Official Language: How Stuffy!

The article presents some ideas of the authors about the history of Russian offi cial speech, the rule of the formation of meaningful impersonality in documentary texts and the ways to achieve clarity and accuracy, proclaimed as the most important for offi cial communication in general. The foundation of new offi cial speech started at the beginning of the 18th century, in the reign of Peter the Great. His government reforms with an orientation towards the Western model of the “state-mechanism” were continued by his followers, which was refl ected in the language of state communication — in the Russian offi cial language of the new periods: the rigidity of state machinery led to the language becoming more and more depersonalized. It didn’t have a personal touch anymore. The fi nal variant of the new offi cial language, which remains fundamentally unchanged to this day, falls on the reign of Alexander I. As a result of the emergence of ministries instead of collegia, large-scale offi ce work arises, requiring a strict hierarchy in the workfl ow, where papers gradually replaced actions. The language of the offi cial sphere, following the reforms of social life, also acquires many new qualities, the main of which are impersonality, emotionality, the desire for accuracy.

Keywords

official style, document text, new era language, depersonalization of official language

Acknowledgment

The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project № 20-012-00338).

Received

25.06.2021

Publication date

26.06.2021

Number of characters

14390

Cite

GOST	Sadova T., Rudnev D. Official Language: “How Stuffy!” // Russkaya Rech’ – 2021. – Issue 2 C. 35-43 [Electronic resource]. URL: http://ras.jes.su/rusrech/s013161170014707-6-1-en (circulation date: 30.04.2025). DOI: 10.31857/S013161170014707-6
MLA	Sadova, Tatiana S, Rudnev, Dmitrii V "Official Language: “How Stuffy!”." Russkaya Rech’ 2 (2021):35-43. DOI: 10.31857/S013161170014707-6
APA	Sadova T., Rudnev D. (2021). Official Language: “How Stuffy!”. Russkaya Rech’ (2), pp.35-43 DOI: 10.31857/S013161170014707-6

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