9. Syntactical stylistic devices, compositional patterns of syntactical arrangement (inversion, detached constructions, parallelism)

Inversion (stylistic)(инверсия) is a syntactical stylistic device in which the direct word order is changed either completely so that the predicate precedes the subject (complete inversion), or partially so that the object precedes the subject-predicate pair (partial inversion)

Of all my old association, of all my old pursuits and hopes, of all the living and the dead world, this one poor soul alone comes natural to me. (Ch.Dickens) To a medical student the final examinations are something like death ... (R.Gordon) - Для студента-медика выпускные экзамены - смерти подобны ...

•• aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotional colouring to the surface meaning of the utterance (I.R.G.) Down dropped the breeze ... (Coleridge)

•• нарушение обычного порядка следования членов предложения, в результате которого какой-нибудь элемент отказывается выделенным и получает специальные коннотации эмоциональности и экспрессивности (I.V.A.)

Inversion or displacement of some component of a sentence aims at giving additional logical or emotional stress to the meaning of the utterance. Inversion may be complete - when the predicate is displaced, and partial with the displacement of secondary members of the sentence. There are 5 structural types of inversion: 1) the object is placed in pre-position e.g. Over everything she brooded and brooded: 2) the attribute is placed after the word it modifies e.g. Spring begins with the first narcissus, rather cold and shy and wintry; 3) the predicative is placed before the subject e.g. Shameless and fascinating the advertisements were; 4) the adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence e.g. Weakly she climbed the stairs and opened the door; 5) both the modifier and predicate stand before the subject e.g. There was a rustling m the bushes on his left and suddenly like a cuckoo from a nursery clock out popped a large black bird. Detached Constructionis a secondary part of a sentence, placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it logically refers to. The detached part, being torn away from its referent, assumes a greater degree of significance.

Steyne rose up, grinding his teeth, pale, and with fury in his eyes.

This stylistic device is akin to inversion, detached construction produces a much stronger effect. ‘I want to go’, he said, miserable.’

A variant of detached construction is parenthesis. Parenthesis is a qualifying, explanatory or appositive word, phrase, sentence, etc. which interrupts a syntactic construction, giving an utterance an additional meaning or emotional colouring. It is indicated in writing by commas, brackets or dashes.

Carl, a great singer, was not a good dancer.

Parallel Constructionmay be encountered not so much in the sentence as in the macro-structures. The necessary condition in parallel construction is identical, or similar, syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of a sentence in close succession:

‘There were real silver spoons to stir the tea with, and real china cups to drink tea out of, and plates of the same to hold the cakes and toast in.’

Parallel Construction is most frequently used in enumeration, antithesis and climax, thus consolidating the general effect achieved by these stylistic devices.

In the following example parallelism backs up repetition, alliteration, and antithesis, making the whole sentence almost epigrammatic:

‘And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,

And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot.’

Parallel Construction emphasizes the similarity, diversity, contrasts the ideas equates the significance of the parts.

Our senses perceive no extremes. Too much sound deafens us; too much light dazzles us; too great distance or proximity hinders our view.

Parallelism always generates rhythm; hence it is natural to be used in poetry.