IN DEFENCE OF BUREACRATESE
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In 1961 K. I. Chukovskiy wrote that the principal danger for Russian was “Bureaucratese”(канцелярит). It is the penetration of words, phrases, syntactic constructions typical of the style of the official relations in other styles (style of everyday life, academic style, belles lettres style). Such point of view is widely spread in Russia. It is connected with a very negative attitude to the official style in general, it is considered to be the language of bureaucratism, clichés, indifference to people. However, this problem has three aspects: stylistic aspect, aspect of the hierarchy of genres, and political aspect. Any confusion of genres impedes the communication but the conception of Bureaucratese reflects the neglect of the official style in the Russian cultural tradition. However, the hierarchy of styles and genres in some other cultural tradition (English, Japanese, etc.) can be different.
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