S tylistic lexicology

1. Language variability

2. Stylistic classification of English vocabulary

3. Interaction of Stylistically Coloured Words and the Context

1. Language variability

L.V. Shcherba: “A stylistically colored word is like a drop of paint added to a glass of pure water and coloring the whole of it.”

1. Read a story; define the subsystem of the words in italics. Give their standard variant.

A sailor was called into the witness-box to give evidence.

‘Well, sir,’ said the lawyer, ‘do you know the plaintiff and defendant?’

‘I don’t know the meaning of these words,’ answered the sailor.

‘What! Not know the meaning of ‘plaintiff’ and ‘defendant?’ continued the lawyer. ‘A pretty fellow you to come here as a witness! Can you tell me where on board the ship the man struck the other?’

‘Abaft the binnacle,’ said the sailor.

‘Abaft the binnacle?’ said the lawyer. ‘What do you mean by that?’

‘A pretty fellow you,’ responded the sailor, ‘to come here as a lawyer, and don’t know what ‘abaft the binnacle’ means!’

The word-stock of any given language can be roughly divided into 3 uneven groups, differing from each other by the sphere of its possible use.

2. Stylistic classification of English vocabulary

I.R. Galperin, I.V. Arnold, V.V. Vinogradov at their turn distinguish

• Neutral

• Literary

• Colloquial

According to prof. U.M. Skrebnev all the words are divided into

• Positive/elevated

• Neutral

• Negative/degraded

2. Divide the following types of words into 3 categories. Make a chart.

• Professional - Dialectal words - Vulgar words – Poetic – Official - Nonce-words – Slang - Bookish – Jargon – Neologisms – Colloquial -

3. Read the following definitions of words and fill in the chart

	the aim	the sphere of use
Literary words
Colloquial words

1. Literary words serve to satisfy communicative demands of official, scientific, poetic messages.

2. Colloquial words are employed in non-official everyday communication.

3. Literary words are used in authorial speech, descriptions, considerations.

4. Colloquialisms are observed in the dialogues or interior monologues of a prose work.

3. Interaction of Stylistically Colored Words and the Context

Words	Context	Condition	Effect

An elevated word placed in a stylistically neutral context imparts the latter a general coloring of elevation, i. e. makes the whole utterance solemn or poetic, provided (if) the subject of speech is consistent with the stylistic coloring of elevation.

An elevated word in a neutral context produces an effect of comicality if the subject of speech or the situation is inconsistent with elevated coloring.

Sub-neutral words in a neutral context lower the stylistic value of the whole.

Sub-neutral words in a super-neutral context or vice versa produces a comic effect.

ANALYZING THE POEMS

Read different poem written by English and American writers. Define:

• What is the poem about? (Literary stylistics)

• What is the main idea? What did the author want to tell us? (Decoding stylistics)

• What functional style is it? Colloquial? Newspaper? (Functional stylistic)

• Are there any super-standard or substandard words? (Lingua-stylistics)

Billy Collins, Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem

and hold it up to the light

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

 

I say drop a mouse into a poem

and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room

and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author’s name on the shore.

 

But all they want to do

is to tie the poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.

 

They begin beating it with a hose

to find out what it really means.

Robert Frost, “A fair fox”

Fair fox, full of grief

Sailed away from the Boston shore

She wept, oh, my!

For hours and hours, oh, my!

Weeping! Oh, her grief,

It is a leaking faucet.

It is like a pouring shower.

And her ship begins to sink down

She is sinking!

But, the wind carries her tears away

The breeze is cool and relaxing

The fair fox is happy

The boat is now fully afloat,

And her grief gown gone

Oh, my!

The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could.

To where it bent in the undergrowth,

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.