3.2. Stylistic devices based on the meaning of the category of number

The category of number in English and Ukrainian is represented by two meanings – singular and plural, which are formed synthetically through zero and marked inflexions respectively. The category of number is realized differently in different lexico-grammatical classes of nouns. The morphological and stylistic investigation of the category of number gives ground for interesting stylistic observation.

Most English and Ukrainian common countable nouns are frequently used to denote the whole class of homogeneous objects. E.g. to keep chick, to shoot duck, ловити рибу, ходити на ведмедя. Being employed in the belle-letters style as a stylistic device, this phenomenon secures expressiveness and emotional power of the text:

By God, they were soldiers. The Old Hun was a soldier… The Old Hun would come down through the Trentino, and cut the railway at Vicenza (E. Hemingway).

От поїдете ви в таке місце, де такого крижня, такого крижня мільйон О. Вишня).

Глубокий сон во стане шведа (А. Пушкин).

An utterance can get specific stylistic charge when the rules of forming plural are violated. Plural forms of nouns which can not be used in plural according to grammatical norms change the basic grammatical meaning of plurality, enriching it with additional stylistic nuances such as generalization, state, evaluation, exaggeration, etc. Let us compare:

Plural of proper nouns as stylistic device:

The real war of the world was not between the Bill Davidsons and the Jean Duvals and the Huns Mullers…What Bill Davidson and Jean Duval and Huns Muller ought to do was to stop blowing each other to hell (R. Aldington).

Венеції, всюди Венеції в буйних зелених садках (О. Гончар).

Plural of uncountable nouns as stylistic device:

Waters on a starry night are beautiful and fair (W. Wordsworth).

Під вітром хвилюються припечені сонцем жита (Г. Тютюнник).

Plural of abstract nouns as stylistic device:

Heaven remain rigidly on its proper place on the other side of death and on this side flourished the injustices, the cruelties, the meannesses, that elsewhere people so cleverly hushed up (J. Green)/

Мільярди вір зариті в чорнозем, мільярди щасть розвіяно у прах (В. Симоненко).

Discussing the stylistic potential of the category of number it is worth mentioning some peculiar cases of using plural to achieve humoristic effect and to secure the live colloquial character of the utterance. The first one is of ‘s inflexion valency violation in English: One I-am-sorry-for-you is worth twenty I-told-you-so’s. The second – is the usage of Ukrainian nouns that denote profession in plural: - Твій куди поступив, Гордію? – На художників. – А твій, Хомо? – А мій в агрономи б’є! (Г. Тютюнник).

Stylistic potential of Ukrainian category of number is in some cases more powerful then in English. Stylistic properties of this grammatical category are predetermined by the word’s semantic volume. Expressive and evaluative stylistic meanings are inherent in such Ukrainian pluralia tantum nouns as патли, тельбухи, витребеньки as well as such pairs of synonymic plural forms: радості –радощі, перла – перли, колоси – колосся, брати – браття, чуда – чудеса, слова – словеса, тіла – тілеса, небо – небеса which are used to create different characteristics of an image. Additional stylistic connotations are inherent to the following collective nouns: студентство, жіноцтво, птаство, малеча, шоферня, мурашня, мишва, вороння, куркульня, біднота, голота etc.