УМКД 042-18-17.1.09/01-2013

Ред. № ____ от _______2013 г.

Страница 44 из 44

МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ И НАУКИ РЕСПУБЛИКИКАЗАХСТАН СЕМИПАЛАТИНСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ имени ШАКАРИМА
Документ СМК 3 уровня	УМКД	УМКД 042-18-17.1.09/01-2013
УМКД Учебно-методические материалы по ди дисциплине « Функциональная стилистика русского и иностранного языков»	Редакция №_ от_

Учебно-методический комплекс дисциплины «Функциональная стилистика русского и иностранного языков»

для специальности 050207 «Переводческое дело»

УЧЕБНО- МЕТОДИЧЕСКИЕ МАТЕРИАЛЫ

Семей

2013

Содержание

1 Глоссарий

2 Лекции

3 Практические занятия

4 Самостоятельная работа студента

1 Глоссарий

2 Лекции Lecture 1 introduction

1. General notes on Style and Stylistics

2. Definitions of Style

3. Branches of Stylistics

Stylistics, as the term implies, deals with styles. Style, for its part, can be roughly defined as the peculiarity, the set of specific features of a text. By text we mean a coherent sequence of signs (words) irrespective of whether it has been recorded on paper or has been retained in our memory. Hence, while a person pronounces (aloud or mentally) I live in this house, he or she accomplishes an act of speech, but as soon as the act is completed, there is no more speech. What remains is the sequence of signs – I + live + in + this + house - and that is what we call a text. Style is just what differentiates a group of homogeneous texts (an individual text) from all other groups (other text).

Let us compare several groups of isolated words:

1. water, at, go, very, how; 2) chap, daddy, Nick, gee; 3)hereof, whereupon, aforecited; 4) sawbones, grub, oof, corking; 5) morn, sylvan, ne’er; 6) corroborate, commencement, proverbialism; 7) protoplasm, introvert, cosine, phonemic.

Not all the words may be familiar to a learner of English. The first group comprises words that can be used in every type of communication. Group 2 consists of colloquial words, i.e. words, which can be used in informal speech. Group 3 is made up of words used in documents. Group 4 consists of words that are still lower than colloquial; there is a tinge of familiarity about them. Group 5 exemplifies high-flown rarely used words. Group 6 consists of words, which are generally called `bookish` or `learned`; they can be used not only in books but in cultured speech and never in everyday oral intercourse. Group 7 is made up of special scientific terms used in biology, psychology, trigonometry and phonology. It follows that we can assume the existence of variegated special languages, or rather sublanguages within the general system of a national language

Compare the following utterances referring to the same situation:

1. Never seen the chap, not I! 2. Me, I never clapped eyes on this here guy. 3. I deny the fact of ever having seen this person. 4 .I have no association with the appearance of the individual I behold. 5. I have certainly never seen the man.

As we understand each utterance belongs to a special variety of English (except, perhaps, utterance 5, which is neutral standard English). The colloquial character of utterance 1 is seen in the choice of words (chap) and in syntax (absence of the subject I and the auxiliary verb have, as well as the appended statement not I). Utterance 2 is low colloquial: the word guy, the illiterate demonstrative this here, the emphatic construction to clap eyes on somebody, the pronoun me as the subject in extraposition. Utterance 3 represents an official bookish manner of speaking. Finally, utterance 4 demonstrates a high – flown, pompous manner of speech.

Stylistics touches upon adjacent disciplines such as theory of information, literature, grammar, lexicology, psychology, logic, and to some extent, statistics. It is a common knowledge that phonetics deals with speech sounds, their meanings and intonation. Lexicology treats separate words with their meanings and structure of the vocabulary. Grammar analyses forms of words ( morphology ) and forms of word – combinations ( syntax ). Although scholars differ in their treatment of the material, the general aims of the disciplines mentioned are more or less clear – cut.

This is not the case with stylistics. No one knows for sure what it is. The scope of problems stylistics is to solve, its very object and its tasks are open to discussion up to the present day, regardless of the fact that it goes back to ancient rhetoric and poetics.

A lot of definitions, very ambiguous, you will find in I. R. Galperin’s Stylistics. However, they all coincide in one thing, style (stylistics) is a set of characteristics by which we distinguish one author from another or members of one subclass from members of other subclasses, or one text from ( texts ) another (others ).

Y. M. Screbnev also renounces all attempts to formulate a ‘ universal ‘ definition of stylistics, providing a series of statements, each characterizing certain properties of stylistics from different points of view.

1. Stylistics viewed in its relation to language as a system is based on the theory of sub-languages (a sub-language is the set of lingual units actually used in a given sphere ).

2. Viewed in its relation to language as a set of signs ( words ) and their sequence patterns stylistics may be regarded as a linguistic discipline concentrating on connotations.

3. Viewed in search for a general evaluation of the character of its object, stylistics studies information often unaccounted for by an ordinary language user.

4. Viewed as a linguistic branch stylistics appears as a description of specific lingual elements and combinations of elements – a description creating the system of concepts to be used in analysis of material.

5. Viewed with the aim of establishing its ultimate goals or prospects, stylistics maybe defined as a branch of linguistics elaborating a system of tests to ensure correct text attribution

6. Viewed pragmatically, i.e. as reflecting the interrelation between language and its user’s behavior, stylistics investigates the highest stages of linguistic competence, i.e. the ability to differentiate subsystems ( sub-languages ) in the general structure of language.

7. Viewed as regards its place among other branches of linguistics ( describing a national language in terms of phonetics, morphology, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics ), stylistics turns out to be the most reliable description of the linguistic object.

Y. Screbnev calls stylistic phenomena – regular constituents of a well arranged linguistic system of systems.

The information of one and the same fact of reality may acquire different forms, depending on, for example, whether the information is done in an official, businesslike or everyday situation; on what the emotional attitude of the speaker towards an object of speech is and on how he appreciates the situation.

Information may be represented in two types: denotative and connotative. Denotation is connected with intellectual and communicative function of the language. Connotation, i.e. additional information, is connected with all the rest functions:

1. An emotive function, i.e. with the presentation and expression of the speaker’s feelings.

2. A voluntative function ( it is also called pragmatic ), i.e. compelling the addressee to act.

3. An appealing function, i.e. compelling the listener to receive information.

4. A contact establishing function – in situations when the utterance is pronounced only for the purpose of showing attention to the presence of another person (e.g. in formulas of politeness )

5. An aesthetic function, i.e. influencing aesthetic feelings.

The task of stylistic description and stylistic analysis is the study of the interrelations between the subject-logical content of the utterance, i.e. information of the first type, with the information of the second type, i.e. the manifestations of all the five functions of the language. This demands to consider connections and interrelations between connotative meanings of words and constructions and denotative ones and their role in a literary whole.

We distinguish the two types of information only for the purpose of analysis, of better understanding of the content, because thy actually constitute one whole.

Concentrating our attention on the interaction of chosen images, words, morphological forms, syntactical structures in rendering the content, we may deeper penetrate into the essence of the literary work.

In accordance with its various possibilities of its structural employment stylistics represents a complex system of different branches. Besides the task of purely theoretical plane, it has a great significance as the basis of an interpretation of the text, literary criticism, translation theory, lexicography and so on.

Lexical stylistics with two subgroups: a) lexicological stylistics and b) semasiological stylisics.

a) Lexical stylistics studies different components of contextual meanings of words in particular the expressive, evaluative and emotive potential of words belonging to different layers of the vocabulary: dialect words, terms, colloquial words, slang, foreign words, neologisms etc. They are all studied with the view of their interaction with different tasks of the context.

Of great importance is the stylistic analysis of proverbs and phraseology.

b) Semasiological stylistics studies functions of the transferred meanings of words and word-combinations (metaphor, simile, metonymy etc.)

Grammatical stylistics falls into a) morphological stylistics and b) syntactical stylistics.

a) Morphological stylistics studies stylistic possibilities within different grammatical categories adherent to this or that part of speech.

b) Syntactical stylistics investigates expressive possibilities of word-order, types of sentences, types of syntactical constructions. The first place is given here to Figures of Speech i.e. a deliberate deviation from the syntactical norm.

Phono-stylistics studies peculiarities of the sound organization of speech: rhythm, alliteration, onomatopoeia etc if they are used in a stylistic function.

It also studies the use of non-standard pronunciation.

Functional styles is a part of linguistics which studies functional styles, i.e. systems of means of expression depending on different spheres and situations of communication.

Questions

1. What are the main trends in style study?

2. What forms and types of speech do you know?

3. What is a functional style and what functional styles do you know?

4. What do you know of the studies in the domain of the style of artistic speech?

5. What do you know about individual style study? What authors most often attract the attention of style theoreticians?

6. What is foregrounding and how does it operate in the text?

7. What levels of linguistic analysis do you know and which of them are relevant for stylistic analysis?

8. What is decoding stylistics?

9. What is the main concern of practical stylistics?

10. What is the ultimate goal of stylistic analysis of a speech product?

Literature

1.Арнольд И.В. Стилистика современного языка. Л. 1981

2. Арнольд И. В. Cтилистика декодирования. Л. 1974

3. Задорнова В.Я. Стилистика английского языка. МГУ 1986

4. Кухаренко В.А. Интерпретация текста. М. 1979

5. Кузнецов М. Д. и Скребнев Ю. М. Стилистика английского языка М. 60

6. L. V. Borisova Interpreting Fiction Minsk 1987

7. I. R. Galperin Stylistics M. 1977

8. V. A. Kukharenko Seminars in Style M. 1971

9. Y. M. Skrebnev Fundamentals of English Stylistics M. 2003

Lecture 2 Expressive means and stylistic devices. Lexicological Stylistics

1. Expressive means and stylistic devices

2. Definitions

In linguistics there are different means by which a writer obtains his effect. Expressive means, stylistic devices tropes, figures of speech are all used indiscriminately. For our purposes it is necessary to make a distinction between expressive means and stylistic devices.

Expressive means of a language are those phonetic means, morphological forms, means of word-building and lexical, phraseological and syntactical forms, all of which function in the language for emotional or logical intensification of the utterance. These intensifying forms have been fixed in grammar books and dictionaries.

e.g. The use of shall in the second and third person may be regarded as an expressive means.

cf He shall do it = I shall make him do it.

Among word-building we find a great many forms which help intensify it. The diminutive suffixes such as -y ( ie ), -let dearie, streamlet.

We may also refer to what are called neologisms and nonce-words formed by means of non-productive suffixes: mistressmanship, cleanorama, tellethone.

Stylistics observes not only the nature of an expressive means but also its capacity of becoming a stylistic device.

What is then a stylistic device? It is a conscious and intentional, literary use of some of the facts of the language ( excluding expressive means ) in which the most essential features ( both structural and semantic ) of the language forms are raised to a generalized level and thereby present a generative model.

As the subject of stylistic analysis is the language in the process of its use, it is quite natural that the analysis touches upon all aspects of language i.e. its phonetics, vocabulary and grammar system. Accordingly it falls into:

Lexical stylistics with two subgroups: a) lexicological stylistics and b) semasiological stylisics.

a) Lexical stylistics studies different components of contextual meanings of words in particular the expressive, evaluative and emotive potential of words belonging to different layers of the vocabulary: dialect words, terms, colloquial words, slang, foreign words, neologisms etc. They are all studied with the view of their interaction with different tasks of the context.

Of great importance is the stylistic analysis of proverbs and phraseology.

b) Semasiological stylistics studies functions of the transferred meanings of words and word-combinations (metaphor, simile, metonymy etc.)

Lexicological stylistics deals with the principles of stylistic description of lexical and phraseological units in abstraction from the context in which they function. It studies possibilities of words belonging to different functional emotional groups of words (e.g. archaisms, neologisms, jargons).

All the immeasurable richness of the vocabulary of any civilized language cannot be memorized or even understood by an individual native speaker; it is only the most common words that are widely used in actual communication. Nearly half a million words have been registered in the famous New English Dictionary of 13 volumes as belonging to the English language, but not all of them fully deserve the title of English words: many of them are never heard, or uttered, or written by the average Englishman.

In accordance with the division of language into literal and colloquial we may represent the whole vocabulary of the English languagey as being divided into three main layers: the literary layer, the neutral layer and the colloquial layer.

The literary layer is marked by a bookish character; the colloquial layer by its lively, spoken character. The neutral layer has a universal character and can be used in all spheres of human activities.

The following synonyms will illustrate the relations that exist between neutral, literary and colloquial words.

Neutral colloquial literary

child kid infant

father daddy parent

fellow chap / guy associate

go away get out retire

continue go on proceed

boy / girl teenager youth / maiden

Literarure

1. I. R. Galperin Stylistics M. 1977

2. V. A. Kukharenko Seminars in Style M. 1971

Lecture 3 Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices. Semaseological Stylistics.

1. Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

2. Simile, Metaphor, Epithet, Personification.

Whenever we name an object or characterize a situation, we either follow the usual, collectively accepted, rules of naming, or deviate from them. If we are guided by the rules (saying what everyone would say), there is no transfer, there is nothing for stylistics to analyse in our speech act. If we deviate from accepted standards, and when this deviation is of such a degree that it causes unexpectedness, we deal with a specific variety of tropes (figures of speech). Stylistic figures of speech fall into two types as to their concrete aims and will be considered accordingly as figures of quality and figures of relations.

Figures of Quality.

Here belong 3 groups: metaphoric group, metonymic group, and mixed group. They all give qualitative characteristics of the object of speech.

Metaphoric Group.

In the basis of the metaphoric group lies the principle of identification of two objects. It includes simile, metaphor, epithet and personification.

1. Simile – a figure of speech, which draws comparison between two different objects in one or more aspects (an imaginative comparison).We should distinguish between two words: ‘comparison’ and ‘simile’, both are translated ‘сравнение’. Comparison means juxtaposition of two objects belonging to one class of things for the purpose of establishing the degree of their likeness or difference. To use a simile is to characterize one object by bringing it into contact with another object belonging to an entirely different class of things.

Similes have formal elements in their structure: like, as, such as, as if as though, seem, the semantic nature of the last three is such that they only remotedly suggest resemblance. E.g. ‘It was that moment of the year when the countryside seems to faint from its own loveliness, from the intoxication of its scents and sounds’. (Galsworthy). Simile may be also introduced by lexical means indicating likeness between compared objects.

E.g. ‘He reminded James, as he said afterwards, of a hungry cat.’ (Galsworhty) ‘She had a strange resemblance to a captive owl’. (G.) Possible are structural variations of simile:

1. The sign of comparison of two objects is directly mentioned. E.g. ‘He is as beautiful as a weathercock’. (O.W.)

2.The character of resemblance is only meant.

E.g. My heart is like a singing bird.

Look at the moon. How strange the moon seems: She is like a woman, rising from a tomb. She is like a dead woman. (O.W.)

3. The image suggested by the simile is not quite clear and the author gives an explanation.

E.g. ‘He had a face like a choir-boy’s – but a choir-boy suddenly overwhelmed by middle age; chubby, pretty doll-like, but withered’.

The three epithets are a kind of the key to the simile. The simile usually serves as means to a clearer meaning. By comparing the object or phenomenon, the writer describes, with a concrete and familiar thing, he makes his description clearer and more picturesque. Besides making a narrative more concrete and definite, the simile helps the author to reveal feelings of his own as well.

In the English language as in any other there is a long list of traditional similes which must be regarded as phraseological units. In them the names of animals, plants, natural phenomena are often used. E.g. sly as a fox as weak as a cat as bold as brass as good as gold

as dead as a door nail to swim like a duck

They are often used in the direct speech of characters, thus individualizing their speech; and rather seldom are used in the author’s narrative.

2. Metaphor. The stylistic device based on the principle of identification of two objects is called metaphor. It is the interaction between the logical and contextual-logical meanings of a word which is based on a likeness between objects and implies analogy and comparison between them.

Metaphor can be embodied in all meaningful parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs. E.g. n. The machine sitting at the desk was no longer a man; it was a busy New York broker. (O.H.)

v. In the slanting beams that streamed through the open window, the dust danced and was golden. (O. W.)

adv. The leaves fell sorrowfully. adj. The pillow remained sleepless. Metaphors expressed by adverbs and adjectives are called metaphoric epithets and will be dealt with later on.

Metaphors, like all stylistic devices can be classified according to their unexpectedness. Thus metaphors which are absolutely unexpected are called genuine metaphors. Those which are constantly used in speech and therefore are often fixed in dictionaries as expressive means of language are trite (dead, traditional) metaphors. Examples of trite metaphors – a ray of hope, floods of tears, a flight of imagination. Sometimes a metaphor is not confined in one image. The writer finds it necessary to prolong the image. He does so by adding a number of other images, but all these additional images are linked with the main, central image. Such metaphors are called sustained or prolonged metaphors.

e.g. … any dispassionate spectator would have been induced to wonder that the indignant fire which flashed from his eyes, did not melt the glasses of his spectacles – so majestic was his wrath. (Dickens).

The metaphors ‘flashed’ and ‘melt’ are connected with the main image, expressed by the word ‘fire’. This prolonged image helps the author to achieve exaggeration and to give a touch of humour to the description of Mr. Pickwick’s indignation.

The stylistic function is twofold: by evoking images and suggesting analogies it makes the author’s thought more concrete, definite and clear and at the same it reveals the author’s emotional attitude towards what is said.

3. Epithet. Epithet is a stylistic device showing the purely individual emotional attitude of the writer or the speaker towards the object mentioned. e.g. Shining serenely as some immeasurable mirror beneath the smiling face of the heaven, the solitary ocean lay in unrippled silence. (Fr. Bullen). Epithets can be classified from the point of view of their compositional structure. They may be divided into simple, compound, and phrase epithets. Simple epithets are ordinary adjectives or adverbs (see ex. above).

Compound epithets are built like compound adjectives, e.g. heart-burning sight, cloud-shapen giant. The tendency to cram into one language unit as much information as possible has led to new compositional models for epithets which are called phrase epithets.

e.g. ‘So think first of her, but not in the ‘I love you so that nothing will induce me to marry you’ fashion. (Galsworhty). e.g. ‘There is something about evening service in a country church that makes a fellow feel drowsy and peaceful. Sort of end-of-a-perfect-day feeling.’ (P.G. Wodehouse). Another structural variety of the epithet is the one that is called reversed. It is based on the illogical relations between the modifier and the modified. e.g. the shadow of a smile, a devil of a job, a dog of a fellow, a long nightshirt of mackintosh etc.

In all the examples it is the second word (a smile, a job, a fellow, a mackintosh) that is modified but it is formally placed in the position of a modifier, while the actual modifier is given the place of the modified word. From the viewpoint of their expressive power epithets can be regarded as those transferring the quality of one object to its closest neighbour. e.g. ‘He was a thin, wiry man with a tobacco-stained smile. (Steinbeck) ‘Tobacco-stained’ teeth present an objective description of teeth, but when the same definition is given to a smile it becomes an individual evaluation of the same, and is classified as a transferred epithet.

A new feature is revealed by a metaphoric epithet, which presents a metaphor within an epithet. e.g. ‘A spasm of high-voltage nervousness ran through him’. (Howard) In most cases metaphoric epithet is expressed by adjectives and adverbs: ‘frowning walls, whispering streams’ (London); ‘The morning looked lovely’. (Lawrence) Variability and flexibility make it one of the most widely and frequently used stylistic device.

4. Personification. Personification is another variety of metaphor.

Personification is attributing human properties to lifeless objects – mostly to abstract notions, such as thoughts, actions, intentions, emotions, seasons of the year, etc.

The stylistic purposes of personification are varied. In poetry and fiction the purpose of personification is to help to visualize the description, to impart dynamic force to it or to reproduce the particular mood of the viewer. In his ballad ‘John Barleycorn’ R. Burns personifies barleycorn by ascribing such notions as die, his head, was dead, bending joints and drooping head. Personification is often effected by direct address. The object addressed is thus treated as if it could really perceive the author’s appeal: O stretch thy reign, fair Peace! From shore to shore Till conquest cease, and slavery be nor more. (Pope)

Another formal device of personification is capitalization of the word which expresses a personified notion:

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet. (Byron)

Questions

1. Classify the following into traditional and original simile

2. Discuss the structure, grammatical category and syntactical functions of metaphors

3. Differentiate between genuine and trite metaphors

4. Discuss the structure of epithets

Literarure

1. I. R. Galperin Stylistics M. 1977

2. V. A. Kukharenko Seminars in Style M. 1971

Lecture 4 Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices. Metonymic Group.

1. Metonymy, Synecdoche, Antonomasia.

2. Metonymic Group

The metonymic group includes such figures of speech in which the transfer of the name from one object to another is based on definite relations between them (the object implied and the object named). To this group belong metonymy and synecdoche.

Metonymy. If instead directly naming an object of speech we use the name of some other object which is closely connected with it as a condition of its existence, or as its constant belonging, or as a result characteristic of it, the notion has a vivid expression. And this is the essence of metonymy as a stylistic device. In metonymy relations between the object named and the object implied are various and numerous: 1) Names of tools ( or an organ of the body ) instead of names of actions - ‘As the sword is the worst argument that can be used, so should it be the last’.( Byron). ‘Give every man thine ear and a few thy voice’.2) Consequence instead of cause - … ‘the fish desperately takes the death’ (instead of it snaps at the fish-hook). 3) Characteristic feature of the object - ‘Blue suit greened, might have even winked. But big nose in the grey suit still stared’. (Priestly) 4) Symbol instead of object symbolized – crown for king or queen. 5) The container instead of the thing contained – The hall applauded.

6) The material instead of the thing it is made of – “The marble spoke’. Metonymy as a stylistic device (a genuine stylistic device) is used to achieve concreteness of description. By giving a specific detail connected with the phenomenon, the author evokes a concrete and life-like image and reveals certain feelings of his own.

Synecdoche. The term denotes the simplest kind of metonymy: using the name of a part to denote the whole or vice versa. A typical example of traditional synecdoche is the word hands used instead of the word worker(s) (Hands wanted) or sailors (All hands on deck!). Or a hundred head of cattle, here a part stands for the whole. The same in the use of the singular (the so called generic singular) when the plural (the whole class) is meant – A student is expected to know… (or: The student…).The opposite type of synecdoche (‘the whole for the part’) occurs when the name of the species, as in Stop torturing the poor animal! (instead of… the poor dog!); or ‘when the plural of disapprobation’ is resorted to: Reading books when I am talking to you! (actually, one cannot read more than one book at a time).

Mixed Group.To this group belong figures having double nature. Metaphoric as well as metonymic transfer is in their basis. They are Allegory and antonomasia. 1.Allegory. Allegory is an expression of abstract ideas through concrete pictures. The term is mostly employed with reference to more or less complete texts. The purpose of allegory as a stylistic device is to intensify the influence of logical contents of speech by adding to it an element of emotional character.

Proverbs may serve as simplest examples of allegory. Thus in the proverb All is not gold that glitters the question is not about the gold and its glitter, but about the fact that not always outer beauty speaks of inner value. (=Appearances are deceptive).

The above mentioned proverb is metaphoric allegory as it is based on similarity of abstract and generalized notions to concrete things and phenomena.

In metonymic allegory the name of some object which is a traditional material sign of some idea, i.e. its symbol, is used instead of its direct expression.

When, for instance, we hear the words It is time to beat your swords into ploughshares, we understand it as an appeal to stop hostilities in favour of peace.

Certain genres of literature are allegorical throughout: thus, fairy stories and, especially, fables always imply something different, something more important for human problems than what they seem to denote literarily. Allegory is found in philosophical or satirical novels. In his allegorical satire ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ Swift depicts contemporary England with her vices, political intrigues, and religious strife. 2.Antonomasia. Using a proper name as a common noun and vice versa using a descriptive word-combination instead of a proper noun is called antonomasia.To the first group of antonomasia we shall refer those cases in which a proper noun is used for a common noun. It can be on the basis of metaphoric as well as on metonymic transfer. Proper noun in this type of antonomasia expresses some quality, which was the leading passion with the character whose name is used. This is metaphoric antonomasia. Thus, a traitor may be referred to as Brutus, a ladies’ man deserves the name of Don Juan. This type of antonomasia is always trite for the writer repeats the well known, often mentioned facts.

Metonymic antonomasia is observed in cases when a personal name stands for something connected with the bearer of that name who really once existed. e.g. He has sold his Vandykes. (Hurst) This is my real Goya. (Galsworthy) In the second type of antonomasia we observe the following: practically any common noun can be used as a proper noun. It is always original. In such cases the person’s name serves his first characteristics. Thus Dickens names the talkative and boastful adventurer from the ‘Pickwick Papers’ Mr. Jingle, creating the association with the sound produced by constant shaking of the tongue of the bell. Most often these name-characteristics are used by humourists and satirists. Here are some Sheridan’s personages: Mr. Credulous, Mr.Backbite, Mr. Snake, Mr. Carefree, Miss Languish; Byron’s: Miss Reading, Miss Raw, Miss Showman. Such names present certain difficulties for translators who are to convey the logical meaning carried by them and at the same time to preserve their English nature. Her are some successful translations the names mentioned: Мистер Гад, Мистер Доверч, Мистер Клеветаун Мистер Легкомыслинг, Мисс Томней. But to characterize a person through his name is not the only function of antonomasia. Very often it helps to give concrete expression for abstract notion: Lady Teazle: ‘Oh! I am quite undone! Now, Mr. Logic – Oh! What will become of me?....(Sheridan) The context in such cases is indispensable. Interesting are the cases when instead of a proper noun a word-combination or a whole phrase characteristic of a person is used. Here we deal with a kind of periphrasis, e.g. ‘Your Mrs. What’s- her- name sounds very English’. (B. Nickols) The stylistic effect of such antonomasia very much depends on the unexpectedness of a name being expressed by a word combination.

Exercises

Simile

Classify the following into traditional and original similes.

1. She was obstinate as a mule, always had been, from a child.

2. When my missus gets sore she is as hot as an oven.

3. The air was hot and felt like a kiss as we stepped off the plane.

4. Like a sigh, the breath of a living thing, the smoke rose.

5. He felt like an old book: spine defective, covers dull, slight foxing, fly

missing, rather shaken copy.

Metaphor

Discuss the structure, grammatical category and syntactical functions of metaphors.

1. The clock has struck, time was bleeding away.

2. Dance music was bellowing from the open door of the Cardogan’s cottage.

3. Money burns a hole in my pocket.

4. In November a cold unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the colony. Touching one here and there with ice fingers.

Differentiate between genuine and trite metaphors.

1. Swan had taught him much. The great kindly Sweed had taken him under his wing.

1. Then would come six or seven good years when there might be 20 to 25 years of rain, and the land would shout with grass.

2. It was a ladylike yawn, a closed mouth yawn, but you couldn’t miss it; her nostril-wings gave her away.

Speak about the role of the context in creation of the image.

1. England had two eyes, Oxford and Cambridge. They are the two intellectual eyes.

2. The waters have closed above your head, and the world has closed upon your miseries and misfortunes for ever.

Epithet

Discuss the structure of epithets.

1. “Thief,” Pilon shouted. “Dirty pig of an untrue friend.”

2. A breeze …. Blue curtains in and out like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling.

3. He was a thin wiry man with a tobacco-stained smile.

4. The only place he left was the deck strewn with nervous cigarette buts and sprawled legs.

Neologisms

1. The face of London was now strangely altered … the voice of mourning was heard in a every street.

2. Mother Nature always blushes before disrobing.

Metonymy

Differentiate between trite and original metonymies. 1. “ … he had a stinking childhood.”“If it was so stinking why does he cling to it?” “Use your head. Can’t you see it’s just that Rusty fees safer in diapers than he would in skirts?”

2. I get my living by the sweat of my brow.

3. She was a sunny, happy sort of a creature. Too fond of the bottle.

4. The man looked a rather old forty-five, for he was already going grey

Antonomasia

1. … we sat down at a table with two girls in yellow and three men, each

one introduced to us as Mr. Mumble.

2. Then there’s that appointment with Mrs. What’s- her- name for her bloody awful wardrobe.

3. (The actress is all in tears). Her manager: “Now what’s all this Tosca stuff about?”

Questions

1. What lexical meanings of a word can you name? Which of them, in most cases, is the most important one?

2. What SDs are based on the use of the logical (denotational) meaning of a word?

3. What is a contextual meaning? How is it used in a SD?

4. What is the difference between the original and the hackneyed SDs?

5. What is a metaphor? What are its semantic, morphological, syntactical, structural, functional peculiarities?

6. What is a metonymy? Give a detailed description of the device.

7. What is included into the group of SDs known as "play on words"? Which ones of them are the most frequently used? What levels of language hierarchy are involved into their formation?

8. Describe the difference between pun and zeugma, zeugma and a semantically false chain, semantically false chain and nonsense of non-sequence.

9. What meanings of a word participate in the violation of a phraseological unit?

10. What is the basic effect achieved by the play on words?

11. Find examples of each of the discussed stylistic devices in your home reading.

12. Try and find peculiarities in the individual use of various SDs by different authors known to you from your courses of literature, interpretation of the text, home reading.

Literarure

1. I. R. Galperin Stylistics M. 1977

2. V. A. Kukharenko Seminars in Style M. 1971

Lecture 5 Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices. Figures of relations. 1. Relations of Identity

2. Relations of contrast

Figures of relations are based on particular, intentionally organized relations between meanings of words and word-combinations in one context; or between meanings of words of the given linguistic unit and words which are meant and replaced by them. They are relations of identity (тождества) with special use of synonyms, euphemisms, and periphrasis; relations of contrast (противоположности) with antithesis, oxymoron, and irony; relations of inequality with climax and anticlimax, hyperbole and litotes. Relations of Identity

1. Synonyms. WE shall speak of a simultaneous use of two or more synonyms of one and the same synonymous group within one narrative and not about the choice of synonyms which is the subject of lexicology. The simultaneous use and not the choice of synonyms is a figure of speech (a stylistic device). Their are two ways of using synonyms simultaneously: paired synonyms and synonymic variations. Paired synonyms: two synonyms are used together to fully express the notion. The use of the second synonym does not mean the repetition of one and the same idea, the second synonym adds some quality to the given notion, and both synonyms, placed together, achieve greater expressiveness than each used separately. WE shall call these additional synonyms specifiers (уточнители). Thus, if W. Scott says ‘the wild and unrestrained joy’, he uses the words not as absolute synonyms, joy may be wild but still restrained, thus ‘unrestrained’ adds some new quality to the notion ‘wild joy’. Such synonyms as lord and master, really and truly turned into clichés. Most often one of them is native the other – foreign by origin. Synonymic variations. Often within one narrative we find two or more synonyms expressing analogous or identical thought. Such variations help to avoid monotony of speech. We shall call them replacers .e.g. He brought home numberless prizes. He told his mother countless stories every night about his school companions. (Thackeray) Some words are synonyms only for the given context, they may be called contextual synonyms. e.g. She told his name to the trees. She whispered it to the flowers. She breathed it to the birds. (Leacock) The mentioned ways of using synonyms may serve a really expressive means provided their dosage and purpose in the narrative are carefully thought out.

2) Periphrasis is the renaming of an object that brings out some particular feature of the object. The essence of the device is that it is decipherable only in the context. If a periphrasis is understandable outside the context, it is not a stylistic device but merely a synonymous expression. Such easily decipherable periphrases are also called traditional: the cap and gown (student body); a gentleman of the long robe (a lawyer); the fair/better sex (women); my better half (my wife); a man about town (a London society idler); the man in the street (an ordinary person). Periphrasis as a stylistic device is a new nomination of an object by disclosing some quality of the object and making it alone represent the object, but at the same time preserving in the mind the ordinary name of the concept. E.g. ‘You are my true and honourable wife as dear to me as are the ruddy drops that visit my sad heart.‘ (blood)

Periphrasis may be logical and figurative. Logical periphrases are based on logical notions: a certain feature of an object is taken to denote the whole object, or a wider notion is substituted for the concrete notion. e.g. Mr. Snodgrass bore under his arm the instrument of the destruction. (Dickens). Figurative periphrasis may be based on metaphor (metaphoric periphrasis) or on metonymy (metonymic periphrasis). e.g. ‘Back foolish tears, back to your native spring’. (eyes) (Shakespeare) It is a metaphoric periphrasis. e.g. A tremendous whack came down on Tom’s shoulder and its duplicate on Joe’s; and for the space of two minutes the dust continued to fly from the two jackets and the whole school to enjoy it. (M. Twain) It is a metonymic periphrasis and means to fight.

3.Euphemisms. There is a variety of periphrasis which is called euphemistic. Euphemisms, as is known, is a word or a phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or a phrase by a conventionally more acceptable one, for example: the word to die has bred the following euphemisms, : to pass away to expire, to be no more, to depart, to join the majority; and more facetious ones: to kick the bucket, to give up the ghost, to go west.

Euphemisms exist in the language as synonyms for words regarded as rude or indecent. In contrast to euphemisms euphemistic periphrasis is a stylistic device. It is used for various stylistic purposes, usually to achieve a humorous or satirical effect.

Relations of contrast

1. Antithesis is such an arrangement of ideas or terms as emphasizes a contrast. It denotes any active confrontation. The two opposed notions may refer to the same object of thought or to different objects. We may distinguish three varieties of antithesis.

a. Within one speech unit (a word-combination, a sentence, or extended narrative) two, contrary as to their meaning words characterize one and the same object of speech. The purpose of this device is to show complex and contradictory nature of the object of speech, as in the following example:

‘It was the best of times , it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the era of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of Hope, it was the winter of Despair; we had everything before us , we had nothing before us on the right and in front and behind…’ (Dickens)

b. Two different objects of speech opposed to each other receive opposite characteristics. The device serves to underline their incompatibility: ‘Large houses are still occupied while weavers’ cottages stand empty.’ (Gaskell) ‘His fees were high; his lessons were light.’ (O. Henry) c.Two contrasting objects of speech receive their peculiar characteristics as to quality, action etc.

‘For the old struggle – mere stagnation, and in place of danger and death, the dull monotony of security and the horror of an unending decay!’ (Leacock)

Stylistic antithesis is not only an effective stylistic devise, but as all expressive means it is an expression of inner, elevated contents of speech.2. Oxymoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meaning of the two clashes, being opposite in sense: ‘His honour rooted in dishonour stood And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.’ (Tennyson) The oxymoron reveals the contradictory nature of one and the same phenomenon. One of its components discloses some objectively existing feature or quality while the other serves to convey the author’s individual attitude towards the same.

e.g. …’the houses filled with guests and all of them plastered in diamonds and stinking of titles , not one of them less than an earl!’ (Du Maurier) The contextual meanings of ‘diamonds’ and ‘titles’ do not differ from their logical meanings, whereas the contextual meaning of ‘stinking ‘ and plastered is emotive and shows the speaker’s personal view of the bejewelled and betitled assembly. Two opposite ideas very naturally repulse each other so that a once created oxymoron is practically never repeated in different contexts and so does not become trite.

3. Irony. (Greek eironeia – ‘mockery concealed’)

It denotes a trope / figure based on direct opposition of the meaning to the sense. It is the use of words, word-combinations and sentences in the meanings opposite to those directly expressed by them (i.e. opposite to their logical meaning) for purpose of ridicule. Thus in the sentence: ‘It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket.’ The word “delightful’ acquires a meaning quite the opposite to its primary dictionary meaning, that is ‘unpleasant’, ‘not delightful’.

Irony is generally used to convey a negative meaning. The effect of irony largely depends on the unexpectedness and seeming lack of logic of a word used by the author in an incompatible context. The reader is fully aware of the contrast between what is logically expected and what is said. This contrast of meanings very often produces a humorous effect.

Sometimes irony is not pointed out at all: its presence in the text is deduced only by reasoning. The reader cannot possibly believe that the author can be praising the object of speech in earnest. Sometimes the whole of the narrative is ironical, as the case is with the description the matrimonial schemes of Becky Sharp. (Thackeray)

Questions

1. What is irony, what lexical meaning is employed in its formation?

2. What types of irony do you know? What is the length of the context needed for the realization of each of them?

3. What are the most frequently observed mechanisms of irony formation? Can you explain the role of the repetition in creating irony?

4. Can you name English or American writers known for their ingenuity and versatility in the use of irony?

5. Find cases of irony in books you read both for work and pleasure

Literarure

1. I. R. Galperin Stylistics M. 1977

2. V. A. Kukharenko Seminars in Style M. 1971

Lecture 6 Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices. Relations of Inequality

1. Relations of Inequality

2. Climax Anticlimax. Hyperbole Litotes

1.Climax presents a structure in which every consecutive sentence or phrase is emotionally stronger or logically more important than the preceding one.e.g. ‘For that instant there was no one else in the room, in the house, in the world, besides themselves…’ (Wilson) Such an organization of the utterance creates a gradual intensification of its significance, both logical and emotive, and absorbs the reader’s attention more completely: ‘It must be a warm pursuit in such a climate,’ observed Mr. Pickwick. ‘Warm! – red-hot! – scorching! – glowing!’

A peculiar variety is observed in those cases when a negative structure undergoes intensification: ‘No tree, no shrub, no blade of grass … that was not owned’. (Galsworthy) ‘Be careful’, said Mr. Jingle – not a look, not a wink,’ said Mr. Tupman. ‘Not a syllable – not a whisper’. (Dickens)

As we sea every consecutive part of the climax is expressed by a word presenting a less significant concept, so that instead of an increase there is a certain decrease of logical importance and emotion:

cf. warm – red-hot – scorching – glowing and tree - -shrub – blade of grass But on closer observation it appears that the idea of some decrease is premature, because the negative particle attached to the ‘decreasing’ members of the climax, changes the whole picture. The smaller becomes the quantity or importance of a concept, the stronger is the negation, i.e. the more efficient and to the point is the climax.

2. Anticlimax. A real anticlimax is a sudden deception of the recipient: it consists in adding one weaker element to one or several stronger ones, mentioned before. The recipient is disappointed in his expectations: he predicted a stronger element to follow; instead, some insignificant idea follows the significant one (ones). This usually brings forth a humorous effect.

The majority of famous O. Wilde’s and B. Shaw’s paradoxes are based on anticlimax: ‘Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except the obvious.’ (O,W.) ‘ Harris never weeps, he knows not why. If Harris’ eyes fill with tears, you can bet it is because Harris has been eating raw onions… (J. K. J.)

3. Hyperbole is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration, the aim of which is to intensify one of the features of the object in question to such a degree as will show its utter absurdity: ‘God, I cried buckets. I saw it ten times.’

Like many stylistic devises hyperbole may lose its quality as a stylistic device through frequent repetition and become a unit of the language- as-a-system, (language expressive means): a thousand pardons, scared to death etc.

Word-combinations of the type: a drop of water=not much water, a cat size pony=a very small pony - present a kind of hyperbole – exaggeration of insignificance – (small quality, small size).

4. Litotes. The stylistic device of litotes is used to diminish the positive characteristics of a thing or a phenomenon. It is based on discrepancy between the syntactical form, which is negative, and the meaning, which is positive.

e.g. She said it ,but not impatiently. (with patience).

The obligatory presence of the particle not makes the statement less categorical and conveys certain doubts of the speaker.

Cf. ‘It was not unnatural if Gilbert felt a certain embarrassment.’(Maugham) and ‘It was natural if…’ and you will see that the peculiar structure of litotes interferes into the semantic field and influences it, supplying an additional emotive shade to the idea expressed.

The structure of litotes is rather rigid: its first element is always the negative particle ‘not’ (or ‘no’) and its second component is, too, always negative in meaning if not in form: not without doubt; He is no fool.

Synonyms

Comment on the type and function of synonyms.

1. With wild cries and desperate energy, she lipped to another and still another cake – stumbling – leaping – skipping – springing upwards again.

2. “Yes, yes,” he said; “ except in your case you told me to get a position. The homely word job, like much that I have written, offends you….”

3. Every man has somewhere in the back of

Periphrasis

State the nature and function of the following periphrasis.

1. His arm about her, he led her in and balled, “LADIES AND THE WORSER HALVES, the bride!”

2. The nose was anything but Grecian – that was a certainty, for it pointed to heaven.

3. “I expect you like a wash,” Mrs. Thompson said. “The bathroom’s to the right and the usual offices next to it”.

4. The hospital was crowded with the surgically interesting products of the fighting in Africa.

4. He would make some money and then he would come back and marry his dream from Blackwood.

5. She was still fat; the destoyer of his figure sat at the head of the table.

Relations of contrast.

Antithesis

Give morphological and syntactical characteristics of the following cases of antithesis.

1. Three bold and experienced men – cool confident and dry when they began; white quivering and wet when they finished…

2. Mrs. Nork had a large home and a small husband.

3. He… ordered a bottle of the worst possible port wine , at the highest possible price.

Oxymoron

Discuss the structure of the following oxymorons.

1. They looked courteous curses at me.

2. … he was certain the whites could easily detect his adoring hatred of them.

3. He … caught a ride home to the crowded loneliness of the barracks.

Irony

1. Contentedly Sam Clark drove off, in the heavy traffic of three Fords and the Minniemachie House Free Buss.

2. Stoney smiled the sweet smile of an alligator.

3. Henry could gloriously tipsy on tea and conversation. .

Climax | Anticlimax

1. “Say yes. If you don’t, I’ll break into tears. I’ll sob. I’LL moan. I’ll growl.”

2. I don’t attach any value to money. I don’t care about it, I don’t know about it, I don’t want it, I don’t keep it – it goes away from me directly

3. … they were absolutely quiet; eating no apples, cutting no names, inflicting no pinches, and making no grimaces, for full tow minutes afterwards. Hyperbole

1. God, I cried buckets. I saw it ten times.

2. Tom was conducted through a maze of rooms and labyrinths of passages

Litotes

1. “How slippery it is, Sam.”

“Not an uncommon thing upon ice, Sir,” replied Mr. Weller.

2. I am a vagabond of the harum- scarum order, and not of the mean sort…

Questions

1. Find examples of each of the discussed stylistic devices in your home reading.

2. Try and find peculiarities in the individual use of various SDs by different authors known to you from your courses of literature, interpretation of the text, home reading.

Literarure

1. I. R. Galperin Stylistics M. 1977

2. V. A. Kukharenko Seminars in Style M. 1971

Lecture 7 Morphological Stylistics

1. Using different part of Speech in lexico-grammatical and grammatical meanings

Now we shall consider the stylistic effect of using different parts of speech in an unusual lexico-grammatical and grammatical meanings. Such a divergence between what is traditionally denoted and what is situationally denoted on the level of morphology is called transposition (транспозиция) or grammatical metaphor. The rendering of emotions, evaluations and expressiveness, and sometimes functional and stylistic connotations are achieved at the expense of the violation of usual grammatical connections. Every part of speech, depending on its particular grammatical category and means of its expression, may be subjectedc to transformation.

Let us begin with the noun. Expressive possibilities arise here, first of all, with the unusual use of the number and case and also with the character of the pronoun substitution.

The most widely known type of such transposition is the so called personification when human feelings, thoughts, speech (antromorphism) are ascribed to natural phenomena, objects, animals; and this is connected with the change of pronouns (it becomes he, she etc.)

e.g. Roll on, thou dark and blue Ocean – roll ! The common noun Ocean becomes a proper noun, it is replaced by the pronoun thou, is written in a capital letter and is used in the function of a rhetorical address (apostrophe). Possessive case of nouns is another formal sign of personification which is also marked by expressiveness. Even the use of the names of countries, cities in the possessive case renders them some elevation. cf. London’s people and the people of London my country’s laws and the laws of the country. It renders the text some loftiness. Another type of transposition are metaphors, when names of animals, birds, fantastic beings receive metaphoric, emotional colour and not rarely have a derogatory meaning: mule, pig, duck, shark, snake, swine, toad, wolf, worm, angel, tabby, devil etc. I was not going to have all the old tabbies bossing her around, because she is not what they call our class. The women are called here ‘старые кошки’.

Transposition of adjectives may acquire not only emotive and expressive but functionally stylistic colouring, e.g. Listen, my sweet. Come on, my lovely! Adjectives are converted into nouns. Transposition of abstract nouns ( refers to people): cf. The chubby little eccentricity – a chubby eccentric child. He is a disgr ace to his family – He is a disgraceful son. The old oddity – an odd old person. In other word-combinations substantivation may have a bookish colouring, i.e. functionally stylistic connotation a flush of heat – a hot flush a man of intelligence – an intelligent man the dark of the night – the dark night the dark of intensity – the intense dark

The substantivised adjective proves to be more abstract and bookish than the derived noun. The plural number. Funny sounds the use of the plural number when –s is added to the whole sentence. e.g. One I-am-sorry-for –you is worth twenty I-told-you-so’s. Genitive also serves as a contextual indicator of personification: ‘Holly Wood’s Studio Empty’ – ‘Holly Wood Studio Empty’. These are titles. The article. The functioning of the article gives an illustrious example of the fact that the code is a system of signs, rules of their functioning, restrictions to these rules. The indefinite article may indicate belonging to a famous family, in this case an evaluative component is always present, and the connotation is rather complicated. For instance, ‘Elisabeth was a Tudor’. What is meant here is that family features of nobility belong to this person. But with another example of the occasional use of the indefinite article ‘She was a Dodson’ ( ‘The Mill on the Floss’ D. Elliot) the name Dodson is far off being aristocratic. The Dodsons are arrogant, rude philistines. The definite article, used before the proper name, may indicate that the person is a celebrity in good or bad sense. For instance, ‘Know my partner. Old Robinson. Yes, the Robinson. Don’t you know? The notorious Robinson. (Conrad Lord Jim).

The use of the article in enumeration is of special interest. In attributive word combinations with a number of dependent homogeneous members are usually placed between the first article and the noun. And there is no need in repeating the article before each word, but it may be needed for stylistic purposes. e.g. Under the low sky the grass shown with a brilliant, an almost artificial sheen. (C.P. Snow). The appearance of the second article is unexpected and drawing the attention to the following word, underlines its importance and creates the impression of the appearance of a new word combination. The adjective. The category of comparison is the only grammar category in contemporary English characteristic of adjectives. It renders the degree of intensity expressed by the adjectival sign and as such is very close to the category of stylistic expressiveness. It is especially true of elative whose grammatical meaning is an irrelatively great measure of the sign: a most valuable idea, the newest fashion of all. There are also syntactical means for rendering elative: a foolish, foolish wife, a most foolish wife, the most foolish of wives, my fool of a wife, my wife is foolishness herself, she is as foolish as can be, is she as foolish as that?

In low colloquial style or in popular speech possible is the intensification by means of that: She is that foolish. In literary colloquial style emotional evaluative component is introduced with evaluative words in pairs: nice and warm, good and strong.

Only qualitative and quantitative adjectives have the category of comparison. But when other kinds of adjectives are used in comparative or superlative degree of which it is not characteristic they acquire great expressiveness. e.g. You cannot be deader than dead. (Hemingway). The verb. The verb has much more developed system of word-building and a greater number of grammatical categories than any other part of speech. Thus we may assume that its stylistic potential is considerable. And here again transposition is an important expressive means. In lively emotional narrative about events in the past or expected in the future ‘The Present Historical Tense’ is used. The continuous forms (present, past or future) are used instead the indefinite forms. It is more emotional, sometimes they can express a momentary irritation. e.g. One day I’m no longer spending my days running a sweet stall, I may write a book about us all. Sometimes the continuous form, due to its emotiveness, proves to be milder and more polite than simple present.e.g. The kind Mrs. Eliot puts mildly: ‘I’d better show you the way. He is not feeling so good to day.’As to the perfect it is the omission of the auxiliary verb: ‘You done this.

Literarure

1. I. R. Galperin Stylistics M. 1977

3. V. A. Kukharenko Seminars in Style M. 19

Lecture 8 Syntactical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices. Syntactical stylistics.

1. Parallel syntactical structures

2. Comparative stylistic analysis.

What is studied here is a set of parallel syntactical structures and their comparative stylistic analysis. We shall consider special forms of syntactical organization of English speech used as expressive means thus rendering the utterance additional semantic shades. These forms are purposeful deviations from the neutral syntactical norm of the English language. Under deviations of the norm we understand, for instance, absence of expected members of the sentence, their repetition or unusual distribution in the sentence. They are apt to produce a certain stylistic effect. And the analysis of such cases is the subject of syntactical stylistics. Stylistic effect can be created not only within one sentence but within larger and more complicated spans of utterance (sentences, paragraphs, chapters and the whole work).

In accordance with syntactical stylistic expressive means can be classified as follows: 1.From the point of view of quantitative characteristics of the syntactical structure there are two possible varieties of deviations---a. the absence of elements which are obligatory in a neutral construction; b. excess of non-essential elements/redundancy of syntactical elements.

2. With regard to the distribution of the elements we should deal with various types of inversion.

3. By analyzing the general syntactical meanings, communicative aims of sentences, stylistic effect of shifts in syntactical means of changes in the use of syntactical forms are established.

I.A. Absence of elements which are obligatory in a neutral construction.

1. Ellipsis (of Greek origin ‘ellipsis’ – недостаток, нехватка)

The deliberate omission of one or more principal words (usually the subject, the predicate). The missing parts are either present in the syntactical environment of the sentence (context) or they are implied by the situation.

For example, ‘The ride did Ma good. Rested her.’ (D. Carter) The second sentence is elliptical, as the subject of the sentence is missing.

The omission of some parts of the sentence is an ordinary and typical feature of the oral type of speech. In belles-lettres style the peculiarities of the structure of the oral type of speech are partially reflected in the speech of characters.

Ex. ‘I’ll see nobody for half an hour, Marcey,’ said the boss. ‘Understand? Nobody at all.’ (Mansfield)

The omission of some parts of the sentence in the example given above reflects the informal and careless character of speech.

Some parts of the sentence may be omitted due to the speaker’s excitement. Such cases of omission reflecting the natural structure of the oral type of speech are not a stylistic device.

The stylistic device of ellipsis is sometimes used in the author’s narrative, but more frequently it is used in represented speech.

Ex. ‘Serve him right, he should arrange his affairs better!’ So any respectable Forsyte’ (Galsworthy). The predicate is missing and the reader is to supply what is omitted.

The stylistic device of ellipsis not only makes the sentence laconic and prominent but creates the effect of implication forcing the reader to read between the lines.

The stylistic device of ellipsis used in inner represented speech creates a stylistic effect of the natural abruptness and the fragmentary character of the process of thinking.

Ex. ‘It would have been a good idea to bring along one of Doc’s new capsules. Could have gone into a drug store and asked for a glass of water and taken one.’ (D. Carter).

2. Nominative sentences/One-member sentences. The communicative function of a nominative sentence is a mere statement of the existence of an object, a phenomenon: ‘London. Fog everywhere. Implacable November weather.’

Though syntactically different from elliptical sentences, nominative sentences (which comprise only one principal part expressed by a noun or a noun equivalent) resemble the former because of their brevity. Nominative sentences are especially (important) suitable for preliminary descriptions introducing the reader to the situation. They are often used to present the background of the action as in the example:

‘Men, palms, red plush seats, white marble tables, waiters in aprons. Miss Moss walked through them all.’ (Mansfield)

One-member sentences may be used to heighten the emotional tension of the narrative or to single out the character or the author’s attitude towards what is happening.

Absence of auxiliary elements.

Auxiliary verbs, articles, prepositions, conjunctions as well as the link verb be are very often dropped in informal oral communication.

‘I been waiting here all morning…’ (Robbins)‘.You feel like telling me?’ (Salinger).‘ She still writing poetry?’ (Miller) ‘That be enough?’ (Markus)

Articles, both the definite and indefinite are omitted in the following examples:

‘Third time lucky—that will be the idea.’ (Christie). ‘Post here yet?’ (Amis).‘Chair comfortable?’ (Pinter).‘Beautiful woman, but no subtlety…’ (Christie)

The articles are mostly dropped when the noun or the nominal group occupy the initial position in the sentence.

Prepositions are absent mostly in adverbial modifiers of place and time:

‘Where was he born?. ‘London.’ (Kanin). ‘What time did you get in?’ (Amis)

‘I told you we’ll go Friday.’ (Hellman)

Zeugma is use of a word in the same grammatical relation to the adjacent word in the context, one metaphoric and the other literal in sense. e. g. The boys took their books and places. (Dickens) At noon Mrs. Turpin would get out of bed and humour, put on kimano, airs, and the water to boil for coffee.(O. Henry).Two cases of using zeugma – v. to get(out) is blended with n. bed and humour forming a free word-combination with the first and a phraseological unit with the second; v. to put on yokes with three words and in each of the three combinations its semantics is different: надела кимоно, напустила на себя важный вид, ставила воду. Stylistic effect caused by zeugma lies entirely in the sphere of semantics. The use of zeugma serves, as a rule, humouristic purposes; the comic is caused by contrariness between identity of constructions and their semantic heterogeneity. Very often combinations forming zeugma are syntactically homogeneous members of the sentence and from the view point of the formal structure of the sentence do not violate syntactical norm. e.g. She dropped a tear and a handkerchief.(Dickens). She possessed two false teeth and a sympathetic heart. ( O.H.) Zeugma is a stylistic device, as it is based on intentional ‘economy’ of syntactical means with the aim of a certain stylistic result.

Questions

1. Comment on the length of the sentence and its stylistic relevance.

2. What do you know about one-word sentences?

3. Is there any correlation between the length and the structure of the sentence?

4. Can syntactical ambivalence be put to stylistic use?

5. What punctuation marks do you know and what is their stylistic potential?

Literarure

1. I. R. Galperin Stylistics M. 1977

2. V. A. Kukharenko Seminars in Style M. 1971

Lecture 9 Syntactical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

1. Syntactical Expressive Means

2. Repetition, Parallelism

IB. Excess of non-essential elements. (Redundancy of syntactical elements)

The redundancy, structural and material, occurs, first of all, in the increased number of elements used. It must be borne in mind that all superfluous elements have a stylistic feature in common: additional words and more complicated constructions aim at emphasizing the thought (or part of the thought) expressed.

Repetition as a stylistic device is recurrence of the same word or phrase within the sentence with the view of expressiveness. Examples of repetition are abundant in colloquial speech; as well as in poetry, imaginative prose, and emotional public speeches; and hardly ever occur in scientific, technological or legal texts. Repetition within phrases (parts of the sentence) typical of colloquial speech concerns mostly qualifying adverbs and adjectives: very, very good; for ever and ever ; a little, little girl.

e.g. They both looked hard, tough and ruthless, and they both looked very, ,very, very lethal. (Chase) Scrooge went to bed again and thought and thought and thought it over and over and over. (Dickens). The element (elements) attract the reader’s attention as being the most important; in a way it imparts additional sense to the whole utterance. Repetition as an expressive device, as a means of emphasis, should be differentiated from cases of chance recurrence of the same word in an unprepared, confused or stuttering colloquial speech: ‘I-I-I never met her before here’.

Syntactical tautology (or prolepsis). The term implies recurrence of the noun subject in the form of the corresponding personal pronoun. The stylistic function of this construction is emphasis. The noun subject separated from the rest of the sentence by the unstressed pronominal subject comes to be detached from the sentence – made more prominent. e.g. Miss Tillie, she slept forty days and nights without waking up. (O.H.) The use of the redundant pronominal subject is a typical feature of popular speech. e.g. The widow Douglass, she took me for her son, and allowed she would civilize me… (M. Twain). Sometimes prolepsis occurs in quite an opposite form: the recurrence of the personal pronoun in the form of the noun subject. e.g. She developed power, this woman – this wife of his. (Galsworthy)

Parallelism. Repetition may also concern the syntactical structure of sentences. Adjacent sentences are often identical or analogous by their syntactical structures. Assimilation or even identity of two or more neighbouring sentences is called parallelism (parallel constructions). Parallelism, as a matter of fact, is a variety of repetition, but not a repetition of lexically identical sentences, only a repetition of syntactical costructions: John kept silent; Mary was thinking. The two sentences are identical structurally, but different lexically. Parallelism strongly affects the rhythmical organization of the paragraph, so it is eminent in oratoric speech, in pathetic extracts.

More often it so happens that parallel sentences contain the same lexical elements: Anaphora. This term implies identity of beginnings of one or several initial elements in adjacent sentences (stanzas, paragraphs). This device serves the purpose of strengthening the element that recurs.e.g. Farewell to the forests and wild hanging woods,Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods…(Burns). The anaphoric Farewell to the… is accompanied by complete parallelism of the rest of each line.

Epiphora. This stylistic figure is opposed to anaphora. It is recurrence of one or several elements concluding two or more syntactical units. e.g. The white washed room was pure white as of old, the methodical book-keeping was in peaceful progress as of old, and some distant howler was hanging against a cell door as of old.. Epiphora, to a still greater extent than anaphora, regulates the rhythm and makes prose resemble poetry.

Framing. This term is used to denote the recurrence of the initial segment at the very end of a syntactictal unit (sentence, paragraph, stanza):

‘Money is what he’s after, money.’ (Galore)

‘Never wonder. By means of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, settle everything somehow, and never wonder.’ (Dickens)

Anadiplosis (from the Greek ‘doubling’): the final element or elements of a sentence, paragraph, stanza, etc. recurs at the very beginning of the next sentence, paragraph, stanza.

‘With Bewick on my knee, I was then happy; happy at least in my own way.” (Bronte)

Chiasmus (from the letter X—chi) means crossing. The term denotes what is sometimes characterized as ‘parallelism reversed’: two syntactical constructions (sentences or phrases) are parallel, but their members (words) change places, their syntactical positions. What is the subject in the first becomes an object or a predicative in the second (thus their functions change.)

e.g. The jail might have been the infirmary, the infirmary might have been the jail.’ (Dickens)

Polysyndeton. The term, as opposed to ‘syndeton,’ means excessive use (repetition) of conjunctions—the conjunction ‘and’ in most cases. In poetry and fiction, the repetition of ‘and’ either underlines the simultaneity of actions or close connection of properties enumerated. A classical example of polysyndeton of this kind is the famous poem by Robert Southey. A few lines will suffice:

Advancing and glancing and dancing, and prancing

Recoiling, toiling, and toiling and boiling,

And dashing, and flashing, and splashing, and clashing;

And so never ending, and always descending….

And in this way the water comes down at Lodore.

e.g. He put on coat and found his mug and plate and knife and went outside (Aldridge).

It may also promote a high-flown tonality of narrative as in the example:

And only one thing really troubled him sitting there—the melancholy craving in his heart—because the sun was like enchantment on his face and on the clouds and on the golden birch leaves…. (Galsworthy).

On the other hand, excessive use of the conjunction ‘and’ often betrays the poverty of the speaker’s syntax, showing the primitiveness of the character.

e.g. It (the tent) is soaked and heavy, and it flops about, and tumbles down on you, and clings around your head, and makes you mad. (J?)

II. Unusual distribution of Elements/Components of Speech. Change of Word Order/Inversion

Every noticeable change in word order is called ‘inversion.’ It is important to distinguish between grammatical inversion and syntactical inversion. Grammatical inversion is that which brings about a cardinal change in the grammatical meaning of the sentence (syntactical structure). E.g. You are here—Are you here? He has come—Has he come?—a declarative sentence is transformed into an interrogative one, and the result is grammatical inversion. Stylistic inversion does not change the grammatical essence of the sentence: it consists of an unusual arrangement of words for the purpose of making one of them more conspicuous, more important, more emphatic. Cf. They slid down with its variant Down they slid. There is no grammatical change, but the word ‘down’ sounds very strong in the second sentence.

The unusual first place in the sentence may be occupied by a predicative:

‘Inexplicable was the astonishment of the little party when they returned to find out that Mr. Pickwick had disappeared.’ (Dickens)

Occasionally, the first place is occupied by a simple verbal predicate. Here are two examples from Jack London:

‘Came a day when he dragged himself into the Enquirer alley, and there was no Cheese-Face.’

‘Came frightful days of snow and rain.’

‘Came another tiny moment, while they waited laughing and talking.’ (Mansfield).

The object is placed before the predicate:

‘Yes, sir, that you can.’ (Pendleton)

‘During that descent he could remember his father quite distinctly…, but his mother he couldn’t see.’ (Galsworthy)

An adverbial modifier may not infrequently come to the foreground.

‘And doggedly along by the railings of the Grand Park towards his father’s house, he went trying to tread on his shadow.’ (Galsworthy)

Questions

1. What is a rhetorical question?

2. What types of repetition do you know?

3. Comment on the functions of repetition which you observed in your reading.

4. Which type of repetition have you met most often? What, in your opinion, makes it so popular?

5. What constructions are called parallel?

6. Have you ever observed chiasmus? What is it?

Literarure

1. I. R. Galperin Stylistics M. 1977

2. V. A. Kukharenko Seminars in Style M. 1971

Lecture 10 Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices. Communicative Aims of sentences.

1. Affirmative sentences, negative sentences

2. Detachment.

Re-evaluation of syntactical meaning. Grammatical syntactical forms are sometimes used not in a function which is not theirs originally. It turns out that the affirmative, negative, interrogative, exhortative (i.e. order or request) sentences are interchangeable. They may replace one another fulfilling the same (or nearly the same) communicative intention, thus becoming stylistically relevant.

Quasi-affirmative sentences. They are negative in form but the implication of such sentences is affirmative: ‘Isn’t it too bad?’ equals ‘That’s too bad.’ It is a certain variety of rhetorical question (namely those with a negative predicate).

‘Don’t I remember!’ implies I do remember.

The interrogative form makes the statement that is implied much stronger than it would be if expressed directly.

Quasi-negative sentences. Most of them are rhetorical questions with affirmative predicates:

‘Did I say a word about the money?’ (Shaw)

The implication is ‘I did not say….’

Negative implication is also typical of special questions.

‘What’s the good of a man behind a bit of glass ...? What use is he there and what’s the good of their banks?’ (J.K.J.)

Affective negative is also expressed in colloquial speech by a clause of unreal comparison beginning with as if and containing a predicate in the affirmative form:

‘As if I ever stopped thinking about the girl, and her confounded vowels and consonants.’ (Shaw)

Quasi-negatives are also set expressions (cf. and the like).

Pickering (slowly): I think I know what you mean, Mr. Higgins.

Higgins: Well, dash me if I do! (Shaw)

Quasi-imperative sentences are those which express inducement (order or request) without imperative form of the verb. Some of them do not name the action, but only mention the object or qualification of a self-evident action.

‘Tea. For two. Out here.’ (Shaw)

‘Here! Quick!’ or with the adverb ‘Off with you!’

Types of Syntactical Connections Viewed Stylistically.

Words, phrases, clauses and sentences are connected with one another in speech. Most often words and phrases are combined semantically, sometimes by auxiliary elements (prepositions and conjunctions). Clauses and independent sentences can be joined to one another asyndetically. Stylistically relevant are changes in the type of connection. Detachment. One of the secondary parts of the sentence by some specific considerations of the writer is placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it logically refers to. Such parts of structure are called detached or isolated. In writing and in print they are separated by punctuation marks (mostly by commas or dashes). The general stylistic effect of detachment is strengthening, emphasizing the word (or phrase) in question. E.g. ‘How could John, with his heart of gold. Leave his family?’ Any secondary part may be detached. ‘Very small and child-like, he never looked more than fourteen’ (attribute), ‘Brave boy, he saved my life and shall not regret it’ (appositive), ‘Talent, Mr. Micawber has , capital, Mr. Micawber has not (direct object), ‘Bitterly, she complained of a pain in her back’ (adverbial modifier). A variant of detached construction is parenthesis. One of most important stylistic functions of using a parenthetic sentence is to create two parallel speech plans in the narrative. This stylistic device may serve to convey the inner speech of the character. E.g. Here is a long passage – what an enormous prospective I make of it! – leading from Peggoty’s kitchen to the front door. (Dickens) The parenthetic form of the statement makes it more conspicuous, more important than it would be if it had been the subordinate clause. Subordination and coordination. Clauses and independent sentences are combined by way of subordination or coordination. Besides they may be combined asyndetically. The same semantic relations between two neighbouring utterances may be expressed in to different ways: When the clock struck twelve, he came – subordination The clock struck twelve, and he came – coordination. The clock struck twelve, he came – asyndetic connection. The use of complex sentences, especially with complicated phrasal conjunctions, such as in view of the fact that or with regard to… is a sign of formal written type of speech. Much simpler conjunctions are preferred in everyday oral communication – when, where, if, and the like. In oral speech we mostly find either asyndeton, or frequent use of the universal conjunction and. E.g. You never can tell in these cases who they are going to turn out and it’s best to be on the safe side. (Dreiser) The conjunction and evidently signalizes the relation of cause and consequence between the two clauses. E.g. ‘Open that silly mouth of yours just once, and you find yourself in jail…! (D.Usseau) This compound sentence is an equivalent of a complex sentence with a subordinate clause of condition (If you open…) Suspense – holding the reader in tense anticipation is often realized through the separation of predicate from subject or predicative by the deliberate introduction between them of a phrase, clause or sentence (frequently parenthetic). Suspense is a deliberate slowing down of the thought, postponing its completion to the very end of the utterance. E.g. All this Mrs. Snagsby, as an injured woman and the friend of Mrs. Chadband, and the follower of Mr. Chadband and the mourner of the late Mr. Talkingh

orn, is here to certify. (Dickens). Suspense always requires long stretches of speech. The main purpose of the device is to prepare the reader for the only logical conclusion. It is a psychological effect that is aimed in particular.

Reported, or Represented Speech.

The description of thoughts and feelings of characters by conveying them through the presentation of inner speech, i.e. reflecting the process of their thinking, is called represented speech. Introducing the represented speech into the narrative the author creates the effect of the character’s immediate presence and participation. E.g. He saw men working and sleeping, towns succeeding one another. What a great country America was! What a great thing to be an artist there! – these simple dramatic things… If he could only do it! If he could only do it! If he could only stir the whole country so that his name would be like that of Dore in France or Verestchagin in Russia. If he could but get fire into his work, the fire he felt! (Dreiser). The morphological structure of the given example is that of indirect speech: the character is referred to in the third person singular, the verb and pronouns are of the same form, too. But though the quotation marks are absent and the structure of the passage does not indicate the author’s immediate presence , Still there are certain features which distinguish it from the author’s indirect speech proper. They are the syntactical and lexical aspects of the passage which are close to the norms and patterns of direct speech. See how many explanatory sentences are there in the extract: they help to reflect the emotional state of the character. Parallel constructions, repetitions – all take part in bringing in the character himself with his ideas, dreams and sentiments. The writer does not eliminate himself completely from the narrative as it happens with the introduction of direct speech but coexists with the personage. What is characteristic of represented speech? a)features in common with indirect speech: no inverted commas; the use of the pronoun in the third person; observance of the rules of sequence of tenses; b) features distinguishing represented speech from indirect speech: the use of typical for a personage’s manner, words and expressions; the use of interjections, exclamatory and interrogative sentences the words yes and no.

EXERCISES

Syntactical stylistic devices, based on the absence of logically required components of speech.

…but her words, everybody’s words, were soon lost under the incessant flow of Miss Bates, who came in talking, and had not finished her speech under many minutes after her being admitted into the circle at the fire…

“So very obliging of you! – No rain at all. Nothing to signify. I do not care for myself.

Quite thick shoes. And Jane declares – Well! – (as soon as she was within the door) Well! This is brilliant, indeed! – This is admirable! – Excellently contrived upon my word. Nothing wanting. Could not have imagine it. – So well lighted up. – Jane, Jane – did you ever see any thing? ...” – She was now met by Mrs. Weston.

He was both out of pocket and out of spirits by that catastrophe.

All the next week Mrs. Glennie wore a martyred frown and Malcolm a new checked waistcoat: price half a sovereign at the store.

Redundancy of syntactical components.

Classify the following cases of repetition according to the position occupied by the repeated unit. State their functions.

Everything in Marseilles and about Marseilles had stared at the fervid sky and been stared at in return until a staring habit had become universal there. Strangers were stared out of countenance by staring white houses, staring white walls, staring white streets, staring tracks of arid roads, staring hills from which verdure was burnt away. (Dickens)

It were better that he knew nothing. Better for common sense, better for him, better for me.

I wake up and I’m alone, and I walk round Warley and I’m alone, and I talk with people and I’m alone and I look at his face when I’m home and it’s dead…( J. Braine)

He ran away from the battle. He was an ordinary human being that did not want to kill or be killed, so he ran away from the battle.

I know the world and the world knows me.

And they wore their best and more colourful clothes. Red shirts and green shirts and pink shirts Unusual distribution of components of speech. Inversion. Detachment.

Out came the chase – in went the horses – on sprang the boys – in got the travelers.

Calm and quiet below me in the sun and shade lay the old house…

Then she said: “You think it so? She was mixed up in this lousy business?”

Only to the eyes of a Kennicott was it exceptional.

She narrowed her eyes a little at me and said I looked exactly Celia’s boy. Around the mouth.

I have to beg you for money. Daily.

Questions

1. What is a rhetorical question?

2. What types of repetition do you know?

3. Comment on the functions of repetition which you observed in your reading.

4. Which type of repetition have you met most often? What, in your opinion, makes it so popular?

5. What constructions are called parallel?

6. Have you ever observed chiasmus? What is it?

Literarure

1. I. R. Galperin Stylistics M. 1977

2. V. A. Kukharenko Seminars in Style M. 1971

Lecture 11 PHONETIC STYLISTICS.

1. Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devises

2. Alliteration. Assonance. Onomotopeia.

Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devises are used for the purpose of producing a certain acoustic effect, giving emphasis to the utterance and arousing emotions in the reader or listener. This part of stylistics deals with prosody and interaction of speech sound in sequences. The term prosody denotes general supersegmental characteristics of speech (tonality, length, force, tempo, and especially the alternation of stressed and unstressed elements – rhythm). The number of prosodic variants (intonational treatment) is theoretically unlimited. As for interaction of speech sounds, of considerable importance is the recurrence of the same consonant (‘alliteration’) or the same vowel (‘assonance’). Alliteration – recurrence of an initial consonant in two or more words which either follow one another or appear close enough to be noticeable. We find it in poetry and in prose – more often than in other languages – very often in titles of books, in slogans, and in set phrases: ‘Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club’ (Dickens), ‘Sense and Sensibility’, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (Jane Austine), ‘The Last Leaf’, ‘Retrieved Reformation’ (O.H.); set expressions: last but not least, now or never, forgive and forget. House and home, good as gold, safe and sound…Alliteration is so favoured in English that sometimes it is used to the detriment to the sense. For instance, the demand of the unemployed Work or wages! Is absurd, if one does not know that the alliterated word wages stands here for the dole (charitable gift of money claimable by the unemployed). Assonance is a phonetic stylistic device, signifying recurrence of stressed vowels. E.g. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…(Poe). Onomotopeia is a combination of speech sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder), by people (sighing, laughter, patter of feet etc.) and by animals. There are two varieties of onomatopeia direct and indirect. Direct onomotopeia is contained in words that imitate natural sounds, as ding-dong, buzz, cuckoo, tintinnabulation, mew, ping-pong, roar and the like. Such words may by used in a transferred meaning, for instance, ding-dong (the sound of bells sound continuously) may denote: noisy; strenuously contented. Examples are: a ding-dong struggle, a ding-dong go on something. Indirect onomotopeia is a combinations of sounds the aim of which is to make the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. E.g. And the silken, sad, uncertain, rustling of each purple curtain…(Poe), where the repetition of the sound [s] actually produces the sound of the rustling of the curtain. Indirect onomotopeia, unlike alliteration, demands some mention of what makes the sound as rustling (of curtains) in the example above.

Euphony is such an effective combination of sounds and such an arrangement of utterance which produce a pleasing acoustic effect. It is a kind of sound instrumentation, in which the meaning of the word, or rather the general mood of the verse or prose passage is supported by a sound image. Here is a strophe from Byron’s ‘Parisine’.

It is the hour when from the boughs

The nightingale’s high note is heard;

It is the hour when lovers’ vows

Seem sweet in every whispered word;

And gentle winds, and waters near,

Make music to the lonely ear.

It is not difficult to notice that the euphone of this stanza is created on the predominance of vowels, especially of long vowels and diphthongs; the sound [w], the nasal sonants [m] [n] and lateral sonant [l] are also reiterated.

The selections of sounds is aimed not as much at the precise reproduction of real sounding of the described movements and phenomena as at arousing a certain emotional state in the listener, analogous, to some extent, to that impression which may be associated in the speaker’s mind to the sounds and sound combinations.

Phonetic peculiarities of speech may be reproduced in writing when writers resort to ‘graphons’, i.e. unusual, non-standard spelling of words, showing either deviation from Standard English or some peculiarity in pronouncing words or phrases emphatically.

Purely individual pronunciation of certain sounds is observed in the graphon th which stands for the letter s, as does a personage of ‘Hard Times’ by Ch. Dickens: ‘Thquire!... Your thervan! Thith ith a bad pieth of bithnith, thith ith…’

In many cases, they show deviations from Standard English typical for whole groups of English speakers. Typical in this respect the reproduction of cockney. For instance, ‘the dropping of H-s’ –Enry Iggens; the substitution of the diphthong [ai] for the diphthong [ei]. In writing it is usually y instead of a, ai, or ay. E.g. ‘Is that my wife?... I see it is, from your fyce… I want the truth – I must ‘ave it!... If that’s ‘er fyce there, then that’s ‘er body in the gallery - …(Galsworthy). Variants of pronunciation are also of importance for stylistics. A speaker may strengthen, emphasize, make more prominent the word when he, for instance, intensifies its initial consonants, which is shown in the graphon as doubling the letter: ‘N-no!’ sounds more decisive more emphatic than a mere ‘No!’ Another way of intensifying a word or a phrase is uttering each syllable or, generally, part of a word as a phonetically independent unit in retarded tempo. Graphically this graphon is hyphenated: ‘Im-pos-sible!’ Sometimes part of the utterance is specially modulated by the speaker (changing volume and pitch: rise-fall in monosyllabic and disyllabic words and, possibly, rise-fall-rise in polysyllables). The corresponding graphons in print are italics or capitalization: She was simply beautiful. I’LL NEVER see him again. Sometimes curious instances of combinations of graphic means can be found as in the example: ‘His wife,’ I said. ‘W-I-F-E. Homebody. Helpmate. Didn’t he tell you?’ (Myer) ‘Appeeee Noooooyeeeeeerrr!’ (Idem) Here the reader may not at once recognize the well-known phrase: Happy New Year!

Questions

1. What is sound-instrumenting?

2. What cases of sound-instrumenting do you know?

3. What is graphon?

4. What types and functions of graphon do you know?

5. What is achieved by the graphical changes of writing - its type, the spacing of graphemes and lines?

6. Which phono-graphical means are predominantly used in prose and which ones in poetry?

Literarure

1. I. R. Galperin Stylistics M. 1977

2. V. A. Kukharenko Seminars in Style M. 1971

Lecture 12 Special Literary Vocabulary.

1. Special Literary Vocabulary

2. Subdivisions

Now we shall examine, in a very general manner, word-groups singled out by traditional lexicology and their stylistics functions.

Poetic words form a rather insignificant layer of literary vocabulary. Their main function is to sustain the special elevated atmosphere of poetry.

e.g. Whilomen ( at some past time ) in Albion’s isle ( the oldest name of Britain ) there dwell a youth, …

Poetic tradition has kept alive such archaic words as quath ( p. t. ) to speak; eftsoon – again, soon after – which are used even by modern ballad-mongers. Poetic words in an ordinary environment may have a satirical effect.

Archaic words are rarely used highly literary words which are aimed at producing an elevated effect. Lexical archaisms ( archaisms proper ) are obsolete words replaced by new ones ( e.g. anon – at once; haply – perhaps; befall – happen etc; historical words / material archaisms – they have gone out of use with the disappearance of concepts and phenomena ( e.g. hauberk – кольчуга, yeoman – иомен, свободный крестьянин, falconet – фальконет (лёгкая пушка), knight, etc. ); morphological archaisms – thou, thee, ye etc.

The function of archaisms is to recreate the atmosphere of antiquity; if used in an inappropriate surrounding archaisms cause a humorous effect.

e.g. Prithee, do me the favour, as to inquire after my astrologer, Martinus Galioty, and send him to me hither presently.

Archaisation of the text is achieved by insertion of separate words and not by the use of the language of some past epoch.

e.g. The situation in which the archaism is not appropriate to the context. In B. Shaw’s play ‘How he Lied to her Husband’ a youth of 18, speaking of his feelings towards a female of 37, expresses himself in a language which is not in conformity with the situation.

“Perfect love casteth off fear”.

Archaisms may have other functions found in other styles. They are frequently found in the style of official documents; and in all kinds of legal documents one can find obsolescent ( obsolete ) words which would long have become obsolete if it were not for that special use.

e.g. aforesaid, hereby, therewith, hereinafternamed.

The function of archaisms in official documents is terminological in character.

Terms are mostly used in special works dealing with the notions of some branch of science. But they may as well appear in other styles; when used in fiction, they may acquire a stylistic function – either to indicate stylistic peculiarities of the subject dealt with, or to make some reference to the occupation of the character whose speech would naturally contain special words and expressions.

e.g. Andrew Manson’s speech – ‘Citadel’ by Cronin.

Martin’s speech – ‘Martin Eden’ by J. London.

Foreign words and Barbarisms. Barbarisms are words originally borrowed from a foreign language and usually assimilated into the native vocabulary, so as not to differ from its units in appearance or in sound. Most of them have corresponding English synonyms: chic – stylish; bon mot – a clever witty saying; en passant – in passing.

We should distinguish between barbarisms and foreign words for purely stylistic purposes. Foreign words do not belong to the English vocabulary, they are not registered in English dictionaries. Barbarisms are.

Both barbarisms and foreign words are widely used in various styles with various aims. One of these functions is to supply local colour.

e.g. ‘Vanity Fair’by Thakeray. (A German town where a boy with a good appetite is made a focus of attention.)

‘The little boy, too, we observed had a famous appetite, and consumed schinken ( окорок ), and braten ( жаркое ), and kartoffeln, and cranberry jam … with a gallantry that did honour to his nation’.

Foreign words may also have the function of conveying the idea of the foreign origin or cultural and educational status of the personage.

Literary coinages . The coining of new words is dictated by the need to indicate new concepts as a result of the development of science. It may also be the result of a search for a more economical, brief form of utterance for expressiveness.

The first type of newly coined words may be named terminological coinages. The second i.e. words coined for expressiveness, may be named stylistic coinages.

New words are usually coined according to productive models for word-building. But new words of literary bookish type may be formed with the help of non-productive affixes and they will be immediately recognized because of their unexpectedness.

e.g. –ize moisturize, pedestrianize, villigize etc.

-ee interrodatee, enrollee, amputee etc.

-ship showmanship, supermanship

-ese translatese, Johnsonese

There is still another means of word-building in English - blending of two words into one.

e.g. avigation ( aviation + navigation )

brunch ( breakfast +lunch )

Usually newly coined words are heavily stylistically loaded, their major stylistic function being the creation of the effect of laconism, terseness and implication of witty humour and satire.

Questions

1. What can you say about the meaning of a word and its relation to the concept of an object (entity)?

2 What types of lexical meaning do you know and what stipulates their existence and differentiation?

3 What connotational meanings do you know? Dwell on each of them, providing your own examples.

4. What is the role of the context in meaning actualization?

5. What registers of communication are reflected in the stylistic-differentiation of the vocabulary?

6. Speak about general literary words illustrating your elaboration with examples from nineteenth- and

twentieth-century prose.

7. What are the main subgroups of special literary words?

8 What do you know of terms, their structure, meaning, functions?

9. What are the fields of application of archaic words and forms?

Literarure

1. I. R. Galperin Stylistics M. 1977

2. V. A. Kukharenko Seminars in Style M. 1971

Lecture 13 Special Colloquial Vocabulary.

1.Special Colloquial Vocabulary

2. Subdivisions

The colloquial layer of words as qualified in most English and American dictionaries is not infrequently limited to a definite language community or confined to a special locality when it circulates. It falls into the following groups: 1. common colloquial words; 2. slang; 3. jargonisms; 4. professionalisms; 5. dialect words; 6. vulgar words; 7. colloquial coinages. They all have a tinge of informality or familiarity about them. There is nothing ethically improper in their stylistic colouring, except that they cannot be used in formal speech.

Slang. Slang is part of the vocabulary consisting of commonly understood and widely used words and expressions of humorous and derogatory character – intentional substitutes for neutral or elevated words and expressions. Slang never goes stale, it is replaced by a new slangism. The reason of appearance of slang is in the aspiration of the speaker to novelty and concreteness. As soon as a slangish word comes to be used because of its intrinsic merits, not because it is the wrong word and therefore a funny word, it ceases to be slang – it becomes a colloquial word, and later perhaps even an ordinary neutral word. Here are instances of words which first appeared as slang, but are quite neutral today: skyscraper, cab, taxi, movies, pub, .photo

Slang is not homogenious stylistically. There are many kinds of slang, e.g. Cockney, public-house, commercial, military, theatrical, parliamentary and others. There is also a standard slang, the slang common to all those who though using received standard English in their writing and speech, also use an informal language.

Here are more examples of slang. Due to its striving to novelty slang is rich in synonyms.

FOOD: chuck, chow, grub, hash;

MONEY: jack, tin, brass, oof, slippery stuff.

Various figures of speech participate in slang formation.

UPPER STOREY for ‘head’ – metonymy

KILLING for ‘astonishing’ – hyperbole

SOME for ‘excellent’ or ‘bad’ – understatement

CLEAR AS MUD – irony

Certain slang words are mere distortions of standard words: cripes ( instead of ‘Christ! Abbriviation is also a widely used means of word-building in slang: math, exam, prof, ( originally jargon words current among students and schoolchildren ). Sometimes new words are just invented: shenanigans ( ‘tricks’, ‘pranks’).

The contrast between what is standard English and what is broken, non-literary has been achieved by means of setting common vocabulary ( also syntactical design) against jargons, slang and all kinds of distortion of forms ( phonetic, morphological, lexical and syntactical ) and this resulted in a tendency in some contemporary dictionaries to replace the label ‘sl.’ by ‘inf.’ or ‘coll’. And this is again due to the ambiguity of the term.

Jargonisms. Jargon words appear in professional or social groups as informal, often humorous replacers of words already existing in neutral or superneutral vocabulary. The use of jargon implies defiance, a kind of naughtiness in lingual behavior.

Jargon words can be roughly subdivided into two groups. One of them consists of names of objects, phenomena, and processes characteristic of the given profession – not the real denominations, but rather nicknames, as apposed to the official terms used in this professional sphere.

The other group is made up of terms of the professional objects, phenomena, and processes.

Thus we may say that jargon words are either non-terminological, unofficial substitutes for professional terms (sometimes called ‘professionalisms’), or official terms misused deliberately, to express disrespect.

Examples of the first group: in soldiers’ jargon picture show is battle; sewing machine means machine-gun; put in a bag – killed in action.

Examples of the second group are: - big gun means an important person, GI –‘Government Issue; dug-out – a retired soldier returned to active service.

Every professional group has its own jargon. We distinguish students’ jargon, musicians’ jargon, lawyers’ jargon, soldiers’ jargon and so on.

Many jargon words come to be used outside the professional sphere in which they first appeared, thus becoming ‘slang words’.

A peculiar place is occupied by cant, a secret lingo of the underworld – of thieves and robbers. The present-day function is to serve as a sign of recognition: he who talks cant gives proof of being a professional criminal.

e.g. Ain’t a lifer, not him! Got a stretch in stir for pulling a leather up in Chi means :” He was not sentenced to imprisonment for life: he only has to serve for having stolen a purse up in Chicago’.

Many jargon words have entered the standard vocabulary: kid, queer, fun, bluff, fib, humbug, they have become dejargonized.

Professionalisms . Professionalisms are words used in a definite trade, profession or calling by people connected by common interests both at work and at home. They are close to terms. Professional words name anew already existing concepts, tools or instruments, and have the typical properties of special code. The main feature of a professionalism is its technicality. They circulate within a definite community ( thus being different from terms ). The semantic structure of the term is usually clear, that of a professionalism is dimmed by the image on which the meaning of a professionalism is based. e.g. tin-fish – submarine; block-buster – a film; a piper – a specialist who decorates pastry with the use of a cream-piper; outer – a knockout blow. Professionalisms should not be mixed with jargons, they are not aimed at secrecy. They fulfill a socially useful function in communication, facilitating a quick and adequate grasp of the message.

Professionalisms are used in emotive prose to depict the natural speech of characters. The skillful use of a professional word will show not only the vocation of the character, but also his education, breeding, environment and sometimes even his psychology.

Dialectal words. Dialectal words are those which in the process of the intergration of the English language remained beyond its literary boundaries and their use is generally confined to a definite locality.

There is sometimes a difficulty in distinguishing between dialectal words and colloquial words. Some dialectal words have become so familiar in good colloquial or standard colloquial English that they are universally recognized as units of standard colloquial English. To these belong: lass – a girl or a beloved girl; a lad – a boy or a young man; daft from the Scottish and the Northern dialect – of unsound mind, silly; fash (Scottish) – trouble, cares. Still they have not lost their dialectal associations.

Of quite a different nature are dialect words which are easily recognized as corruption of Standard English words. E.g. hinny from ‘honey’; titty from ‘sister’ ( being a childish corruption of words ); cutty – a naughty girl or woman.

All above mentioned examples come from the Scottish and Northern dialects.

Among other dialects used for stylistic purposes in literature is the southern dialect. It has a phonetic peculiarity that distinguishes it from other dialects: initial [s] and [f] are voiced and are written in the direct speech of characters as ‘z’ and ‘v’; e.g. volk (folk), vound (found), vox (fox); zee (see), zinking (sinking).

Dialect words are only to be found in the style of emotive prose very rarely in other styles, and only in the function of characterization of personages through their speech.

Vulgar words or vulgarisms. This stylistically lowest group consists of words which are considered too offensive for polite usage. Objectionable words may be divided into two groups: lexical vulgarisms and stylistic vulgarisms.

To the first group belong words expressing ideas considered unmentionable in civilized society. Among lexical vulgarisms are various oaths. Quite unmentionable are the so called ‘four-letter words’ (practically every word denoting the most intimate spheres of human anatomy physiology consists of four letters).

The ousting of objectionable words by norms of ethics is inevitably followed by the creation of all sorts of substitutes. The word bloody is replaced by words beginning with the same sound combination: blooming, blasted, blessed, blamed, etc.

The second group – stylistic vulgarisms – are words and phrases the lexical meaning of which has nothing indecent about them. Their impropriety in civilized life is due to their stylistic value – to stylistic connotations expressing a derogatory attitude of the speaker towards the object of speech.

Vulgarisms are often used in conversation out of habit, without any thought of what they mean, in imitation of those who use them in order not to seem old-fashioned or prudish. Unfortunately in modern fiction they have gained legitimacy. However, they will never acquire the status of Standard English vocabulary.

Their function is that of interjections, to express strong emotions, mainly, annoyance, anger, vexation and the like.

Colloquial coinages. Colloquial coinages ( nonce-words ), unlike those of a bookish character, are spontaneous and elusive. Not all of them are fixed in dictionaries or even in writing and therefore disappear from the language, leaving no trace in it. There is nothing ethically improper in their stylistic colouring, except that they cannot be used in formal speech. Colloquilialisms include:

a) colloquial words proper ( colloquial synonyms of neutral words ): chap (‘fellow’), chunc (‘lump’), sniffy’(disdainful’), or such that have no counterpart in the neutral or literary sphere: molly-doddle (‘an effeminate man or boy’), drifter (‘a person without a steady job’). To this group belong ‘nursery’ words: mummy (‘mother’), dad (‘father’), tummy (‘stomach’), gee-gee (‘horse’).

b) phonetic variants of neutral words: gaffer (‘grandfather’), baccy (‘tobacco’), feller (‘fellow’); a special place is taken by phonetic contractions of auxiliary and modal verbs: shan’t, won’t, don’t, ‘ve, ‘d,’ll, etc. c) diminutives of neutral ( or colloquial ) words: granny, daddy, lassie, piggy; of proper names: Bobby, Polly, Becky, Johnny, etc. d) colloquial meanings of polysemantic words: spoon (‘a man of low mentality’), a hedgehog ( ‘an unmanageable person’). Pretty (‘good-looking’) is neutral; pretty ‘fairly’ (pretty good, pretty quick) is colloquial. e) most of interjections: gee! , eh! , well, why. Oh is a universal signal of emotion, used both in low and high spheres of communication.

Questions

1. Can you recognize general colloquial words in a literary text? Where do they mainly occur?

2. What are the main characteristics of slang?

3. What do you know of professional and social jargonisms?

4. What connects the stock of vulgarisms and social history?

5. What is the place and the role of dialectal words in the national language? in the literary text?

6. To provide answers to the above questions find words belonging to different stylistic groups and

subgroups:

in the dictionary, specifying its stylistic mark ("label");

in your reading material, specifying the type of discourse, where you found it -authorial speech (narration description, philosophising) or dialogue.

Literarure

1. I. R. Galperin Stylistics M. 1977

2. V. A. Kukharenko Seminars in Style M. 1971

Lecture 14 Phraseology and its stylistic use