Lecture 4

PHONETIC EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES

GENERAL NOTES

The stylistic approach to the utterance is not confined to its structure and sense, There is another thing to be taken into account which, in a certain type of communication, viz. belles-lettres, plays an important role. This is the way a word, a phrase or a sentence sounds. The sound of most words taken separately will have little or no aesthetic value. It is in combination with other words that a word may acquire a desired phonetic effect, The way a separate word sounds may produce a certain euphonic impression, but this is a matter of individual perception and feeling and therefore subjective. For instance, a certain English writer expresses the opinion that angina [æn'dgainə], pneumonia [nju'mouniə], and uvula ['ju:vjulə] would make beautiful girl's names instead of what he calls "lumps of names like Joan, Joyce and Maud". In the poem "Cargoes" by John Masefield he considers words like ivory, sandal-wood, cedar-wood, emeralds and amethysts as used in the first two stanzas to be beautiful, whereas those in the 3rd stanza "strike harshly on the ear!"

"With a cargo of Tyne coal,

Road-rails, pig-lead,

Fire-wood, iron-ware and cheap tin trays."

As one poet has it, this is "...a combination of words which is difficult to pronounce, in which the words rub against one another, interfere with one another, push one another."

Verier, a French scientist, who is a specialist on English versification, suggests that we should try to pronounce the vowels [a:, i:, u:] in a strongly articulated manner and with closed eyes. If we do so, he says, we are sure to come to the conclusion that each of these sounds expresses a definite feeling or state of mind. Thus he maintains that the sound [u:] generally expresses sorrow or seriousness; [i:] produces the feeling of joy and so on.

L. Bloomfield, a well-known American linguist says:

"...in human speech, different sounds have different meaning. To study the coordination of certain sounds with certain meanings is to study language." ¹

The theory of sound symbolism is based on the assumption that separate sounds due to their articulatory and acoustic properties may awake certain ideas, perceptions, feelings, images, vague though they might be. Recent investigations have shown that "it is rash to deny the existence of universal, or widespread, types of sound symbolism." ³ In poetry we cannot help feeling that the arrangement of sounds carries a definite aesthetic function. Poetry is not entirely divorced from music. Such notions as harmony, euphony, rhythm and other sound phenomena undoubtedly are not indifferent to the general effect produced by a verbal chain. Poetry, unlike prose, is meant to be read out loud and any oral performance of a message inevitably involves definite musical (in the broad sense of the word) interpretation.

Now let us see what phonetic SDs secure this musical function.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is a combination of speech-sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc), by things (machines or tools, etc), by people (sighing, laughter, patter of feet, etc) and by animals. Combinations of speech sounds of this type will inevitably be associated with whatever produces the natural sound. Therefore the relation between onomatopoeia and the phenomenon it is supposed to represent is one of metonymy.

There are two varieties of onomatopoeia: direct and indirect. Direсt onomatopoeia is contained in words that imitate natural sounds, as ding-dong, buzz, bang, tintinabulation, mew, ping-pong, roar and the like.cuckoo,

These words have different degrees of imitative quality. Some of them immediately bring to mind whatever it is that produces the sound.

Others require the exercise of a certain amount of imagination to decipher it.

Onomatopoeic words can be used in a transferred meaning, as for instance ding-dong, which represents the sound of bells rung continuously, may mean 1) noisy, 2) strenuously contested.

Examples are:

a ding-dong struggle, a ding-dong go at something.

In the following newspaper headline:

DING-DONG ROW OPENS ON BILL, both meanings are implied.

Indirect onomatopoeia is a combination of sounds the aim of which is to make the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. It is sometimes called "echo-writing". An example is:

'And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain' (E. A. Poe),

where the repetition of the sound [s] actually produces the sound of the rustling of the curtain.

Indirect onomatopoeia, unlike alliteration, demands some mention of what makes the sound, as rustling (of curtains) in the line above. The same can be said of the sound [w] if it aims at reproducing, let us say, the sound of wind. The word wind must be mentioned, as in:

"Whenever the moon and stars are set,

Whenever the wind is high,

All night long in the dark and wet

A man goes riding by." (R. S. Stevenson)

A skilful example of onomatopoetic effect is shown by Robert Southey in his poem "How the Water Comes down at Ladore." The title of the poem reveals the purpose of the writer. By artful combination of words ending in -ing and by the gradual increase of the number of words in successive lines, the poet achieves the desired sound effect. The роеm is rather too long to be reproduced here, but a few lines will suffice as illustrations:

"And nearing and clearing,

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And falling and crawling and sprawling,

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And gleaming and streaming and steaming and beaming,

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

And in this way the water comes down at Ladore."

Alliteration

Alliteration is a phonetic stylistic device which aims at imparting a melodic effect to the utterance. The essence of this device lies in the repetition of similar sounds, in particular consonant sounds, in close succession, particularly at the beginning of successive words:

The possessive instinct never stands still. Through florescence and feud, frosts and fires it follows the laws of progression."

(Galsworthy)

or:

"Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering,

fearing,

"Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream

before." (E. A. Poe)

Alliteration, like most phonetic expressive means, does not bear any lexical or other meaning unless we agree that a sound meaning exists as such. But even so we may not be able to specify clearly the character of this meaning, and the term will merely suggest that a certain amount of information is contained in the repetition of sounds, as is the case with the repetition of lexical units.

However, certain sounds, if repeated, may produce an effect that can be specified.

For example, the sound [m] is frequently used by Tennyson in the poem "The Lotus Eaters" to give a somnolent effect.

"How sweet it were,...

To lend our hearts and spirits wholly

To the music of mild minded melancholy;

To muse and brood and live again in memory,"

Therefore alliteration is generally regarded as a musical accompaniment of the author's idea, supporting it with some vague emotional atmosphere which each reader interprets for himself. Thus the repetition of the sound [d] in the lines quoted from Poe's poem "The Raven" prompts the feeling of anxiety, fear, horror, anguish or all these feelings simultaneously.

Rhyme

Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combinations of words.

Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.

Identity and particularly similarity of sound combinations may be relative. For instance, we distinguish between fиll rhymes and incomplete rhymes. The full rhyme presupposes identity of the vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in a stressed syllable, as in might, right; needless, heedless. When there is identity of the stressed syllable, including the initial consonant of the second syllable (in polysyllabic words), we have exact or identical rhymes.

Incomplete rhymes present a greater variety. They can be divided into two main groups: vowel rhymes and consonant rhymes. In vowel rhymes the vowels of the syllables in corresponding words are identical, but the consonants may be different, as in flesh— fresh—press. Consonant rhymes, on the contrary, show concordance in consonants and disparity in vowels, as in worth—forth; tale—tool—Treble—trouble; flung—long.

Modifications in rhyming sometimes go so far as to make one word rhyme with a combination of words; or two or even three words rhyme with a corresponding two or three words, as in upon her honour—won her; bottom—forgot'em—shot him. Such rhymes are called compound or broken. The peculiarity of rhymes of this type is that the combination of words is made to sound like one word—a device which inevitably gives a colloquial and sometimes a humorous touch to the utterance.

2 Lexical expressive means and stylistic

DEVICES

Interaction of different types of lexical meaning

Words in context, as has been pointed out, may acquire additional lexical meanings not fixed in dictionaries, what we have called contextual meanings. The latter may sometimes deviate from the dictionary meaning to such a degree that the new meaning even becomes the opposite of the primary meaning, as, for example, with the word sophisticated (see p. 121). This is especially the case when we deal with transferred meanings.

What is known in linguistics as transferred meaning is practically the interrelation between two types of lexical meaning: dictionary and contextual. The contextual meaning will always depend on the dictionary (logical) meaning to a greater or lesser extent. When the deviation from the acknowledged meaning is carried to a degree that it causes an unexpected turn in the recognized logical meanings, we register a stylistic device.

The transferred meaning of a word may be fixed in dictionaries as a result of long and frequent use of the word other than in its primary meaning. In this case we register a derivative meaning of the word. The term 'transferred' points to the process of formation of the derivative meaning. Hence the term 'transferred' should be used, to our mind, as a lexicographical term signifying diachronically the development of the semantic structure of the word. In this case we do not perceive two meanings.

When, however, we perceive two meanings of a word simultaneously, we are confronted with a stylistic device in which the two meanings interact.

Interaction of primary dictionary and contextually imposed meanings

The interaction or interplay between the primary dictionary meaning (the meaning which is registered in the language code as an easily recognized sign for an abstract notion designating a certain phenomenon or object) and a meaning which is imposed on the word by a micro-context may be maintained along different lines. One line is when the author identifies two objects which have nothing in common, but in which he subjectively sees a function, or a property, or a feature, or a quality that may make the reader perceive these two objects as identical. Another line is when the author finds it possible to substitute one object for another on the grounds that there is some kind of interdependence or interrelation between the two corresponding objects. A third line is when a certain property or quality of an object is used in an opposite or contradictory sense.

The stylistic device based on the principle of identification of two Objects is called a metaphоr. The SD based on the principle of substitution of one object for another is called metonутy and the SD based on contrary concepts is called irony.

Let us now proceed with a detailed anaiysis of the ontology, structure and functions of these stylistic devices.

Metaphor

The term 'metaphor', as the etymology of the word reveals, means transference of some quality from one object to another. From the times of ancient Greek and Roman rhetoric, the term has been known to denote the transference of meaning from one word to another. It is still widely used to designate the process in which a word acquires a derivative meaning. Quintilian remarks: "It is due to the metaphor that each thing seems to have its name in language." Language as a whole has been figuratively defined as a dictionary of faded metaphors. Thus by transference of meaning the words grasp, get and see come to have the derivative meaning of understand. When these words are used with that meaning we can only register the derivative meaning existing in the semantic structures of the words. Though the derivative meaning is metaphorical in origin, there is no stylistic effect because the primary meaning is no longer felt.

A metaphor becomes a stylistic device when two different phenomena (things, events, ideas, actions) are simultaneously brought to mind by the imposition of some or all of the inherent properties of one object on the other which by nature is deprived of these properties. Such an imposition generally results when the creator of the metaphor finds in the two corresponding objects certain features which to his eye have something in common.

The definition of a metaphor is "a figure of speech containing an implied comparison, in which a word or phrase ordinarily and primarily used of one thing is applied to another. For example, "the curtain of night"

Metaphor Examples

You may have often heard expressions such as:

• He drowned in a sea of grief.

• She is fishing in troubled waters.

• Success is a bastard as it has many fathers, and failure is an orphan, with no takers.

All these expressions have one thing in common: a situation is compared to a real thing, although the situation is not actually that particular thing.

• Sea of grief - How and where does one come across a sea that is filled not with water, but with grief?

• Fishing - It is not used to mean that the person is actually fishing; it is an expression which is used to signify that the person is looking for something that is difficult to obtain.

• Success is a sense of achievement, it is not an illegitimate child! - The saying is used to reinforce the age-old belief that everyone wants to take credit for something that became a success, either by fluke or by conscious effort. On the other hand, no matter how much effort or creativity may have gone into an enterprise, the moment it is considered a failure, no one wants to take responsibility for it, much like an abandoned infant.

• Broken heart - Your heart is not literally broken into pieces; you just feel hurt and sad.

• The light of my life - The person described by this metaphor isn't really providing physical light. He or she is just someone who brings happiness or joy.

• It's raining men - Men do not literally pour from the sky; there are simply an abundance of male suitors around at the time.

• Time is a thief - Time isn't really stealing anything, this metaphor just indicates that time passes quickly and our lives pass us by.

• He is the apple of my eye - There is, of course, no real apple in a person's eye. The "apple" is someone beloved and held dear.

• Bubbly personality - A bubbly personality doesn't mean a person is bubbling over with anything, just that the person is cheerful.

• Feel blue - No one actually ever feels like the color blue, although many people say they are "feeling blue" to mean they are feeling sad.

• Fade off to sleep - You don't actually fade, you simply go to sleep.

• Inflamed your temper - The news inflamed your temper is not a situation where there is any actual fire or flames, it is just a situation where someone gets mad.

• Rollercoaster of emotions - A rollercoaster of emotions doesn't exist anywhere, so when people are on a rollercoaster of emotions, they are simply experiencing lots of ups and downs.

• Stench of failure - The stench of failure is strong, according to the common metaphor, but of course failing doesn't really smell.

All of these expressions are examples of metaphors. They are juxtaposing an actual (literal) thing and a figurative thing in order to give more meaning to the figurative concept.