3. Morphological level

When repeated morphemes come into the focus of attention and stress either their logical meaning (e.g. that of contrast, negation, absence of a quality as in such prefixes like a-, anti-, mis-; or of smallness as in suffixes –ling and –ette); their emotive and evaluative meaning, as in suffixes forming degrees of comparison; or add to the rhythmical effect and text unity.

The second way of using a morpheme for the creation of additional information is extension of its normative valency which results in the formation of the new words. They are not neologisms in the true sense for they are created for special communicative situations only, and are not used beyond these occasions. This is why they are called occasional words.

Very often occasional words are the result of morphemic repetition. “I am an undersecretary in an underbureau”. The stress on the insignificance of the occupation of I.Shaw’s heroine brings forth both – the repetition of the prefix under- and the appearance, due to it, of the occasional word ‘under bureau’.

Stylistic potential of nouns is observed in:

• repeating the same words in a syntactical construction: Women are women;

• Possessive case with common nouns becomes a mark of personification: The blonde I had been dancing with’s name was Beatrice Krebs (J. Salinger);

• transposition of human nouns to non-human: He was the key to the problem. She will be a great success;

• singular instead of plural that gives a generalized effect or symbolization;

• plural instead of singular in abstract nouns that makes the speech more expressive;

• transposition of abstract nouns to personal: the chubby eccentricity.

The verb possesses more grammatical categories than any other part of speech.

One of peculiar verbal transpositions is the change of temporary planes of narration (when the events of the past or future are described by present tense forms). The use of ‘historical present’ makes the description very pictorial, almost visible. So a reader becomes a part of the events described, a witness. The outcome is an effect of empathy. Such transposition brightens the narration, raises its emotional tension, expresses intrigue, and makes the continuity of events visual and graphic.

The use of shall with the second or third person denotes the speaker’s emotions, intention or determination. Similar connotations are evoked by the emphatic use of will with the first person pronoun.

Continuous can convey the emotional state of the speaker:

• conviction, determination, persistence;

• impatience, irritation;

• surprise, indignation, disapproval.

Present Continuous may be used to characterize the current emotional state or behaviour.

Since the sentences containing the infinitive have no explicit doer of the action these sentences acquire a generalized universal character. The world of the personage and the reader blend into one whole as if the question is asked of the reader (What to do? How to act?). This creates empathy.

A wide range of subjunctive mood forms offers a good stylistic choice of synonymous pairs of sentences: It is time for me to go = It is time that I went. The first sentence is stylistically neutral while the second is either bookish or obsolescent.

The passive voice may demonstrate extreme generalisation and depersonalisation because an utterance is devoid of the doer of an action and the action itself loses direction. In many contexts passive verbal forms are more expressive than their active counterparts.

The use of the auxiliary do in affirmative sentences is a notable emphatic device: Then I do look at her and see that all the colour has left her face, she is fearfully pale. (Erdrich)

Imperative Mood is often used in publicist and advertisement styles.