III. Stylistic Functions of the Words Having Lexico-Stylistic Paradigm.

Lexical Expressive means of the language are words which have not only denotative meaning but connotative as well. Depending on the connotative meaning which may be of diverse character, the words possessing this meaning fall into two groups: “high-flown” words which traditionally are linked with poetic, bookish and written speech; and “low-flown” words which are more often used in oral, colloquial speech.

High-flown words are more stable due to the traditions of the written type of speech. Low-flown words undergo constant changes.

Stylistic functions of literary (high-flown) words. Poetic diction.

Poetic words form lexico-stylistic paradigm. In the XVII – XVIII^th centuries they were widely used in poetry as synonyms to neutral words. In modern poetry such a vocabulary does not practically exist. In modern poetry any words are used: terms, common talk, nomenclature words, slangisms, and so on. Poetic words are diverse; they include:

1. archaic words (affright - alarm)

2. archaic forms (betwix - between)

3. historic words (casque - helmet)

4. poetic words proper (alien, brine)

Their main function is to mark the text in which they are used as poetic, and in this way distinguish it from non-fiction texts. In modern poetry they are seldom used. Their stylistic meaning is vivid when they are contrasted to neutral words.

Archaic words.

We should distinguish “ageing” – “newness” of the word’s form and “ageing” – “newness” of the denotate and then accordingly we may compare archaic words and historic words on the one hand and lexical and stylistic neologisms – on the other.

Lexical neologisms denote new objects: “neutron bomb”, “teach-in”, “push-button war”.

Stylistic neologisms denote already existing objects and notions: “know-how” – skills, “hush-hush” – top secret, “look-see” – check up. They appear to give more expressiveness to the old objects.

Examples.

Archaic words Benison – a blessing Bezonian – a raskal Buss – kiss Historic words Existing words that denote old notions or objects that even do not exist now: Стрелец, вече, сотня, гетман, хорунжий, yeoman, vassal, falconet

Stylistic neologisms Know-how – skill Egg-beater – helicopter Sky – mobil Ageism- discrimination against a person Mole – a spy Lexical neologisms Hippy Teach-in Bionics Laser shopping To hack A hacker

Archaic words are contrasted, on the one hand, to stylistic neologisms and on the other hand – to historic words. Archaic words and stylistic neologisms have lexico-stylistic paradigm and consequently stylistic meaning.

Historic words and lexical neologisms do not form lexico-stylistic paradigm and have no stylistic meaning.

Archaic words may be divided into two groups:

1. Archaic words proper (old words): antic – bizarre, to affright – to alarm, to assail - to pardon.

2. Archaic forms of the words: “annoy” instead of “annoyance”, “bide” instead of “abide”, “an’” instead of “and”. The stylistic function of them is the same as in the case of poetic words – to mark the text stylistically, distinguish it from neutral, literary speech. Archaic words are often used in poetry, in official documents, in oratorical style to make the utterance official or solemn. In fiction archaic words are used with historic words to create the effect of antiquity, giving true-to-life historical background, reminding of the past habits, customs, dress, objects of everyday life, etc. the usage of archaic words is sometimes incompatible with modern professional or colloquial words. In this case the usage of archaic words creates humoristic or satirical effect.

Barbarisms and Foreign Words.

There are many borrowings in every language, some of them are assimilated. We may distinguish 4 groups of such words: foreign words, barbarisms, exotic words and borrowings.

Foreign words are close to barbarisms but they are characterized by occasional usage mainly in literary speech. They are not Expressive Means of the given language because they do not enter the system of oppositions of the language, though they may be used to create some stylistic effect.

Barbarisms are borrowed words and expressions that have preserved their native spelling and pronunciation and have synonyms in the language-borrower (form French: parvenu – выскочка, protégé – протеже, à propos – кстати, beau monde - высший свет).

Exotic words are borrowed words denoting objects characteristic of a certain country (спагетти, bistro, matador).

They have no synonyms in the language-borrower, do not form lexico-stylistic paradigm and therefore, they are not Expressive Means of the language-borrower, but they may be used for stylistic purpose.

Borrowings do not differ much from native words if they are assimilated as far as their stylistic aspect is concerned. They are usually high-flown synonyms of neutral native words (“to commence” – “to begin”, “infant” – “child”).

Stylistic function of barbarisms and foreign words are similar. They are used to show foreign origin of a speaker or his level of education, they may create an effect of local colouring. In the Russian language barbarisms, mostly non-assimilated, became a source of creating the youth jargon.

Bookish (learned) words are used only in official or high-flown style (laureate, disimprove, abode, absonant, paradigm). In Russian: аббревиатура, абориген, авторитарный, адекватный. In official usage they are Expressive Means of the given style, but when used in colloquial speech or in informal situation they may create a comical effect.

Stylistic Functions of Low-Flown (conversational) Words.

Here we refer colloquial words, general slang words, special slang words (social and professional jargons), dialect words and vulgarisms. Some linguists differentiate slang and jargon but the difference being vague in general is practically irrelevant for stylistics. Low-flown words may be divided into three big groups:

1. Literary colloquial

2. Familiar colloquial

3. Low colloquial

Taking into consideration the criterion of mutual relations between the form and its meaning all colloquial words may be divided into three subgroups:

1. Words which in colloquial speech change their phonetic form without changing their lexical and stylistic meaning;

2. Words which in colloquial speech change both the form and lexico-stylistic meaning;

3. Words which in colloquial speech change lexical and/or lexico-stylistic meaning without changing the form.

Let us analyse every subgroup:

1. In the first subgroup we may distinguish some varieties of changing of word phonetic form:

1. clipping (shortening): aggro – aggravation;

combo – combination;

trad(itional).

2. contamination of word combinations:

s’long – so long; c’mon – come on;

gimme – give me; gonna – going to;

kina – find of.

3. contamination of grammatical forms:

I don’t; he’s done it; I’d go; I’d like; we’re going.

The usage of these forms in speech is conditioned by the following factors: tempo of speech, economy of pronouncing efforts, situational context. These words have no lexico-stylistic paradigm. They have style meaning.

2. In the second subgroup we may distinguish two different changes of lexico-stylistic meaning caused by the change of the form:

1. the change of the grammatical form which brings the change of lexico-stylistic meaning: the words “bags”, “heaps” in plural form acquire the meaning “very many”, the noun “separates” in plural means отдельно продаваемые юбки, брюки, блузки.

The usage of an indefinite article with the adjectives “beautiful” and “handful” converts them into nouns with the meanings “красотка” and “кто-то или что-то, доставляющее много хлопот”, E.g. “the child is a handful”.

2. the change of form of neutral or high-flown word according to different word-

building patterns causes another lexico-stylistic meaning.

The building patterns which cause change of the form of a neutral word are the following:

Affixation Compounding Conversion Telescopy Shortening and affixation Compounding and affixation

Crammer (репетитор) – from the word “to cram” Backbencher (парламентарий – “заднескамеечник”) Scotty (шотландец), Welshie (уэльсец) In Russian: работяга, общага, шоферить. Admass – публика, на которую рассчитана реклама, bettlemania – битломания, backroom boy – засекреченный парень, bubble car – микролитражный автомобиль, legman – репортёр. To angel – тайно покровительствовать, to bag – взять без спроса, be-in – встреча хиппи, sit-in – сидячая забастовка, teach-in – диспут, семинар Motel, smog, to dunch – толкать локтем Ally-Pally – Alexander Palace, archie – from Archibald – вид зенитного пулемёта, in Russian: раскладушка, коммуналка, анонимка, продлёнка. Strap-hanger – висящий на ремне (о пассажирах гор. транспорта), arty-crafty - художественный, brown-bagger – зубрила (по коричневому портфелю, с которым он никогда не расстаётся).

All these words have lexico-stylistic paradigm, they have synonyms among neutral and high-flown words and have stylistic meaning. They give additional characteristics to the denotate.

3) The third subgroup is the most numerous and it is difficult to classify these words, as the relations of basic (denotative) and additional (connotative) information of them are complex. We may distinguish such cases here:

1. words having only emotional-expressive meaning: “oh”, “gee”, alas and others; and word-combinations having special expressive function: Good heavens; Good God; God forbid; damn it, and others. They have no denotative meaning.

2. words and word-combinations having both connotative and denotative meaning but the first prevails: really; you don’t say so; awfully; terribly; what a nuisance.

3. words in which denotative and connotative meanings interplay. These words have synonyms (neutral or high-flown words): beak – a teacher; cloth-cap - “матерчатая кепка”, которую обыкновенно носят рабочие, символ простого происхождения; colt-team – “жеребячья команда”, молодёжная команда, состоящая из перспективных игроков; in Russian: поплавок – значок об окончании вуза; стекляшка – кафе, распивочная; ящик – телевизор; телега – жалоба. In these words connotative meaning brings emotional-expressive characteristic of low tone.

4. words in which denotative meaning is connected with connotative meaning in certain contextual conditions. Usually these words are stylistically neutral, their additional (in this case - colloquial) meaning is conditioned not by the properties of the paradigm, but by the syntagmatic relations in an utterance or a context: to ache (neutral meaning) - болеть; (colloq. meaning) – жаждать чего-нибудь - I ached to see him; beggar (neutral meaning) - нищий; (colloq. meaning) – парень, малый, lucky beggar – счастливчик; careful (neutral meaning) - заботливый; (colloq. meaning) – скуповатый – a ~ housewife.

5. words, denotative and connotative meanings of which are completely different from denotative and connotative meanings of neutral and high-flown words they are connected with by origin: ambidexter (neutral m.) – человек, свободно владеющий обеими руками; (colloq. m.) - присяжный, берущий взятки с обеих сторон, участвующих в процессе; cerulean (poetical m.) - лазурь; “синий чулок”.

Slang is a layer of words of a highly colloquial character whose expressiveness and novelty make them emphatic and emotive as compared to their neutral synonyms.

The positions of slang in the language gave rise to many controversies. According to I.R. Galperin, we can distinguish two varieties of slang: general slang (interjargon) and special slang (social jargons, professional jargons) [See Galperin, pp. 96-113, ed. 1971.]

Some of the former slangisms entered colloquial or even neutral layer of the vocabulary (movies, phone, photo, flu, sky-scraper). Their novelty is the most impressive feature, as it disappears they lose their expressiveness.

Low-flown words are widely used for stylistic purposes. There are four speech spheres in which they are used: everyday speech, newspaper language, poetry and fiction.

In newspaper language colloquial words and word combinations and sometimes general slang words are used to give expressive evaluation of facts and events. In modern poetry words of all layers are widely used. Lyrical poetry presenting personal monologue allows the usage of all non-poetic words to create the atmosphere of sincerity and confidence.

Slang words in fiction (in dialogues) are used to reflect the informal and emotive character of speech, to indicate social and speech peculiarities of characters.