PREFACE

The given textbook can be used alongside the theoretical course of English Stylistics. Its purpose is to help future teachers of English to acquire knowledge concerning the richness and variety of English stylistic means of communication. The book is intended to acquaint students with the concepts of functional styles, stylistic semasiology, phonetic, lexical and syntactic expressive means and devices.

The book contains nine parts. Each part includes a brief theoretical survey, questions checking students’ understanding. The practical part of the textbook contains examples from the original works by English, 'American, Australian and Scottish authors. A sample for oyerall stylistic analysis is given at the end of the

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book both with fiction extracts for analysis of English means of stylistic expression in belles-letters.

This book does not try to cover everything. The author laid stress on practical aspect of stylistic studies. If the students can comprehend the theoretical concepts outlined in. the textbook, they will establish for themselves the strong foundation upon which further courses of advanced study can be built. • .•

The classification of functional styles used in the book was taken from Galperin I.R. Stylistics. Moscow, 1977. The principle of dividing stylistic devices ^: into great classes, such as “figures of quality” or “figures of quantity”, introduced in the theoretical part was borrowed from the book by Y.M. Skrebney Fundamentals of English Stylistics. — Moscow, 1994. ; f-'

I. STYLISTICS AS A BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS

A system of signs — система знаков Bookish — книжный

Extralingual circumstances — экстралингвистические условия Expressive means - выразительные средства Functional style - функциональный стиль

Communicative interaction — коммуникативное (речевое) взаимодействие Connotation ~коннотация

Intonational and rhythmic patterns — интонационные и ритмические модели

Linguistic units — языковые единицы

Linguistics ~ лингвистика, языкознание

Linguistic expression—языковое выражение

Stylistics ~ стилистика

Style — стиль

• Stylistic value — стилистическая ценность

Stylistic semasiology [s^meisi'olsdji] — стилистическая семасиология Stylistic lexicology — стилистическая лексикология Stylistic syntax — стилистический синтаксис

Stylistic phonetics — стилистическая фонетика . -

Sound combinations — звукосочетания *

Stylistically coloured - стилистически окрашенный Substandard speech style — сниженныйразгоеорный стиль The literary style - литературный разговорный стиль'

The informal colloquial style -- неформальный разговорный стиль

The terni stylistics is derived from the word “style”. The word style goes back to the Latin word “stilos” The Romans called thus a sharp stick used for writing on wax tablets. It was already in Latin that the meaning of the word “stilos ” came to denote not only the tool of writing, but also the manner of writing... With this new meaning the word was borrowed into European languages,

It is known that there exist different ways of expressing people's attitude towards phenomena of objective reality; there are different variants of expressing similar, though not quite identical ideas. This fact conditions the existence of stylistics tod constitutes its proper object ; v •

I. Stylistics as a branch of linguistics 1

*? ft ' ■ v:: v 13

* .*? £ *-v 13

& IV. STYLISTIC LEXICOLOGY 14

• 16

1. Speak about the function of stylistic inversion 29

VIII, STYLISTICS AND TRANSLATION 29

1. sub-standard (i. e. lying below the standard) iype;

2. super-standard (high-flown, solemn or official) type.

To these three sub-systems the following three synonymous sentences may be referred: • •: ■' v '• ' -

1. ’The old man is dead. ^; '

2. The old bean has hcked the bucket. '■■■■ \ ■ - v v.

3. The gentleman well advanced in years has attained the termination of his terrestrial existence. ■ .-y _r ' -y'f-. V.v?

. The main purpose of stylistics is to establish the objective laWs and practical

rules of using proper linguistic forms in proper situations-—to find out which fonh

among numerous synonymous linguistic means conforms to the given extralingual

_v jcircumstances. H■ . • -v*-

I Stylistics is also understood as a branch of linguistics which deals with ji • ^ ■

1. expressive means and functional styles. The language units of such functional

styles carry some additional information {connotation) about the speaker and the

surrounding circumstances, namely the cultural and educational level of the

speaker, his inner state of mind, emotions, -feelings, etc. The style the speaker uses

should correspond to essence and communicative purpose of the statement. In

other words the subject of the utterance and the style should match each other.

Since the sub-systems used in different types of speech may differ from one another in every respect •—phonetically, lexically, morphologically syntactically and semantically — stylistics is connected with all corresponding branches of linguistics — with phonetics, morphology, lexicology, syntax and' semasiology. Since stylistics is interested in all the aspects of language* it should be subdivided into the same branches as in linguistics in general:

• stylistic semasiology;

• stylistic lexicology;

*stylistic syntax;

• stylistic phonetics.

Phonetics studies sounds, articulation, intonation, etc. Stylistics deals with expressive sound combinations, international and rhythmic patterns. Lexicology deals with words, their origin, development, semantic- features. Stylistics deals with such words whic& additional expressional meaning in language or in speech. Grammar studies regularities of building words, word-combinations, sentences and texts. Stylistics studies such grammatical peculiarities which make language units more expressive. -

Every type of speech uses its own lingual sub-system which consists of:

X. linguistic units common to all the sub-systems; ^;

2. ’ specific linguistic units’, to be found only in the .given sub-system.

Thus sub-systems differ from one another by their specific spheres ’ alone, because their non-specific spheres coincide. Therefore specific spheres, differentiating the sub-systems may be called-their styles, or, style may be defined " as the specific sphere of the given sub-system. Generally speaking, style is a ■ complex of lexical, grammatical,' etc. peculiarities by which a certain type of speech is characterized.

Every linguistic unit, along with the meaning, has its stylistic value which may be characterized as connotation (additional meaning). Hence, stylistic value is actualized by means of associations:

• linguistic units that are used everywhere cause 110 definite associations with any particular type of speech. Thus, they have no definite stylistic value and are called stylistically neutral; ' •

4. Linguistic units belonging to the specific sphere of a sub-system are mentally associated with that sphere. They are stylistically coloured.

Functional styles are generally subdivided into bookish and colloquial. The first group comprises the style of official documents, the style of scientific prose, the newspaper style, the publicistic style and the belle letters style. The second group includes the literary style, the informal colloquial style and substandard speech style. The choice of a certain style depends on certain extralingual factors such as the character of communicative situation (official, informal, ceremonial, private, etc.); the relations between the participants of the communicative interaction (official, friendly, hostile, spontaneous, etc.); the aim of communication; oral or written communication. , • - . . .:-

Questions for discussion.

1. Define the notion of “stylistics”,.

2. What does the term “style” mean?

2. Dwell upon the connection of stylistics with other branches of linguistics ' (phonetics, syntax, lexicology and grammar).

3. Define the notion “functional style”

4. Into how many groups are functional styles in the English language subdivided? j Characterize them. . . , . . . ,

I • ■ i - ^: .r-'ir

П. Classification of fiinctional styles

Academic publications — научные публикации

• Aesthètical-cogmirve [fcs'Getlkal'kognitiv] - эстетически-когнитивная Brevity — краткость Contextual — контекстуальный '

Emotional appeal - эмоциональное воздействие Emotive prose - эмотивная проза Essay-эссе

Foot-notes'- сноски ,

Genre [3(1:131*] - жанр * -,

Genuine imagery [' dh;ejum’ гапс&зп]- оригинальная система образов

Hypothesis [hdx'poOisis] - гипотеза

Interdependence — взаимозависимость

Interrelated - взаимосвязанное

Lexical environment— лексическое окружение

Logical sequence of utterances—логическая последовательность

высказываний

Oratorical$uh style - орстюричесшй под-стиль

Rhythmic and phonetic arrangement of the utterances —ритмическая и фонетическая организация высказываний . '

Quotations and references — цитаты и ссылки _ ■

The belle-letters style - художественный стиль Thé style öf offiàiàl documents ~ официальный стиль The style of scientific prose — научный стиль ■

The newspaper style - газетный стиль '

The publicistic style — публицистический стиль , \ .

The informal colloquial style — неофициальный разговорный стиль ■ Toimpàrt information-передать информацию The Headline -заголовок >

\ The belle-lettres style 1, embraces numerous genres of imaginative writing (emotive prose, drama, poetry). . ~

Each of these sub-styles has certain common features, typical of the general belles-lettres style.

The common features of the sub-styles may be summed, up as follows. First of all, comes the common function, which may broadly be called "aesthetical- cognitive”. The purpose of the belles-lettres style, to suggest a possible interpretation of the phenomena of life by forcing the reader to see the viewpoint of the writer. The belles-lettres style is characterized by certain linguistic features, which are; 4'

• Creation of genuine imagery achieved by .linguistic devices.

• The wide use of words in contextual and very. often in more than one dictionary meaning, qr at least greatly influenced by the lexical environment.

• A vocabulary which reflects the author’s personal evaluation of things or phenomena, ₍ • .•v'¹,

• A peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax. ^ _Vl ...... ■'<

• The introduction of the typical features of colloquial language- ......., .

The first differentiating property of poetry is its orderly form, which is based mainly on the’ rhythmic and phonetic arrangement-pf the utterances. Both the syntactical and semantic aspects of the poetic sub-style may be-defined as compact, for they are, held in check by rhythmic patterns. ÿ;_: Bqtli syntax and semantics comply .with the restrictions imposed by the. rhythmic pattern, and the result is brevity of expression, epigram-like utterances,.!and fresh, unexpected imagery. Syntactically this brevity is shown in eUiptica,! ,and fragmentary sentences,' in detached constructions, in inversion, asyndeton and_;pther.syntactical peculiarities.

Rhythm and rhyme are distinguishable properties of the; poetic sub-style provided they are wrought into compositional patterns. . They are typical only of this one variety of the belles-lettres style.

Emotive Prose

1/

Emotive prose has the same features as have been pointed out for the belles- lettres style in general; but all these features are correlated differently in emotive prose. The imagery is not so rich as it is in poetry, the percentage of words with contextual meaning is not so high as. inpoetry. Apart from metre and rhyme, what most of all distinguishes emotive prose from the poetic style is the combination of the literary variant of the language, both in words and syntax, with the colloquial variant. '

Present-day emotive prose is to a .large extent characterized by the breaking of traditional syntactical designs of the preceding periods. Not only detached constructions, but also fragmentation of syntactical models, peculiar, unexpected ways of combining sentences are freely introduced into present-day emotive prose.

|The Drama J

The third subdivision of the belles-lettres style is the language of plays. Unlike poetry, which, except for ballads, in essence excludes direct speech and therefore dialogue, and unlike emotive prose, Which is a combination of monologue and dialogue, the language of plays is entirely dialogue. The author's speech is ailmost entirely excluded except for the playwright's remarks and stage directions,. f^^TTte publicistic style falls into three variants, each having its own distinctive features. The publicistic style has spoken varieties such as the oratorical sub stylt and radio commentary, the latter being brought into being by the development of _radio and television. The publicistic style also includes essay (moral, philosophical, literary) and articles (political, social, and economic) in newspapers, journals and magazines. Book reviews in journals and magazines and also pamphlets are generally included among essays.

The general aim of the publicistic style is to exercise a. constant and deep influence on public opinion, to convince the reader or the listener that the interpretation given by the writer or the speaker is the only correct one and to cause him to accept the point of view. expressed in the speech, essays or jar tide not merely by logical argumentation, but by emotional appeal as well. Due to its

characteristic combination of logical argumentation and emotional appeal, the publicistic style has features common with the style of scientific prose, on the one hand, and that of emotive prose, on the other/ Its coherent and logical syntactical structure, with the expanded system of connectives, and its careful paragraphing, makes it similar to scientific prose. Its emotional appeal is generally achieved by the use of words with emotive meaning, the use of imagery and other stylistic devices as in emotive prose. But the stylistic devices used in the publicistic style are not fresh or genuine. Publicistic style is also characterized by brevity of expression.

^Oratory and Speeehejf Oratorical, style is the oral subdivision of the publicistic style. Direct contact with the listeners permits the combination of the syntactical, lexical and phonetic peculiarities of both the written and spoken varieties of language. In' its leading features, however, oratorical-style .belongs to the written variety of language, though it is modified by the oral form of the utterance-and the use of gestures. Certain typical features of .the spoken variety of speech present in this style are'; direct address to the audience («ladies and gentlemen); «honoial)le members», the' use of the 2^nd person pronoun «you»), sometimes contractions (/'//, won’t, haven’t, isn't) and the use of colloquial words. -

.This style is evident in speeches on political and. social problems of the day, in^: orations and addresses on solemn occasions as. public we&lings, funerals' and. jubilees, in sermons and debates and also in . the speeches of counsel and judges id . courts of law. - -

jThe Essay /, . .

The essay is a literary composition of moderate length on philosophical, social, aesthetic or literary subjects, Personality in the treatment of theihe and naturalness of expression are two' of the most obvious characteristics ;pf; the essay. This literaiy genre has definite linguistic traits which shape the essay as a variety of the publicistic style.

The most characteristic language features of the essay are:' '

1. Brevity of expression .

2. The use of the first person singular.

3. A rather expanded use of connectives;, which facilitate the process of grasping the correlation of ideas. /••••.

4. The abundant use of emotive words.

\ 5. The use of similes and metaphors as one of media for the cognitive process.

¹ ' .rticles

Irrespective of the character of the magazine and the divergence of subject matter-—• whether it is political, literary, popular-scientific or satirical — all. the already mentioned features of the.pubhcistic style are to be found in any article, The character of the magazine as well as the subject chosen affects the choice and use of stylistic devices. Words of emotive meaning, for example, are few, if any, in popular scientific articles. -

The language of political magazines articles differs little from that of newspaper articles. But such elements of the publicistic style as rare and bookish words, - neologisms (which sometimes require explanation in the text), traditional words combinations and parenthesis are more frequent here .than in newspaper articles. Literary reviews stand closer to essays both by titieir content and by their linguistic form. More abstract words of logical meaning are used ip them. They more often resort to emotional language and less frequently to traditional set expressions.

The newspaper style may be defined as a ; system of interrelated. lexical, phraseological and grammatical means which is used to impart information!) Thus -—the four basic newspaper features are:

1. Brief news items and communiques;

2. Advertisements and announcements; ‘

3. The headline;

4. The editorial. •

^ BriefNews Item^

The function of a brief news is to inform the reader. It states only facts without giving comments. This accounts for the total absence of any'individuality of

expression and the almost complete lack of emotional coloring. It is essentially matter-of-fact, and stereotyped forms of expression prevail.

The newspaper style has its specific features and is characterized by an extensive use of:

1. Special political and economic terms.

2. Noh-term political vocabulary. ' ^vi ' ' ' ⁱ ;