Вопрос 20. Stylistic Morphology

Stylistic morphology, both paradigmatic and syntagmatic, has not yet been given full attention, especially with regard to English. Besides, the term "morphology" originally implies the study of grammatical changes of isolated words by means of affixation, while English has very few inflexions, and most grammatical meanings are expressed analytically, i.e. by auxiliaries and by word-order. In consequence, the discourse on stylistic morphology will be of necessity brief, and it will concern not only morphemes, but any means of expressing grammatical meanings.we shell distinguish two general trends. Of stylistic significance are:

1. synonymy (paradigmatic equivalence or at least interchangeability of different morphemes (dogs, cows - ox-en phenomen-a, etc.);

2. variability of use (or at least partial interchangeability) of morphological "categorical forms" (i.e. component parts of the category) or of members of the opposition that constitute the grammatical category - "tense", "person", etc. (He is coming next Monday; Well, are we feeling better today?)

In both cases, there is a possibility of choice, of using only one of the two or several varieties that co-exist paradigmatically.

The synonymy is not very well developed. The opposition of remaining variants of grammatical morphemes is noticeable just because it is scarce and is of high stylistic prominence. Compare, f. e., the neutral brothers with the archaic (mostly religious) from breth-r-en. The latter from is hardly used outside clerical literature or high-flown poetry and oratory of past centuries.Further, the localization of forms of the past participle of the verb to get. In Britain, it is got, in the USA, gotten. If we agree to class prepositions as morphemes because of their grammatical. In English they say at the corner, in American on the corner.As concerns inflexion proper, varieties can also be regarded, although rather by way of expression than as a general rule.There is a strong tendency in modern colloquial English, both British and American, towards abolishing the morphological differentiation b/w subjunctive II and the verb to be, singular, and the corresponding form of the past tense indicative: If I was... instead of more pedantic If I were... .

The second problem - variability of categorical forms, or transposition of grammatically opposed member - in other words, neutralization of their grammatical meanings.

From the course of theoretical grammar it should be known that neutralization occurs when the weak (unmarked) member of the opposition comes to imply the specific meaning of the strong (marked) member, i.e. the relevant feature of the latter. This happens when the unmarked member is used instead of the marked one.

The category of tense. It is known that one of the constituents of the category, to wit, the present tense, can express an action of the past and the future, not only that of the present. This is largely due to the indefiniteness (неопределённость), 'weakness', the unmarked nature of both the notions 'present time' (logic) and 'present tense' (grammar). For that reasons the present tense forms are often used with reference to past or future actions.

Sentences like He is coming. She arrives to-morrow, i.e. with verbs in present continuous or present indefinite expressing an expected future actions are widely used. It is hard to say though, whether they are neutral or whether we might characterize them as slightly colloquial.

Other categorical forms are similarly variable. The category of determination expressed by the articles is not universally manifestable. The categorical forms 'determination -indetermination' are neutralized when one of the articles (the definite or the indefinite) is dropped although it should precede the noun or the noun group. Much depends on the circumstances of communication showing explicitly what stylistic purpose has been attained, to what sublanguage the text belongs.

It is commonly known that absence of articles is typical of headlines to newspaper columns:Prime Minister Talks on Middle East Events Police Seek Mystery Assailant Miner

Sometimes articles are omitted in careless colloquial speech.

The omission of articles can be discussed both in the chapter on morphology and in the chapter on syntax - in the section that deals with the absence of elements usually expected by the recipient.

The morphological category of gender is practically non-existent in modern English. What actually remains is the differentiation of sexes (mostly in the personal and the possessive pronouns of the third person singular: he - his, she - her(s) as opposed to everything else, mostly inanimate objects, usually referred to as the neuter it - its.

A foreign speaker of English is supposed to know from grammar books that a very young child of either sex (a baby) may be and usually is referred to as it: the same with grown-up animals if their sex is of no importance to the speaker. All this kind of detailization is of practical value in stylistics, especially the rules of personification.

Personification is often resorted to with reference to earth and moon (feminine), while sun is treated as masculine. Countries are often classed as feminine nouns, especially when they are not considered as mere geographical territories: France sent her representative to the conference. Abstract notions suggesting of masculine gender, while the feminine is associated with gentleness or beauty.Masculine: anger, death, fear; war.Feminine: spring, peace, kindness,

The opposed to personification, could be the term 'depersonification' (i.e. treating a person as a thing, an inanimate object):

Variability of categorical forms and their interchangeable character is also to be found in the grammatical category of person. It is known that the common form of expressing the idea of indefinite person is the pronoun one (One never knows what happens next). But one is often replaced by definite personal pronouns we and you expressing practically the same idea of indefinite reference: we never know, you never know (in certain collocations the pronoun they is used with the same meaning: they say). The pronoun we stands sometimes for the personal you, especially in the speech of physicians or nurses addressing their patients: Now, are we getting better today?.

It should be noted here that the pronoun we has several variants of meaning. Its primary meaning is 'the speaker plus another person, or plus other persons'. One of its secondary functions has just been mentioned: the intimate substitute or you (or rather something like you and I). This pronoun may also imply 'the plural of majesty' (mostly in royal rescripts like: By the grace of Our Lord, We, Charles the Second...); the plural of modesty (in scholarly texts, implying the author and his imaginary reader: Now, we come to the conclusion that...); the plural of humility (in the speech of uneducated people, as, for instance, in Eliza Doolittle's remark: Oh, we are proud; in Russian «Мы, стало быть, деревенские...»).

The pronouns enumerated do not exhaust the ways of expressing impersonality - we resume the discussion. Instead of How is one to know that? in what is called 'popular speech', or 'low colloquial' we encounter How should a body know it?.

The categorical forms constituting the category of number are also to a certain extent interchangeable, and the opposition of the singular to the plural is neutralized when a change of meaning is involved. Compare:"Now, what's that? Reading books instead of working?" (the delinquent is certainly reading one book at the moment).How dare he talk like that to ladies?" (there is only one lady present)."This is what the student is supposed to know" (every student, a number of students).

Summing up, the subject of onomatological morphology is variability of the forms expressing identical grammatical meanings, as well as variability of the use of grammatical meanings, which are often shifted (present expressing a past or future action, first person

implying second or any person, plural becoming 'emphatic singular'). So this branch of stylistic has as its goal learning what type of speech the varieties discussed belong to.

№15 Modification of phonemes in connected speech.

Each sound pronounced in isolation has three stages in its articulation:

a), the organs of speech move to the position which is necessary to pronounce the sound. It is called differently: initial stage, on-glide;b). the organs of speech are kept for some time in this position - medial stage, stop stage, the hold;c). the organs of speech move away to the neutral position - final stage, off-glide, release. There are two ways of joining the sounds: merging of stages, when the final stage of the first sound merges with the initial stage of the second sound - loose type of articulatory transition;

eg: in the word "law" the stages merge, and the transition is loose. During the final stage of "1" the tip of the tongue moves away from the alveolar ridge, and the whole of the tongue moves backwards to the position of [o:]. The lips begin to get rounded, interpenetration of stages, when the final stage of the first sound penetrates not only the beginning, but also the middle of the second sound - close type of articulatory transition, eg: when the sounds are of a similar or identical nature we have the close type. In the word "bottle" in cluster [tl] the sounds are joined interpenetrating their stages ([kl]. [kt]). At the moment of the hold for [t] the lateral explosion takes place. The vocal cords start vibrating at the end of the hold for [t]. The air passes through the pharynx and the mouth cavity along the lateral passes, producing the dark alloph0ffe"of [1].

When a plosive is followed by the nasal [m. n]. the closure is released nasally. Nasal plosion takes place. When two identical sounds are joined together, a single but prolonged medial stage is observed. There is no interruption in the articulation of two sounds. The tenseness of the sound decreases at the end of the hold of the first sound and increases at the beginning of the hold of the second sound.In case of aspiration, which is delay in the case of voicing, palatalization as the vowel articulation is superimposed on the consonant articulation, which precedes it. But in Russian the delay in articulation is shorter. Assimilation is a modification in the articulation of a consonant under the influence of an adjacent consonant. It is the chief factor due to which the principal variants of phonemes are modified into subsidiary ones. The consonant which articulation is modified is called an assimilated sound; the consonants which influences - an assimilating sound. It can affect all the features of articulation of a consonants or only some of them.Types of assimilation:

1. Assimilation affecting the point of articulation: the principal variants of the phonemes [t, d, n, 1, s, z] are replaced by their subsidiary dental variants.

2. Assimilation affecting the point of articulation and the active organ of speech: in "congress" the forelingual [n] is replaced by velar [N].

2. Assimilation affecting the manner of the production of noise:

give me [gimmi:] - [v] before [m] in rapid colloquial speech is modified; let me [lemmi:] The manner of noise production is affected by assimilation in cases of:a). Lateral plosion - when a plosive is followed by [1]. The closure for the plosive isn't released until the off-glide for [1]. The sides of the tongue are lowered and the air escapes along them with lateral plosion: pleasure, cattle, candle.

b). Nasal plosion - a plosive followed by the syllabic [n, m] has no release. The air escapes through he nasal cavity: button, sudden, tumble.

c). Loss of plosion - incomplete plosion in clusters of two similar plosives (pp, tt, kk, pb, td, kg) and of two plosives with different points of articulation (kt, dg, tb) - only one

explosion for two plosives. The closure of the organs of speech for the second plosive is made before the release of the first one: act, fact, good girl

4. Assimilation affecting the work of the vocal cords: a voiceless consonant may be replaced by a voiced one under the influence of an adjacent voiced consonant, or vice versa: goose [gu:s], but gooseberry [gu:zberi]; used [juzd], but used to [justu].

The English sonorants [m, n, 1, r, j, w] are partly devoiced when they are preceded by the voiceless consonants [s, p, t k]: small, try, please, quick, twenty,

5. Assimilation affecting the lip position: the labialized subsidiary variants of the phonemes [k, g, t, s] are used under influence of the following bilabial sonorant [w]: quick, twenty, language, swollen.

6. Assimilation affecting the position of the soft palate: nasal consonants influence oral ones: let me, kindness.

Assimilation which occurs in every day speech in the present day pronunciation is called "living" <opposed to "historical"): [j] passed into [C] / [Z]: question, occasion. As far as the direction of assimilation is concerned, it can be:

1. progressive (A—»>B): the first sound influences the second one and makes it similar to itself: whaVs_ this?

2. regressive (A«— B): the second consonant changes the first one: news [nju:z], but newspaper [nju: sjjeipq].

3. reciprocal (double): two adjacent consonants influence each other. In "twenty" [t] becomes labialized and [w]. which is assimilated to the voiceless plosive, is partly devoiced.

Assimilation may be of three degrees:

1. complete: the articulation of the assimilated consonant fully coincides with that of the assimilating one: horse shoe [ho: Su:]; does she.

2. partial: the assimilated consonant becomes only partly similar in some features of its articulation to the assimilating one: [t & n, 1, s, z] are assimilated to the dental consonants. The point of articulation is changed, but the main phonemic features remain: tenth, width, twice, please. Voiced variants of the phonemes [w, 1] are replaced by their partly devoiced variants.

3. intermediate: the assimilated consonant changes into a different sound, but doesn't coincide with the assimilating consonant: goose, but gooseberry.

Assimilation is called contextual if the articulation of a word is changed in combination with other words.

Accommodation (adaptation) is a modification in the articulation of a vowel under the influence of an adjacent consonants, or vice versa. It can be of three types: a), an unrounded variant of a consonant phoneme is replaced by its rounded variant under the influence of a following rounded vowel phoneme: tea - two; less - loose;

b). a fully back variant of a vowel phoneme is replaced by its slightly advanced variant under the influence of the preceding mediolingual phoneme [j]: booty - beauty; moon - music; c). a vowel phoneme is represented by its slightly more open variant before the dark [1] under the influence of its back secondary focus. A close vowel sound comes into slightly more open: bed -bell; ten - tell.

The modifications are conditioned by the complementary distribution of the phonemes. Assimilation in English differs from that in Russian mainly along the lines of direction. Progressive voicing or devoicing is rare in Russian, but common in English. It occurs in cases:

1. contracted forms of the verbs when -s is preceded by a voiced/voiceless consonant:;thaVs_ right;

2. suffixes of the nouns in the plural form or the verbs in the third person singular;

3. the possessive suffix -s: Bolyji dog;

4. the past indefinite suffix -ed.

Cases of English regressive voicing and devoicing are very rare. In Russian it is obligatory both within a word and at a word boundary: сказка, пробка, воз сена.

Elision is a process due to which one of the neighboring sounds isn't released in rapid colloquial speech. The phenomenon occurs within words and at word boundary. Elision can be historical and contemporary. English spelling is full of silent letters. The most common cases of contemporary elision are the following:

• elision of [t, d] in sequences [ft, st, zd, tt, dd]: waste paper [weisjoeipq];

• [pt, kt, bd, gd]: trapped by [t rxpbai];

• [md, nd]: slammed the door [slxm Dq do:].

There are some words and verbal forms ion which elision frequently exists in everyday speech: months, clothes (dental fricative is elided); fifths, sixths; sound [v] is elided before [D]: seven of those apples; six of the best; double [tt] is reduced to one [t]: / want to drive; we ^fve got to be careful. Going to has a form of gonna; want to = wanna in all cases except very careful speech. There is a tendency now to pronounce sounds that are not historically pronounced: [often].

DIALECTS AND VARIANTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

A dialect is a variety of a language spoken by a subgroup of people. Dialects are distinguishedfrom each other by differences in pronunciation grammar and vocabulary. Dialects develop primarily as a result of a community that shares one language. Under such circumstanceschanges that take place in the language of one part of the community do not spread elsewhere.

Traditionally linguists have applied the term "dialect" to geographically distinct language varieties but in current usage the term can include speech varieties characteristic of other socially definable groups (slang, argot, jargon).

A variant is the language of a nation jthe standard of its norm*the language of a nation's literature.

Every national variety of a language falls into territorial or regional dialects.

The basic difference between a dialect and a variant is that a dialect exist only in the oral form.

Also in most cases a dialect can never become a national language (London dialect).

Dialects in Great Britain

It is possible to name 2 divisions of the Celtic languages in England: the Gaelic or Gothic and the Cymric or Britannic branch. The 1^st to come were Gaelic Celts. Their language is represented today by Irish, Scots, Gaelic and Manx. The modern representatives of the Britannic division are Welsh, Cornish and Breton. Cornish is already extinct, Scotland, Gaelic is spoken by 15000 people, Welsh is spoken by lmln people, Irish by about 400000.

Old English period. English appeared as the language in the 5^th century when the tribes of Angles and Saxons and the Jutes invaded the British Isles. They spoke the OE a variant of West Germanic. Their dialects gave rise to modern English.

4 dialects

1. Kentish - spoken by the Jutes

2. West Saxon (Wessex) - spoken by the Saxons

3. Northumbrian - Angles

4. Mercian - Angles

By the 9 century, partly trough the influence of Alfred, king of the West Saxons and the Г¹ ruler of all England, west saxon became the leading dialect. Wessex dialect functioned as a literary language till the Norman Conquest. A Mercian dialect was primarily used for the greatest poetry (Beowulf)

Middle English period. After the Norman Conquest Wessex dialect stopped its existence.

Dialects:

North - Northumbrian

2. East - Midland

3. West-Midland

4. South-West - Wessex

5. South-East - Kent

Midlands the dialect of Middle English became important during the 14 century when the counties in which it was spoken developed into centers of university, economic and courty life. East Midland was strengthened by its use in the government offices of London.works of such poets as Geoffrey Chaucer. These and other circumstances gradually contributed to the direct development of the East Midland dialect into the Modern English language. Modern English period. In the 16 century London dialect is acknowledged as the literary norm only in Scotland English developed independently as Scotland was politically independent till Middle of the 17 century. All other dialects were reduced to the state of merely oral languages. English spreads in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, North America, India, Australia, New Zealand. Contemporary dialects. In Great Britain at present the speech of educated person is known as Received standard English. Widely differing regional and local dialects are still employed in the various counties of Great Britain. Modern dialects are divided into 6 groups:

1. Scottish

2. Northern - corresponding to the ME Northern

3. Western

4. Central - corresponding to the ME Midland

5. Eastern

6. Southern

Each group has its peculiarities in the sphere of phonetics and vocabulary.

The most distinguishing differences between American English and British English are in

pronunciation and vocabulary. There are slighter differences in spelling and stress as well. Their grammatical system is actually the same with very few exceptions. Grammatical system:

1. The use of the auxiliary verb "will" instead of "shall" with I and We

1. Tendency to substitute the past indefinite tense for the present perfect tense (I saw this movie -AM., I've seen this film -BR)

3. The old form of the past participle of the verb to get - got - gotten Vocabulary

The American vocabulary has distinctive features of its own. There are whole groups of words which belong to it exclusively - Americanisms:

1. historical Americanisms. These are words which retain their old meaning whereas in British English their meaning have changed (fall - autumn, guess-think)

2. proper Ajnericanisms (sweets - candy, luggage - baggage)

3. specifically American borrowings (sombrero, canyon, canoe; translation loans - pipe of peace)

American shortenings (mo - moment, just a mo; cert - certainly, that's a cert))

SEMANTIC CHANGE

The development and change of the semantic structure of a word is always a source of qualitative and quantitative development of the vocabulary.All the types discussed depend upon some comparison between the earlier (whether extinct or still in use) and the new meaning of the given word. This comparison may be based on the difference between notions expressed or referents in the real world that are pointed out, on the type of psychological association at work, on evaluation of the latter by the speaker or, possibly, on some other feature.M. Breal was probably the first to emphasize the fact that in passing from general usage into some special sphere of communication a word as a rule undergoes some sort of specialization of its meaning.

Causes of Development of New Meanings

The first group of causes is traditionally termed historical or extra-linguistic.Different kinds of changes in a nation's social life, in its culture, knowledge, technology, arts lead to gaps appearing in the vocabulary which beg to be filled. We already know of two ways for providing new names for newly created concepts: making new words (word-building) and borrowing for-eign ones. One more way is applying some old word to a new object or notion.ТЬе second group of causes: new meanings can also be developed due to linguistic factorsThe development of new meanings and also a complete change of meaning, may be caused through the influence of other words, mostly of synonyms.

The Process of Development and Change of Meaning

In actual fact, all cases of development or change of meaning are based on some associationThe process of development of a new meaning (or a change of meaning) is traditionally termed transference.Two types of transference are distinguishable depending on the two types of logical associations underlying the semantic process.

Transference Based on Resemblance (Similarity)This type of transference is also referred to as linguistic metaphor. A new meaning appears as a result of associating two objects (phenomena, qualitiesi etc.) due to their outward similarity.The noun eye, for instance, has for one of its meanings "hole in the end of a needle”In general, metaphorical change of meaning is often observed in idiomatic compounds.

Transference Based on ContiguityAnother term for this type of transference is linguistic metonymy. The association is based upon subtle psychological links between different objects and phenomena, sometimes traced and identified with much difficulty. The two objects may be associated together because they often appear in common situations/.: the foot of a mountain is its lowest part, so that the association here is founded on common position.

Broadening (or Generalization) of Meaning Narrowing (or Specialization) of Meaning

The process reverse to specialization is termed generalization and widening of meaning. In that case the scope of the new notion is wider than that of the original one (hence widening), whereas the content of the notion is poorer. In most cases generalization is combined with a higher order of abstraction than in the notion expressed by the earlier meaning. The transition from a concrete meaning to an abstract one is a most frequent feature in the semantic history of words. The meaning developed through transference based on contiguity (the concept of coming somewhere is the same for both meanings), but the range of the second mean-ing is broader.

Another example of the broadening of meaning is pipe. Its earliest recorded meaning was "a musical wind instrument". Nowadays it can denote any hollow oblong cylindrical body (e. g.Jb ater pipes). This meaning developed through transference based on the similarity of shape

It should be pointed out once more that in all these words the second meaning developed through transference based on contiguity, and that when we speak of them as examples of narrowing of meaning we simply imply that the range of the second meaning is more narrow than that of the original meaning. When the meaning is specialized, the word can name fewer objects, i.e. have fewer referents this type of semantic change is particularly frequent in vocabulary of pro-fessional and trade groups.

METAPHOR

"Specialization" and "generalization" are thus identified on the evidence of comparing logical notions expressed by the meaning of words. If, on the other hand, the linguist is guided by psychological considerations and has to go by the type of association at work in the transfer of the name of one object to another and different one, he will observe that the most frequent transfers are based on associations of similarity or of contiguity. As these types of transfer are well known in rhetoric as figures of speech called metaphor and metonymy, the same terms are adopted here. A metaphor is a transfer of name based on the association of similarity and thus is actually a hidden comparison. It presents a method of description which likens one thing to

another by refering to it as if it were some other one. A cunning person, for instance, is referred to as a fox. A woman may be called a peach, a lemon a cat, a goose, etc. In a metonymy, this referring to one thing as if it were some other one is based on association of contiguity. Sean O'Casey in his one-act play "The Hall of Healing" metonymically names his personages according to the things they are wearing: Red Muffler, Grey Sliawl, etc. Metaphor and metonymy differ from the two first types of semantic change, i.e. generalization and specialization, in as much as they do not originate as a result of gradual almost imperceptible change in many contexts, but come of a purposeful momentary transfer of a name from one object to another belonging to a different sphere of reality.

METONYMY

If the transfer is based upon the association of contiguity it is called metonymy. It is a shift of names between things that are known to be in some way or other connected in reality. The transfer may be conditioned by spatial, temporal, causal, symbolic, instrumental, functional and other relations.

OTHER TYPES OF SEMANTIC CHANGE:

hyperbole, litotes, irony, euphemism. In all these cases the same warning that was given in connection with metaphors and metonymy must be kept in mind:. H yperbole is an exaggerated statement not meant to be understood literally but expressing an intensely emotional attitude of the speaker to what he is speaking about. The emotional tone is due to the illogical character in which the direct denotative and the contextual emotional meanings are combined.

Some of the most frequent emphatic words are: absolutely! awfully! terribly! lovely! magnificent! splendid! and so on. The reverse figure is called litotes orjb understatement. It might be defined as expressing the affirmative by the negation of its contrary: e.g. not bad or not half bad for 'good', not small for 'great', no coward for 'brave. irony, i.e. expansion of one's meaning by words of opposite meaning, especially a simulated adoption of the opposite point of view for the purpose of ridicule. One of the meanings of the adjective nice is 'bad', 'unsatisfactory', it is marked off as ironical and illustrated by the example: You've got us into a nice mess!

Changes depending on the social attitude to the object named, connected with social evaluation and emotional tone, are called ameliorationjbjb апсЬыь pejorationjbjb AmeliorationjbJb or elevation is a semantic shift undergone by words due to their referents coming up the social scale.. The words steward and stewardess (the passengers' attendant on ships and airliners) have undergone a great amelioration. The meaning of some words has been elevated through associations with aristocratic life or town life. This is true about such adjectives as civil, chivalrous, urbane.

The reverse process is pejoration or degradation; it involves a lowering irt social scale connected with the appearance of a derogatory and scornful emotive tone reflecting the disdain of the upper classes towards the lower ones. Euphemism is the substitution of words of mild or vague connotations for expressions rough, unpleasant or for some other reasons unmentionable.With peoples of developed culture, euphemism is intrinsically different, has nothing to do with taboo and is dictated by social usage, moral tact and etiquette. Cf. queer 'mad', deceased 'dead', perspire v 'sweat'.From the semantical point of view euphemism is important because meanings with unpleasant connotations appear in words formerly neutral, as a result of their repeated use instead of other words that are for some reason unmentionable