- •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
Part VIII syntactical expressive means and sd
Stylistic syntax is the branch of linguistics which investigates the stylistic value of syntactic forms, stylistic functions of syntactic phenomena and their stylistic classifications.
The very forms of sentences and word-combinations may be either expressive or neutral. We are to take for stylistically neutral the structure of a simple sentence not possessing any particular deformities regarding the number of its constituents or their order. Syntactical SD deal with syntactical arrangement of the utterance which creates the emphasis of the latter irrespective of the lexical meaning of the employed units. Oral speech is more emphatic than the written type of speech.
It is not only syntactical forms of separate sentences that possess certain kind of stylistic value, but the interrelations of contiguous syntactical forms as well. Thus expressive means of syntax may be subdivided into the following groups:
1. Expressive means based upon absence of logically indispensable elements.
2. Expressive means based upon the excessive use of speech elements.
3. Expressive means consisting in an unusual arrangement of linguistic elements.
4. Expressive means based upon interaction of syntactical forms.
Absence of Syntactical Elements
1) Elliptical sentences;
2) Unfinished sentences;
3) Nominative sentences;
4) Constructions in which auxiliary elements are missing.
Ellipsis - omission of one of the main members of a sentence. Elliptical are those sentences in which one or both principal parts are felt as missing since, theoretically, they could be restored. Elliptical sentences are typical, first and foremost, of oral communication, especially of colloquial speech.
Unfinished sentences the speaker stops short in the very beginning or in the middle of the utterance, thus confining his mode of expression to a mere elusion, a mere hint at what remains unsaid.
Nominative sentences. Their function in speech consists in stating the existence of the thing named: London. Fog everywhere. November weather. The brevity of nominative sentences renders them especially fit for sescriptions.
Asyndeton - absence of conjunctions. Asyndetic connection of sentences and parts of sentences is based on the lexical meaning of the units combined. The stylistic function of asyndeton is similar to that of ellipsis : brevity, acceleration of the tempo, colloquial character : "But if they should! If they should guess! The horror! The flight! The exposure! The police! ... (Dreiser)
Zeugma may be referred both to the stylistic devices based upon absence of speech elements and to figures of speech. Zeugma is a combination of one polysemantic word with two or several other words in succession, each collocation thus made pertaining to different semantic or even syntactic plane. The use of zeugma serves, as a rule, the purpose of creating humorous effect.
Excess of Syntactical Elements
The general stylistic value of sentences containing an excessive number of component parts is their emphatic nature. Repetition of a speech element emphasizes the significance of the element, increasing the emotional force of speech.
Repetition — is an expressive means of language used when the speaker is under the stress of strong emotion. When used as a stylistic device, repetition acquires quite different functions. The stylistic device of repetition aims at logical emphasis, an emphasis necessary to fix the attention of the reader on the key-word of the utterance.
Framing is a particular kind of repetition in which the two repeated elements occupy the two most prominent positions - the initial and the final.
Anadiplosis is a kind of repetition in which a word or a group of words concluding a sentence is repeated at the beginning of the next segment.
Polysyndeton is the stylistic device of connecting sentences, phrases, phrases, or syntagms. The repetition of the conjunctions. The repetition of the conjunction and underlines close connection of the successive statements. The repetition of conjunctions and other means of connection makes an utterance more rhythmical.
Order of Speech Elements
The English sentence is said to be built according to rigid patterns of word order. It means that any deviation from usual order of words which permissible is very effective stylistically.