Em Based on the Violation of the Traditional Word-Order and Isolation of Some Parts of the Sentence.
Inversion. It’s common knowledge that the English language is characterized by its strict word-order. Any violation of this order is called inversion. It may be of two kinds:
Inversion which results in the change of the grammatical meaning of the whole construction is called grammatical inversion. Grammatical inversion in exclamatory and interrogative sentences alters only the meaning of the syntactical structure of the sentence.
The violation of the traditional word-order which does not change the grammatical meaning of the sentence and only gives it an additional emotional and emphatic colouring. This type of change is called stylistic inversion.
E.g. Dolly she called Dolly – heart, but Verena she called That one. (T. Capote. The Grass Harp).
From behind me came Andrew’s voice.
As far as its form concerns, inversion may be of two types:
Complete, when it refers to the main parts of the sentence.
E.g. From behind me came Andrew’s voice. (S. Chaplin. The Thin Seam).
Partial, when it refers to the other parts of the sentence.
E.g. To his orderly he was cold and just and indifferent. (L. Durell. The Little Affair in Paris).
Separation of Syntactically Connected Sentence Units.
Separation is a syntagmatic phenomenon caused by communicative and semantic reasons. Thus, in a split noun phrase the attributive adjunct is placed at a distance from the word it modifies.
E.g. He had never seen the truth before, about anything. (Warren R.).
Here the emphasis of the adjunct “about anything” is observed, being caused by the communicative factors.
Detachment – is an isolation of some parts of the sentence.
E.g. I hardly dare to think what it must have been for Art, strapped, helpless and immobile. (S. Chaplin. The Thin Seam).
Detachment is to be regarded as a special kind of inversion when some parts of the sentence are syntactically separated from other members of the sentence with which they are grammatically and logically connected.
E.g. And Michael drew in his breath. A sound of singing came down the water to him, trailing, distant, high and sweet. (J. Galsworthy. The White Monkey).
EM based on the violation of the traditional word-order and isolation of some parts of the sentence are used in the literary language to produce different stylistic effects:
to give emotional or emphatic colouring to certain elements;
to make the isolated words more independent and give them greater prominence.
Syntactical stylistic devices.
1) Sd Based on the Formal and Semantic Combination of Syntactical Constructions of Several Neighbouring Sentences.
Parallelism – a set of constructions formed by the same syntactical pattern closely following one another.
Parallelism may be complete and partial.
Complete parallelism is observed when the construction of the second sentence fully copies the construction of the first one.
E.g. I told him you were sick, I told you were asleep. (W. Shakespeare. Twelfth Night).
Parallelism is considered to be partial when only the beginning or the end of several sentences are structurally similar.
E.g. If we are Frenchmen we adore our mother, if Englishmen, we love dogs and virtue. (J.K. Jerome. Three Men in a Boat).
C
hiasmus
– is reversed parallelism. In the pattern consisting of two
sentences, the second sentence repeats the structure of the first,
only in a reversed manner, so that the general formula of chiasmus
may be fixed as follows: S – P – O O – P – S.
E.g. It was a shock to me that while I observed Thompson, Thompson observed me. (V. Pritchett. The Sailor).
He stared at me, and I stared at him. (A. Sillitoe. A Start in Life).
The main stylistic function of chiasmus is to stress the second part of the utterance, to break the monotony of parallel constructions.
E.g. It was a shock to me that while I observed Thompson, Thompson observed me. (V. Pritchett. The Sailor).
Anaphora – is the repetition of the first word or group of words in several succeeding sentences or clauses.
E.g. He knew his decision was already taken. He knew that it was surrender. He knew that he would slip from her. (Ch. Snow. Time of Hope).
The stylistic function of anaphora is to stress some fact, to impose it on the reader’s mind by continuous repetition. At the same time anaphora serves for creating phonetic stylistic effects. It creates a certain rhythm of narration, making it closer to poetry.
Epiphora – is the repetition of the final word or group of words in succeeding sentences or clauses.
E.g. Major Thrope was mortally wounded and his runner killed; Hume and runner were killed; Sergeant Perkins was killed; the stretcher-bearers were killed. Men seemed to drop away continually. (R. Aldington. Death of a Hero).
Epiphora is an important means of rhythmical organisation of speech, typical of poetry. The second function of epiphora is to serve the logical emphasis of the utterance.