Я смакую її хиби, дефекти тіла, маленьку душу, безсилий розум (м. Коцюбинський).

Fight your little fight, my boy

Fight and be a man.

Don’t be a good little, good little boy

being as good as you can

and agreeing with all the mealy-mouthed, mealy-mouthed

truths that the sly trot out

to protect themselves and their greedy-mouthed, greedy mouthed

cowardice, every old lout. (D. Lawrence)

Stylistic function is closely connected with the notion of connotation and denotation. Imagery, expressive, emotional and evaluative connotations of the language unit play an important role in the realization of the stylistic function.

The notion of connotation and denotation

The term connotation is derived from the Latin connotatio that meant to have additional meaning. In a broad sense connotation is a certain kind of additional information parallel to the denotative (logic, factual) information that enables a language unit to perform a certain stylistic function. Connotation or connotative meaning consists of the emotional, expressive, evaluative components.

E.g. the words girl, maiden, less, chick, baby, young lady have the same denotative but different connotative meaning.

The existence of the connotative component within the semantic structure of word is the result or imagery and associative conceptions which enable a word to participate in the structure of tropes and figures of speech, to create images and to be used for secondary nomination.

E.g. біль слова, симфонія думок, золоті литаври

Connotations can be traditional and occasional. Traditional connotation is the general, widely used and understandable for all or almost all native speakers associations that are evoked by the language unit. Compare for example: English and Ukrainian

golden crown – золотий годинник golden rule – золоте правило

hart of gold– золоте серце

golden boy/girl – золота молодь

Occasional connotation is created by a certain author of a literary work and is based on personal, subjective perceptions and associations:

Карий світ, грім – солодкий і солоний (І. Драч)

Сміються, плачуть солов’ї

І б’ють піснями в груди (О. Олесь)

Connotation creates a specific modality of the text – elevated, solemn, bookish, ironic, intimate, colloquial, impersonal, official, etc. According to the object of expression connotative meanings can be classified into:

• emotional (рідний, милий, голубка, матінка, дитятко, dove, lovely, honey);

• evaluative, positive or negative (good, bad, lousy, chick, воїн, солдафон);

• qualitative (balmy, flavoured, stinking, nectar, mash, нектар, пійло, пахучий, смердючий);

• quantitative (чолов’яга, мишка, hefty chap, baby mouse).

There are lexical units that incorporate several types of connotative meaning: рученька, рученятко, ручище.

The notion of context

The basis of the theory of context constitutes the thesis that text is not a simple linear arrangement of words. Text is a highly organized structure the elements of which have value not only as separate entities but also in their interrelations with other elements both inside and outside the text. In general sense context can be defined as an environment of a linguistic unit that facilitates the realization of certain properties of this unit. Two types of context are generally differentiated: linguistic and extra linguistic, the latter being understood as a situation of communication. Situational context can be

1. Single: some utterances are meaningful only in one single context and meaningless in all the other, e.g.:

Pooh's found the North Pole, said Christopher Robin. Isn't that lovely… They stuck the pole in the ground and Christopher Robin tied a massage on to it: "North Pole discovered by Pooh"(A. Miln).

2. Typical: some utterances that may even violate the norms of the literary language can be meaningful only under certain conditions.

3. Social and historic.

Linguistic context is a set of conditions in which the meaning of language unit is unambiguously realized: e.g. the hand of the clock, a piece for four hands, a farm hand. The main function of the linguistic context is to eliminate the polysemy of the word. Sometimes the linguistic context causes the phenomenon of desemantisation (take offence, take charge, take medicine, take notice).

However in certain contexts the reverse process can be observed – so called hypersemantisation, the enrichment of the language unit meaning, so that the word acquires alongside with its direct meaning a transferred one. The context that extends the meaning of the language unit is called stylistic context.

We distinguish between stylistic micro context – a sentence or utterance. Stylistic macro context – super phrasal unity:

Once upon a time ago, about last Friday, Winnie the Pooh lived in a forest all by himself under the name of Sanders. What does "under the name mean?" asked Christopher Robin. "It means he has the name over the door in gold letters and lived under it".

Stylistic mega context that coincides with the whole literary work. The usage of one and the same word or phrase in the text in various speech situations changes and enriches its meaning. Thus the word gains the status of image or symbol of a certain idea. For example the Ukrainian word земля is polysemantic and is used in all functional styles. But within the domain of stylistic contexts of a great number of works of Ukrainian writers and poets it is transformed into a system of complex images: земля – Батьківщина, Україна, рідний край, домівка, поле, нива, лан, грунт і саме життя.

E.g. Он і Матвій свій чорний лан розорав, - широта, довжінь! Лан! Чотирнадцять десятин. М’язи, нерви, кров. Ні. Його нічого не болить. Це лиш проходить хребтом ціна землі – своєї, лудяної сонцем, литої потом і болючої, як і той хребет...(У. Самчук. Волинь).

The notion of stylistic context is closely connected with the effect of unexpectedness and anticlimax. An unpredicted language unit appearing within the stylistic context against reader’s expectations breaks the even flow of the text, attracts reader’s attention and becomes foregrounded.

E.g. No sun – no moon!

No morn – no noon –

No dawn – no dusk – no proper time of day –

No sky – no earthly view –

No distance looking blue –

No road- no street- no “t’other side the way”

No end to any Row

No indications where the Crescents go –

No top to any steeple

No recognition of familiar people!

No warmth- no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,

No comfortable feel in any member;

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,

No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds.

November! (T. Good).

Стара, старенька.

Босі, потріскані ноги,

В одній руці костур,

У другій руці кошик.

Прихилилась лицем до церковного муру

І наче завмерла.

Темна. Ні синього неба,

Ні свіжого листя не бачить.

Обнявши її прохолодним затінням,

Шепоче над нею розпашиста липа.

Спека. Південь гомонить, щебече, співає...

В саду над верхами дерев

Пронизливо прячуть ворони.

Солодко пахнуть акації білі.

Пішла...

Я знаю житло її бідне:

Довге, вузеньке подвір’я,

Зруйнований дім в глибині

І край нього мала ліпнянка.

Покрівля прогнила, прогнулися стіни,

Хутко повалиться зовсім...

Як пахнуть акації білі! (В. Свідзинський).