- •Contents
- •Foreword
- •Part I stylistics as a branch of lingustics. The subject of stylistics
- •1.1. Stylistics and its subject
- •1.2. Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices
- •Part II stylisctic classification of the english vocabulary
- •1. The literary layer falls into the following groups:
- •2. The neutral layer, universal, unrestricted in its use, the most stable.
- •3. The colloquial layer falls into the following groups:
- •2.2. Neutral, Common literary and common colloquial vocabulary
- •2.3. Literary stratum of words. Special literary vocabulary
- •2.3.1. Terms
- •2.3.2. Poetic words
- •2.3.3. Archaic words
- •2.3.4. Literary coinages (including nonce-words)
- •2.3.5. Barbarisms and Foreign Words
- •6. Terms
- •Part III stylistic classification of the english vocalbulary Colloquial stratum of words. Special colloquial vocabulary
- •3.1 Slang
- •3.2. Jargonisms
- •3.3. Professionalisms
- •3.4. Dialectal words
- •3.5. Vulgar words or vulgarisms
- •3.6. Colloquial coinages (nonce words)
- •Part IV functional styles of the english language
- •4.1. The notion of Style
- •5. The style of official documents:
- •4.2. Bookish Style
- •4.2.3. Scientific prose style
- •4.2.4. The style of official documents
- •4.2.5. The publicistic style
- •4.2.6. The newspaper style
- •4.2.7. Belles-lettres style
- •4.3. Colloquial (casual) style
- •7) Hyperbole;
- •Further reading
- •Part V types of meaning
- •5.1. Logical meaning
- •5.2. Emotive meaning
- •5.3. Nominal meaning
- •Part VI lexical expressive means and stylistic devices sd based on the interaction of different meanings of a word
- •6.1. Sd based on the interaction between two logical meanings of a word. Metaphor. Personification. Metonymy. Irony
- •6.1.1. Metaphor
- •6.1.2. Personification
- •6.1.3. Metonymy
- •6.1.4. Irony
- •6.2. Sd based on interaction between the logical and nominal meanings. Antomasia
- •6.3.1. Epithet
- •6.3.2. Hyperbole
- •6.3.3. Oxymoron
- •6.4. Stylistic devices based on the interaction between primary and derivative logical meaning of a word (or between the meanings of two homonyms)
- •Part VII lexico-syntactical stylistic devices
- •Part VIII syntactical expressive means and sd
- •Inversion
- •Interaction of Syntactical Structures
- •Part IX phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices
- •I. Language variation
- •1. The English language today
- •2. Types of variation
- •2.1. Regional variation
- •2.2. Social Variation
- •2.3. Personal variation
- •2.4. Stylistic variation
- •Part XI text as the object of linguistic analysis in stylistics
- •22. Oxymoron
- •Questions for revision
- •Exam questions
- •46. The publicistic style.
- •47. The newspaper style.
- •48. Scientific prose style.
- •Glossary
- •Reference books
5.1. Logical meaning
Logical meaning is the exact naming of a feature of an idea, phenomenon or object. The meaning is also called referential or direct. Logical meanings may-change, and as a result the logical meanings of one word may denote different concepts. It is therefore necessary to distinguish between primary and secondary logical meaning. In some dictionaries we can find an extended list of primary and secondary logical meanings.
All the meanings fixed by English and American dictionaries comprise what is called the semantic structure of the word. Accidental meanings (in speech or writing) are not regarded as components of the semantic structure of the word. They are generally called contextual meanings.
5.2. Emotive meaning
The second type of meaning is called emotive because it stems from the emotions, the feelings connected with the given thing or phenomenon. Emotive meaning serves to express one's individual, subjective attitude to the thing or idea. Emotive meaning may exist independently, it may co-exist with logical meaning and it may also appear in a context, thus acquiring contextual meaning.
There are definite morphological means by which a given word may acquire emotive meaning, for example: the use of the suffixes -y, -ie - as in girlie, birdie, sonny; -let - as in streamlet. The number of suffixes that convey emotive meaning in English is very small in comparison to the number that exists in Russian.
In the English language, as in other languages, there are certain words which are do not have logical meaning and have only emotive meaning. These words are interjections and other exclamatory words, like alas, oh, gosh, goodness gracious, etc. Certain adjectives also tend to lose their logical meaning and acquire strong emotive meaning, for example: wonderful, terrible, nice.
5.3. Nominal meaning
The third type of lexical meaning is called nominal, as it names, or marks with a specific label. Let us compare words like pen, distance, morale with words like Harry, James, Thomas.
Nominal meaning appeared as a result of capability of the human mind to integrate and differentiate. Thus, a class of words appeared in which the nominal meaning prevails. These words are called proper names, or proper nouns. In proper nouns the meaning is confined solely to naming the beings or things, whereas common nouns not only name, but signify the beings or things as well.
Nominal meanings frequently used by men-of-letters as a special stylistic device. This device is based on a peculiar interplay of 2 meanings: logical and nominal.
Part VI lexical expressive means and stylistic devices sd based on the interaction of different meanings of a word
6.1. Sd based on the interaction between two logical meanings of a word. Metaphor. Personification. Metonymy. Irony
The first group of lexical stylistic devices is based on the interaction between the logical meaning of a word and its contextual meaning. The interaction of the 2 meaning produces a definite stylistic effect. This group of stylistic devices includes metaphor, metonymy and irony. These stylistic devices are usually defined as stylistic devices based on transference of meaning. The transferred meaning of a word which may be manifested in a given context, is one of the fixed meanings of the word and it is part of its semantic structure. Thus this definition does not bring out the interaction of both the logical and contextual meanings. It is the interaction of these 2 meanings that produces a stylistic effect.
Stylistic devices may be genuine or trite. Genuine stylistic SD may be defined as the use of a word in which interaction of logical and contextual meanings is clearly brought out. If a certain SD tends to be widely used in speech it becomes hackneyed and loses its vividness.