5. Other parts of speech in style

Among other parts of speech in style the Adverb should be distinguished as adjectival or verbal modifier. Semantically adverbs are usually subdivided into the lexico-grammatical subclasses of place, time, manner and degree. As modifiers of degree the adjective and the adverb may be divided into stylistically neutral (too stiff, very pleasant, absolutely cool) which are used freely in both varieties of English and colloquialisms (awfully, dreadfully, fearfully, terribly etc.) these are pure intensifiers which have lost their lexicality altogether.

The extreme zone of lexical emptiness is perhaps occupied by “quite” which has semantically degraded from “completeness of quality” to merely “presence of some degree of quality”.

There is a clear-cut stylistic stratification of the synonymity of suffixal and suffixes adverbial forms in present-day English. The suffixes adverbs are the norm in common colloquial speech and may be employed by the fiction authors for the purpose of speech characterization. In the American colloquial English such suffixes formations are most widely spread:

• I sure was stiff.

• I’ll do it sure.

• I married happy.

• He works regular.

• The car runs o.k.

Part 2: Stylistic Lexicology of the English Language

1. The word and its meaning. The types of connotative meanings. Criteria for the stylistic differentiation of the English vocabulary.

2. Stylistic functions of the words having lexico-stylistic paradigm.

3. Stylistic functions of the words having no lexico-stylistic paradigm.

4. Neutral, common literary and common colloquial vocabulary.

5. Special literary vocabulary:

1). Terms.

2). Poetic and highly literary words.

3). Archaic words.

4). Barbarisms and foreignisms.

6. Special colloquial vocabulary. Slang:

1). Jargonisms.

2). Professionalism.

3). Dialectal words.

4). Vulgarisms.

5). Colloquial coinages.

Theoretical back-up

1. The word and its meaning. The types of connotative meanings. Criteria for the stylistic differentiation of the English vocabulary.

Every notional word of a natural language carries some definite information. This information may be basic or denotative and additional or connotative.

Some words of the English language possess only denotative information. So they are stylistically neutral: man, house, to give, red, right, very, etc. It does not mean that they cannot be used for stylistic purposes. A word in fiction acquires new qualities depending on its position, distribution, etc. Practically any word depending on the context may acquire connotation: monkey-face, pussy-cat, cookie.

Additional information about people’s attitude to the world of things and ideas may be treated as additional to what a word may mean in the dictionary. This additional information is usually called “connotation” or “connotative meaning”, while the meaning that conveys the basic information is called “logical-dictionary meaning” or “denotative meaning”. But there are cases when the connotative meaning can pass over to the category of denotative, as in the words, which have modal meanings or which are the terms denoting various pleasant or unpleasant feelings, etc.

The additional information or connotative meaning may be of four types:

1. Evaluative;

2. Emotional;

3. Expressive-figurative;

4. Functional-stylistic.

Evaluative meaning bears references to things, phenomena or ideas through a kind of evaluation of a denotate.

E.g. positive – negative: beautiful – ugl;, out-of-date method – time-tested method; firm – obstinate – pig-headed.

Emotional meaning expresses emotional attitude of the speaker to the denotate (“scoundrel”, “villain”, “jade”). Neutral words like “anger”, “pleasure”, “pain”, etc. should be distinguished from emotionally-coloured words.

Expressive-figurative meaning has reference not directly to things or phenomena of objective reality but to feelings and emotions of the speaker. It is based on transference of meaning: speaking of a man – “log”, “bully”, “brick”. Expressivity or expressive connotation may be defined as a foregrounding of some specific features of a referent with the help of reviving the inner form or explicating some potential semic element with the help of various stylistic devices.

Functional-stylistic meaning is connected with the constant usage of the word in definite speech spheres or situations: “foe”, “realm”, “maiden” are mostly used in poetry, terms, nomenclature words – in scientific prose style, official documents. But there is no strict borderline between functional-stylistic meaning and connotative meanings. More over, functional stylistic meaning may serve a starting point for acquiring other connotative meanings.

Stylistic classification of the vocabulary of any language is a very complicated problem. The existing classifications are based on different criteria:

• Paradigmatic criterion – absence of the additional information (evaluative, notional, expressive meaning);

• Syntagmatic criterion – the character of syntagmatic relations of the lexical or lexical-stylistic meaning of the word with the context. Both criteria are interconnected.

The English vocabulary may be divided into two groups:

1. Words having lexico-stylistic paradigm. These words are characterized by:

1. indirect reference to the object: foe (poetic) = enemy (neutral);

2. subjective evaluative connotations;

3. the referential borders are not strict – these words are of qualifying character, so they may be used with different references;

4. have synonyms;

5. may have antonyms.

To this group we refer: poetic diction, archaic words, barbarisms, and foreign words; stylistic neologisms, slangisms, colloquial words, jargonisms (social and professional); dialect words; vulgarisms.

2. Words having no lexico-stylistic paradigm are characreized by:

1. direct reference to the object;

2. absence of subjective-evaluative connotations;

3. strict referential borders;

4. absence of synonyms or synonyms of denotative character;

5. absence of antonyms;

To this group we refer stylistically neutral words, terms, nomenclature words, historic words, lexical neologisms, exotic words.

Words having lexico-stylistic paradigm are not homogeneous, they may enter the following oppositions:

Colloquial vocabulary --------------------------------------------- bookish vocabulary

Non-literary words -------------------------------------------------------- literary words

General literary vocabulary--------social and dialect elements, special vocabulary

Contemporary vocabulary ------------------------------------------archaic vocabulary

However mentioned groups of words are not closed, one and the same word may refer to two or more groups.