О.Ф.Нестерова

ENGLISH STYLISTICS

СТИЛИСТИКА АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА

Учебное пособие

В оронеж 2010

Федеральное агентство по образованию

Государственное образовательное учреждение

высшего профессионального образования

Воронежский государственный архитектурно-строительный университет

О.Ф.Нестерова

ENGLISH STYLISTICS

СТИЛИСТИКА АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА

Учебное пособие

Под общей редакцией

профессора З.Е.Фоминой

Рекомендовано в качестве учебного пособия

редакционно-издательским советом Воронежского государственного

архитектурно-строительного университета для студентов,

обучающихся по специальности

«Переводчик в сфере профессиональной коммуникации»

В оронеж 2010

УДК 802.0(07)

ББК 81.2Англ я7

Н561

Рецензенты:

кафедра английского языка Воронежского государственного

педагогического университета;

С.В. Спиридонова, кандидат педагогических наук, доцент,

заведующая кафедрой современных языков и коммуникации

МОУ ВПО Воронежского института экономики и социального управления

Н561	Нестерова, О.Ф. English Stylistics. Стилистика английского языка: учеб. пособие для ПСПК / О.Ф.Нестерова; под ред. З.Е.Фоминой; Воронеж. гос. арх.-строит. ун-т. – Воронеж, 2010. – 79 с.

Учебное пособие предназначено для студентов специальности «Переводчик в сфере профессиональной коммуникации».

Основная цель пособия – ознакомить студентов, обучающихся по дополнительной образовательной программе «Переводчик в сфере профессиональной коммуникации», с наиболее важными понятиями стилистики и, в частности, стилистики английского языка, обучить стилистическим приемам и выразительным средствам английского языка. В пособии представлено описание различных функциональных языковых стилей, ориентированных на их практическое использование в профессиональной деятельности.

Материал пособия рассчитан для активного усвоения и самостоятельного изучения стилистики английского языка.

Ил. 1. Библиогр.: 32 назв.

ISBN 978-5-89040-265-3

© Нестерова О.Ф., 2010

© Воронежский государственный

архитектурно- строительный

университет, 2010

Введение

Учебное пособие «Стилистика английского языка» предназначено для студентов специальности «Переводчик в сфере профессиональной коммуникации». Практическое владение навыками профессионального перевода предполагает не только адекватное владение лексико-грамматической базой английского языка, но и знание различных языковых дисциплин. Стилистика занимает важную роль в курсе обучения профессионально ориентированному переводу.

В различных коммуникативных ситуациях люди используют разные способы выражения своих мыслей, т.е. разные стили общения. В отечественной лингвистике их принято называть функциональными стилями, в лингвистической зарубежной традиции – регистрами речи. Знание функциональных стилей и выразительных языковых средств, характерных для каждого стиля, весьма важно для специалиста, занимающегося переводом специальной литературы.

Данное учебное пособие состоит из 3-х разделов. В обзорном разделе представлены основные концепции и научные изыскания в области стилистики в изложении современных лингвистов и отражают наблюдения и взгляды ведущих ученых Оксфордской школы. Цель данного раздела – познакомить студентов с отдельной терминологией, необходимой для восприятия текста с точки зрения стилистики языка. Данный раздел следует считать предварительным этапом к курсу прикладной стилистики.

Второй раздел учебного пособия «Стилистика английского языка» представляет собой курс, состоящий из 12 лекций, в ходе которого студенты ПСПК знакомятся с фигурами, тропами, стилистическими приемами, выразительными средствами и основами стилистического анализа. Приводятся примеры из художественных и публицистических произведений зарубежных авторов.

Специальная терминология представлена в научно-терминологическом справочнике и включена в третий раздел пособия.

Каждый раздел пособия включает в себя список рекомендуемой литературы, а в разделе «Лекции» предложены тематические вопросы для самоконтроля. В конце пособия указан общий библиографический список, включающий основную литературу, дополнительную и словари. Основой для составления данного пособия послужили учебники по стилистике английского языка ведущих отечественных и зарубежных авторов (Арнольда И.В., Гуревича В.В., Гальперина И.Р., Verdonk P.), а также новейшие лингвистические исследования в данной области и справочная литература.

Предлагаемое учебное пособие позволит обучаемым овладеть основами стилистики языка, что будет способствовать развитию навыков адекватного профессионально ориентированного перевода с учетом всех требований, предъявляемых к данному виду работы.

S E C T I O N I

Survey

1

The concept of style

The concept of style is an old one; it goes back to the very beginnings of literary thought in Europe. It appears in connection with rhetoric rather than poetic.

Stylistics is concerned with the study of style in language. But what is style in language? How is it produced? How can it be recognized and described?

The term ‘style’ (without specific reference to language) is one which we use so commonly in our everyday conversation and writing that it seems unproblematic: it occurs so naturally and frequently that we take it for granted without enquiring just what we might mean by it. Thus, we regularly use it with reference to the shape or design of something (“the elegant style of a house”), and when talking about the way in which something is done or presented (”I don’t like his style of management”). When describing someone’s manner of writing, speaking or performing we may say “She writes in a vigorous style”. We also talk about particular styles of architecture, painting, dress and furniture when describing the distinctive manner of an artist, a school or a period. And finally, when we say that people or places have “style”, we are expressing the opinion that they have fashionable elegance, smartness or a superior manner (“They live in grand style”).

Style in language can be defined as distinctive linguistic expression. So stylistics, the study of style, can be defined as the analysis of distinctive expression in language and the description of its purpose and effect.

Different genres, or types, of text containing specific features of style create particular effects.

Style as motivated choice

Style involves a choice of form without a change of message. Style is indeed a distinctive way of using language for some purpose and to some effect. In order to

achieve this purpose and effect all the devices are used, different forms and structures are chosen.

So in making a stylistic analysis we are not so much focused on every form and structure in a text, as on those which stand out in it. Such conspicuous elements rouse the reader’s interest or emotions. In stylistics this psychological effect is called foregrounding, a term which has been borrowed from the visual arts. Such foregrounded elements often include a distinct patterning or parallelism in a text’s typography, sounds, word choices, grammar, or sentence structures. Other potential style markers are repetitions of some linguistic element, and deviations from the rules of language in general or from the style you expect in a particular text type or context.

Style in context

Style does not arise out of a vacuum but that its production, purpose and effect are deeply embedded in the particular context in which both the writer and the reader play their distinctive roles. We should distinguish between two types of context: linguistic and non-linguistic context. Linguistic context refers to the surrounding features of language inside a text, like the topography, sounds, words, phrases and sentences which are relevant to the interpretation of other such linguistic elements.

The non-linguistic context is a much more complex notion since it may include any number of text-external features influencing the language and style of a text. Conscious or unconscious choices of expression which create a particular style are always motivated and inspired by contextual circumstances in which both writers and readers are in various ways involved.

2

Style in literature

When we encounter a text, we recognize it as of a particular and familiar kind, as belonging to a particular genre, for example a newspaper article, a blurb, a menu, or an insurance policy. We have an idea of what to expect.

So if you have become familiar with the stylistic conventions of the genre of poetry, you will know that the language of poetry has the following characteristics: its meaning is often ambiguous and elusive; it may flout the conventional rules of grammar; it has a peculiar sound structure; it is spatially arranged in metrical lines and stanzas; it often reveals foregrounded patterns and its sounds, vocabulary, grammar, or syntax, and last but not least, it frequently contains indirect references to other texts.

Text type and function

The majority of the texts have some practical function in that they have intentions which can be related to the real world around us. For instance, a headline encourages us to read a news story, a publisher’s blurb encourages us to buy a book, and an advertisement is designed to promote a product.

This, of course, prompts the compelling question as to what the function might be of text types or genres like poetry, novels and plays, all of which are traditionally designated as literary texts. The first thing we might note is that whatever the function of poetry may be, it bears no relation to our socially established needs and conventions, because unlike non-literary texts, poetry is detached from the ordinary contexts of social life. To put it differently, poetry does not make direct reference to the world of phenomena but provides a representation of it through its peculiar and unconventional uses of language which invite and motivate, sometimes even provoke, readers to create an imaginary alternative world. Perhaps it is its essential function, namely it enables us to satisfy our needs as individuals, to escape from our socialized existence and to find a reflection of our conflicting emotions.

Certainly, our perceptions are different. We have different expectations and different emotions, out interpretation of the text may differ from others and may include total rejection.

3

Text and discourse

The nature of text

When we think of a text, we typically think of a stretch of language, either spoken or written, complete in itself and of some considerable extent: a business letter, a leaflet, a news report, a recipe, and so on. But there appears a problem when we have to define units of language which consist of a single sentence, or even a single word, which are experienced as texts because they fulfil the basic requirement of forming a meaningful whole. Typical examples of such small-scale texts are public notices like ‘K e e p o f f t h e g r a s s’, ‘K e e p l e f t’, ‘D a n g e r’, ‘R a m p a h e a d’, ‘E x i t’.

These minimal texts are meaningful in themselves, and therefore do not need a particular structural patterning with other language units. In other words, they are complete in terms of communicative meaning. It should be recognized that the term ‘text’ often refers to a definable communicative unit with a social or cultural function. Thus a casual conversation, a poster, a poem, or an advertisement would be referred to as texts. So, if the meaningfulness of texts does not depend on their linguistic size, what else does it depend on?

Consider the road sign ‘R a m p a h e a d’. When you are driving a car and see this sign, you interpret it as a warning and you know what to do. From this it follows that you recognize a piece of language as a text, not because of its length, but because of its location in a particular context. And if you are familiar with the text in that context, you know what the message is intended to be.

But now suppose you see the same road sign in the collection of a souvenir-hunter! Of course, you still know the original meaning of the sign, but because of its dissociation from its ordinary context of traffic control, you are no longer able to act on its original intention. We can conclude that, for the expression of its meaning, a text is dependent on its use in an appropriate context.

The nature of discourse

Discourse is one of the most widely used and overworked terms in many branches of linguistics, stylistics, cultural and critical theory.

It covers all those aspects of communication which involve not only a message or text but also the addresser and addressee, and their immediate context of situation. Discourse would therefore refer not only to ordinary conversation and its context, but also to written communication between writer and reader. In this broad sense, discourse ‘includes’ text, but the two terms are not always easily distinguished, and are often used synonymously.

The meaning of a text does not come into being until it is actively employed in a context of use. This process of activation of a text by relating it to a context of use is called discourse. To put it differently, this contextualization of a text is actually the reader’s (and in the case of spoken text, the hearer’s) reconstruction of the writer’s (or speaker’s) intended message. A text may be in some written form, or in the form of a sound recording, or it may be unrecorded speech. But in whatever form it comes, a reader (or hearer) will search the text for cues or signals that may help to reconstruct the writer’s (or speaker’s) discourse. However, just because he or she engaged in a process of reconstruction, it is always possible that the reader (or hearer) infers a different discourse from the text than the one the writer (or speaker) had intended.

Textual and contextual meaning

In order to derive a discourse from a text we have to explore two different sites of meaning: on the one hand, the text’s intrinsic linguistic or formal properties (its sounds, typography, vocabulary, grammar and so on) and on the other hand, the extrinsic contextual factors which are taken to affect its linguistic meaning. These two interacting sites of meaning are the concern of two fields of study: semantics is the study of formal meanings as they are encoded in the language of texts, that is, independent of writers and readers set in a particular context, while pragmatics is concerned with the meaning of language in discourse, that is, when it is used in an appropriate context to achieve particular aims. Pragmatic meaning is not an alternative to semantic meaning, but complementary to it.

We distinguished two kinds of context: an internal linguistic context built up by the language patterns inside the text, and an external non-linguistic context drawing us to ideas and experiences in the world outside the text. The latter is a very complex notion because it may include any number of text-external features influencing the interpretation of a discourse. We can specify the following components:

1. the text type, or genre;

2. its topic, purpose, and function;

3. the immediate temporary and physical setting of the text;

4. the text’s wider social, cultural and historical setting;

5. the identities, knowledge, emotions, abilities, beliefs, and assumptions of the writer and reader;

6. the relationships holding between the writer and reader;

7. the association with other similar or related text types.

4

Perspectives on meaning

Linguistic features in texts can be interpreted differently as representing an event or situation from a particular perspective or point of view. The notion of perspective is itself problematic.

Perspective in narrative fiction

If the author changes the perspective or point of view from which a fictional world is presented it will result in a different story and give rise to a different interpretation.

We make sense of a text by relating it to the context of our knowledge, emotions, and experience. Bur since such contexts will be different for particular readers, so interpretations will vary also.

At one level of perception, we might all agree on what a text is about, but diverge greatly in our interpretation of it.

The first question that inevitably arises as soon as we start reading a novel or short story is who the narrator is, whose voice we are supposed to be hearing, and therefore whose version of events. We know who the author is, the person who actually produced the text, but that is, of course, not the same thing at all.

Stylistic markers of perspective and positioning

To begin with, at various points in the text the narrator refers to persons, places, and times by means of words and phrases like ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘you’, ‘here’, ‘nearby’, and the present and past tenses of verbs, for example ‘owns’, ‘was’, ‘lived’, and ‘tell’. In a face-to-face conversation these terms would be easily understood because speaker and listener would share the same physical context of time and place. But in writing things are different. Of course, readers know the textual or semantic meaning of these words, but they do not know their situational or pragmatic meaning. This is because they cannot see the people referred to by ‘I’, ‘my’, and ‘you’ in the flesh, nor can they actually observe the places indicated by ‘here’, ‘nearby’, or check the times in relation to the verb tenses. However, prompted by their experience of the real world and their knowledge of the stylistic conventions of fiction, readers will understand these linguistic expressions as representations of the people, places, and times in the story, and will act on them as cues to imagine themselves as participating in the situation of the fictional world of the discourse.

Deixis

The technical term for these textual cues is deictics, while the psycholinguistic phenomenon as a whole, which is fundamental to all spoken and written discourse, is usually called deixis (from a Greek word which means ‘pointing’ or ‘showing’). Deictics may serve to ‘point to’ the listener’s or reader’s attention to the speaker’s or narrator’s spatial and temporal situation. Then there are also deictics which refer the listener or reader to the people taking part in the events of the discourse. Hence we may distinguish three types of the deictics: place deictics, which include adverbs such as ‘here’ (near the speaker), ‘there’ (away from the speaker); prepositional phrases like ‘in front of’, ‘behind’, ‘to the left’, ‘to the right’; the determiners or pronouns ‘this’ and ‘these’ (near the speaker) and ‘that’ and ‘those’ (away from the speaker), and the deictic verbs ‘come’ and ‘bring’ (in the direction of the speaker) and ‘go’ and ‘take’ (in a direction away from the speaker). Another category is time deictics, which include items such as ‘now’, ‘then’, ‘today’, ‘yesterday’, ‘tomorrow’, ‘next day’. Other important time deictics are the present and past tenses of full verbs (for example, ‘play/s’, ‘played’; ‘go/es’, ‘went’) and of auxiliaries (for example, ‘have’ and ‘had’). The third category is person deictics, which include the first person pronoun ‘I’ (and its related forms ‘me’, ‘my’, and ‘mine’) and the second person pronoun ‘you’ (and its related forms ‘your’ and ‘yours’). They are the terms people use to refer to themselves and to talk to each other.

The deictics in a narrative text prompt the following important questions: Who is telling the story? Who is the narrator talking to? Where and when do the events take place? And from whose perspective is the story told?

Reading a novel is not only a matter of finding out what is told, but also how it is told. In other words you cannot separate content (the ‘what’) from form (the ‘how’). Undoubtedly, the most important formal aspect is the author’s choice of perspective. It is the controlling consciousness through whose filter readers experience the events of the story. And a subjective first-person perspective can draw readers into the illusion of presence in the fictional world by inducing them to fill the vacant role of the second-person addressee.

5

The language of literary representation

Perspective in third-person narration

The first-person narrator necessarily assumes a participant role within the fictional context and so adopts a subjective perspective on events. We might propose that the third-person narrator, on the other hand, takes up the non-participant role of observer and so adopts an objective point of view. But things are not so simple. In the non-fictional world, it is true, it would be normal to use third-person terms of reference to talk about objective events that can be observed and reported on: ‘The woman was sitting at her table writing letters. She was wearing a red dress. The man entered the room. He picked up a book.’ And so on. This is straightforward enough. But in fiction we frequently find that the narrator uses third-person reference to describe things which is quite impossible to observe. Consider, for example, the following passage from Lawrence’s novel Women in Love:

(1)He went into her boudoir, a remote and very cushiony place. (2) She was sitting at her table writing letters. (3) She lifted her face abstractedly when he entered, watched him go to the sofa, and sit down. (4) Then she looked down at her paper again.

(5) He took up a large volume which he had been reading before, and became minutely attentive to his author. (6) His back was towards Hermione. (7) She could not go on with her writing. (8) Her whole mind was a chaos, darkness breaking in upon it, and herself struggling to gain control with her will, as a swimmer struggles with the swirling water. (9)But in spite of her efforts she was borne down, darkness seemed to break over her, she felt as if her heart was bursting. (10) The terrible tension grew stronger and stronger, it was most fearful agony, like being walled up.

The first six sentences here report observable events from a third person perspective in a conventional way: ‘He went … She was sitting …writing letters. She lifted her face … he entered, watched him … she looked down … He took up a large volume … His back was …’. But with (7) there is a transition to a different perspective. ‘She could not go on with her writing’ expresses a state of mind which is inaccessible to observation, and which only she herself can be aware of. Sentences (8) to (10) directly express the personal experience of the character. The narrator has moved inside the character’s mind. And so we have a third-person expression of first-person experience. And as the perspective changes, so does the use of language. The most obvious difference is in sentence length. The text on each side of the transitional sentence (7) consists of exactly the same number of

words (68) but they combine into six sentences in the first part and only three in the second. But the sentences do not only differ in length, but also in their syntax. Those of the first part of the text are structurally straightforward and describe a sequence of events in an orderly linear way: ‘He went … she was sitting … She lifted her face … he entered … [she] watched him …’ and so on. After the transition, however, the syntax becomes disordered, phrases do not fit together with neat linearity, but accumulate without clear structural connections. What is expressed is not a series of events but a sudden outbreak of sensations all happening at the same time. The chaos in Hermione’s mind, and her struggle for the control of her feelings, are not just described but directly represented by the syntax itself.

In this text we see a shift in narrative perspective from that of the third-person observer to that of first-person participant, and a corresponding change in the way language is structured to achieve an appropriate representation.

In this text, the narrator shifts perspective but remains within one fictional context of time and place. But narrators can also shift perspective by taking up different contextual positions.

Speech and thought representation

There are also times, however, when the narrator delegates perspective to the characters and leaves to speak for themselves. In this case we are presented with a record of direct speech (DS). Let us see the extract from the poem by John Betjeman.

She puts her fingers in his as, loving and silly,

At long-past Kensington dances she used to do

‘It’s cheaper to take the tube to Piccadilly

And then we can catch a nineteen or a twenty-two’.

In the first two lines the narrator first describes what happens in the observable present (‘She puts her fingers in his’) and then shifts to an omniscient perspective to express her feelings, and to recall her personal past. In the last two lines we are presented with the direct speech of her actual utterance.

In the preceding verse of the poem we also find lines within quotation marks, but here they do not express what the character actually says but what is going on in his mind.

No hope. And the iron nob of this palisade

So cold to the touch, is luckier now than he

‘Oh merciless, hurrying Londoners! Why was I made

For the long and the painful deathbed coming to me?’

Here is presented direct thought (DT).

But the use of direct speech is not the only kind of speech representation we find in fiction. Indirect speech (IS) is also common, as indeed it is in non-literary use. Here is an utterance from Hemingway’s short story ‘Hills Like White Elephants’:

‘The beer’s nice and cool’, the man said.

It could be rendered as follows:

The man said (that) the beer was nice and cool.

In the case of indirect speech, the narrator reports only the content of what the character has said, but not its exact wording (it is , in this sense, reported rather than recorded speech). This allows the narrator to intervene and to interpret the character’s original words, thereby, again, shifting perspective:

The man commented on how nice and cool the beer was.

The man said, appreciatively, that the beer was nice and cool.

The representation of indirect thought (IT), of course, presupposes an even greater degree of narrator initiative:

The man thought that the beer was nice and cool.

These ways of representing direct and indirect speech and thought conform to linguistic conventions which apply to written language in general. And now we see a kind of representation which is more specifically literary:

The man drank the beer. Goodness, how nice and cool it was!

The expression ‘Goodness’, suggests a direct record of what was said or thought but the past tense ‘was’ suggests that this is an indirect report. What we have here is a blend of both, a hybrid form. This has been referred to as free indirect speech (FIS) or free indirect thought (FIT). It should be noted that it has become customary to roll these forms into one and to use the umbrella term free indirect discourse (FID).

A further development of these modes of thought representation is to be found in the so-called stream of consciousness technique through which the narrator designs a style which creates the illusion that, without his or her interference, readers have direct access to the mental processes of the characters, i.e. to their inner points of view. As a result, the reader sees the fictional world through the ‘mental window’ of the observing consciousness of the characters.

Stream of consciousness is now widely used in modern fiction as a narrative method to reveal the character’s unspoken thoughts and feelings without having recourse to dialogue or description. Here is an example from James Joyce’s Ulysses:

Ba. What is that flying about? Swallow? Bat probably. Thinks I’m a tree, so blind. Have birds no smell? Metempsychosis. They believed you could be changed into a tree from grief. Weeping willow. Ba. There he goes. Funny little beggar. Wonder where he lives. Belfry up there. Very likely. Hanging by his heels in the odour of sanctity. Bell scared him out, I suppose. Mass seems to be over. Could hear them all at it. Pray for us. And pray for us. Good idea the repetition.

This piece of first-person discourse takes us right into the mind of the central figure in the novel. His thought processes are directly projected. The fragmented syntax, the staccato phrases, the use of the present tense, all create a style which dramatizes the unedited thoughts and impressions of the character as they occur. And all orientational expressions like ‘There he goes’ and ‘Belfry up there’ are related to the character’s point of view; he is the centre of every thing that is going on. And the extract is entirely free from reporting clauses and quotation marks.

This is the style of interior monologue, through which the reader is enabled to tune in to the character’s train of thought or stream of consciousness, seemingly without being hampered by the presence of the narrator.

Список рекомендуемой литературы

1. Birch, David. Language Discourse and Literature /D. Birch. - Unwin Hyman, 1989. – p. 310.

2.Brogan, T.V.F. The New Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms /T.V.F. Brogan. - Princeton University Press, 1994. – p. 117.

3.Carter, Ronald & Nash, Walter. A Guide to Styles of English Writing /R. Carter, W. Nash. - Blackwell, 1990. – p. 158.

4.Cook, Guy. Discourse and Literature /G. Cook. - Oxford University Press,1994. – p. 190.

5.Leech, Geoffrey N. & Short Michael H. Style in Fiction /G.N. Leech, M.H. Short. - Longman, 1981. – p. 91.

6.Short, Mick. Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays & Prose /M.Short. - Addison Wesley Longman, 1996. – p. 119.

7.Toolan, Michael. Language in Literature. An Introduction to Stylistics /M. Toolan. - Arnold, 1998. – p. 84.

8.Verdonk, Peter. Stylistics /P. Verdonk. - Oxford University Press, 2005. – p. 124.

9.Verdonk, Peter. A Brief Survey from Classical Rhetoric to Cognitive Stylistics /P. Verdonk. – Oxford University Press, 1999. – p. 110.

10.Wales, Katie. A Dictionary of Stylistics. - 2-nd edn. - Pearson Education, 2001. – p. 458.

11.Widdowson, H.G. Practical Stylistics. An Approach to Poetry /H.G. Widdowson. - Oxford University Press, 1992. – p. 75.

S E C T I O N II

LECTURES

Lecture 1: GENERAL NOTES ON STYLE AND STYLISTICS. STYLISTICS AS A SUBJECT

People have been interested in the questions of style for a long time. We can say, rhetoric is the “mother” of modern stylistics, its objective was to teach the art of public speech (the ability to express thoughts with fine words), the well-organized speech, ways of speech decoration and concept of style. Aristotel was the first to start the theory of style, metaphor, to oppose poetry to prose.

The word “style” derived from the Latin word “stilus” which meant a short stick sharp at one end and flat at the other used by the Romans for writing on wax tablets. Now the word “style” is used in many senses. The first concept is so broad that it is hardly possible to regard it as a term. Even in linguistics the word “style” is used very widely. The majority of linguists agree that the term presupposes the following: 1) the aesthetic function of language; 2) expressive means in language; 3) synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea; 4) emotional colouring in language; 5) a system of special devices called stylistic devices; 6) the splitting of the literary language into separate subsystems called styles; 7) the interrelation between language and thought and 8) the individual manner of an author in making use of language. The term “style” is also applied to the teaching of how to write clearly, simply and emphatically. Style is the correspondence between thought and its expression. To say briefly, style in language is a distinctive linguistic manner of expression.

The meaning of a text does not come into being until it is actively employed in a context of use. This process of activation of a text by relating it to a context of use is called discourse. This contextualization of a text is actually the reader’s reconstruction of the writer’s intended message. It is always possible that the reader infers a different discourse from the text than the one the writer had intended.

Stylistics, sometimes called linguo-stylistics, is a branch of general linguistics. It is concerned with the study of style in language. It explores principles of selection and usage various lexical, grammatical, phonetic and other language media to express thoughts and emotions in different communicative situations. Stylistics can be defined as the analysis of distinctive expression in language and the description of its purpose and effect.

When we encounter a text, we recognize it as belonging to a particular genre, for example, a newspaper article, a menu or an advertisement. We have an idea of what to expect. So if you have become familiar with the stylistic conventions of this genre of texts, you will know that the language of poetry has the following characteristics: its meaning is often ambiguous; it may flout the conventional rules of grammar; it has a peculiar sound structure; it frequently contains indirect references to other texts etc.

There is language stylistics, speech stylistics, linguo-stylistics, stylistics from the author, perception stylistics, literary stylistics, decoding stylistics etc.

Language stylistics explores 1) language subsystems, i.e. functional styles and sublanguages characterized with specific vocabulary, phraseology and syntax; 2) expressive and emotional features of different language media.

Speech stylistics studies separate real texts considering the ways of content transferring according to the language norms and their deviations.

Linguo-stylistics was established by Balli. It compares the common norm of language with special subsystems named functional styles and dialects (in this narrow meaning linguo-stylistics is called functional stylistics) and studies the language elements as the units being able to express and evoke additional emotions and estimation.

The comparative stylistics which is developed intensively takes into consideration stylistic possibilities of two and more languages.

Literary stylistics studies all means of artistic expressiveness, typical for work of literature, the author, trend of literature or the whole age and factors determining the artistic expressiveness.

Both linguo-stylistics and literary stylistics are divided into some levels: lexical, grammatical and phonetic.

Lexical stylistics studies stylistic lexical functions and considers the interaction of direct and indirect meaning. It deals with various compounds of contextual meanings of words, their expressive, emotional and estimating possibilities and also different functional styles they attribute to.

Dialects, terminology, slang, colloquial words and expressions, neologisms, archaisms, barbarisms etc are examined in different conditions of context. The important role in stylistic analysis belongs to the phraseological units and proverbs.

Grammatical stylistics is subdivided into morphological and syntactical. Morphological stylistics considers different grammatical categories attributable to various parts of speech and their stylistic possibilities. Syntactical stylistics explores the expressive possibilities of word order, types of sentences, types of syntactical bond. Figures of speech, which give additional expressiveness, play the important role here. Much attention is paid to different forms of transferring speech: dialogue, direct speech, a stream of consciousness etc.

Phonetic stylistics includes all phenomena of poems and prose sound organization, i.e. rhythm, alliteration, sound imitation, rhyme, assonance etc. Here we can refer the non-standard pronunciation with comic or satirical effect to show the social inequality or to create the local color.

Practical stylistics teaches to speak and treat the language correctly, gives advice how to use the words with well-known meanings. The language should be communicatively pragmatic.

Functional stylistics studies style as the functional variety of the language, especially in belles-lettres text.

The subject of stylistics is the emotional language expression and all expressive means of language, i.e.

the tasks of stylistics:

1. investigation and selection of special language media among synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea for reaching desirable effect of the utterance.

2. the analysis of expressive means in language (for example in phonetics – alliteration, in syntax – inversion).

3. the determination of functional task, i.e. stylistic function which language means fulfil.

Stylistics is commonly divided into linguo-stylistics and literary stylistics.

Stylistics is closely connected with ancient disciplines:

• Study of literature (which examines the content)

• Semiotics (which defines the text as the system of signs to be read differently)

• Pragmatics (which studies the impact)

• Sociolinguistics (the selection of language media depending on the communicative situation).

Вопросы для самоконтроля

1. What does the word “style” presuppose in linguistics?

2. How can you explain the concept of discourse?

3. What is the subject of stylistics?

4. What are the tasks of stylistics?

Список рекомендуемой литературы

1. Гуревич, В.В. English Stylistics. Стилистика английского языка: учебн. пособие /В.В.Гуревич. – М.: Наука, 2008. - 67 с.

2. Солганик, Г.Я. Стилистика текста: учебн. пособие /Г.Я.Солганик. - 6-е изд. - М.: Наука, 2000. - 217 с.

3. Шаховский, В.И. Стилистика английского языка /В.И.Шаховский. – Л.: ЛКИ, 2008. - 235 с.

4. Coupland, N. Towards the Stylistics of Discourse //Styles of Discourse / N.Coupland. - London: Ed. Groom Hel, 1988. - p. 147.

5. Crystal, D., Davy D. Investigating English Style /D.Crystal, D.Davy. - London: Longman, 1969. - p. 94.

6. Galperin, I.R. Stylistics /I.R.Galperin. - M.: Higher School Publishing House, 1981. - 343 c.

Lecture 2: STYLISTIC DEVICES AND EXPRESSIVE MEANS. STYLISTIC FUNCTION

The main concepts of stylistics are:

1. Tropes – figurative language means in which the word or the word-combination is used in its transferred meaning. They are chiefly lexical and serve for description. The essence of the trope is to compare the traditional usage of the lexical unit with the concept transferred by the same unit while fulfilling the special stylistic function.

2. Expressive language media – they don’t create images but promote the speech expressiveness and intensify its emotionality by means of specific devices. They are not connected with transferred meaning. They are more predictable than stylistic devices.

3. Figures of speech – figurative expressive language media. This term is frequently used for stylistic devices that make use of a figurative meaning of the language elements and thus create a vivid image.

4. Stylistic devices – they can be independent or coincide with the language means. Stylistic device is the intentional and conscious intensification of some typical structural or semantic feature of language unit, including the expressive means.

One and the same stylistic means can be stylistic one in belles-lettres speech and can’t be it in colloquial speech (in one case it amplifies the effect and in the other it doesn’t affect).

Convergence is the simultaneous usage of several stylistic devices.

And to differentiate stylistic devices and expressive means we can say that stylistic device is a model of changing unemotional sentences into pragmatically charged. And expressive means are not connected with the meaning. They serve the emotional and logical intensification of the utterance. They may be phonetic, morphological, word-building, lexical, phraseological and syntactical forms.

Stylistics studies the usage of the expressive means in different speech styles, their potential possibilities as the stylistic devices.

The most powerful expressive means are phonetic (alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, rhyme, rhythm etc). The human voice can indicate every nuance of meaning no other means can. Pitch, melody, stress, whispering, a sing-song manner and other ways of using the voice are much more effective than any other means in intensifying an utterance emotionally or logically.

Morphological expressive means is now rather impoverished set of media. But some of them are kept nowadays.

“He shall do it! = I shall make him do it!” (‘shall’ in the second and third person).

Among the word-building means we can point out, for example, diminutive suffixes –y(ie), -let (auntie, streamlet).

At the lexical level there are words with emotive meaning only (interjections – междометия, перебивающий возглас), epithet, metaphor, antonomasia, metonymy, irony, personification, allegory, periphrasis, hyperbole, litotes, words belonging to the layers of slang and vulgar words or to poetic or archaic layers. All kinds of phraseological units possess the property of expressiveness. Proverbs, sayings make speech emphatic.

At the syntactical level there are many constructions which reveal a certain degree of logical or emotional emphasis (inversion, repetition, asyndeton, ellipsis etc).

The stylistic function is the role the language medium plays to transfer expressive information:

- creation of artistic expressiveness;

- creation of inspiration;

- creation of comic effect;

- hyperbole;

- may be descriptive (characterological) for creation of speech characteristic of the hero.

There is no direct correspondence between stylistic means, devices and functions, because the stylistic means are unequal. Inversion, for example, depends on the context and situation and can create inspiration, or vice versa, give ironic, parody meaning. A great number of conjunctions can serve to distinguish logically the elements of the utterance, to create the impression of slow, measured tale or to transfer the anxious questions, suppositions. Hyperbole can be tragic and comic, pathetic and grotesque.

The functional stylistic color (connotation) shouldn’t be mixed with stylistic function. The first one belongs to the language, and the second one – to the text. Unlike neutral words, which only denote a certain notion and thus have only a denotational meaning, their stylistic synonyms usually contain some connotations, i.e. additional components of meaning which express some emotional colouring or evaluation of the object named. In dictionaries functional stylistic and emotional connotations are determined with special marks: colloquial, poetical, slang, ironical, anatomy etc.

Unlike stylistic connotation, stylistic function helps the reader to accentuate the chief idea.

It is also important to distinguish the stylistic function from the stylistic device. We can refer stylistic figures and tropes to stylistic devices. The last ones are syntactical and stylistic figures intensifying emotionality and expressiveness of the utterance by means of unusual syntactical construction: different types of repetition, inversion, parallelism, ellipsis etc. Phonetic stylistic devices are alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia (sound imitation) and other devices of sound speech organization.

We said that the word “style” is used in various spheres of our life. We also point out the individual style which is frequently identified with the general term “style”. Individual style deals with the peculiarities of a writer’s individual manner of using language means to achieve the effect he desires. Individual style is a unique combination of language units, expressive means and stylistic devices peculiar to a given writer, which makes that writer’s works easily recognizable. The term “style” is widely used in literature to signify literary genre. Thus, we speak of classical style (or style of classicism), realistic style, the style of romanticism and so on. It is applied to various kinds of literary works: the fable, novel, ballad, story, etc. But the general term “style” is a much broader notion.

So, we can resume and define style as a system of interrelated language means which serves to definite aim of communication.

Вопросы для самоконтроля

1. What are the main concepts of stylistics?

2. What is the difference between stylistic devices and expressive means?

3. How can you define the concept of style?

4. What can expressive means be?

5. Characterize phonetic expressive means.

6. What do lexical means serve for?

7. How does stylistic function differ from functional stylistic colour?

8. What is understood by the individual style?

Список рекомендуемой литературы

1. Акимова, Г.Н. Экспрессивные свойства синтаксических структур. /Г.Н. Акимова. – Л.: Ленинградский университет, 1998. – 72 с.

2. Арнольд , И.В. Стилистика. Современный английский язык: учебн. для вузов. /И.В. Арнольд. - 7-е изд. - М.: Высшая школа, 2005. – 383 с.

3. Ильинская, И.С. О языковых и неязыковых стилистических средствах. /И.С. Ильинская. – М.: Высшая школа, 2003. – 63 с.

4. Galperin, I.R. Stylistics. /I.R.Galperin. - M.: Higher School Publishing House, 1981. – 343 с.

5. Screbnev, Y.M. Fundamentals of English Stylistics. /Y.M. Screbnev. - M.: АСТ, 2000. - 224 с.

Lecture 3: STYLISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE ENGLISH

VOCABULARY

To speak about functional characteristics of the styles and stylistic devices of language it’s necessary to make clear what is meant by the literary language.

Literary language is a historical category. It exists as a variety of the national language. So, the literary language is that variety of the national language which imposes definite morphological, phonetic, syntactical, lexical, phraseological and stylistic norms. In this connection there are two conflicting tendencies in the process of establishing the norm:

1. preservation of the already existing norm, sometimes with attempts to re-establish old forms of the lang;

2. introduction of new norms not yet firmly established.

So, we can define the norm as the invariant of the phonemic, morphological, lexical and syntactical patterns circulating in lang.-in-action at a given period of time.

At every period of time language has its own norms corresponding to the given period of time.

What was happening to the English language throughout its history? How has it changed and why?

Development of the English literary language

The English literary language has had a long peculiar history.

The English language is the result of the integration of the tribal dialects of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes who occupied the British Isles in the 3-d – 5-th centuries. The language was called Anglo-Saxon or Old English. Now, it is a dead language, like Latin or classic Greek. The Old English period lasted approximately until the end of the 12-th century.

During the Middle English period, the English language rapidly progressed towards its present state. By that time it had greatly enlarged its vocabulary by borrowings from Norman-French and other languages.

The New English period is usually dated from the 15-th century. This is the beginning of the English language, spoken and written, at the present time. This period cannot be characterized by uniformity in the language.

In the 16-th century literary English began to flourish with the general growth of culture to which much was contributed by the two universities, Oxford and Cambridge. It was a common interest in classical literature. It was a

tendency to archaisms. An orientation towards the living developing colloquial language.

The 17-th century literary English is characterized by a general tendency to regulation. It was leading to the establishment of the norms of literary English.

By the 18-th century it was the desire to establish language laws. The gap between the literary and colloquial English was widening. The situation of communication has evolved two varieties of language – the spoken and the written.

The most striking difference between the spoken and written languages is in the vocabulary used. There are words and phrases typically colloquial, on the one hand, and typically bookish, on the other.

The spoken language makes use of intensifying words. It is rich in expressive means (interjections, words with strong emotive meaning, unfinished sentences are also typical of the spoken language).

In the written language most of the connecting words are used only there (nevertheless, therefore, furthermore, moreover). And written language is rich in complicated sentences.

The 19-th century is characterized by the purification of the language from vulgarisms and new words. The tendency to protest against innovation. At this time colloquial words and expressions created by the people began to pour into literary English. And a more or less firmly established differentiation of styles began. By this period the shaping of the newspaper style, the publicist style, the style of scientific prose and the official style have been completed. And belles-lettres prose called for a system of expressive means and stylistic devices.

Functional styles of language have shaped themselves within the literary form of the English language. The standard English language was divided into the literary language and the colloquial language.

The word stock of a language may be represented as a definite system.

According to the diagram by Galperin I.R. we may represent the whole of the word stock of the English language as being divided into three main layers: the l i t e r a r y l a y e r, the n e u t r a l l a y e r and the c o l l o q u i a l l a y e r. The literary and the colloquial layers contain a number of subgroups. The aspect of the literary layer is its bookish character, this makes the layer more or less stable. The aspect of the colloquial layer is its spoken character. It makes it unstable. The aspect of the neutral layer is its universal character. It can be employed in all styles of language and in all spheres of human activity. It makes the layer the most stable of all.

The literary vocabulary consists of the following groups of words: 1. common literary; 2. terms; 3. poetic words; 4. archaic words; 5. foreignisms and barbarisms; 6. nonce-words.

The colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups: 1. common colloquial words; 2. slang; 3. jargonisms; 4. professionalisms; 5. dialectal words; 6. vulgarisms; 7. colloquial coinages (nonce-words).

The common literary, neutral and common colloquial words are grouped under the term s t a n d a r d E n g l i s h v o c a b u l a r y. Other groups in the literary layer are defined as special literary vocabulary and those in the colloquial layer are defined as special colloquial (non-literary) vocabulary.

Вопросы для самоконтроля

1. What is the literary language?

2. How can we define the norm of the language?

3. When did differentiation of styles begin?

4. What layers is the English language divided?

5. Characterize the diagram

Список рекомендуемой литературы

1. Арнольд, И.В. Стилистика. Современный английский язык: учебн. для вузов. /И.В. Арнольд. - 7-е изд. - М.: Высшая школа, 2005. – 383 с.

2. Шаховский, В.И. Стилистика английского языка. /В.И. Шаховский. – Л.: ЛКИ, 2008. – 235 с.

3. Galperin, I.R. Stylistics. /I.R. Galperin. - M.: Higher School Publishing House, 1981. – 343 c.

Lecture 4: NEUTRAL, COMMON LITERARY AND COMMON COLLOQUIAL VOCABULARY

Stylistic differences of any kind can be expressed by various language means: phonetic, lexical or grammatical. One of the most vivid means is, naturally, the choice of vocabulary. Compare three layers of the English language:

Neutral Colloquial Literary

child kid infant/offspring

father daddy parent/ancestor

leave/go away be off/get out/ retire/withdraw

get away

continue go on proceed

begin/start get started/ commence

come on

Neutral words form the main part of word stock. These words are used in all functional styles.

Stylistically neutral words usually constitute the main member in a group of synonyms, the so-called synonymic dominant (синонимическая доминанта). They are not emotionally coloured and have no additional evaluating elements; such are the words child, father, begin, leave/go away, continue in the examples above.

Common literary words are chiefly used in rhetoric, written speech.

Common colloquial words are literary standard words plus some familiar words. They represent casual speech, unofficial communication. Phrasal verbs often have the mark colloq.

Unlike neutral words (synonymic dominants), which only denote (обозначают) a certain notion and thus have only a denotation meaning (денотативное значение, обозначение некоторого понятия), their stylistic synonyms usually contain some connotations (коннотации), i.e. additional components of meaning which express some emotional colouring or evaluation (оценка) of the object named; these additional components may also be simply signs of a particular functional style of speech. For example:

An endearing connotation (ласкат.) – e.g. in the words kid, daddy (as different from the neutral words child, father); approving evaluation (одобрительная оценка) – e.g. in the word renowned (a renowned poet = прославленный; on the other hand, its synonyms like well-known, famous are neutral in this respect (have no connotations).

It should be noted that we do not include into the stylistically coloured vocabulary words that directly express some positive or negative evaluation of an object – хороший, плохой, красивый, некрасивый, прекрасный, уродливый;good, bad, pretty, ugly. Here the evaluation expressed makes up their denotation meaning proper, but not an additional connotation. In the sentence Don’t read this bad book the negative evaluation is expressed directly (by the denotation meaning of the adjective bad), whereas in Don’t read this trash the evaluation is expressed by the derogatory colouring of the noun trash – in other words, it is present here only as a connotation; thus, words like trash, rot, stuff (=”something worthless, bad”) are stylistically marked (стилистически маркированы, т.е. обладают определенной стилистической окраской), while the word bad is stylistically unmarked (стилистически не маркировано, нейтрально).

Apart from that, the stylistic connotation of a word may be just a sign of a certain functional style to which the word belongs, without carrying any emotional or evaluative element. Thus, sentence like It’s cool (Это круто) contains not only a high positive evaluation (in the same way as the stylistically neutral variant It is very good), but also a stylistic connotation which shows that it belongs to the familiar-colloquial style (фамильярно-разговорный стиль), or even to slang.

Вопросы для самоконтроля

1. How is standard English vocabulary represented?

2. Characterize neutral, common literary and common colloquial vocabulary.

3. What is the difference between them?

4. Where do common colloquial words mainly occur?

5. Speak about the connotation and denotation meanings.

Список рекомендуемой литературы

1. Арнольд, И.В. Стилистика. Современный английский язык: учебн. для вузов. /И.В. Арнольд. - 7-е изд. - М.: Высшая школа, 2005. – 383 с.

2. Гуревич, В.В. English Stylistics. Стилистика английского языка: учебн. пособие. /В.В. Гуревич. - М.: Наука, 2008. – 67 с.

3. Galperin, I.R. Stylistics. /I.R. Galperin. - M.: Higher School Publishing House, 1981. – 343 c.

4. Screbnev, Y.M. Fundamentals of English Stylistics. /Y.M. Screbnev. - M.: АСТ, 2000. – 224 с.

Lecture 5: SPECIAL LITERARY VOCABULARY (книжно-литературная лексика)

Special literary vocabulary is marked with ‘lit’ or ‘fml’ – formal, highly literary, bookish words. It includes terms, archaic words, nonce-words, foreignisms and barbarisms.

A formal (bookish) style is required in situations of official or restrained relations between the interlocutors, who try to avoid any personal and emotional colouring or familiarity, and at the same time to achieve clarity of expression. This style is used in various genres of speech, such as in official documents, scientific works, publicist works or public speeches, etc. Special literary vocabulary is represented with several groups.

Terms

A term is generally very easily coined and easily accepted. Terms are generally associated with a definite branch of science. Terms are characterized by a tendency to be monosemantic and therefore easily call the required concept. They belong to the scientific style. They may as well appear in all other existing styles. But their function in this case changes. They no longer refer to a given notion or concept, they indicate the technical peculiarities of the subject, make some reference to the occupation of a character whose language contains special words and sometimes special terminology suggests that the author is showing off his erudition.

When terms lose their qualities as terms and pass into the common literary vocabulary, this process may be called “de-terminization”. Such words as radio, television, and the like have long been in common use and their terminological character is no longer evident.

Poetic and highly literary words

They are marked with ‘poet’. Poetic words are used primarily in poetry, they belong to a definite style of language and perform in it their direct function - to evoke emotive meanings.

Poetic language has special means of communication, i.e. rhythmical arrangement, some syntactical peculiarities and a certain number of special words.

Poetic words in the English language do not present a homogeneous group: they include archaic words such as naught=nothing, woe=grief, thee=you. The use of a contracted form of a word instead of the full one is very common in English poetry (morn=morning, even=evening, oft=often). Sometimes we may see an expanded form of a word (vasty=vast, steepy=steep). But such devices are generally avoided by modern English poets. Due to poeticisms poetical language is sometimes not very understandable.

Archaic words

Besides the vocabulary that is in current use, we also find archaic words, which belong to some previous stage of language development but can still be found in works of fiction (especially in the works of Shakespeare, Chaucer, Swift or other classical authors). Cf. the archaic words Behold!=Look!, Wither are you going?=Where are you going to? whilst-while, etc.

We may divide them into three groups:

Obsolescent – words which become rarely used; to this category we may refer morphological forms belonging to the earlier stages in the development of the language, (the pronouns thou, thee, thy, thine; the ending –(e)th instead of –(e)s – he maketh); many French borrowings ( a palfrey=a small horse; garniture=furniture);

Obsolete – words that have already gone completely out of use but are still recognized by the English speaking community (methinks=I think, it seems to me; nay=no);

Archaic proper – words which are no longer recognizable in modern English, that were in use in Old English, which have either dropped out of the language entirely or have changed in their appearance so much that they have become unrecognizable (troth=faith).

The vocabulary that has gone out of use also includes the so called ‘historisms’ – words which reflect some phenomena belonging to the past times, e.g. knight (рыцарь), archer (лучник); cf. also Russian historisms like городничий, городовой, бояре. Historical terms never disappear from the language, they remain as terms referring to definite stages in the development of society. Historical words have no synonyms, whereas archaic words have been replaced by modern synonyms.

The main function of archaisms in works of fiction is to reflect the life of the heroes of historical novels, to depict “local and time colour”. They create a realistic background to historical novels. Archaisms make the reader “look into the epoch, feel it”.

Archaic words and phrases are found in other styles, frequently in the style of official documents. In this case they are terminological in character. Among the archaic elements the following may be mentioned: hereby, hereinafternamed.

Archaic words are sometimes used for satirical purposes and to create an elevated effect.

Barbarisms and Foreign words

Comparatively new borrowings from other languages, which are not yet completely assimilated in the language (phonetically or grammatically), but have been already become facts of the English language, are stylistically marked as ‘barbarisms’. Most of them have corresponding English synonyms, e.g. de facto=(in point of fact), status quo=(the existing state of things). Barbarisms are generally given in the dictionary.

Foreign words do not belong to the English vocabulary. They are not registered by English dictionaries. There are foreign words in the English vocabulary which fulfil a terminological function. Such words as solo, tenor and the like are terms. They have no synonyms.

Both foreign words and barbarisms are widely used in various styles of language, especially, in the style of belles-lettres and the publicist style with various aims, one of their function is to supply local color.

Literary coinages (including nonce-words)

According to the function they are divided into:

1. terminological coinages or neologisms;

2. stylistic coinages or neologisms;

The first ones designate new concepts resulting from the development of science.

The second type is created to be a more expressive means of communicating the idea.

According to the formal-semantic meaning their classification is following:

1. proper neologisms ( both a new form and a new meaning)

to telecommute

They are similar to terminological coinages.

2. transnomination (new form but an old meaning)

big C – cancer, I am burned out – tired/exhausted

They refer to synonyms and may be regarded as stylistic coinages.

3. semantic innovations (old form but a new meaning)

sophisticated – раньше “умудренный опытом”, теперь

sophisticated computer – прогрессивный

They promote polysemy in the language.

4. nonce-words (окказионализмы).

They appear for particular occasion. They are not included into the dictionaries. Their main purpose is functional disposability. They are often formed by means of conversion.

I wifed in Texas, mother-in-lawed, uncled, aunted, cousined …

Nonce-words are not reproduced in speech, they are repeated. They are individual formations and have their own author. They are quite expressive, humorous and are created according to the existing word-formation (balconyful – балкон, полный людей).

Nonce-words can be:

• system – which appear according to word-formation models; they can become neologisms if they occur many times.

• unsystem– those are formally or semantically distorted (“incorrect words”), based on deformation. Винни Пух: It’s a missage (когда в горшке вместо меда обнаруживает message).

Вопросы для самоконтроля

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

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

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

4. What is the difference between barbarisms and foreign words?

5. How can literary coinages be classified?

Список рекомендуемой литературы

1. Арнольд, И.В. Стилистика. Современный английский язык: учебн. для вузов. /И.В. Арнольд. - 7-е изд. - М.: Высшая школа, 2005. – 383 с.

2. Гуревич, В.В. English Stylistics. Стилистика английского языка: учебн. пособие. /В.В. Гуревич. – М.: Наука, 2008. – 67 с.

3. Galperin, I.R. Stylistics. /I.R. Galperin. - M.: Higher School Publishing House, 1981. – 343 c.

Lecture 6: SPECIAL COLLOQUIAL VOCABULARY

Standard colloquial style - the style of informal, friendly oral communication. Its vocabulary is usually lower than that of the formal or neutral styles, it is often emotionally coloured by connotations (daddy, kid).

Colloquial speech is characterized by the frequent use of words ,with a broad meaning (широкозначные слова): speakers use a small group of words in quite different meanings, whereas in a formal style every word is to be used in a specific and clear meaning. Compare the different uses of the verb “get”:

I got (=received) a letter today; Where did you get (=buy) those shoes&; We don’t get (=have) much rain here in summer; I got (=caught) flu’ last month; We got (=took) the six[-o’clock train from London; I got into (=entered) the house easily; Where has my pen got to (=disappeared)?; We got (=arrived) home late; Get (=put) your hat on!; I can’t get (=fit) into my old jeans; Get (=throw ) the cat out of the house!; I’ll get (=punish) you, just you wait!; We got (=passed) through the customs without any checking; I’ve got up to (=reached) the last chapter of the book; I’ll get (=fetch) the children from school; It’s getting (=becoming) dark; He got (=was) robbed in the street at night; I got (=caused) him to help me with the work; I got the radio working at last (=brought it to the state of working); Will you get (=give, bring) the children their supper tonight?; I didn’t get (=hear) what you said; You got (=understood) my answer wrong; I wanted to speak to the director, but only got (=managed to speak) to his secretary; Will you get (=answer) the phone?; Can you get (=tune in) to London on your radio?

There are phrases and constructions typical of colloquial type: What’s up? (=what has happened?); No problem! (=This can easily be done), etc.

In grammar: a) the use of shortened variants of word-forms (isn’t, can’t; there’s; I’d say; Yaa) b) the use of elliptical (incomplete) sentences (I did; Like it? May I?).

The syntax is characterized by the preferable use of simple sentences. Note the neutral style in the following extract:

When I saw him there, I asked him, ‘Where are you going?’, but he started running away from me. I followed him. When he turned round the corner, I also turned round it after him, but then noticed that he was not there. I could not imagine where he was…

and the same extract in its colloquial version:

I saw him there, I say ‘Where’ye going?’ He runs off, I run after him. He turns the corner, me too. He isn’t there. Where’s he now? I can’t think… (note also the rather frequent change from the Past tense to the Present, in addition to the absence of conjunctions or other syntactic means of connection).

Non-standard (familiar-colloquial) style of speech is mostly represented by a special vocabulary. Here we find emotionally coloured words (general slang), low-colloquial vocabulary and slang words, rude and vulgar vocabulary (taboo), jargons, professional (special) slang, dialectal words.

General slang (sl.infml) – are the words and expressions with ironic, rudish shade. They make the speech informal (cool - клевый, pan – физиономия, get hyper – выходить из себя, don’t get hyper – не заводись, cabbage – капуста, бабло).

General slang:1) makes speech specific and fresh;

2) promotes short distance between the speakers;

3) establishes conformism;

4) demonstrates denial of common valuables (to die – to check out, to pop off, to sling one’s hook, to go west, to snuff out, to kick the bucket).

As we said general slang should be distinguished from low-colloquial words. General slang is characterized by its expressiveness, informality and ironic or rudish shade. But low-colloquial words have rude connotation, they are not used in respectable conversation (bitch, bastard) . From the other hand, you should separate them from rude literary words (moron – идиот, слабоумный).

The meaning of the term ‘slang’ is given in many dictionaries.

Webster’s “New World Dictionary of the American Language” gives the following meanings of the term:

“1. originally, the specialized vocabulary and idioms of criminals, tramps, etc. the purpose of which was to disguise from outsiders the meaning of what was said; now usually called cant. 2. the specialized vocabulary and idioms of those in the same work, way of life, etc.; now usually called shoptalk, argot, jargon. 3. colloquial language that is outside of conventional or standard usage and consists of both coined words and those with new or extended meanings; slang develops from the attempt to find fresh and vigorous, colourful, pungent or humorous expression, and generally either passes into disuse or comes to have a more formal status.”

The “New Oxford English Dictionary” defines slang as follows:

“a) the special vocabulary used by any set of persons of a low or disreputable character; language of a low and vulgar type; b) the cant or jargon of a certain class or period; c) language of a highly colloquial type considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense.”

What can we refer to slang?

The following stylistic layers are generally marked as slang:

1. Words which may be classed as thieves’ cant, or the jargons of other social groups and professions, like dirt=money, to dance=to hang.

2. Colloquial words and phrases of professional or dialectal direction (to have a hunch – предчувствовать; fishy – ‘suspicious’)

3. Figurative words and phrases (Scrooge – a mean person, shark –‘a pickpocket’)

4. Words derived by means of conversion (the noun ‘agent’ is considered neutral, because it has no stylistic notation, and the verb ‘to agent’ –‘разбойничать’ is included in one of the American dictionaries of slang; ‘ancient’ (adj.) – ‘древний’, ‘античный’, ‘ancient’ (n.) – ‘старикашка’, ‘старая развалина’).

5. Abbreviations (rep – reputation, cig – cigarette, ad – advertisement, flu – influenza).

6. Set expressions which are generally used in colloquial speech (to go in for)

7. Improprieties of a morphological and syntactical character (I says), double negatives as ‘I don’t know nothing’.

8. Any new coinage that has not gained recognition and has not yet been received into standard English.

It is suggested that the term “slang” should be used for those forms of the English language which are either mispronounced or distorted in some way phonetically, morphologically or lexically.

Slang is nothing but a deviation from the established norm at the level of the vocabulary of the language.

What about the purpose of the slang? It is well written in “A Historical Dictionary of American Slang”:

“Sometimes slang is used to escape the dull familiarity of standard words, to suggest an escape from the established routine of everyday life. When slang is used, our life seems a little fresher and a little more personal. Also, as at all levels of speech, slang is sometimes used for the pure joy of making sounds, or even for a need to attract attention by making noise.

But more important … is the slang’s reflection of the personality, the outward, clearly visible characteristics of the speaker.”

We said, that the term “slang” is broad and there are many kinds of slang: cockney, commercial, military, theatrical, parliamentary and others and there is also a standard slang, the slang that is common to all people who receive standard in their writing and speech and also use an informal language which, in fact, is no language but merely a way of speaking, using special words and phrases in some special sense.

What causes the nature of slang?

Personality and surroundings (social or occupational) are the two chief factors determining the nature of slang.

I’d like to show you one more episode from the story by O. Henry “By courier”. O. Henry opposes neutral and common literary words to special colloquial words and slang for a definite stylistic purpose. He distorts a message by translating the literary vocabulary of one speaker into the non-literary vocabulary of another (discard – отбрасывать, отказываться от чего-либо; moosehunting – охота на американского лося).

“Tell her I am on my way to the station, to leave for San Francisco, where I shall join that Alaska moosehunting expedition. Tell her that, since she has commanded me neither to speak nor to write to her, I take this means of making one last appeal to her sense of justice, for the sake of what has been. Tell her that to condemn and discard one who has not deserved such treatment, without giving him her reason or a chance to explain is contrary to her nature as I believe it to be.”

This message was delivered in the following manner:

“He told me to tell yer he’s got his collars and cuffs in dat grip for a scool clean out to ‘Frisco. Den he’s goin’ to shoot snowbirds in de Klondike. He says yer told him to send ‘round no more pink notes nor come hangin’ over de garden gate, and he takes dis mean (sending the boy to speak for him) of putting yer wise. He says yer referred to him like a has-been, and never give him no chance to kick at de decision. He says yer swilled him and never said why.”

The contrast between what is standard English and what is crude, broken non-literary or uneducated American English has been achieved by means of setting the common literary vocabulary and also the syntactical design of the original message against jargonisms, slang and all kinds of distortions of forms, phonetic, morphological, lexical and syntactical.

Jargonisms

It is a special slang. It is a recognized term for a group of words whose aim is to preserve secrecy within one or another social group.

They may be defined as a code within a code, i.e. special meanings of words that are imposed on the recognized code – the dictionary meaning of the words (‘loaf’ means ‘head’; ‘lexer’ – a student preparing for a law course (лат. ‘lex’ – закон)

Jargonisms are social in character. They are not regional. In England and in the USA almost any social group of people has its own jargon. The following jargons are well known in the English language: the jargon of thieves, the jargon of jazz people, of the army, the jargon of sportsmen and so on.

The various jargons remain a foreign language to the outsiders of any particular social group. Slang, contrary to jargon, needs no translation. It is not a secret code.

Jargonisms do not always remain the possession of a given social group. Some of them migrate into other social strata and sometimes become recognized in the literary language of the nation.

But as the general slang differs from low-colloquial, the common jargons differ from special professional jargons.

We must remark that both slang and the various jargons of Great Britain differ much more from those of America than the literary language in the two countries does. American slang on the whole remains a foreign language to the Englishman.

Jargonisms, like slang and other groups of the non-literary layer, do not always remain on the outskirts of the literary language. Many words have entered the standard vocabulary. Thus the words kid, fun, humbug, formely slang words or jargonisms, are now considered common colloquial. They may be said to be dejargonized.

Professionalisms

Professionalisms are the words used in a definite trade, profession by people connected by common interests both at work and at home. They commonly designate some working process. Professionalisms are correlated to terms.

Terms are coined to nominate new concepts that appear in the process of technical progress and the development of science. Professional words name anew already-existing concepts, tools or instruments, and have the typical properties of a special code.

Professionalisms are special words in the non-literary layer of the English vocabulary, whereas terms are a specialized group belonging to the literary layer of words.

Terms are easily decoded and enter the neutral stratum of the vocabulary. Professionalisms generally remain in circulation within a definite community, they are linked to a common occupation and common social interests.

The semantic structure of the term is easily understood. The semantic structure of a professionalism is often dimmed.

But, like terms, professionalisms do not allow any polysemy, they are monosemantic.

Here are some professionalisms used in different trades: ‘tin-fish’ –‘submarine’; ‘block-buster’ – a bomb especially designed to destroy blocks of big buildings’

Professionalisms should not be mixed up with jargonisms. Like slang words, professionalisms do not aim at secrecy. They fulfil a socially useful function in communication, facilitating a quick and adequate grasp of the message.

There are certain fields of human activity which gain a nation-wide interest and popularity, in Great Britain, for example, it concerns sports and games. And professionalisms are wide-spread in this sphere.

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

Dialectal Words

Dialectal words are those which in the process of integration of the English national language remained beyond its literary boundaries, and their use is

generally referred to a definite locality. Such words are connected with agriculture,

horses, cattle and sport.

There is sometimes a difficulty in distinguishing dialectal words from colloquial words. Some dialectal words have become so familiar in standard colloquial English that they are universally accepted as recognized units of the standard colloquial English. To these words belong ‘lass’ meaning ‘a girl or a beloved girl’ and the corresponding ‘lad’, ‘a boy or a young man’.

To the dialects are usually referred the non-standard varieties of English used on the territory of Great Britain, while the word variants (varieties) refers to the use of English outside this territory, e.g. the English language of the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

English dialects are divided into northern (including the Scottish dialect) and southern (including ‘cockney’, the dialect of the area south of London).

Many of the words fixed in dictionaries as dialectal are of Scottish origin. This is explained by the fact that Scotland has struggled to retain the peculiarities of its language to be independent. The Scottish dialect comes back to the Gaelic language (галльский язык). Such words used by speakers of English in the area of Scotland as bairn=child, auld=old, ben=mountain, bonnie=beautiful, kirk=church, loch=lake. The pronunciation of Scottish dialectal words may also have some peculiarities, e.g. [u:] instead of [au], e.g. [hu:s] (=house), [du:n(=down); [ai] instead of [ou] – e.g. [stain] (=stone), [raid] (=road).

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], f.ex.: ‘volk’ – ‘folk’, ‘vound’ – ‘found’, ‘zee’ – ‘see’, ‘zinking’ – ‘sinking’.

The Irish dialect of English is spread in Northern Ireland. It is not the Irish language itself (which is of Celtic origin and is spoken in the Irish Republic – in the southern part of the island), but a variety of English, which includes Irish words: girsha (=little girl), cardia (=friendship) and also English words with a changed meaning: harvest (=autumn).

Dialectal words are only to be found in the style of emotive prose, very rarely in other styles.

Variants of English used outside the territory of Great Britain are found in the former British colonies. One of the most notable and widespread is the American variant. It has certain peculiarities of pronunciation, which include: the pronunciation of the sound [r] in any position in the word (girl, here); the substitution of the vowel [æ] for the long [a:] in ask, last, after (as in the Scottish dialect); pronunciation of the vowel [a] instead of [o] in words like hot, pot, stop.

There are also differences in vocabulary, e.g. fall (British - autumn), guess (=think), drug (=medicine), candy (=sweets), etc. As for grammar forms, American English uses gotten instead of got. It also prefers simplified variants of spelling: color (=colour), theater (=theatre), telegram (=telegramme), etc.

Vulgar Words (Taboo)

We shall define vulgarisms as swear-words and obscene words and expressions. They have nothing to do with words in common use nor can they be classed as colloquialisms.

There are different degrees of vulgar words. Some of them, the obscene ones should not even be fixed in common dictionaries. They are called “four-letter” words. A lesser degree of vulgarity is presented by words like ‘damn’,(проклятье), ‘bloody’,(проклятый, чертовски), ‘son of a bitch, ‘to hell’ (ругать на чем свет стоит) and others. These vulgarisms sometimes appear only with the initial letter printed: d- - - (damn!), b - - - (bloody).

The function of vulgarisms is almost the same as that of interjections, i.e. to express strong emotions, mainly annoyance, anger, vexation (досада) and the like. They are not to be found in any style of speech except emotive prose, and here only in the direct speech of the characters.

The language of the underworld is rich in coarse words and expressions. But not every expression which may be considered coarse should be regarded as a vulgarism. Coarseness of expression may result from improper grammar, non-standard pronunciation, from the misuse of certain literary words and expressions, from a distortion of words. All these improprieties of speech cannot be regarded as vulgarisms.

Colloquial Coinages (Nonce-Words)

Colloquial coinages, unlike those of a literary-bookish character, are spontaneous. Not all of the colloquial nonce-words are fixed in dictionaries or even in writing and therefore most of them disappear from the language leaving no trace.

Unlike literary-bookish coinages, nonce-words of a colloquial nature are not usually built by means of affixes but are based on certain semantic changes in words. Colloquial nonce-formations are actually not new words but new meanings of existing words.

‘Presently’ used to mean ‘at the present moment’ has got the meaning ‘in the near future’. ‘Peculiar’ – ‘belonging exclusively to’ as colloquial coinage means ‘uncommon’ ,’odd’.

In some cases it is difficult to draw a line of demarcation between nonce-words of bookish and of colloquial origin. Some words which have sprung from the literary-bookish stratum have become popular in ordinary colloquial lang. and have acquired new meanings in their new environment.

Вопросы для самоконтроля

1. What are the main characteristics of slang?

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

3. What do you think of the purpose of the slang?

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

5. How are colloquial coinages formed?

Список рекомендуемой литературы

1. Гуревич, В.В. English Stylistics. Стилистика английского языка: учебн. пособие. /В.В. Гуревич. – М.: Наука, 2008. – 67 с.

2. Шаховский, В.И. Стилистика английского языка. /В.И. Шаховский. – Л.: ЛКИ, 2008. – 235 с.

3. Bridgeman, Richard. The Colloquial Style in America. /R.Bridgeman. - New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. – p. 94.

4. Crystal, D., Davy, D. Investigating English Style. /D. Crystal, D. Davy. – London: Longman, 1969. –p. 107.

5. Henry, O. Selected Stories (”By courier”). /O. Henry. – M.: Progress Publishers, 1977. – 129 с.

6. A Historical Dictionary of American Slang. - New York, 2006. – p. 525.

7. New Oxford English Dictionary. - Oxford University Press, 2000. – p. 613.

8. Webster, New World Dictionary of the American Language. – Springfield, 1999. – p. 747.

Lecture 7: PHONETIC EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC

DEVICES

Stylistic differences of any kind can be expressed by various language means: phonetic, lexical or grammatical.

Now we are speaking about phonetic ones. And such science as phonostylistics studies how phonetic means are used as descriptive means, 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.

L.Bloomfield, a well-known American linguist, says: “…in human speech different sounds have different meaning.”

There is such a device which helps to select words, having such a sound form which can intensify expressive content of the episode. Now, let us see what phonetic stylistic devices fulfill this function.

Euphony (эвфония) – благозвучие.

It is sound selection which corresponds mostly to the emotional mood of the utterance, the case when the sound corresponds to the content, for example, predomination of long vowels and diphthongs, sonants, which give smoothness and softness.

Onomatopoeia – onomete’pie – (ономатопея) – звукоподражание.

This term denotes sound imitation, i.e. the use of words which denote some phenomenon by imitating its real sounding (wind, sea, thunder, machines or tools, sighing, laughter, animal’s sounds (cuckoo, buzz (bees), hiss (snakes), bow-wow (dogs), bump, grumble, sizzle, ding-dong, jingle (звенеть)click ( bang, mew/miaow and purr (cats), hoink (pigs), bubble (булькать), rustle (шуршать), splash (плескаться), whistle (свистеть), ping-pong, roar (реветь), tinkle (звякнуть) These words cause acoustic impression.

“Then with enormous, shattering rumble, sludge-puff, sludge-puff the train came into the station”.

There are two varieties of onomatopoeia: direct and indirect. Direct onomatopoeia. is contained in words that imitate natural sounds, as ding-dong, buzz, bang, slap, rap, tap (звук удара), cuckoo, mew, ping-pong, roar and the like.

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”,

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

The same can be said of the sound [w] if it aims at reproducing, let us say, the sound of wind.

“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”.

Indirect onomatopoeia is sometimes very effectively used by repeating words, for example, “silver bells … how they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle”

Words built on the basis of onomatopoeia make speech especially expressive when used in their figurative meanings:

Cars were whizzing past (moving very fast).

The pot was bubbling on the fire (boiling and making this sound)

The crowd buzzed with excitement (made a noise like that)

Alliteration

A phonetic stylistic device based on repetition of the same or similar sounds, in particular consonant sounds, at close distance, which makes speech more expressive.

It is frequently used in idioms, set phrases, proverbs. For example, tit-bit (лакомый кусочек), neck or nothing (пан или пропал), to shilly-shally (to waste time without taking action).

“The world will know our courage, our constancy, and our compassion” – sound [k] shows the position strength.

Alliteration is used in the titles of literary works. (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice).

The translator can transfer alliteration as following: silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain – и шелковый, печальный, неожиданный шорох каждой сиреневой шторы.

Due to alliteration the musical effect and expressiveness are created. Alliteration is considered as a part of phonosemantic theory. According to it a speech sound is connected with certain content. [l] - плавный, нежный, мягкий, [i] – радостный, [d] – сумрачный, [m] – дает усыпляющий эффект.

“How sweet it were …

To lend our hearts and spirits wholly

To the music of mild-minded melancholy;

To muse and blood and live again in memory”.

Alliteration in the English language is originated from English folklore. The laws of phonetic arrangement in Anglo-Saxon poetry differed greatly from those of present-day English poetry. In Old English poetry alliteration was one of the basic principles of verse and considered along with rhythm to be its main characteristic.

A variant of alliteration is assonance, i.e. repetition of the same or similar vowels only (My shoes show signs of wear and tear). The term “assonance” is also used to denote an imperfect rhyme (рифма), when only vowels are rhymed (number – blunder, same – cane). As a result, the light sounding opposed to the dull color is created.

Rhythm

In poetic speech is produced by regular alteration (чередование) of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Why do you cry, Willie?

Why do you cry?

Why, Willie, why, Willie,

Why, Willie, Why?

A division (отрезок) of the poetic line from stress to stress, which contains one stressed syllable and one or two unstressed syllables, is called a Foot (стопа). The foot is the main unit of rhythm in poetic speech. According to the correlation of stressed and unstressed syllables within the foot, we distinguish the following 5 types of feet:

1. Trochee (хорей), with two syllables, of which the first is stressed and the second unstressed:

Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater,

2. Iambus (ямб), with two syllables, of which the first is unstressed, the second stressed:

And then my love and I shall pace,

3. Dactyl (дактиль), three syllables, the first stressed, the other two unstressed:

Why do you cry, Willy?

4. Amphibrach (амфибрахий), three syllables with the stress on the second:

A diller, a dollar, a ten o’clock scolar…

5. Anapaest (анапест), three syllables, stress on the third:

Said the flee, ‘Let us fly’,

The type of foot and the number of feet in the line determine the Metre of the verse (стихотворный размер).

English versification is often characterized by certain irregularities (нарушения) in the metre.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

Certainly, the verses require rhythm, but prose is also characterized by rhythm.

What makes the rhythm of prose?

1. The repetition of the structural design of the sentence;

2. Dramatic feeling demands regular rhythm;

3. And almost any piece of prose, though in essence non-rhythmical, can be made rhythmical by isolating words and making appropriate pauses between them.

Rhythm is the main factor which brings order into the utterance. Of course, it is not an easy task to find prose rhythm because rhythm is not an essential property of prose, whereas it is essential in verse. The example of rhythm in prose is following: I have ransacked my oldest dreams for keys and clues. We can hear the sound balance and music in this sentence (it is the translation of Nabokov’s prose).

Rhyme (rime) – (рифма).

It is created by the repetition of the same sounds in the last stressed syllable of two (or more) lines in a stanza (строфа). Rhyme came into the English poetry at the end of the 14-th century. It facilitates the text perception and the rhyming words attract attention. In prose the rhyme is used in comic situations.

We distinguish between full rhymes and incomplete rhymes. The full rhyme presupposes identity of the vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in a stressed syllable (might, right). Incomplete rhymes 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, flung – long.

By the type of the stressed syllable we distinguish the male rhyme (мужская рифма), when the stress falls on the last syllable in the rhymed lines, and the female rhyme (женская рифма), when it falls on the last but one syllable:

When the lamp is shattered (fem. Rhyme)

The light in the dust lies dead; (male rhyme)

When the cloud is scattered (fem.)

The rainbow’s glory is shed. (male)

Мой дядя самых честных правил, (жен. Рифма)

Когда не в шутку занемог, (муж.)

Он уважать себя заставил (жен.)

И лучше выдумать не мог. (муж.)

For the English verses the male rhymes are characteristic of, due to the one-syllable words prevailing in the English language.

The following classification of the English rhymes presupposes:

• Paired rhymes (парные, смежные рифмы), when the rhyming pattern is aabb;

The seed ye sow, another reaps; (a)

The wealth ye find, another keeps; (a)

The robes ye weave, another wears; (b)

The arms ye forge, another bears; (b) (Shelley)

• Alternate rhymes (перекрестные рифмы), with the pattern abab;

A slumber did my spirit seal; (a)

I had no human fears: (b)

She seemed a thing that could not feel (a)

The touch of earthly years. (b) (W.Wordsworth)

• Enclosing rhymes (охватные, опоясанные рифмы), with the pattern abba;

Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold, (a)

And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; (b)

Round many western islands have I been (b)

Which bards in fealty (=loyalty) to Apollo hold. (a) (J.Keats)

There may also be the so called eye-rhyme (графическая рифма), when the elements rhymed are similar only in spelling, but not in pronunciation (find – wind; supply – memory).

As for the pronunciation the rhymes may be the exact (точные) - heart – part or approximate (приблизительные) – devil – evil.

Depending on the number of rhyming sounds the rhymes may be “poor” (by-cry) and “rich” (brevity – longevity).

Вопросы для самоконтроля

1. What is euphony?

2. What does onomatopoeia denote?

3. What is alliteration based on?

4. What kind of rhymes do you know?

5. What makes the rhythm of prose?

Список рекомендуемой литературы

1. Гуревич, В.В. English Stylistics. Стилистика английского языка: учебн. Пособие. /В.В. Гуревич. – М.: Наука, 2008. – 67 с.

2. Bloomfield, L. Phonetics and Speech. /L. Bloomfield. - New York, Oxford, 1991. – p. 79.

3. Galperin,I.R. Stylistics. /I.R. Galperin. - M.: Higher School Publishing House, 1981. – 343 c.

4. Kuharenko, V.A. Seminars in Style. /V.A. Kuharenko. - M.: Higher School Publishing, 1986. – 144 c.

5. Screbnev, Y.M. Fundamentals of English Stylistics. /Y.M. Screbnev. - M.: АСТ, 2000. – 224 с.

Lecture 8: GRAPHIC STYLISTIC DEVICES

Graphic images

To create the rhythmic impression under visual perception the poetry is divided into stanzas and the prose applies the division into paragraphs to create the completeness of every thought. The graphic form reflects the poem’s structure and gives expressiveness to the utterance.

The most common stanza, one consisting of four lines, is called a quatrain (катрен, четверостишие); the more seldom one, consisting of two, is called a couplet (двустишие).

There is also a ballad stanza, typical of poetical folklore, especially that of the 14-th-15-th centuries. A ballad is a poem with a plot (сюжет), which tells some story. The ballad stanza usually has four lines.

A specific type of stanza is used in a sonnet. There we usually find twelve lines (three quatrains), followed by two final lines (a couplet), which contain a kind of summary of the whole verse.

Sometimes the poetic text has the shape of a star, a heart, a triangle and a cross. Its appearance can correspond to its theme and content.

There may also be blank verse (белый стих), in which there is no rhyming, but the rhythm and metre are to some extent preserved.

Punctuation

The important place belongs to the punctuation. It reflects the rhythmic and melodic composition of speech. The great attention is paid to the exclamatory and question marks. They make the text emotional.

The emotional pauses are marked with dashes or suspension marks. (Please – not that!) (Oh, he’s a… he’s a kind of acquaintance). They attract attention to the important word.

The stylistic function of the full stop can be different. While describing the quick change of events, the full stop divides the text into short separate sentences creating the unity simultaneously. And vice versa the long text without full stops transfers the dynamic relationship of the parts.

Inverted commas or quotation marks are mainly used to distinguish the character’s speech or thoughts. With their help the author underlines that either he doesn’t use these words himself or shows the ironic attitude to the expression.

The absence of punctuation is also significant because it makes the text similar to the form of the document and adds it importance. This device is used in ceremonial poetry.

The peculiarities of print

While addressing or personifying the common nouns are written with capital letter. It gives the special significance and solemn colour to the text. The whole words may be printed with capital letters and are spoken out emphatically and loudly. (I didn’t kill Henry. No, NO!)

Epigraphs, citations, prose and poetry, the foreign words and everything that demands the unusual intensification are printed in italics. Many auxiliary words which are usually unstressed are printed in italics when they are especially important.

Вопросы для самоконтроля

1. What is the aim of different graphic images?

2. Does the shape of the text influence its perception?

3. Why is punctuation so important?

4. What are the peculiarities of print?

Список рекомендуемой литературы

1. Арнольд, И.В. Стилистика. Современный английский язык: учебн. для вузов. /И.В. Арнольд. - 7-е изд. - М.: Высшая школа, 2005. – 383 с.

2. Galperin, I.R. Stylistics. /I.R. Galperin. - M.: Higher School Publishing House, 1981. – 343 c.

Lecture 9: USE OF SET EXPRESSIONS

In language studies we should not ignore stable lexical units. Here we are faced with:

A cliché is an expression that has become stereotyped. Examples of real clichés are: rosy dreams of youth, the patter of little feet, to withstand the test of time.

Proverbs and sayings are brief statements showing in condensed form the accumulated life experience of the community and serving as conventional practical symbols for abstract ideas. They are usually didactic and image bearing:

“Early to bed and early to rise,

Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

The main feature distinguishing them from ordinary utterances that their literal meaning is suppressed by their transferred meaning. This device is used not only in the belles-lettres style but in the publicist style as well.

An epigram is a stylistic device similar to a proverb, the only difference being that epigrams are coined by individuals whose names we know, while proverbs are the coinage of the people. Brevity is the essential quality of the epigram.

Epigrams are often confused with aphorisms and paradoxes. It is difficult to draw a demarcation line between them. But real epigrams are true to fact.

The epigram is in fact a s y n t a c t i c a l w h o l e, though a syntactical whole need not necessarily be epigrammatic.

A quotation is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech, the exact reproduction of an actual utterance made by a certain author. The stylistic value of a quotation lies mainly in the fact that it comprises two meanings: the primary meaning, the one which it has in its original surroundings, and the applicative meaning, the one which it acquires in the new context. They are often used in epigraphs.

Quotations are usually marked off in the text by inverted commas (“ “), dashes (-), italics or other graphical means.

Вопросы для самоконтроля

1. What do we understand by the stable lexical units?

2. Can you name your own examples of clichés?

3. What distinguishes proverbs and sayings from ordinary utterances?

4. What is the difference between epigrams and proverbs?

5. What is the stylistic value of the quotation?

Список рекомендуемой литературы

1. Galperin, I.R. Stylistics. /I.R. Galperin. - M.: Higher School Publishing House, 1981. – 343 c.

2. Screbnev, Y.M. Fundamentals of English Stylistics. /Y.M. Screbnev. - M.: АСТ, 2000. – 224 с.

Lecture 10: LEXICAL STYLISTIC DEVICES OR TROPES (FIGURES OF SPEECH)

The term Figures of speech (фигуры речи, тропы, образные средства) is frequently used for stylistic devices that make use of a figurative meaning of the lang. elements and thus create a vivid image (образ).

Words in a context may acquire additional lexical meaning not fixed in dictionaries – contextual meaning. Sometimes the new meaning becomes the opposite of the primary meaning, then we deal with transferred meaning.

The relation between the dictionary and contextual logical meanings may be maintained on the principle of similarity, proximity or opposition. Thus the stylistic devices based on these principles are m e t a p h o r, m e t o n y m y and i r o n y.

Metaphor (метафора)

Metaphor denotes a transference of meaning based on resemblance (перенос, основанный на сходстве), on a covert (скрытое) comparison: (He is not a man, he is just a machine; the childhood of mankind; a film star) Not only objects can be compared in a metaphor, but also phenomena, actions or qualities: (Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few are to be chewed and digested; pitiless cold; cruel heat)

Metaphors may be simple, when expressed by a word or phrase (Man cannot live by bread alone), and complex (prolonged or sustained, сложная метафора), when a broader context is required to understand it, or when the metaphor includes more than one element of the text (for example, the metaphoric representation of a city as a powerful and dangerous machine – The average New Yorker is caught in a machine. He whirls along, he is dizzy, he is helpless. If he resists, the machine will crush him to pieces.)

A trite metaphor (стершаяся метафора) is one that is overused in speech, so that it has lost its freshness of expression. Such metaphors often turn into idiomatic phrases (phraseological expressions) that are fixed in dictionaries (seeds of evil; a flight of imagination; to burn with desire)

National metaphor is characteristic for a certain nation. An English word “bear” – “медведь” has its slang meaning “полицейский” because in German tribes’ mythology the “bear” (медведь) - the symbol of the order.

Traditional metaphors are those which relate to some period of time or some literary trend. For example, English poets used widely such traditional metaphors as pearly teeth, coral lips, hair of golden wire, ivory neck.

The expressiveness of the metaphor is promoted by the simultaneous presence of images of both objects – the one which is actually named and the one which supplies its own “legal” name. The wider the gap between the associated objects the more striking and unexpected – the more expressive – is the metaphor.

Metaphors are mostly to be found in poetry and emotive prose. Trite metaphors are generally used as expressive means in newspaper articles, in oratorical style and even in scientific language.

Metonymy (метонимия)

Metonymy denotes a transference of meaning which is based on proximity (contiguity) of notions (перенос, основанный на смежности понятий, явлений), not on resemblance. In cases of metonymy, the name of one object is used instead of another, closely connected with it. This may include:

1. The name of a part instead of the name of a whole (synecdoche, синекдоха): Washington and London (=USA and UK) agree on most issues; He was followed into the room by a pair of heavy boots (= by a man in heavy boots); the Russian “Да, да”, ответили рыжие панталоны (Чехов). In a similar way, the word crown (to fight for the crown) may denote “the royal power/the king”.

2. The name of a container instead of the contents: The hall applauded. He drank a whole glass of whisky (= drank the liquid contained in a glass). This is such a frequent type of transference of meaning in the language system that in many cases (like the latter example), it is not perceived as a stylistic device.

3. The name of a characteristic feature of an object instead of the object or the material instead of the thing made of it, as in: The marble spoke.

4. The name of an instrument instead of an action or the doer of an action: Let us turn swords into ploughs (= Let us replace fighting by peaceful work. – Перекуем мечи на орала).

5. Antonomasia (антономасия, переименование), a subtype of metonymy, this device consists in the use of a proper name instead of a common name or vice versa. Thus, we may use a description instead of a person’s name, creating a kind of nickname: Mister Know-all, Miss Sharp, Mr.Snake, Scrooge. On the other hand, a proper name may be used instead of a common name: He is the Napoleon of crime (= a genius in crime as great as Napoleon was in wars). I have a Rembrandt at home (= a picture by Rembrandt).

As a rule, metonymy is expressed by nouns and is used in syntactical functions characteristic of nouns (subject, object, predicative).

Irony

Irony is based on the simultaneous realization of two opposite meanings: the permanent, “direct” meaning (the dictionary meaning) of words and their contextual meaning. Usually the direct meaning in such cases expresses a positive evaluation of the situation, while the context contains the opposite, negative evaluation:

How delightful! – to find yourself in a foreign country without a penny in your pocket!

Aren’t you a hero – running away from a mouse!

Irony must not be confused with humor, although they have very much in common. Humour always causes laughter. But the function of irony is not to produce a humorous effect. It rather expresses a feeling of irritation, displeasure, pity or regret.

The emotive meaning or emotional colouring of a word plays a considerable role in stylistics. One of the stylistic devices based on some metaphor and thus creating an image, containing an expressive characteristic of the object is the e p i t h e t.

Epithet

It is used to characterize some properties or features of the object with the aim of giving evaluation of these features.

Epithet has remained over the centuries the most widely used SD, which is understandable – it offers ample opportunities of qualifying every object from the author’s viewpoint, which is indispensable in creative prose, publicist style, and everyday speech.

One and the same word may be an adjective only (sharp knife, iron spoon) and an epithet (a man of iron will, sharp mind).

An epithet may be used in the sentence as an attribute: a cutting smile (насмешливая, едкая), or as an adverbial modifier: to smile cuttingly.

Fixed epithets (устойчивые) are often found in folklore: a sweet heart, merry old England.

Epithets may be:

- language (constant): salt tears;

- speech: the smiling sun;

- the epithets with inversion: this devil of a woman instead of this devilish woman. They are very popular in colloquial style.

Epithets may be classified as: s e m a n t i c and s t r u c t u r a l.

Semantically, they may be divided into two groups: those 1) associated with the noun following and those 2) unassociated with it.

The first group characterizes the feature inherent to the object: dark forest.

The second group are attributes used to characterize the object by a feature which may be unexpected: voiceless sands.

Structurally, epithets can be viewed from the point of 1) composition and 2) distribution.

According to the compositional structure epithets may be divided into

• s i m p l e – ordinary adjectives;

• c o m p o u n d - built like compound adjectives (cloud-shapen giant);

• p h r a s e - Just a ghost of a smile appeared on his face; I’ll-contradict-you expression on his face.

From the point of view of distribution, the epithets may be arranged as the s t r i n g o f e p i t h e t s: It was the wonderful, cruel, bewildering, fatal, great city.

Another distributional model is the t r a n s f e r r e d epithet. They generally describe the state of a human being, but now refer to an object: sick chamber, sleepless pillow, unbreakfasted morning.

The epithet is a direct way of showing the author’s attitude towards the things described.

Oxymoron

This is a device which combines, in one phrase, two words (usually: noun + adjective, sometimes an adverb may combine with an adjective) whose meanings are opposite and incompatible (несовместимы): a living corpse, a low skyscraper, to cry silently. As is clearly seen from this string of oxymorons, each one of them is a combination of two semantically contradictory notions, that help to emphasize contradictory qualities as a dialectal unity simultaneously existing in the described phenomenon.

The next group of stylistic devices elevates some quality to the greatest importance.

Simile

Simile is an imaginative comparison of two unlike objects belonging to two different classes. This is a comparison creating a vivid image due to the fact that the object with which we compare is well-known as an example of the quality. The characteristic itself may be named in the simile, e.g. when the conjunction “as” is used: beautiful as a rose; stupid as an ass; stubborn as a mule; fresh as a rose; fat as a pig; white as snow; proud as a peacock.

Similes may contain no special connector expressing comparison, as in: She climbed with the quickness of a cat.

Comparative constructions are not regarded as simile if no image is created, when the object with which something is compared, is not accepted as a generally known example of the quality: John skates as beautifully as Kate does; She is not so clever as her brother.

Note that, unlike a simile, a metaphor contains a covert comparison, which is already included in the figurative meaning of a word: cf. a metaphor in What an ass he is! with the simile He is stupid as an ass. Metaphors are usually more expressive and more emotionally colored than similes just because they do not express the comparison openly.

In the English language there is a long list of similes pointing out the analogy between the various qualities, states or actions of a human being and the animals supposed to be the bearers of the given quality, for ex.: sly as a fox; busy as a bee; industrious as an ant; blind as a bat; faithful as a dog; to work like a horse; hungry as a bear; thirsty as a camel.

Periphrasis

This is a device by which a longer phrase is used instead of a shorter and plainer one, it is the re-naming of an object for greater expressiveness: my better half (my wife); Almighty (God); in poetry – the sightless couriers of the air (the winds); has a humorous coloring – a disturber of the piano keys (a pianist).

Stylistic periphrasis can also be divided into:

• logical – which is based on one of the inherent properties of the object described, as in instruments of destruction (pistols);

• figurative – is based either on metaphor or on metonymy, as in to tie the knot (to marry).

There is little difference between metaphor or metonymy on the one hand, and figurative periphrasis on the other. It is the structural aspect of the periphrasis, which always presupposes a word combination.

The main function of the periphrases is to convey a purely individual perception of the described object. To achieve it the generally accepted nomination of the object is replaced by the description of one of its features or qualities, which seems to the author most important for the characteristic of the object, and which thus becomes foregrounded.

The often repeated periphrases become trite and serve as universally accepted periphrastic synonyms: “the gentle (soft, weak) sex (women).

Euphemism

There is a variety of periphrasis which we call euphemistic. Euphemism denotes the use of a different, more gentle or favourable name for an object or phenomenon so as to avoid undesirable or unpleasant associations. Thus, the verb to die may be replaced by euphemisms like to expire, to be no more,to join the majority, to be gone, to depart.

The term is derived from Greek: eu – well + -pheme – speaking). Euphemism is sometimes figuratively called “a whitewashing device”.

Euphemistic expressions may have the structure of a sentence: China is a country where you often get different accounts of the same thing (where many lies are told).

There are euphemisms replacing taboo-words, i.e. words forbidden in use in a community: The Prince of darkness or The Evil One (the Devil); the kingdom of darkness or the place of no return (Hell).

Euphemisms may be divided into several groups according to their spheres of application. The most recognized are the following: 1) religious, 2) moral, 3) medical and 4) parliamentary.

The life of euphemisms is short. They very soon become closely associated with the object named and give way to a newly-coined word or combination of words.

Hyperbole, Meiosis and Litotes

These are stylistic devices aimed at intensification of meaning. Hyperbole (гипербола, преувеличение) denotes a deliberate extreme exaggeration of the quality of the object: He was so tall that I was not sure he had a face; the man-mountain; a thousand pardons; I’ve told you a million times; He was scared to death.

Hyperbole is one of the most common expressive means of our everyday speech. Hyperbole may be the final effect of another stylistic device - metaphor, simile, irony, as we have in the case “The man was like the Rock of Gibraltar”.

Hyperbole can be expressed by all notional parts of speech. There are words though, which are used in this SD more often than others. They are such pronouns as “all”, “every”, “everybody” and the like; also numerical nouns (“a million”, “a thousand”), as was shown above, and adverbs of time (“ever”, “never”).

Meiosis (мейозис, преуменьшение) denotes understatement of the quality of the object. Such reserve and politeness are typical of Englishman. “The wind is rather strong” instead of “There’s a gale blowing outside”.

Litotes (understatement; литота, преуменьшение) is a device based on a peculiar use of negative constructions in the positive meaning, so that the quality seems to be underestimated, but in fact it is shown as something very positive or intensified: Not bad (very good); he is no coward (very brave); it was no easy task (very difficult); it was done not without taste (in very good taste).

While speaking about interaction of primary and derivative meanings we should mention polysemy, i.e. the ability of the word to have two or more meanings. This term must be referred to lexicology.

And in stylistics there are special devices which make a word materialize two distinct dictionary meanings. They are zeugma and the pun.

Zeugma (зевгма, каламбур)

This is a stylistic device that plays upon two different meanings of the word – the direct (literal) and the figurative (transferred) meanings, thus creating a pun (игра слов). The effect comes from the use of a word in the same formal (grammatical) relations, but in different semantic relations, due to the simultaneous realization of the literal and figurative meaning of a word: A leopard changes his spots, as often as he goes from one spot to another (spot – 1. пятно, 2 – место). She dropped a tear and her pocket handkerchief. “ Now, please, shake your hands!” – “There is no need for that. Their hands must have been shaking since morning”.

Allegory and Personification (олицетворение)

Allegory is a device by which the names of objects or characters of a story are used in a figurative sense, representing some more general things, good or bad qualities. This is often found in fables (басни) and parables (притчи). It is also a typical feature of proverbs, which contain generalizations:

All is not gold that glitters (=impressive words or people are not always really so good as they seem);

Every cloud has a silver lining (=even in bad situations we may find positive elements);

There is no rose without a thorn (=there are always disadvantages in the choice that we make);

Make the hay while the sun shines (=hurry to achieve your aim while there is a suitable situation).

As a subtype of allegory we distinguish Personification, by which human qualities are ascribed to inanimate objects, phenomena or animals. In the well-known poem:

Twinkle, little star!

How I wonder what you are!...

a star is represented as if it were a living being whom the author addresses.

In poetry, fables, etc., personification is often represented grammatically by the choice of masculine or feminine pronouns for the names of animals, inanimate objects or forces of nature. The pronoun He is used for the Sun, the Wind, for the names of any animals that act like human beings in the tale (The cat who walked by himself), for strong, active phenomena (Death, Ocean, River) or feelings (Fear, Love). The pronoun She is used for what is regarded as rather gentle (the Moon, Nature, Silence, Beauty, Hope, Mercy).

Allusion

This is indirect reference to some historical or literary fact expressed in the text. Allusion presupposes the knowledge of such a fact on the part of the reader or listener, so no particular explanation is given.

He felt as Balaam must gave felt when his ass broke into speech (Maugham) (allusion to the biblical parable of an ass that spoke the human language when its master, Balaam, intended to punish it.)

Вопросы для самоконтроля

1. Define the concept of litotes?

2. What is there in common between litotes and meiosis?

3. What is the difference between metonymy and metaphor?

4. What does hyperbole denote?

5. What is irony?

6. What is antonomasia?

7. What semantic and structural types of epithets do you know?

8. Where are allegory and personification applied?

Список рекомендуемой литературы

1. Гуревич, В.В. English Stylistics. Стилистика английского языка: учебн. Пособие. /В.В. Гуревич. – М.: Наука, 2008. – 67 с.

2. Солганик, Г.Я. Стилистика текста: учебн. пособие /Г.Я. Солганик. - 6-е изд. - М.: Наука, 2000. – 217 с.

3. Тарыгина, В.А. Эпитет и жанр. /В.А. Тарыгина. - М.: Оникс, 2000. – 78 с.

4. Galperin ,I.R. Stylistics. /I.R. Galperin. – M.: Higher School Publishing House, 1981. – 343 c.

Lecture 11: SYNTACTICAL STYLISTIC DEVICES

To speak about syntactical stylistic devices we should consider the main syntactical units. Let’s start with the s y n t a c t i c a l w h o l e. It generally comprises a number of sentences interdependent structurally and semantically, Thus, syntactical whole is a combination of sentences presenting a structural and semantic unity backed up by the rhythmic and melodic unity. Most epigrams are syntactical wholes from the point of view of their semantic unity. A syntactical whole may coincide with the paragraph.

A p a r a g r a p h is a group of sentences which shows an internal unity, logical in character. The length of a paragraph normally varies from 8 to 12 sentences. In newspaper style, however, most paragraphs consist of one – three sentences. The paragraph in some styles, such as scientific, publicist and some others generally has a topic sentence (key-sentence) which embodies the main idea of the paragraph. The paragraph in belle-lettres prose generally lacks unity, there are no topic sentences in emotive prose as a rule.

The next item in syntax is a s e n t e n c e. It is regarded as neutral if it maintains the regular word order. Any other order of the parts of the sentence may also carry the necessary information, but the impact on the reader will be different.

Stylistic inversion

An unusual order of words chosen for emphasis of greater expressiveness is inversion. The notion of stylistic inversion is broader than the notion of inversion in grammar, where it generally relates only to the position of subject and predicate. Thus, in stylistics

• it may include the postposition of an adjective in an attributive phrase:

A passionate ballad gallant and gay …

Once upon a midnight dreary…

• it may also refer to a change in the standard position of all other members of the sentence (Subject – Predicate – Object). Thus, in poetic language secondary members may stand before the main members:

The sun that sets upon the sea

We follow in his flight.

• as for the position of the predicate before subject, we may distinguish cases of

1) full inversion:

On goes the river

And out past the mill

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

2. cases of partial inversion, usually when an adverbial modifier, object or a predicative begins the sentence and only part of the predicate comes before the subject:

How little had I realized that, for me, life was only then beginning.

Terribly cold it certainly was.

Stylistic inversion aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotional colouring to the meaning of the utterance. Inversion is one of the forms of emphatic constructions.

Detached constructions

Sometimes one of the secondary parts of the sentence is placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it logically refers to. Such parts of structures are called detached. Secondary members obtain their own stress and intonation because they are detached from the rest of the sentence by commas, dashes or even a full stop as in the following cases:

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

‘I want to go’, he said, miserable.

Detached construction is a device bridging the norms of written and spoken language. It is similar to inversion. The functions are almost the same. But detached construction produces a much stronger effect as it presents parts of the utterance significant from the author’s point of view in a more or less independent manner.

Suspense (Retardation – ретардация, замедление)

This is a compositional device by which the less important part of the message is in some way separated from the main part, and the latter is given only at the end of the sentence, so that the reader is kept in suspense. The theme, that which is known, and the rheme, that which is new, of the sentence are distanced from each other and the new information is withheld, creating the tension of expectation.

‘Mankind’, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend was obliging enough to read and explain to me, ‘for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw’.

The term “suspense” is also used in literary criticism to denote an expectant uncertainty about the outcome of the plot. To hold the reader in suspense (in a state of uncertainty and expectation) means to keep the final solution just out of sight. Detective and adventure stories are examples of suspense fiction. This device is especially favoured by orators.

Repetition (повтор)

It is used when the speaker is under the stress of strong emotion. It shows the state of mind of the speaker.

‘Stop!’ – she cried, ‘Don’t tell me! I don’t want to hear; I don’t want to hear what you’ve come for.

Repetition is classified as l e x i c a l which is often used to increase the degree of emotion; and s y n t a c t i c which refers to repetition of syntactic elements of construction.

Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone on a wide, wide sea.

The repetition of the same elements at the beginning of several sentences is called anaphora. The repetition of the same elements at the end of several sentences is called epiphora.

The repetition may be f r a m i n g , l i n k i n g, s y n o n y m.

The last one is the repetition of the same idea by using synonymous words and phrases. Some critics define this stylistic device as tautology, i.e. the repetition of the same word or idea in other words. They call it a fault of style. But on the other hand, this repetition may be justified by the aim of the communication.

The daylight is fading, the sun is setting, and night is coming on.

can be considered as tautological, but this sentence may serve as an artistic example depicting the approach of night.

This stylistic device may be acceptable in oratory, it helps the audience to grasp the meaning of the utterance.

Parallelism

A special variant of syntactic repetition is syntactic parallelism. It means repetition of similar syntactic constructions in the text in order to strengthen the emotional impact or expressiveness of the description.

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

There are two main functions of this construction: s e m a n t i c- equal semantic significance of the component parts; and s t r u c t u r a l a rhythmical design to these component parts.

It is used in different styles. In the style of official documents it carries the idea of semantic equality of the parts, in scientific prose – the logical principle of arranging ideas, in the belle-lettres style – an emotive function. It is used as a technical means in building up other stylistic devices.

Chiasmus (хиазм)

This term denotes repetition of the same structure but with the opposite order of elements (a reversed version of syntactic parallelism).

Down dropped the breeze,

The sails dropped down.

In the days of old men made the manners,

Manners now make men.

The purpose of chiasmus is to bring in some new shade of meaning or additional emphasis. Chiasmus contributes to the rhythmical quality of the utterance.

Enumeration

It is a stylistic device by means of which homogeneous parts of an utterance are made heterogeneous from the semantic point of view.

Famine, despair, cold, thirst and heat had done their work …

Fleur could concentrate immediate attention on the donkeys, the priests, beggars, children, crowing cocks, old villages, goats, olive-trees, melons, mules, great churches and swimming grey-brown mountains of a fascinating land.

Climax and Anticlimax

Climax is an arrangement of sentences (or of the homogeneous parts of one sentence) which secures a gradual increase in significance, importance, or emotional tension in the utterance (“Better to borrow, better to beg, better to die!”). In climax we deal with strings of synonyms or at least semantically related words belonging to the same thematic group.

It may be l o g i c a l is based on the relative importance of the component parts.

Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say “How are you?” No beggars implored him. No children asked him what it was o’clock. No man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place.

The order of the statements shows that the author considers the culmination of the climax.

E m o t i o n a l climax is based on the relative emotional tension produced by words with emotive meaning.

It was a lovely city, a beautiful city, a fair city, a veritable gem of a city.

Q u a n t i t a t i v e climax is an evident increase in the volume.

They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of stairs; they inspected innumerable kitchens.

The most widely spread model of climax is a three-step construction, in which intensification of logical importance, of emotion or quantity (size, dimensions) is gradually rising from step to step.

Climax is a means by which the author discloses his world outlook, his evaluation of objective facts and phenomena.

Climax suddenly interrupted by an unexpected turn of the thought which defeats expectations of the reader (listener) and ends in complete semantic reversal of the emphasized idea, is called a n t i c l i m a x, in which the final element is weaker in degree, or lower in status than the previous; it usually creates a humorous effect. To stress the abruptness of the change emphatic punctuation (dash, most often) is used between the ascending and the descending parts of the anticlimax.

Music makes one feel so romantic – at least it gets on one’s nerves, which is the same thing nowadays. (Wilde)

Antithesis

It is a stylistic opposition which is based on relative opposition of contrasting pairs.

A saint abroad, and a devil at home.

Youth is lovely, age is lonely.

Antithesis has the following basic functions: rhythm-forming, connecting, comparative.

The main function of the antithesis is to stress the heterogeneity of the described phenomenon, to show that the latter is a dialectical unity of two (or more) opposing features.

The types of connection between parts of a sentence, between sentences themselves, between syntactical wholes and within the paragraph are called a s y n d e t o n and p o l y s y n d e t o n.

Asyndeton is a deliberate omission of conjunctions or other connectors between parts of the sentence.(бессоюзие)

“There’s no use in talking to him, he’s perfectly idiotic!” said Alice desperately. (because)

Should a Frenchman or Englishman travel my route, their stored pictures of it would be different from mine. (if)

Polysyndeton is a device opposite to asyndeton: a repeated use of the same connectors (conjunctions, prepositions) before each component part. (многосоюзие)

Mr.Boffin sat staring at a little bookcase, and at a window, and at an empty blue bag, and at a pen …

Ellipsis

In colloquial speech this device consists in omission of some parts of the sentence that are easily understood from the context or situation. But, while in colloquial style this omission simply makes the speech more compact (Where is he? – In the garden), in literary descriptions it may give the construction an additional expressive or emotional colouring.

There’s somebody wants to speak to you.

I went to Oxford as one goes into exile; she to London.

The horror! The flight! The exposure! The police! – Am tragedy – the hero is angry, anxious and in panic.

A Break in the Narration (Aposiopesis, умолчание)

This device consists in a sudden stop in the middle of a sentence when the continuation is quite clear: “Don’t you do this, or …” (a threat) “These are certainly good intensions, but …” (the continuation is clear from the well-known proverb that good intentions pave the way to Hell).

Question in the Narration

It is asked and answered by one and the same person, usually the author.

Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did.

Question in the Narration is very often used in oratory.

Question in the Narration may also remain unanswered.

How long must it go on? How long must we suffer? Where is the end? What is the end?

These sentences show a gradual transition to rhetorical questions.

Having the form of an interrogative sentence, a rhetorical question contains not a question but a covert statement of the opposite.

Who does not know Shakespeare? (“everybody knows”)

A rhetorical question may contain irony.

Since when are you interested in such things? (“I doubt that you are really interested in them”)

Represented speech (несобственно-прямая речь)

This is the case when the speech of a character in the work of fiction is represented without quotation marks, as if it were the author’s speech.

Old Jolion was on the alert at once. Wasn’t the “man of property” going to live in his new house, then?

Represented speech exists in two varieties: 1) uttered represented speech and 2) unuttered or inner represented speech.

U t t e r e d represented speech demands that the tense should be switched from present to past and that the personal pronouns should be changed from 1-st and 2-nd person to 3-rd person as in indirect speech, but the syntactical structure of the utterance does not change.

Could he bring a reference from where he now was? He could.

This device is used not only in the belles-lettres style, but in newspaper style.

U n u t t e r e d or inner represented speech expresses feelings and thoughts of the character which were not materialized in spoken or written language.

An idea had occurred to Soames. The first step would be to go down and see his cousin at Robin Hill. Robin Hill – the house Bosinney had built for him and Irene – the house they had never lived in.

Вопросы для самоконтроля

1. What are the main functions of parallel constructions?

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

3. What do you know about antithesis?

4. Speak about asyndeton and polysyndeton.

5. What types of repetition do you know?

6. Speak about the stylistic device of climax and its types.

7. What is an anticlimax?

8. How can you characterize represented speech?

Список рекомендуемой литературы

1. Арнольд, И.В. Стилистика. Современный английский язык: учебн. для вузов /И.В. Арнольд. - 7-е изд. - М.: Высшая школа, 2005. – 383 с.

2. Гуревич, В.В. English Stylistics. Стилистика английского языка: учеб. пособие /В.В. Гуревич. – М.: Наука, 2008. – 67 с.

3. Шаховский, В.И. Стилистика английского языка /В.И. Шаховский. – Л.: ЛКИ, 2008. – 235 с.

4. Galperin, I.R. Stylistics /I.R. Galperin. - M.: Higher School Publishing House, 1981. – 343 c.

5. Kuharenko, V.A. Seminars in Style /V.A. Kuharenko. - M.: Higher School Publishing House, 1986. – 144 c.

Lecture 12: FUNCTIONAL STYLES OF LANGUAGE

Each style of the literary language makes use of a group of language means the interrelation of which is peculiar to the given style. Each style, however, can be recognized by one or more leading features. For instance, the use of special terminology is a lexical characteristic of the style of scientific prose.

A style of language can be defined as a system of coordinated, interrelated and interconditioned language means intended to fulfil a specific function of communication and aiming at a definite effect.

Each style is a relatively stable system at the given stage in the development of the literary language, but it changes. Therefore it is a historical category. Thus, the style of emotive prose actually began to function as an independent style after the second half of the 16-th century; the newspaper style budded of from the publicist style; the oratorical style has undergone considerable fundamental changes and so with other styles..

The development of each style is predetermined by the changes in the norms of standard English. It is also greatly influenced by changing social conditions, the progress of science and the development of cultural life in the country.

The modern linguists define the following functional styles:

1. the belles-lettres style;

2. publicist style;

3. the newspaper style;

4. scientific prose style;

5. the style of the official documents.

The belles-lettres style

It has three sub-styles: e m o t i v e p r o s e, d r a m a and p o e t r y. All these sub-styles have certain common features, typical of the general belles-lettres style and each of them also has some individuality.

They have a double function: first of all, they aim at the cognitive process and, secondly, they fulfil an aesthetic function.

The distinctive features of the belles-lettres style are:

1. Imagery, achieved by purely linguistic devices;

2. The use of words in more than one meaning;

3. A vocabulary which reflects the author’s personal evaluation of things or phenomena.;

4. A peculiar individual selection of vocabulary and syntax;

5. The introduction of the typical features of colloquial language.

Emotive prose is a combination of the spoken and written varieties of the language. There are always two forms of communication present – monologue and dialogue. The colloquial language in the belles-lettres style is not a pure reproduction of the natural speech, but it has undergone changes introduced by the writer.

Emotive prose uses the elements from other styles: the newspaper, the official, the style of scientific prose. But all these styles under the influence of emotive prose undergo a kind of transformation.

Emotive prose came into being rather late. In early Anglo-Saxon literature there was no emotive prose. The first emotive prose which appeared was translations from Latin of stories from the Bible and the Lives of the Saints. In the 15-th century it described the life and adventures of kings and knights. In the emotive prose of the 16-th century we can find allusions, parallel constructions, antithesis, similes and many other stylistic devices. In the 18-th century the emotive prose used language means and stylistic devices in some cases resembled the manner of poetic style. The 19-th century prose is characterized by jargonisms, professional words, slang, dialectal words and even vulgarisms. At the beginning of the 20-th century such stylistic devices are developed as represented speech (both uttered and unuttered), detached constructions. Present-day emotive prose is characterized by different syntactical models, unexpected ways of combining sentences.

Drama. It is the language of plays. The author’s speech is almost entirely excluded. But the language of the characters is in no way the exact reproduction of the norms of colloquial language. The language of plays is always stylized. The plays of the 16-th century were rhymed and they are called dramatic poetry. In plays the characters’ utterances are generally much longer than in ordinary conversation. We often can observe the questions in the narration here.

Poetry is based mainly on the rhythmic and phonetic arrangement of the utterances. Both the syntactical and semantic aspects of the poetic sub-style are compact. The commonly used constructions are elliptical sentences, detached constructions, inversion, asyndeton and other syntactical peculiarities. Rhythm and rhyme are distinguishable properties of the poetic sub-style.

The phonetic features of the language of poetry are called e x t e r n a l. They immediately strike the ear and the eye. Through lexical and syntactical peculiarities the idea and feelings are conveyed to the reader, they are called i n t e r n a l. Images from a linguistic point of view are mostly built on metaphors, metonymy, simile, onomatopoeia.

Another feature of the poetic sub-style is its emotional coloring due to the rhythmic arrangement and the great number of emotionally colored words. Poetical language is a specific mode of communication which uses specific means differing from prose.

Whatever the function of poetry may be, it bears no relation to our socially established needs, because poetry is detached from the ordinary contexts of social life. Poetry does not make direct reference to the world of phenomena but provides a representation of it through its peculiar and unconventional uses of language which invite and motivate, sometimes even provoke, readers to create an imaginary alternative world.

Publicist style

It falls into three varieties: the o r a t o r y style proper, the e s s a y and the a r t i c l e s.

The general aim of publicist style is to constantly influence on public opinion. Publicist style has features in common with the style of scientific prose, on the one hand, and that of emotive prose, on the other. Publicist style is also characterized by brevity of expression.

Oratory style is the oral variant of publicist style. The stylistic devices employed in oratorical style are determined by the conditions of communication. Antithesis, parallel constructions, repetition, climax, suspense, rhetorical questions and questions in the narration are used to persuade the audience, to add weight to the speaker’s opinion. Allusions in oratorical style depend on the content of the speech and the level of the audience. Oratory speech presupposes mainly the usage of neutral and common literary language, some amount of colloquial language and terms. The slang is excluded. Oratory style is characterized by clear and concrete conclusions. Speech should be interesting.

The essay dates from the 16-th century. It is a literary composition of moderate length on philosophical, social, aesthetic or literary subjects. It never goes deep into the subject, but touches upon the surface.

Nowadays an essay is usually a kind of feature article (тематическая статья) in a magazine or newspaper. It is characterized by clarity and brevity of expression, by the use of the first person singular, by expanded use of connecting words, and abundant use of emotionally colored words, of metaphors and other figures of speech. The essay aims at a lasting, the speech at an immediate effect.

Articles (newspaper speech). Words of emotive meaning are few, if any, in popular scientific articles. Their argumentation and emotional appeal are achieved by emphatic constructions of different kinds. They contain many newspaper clichés and colloquial units. Grammar is rather simple.

Newspaper style

English newspaper style dates back from the 17-th century. Newspaper style is a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means which serve the purpose of informing and instructing the reader.

Not all the printed material comes under newspaper style.

To understand the language peculiarities of newspaper style we should analyze the following basic newspaper features:

1. Brief news items

2. The headline

3. Advertisements and announcements

4. The editorial

The function of a brief news item is to inform the reader. It states only facts without giving comments. It is essentially matter-of-fact and stereotyped forms of expression prevail almost without emotional coloring.

The vocabulary used is neutral and common literary. Newspaper style is characterized by:

• the use of special political or economic terminology (constitutional, election, gross output);

• the use of bookish vocabulary, including certain clichés (population, public opinion, pressing problems), which may be based on metaphors and thus emotionally colored (a storm of applause, pillars of society, war hysteria);

• frequent use of abbreviations – names of organizations, political movements, etc. (EEC – European Economic Community, FO – Foreign Office, MP – Member of Parliament);

• the use of neologisms, since newspapers quickly react to any new trends in the development of society, technology, science (black Americans – Negroes, stop-go politics – indecisive politics).

The grammatical peculiarities of brief news items are:

• complex sentences with a number of clauses;

• verbal constructions;

• syntactical complexes, especially with the infinitive;

• attributive noun groups (the national income and expenditure figures, leap into space age);

• elliptical sentences found in headlines.

The headline is the title given to a news item or a newspaper article. Its main function is to inform the reader briefly of what the news is about. English headlines are short and catching. Unlike news, headlines contain emotionally colored words and phrases (Crazy Waste of Youth, Roman Catholic Priest sacked). Stylistic devices used in headlines are the pun, alliteration. Syntactically headlines are very short sentences which may be declarative, interrogative, including direct speech.

Advertisements appeared in the middle of the 17-th century. Their function is also to inform the reader. There are two basic types of advertisements and announcements in the modern English newspaper: classified and non-classified (separate).

In classified advertisements various kinds of information are arranged according to subject-matter into sections, such as Births, Marriages, Deaths, Business Offers etc.

The absence of all articles and some punctuation marks makes the statement telegram-like. Sentences tend to be short and compact. The vocabulary of classified advertisements is neutral with some sprinkling emotionally colored words to attract the reader’s attention.

In non-classified or separate advertisements the reader’s attention is attracted by every possible means: graphical, stylistic. They are not brief, as the advertiser may buy as much space as he chooses.

Editorials are an intermediate phenomenon bearing the features of both the newspaper style and the publicist style.

The function of the editorial is to influence the reader by giving an interpretation of certain facts. Editorials comment on the political and other events of the day. Their purpose is to give the editor’s opinion and interpretation of the news published and suggest to the reader that it is the correct one. Editorials appeal not only to the reader’s mind but to his feelings as well. (The long-suffering British housewife needs a bottomless purse to cope with this scale of inflation)

Alongside political words, terms, clichés and abbreviations you can find colloquial words, slang and professionalisms. The language of editorials is characterized by a combination of different strata of vocabulary. Practically any stylistic device may be found in editorial. Some editorials abound in parallel constructions, various types of repetition, rhetorical questions.

Scientific prose style

The genre of scientific works exists mainly in the written form of language (scientific articles, monographs), but it may also be used in its oral form (scientific reports, lectures). The aim of this style is to prove a hypothesis, to create new concepts, to disclose relations between different phenomena. The language means used tend to be unemotional. This style requires the use of special terminology.

The first feature of this style is the l o g i c a l s e q u e n c e o f u t t e r a n c e s with clear indication of their interrelations and interdependence.

The second feature is the u s e o f t e r m s, specific to each given branch of science.

The third is s e n t e n c e-p a t t e r n s. They are of three types:

p o s t u l a t o r y, a r g u m e n t a t i v e, f o r m u l a t i v e.

The fourth feature is the use of q u o t a t i o n s and r e f e r e n c e s.

The fifth feature is the frequent use of f o o t-n o t e s.

And the last feature is the i m p e r s o n a l i t y of scientific writings. Scientific experiments are generally described in the passive voice.

The syntax of scientific speech is characterized by the use of complete sentences, the use of extended complex and compound sentences without omission of conjunctions, the use of bookish syntactic constructions and attributive phrases, special terminology and stable expressions (to sum up, as we have seen, finally, again, thus).

The author’s speech is written from the first person plural, the impersonal forms with it and constructions with one are widely used.

The style of official documents

It is represented by the following sub-styles:

1. the language of business documents

2. the language of legal documents

3. that of diplomacy

4. that of military documents.

The aim of communication in this style of language is to reach agreement between two contracting parties: the state and the citizen, a society and its members, two or more enterprises etc. Such documents require the choice of a special kind of

vocabulary, grammar forms and structures, the use of special formulas of politeness and clichés. The syntax of official style is characterized by the frequent use of non-finite forms – gerund, participle, infinitive and complex structures with them. This style uses words in their logical dictionary meaning. Words with emotive meaning are also not to be found in the style of official documents. Almost every official document has its own compositional design.

Вопросы для самоконтроля

1. Enumerate functional styles of contemporary English.

2. What do you know about the scientific style?

3. Characterize the official style.

4. Discuss the peculiarities of the newspaper style.

5. What are the main features of the publicist style?

Список рекомендуемой литературы

1.Ванников, Ю.В. Типы научных и технических текстов и их лингвистические особенности /Ю.В. Ванников. – М.: Наука, 1984. – 137 с.

2. Гуревич, В.В. English Stylistics.Стилистика английского языка: учебн. пособие /В.В. Гуревич. – М.: Наука, 2008. – 67 с.

3. Наер, В.Л. Функциональные стили английского языка /В.Л. Наер. - М.: Наука, 1981. – 154 с.

4. Разинкина, Н.М. Функциональная стилистика английского языка /Н.М. Разинкина. - М.: Наука, 1989. – 271 с.

5. Kuharenko, V.A. Seminars in Style /V.A. Kuharenko. - M.: Higher School Publishing House, 1986. – 144 c.

S E C T I O N III

TERMINOLOGICAL REFERENCE

Allegory A stylistic device by which the names of objects or characters are used in a figurative sense, representing some more general things.

Alliteration A stylistic device based on repetition of the same or similar sounds, in particular consonant sounds.

Allusion Indirect reference to some historical or literary fact expressed in the text.

Anticlimax An arrangement in which the final element is weaker in degree, or lower in status than the previous. See climax.

Antithesis A stylistic opposition which is based on relative opposition of contrasting parts.

Antonomasia A subtype of metonymy which consists in the use of a proper name instead of a common name or vice versa.

Aposiopesis A sudden stop in the middle of a sentence when the continuation is quite clear. It is also known as a break in the narration.

Archaic proper word A word which has either dropped out of the language entirely or has changed in its appearance so much that it has become unrecognizable.

Assonance A variant of alliteration, repetition of the same or similar vowels only.

Asyndeton A deliberate omission of conjunctions or other connectors between parts of the sentence.

Barbarism A comparatively new borrowing from other language, which is not yet completely assimilated in the language, but has been already become a part of the language.

Chiasmus Repetition of the same structure but with the opposite order of elements.

Cliché An expression that has become stereotyped.

Climax An arrangement of sentences which secures a gradual increase in significance, importance, or emotional tension in the utterance.

Coinage A word that has recently come into the language and is still felt as rather new.

Context Linguistic context refers to the surrounding features of language inside a text, while non-linguistic context includes any number of text-external features influencing the language and style of a text.

Connotation An additional component of meaning which expresses some emotional colouring or evaluation of the object named.

Convergence The simultaneous usage of several stylistic devices.

Deictics Textual cues such as here, there, now, then, I, and you, which locate a discourse in relation to the speaker’s or writer’s perspective or point of view, whether in space, time, or interpersonal relations. See also place deictics, time deictics, person deictics.

Deixis The process of contextual orientation (from the Greek word for ‘pointing’ or ‘showing’). See deictics.

Detached construction One of the secondary parts of the sentence which is placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it logically refers to.

Dialectal word A word which remained beyond literary boundaries of the language and is generally used in a definite locality.

Direct speech (DS) A style of speech representation used when a narrator delegates perspective to the characters and leaves them to speak for themselves.

Direct thought (DT) A style of thought representation, which presupposes a privileged omniscience on the part of the narrator.

Discourse The process of activation of a text by relating it to an appropriate context, in other words, the reader’s or listener’s reconstruction of the writer’s or speaker’s intended message.

Ellipsis A stylistic device consisting in omission of some parts of the sentence that are easily understood from the context or situation.

Enumeration A stylistic device by means of which homogeneous parts of an utterance are made heterogeneous from the semantic point of view.

Epigram A stylistic device similar to a proverb, but is coined by the individual whose name we know.

Epithet A stylistic device which is used to characterize some properties or features of the object with the aim of giving evaluation of these features.

Euphemism The use of a different, more gentle or favourable name for an object or phenomenon to avoid undesirable or unpleasant associations.

Euphony A sound selection when the sound corresponds to the content.

Foot A division of the poetic line which contains one stressed syllable and one or two unstressed syllables. We distinguish 5 types of feet: trochee, iambus, dactyl, amphibrach and anapaest.

Foregrounding The bringing of particular textual features into prominence, e.g. distinct patterns or parallelism, repetitions, and deviations from general linguistic rules or from the style expected in a specific text type or genre, or context.

Free indirect discourse (FID) This is an umbrella term for free indirect speech (FIS) and free indirect thought (FIT). FID has certain elements in common with both direct speech (DS) or direct thought (DT) and indirect speech (IS) or indirect thought (IT).

Functional style A system of coordinated, interrelated and interconditioned language means intended to fulfil a specific function of communication and aiming at a definite effect. The following functional styles are defined: belles-lettres, publicist, newspaper, scientific prose and the style of official documents.

Genre A culturally specific text type, e.g. newspaper article, blurb, novel, poem.

Historism A word which reflects a certain phenomenon belonging to the past times.

Hyperbole A deliberate extreme exaggeration of the quality of the object.

Indirect speech (IS) A style of speech representation in which the narrator reports only the content of what the character has said, but not its exact wording.

Indirect thought (IT) A style of thought representation that presupposes even more interference by the narrator than in indirect speech (IS).

Irony A stylistic device which is based on the simultaneous realization of two opposite meanings: the dictionary meaning and the contextual meaning.

Jargonism A special slang whose aim is to preserve secrecy within one or another social group.

Litotes A stylistic device based on a peculiar use of negative constructions in the positive meaning.

Meiosis Understatement of the quality of the object.

Metaphor A transference of meaning based on resemblance.

Metonymy A transference of meaning which is based on proximity of notions, not on resemblance.

Nonce-word A word which is not reproduced in speech, it is an individual formation and has its own author. It is created according to the existing rules of word-formation.

Obsolescent word A word which becomes rarely used.

Obsolete word A word which has already gone completely out of use but is still recognized by the English speaking community.

Onomatopoeia The sound imitation, i.e. the use of the word which denotes some phenomenon by imitating its real sounding.

Oxymoron A stylistic device which combines, in one phrase, two words whose meanings are opposite and incompatible.

Paragraph A group of sentences which shows an internal unity, logical in character.

Parallelism A variant of syntactic repetition. It means repetition of similar syntactic constructions in the text in order to strengthen the emotional impact or expressiveness of the description.

Periphrasis A stylistic device by which a longer phrase is used instead of a shorter and plainer one, the re-naming of an object for greater expressiveness.

Person deictics Textual elements such as the first-person pronoun I (and its related forms me, my, mine) and the second-person pronoun you (and its related forms your, yours).

Personification A subtype of allegory by which human qualities are ascribed to inanimate objects, phenomena or animals.

Perspective In a literal sense, the physical angle of vision from which a story gets told, i.e. the narrator’s spatial and temporal perspective.

Place deictics Textual elements such as here, there, behind, to the left which refer the listener or reader to the situational point of view of the speaker or writer in the discourse.

Polysyndeton A stylistic device opposite to asyndeton: a repeated use of the same connectors before each component part.

Pragmatics The study of what people mean by language when they use it in appropriate context to achieve particular purposes.

Professionalism A word used in a definite trade, profession by people connected by common interests.

Proverb A brief statement showing in condensed form the accumulated life experience of the community and serving as conventional practical symbol for abstract idea.

Quotation The exact reproduction of an actual utterance made by a certain author.

Repetition A stylistic device at which the same word is repeated several times.

Representation The use of language to create a context of reality rather than to identify aspects of an existing one; the projection through language of an alternative world.

Represented speech The speech of a character which is represented without quotation marks, as if it were the author’s speech.

Rhyme The repetition of the same sounds in the last stressed syllable.

Rhythm Regular alteration of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Semantics The study of meaning as encoded in a language, in abstraction from its use in a particular context.

Simile An imaginative comparison of two unlike objects belonging to two different classes.

Slang A deviation from the established norm of the vocabulary.

Stanza A poetic division consisting of four or two lines.

Stream of consciousness technique A style of representation of thought which appears to be the freest form of direct thought (DT) and creates the illusion that, without narrator interference, readers have direct access to the random flow of thought of characters, i.e. to their points of view. The technique is also known as interior monologue.

Style in language A set of conscious or unconscious choices of expression, inspired or induced by a particular context.

Stylistic device A model of changing unemotional sentences into pragmatically charged.

Stylistic inversion An unusual order of words chosen for emphasis of greater expressiveness.

Stylistics The study of style in language, i.e. the analysis of distinctive linguistic expression and the description of its purpose and effect.

Suspense A compositional device by means of which the less important part of the message is in some way separated from the main part, and the letter is given only at the end of the sentence, so that the reader is kept in suspense. It is also known as retardation.

Syntactical whole A number of sentences interdependent structurally and semantically.

Taboo A swear word which is not commonly used and is classed as colloquialism word.

Text Any piece of language which, in terms of communicative meaning, is complete in itself. It is the observable product of a writer’s or speaker’s discourse, which is the process that created the text.

Time deictics Textual elements such as now, then, yesterday, next week which reveal to the listener or reader the temporal perspective of the speaker or writer in the discourse.

Trope Figurative language means which serve for description.

Zeugma A stylistic device that plays upon two different meanings of the word – the direct and the figurative meanings, thus creating a pun.