Perm school of thought in functional stylistics

The article deals with the foundation history and current status of Perm school of thought in functional stylistics. This school appeared under the guidance of professor M. N. Kozhina, who was one of the first in the 1960s to study functioning of language and to distinguish communicative linguistics, which further determined the linguistics paradigm. Within the school, a theory of functional styles was developed; extralinguistic factors were identified; a new research area - speech study (rechevedenie) was justified. This area incorporated productive ideas of modern linguistics, discovered and investigated problems connected with the study of the Russian language in a changing society. The school members analyzed text-forming mechanisms and investigated texts that function in socially significant spheres of communication -scientific, official, media, religious. Having accumulated the fundamental knowledge of the language functioning laws, Perm school of thought has become one of the major functional and stylistic research centers in Russia. The authors of the article consider prospects of Perm school of thought in functional stylistics to be fruitful since the changing social and communicative environment demands further study of the functional aspect of language, i.e. of its use in various spheres of speech activity.