In the analysis of all these formal correspondences, whether grammatical or lexical, we have been dealing essentially with the ingredients of style, though not entirely under this heading. At this point it is important to consider certain overall features of style which play an essential role in the process of translation. For besides attention to isolated transfers of a formal feature in the source language to a corresponding feature in the receptor language, the total effect of the numerous formal elements which combine to make up various styles must be considered.

The importance of stylistic sensitivity is never more evident than when it is lacking. An anonymous New Testament translation of 1729, for example, contains such high-flown and ill-fitting phrases as "vented his divine enthusiasm" for "filled with the Holy Spirit" (Luke 1:67), "collector-general of the customs" for "tax collector" (Luke 19:2), and "Lord of the celestial militia" for "Lord of hosts" (Hebrews 7:22) (cited by Campbell, 1789).

Everyonе recognizes a number of different styles of speech, e.g. telegraphic, rambling, slangy, reasoned, legal, journalistic, literary, babytalk, pidgin, and subculture jargon. Albert Guerard (1947) has attempted to classify styles on ten levels, from the automatic reflex of a groan or cry, through various stages of conscious ordering of language expression, to a final level of silence, the language of the mystic. Karl Thieme (1955) distinguishes four practical levels or types, priestly, official, literaгу, and commercial, each with its special problems of translation.

The use of one or another style of language depends upon a number of factors, which can usually be summarized in terms of subject matter, audience, and circumstances of communication. Religious communication, however, involves certain special difficulties, since it appears to require language having a solemn or esoteric flavor. Such a flavor is often developcd by means of archaisms, which, by virtue of their antique appearance, seem to provide the text with a temporally derived authority.

In some languages an important and obligatory ingredient of style is the clear representation of the speaker's or narrator's attitude toward what is being communicated. In Waiwai, for example, the text must be filled with modal particles which constantly inform the audience of the precise attitudes of the participants-whether, for example, they are amused by the incident they are relating, treat it with suspicion, feel that it is ironic, or regard the theme as sorrowful.

Style may be defined technically as”the message carried by the frequency of distributions and transitional probabilities of its linguistic features, especially as they differ from those of the same features in the language as a whole"(Bloch, 1953). Accordingly, though style depends upon grammar, or the formal structure of the language, it is essentially different from grammar; for while grammar is predictive (i.e. describes what can be said), style is classificatory and dynamic (Saporta, 1960, p. 93).

Certain major differences in style are related to various levels of human experience, of which three are basic to our consideration: (1) experience taken for granted, not consciously recognized, and not talked about; (2) experience overtly recognized. understood, and discussed, but in a nontechnical way; and (3) experience which consists of analyzing and describing experience. The third level is  the metalevel of existence, in which men consciously attempt to formulate abstractions about what may be called the technical and scientific level of experience.