18 Expressive Means (em) and Stylistic Devices (sd). Classification of em and sd. Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices (Simile, Periphrasis, Euphemism, Hyperbole)

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.

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.

Classification of EM and SD:

- Phonetic EM and SD

- Lexical EM and SD

- Grammatical or Syntactical EM and SD

- Lexico-grammatical(syntactical) EM and SD

- Graphic EM and SD

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

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. 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. ‘Back foolish tears, back to your native spring’. (eyes).

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.

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.

19 Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices. Classification of EM and SD. Syntactical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices (Stylistic Inversion, Chiasmus (Reversed Parallel Construction), Repetition, Climax (Gradation), Antithesis).

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.

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.

Classification of EM and SD:

- Phonetic EM and SD

- Lexical EM and SD

- Grammatical or Syntactical EM and SD

- Lexico-grammatical(syntactical) EM and SD

- Graphic EM and SD

Chiasmus 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)

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.

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)

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.e.g. ; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness;

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.

20 Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices. Classification of EM and SD. Syntactical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices (Asyndeton, Polysyndeton, Ellipsis, Represented Speech, Rhetorical Questions, Litotes)

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.

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.

Classification of EM and SD:

- Phonetic EM and SD

- Lexical EM and SD

- Grammatical or Syntactical EM and SD

- Lexico-grammatical(syntactical) EM and SD

- Graphic EM and SD

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. 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?)

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.

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

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!

Rhetorical question. A question asked merely for effect with no answer expected. The answer may be obvious or immediately provided by the questioner.

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).