Lecture 6

Stylistic Syntax of the English Language. Expressive Means of the Syntax.

Thematic Plan of the Lecture

1. The notion of EM and SD on the syntactical level. Stylistically marked models of sentences as EM of the syntactical level. SD as selection and combinations of sentence models.

2. EM of the English syntax:

1. EM based on the deliberate reduction of some elements of the sentence structure (ellipsis, aposiopesis, nominative sentences, asyndeton);

2. EM based on the redundancy (expansion) of some elements of the sentence structure (ordinary repetition, extended repetition, catch repetition (anadiplosis), chain repetition, framing, syntactic tautology, emphatic constructions, parenthetical sentences);

3. EM based on the violation of word-order in the sentence structure (inversion, distant position of the syntactically connected units of the sentence).

Key Problems of the Lecture

Syntax is a branch of language science which studies the types of relations between words, word-combinations, sentences and larger spans of utterances (I. Galperin).

Paradigmatic Syntax is the branch of stylistics which studies the syntactic paradigm, i.e. a set of parallel (more or less equivalent, interchangeable, though formally different) syntactic structures and their comparative stylistic significance. It deals with the structure of the sentence, the number and position of its constituents, compared with other choices (Yu. Skrebnev).

Syntagmatic syntax is the branch of stylistics which deals with a chain of sentences, the sequence of sentences constituing a text (Yu. Screbnev).

Expressive means on the syntactical level are syntactic models of sentences which bear additional, logical or expressive information helping to intensify the pragmatic effectiveness of speech (O. Morokhovsky).

Basic Notions of the Lecture

1. The notion of em and sd on the syntactical level. Stylistically marked models of sentences as em of the syntactical level. Sd as selection and combinations of sentence models.

In the domain of syntax it is difficult to distinguish between what is purely grammatical, i.e. marked as corresponding to the established norms, and what is stylistic, i.e. showing some kind of violation of these norms. The examination of syntax provides a deeper insight into the stylistic aspect of utterances.

Syntactic stylistics takes as the object of its analysis the expressive means and stylistic devices of the language which are based on some significant structural points in an utterance, whether it consists of one sentence or a string of sentences [10:191]. So, for stylistic analysis on the level of syntax one deals with simple, compound or complex sentences, even a paragraph. Syntactic relations, particularly in poetic language, are that aspect of speech in which everything presents itself as the actualization of the potential and not merely as the repetition of the ready-made. By the "potential" variations of syntactical patterns are meant [13:p.15-16]. As for syntactic relations, they cannot be investigated in isolation from semantic content on the level of stylistic analysis.

As for the structural elements and their semantic meaning one should take into account the following inferences pointed out by the linguist I.Galperin:

1. the structural element of the utterance that predetermines the possible semantic aspect;

2. the structural elements have their own independent meaning which may be called structural or, more widely, grammatical;

3. the structural meaning may affect the lexical one, giving contextual meaning to some of the lexical units [10:193].

Expressive means of the syntax include a number of stylistically marked syntactical constructions. They can be divided into 3 groups:

1. expressive means based on the reduction of the given model;

2. expressive means based on the expansion (redundancy) of the given model;

3. expressive means based on the violation of the order of components of the given model.

Stylistic devices of the syntax can be divided into such groups:

1. stylistic devices based on the interaction of several syntactic constructions;

2. stylistic devices based on the transposition of meaning of the syntactic construction;

3. stylistic devices based on the transposition of the meaning of the ways of connection.

Table 23

Expressive Means of the Syntax

deliberate reduction (expansion) of some elements of the sentence structure

redundancy (expansion) of some elements of the sentence structure

violation of the word-order in the sentence structure