Science style

The scientific style has a number of common features that manifest themselves regardless of the nature of certain sciences (natural, exact, humanitarian) and differences between utterance genres ( monograph , article , report , textbook , term paper , etc.), which makes it possible to talk about the specifics of the style generally. At the same time, it is quite natural that, for example, texts in physics, chemistry, and mathematics differ markedly in the nature of the presentation from texts in philology or history.

The scientific style is characterized by a logical sequence of presentation, an ordered system of communication between the parts of the statement, the authors' desire for accuracy, conciseness, unambiguity while maintaining the richness of the content.

1. Logic is, if possible, the presence of semantic links between consecutive units (blocks) of text.
2. Only a text has consistency in which the conclusions follow from the content, they are consistent, the text is divided into separate semantic segments that reflect the movement of thought from particular to general or from general to particular.
3. Clarity , as the quality of scientific speech, implies comprehensibility, accessibility.

Since the leading form of scientific thinking is a concept, almost every lexical unit in a scientific style denotes a concept or abstract subject. The special concepts of the scientific sphere of communication are precisely and unequivocally called and special lexical units - terms - reveal their contents. A term is a word or phrase designating the concept of a special field of knowledge or activity and is an element of a certain system of terms. Within this system, the term tends to uniqueness, does not express expression. However, this does not mean its stylistic neutrality. The term, as well as many other lexical units, has an inherent stylistic coloring (scientific style), which is marked as stylistic marks in the corresponding dictionaries. Here are examples of terms: “atrophy”, “numerical methods of algebra”, “range”, “zenith”, “laser”, “prism”, “radar”, “symptom”, “sphere”, “phase”, “low temperatures” , "Cermets." A significant part of the terms are international words.

Quantitatively, in the texts of a scientific style, the terms prevail over other types of special vocabulary (nomenclature names, professionalisms, professional jargon, etc.); on average, terminological vocabulary usually accounts for 15-20% of the total vocabulary of a scientific style. In the given fragment of the popular science text, the terms are highlighted in a special font, which allows us to see their quantitative advantage over other lexical units:

For terms, as the main lexical components of the scientific style of speech, as well as for other words of the scientific text, it is typical to use it in one, specific, definite meaning. If a word is ambiguous, it is used in a scientific style in one, less often, in two meanings, which are terminological: strength, size, body, sour, motion, solid (Strength is a vector quantity and is characterized by a numerical value at every moment of time). Generalization, abstractness of presentation in a scientific style at the lexical level is realized in the use of a large number of lexical units with abstract meaning (abstract vocabulary) ^[1] . The scientific style also has its own phraseology, including composite terms: “solar plexus”, “right angle”, “inclined plane”, “deaf consonants”, “participial revolution”, “compound sentence”, as well as various cliches: “consists in ... "," represents ... "," consists of ... "," applies to ... ", etc.

The language of scientific communication has its own grammatical features. The abstractness and generalization of scientific speech are manifested in the features of the functioning of various grammatical, in particular morphological, units, which is found in the choice of categories and forms, as well as the degree of their frequency in the text. The singular forms of nouns are used in the plural: "a wolf is a specialized predatory animal from the class of mammals from the genus of wolves from the canine family"; "Linden begins to bloom in late June." Real and abstract nouns are often used in the plural form: lubricating oils, noise in the radio, great depths.

The names of concepts in a scientific style prevail over the names of actions, this leads to less use of verbs and more use of nouns. When using verbs, there is a noticeable tendency toward desemantization, that is, the loss of lexical meaning, which meets the requirement of abstractness, generalization of the scientific style of presentation. This is manifested in the fact that most of the verbs in the scientific style function as coherent: “to be”, “to appear”, “to be called”, “to be considered”, “to become”, “to become”, “to be done”, “to appear”, “ consist ”,“ compose ”,“ possess ”,“ be defined ”,“ introduce oneself ”, etc. There is a significant group of verbs that act as components of verbal-noun combinations, where the main semantic load falls on the noun that names the action, and the verb performs grammatical role (denoting action in the broadest sense les words, grammatical meaning conveys mood, person and number): lead - to the emergence, in the death of, a violation, to the emancipation; to produce - calculations, calculations, observations. The desemantization of the verb is also manifested in the prevalence in the scientific text of the verbs of broad, abstract semantics: to exist, occur, have, appear, change (s), continue (s), etc.

Scientific speech is characterized by the use of verb forms with weakened lexical and grammatical meanings of time, person, number, which is confirmed by the synonymy of sentence structures: distillation is carried out - distillation is performed; a conclusion can be drawn - a conclusion is drawn, etc.

Another morphological feature of the scientific style is the use of the real timeless (with qualitative, characteristic value), which is necessary to characterize the properties and signs of the studied objects and phenomena: "when certain parts of the cerebral cortex are irritated, contractions regularly occur"; "Carbon is the most important part of the plant." In the context of scientific speech, the past tense of the verb also acquires timeless meaning: “n experiments were performed, in each of which x took on a certain meaning”. According to scientists, the percentage of verbs in the present tense is three times higher than the percentage of past tense forms, accounting for 67-85% of all verb forms.

The abstractness and generalization of scientific speech is manifested in the peculiarities of using the category category of the verb: about 80% are forms of an imperfect type, being more abstract-generalized. Few verbs of a perfect form are used in stable turns in the form of the future tense, which is synonymous with the present timeless: “consider ...”, “the equation will take the form”. Many imperfective verbs are devoid of paired perfect verbs: "Metals are easy to cut."

The verb facial forms and personal pronouns in the scientific style are also used in accordance with the transmission of abstract generalizing meanings. The forms of the 2nd person and pronouns are practically not used; you, since they are the most specific, the percentage of forms of the 1st person is small. numbers. The most frequent in scientific speech are the distracted by the meaning of the form of the 3rd person and the pronoun he, she, it. Apart from using the so-called author’s, the pronoun we, together with the form of the verb, often expresses the meaning of varying degrees of abstractness and generalization in the meaning of “we are the totality” (I and the audience): We arrive at the result. We can conclude.

The syntax of the scientific style of speech is characterized by a tendency to complex constructions, which contributes to the transfer of a complex system of scientific concepts, the establishment of relations between generic and specific concepts, between cause and effect, evidence and conclusions. For this purpose, sentences with homogeneous members and generalizing words are used. Different types of complex sentences are widespread in scientific texts, in particular with the use of compound subordinate unions, which is generally characteristic of book speech: due to the fact that; due to the fact that, while etc. The means of communication of the parts of the text are introductory words and combinations: firstly, finally, on the other hand, indicating the sequence of presentation. To unite parts of the text, in particular paragraphs that have a close logical connection with each other, words and phrases pointing to this connection are used: thus, in conclusion, etc. Suggestions in a scientific style are uniform in their purpose of utterance - they are almost always narrative. Interrogative sentences are rare and are used to attract the reader’s attention to a question.

The generalized-abstract nature of scientific speech, the timeless plan of presentation of the material determine the use of certain types of syntactic constructions: indefinitely personal, generalized-personal and impersonal sentences. The actor in them is absent or is thought in a generalized, indefinite way; all attention is focused on action, on its circumstances. Indefinite-personal and generalized-personal sentences are used when introducing terms, deriving formulas, and explaining the material in the examples: Speed ​​is represented by a directed segment; Consider the following example; Compare the offers .

The difference between the scientific and all other styles of speech is that it can be divided into four sub-styles :

• Actually scientific . The recipient of this style is a scientist, specialist. The purpose of the style can be called the identification and description of new facts, patterns, discoveries. It is characteristic of dissertations, monographs, abstracts, scientific articles, scientific reports, theses, scientific reviews, etc.

Example: “The rhythm of expressive speech in no language and under any circumstances cannot be identical to the rhythmic organization of neutral speech. An increase in the number of pauses and their length, unstable tempo, emphatic stress, specific segmentation , more contrasting melody, elongation of sonants , hissing, prolonged exposure of the bow of the explosive, voluntary stretching of vowels, affecting the ratio of the duration of stressed and unstressed syllables in the rhythm group, violate the dominant language rhythmic trends (T. Poplavskaya). ” ^[2]

• Scientific and educational . Works in this style are addressed to students in order to educate, describe the facts necessary for mastering the material, therefore the facts set forth in the text and examples are typical. Mandatory is the description “from general to particular”, strict classification, active introduction and use of special terms. Typical of textbooks, teaching aids, lectures, etc.

Example: “ Botany is the science of plants. The name of this science comes from the Greek word "nerd", which means "greenery, grass, plant." Botany studies the life of plants, their internal and external structure, the distribution of plants on the surface of the globe, the relationship of plants with the surrounding nature and with each other (V. Korchagina). ” ^[2]

• Popular science . An audience with this style usually does not have special knowledge in this area. Yu. A. Sorokin points out that a popular science text is written “scientifically, popularly, artistically” ^[3] , that is, while maintaining the severity and clarity of presentation characteristic of a scientific text, its feature is the simplified nature of the presentation and the possible use of emotionally expressive means speech. The purpose of the style is to familiarize with the described phenomena and facts. The use of numbers and special terms is minimal (each of them is explained in detail). Features of the style are: relative ease of reading, the use of comparison with familiar phenomena and objects, significant simplifications, consideration of particular phenomena without a general review and classification. The style is typical for popular science magazines and books, children's encyclopedias, messages of a "scientific nature" in the media. This is the freest sub-style, and it can vary from newspaper headings “historical / technical information” or “this is interesting” to popular science books that are similar in format and content to textbooks (scientific-educational style).
• Scientific and technical . The recipient is techno-technical specialists. The goal is the application of the achievements of fundamental science in practice.

Example: “ If during the process of putting the engines to take-off mode, the plane is stragging from the place, release the brakes and increase the engine operating mode to take-off, taking into account the running direction. At the same time, the VP [co-pilot] is convinced of the readiness of the take-off auto-vane on both engines and controls the engines' exit to take-off mode ( RLE of An-28 aircraft). ”

Scientific texts are made out in the form of separate finished works, the structure of which is subject to the laws of the genre.

The following genres of scientific prose can be distinguished: monograph , reference book , journal article , review , textbook (study guide), lecture , report , informational message (about the conference , symposium , congress ), oral presentation (at the conference, symposium, etc. ), dissertation , scientific report . These genres are primary , that is, created by the author for the first time.

Secondary texts, that is, texts compiled on the basis of existing ones, include: abstract , abstract , abstract , abstract , abstract . When preparing secondary texts, information is collapsed in order to reduce the volume of the text. The division of texts into primary and secondary should not be confused with the division of sources into primary, secondary, and tertiary accepted in source studies. So, the abstract is a secondary (in relation to the dissertation) text, however, in relation to the original results obtained by its author, it is the primary source.

The genres of educational and scientific style include: lecture , seminar report , term paper, abstract report. Each genre has its own individual style features, however, they do not violate the unity of the scientific style, inheriting its common features and characteristics.

The emergence is associated with the development of different areas of scientific knowledge, different spheres of human activity. At first, the style of scientific presentation was close to the style of artistic narration. The separation of the scientific style from the artistic one took place in the Alexandrian period, when in the Greek language, which spread its influence at that time, over the entire cultural world, scientific terminology began to be created.

Subsequently, the terminology was replenished from the resources of Latin, which became the international scientific language of the European Middle Ages. In the Renaissance, scientists strove for the conciseness and accuracy of a scientific description, free from the emotional and artistic elements of the presentation as contradicting the abstract-logical reflection of nature. However, the liberation of the scientific style from these elements proceeded gradually. Известно, что слишком «художественный» характер изложения Галилея раздражал Кеплера , а Декарт находил, что стиль научных доказательств Галилея чрезмерно «беллетризован». В дальнейшем образцом научного языка стало логическое изложение Ньютона .

В России научный язык и стиль начал складываться в первые десятилетия XVIII века , когда авторы научных книг и переводчики стали создавать русскую научную терминологию. Во второй половине этого века благодаря работам М. В. Ломоносова и его учеников формирование научного стиля сделало шаг вперёд, но окончательно он сложился во второй половине XIX века вместе с научной деятельностью крупнейших учёных этого времени.

Пример, иллюстрирующий научный стиль речи:

• Функциональные стили речи
• Официально-деловой стиль
• Публицистический стиль
• Разговорный стиль
• Художественный стиль

• Научный стиль — статья из Стилистического энциклопедического словаря русского языка / под ред. М. Н. Кожиной. — М. : Флинта : Наука , 2003.
• Котюрова М. П. Стилистика научной речи. — Академия, 2010. — 240 с. — ISBN 978-5-7695-6035-4 .
• Аросева Т. Е., Рогова Л. Г., Сафьянова Н. Ф. Пособие по научному стилю речи.
• Сенкевич М. П. Стилистика научной речи и литературное редактирование научных произведений. — М. : Высшая школа , 1976. — 263 с.
• Рыжиков Ю. И. Работа над диссертацией по техническим наукам. Требования к ученому и к диссертации; Психология и организация научной работы; Язык и стиль диссертации и др. — СПб. : БХВ-Петербург, 2005. — 496 с. — ISBN 5-94157-804-0 .
• Савко И. Э. Русский язык. От фонетики до текста. - Mn. : Харвест , 2005. — 512 с. — ISBN 985-13-4208-4 .
• Лапшина О. Н. Стилистика русского языка. – 2009