On style and stylistics: An informed, new and inspiring perspective

This text reports on an up-to-date approach to style presented in a new handbook of Czech stylistics (Hoffmannova, Homolac, Chvalovska, Jilkova, Kaderka, Mares & Mrazkova 2016). It describes the handbook's sound and inspiring take on language and the situations, styles, texts and genres of contemporary communication (uncommonly based on the notion of communicative sphere rather than on the traditional concept of functional style). It evaluates the new perspectives on the description, analysis and interpretation of style in seven selected communicative spheres: everyday communication (both spoken and written), administrative communication, expert communication, school communication, media communication (both spoken and written), advertising communication, and literary communication. The text acknowledges how the employment of the 'communicative sphere' notion, together with a predominant focus on orality, shifts the Czech view of style from the traditional functional stylistics approach to the "new" stylistics accenting dialogue, interaction, colloquiality and intertextuality.