despite the formality of the situation Consciously or noi they indicate hoxtility toward their listener. The president in turn may react by responding in a highly fornial style. thereby emphasizing his or ition of power and the respect he or she may nocmany receive. The c such cases is not that of the id attitudes toward one another ommunication in eas expressed by the participants, but rather that of their In contemporary society, many situations that formerly requred formal style now accept colloquial language Sermons, for churches; teachers in a college classroom are rarely as formal and unpproachable once were. Older people complain that the younger generation seems to be using slang This ma example, have hecome friendly chats in many y well be true, for speech styles and situations range along a continuum in s of degree of fomality.
As situations once judged formal become infonnal, those tenn that once required colloquial style tend to move toward slang Despite the complexity of the interrelations between style and situation. peop le e to arrive at an internalized knowledge of the types of words in their language: is, each exry in a speaker's lexicon includes infonmation about the style for wnich it is apprepriate.
Generally, we construct sentences in which all of the words belong to the same style, which is why the following sentences sound awkward (6) He cot a big grauity (7) Verbal intercommunication is his bag The sentences each contain words from two styles, thus, each sentence, as a whole, is aot clearly appropriate for either style. Of course, such utterances do occur. Examples can be found almost daily on tclevison news programs when a reporter interviews a member of the local community.
Knowing that many people will see the interview, the persorn involved may attempt to speak as formally as possible. If he or she seldom uses this style colloquial and formal words inay both occur in the same senience. Not everyone knows the same set of words and morphemes. if you have no entry in your lexicon for formal expressions, then you must use colloquial ones, even if they are not appropniate to the overall speech sty le you are using Formal vocabulary is sometimes referred to as learned vocahulary, implying that knowledge of such words requires study and learning Not everyone has the experien and background that lead to the development of a large formal vocabalary This situation is exploited by the popular press, where magazine and neyspaer articles and c books are devoted to exercises "guaranteed to iicrease your vocabulary The effective ness of such exercises is open to doubt.
Most often they lead to rralapropism, the confusion of the meaning of two leamed words resultu example, a witness to an accident, not fully in commard of the word exiricare, re The car h us so badty dumaged that the Emergency Rescue Squad had to ex drivrr.
Artificial exercises generally consist of little more than lists of words. acco panied by brief definitions.
But to master sew words, a speaker must encounter jhem in actuzi ase where their meaning and the style for which they are appropriate can be obeerved. No one has to be taught slang or colloquial words through artificial exetcises: ven entire 2 g in peculiar sentences. For they are learned through exposure. The same is true of formal words