Functional and stylistic distinctive characteristics of the normative speech genre Schulordnung der Grundschule (based on German)

Abstract

In the article the normative speech genre Schulordnung der Grundschule (Internal Regulations for Primary School Students) is considered on the material of the German language in the aspect of the functional and stylistic approach. The hypothesis is tested that the functional and stylistic peculiarity of the genre is the result of the interaction of formal and business style and the colloquial one, which act as the environment for the functioning of the genre and the texts actualizing it in the situation of institutional communication of adult norm-senders and children norm-recipients. The empirical material is represented by 100 text units created in accordance with the genre, the main purpose of which is to regulate the behavior of young schoolchildren while they remain in the educational institution. On the example of three stylistic features of formal and business speech – impersonality, non-emotionality and accuracy – it is shown how multi-level language means of colloquial style penetrating the normative texts violates their stylistic homogeneity, modifies stylistic features, and forms the inter-style nature of texts, reflecting the intention of addressees to take into account the cognitive and psychological characteristics of the younger subjects of the norm in the process of decoding normative messages by them. It is concluded that the genre of Schulordnung der Grundschule, as a way of selecting and combining linguistic means, shows openness towards different style inclusions, giving the addressees the opportunity to freely vary the linguistic means at their discretion in accordance with the ideas of the pragmatic effectiveness of the statement.

Keywords

• functional and stylistic distinctive characteristics
• functional style
• formal and business style
• colloquial style
• speech genre