Contrastive study of official documents` language in english and uzbek languages

Official-business style (language of diplomacy, laws, business papers, business correspondence) is equal in rights with other styles and plays an important role in formation and development of literary language.

As professor I.R. Galperin mentioned: „Official documents are written in a formal, „cold” or matter-of-fact style of speech. The style of official documents, or ‘officialese’ as it is sometimes called, is not homogeneous and is represented by the different sub-styles, or varieties.

At present more and more people are getting involved in the world of business relationships. Besides, economic, business and trade relations of Uzbekistan is developing day by day. As a result of it business people need specialists possessing knowledge of the English language used for writing documents.

English of business correspondence possesses some important qualities, common for formal style of English as well. The language of business correspondence is very bookish and is remarkable for the usage of larger and more exact vocabulary in comparison with informal style of communication.

A document in its any appearance has always been an important part of business doing. Business documents are impossible without correspondence all over the world. It does not matter, whether you communicate with your partner on the phone (orally) or through letters (in writing). All decisions and terms must be confirmed by documents.

As English and Uzbek languages are genetically irrelative, their official styles also differ. The official business language is sometimes called officials and differs from other kinds of the English language, mostly because of specific character of its functional usage, which can be illustrated in classical terms of style, its predestination, and main features.

In Uzbek there are two main works devoted to office works on conducting official documents. They are Ўзбек тилида иш юритиш by N.Makhmudov and others (Tashkent 1990), Официально-деловой стиль современного узбекского литературного языка by D. Babakhanova (Tashkent 1987). But none of those works give comparative or contrastive analyses of official style.

Though English and Uzbek languages belong to different language families, they also have common regulations in designing official documents.

In designing official documents we use different types of lexical units, each of which can be an object of separate research work.

The syntactical pattern of business correspondence style is made up from compositional patterns of variants of this style, which have their own design. The form of a document itself is informative, because it tells something about the matter deals with.

From the viewpoint of its stylistic structure, the whole document is one sentence. It looks like separate, shaped clauses often divided by commas or semicolons, and not by full stops, often numbered. Every predicate construction begins with capital letter in the form of a participial or an infinitive construction.

The syntactical pattern of business correspondence style is made up from compositional patterns of variants of its style, which have their own designs.

The form of a document itself is informative, because it tells something about the matter dealt with. From the viewpoint of its stylistic structure, the whole document is one sentence. It looks like separate shaped clauses often divided by commas or semicolons, and not by full stops, often numbered. Every predicate construction begins with a capital letter in the form of a participial or an infinitive construction.

Every type of business documents has its own set phrases and clichés, which may sound strange in colloquial English, e.g. invoice, book, value, currency clause, promissory note, assets etc. Indeed, there are many differences in the vocabulary of formal and informal business correspondence.

One of the common features of English and Uzbek official documents is that, they contain much borrowed elements. Much vocabulary of formal English is of the French, Latin and Greek origin. They are often translated into informal language by replacing them by words or phrases of the Anglo-Saxon origin. E.g. Formal style; commence, conclude, prolog, continue. Informal style; begin, start, end, finish, stop, go on.

Uzbek official documents contain much English borrowed words. The penetration of English borrowings to Uzbek language began at the second half of XIXth century. In written monuments we can find а lot of English borrowings: вагзол [Eng.Vauxhall — вокзал], тунел [Eng. tunnel], фирма [Eng. firm], порт [Eng. port], парламент [Eng. parliament], трамвай [Eng. tram]and etc.

We can observe some borrowed words from other European languages in Uzbek written monuments of XXth century, for example, кампония [Fr.compagnie], комписса [Lat.compensatio], синаматўғраф [Fr. Cinematographe], пўлис [Germ.Polizei], ўтил [Fr. hotel], план [Lat.<planus <Eng. plan] and others.

Today Uzbek language is very rich in borrowings, and the texts of official documents can be good source in establishing the penetration period this or that borrowed elements.

The studies of official documents language in analyzed languages showed that they have the following peculiarities:

1. A special system of clichés, terms and set expressions: I beg to inform you; I beg to move; the above-mentioned; hereinafter named; on behalf of; private advisory; Dear sir and etc.

2. The use of abbreviations: conventional symbols and contractions, e. g. o MP (Member of Parliament); Gvt. (government); H.M.S. (Her Majesty’s Steamship); $(dollar); Ltd (Limited); ASAP (as soon as possible); adv. (advance); atk. (attack); obj. (object); UNO (United Nations Organization).

3. The use of special terms: e.g. in finance we find terms like extra revenue; taxable capacities; liability to profit tax. Terms and phrases like high contracting parties; to ratify an agreement; memorandum; pact; protectorate; extra-territorial status; plenipotentiary will immediately brand the utterance as diplomatic. In legal language, examples are: to deal with a case; summary procedure; a body of judges; as laid down in; the succeeding clauses of agreement; to reaffirm faith in fundamental principles; to establish the required conditions; the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law.

4. The use of bookish words and phrases: plausible (= possible); to inform (=to tell); to assist (= to help); to cooperate (= to work together); to promote (=to help something develop); to secure (=to make certain) social progress; with the following objectives/ends (=for these purposes); to be determined/resolved (=to wish); to endeavour (=to try); to proceed (=to go); inquire (to ask).

5. Absence of emotiveness: except: Dear Sir (муҳтарам); yours faithfully ( ҳурмат билан).

6. Definite compositional structure and design: 1. Heading 2. Date 3. Name and address 4. Salutation 5. Reference 6. Opening 7. Body 8. Closing 9. Stamp (if any) and signatures.

Contrastive study of irrelative English and Uzbek languages helps to reveal the new peculiarities of the official style.

LITERATURE

1. Galperin I.R. Stylistics — M.: Higher School, 1977.
2. Martin Seviour. Study skills in English for higher education students in Uzbekistan — T.: Sharq, 1997
3. Маҳмудхўжа Беҳбудий. Танланган асарлар/Нашрга тайёрловчи, тўпловчи, сўз боши ва изоҳлар муаллифи Б. Қосимов. — Т.: Маънавият, 1997.
4. Yusupov U.K. Contrastive linguistics of the English and Uzbek languages — T.: Akademnashr, 2013.