Германские языки | Филологический аспект №12 (44) Декабрь, 2018

Лингвистические особенности английских текстов управленческой и муниципальной направленности

Мироненко Виктория Владимировна
кандидат педагогических наук, доцент кафедры социально-гуманитарных дисциплин, Крымский федеральный университет им. В.И. Вернадского, филиал в Севастополе, РФ, г. Севастополь, vikmir2606@yandex.ru

Аннотация: В статье проанализированы лингвистические особенности английских текстов, тематикой которых является муниципальное управление. Особое внимание уделяется анализу терминологии, номенклатурной лексики, процедурной лексики, поскольку именно по ее наличию можно судить о принадлежности того или иного текста к официально-деловому стилю языка. Автором отмечено, что наличие большого количества лексико-грамматических оборотов, фразеологизмов, речевых клише, метафор, идиом делают англоязычные тексты управленческой и муниципальной направленности достаточно насыщенными и в то же время проблематичными для перевода.
Ключевые слова: лингвистические особенности, текст, муниципальное управление, термины, официально-деловой стиль, языковые средства

Mironenko Victoria Vladimirovna
candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, associate Professor at the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Crimean Federal University by Vernadsky, branch in Sevastopol, Russia, Sevastopol

Abstract: The article analyzes the linguistic features of English texts, the subject of which is the municipal government. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of terminology, nomenclature vocabulary, procedural vocabulary, because it is by its presence people can judge whether a text belongs to the official business style of the language or not. The author noted that the presence of a large number of lexical and grammatical turnovers, phraseological units, speech cliches, metaphors, idioms make the English-language texts of management and municipal orientation rather saturated and at the same time problematic for translation.
Keywords: linguistic features, text, municipal government, terms, official business style, language means

Introduction. Terminological vocabulary is a significant part of the lexical composition of the compulsory English language. The most dynamic units of vocabulary are definitely the terms. The rapid development of the branches of state and municipal management leads to the enrichment and improvement of terminological sectored systems. Without studying the composition of state and municipal terminology it is impossible to stick to the general laws of the development of the lexical system of language in this sphere.

The aim of this study is the description of linguistic features of English texts of municipal orientation.

Material and methods. The general theory of terminology and issues which relate to individual terminology systems are actively being developed nowadays. There are works which are devoted to documents as storage media in management systems (E.G. Noskov [8], V.G. Pashchenko [9]). The following scientists conducted research in linguistics (I.V. Axelrod [1], I.V. Arnold [2], L.V. Vorobets [3], I.R. Halperin [4], T. D. Dobrosklonskaya [5], N.V. Kurasova [6], S. P. Huntington [11].

To our mind, the terminology of state and municipal management is still insufficiently represented by scientists. Because of rapid revival of trade and economic ties between the government of the Crimea and representatives of companies and government all over the world, the process of foreign communication demands special attention to the terminology of state and municipal management.

Each term of any branch of knowledge and human practice, especially in municipal management, expresses a special professional concept (scientific, political, social and cultural), if it is used in the conditions of special professional communication: in written texts or specialists’ conversation.

Linguistic study of terms for a long time was carried out within the framework of lexicology. In science there was an opinion about the obligatory unambiguity of terms, their consistency, orderliness, the terms included the requirements of brevity, obligatory definition. [7, с. 220-224]. Specificity of linguistic documents is focused on the study of the processes and results of unification of special language elements which are used in modern municipal documents.

In particular, the composition of the expressive means of the English language which is used in the process of creating management documentation and the specificity in creating official municipal and management texts are studied.

Therefore the practical significance of document linguistics is to optimize municipal communication in the field of organizational and managerial relations in a foreign language.

Today it is possible to trace the rejection of traditional authoritarianism and aggressiveness of municipal communication participants and expanding of consistent strategies for choosing a model of speech behavior. It concerns programming and monitoring of speech communication as part of the compilation of municipal oriented texts in English language.

Thus, in the selection of words means and their organization in official documents, the linguistic factor becomes decisive.

There are different approaches to the choice of language means in official documents and letters in accordance with their functional purpose.

In particular, when drawing up organizational and administrative documents in a foreign language, it is expedient and socially motivated to use the official business style.

The language of such documents is determined by their imperative purpose and is distinguished by such naturally occurring properties as subjective emotional neutrality, actual accuracy. The official-business functional style is also typical for documents of the report type (acts, reports, many types of memos), and, of course, letters of application [10, c. 10-24].

The existing variability in the selection of syntactic structures, as well as punctuation division of the text of the letter which is addressed to municipal bodies is very interested nowadays.

There are many such phrases as ‘despite’, ‘as a result’, ‘upon expiration’, ‘including excluding something’, ‘along with’ and etc. As a result, free phrases are mostly supplanted by phrase-schemes (clichés) and specific phraseological combinations of a terminological nature, for example: ‘in the production of a case’, ‘reason for arousal’, ‘majority resolution’, ‘municipal authorities’, ‘standard’, ‘regulations’, ‘resolution’. The use of the concessive preposition ‘in spite of’ is common in the official texts which demonstrate the effectiveness of their practical use in the framework of management activities.

After reviewing a significant amount of management and municipal documentation in English, the following linguistic characteristics of the presented material can be distinguished:

1. Accuracy and clarity. The accuracy of the presentation of information implies an unambiguous understanding of the written document. The adequacy of the perception of the text (the author of the document and its addressee) is extremely important in foreign communication at all stages of managerial municipal activities.
2. Another special characteristic of document communication between citizens and municipal authorities of different countries is the exact targeting of the request. The material is written in English to a specific organization or to a specific circle of organizations, specific officials or employees. Documents without address can’t be written. This is a common feature of the official style of speech that distinguishes it from other styles.
3. Thematic limitations. A significant factor in document communication that affects the nature of management information is the repeatability and thematic limitation of managerial situations in municipal districts, which leads to the use of the same types of documents, the same language tools for making specific decisions.
4. Relevance and timeliness of filling/sending/answering the document. Potency of management and municipal activities in the system of state power is only high when timely and relevant information is used to make a decision. Therefore, each municipal paper should contain in its content the most new, important and relevant to the organization information. The compiler of the document should present current information for any citizen.
5. Reliability and objectivity. These characteristics mean that the appeal of citizens to municipal bodies should include the actual state of affairs, give an unbiased, impartial statement of events in a foreign language.
6. Persuasiveness. Persuasiveness of information and its argumentation are associated with the task of encouraging each addressee to perform or not to commit certain actions. Effectiveness of the document depends on how terminologically grounded it is.
7. Completeness. This requirement assumes that the document must contain all the information which is necessary to make up an informed decision.
8. Conciseness of the material, the goals and the theme, conciseness of the presentation of the text in a foreign language provides for the brevity of the presentation of content, without extra words and repeated phrases. But to exclude from the document important facts, figures, information, allowing making an adequate decision is unacceptable
9. Neutrality. The norm of official business communication is neutral tone of text presentation. Management and municipal information is official by its nature. That identifies the business elements of the relationship between a person and the representatives of government, emphasizes their non-personal nature, the presence of a certain distance between them.

The most typical feature of lexicology of texts of municipal orientation is the saturation of the given written material with terms and terminological phrases, multi-service words, special vocabulary, as well as the presence of lexical structures, stable phrases and abbreviations.

Conclusion. It can be concluded that linguistic features of managerial and municipal texts are logically aligned, consistent and distinctly present proposed information, people’s desire for accuracy, conciseness and, at the same time, the saturation of the presented material. Official style is characterized by the desire for articulate use of special words and phrases, rejection of indirect, indecipherable designations of objects and the widespread use of stamps of special municipal vocabulary.

1. Аксельрод И. В. Стилистика современного английского языка. – Л., 1973. – 301 с.
2. Арнольд И. В. Основы научных исследований в лингвистике. – М.: Высшая школа, 1991. – 140 с.
3. Воробец Л. В. Особенности использования политкорректной лексики в английской лингвокультуре / Л. В. Воробец // Научно-методический электронный журнал «Концепт». – 2016. – № S7. – 0,4 п. л. – URL: http://e-koncept.ru/2016/76082.htm (дата обращения: 19.11.2018).
4. Гальперин И. Р. Стилистика английского языка: учебник / И. Р. Гальперин. - 2-е изд., испр. и доп. - М., «Высшая школа», 1977. – 332с.
5. Добросклонская Т. Г. Тексты массовой информации в лингвокультурологическом аспекте / Т. Г. Добросклонская // Публицистика и информация в современном обществе. – 2000. – № 5. – С. 75-79.
6. Курасова Н. В., Маковкин Д. Ю. Языковые особенности английских газет / Н. В. Курасова, Д. Ю. Маковкин // В мире научных открытий / Сибирский федеральный университет. – 2010. – Вып.2. – С. 14-15.
7. Москалева Е. В. Словообразовательный анализ неологизмов, функционирующих в английских и русских публицистических текстах / Е. В. Москалева // Гуманитарные науки. Филология. – 2009. – № 10. – С. 220-224.
8. Носков Э. Г. Глобализация и новая конфигурация отношений власти и информации / Э. Г. Носков // Современные технологии документооборота в бизнесе, производстве и управлении : сб. ст. VIII Междунар. науч.-практ. конф. – Пенза : Приволж. Дом знаний, 2008. – С. 9-11.
9. Пащенко В. Г. Документы как носители информации в системах управления / В. Г. Пащенко // Современные технологии документооборота в бизнесе, производстве и управлении : сб. ст. VIII Междунар. науч.-практ. конф. – Пенза : При-волж. Дом знаний, 2008. – С. 11-14.
10. Пестова С. М., Ефремова А. Ю. Особенности перевода текстов официально-делового стиля / С. М. Пестова, А. Ю. Ефремова // Язык и культура. – 2011. – № 8. – С. 12–24.
11. Huntington S. P. Political Order in Changing Societies. / S. P. Huntington // New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1996. – 488 p.