II.Phonographical Level
2.1. Sound Instrumenting
2.2. Graphon
2.3. Graphical Means
A phoneme has a unilateral nature. This language unit helps to differentiate meaningful lexemes but has no meaning of its own. The sounds [ou], [ju:] do not have the meaning, but their sense-differentiating significance is obvious in “sew” [sou] and “sew” [sju:], or [au] and [ou] in “bow”.
A phoneme is devoid of denotational or connotational meaning, but it has a strong associative and sound-instrumental power. In this case, we speak of onomatopoeia that is when the sounds of the words imitate the sounds of the signified objects or actions. For example, “hiss” - «шипение», “murmur” - «шепот», “bump” - «удар», “sizzle” - «визг», ”cuckoo” - «кукушка».
- “And now there came the chock-chock of wooden hammers!” (K.Mansfield).
"[Aredelia] found Starling in the warm laundry room, dozing against the slow rump-rump of a washing machine." (Thomas Harris, Silence of the Lambs)
- “The Germans heavies gave him a last amiable farewell…The train waited interminably. Zwiing, crash! to the right. Zwiing, crash! to the left. He sat there alone for thirty-five minutes - thirty-five Zwiing, crash!” (R.Aldington).
The acoustic form of the word imitates the sounds of nature, man, inanimate objects. This form foregrounds it and emphasizes its meaning. Thus, the phonemic structure of the words is very important for the creation of expressive and emotive connotations. If a word contains an onomatopoeic word, it does not transmit the logical information only. It also supplies the vivid portrayal of the situation described.
Poetry abounds in some specific types of sound instrumenting. The leading role in it belongs to alliteration and assonance.
Alliteration is a repetition of the same consonant at the beginning of neighbouring words or accented syllables. In Anglo-Saxon verse alliteration of the stressed syllables in a line was the chief metrical device. In modern times, alliteration has been used for onomatopoeic or emphatic effects.
“There are twelve months in all the year,
As I hear many men say,
But the merriest month in all the year
Is the merry month of May.” (Popular Ballads)
Assonance is the repetition of similar vowels, usually in stressed syllables. It is sometimes combined with likeness in consonants:
“Once upon a midnight dreary
While I pondered, weak and weary,
Still is sitting, still is sitting.” (E.Poe)
As alliteration as assonance may produce the effect of euphony or cacophony. Euphony is a sense of ease and comfort in pronouncing or hearing. It is an effective combination of sounds, which are capable of producing a certain artistic impression. It is a kind of sound instrumenting. In it, the meaning of the word or rather the general mood of the verse or prose passage is supported by a sound image.
“In notes with many a winding bout
Of linked sweetness long drawn out,
With wanton heed and giddy cunning
The melting voice through mazes running.” (J. Milton)
Example of Euphony in a Poem – Excerpt “To Autumn” by John Keats
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
Cacophony is a sense of strain and discomfort in pronouncing or hearing. Usually the result of awkward alliteration as in tongue‐twisters, it is sometimes used by poets for deliberate effect, as in these lines from Robert Browning's ‘Caliban upon Setebos’:
And squared and stuck there squares of soft white chalk, And, with a fish‐tooth, scratched a moon on each, And set up endwise certain spikes of tree, And crowned the whole with a sloth's skull a‐top.
“No soul helps flesh now
More than flesh helps soul.” (R.Browning)
Example of Cacophony – Excerpt “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
Sound instrumenting is seldom used to create additional information in a prose discourse.
Sound may be foregrounded through the change of its accepted graphical representation. It is done mainly in contemporary advertising, mass media and, above all, creative prose. This intentional violation of the graphical shape of a word or word combination is called graphon. It is used to reflect the authentic pronunciation of a word or word combination. Graphons indicate irregularities or carelessness of pronunciation. They were occasionally introduced into English novels and journalism at the beginning of the 18th century. Since then they have acquired an ever-growing frequency of usage, popularity among writers, journalists, advertisers.
Graphon is a brief but effective means. It supplies information about the speaker’s origin, social and educational background, physical and emotional condition, etc. The famous W.Thackeray’s character - butler Yellowplush - impress his listeners with the learned words but he pronounces them as “sellybrated” (celebrated), “bennyviolent” (benevolent), “illygimit” (illegimate), “jewinile” (juvenile). No less famous S.Lewis’s Mr. Babbitt uses “pee-rading” (parading), “Eytalians” (Italians), “peepul” (people). The reader obtains not only the vivid image and the social, cultural, educational characteristics of the personages, but also the authors’ sarcastic attitude to them. On the other hand, “The b-b-b-b-bas-tud-he seen me c-c-c-coming” in R.P.Warren’s Sugar Boy’s speech or “You don’t mean to thay that thith is your firth time” (D.Cusak) show the physical defects of the speakers - the stumbling of one and the lisping of the other. Graphon individualizes the character’s speech. It adds to his plausibility, vividness, memorability. At the same time, graphon is very good at conveying the atmosphere of the informality of the speech act.
Some amalgated forms are the result of strong assimilation. They became clichés in contemporary prose dialogue:”gimme” (give me), “lemme” (let me), “gonna” (going to), “gotta” (got to), “coupla” (couple of), “mighta” (might have), “willya” (will you), etc.
The flavour of informality and authenticity brought graphon popularity with advertisers. Eating places: “Pik-kwik store”, The Donut (doughnut) Place"," Rite Bread Shop”. The same is true about newspaper, posters and TV advertising: “Super Class Model” cars, “Rite aid” medicine. On the flaps of big freight cars one can read: “Follo me”, etc.
Graphical changes may reflect not only the peculiarities of pronunciation. They are also to convey the intensity of the stress. They emphasize and thus foreground the stressed words. Such purely graphical means do not involve the violations. These are all changes of the type (italics, capitalization), spacing of graphemes (hyphenation, multiplication), and the changes of lines. The latter was widely used in Russian poetry by V.Mayakovsky (“steps” in verse line), or A.Voznesensky. In English the most often referred to “graphical imagist” was Edward Estein Cunnings:
Grasshopper
r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r
Who
a)s w(e loo)k upnowgath
PPRGORHRASS
Eringint(o
aThe):l
eA
!p
S a
(r
rlvInG .gRrEaPsPhOs)
to
rea(be)rran(com)gi(e)ngly
, grasshopper;
According to the frequency of usage, variability of functions, italics occupy the first place among graphical means of foregrounding. When we use italics, we add to the logical and emotive significance of the words. Besides this, we may italicize separate syllables and morphemes emphasizing them.
Intensity of speech (often in commands) is transmitted through multiplication of a graphon or through capitalization of the word: “Alllll aboarrrrrd”, “Help! Help! HELP!”
If way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at the Worst. (Th.Hardy)
Hyphenation of a word suggests the rhymed or clipped manner in which the word is pronounced: “grinning like a chim-pan-zee” (a humiliating comment from Fl. O’Connor’s story).
The varied application of the graphical arrangement of a word (a line, a discourse) re-creates the individual and social peculiarities of the speaker, the atmosphere at revealing and emphasizing the author’s viewpoint.