Stylistically coloured specific elements
Formal vocabulary : : Informal vocabulary
Bookish : : Colloquial
Correct : : Common
Roman Jacobson Casual : : Non-casual
Specific distribution may also create unexpected additional colouring of a generally neutral word. Such stylistic connotation is called “Occasional” (Znamenskaya).
The varieties of the language
Territorial varieties
The English language :: National language
With respect to the accepted Literary Norm of the language, we distinguish Standard English and Non-standard English.
V.V.Gurevich Standard English - is “the variant that is fixed in the written language, works of fiction, in radio and TV speech”.
Variant –
Non-standard English - is represented by dialects and variants of the language found in the different geographical areas where English is used.
Dialect –
National language
Standard Non-standard
Written Oral Oral No written
E nglish language
New Zealand American British African Australian
Canadian Irish
Vocabulary in the aspect of time
Archaic or obsolete words that belong to some previous of language development. Historisms - words that reflect some phenomena belonging to the past times.
Neologisms – are the words that have recently come into the language and are still felt as rather new. Comparatively new borrowings from other languages, which are not yet completely assimilated in the language (phonetically or grammatically), are stylistically marked as foreign words (sometimes as barbarisms) V.V.Gurevich.
The Theory of Stylistic Devices: Different approaches.
Expressive means of the language - are those linguistic forms and properties that have the potential to make the utterance emphatic or expressive (T.A.Znamenskaya). They can be found at all levels: phonetic, graphical, morphological, lexical and syntactical.
E.M. – devices serving to strengthen communicative effects of speech (text), as opposed to image-creating means (tropes, simile) (Y.M.Skrebnev).
Having much in common, expressive means and stylistic devices are not synonymous: all stylistic devices belong to expressive means, but not all expressive means are stylistic devices. EX. 1) Phonetic phenomena (pauses, logical stress) or staccato pronunciation are expressive without being stylistic devices. 2) Morphological forms (diminutive suffixes: girlie, piggy, doggy, etc.) 3) Lexical expressive means (intensifiers: awfully, terribly, absolutely, etc.) 4) Syntactical patterns: I do know you!
A stylistic device – is a literary model (prof. I.R.Galperin calls it a generative model) in which semantic and structural features are blended so that it represents a generalized pattern (T.A.Znamenskaya).
S.D. - is choice or arrangement of units to achieve expressive or image-creating effect (Y.M.Skrebnev).
This first theory of style included 3 subdivisions:
the choice of words: lexical expressive means such as foreign words, archaisms, neologisms, poetic words, nonce words and metaphor;
word combinations: word order, word combinability, rhythm and period (a complete sentence)
figures of speech: antithesis, assonance of colons, equality of colons.
The choice of words included lexical expressive means such as foreign words, archaisms, neologisms, poetic words, nonce words and metaphor.
Word combinations involved 3 things:
order of words;
word-combinations;
rhythm and period (in rhetoric, a complete sentence).
3. Figures of speech. This part included only 3 devices used by the antique authors always in the same order.
antithesis;
assonance of colons;
equality of colons.
Hellenistic Roman rhetoric system
Tropes:
Trope – is a figure of speech based on some kind of transfer of denomination.
1. Metaphor—the application of a word (phrase) to an object (concept) it doesn't literally denote to suggest comparison with another object or concept. EX. A mighty Fortress is our God.
Puzzle (Riddle)—a statement that requires thinking over a confusing or difficult problem that needs to be solved. EX. What should we do to solve our problem?
Synecdoche—the mention of a part for the whole. EX. A fleet of 50 sail, (a ship)
4. Metonymy—substitution of one word for another on the basis of real connection. EX. Crown for sovereign; Homer for Homer's poems; wealth for rich people.
5. Catachresis — misuse of a word due to the false folk etymology or wrong application of a term in a sense that does not belong to the word. EX. Alibi for excuse; mental for weak-minded; mutual for common; disinterested for uninterested.
6. Epithet — a word or phrase used to describe someone or something with a purpose to praise or blame. EX. It was a lovely, summery evening.
7. Periphrasis — putting things in a round about way in order to bring out some important feature or explain more clearly the idea or situation described. EX. I paid him twenty rupees a month, about thirty bob, at which he was highly delighted.
8. Hyperbole—use of exaggerated terms for emphasis. EX. A 1000 apologies; to wait an eternity; he is stronger than a lion.
9. Antonomasia—use of a proper name to express a general idea or conversely a common name for a proper one. EX. The Iron Lady; a Solomon; Don Juan.
Figures of Speech that create Rhythm
These expressive means were divided into 4 large groups:
a)Figures that create rhythm by means of addition:
1. Doubling (reduplication, repetition) of words and sounds. EX. Tip-top, helter-skelter, wishy-washy; oh, the dreary, dreary moorland.
2. Epenalepsis (polysyndeton) conjunctions: use of several conjunctions. EX. He thought, and thought, and thought; f hadn't realized until then how small the houses were, how small and mean the shops.
3. Anaphora: repetition of a word or words at the beginning of two or more clauses, sentences or verses. EX. E.g. No tree, no shrub, no blade of grass, not a bird or beast, not even a fish that was not owned!
4. Enjambment: running on of one thought into the next line, without breaking the syntactical pattern. EX. In Ocean's wide domains
Half buried in the sands
Lie skeletons in chains
With shackled feet and hands.
Asyndeton: omission of conjunction. EX. He provided the poor with jobs, with opportunity, with self-respect.
b) Figures based on compression:
1. Zeugma (syllepsis): a figure by which a verb, adjective or other part of speech, relating to one noun is referred to another. EX. He lost his hat and his temper, with weeping eyes and hearts.
2. Chiasmus—a reversal in the order of words in one of two parallel phrases. EX. He went to the country, to the town went she.
3. Ellipsis—omission of words needed to complete the construction of the sense. EX. He was hanged and his followers imprisoned.
c)Figures based on assonance or accord:
1. Equality of colons—used to have a power to segment and arrange.
2.Proportions and harmony of colons.
d) Figures based on opposition:
1. Antithesis—choice or arrangement of words that emphasises a contrast. EX. Give me liberty or give me death.
2.Paradiastola—the lengthening of a syllable regularly short (in Greek poetry).
3.Anastrophe— inversion in contemporary terms. EX. Me he restored, him he hanged.
Types of speech
All kinds of speech were labelled and represented in a kind of hierarchy including the following types: elevated: flowery /florid/ exquisite; poetic; normal; dry; scanty; hackneyed; tasteless.
Theory of expressive means by I.R.Galperin
Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices
Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices
Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices
Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices
▫ Onomatopoeia (direct or indirect) Ex. Ding-dong, silver bells .. tinkle, tinkle;
▫ Alliteration (initial rhyme) Ex. To rob Peter to pay Paul;
▫ Rhyme (full, incomplete, broken, eye rhyme, feminine, masculine, also stanza rhymes: couplets, triple, cross, framing/ring).
Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices
1)interaction of various types of word’s meanings:
A. Means based on the interplay of dictionary and contextual meanings: Metaphor, Metonymy, Irony.
B. Means based on the interaction of primary and derivative meanings: polysemy, zeugma and pun.
C. Means based on the opposition of logical and emotive means: interjections and exclamatory words, epithet, oxymoron.
D. Means based on the interaction of logical and nominal meaning: antonomasia.
2) the interaction of two lexical meanings simultaneously materialised in the context.
periphrasis, euphemism, hyperbole, simile.
3) stable word combinations in their interaction with the context: Cliches, proverbs and sayings, quotations, allusions, decomposition of set phrases
Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices
- the juxtaposition (наложение; наслоение; сопоставление) of the parts of an utterance (inversion, detached constructions, parallel constructions, chiasmus, repetition, enumeration, suspense, climax, antithesis).
- the type of connection of the parts (asyndeton, polysyndeton, gap-sentence link
- the peculiar use of colloquial constructions (ellipsis “nothing so difficult as a beginning”, aposiopesis = break-in-the-narrative “Good intentions but-…”, question in the narrative, represented speech).
- the transference of structural meaning rhetorical questions, litotes “he was no gentle lamb”).
1) The present subdivision into lexical and syntactical devices may seem dubious: there is a kind of mixture of principles since some devices obviously involve both lexical and syntactical features, e.g. antithesis, climax, irony;
2) Why to place the group “peculiar use of colloquial constructions” among the syntactical means and the group called “ peculiar use of set expressions” among the lexical devices?
The theory of expressive means and stylistic devices by Y.M.Skrebnev
hierarchical arrangement into 5 levels: phonetics, morphology, lexicology, syntax, semasiology (or semantics).
Paradigmatic ← 1.Phonetics → Syntagmatic
Stylistics ← 2.Morphology → Stylistics
← 3. Lexicology →
← 4. Syntax →
← 5. Semasiology →
The theory of stylistic devices, suggested by V.V.Gurevich.
1. Stylistic devices making use of the meaning of language units (figures of speech)
Metaphor (O.I.Glazunova)
Nominal metaphoric phrase/ construction. Ex. And down they bring, pearls rowe
Predicative metaphoric phrase/ construction. Ex. He faded into age
Genitive metaphoric phrase/ construction. Ex. A cup of kindness
Adverbial metaphoric phrase/ construction. Ex. He burned with desire
Attributive metaphoric phrase/ construction. Ex. The crystal streamlets
Simile. Ex. My love is like a red, red rose.
Phraseological units