3. The Basic Notions of Lexical Semantics Used in Stylistics. Types of meanings

A number of stylistic devices are based on the particular use of lexical meanings. That is why it is necessary to know the types of meaning words may have in stylistic devices.

The most common and acceptable definition of a word is the following: a word is a language sign that expresses a concept by its forms and meanings. By concept is meant an abstract or general idea of some phenomenon of the objective reality including the subjective feelings and emotions of human beings. The meaning of a word is the means by which the concept is materialized. The forms of a word will direct the mind to the correlation between the words in a sentence. The forms of a word are also said to have meanings. There we distinguish between lexical meaning and grammatical meaning.

The meanings are liable to change. When there is an obvious connection between different meanings, we call them shades of meaning or connotations and even separate meanings, the latter being on the verge of becoming separate words. When the process of breaking away from the basic meaning has gone so far that we scarcely feel any connection between the meanings, we say that the word has split into two different words which in this case become homonyms.

Three types of meaning can be distinguished: logical, connotative and nominal.

Logical meaning is the precise naming of a feature of the idea, phenomenon, action or object, the name by which we recognize the whole of the concept. This meaning is also called referential meaning or denotation.

Connotative meanings are those referring the speech unit to a certain functional style, emotive, reflecting feelings and emotions of the speaker, evaluative and expressive, containing the elements of figurativeness.

Nominal meaning is the meaning that singles out one particular object out of a class. Nominal meaning is a derivative logical meaning. To distinguish nominal meaning from logical meaning the former is designated by a capital letter. Such words as Tailor, Hope, Longfellow, Smith, Black Sea are said to have nominal meanings. The logical meaning from which they originate may in the course of time be forgotten and therefore not easily traced back. Hence logical meanings which nominate an object, at the same time signify the whole class of these objects. Nominal meanings which nominate an object are deprived of the latter function because they do not represent a class. It must be remembered, however, that the nominal meaning is always secondary to the logical meaning.

4. The Stylistic Use of Phraseological Units and Their Creative Transformations

Having in mind the peculiarities of functioning in speech we should adopt the definition of a phraseological unit as a semantically integral but separately shaped word combination with the completely or partially transferred meaning.

If such word combinations are used in the direct sense (point of view, as a matter of fact, etc.), they are not stylistically relevant. But they can acquire the stylistic distinction in case of their usage in a figurative sense.

There are phraseological units of high and low stylistic tones.

The units of high tone are: archaisms (at adventure), poeticisms (proud sea), barbarisms (beau monde), bookish (Achilles heel).

The phraseological units of low stylistic tone are: common colloquial (alive and kicking), common slang (ride the black donkey); special slang (jargonisms): marine (be on the beach), referring to aviation (hit the ground), to theatre (get the bird), to sports (sell one’s back), to politics (wrecking amendment).

The stylistic colouring of phraseological is created by diverse means: repetition of the same word: again and again, by and by, more and more; alliteration in com-

bination with synonyms: part and parcel, wreck and ruin, safe and sound; alliteration with assonance: hiss and miss, now or never, between wind and water; rhyme:

to be art and part, fair and square, by hook or by crook; figurativeness: as cold as a cucumber as good as gold, as black as hell.

Authors often make certain transformations of phraseological units aiming at achieving a stylistic effect. Among them are: a) broadening of the unit’s structure. Thus in the sentence: «When you had a weak case and knew it, Alan thought, even straws should be grasped at firmly» (A. Hailey) the phraseological unit catch at a straw is broadened to intensify its meaning; b) shortening of the unit’s structure: a bird in the hand from a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush; new broom from new brooms sweep clean. The use of the clipped phraseological units refers the reader or listener to thoughts or images already known to him, the stylistic effect in such cases is weakened; c) the change of the unit’s structure. In the sentence «Now, I give you fair warning», shouted the Queen, «either you or your head must be off and that in about half no time» (L. Carroll) instead of the set expression in less than no time the modified combination in about half no time is used; d) the rearrangement of components within a proverb or a phraseological unit is done to achieve by way of periphrasis a more vivid, metaphoric expression of the idea, as in the phrase from the article in the journal Economist: «The waters will remain sufficiently troubled for somebody’s fishing to be profitable» (from ‘It is good fishing in troubled waters’).