the most important differences between colloquial and codified syntax. Evidence of this trend are the following colloquial syntactic structures.

1) Statements with the nominative case of a noun in those positions that in the codified language can only be occupied by a noun in oblique cases. These statements include:

- statements with a noun in the nominative case with a verb, this noun is often distinguished intonation into a separate syntagm, but it is quite typical without intonational emphasis: Next / we go // (we go at the next stop); This shirt is dark / show me // (show me this dark shirt); Do you live on the second floor? - I used to be the second / now the fifth // (do you live on the second floor? - I used to live on the second, and now - on the fifth); Their son seems to be a physicist / and their daughter is a university philological faculty romgerm // (their son is studying at the physicist, and their daughter is at the university at the Romano-Germanic department of the philological faculty);

- negative equivalents of existential sentences in which the nominative case of the noun appears in place of the codified genitive case: Pen / you don’t have / write down the phone? // (don't have a pen?); Is there a radish? - No radishes / tomorrow they will bring // (no radishes);

- statements with a noun in the nominative case in the function of definition with another noun: He bought a cabinet / Karelian birch // (he bought a cabinet made of Karelian birch); They gave me a cup / fine china // (a cup made of fine china); She has a fur coat fox paws // (a fur coat made of arctic fox paws);

- statements with nouns in the nominative case in the function of the nominal part of the predicate (oblique cases are used in codified statements in this position): Is she from Kazan? - No / she is Ufa // (she is from Ufa); Your dog / what breed? // (what breed is your dog?);

- statements with a noun in the nominative case in the function of the subject with predicates - predicative adverbs in -o: Too strong tea / harmful //; Forest / nice //. These statements have no direct equivalents in the codified language, their meaning is something like this: "It is harmful to drink tea that is too strong"; "It's nice to walk in the woods."

2) Statements with an infinitive denoting the purpose of the object named by the noun: You need to buy sneakers / run // (buy sneakers to run in them in the morning); In the anteroom you need a rug / to wipe your feet // (in the anteroom you need a rug to wipe your feet).

3) Statements with colloquial nominations. In colloquial speech, there are special ways of designating objects, persons, etc., that is, special ways of nomination. To understand the syntax of colloquial speech, nominations built according to the following schemes should be taken into account: a) relative pronoun + infinitive (how to write, where to go, what to wear), b) relative pronoun + noun in the nominative case (where is the metro, whose car) , c) relative pronoun + verb in the personal form (what they brought, who came), d) a noun in the indirect case with a preposition, naming the characteristic feature of the signified (about a person: in a raincoat, with glasses, with an umbrella), e) a verb in the personal form with an objective or adverbial distributor denoting the characteristic action of a person (cleans the yard, delivers newspapers). In colloquial speech, nominations of this type, without any special syntactic means, are included in the statement in the role of any member of the sentence inherent in the nomination-noun:

Give me something to wrap //; Don't forget the soap and what to wipe yourself with //; You don't have / where to put the apples //; Where we went skiing last winter / blocked off / there is some construction //; Whose package / come here //; Take napkins / where are the dishes //; Call for a birthday from the course and Mishka //; Garbage cleans / did not come? Opposite lives / gets married, gets out //; She finished with Katya / wants to act in films //.

In a codified language, such nominations can function not on an analytical basis, but only on a synthetic basis, being formalized by special syntactic means, cf.: You don't have any package where apples can be put; The place where we skied last winter was blocked off; Take napkins in the cupboard where the dishes are, etc.

4) As an analytical one, one can also consider such a construction, well-known from the grammars of the codified language, as a non-union complex sentence. In a complex sentence, certain semantic relationships are established between the parts that make up this sentence - predicative constructions. In an allied compound sentence, these relations are expressed by special syntactic means, primarily by coordinating or subordinating conjunctions or allied words, cf .: I have to go to the pharmacy because I need to buy aspirin. In a non-union complex sentence, these relations are established on the basis of the lexico-semantic content of the connected predicative constructions: I will go to the pharmacy / I need aspirin, where the caused relations are “derived” from the semantics of the words pharmacy - a place where medicines are sold, and aspirin - one of the medicines. It is colloquial speech that is the main area of ​​​​use of non-union complex sentences. Such sentences are possible in it, which are not found at all in codified varieties of the language: They quickly ran to the subway / got wet after all // (Although they quickly ran to the subway, they got wet all the same); I turned the corner / Irina and her husband are walking // (I turned and saw that Irina and her husband were walking); This is the kind of fur coat I want / a woman has passed // (... a fur coat, which is on a woman who has passed by); I'm tired / I can barely drag my legs // (I'm so tired that I can barely drag my legs).

Such non-union complex sentences are widely represented in colloquial speech, in which the legitimacy of this or that information, question, etc. is substantiated: Christmas trees are already being sold / I passed // (I passed where Christmas trees are usually sold, and therefore they can report that Christmas trees are already on sale); Trees are for sale! You were there today // (You were in a place where Christmas trees are usually sold, and therefore you can answer the question of whether the Christmas tree trade began).

In addition to analytical constructions, the “syntactic face” of colloquial speech largely determines what is called incomplete sentences in traditional grammars. Sentences with unreplaced syntactic positions are incomplete, which are a signal that the meaning necessary for communication must be extracted either from the context, or from the situation, or from the common experience for the speakers, general knowledge - background knowledge. Incomplete sentences are so characteristic of colloquial speech that there is even an opinion that there are no complete sentences in colloquial speech at all. If there is an exaggeration in this statement, then it is clearly small. Wed: (a kettle boils in the kitchen) Boiled // Turn it off //; (in the car some time ago, A. explained to the driver where to turn onto another street) A. Well, now // (turn off); (A. puts mustard plasters B.) B. Come on lower // (A., B., C. and other people usually go to dinner together at two o'clock, the time is five minutes to two. A. addresses everyone) So how? (are you going to have lunch?); (A. usually comes home from work at a certain time, this time came later, B. opening the door) What? (what happened, why was it delayed?); (A. has just returned from the theater) B. How are you? (Did you like the show?)

A characteristic feature of colloquial speech is statements with not one, but with several unsubstituted positions, the meaning of which can be established both from the situation and from background knowledge:

(A. and B. run to the train - the situation, it is known that trains run frequently at this time - background knowledge. A. to B.). No need / soon // (no need to run to this train, because the next one will start soon); (A. writes something - situation, lunch time - background knowledge. B. and A.) Finish / go // (stop writing and go to lunch).

And, finally, another circle of syntactic features of colloquial speech is the numerous and peculiar ways of highlighting the most important components for understanding the meaning of the sentence in a sentence. For these purposes are used:

- a special colloquial word order, when two directly related words can be separated by other words: Red buy me / please / rods // (red rods for a pen);

- various special words - actualizers (pronouns, negative or affirmative particles): Is he / is he going to school already? //; Are you tomorrow / yes? leaving? //; Will he / not / come to us in the summer? //;

- repetition of the actual components: I will go along the Volga this summer I / Along the Volga //.

Vocabulary. In colloquial speech, there are almost no special words unknown in the codified language. Its lexical features are manifested in a different way: colloquial speech is characterized by a developed system of its own methods of nomination (naming). These methods include:

- semantic contractions with the help of suffixes: vecherka (evening newspaper), AWOL (unauthorized absence), minibus (route taxi), commission shop (thrift store), soda (sparkling water);

- substantiated adjectives, isolated from definitive phrases by omitting nouns: rolling (rolling shop), generalka (general rehearsal), laboratory (laboratory work), Turgenevka (Turgenev library);

- semantic contractions by eliminating the defined: diploma (thesis), motor (motor boat), transistor (transistor receiver), decree (maternity leave);

- semantic contractions by eliminating the determinant: water (mineral water), Council (Academic Council), garden, kindergarten (kindergarten), sand (sugar sand);

- verb combinations - condensates (contractions): graduate (educational institution), enter (in an educational institution), celebrate (holiday), remove (from your position);

- metonymy: thin Platonov (a thin volume of A. Platonov), long Corbusier (the building of the architect Corbusier), to be on Falk (at the exhibition of the artist R. Falk).

A special place among lexical colloquial means is occupied by the name of the situation. The name of the situation is a specific noun, which in a certain micro-collective can denote some situation that is relevant for this collective: (in a situation of troubles with installing a telephone, a statement is possible) Well, how / did your phone run out? (i.e., the hassle of installing a phone); This year we have completely abandoned apples // (harvesting apples for the winter).

The main, if not the only, form of the implementation of colloquial speech is the oral form. Only notes and other similar genres can be attributed to the written form of colloquial speech. So, sitting in a meeting, you can write to a friend Let's go? - and in the conditions of this situation and the corresponding background knowledge (you need to be in time somewhere), it will be clear what is at stake. There is an opinion that all the features of colloquial speech are generated not by the conditions of its implementation (spontaneity, informality, direct contact of the speakers), but by the oral form. In other words, it is believed that unreadable official public oral texts (report, lecture, radio talk, etc.) are built in the same way as unofficial spontaneous ones. Is it so? Without a doubt, any oral public text that is not read "on paper" has its own essential features. The well-known researcher of oral texts, O. A. Lapteva, who owns the version of oral texts as the leading feature of uncodified texts, rightly notes the special, unknown to written texts, character of division of any oral unreadable texts. Here is her example of a fragment of one oral lecture:

Uh // how / after / it was / discovered / in the Pythagorean school / the phenomenon / of incommensurability / of two segments / u-this / in-in mathematics // a very serious crisis arose // From the point of view / of mathematics / of that time / on the one hand / everything had to be measured by numbers / and thus / e / the presence / of those two / of two segments / that cannot be measured / followed / the non-existence of one of them / and on the other hand / it was clear / what is clear / completely clear / and obvious / previously seemed / abstraction / as we say a square / well, or an isosceles right triangle / uh / completely / uh / well / can’t stand // well / can’t stand // well, they turn out to be non-existent // in a certain sense turn out to be non-existent //.

However, despite the considerable syntactic features of this text, it would be quite legitimate to assume that it contains a codified basis. To translate this text into written form, it is enough to carry out its simple and obvious editing, cf.:

“After the phenomenon of the incommensurability of two segments was discovered in the Pythagorean school, a very serious crisis arose in mathematics. From the point of view of mathematics of that time, on the one hand, everything had to be measured by numbers, and, thus, from the presence of segments that could not be measured, the non-existence of one of them followed, and on the other hand, it was clear that such a seemingly perfect a clear and obvious abstraction, like, say, a square or an isosceles right triangle, in a certain sense turns out to be non-existent.

Genuine colloquial texts, when translated into a codified written basis, require not editing, but translation, cf .:

You know / this is industrial training // Sasha is just fine // He's on this / some kind of radio // Our transistor has deteriorated // He took everything out and shook it out // I think / well! And did // Everything // Speaks-plays //

Here is a possible written translation of this text:

Industrial training gives a lot in practical terms (it gives a lot to a person, it is very useful). Sasha is engaged in radio business (a radio specialist, at a radio enterprise). And he has achieved great success. For example, we have a broken transistor. He tore it all apart. I thought that he would not be able to collect (that he broke it). And he collected and corrected everything. And the receiver is now working properly.

It is easy to see that only the meaning is preserved in the translated text, while the grammatical and lexical basis of the original and the translation are completely different.

So, from the point of view of linguistic features, one should distinguish between oral codified and non-codified spoken texts.

What is the significance of the above information about the linguistic characteristics of colloquial speech for the culture of language proficiency? Only one thing: in the conditions of colloquial communication, one should not be afraid of spontaneous manifestations of colloquial speech. And, of course, you need to know what these spontaneous manifestations are in order to be able to distinguish them from errors, which, of course, can also be in colloquial speech: incorrect stresses, pronunciation, morphological forms, etc. A widespread belief that that civilized people should speak in all cases in the same way as they write, is fundamentally erroneous. If you follow this conviction, then it is easy to fall into the position of those “heroes” about whom K. I. Chukovsky wrote with great irony in his famous book on the language “Live as Life”:

“On the train, a young woman, having talked with me, praised her house on a collective farm near Moscow:

- Just go outside the gate, now a green massif!

There are so many mushrooms and berries in our green area.

And it was evident that she was very proud of herself for the fact that she had such a "cultured speech."

- What activities are you taking to activate the bite?

Culture of Russian speech / Ed. OK. Graudina and E.N. Shiryaeva - M., 1999

Colloquial speech Colloquial speech -

a kind of oral literary, serving everyday everyday communication and performing the functions of communication and influence. As a means of national communication, it develops in the era of the formation of nations, in the pre-national period in the function of R. r. act, semi-dialects, urban, etc. As a form of existence of R. r. characterized by its main features (over-dialect, stability, versatility).

R. r. - historical category. History of R. r. in different national languages ​​is not recorded by sources due to the oral form of its existence. The basis of its formation was supra-dialect formations and regions that played a connecting role in the consolidation of nations. Place R. r. in the composition of literary languages ​​is historically changeable. It can act as an oral form of the literary language (for example, in the literary language of the Homeric era, it was its only form), it may not be part of it (for example, the literary language of the 16-17th centuries, modern obecná čeština ), it can interact with colloquial a type of written and literary language represented in works of art that most fully reflects real folk speech (for example, modern Russian R. r.), or represent a style of a literary language. There are regional types of R. river. So, in the modern literary language, according to a number of and partly signs, it is possible to distinguish the North Russian and South Russian regional variants of the literary R. r. A similar picture is observed in the modern literary language. R. r. not subject to codification.

Determination of the nature of the relationship R. r. of one or another national literary language to the literary language as a whole or its varieties is solved in different ways. So, the Russian R. p. some scientists (E. A. Zemskaya, Yu. M. Skrebnev), based on its structural and systemic properties, separate it from the codified literary language and consider it as an independent phenomenon opposed to it, others consider it as part of the literary language as its variety (O. A. Lapteva, B. M. Gasparov) or a special style (O. B. Sirotinina, G. G. Infantova). The study of social, local, age, gender, professional differentiation of R. r., speech behavior, features and speech is included in the tasks and.

The general properties of oral speech are manifested in the specific characteristics of speech speech: unpreparedness, linear character, leading to both economy and redundancy of speech means, and the direct nature of the speech act. R. r. exists in and forms, the form of speech affects the choice of means of expression.

The main function of R. river. - function of communication. According to the needs of communication, the themes of R. R. R. change: from narrow everyday to industrial and abstract. Signs of the general situation of the flow of speech are associated with the subject situation of speech and the participants in the act. There are 3 types of communication situations: stereotypical urban dialogues of strangers; communication of familiar faces in a domestic environment; communication of familiar and unfamiliar persons in the industrial and socio-cultural sphere (situations of non-public communication and situations of public communication).

  • Shigarevskaya N. A., Essays on the syntax of modern French colloquial speech, L., 1970;
  • Kozhevnikova K., Spontaneous oral speech in epic prose, Praha, ;
  • Infantova GG, Essays on the syntax of modern Russian colloquial speech. Rostov n/a, 1973;
  • Russian colloquial speech, ed. E. A. Zemskoy. Moscow, 1973.
  • Sirotinin O. B., Modern colloquial speech and its features, M., 1974;
  • Laptev O. A., Russian colloquial syntax, M., 1976;
  • Safiullina F. S., Syntax of Tatar colloquial speech, Kaz., 1978;
  • Devkin VD, German colloquial speech. Syntax and vocabulary, M., 1979;
  • Russian colloquial speech. General issues. Word formation. Syntax, ed. E. A. Zemskoy, M., 1981;
  • Russian colloquial speech. Phonetics, morphology, vocabulary, gesture, ed. E. A. Zemskoy, M., 1983;
  • Skrebnev Yu. M., Introduction to colloquialistics, Saratov, 1985;
  • Ure F. W., The theory of register in language teaching, Essex, 1966;
  • Problemy běžně mluveného jazyka, zvláště v ruštině, "Slavia", 1973, ročn. 17, seš. one;
  • Jedlicka A., Spisovny jazyk v soucasné komunikaci, Praha, 1974.

O. A. Lapteva.


Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ch. ed. V. N. Yartseva. 1990 .

See what "Conversation" is in other dictionaries:

    COLLOQUIAL SPEECH- 1) a kind of oral form of the literary language: everyday everyday speech of its speakers. 2) The same as oral speech (including dialectal, colloquial, speech of individual social groups, etc.) ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

    colloquial speech- Speech used in informal conversations. At the same time, it is necessary to distinguish between the oral form of the literary language and the colloquial style with its special speech system. The main function of colloquial speech is communicative (the function of communication). Tasks… … Dictionary of linguistic terms T.V. Foal

    COLLOQUIAL SPEECH- COLLOQUIAL SPEECH. One of the functional varieties of the language, presented mainly in oral form. This is the main form of the implementation of colloquial speech - spoken, oral speech. R. r. characterized by special operating conditions, ... ... A new dictionary of methodological terms and concepts (theory and practice of teaching languages)

    colloquial speech- — [E.S. Alekseev, A.A. Myachev. English Russian explanatory dictionary of computer systems engineering. Moscow 1993] Topics information technology in general EN spoken voice ... Technical Translator's Handbook

    Colloquial speech- one of the forms of existence lit. lang., usually implemented in dialogue. form in the conditions of everyday communication in neo-official. environment. The main base of R. R. are the educated strata of society, people who speak lit. the norm and using specific in communication. ... ... Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary

    Colloquial speech- 1) the name accepted in Russian studies for the everyday everyday speech of native speakers of the literary language, which is not fixed in writing (See Literary language). It is studied based on the materials of tape and manual recordings of the speech stream or individual ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

    colloquial speech- 1) a variety of the oral form of the literary language: everyday everyday speech of its speakers. 2) The same as oral speech (including dialect, vernacular, the speech of individual social groups, etc.). * * * SPEECH SPEECH SPEECH, 1)… … encyclopedic Dictionary

    colloquial speech- A special stylistically homogeneous functional system, opposed to book speech as an uncodified and codified form of the literary language. Conversational speech is characterized by special conditions of functioning, such as ... ... Dictionary of linguistic terms

    colloquial speech- a special stylistically homogeneous functional system, opposed to book speech as an uncoded form of the literary language. Conversational speech is characterized by special conditions of functioning, such as the absence of a preliminary ... ... Explanatory Translation Dictionary

    colloquial speech- units A colloquial variety of the literary language, used, as a rule, in situations of easy communication. The main features of the river R. are 1) an oral form of expression; 2) implementation mainly in an informal setting in the form of ... ... Educational dictionary of stylistic terms

Books

  • Colloquial speech in the system of functional styles of the modern Russian literary language. Grammar, . This monograph is a continuation of the collective monograph "Colloquial speech in the system of functional styles of the modern Russian literary language. Vocabulary" (M.: URSS, 2008). She is…

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