Pun (Paronomasia)

Simultaneous realization of 2 m-ngs of the same words or 2 homonyms. A pun is a play upon words. It is a narrower word. (I couldn’t quite remember how to throw a boomerang, but eventually it came to me, some people’s noses and feet are built backwards, their feet smell and noses run. Those who jump off a Paris Bridge are in Seine. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana)

Zeugma

Consists in using 1 word usually a verb, sometimes a preposition simultaneously in reference to 2 or more nouns which call forth 2 different m-ngs of the word. Нанести визит и грязи. ‘Мы” (Евтушенко)

Antonomasia

Is related to use of human names and consists either in using a descriptive phrase instead of a person’s name or using a character’s name in reference to quite a different person (the iron lady), as a kind of epithet to emphasize a certain characteristic feature (her husband is a terrible Othelo, the Napoleon of crime). Within antonomasia you find the so-called telling name, when a name betrays the origin (Скалозуб, Молчалин, Mr. Snake, Mrs. Sneerwell)

Stylistic Use of Set Expressions

Proverbs and sayings, cliches, well known maxims, quotations, allusions, set expressions which for stylistic purposes undergo various transformations – de-composed set expressions. An allusion – an indirect reference to a biblical or mythological event, a political one, a literary work, a well-known song, nursery rhyme, a certain realia, etc. an allusion may also be a brief quotation which can not be understood unless we know its complete form.

Pygmalion, Saroyan “War and Peace”, “A Friend in Need”

De-composed Set Expressions

Their mechanisms

1. insertion (to put all ones eggs in one busket – Soames for ever put his emotional eggs in one busket: first Erene, then Fleur)

2. addition (as old as hills – The family of Dedlocks is as old as hills and infinitely more respectable)

3. substitution (one man’s meat is another man’s poison – one man’s fish is another man’s poisson; man shall not live but caviare alone)

4. “telescoping” (blending) (куй железо не отходя от кассы, не в свою лужу не садись)

Functions:

Humorous, ironic, new vision, “estrangement”

The Syntactical Stylistic Devices

Among grammar devices morphology plays a far less significant role than syntax. At least in the English language, which does not possess a lot of form-building suffixes. Still morphology can participate in creating additional connotations. e.g. violation of standard morphological forms can testipy to the character’s lack of education and the effect is especially striking, when illiterate grammar goes hand in hand with high-flown vocabulary. Another use is that of expressiveness (“my most bestest”). Morphology can participate in creating an elevated tone due to obsolete grammar forms (“thee”, “thou”, “art” – “are”), but its role is small.

The groups of syntactical devices:

1. inversion

2. transposition

3. accumulation / reduplication

4. compression

There are some devices which do not fit into any of the four groups and these would be viewed separately

Inversion or changes in the accepted (standard) word order are more typical of English than of Russian in the sense of their stylistic effect, because in Russian where the order is far more flexible inversion is not perceived as a special effect (not foregrounded), that’s why when translating into Russian we sometimes have to resort to lexical means to preserve he desired effect. the effect can either be poetic due to emotive connotations, sometimes it can be ironic and sometimes the author can aim at a purely logical emphasis.

The chief patterns of inversion:

1. adverb of frequency + auxiliary + noun/pronoun + notional verb

Never have I seen a lady so exquisite …

2. adjective + noun (both forming the predicative) + pronoun + link verb

Fine newspapers they were

3. adjective + noun/pronoun + link verb

Shy she was, and I thought her cold

Thought her cold and went over the sea …

Depending on the stress the same pattern may produce a totally different impression. The same pattern may serve for logical emphasis.

Beautiful she was

Graceful she was

Intelligent she was not

A similar effect is gained by a noun in the opening position. the object is in the initial position.

Talent Mr. Macober has

4. adjective + link verb + noun/pronoun

Great and powerful was Memphis …

One other is adjective coming after the noun it defines. The effect ids poetic, but depending on the context it might be truly poetic or ironic.

Songs of birds innumerable.

I could see his muscular calves encased in gaiters Episcopal

Transposition

All in all there are only 4 types of one sentence utterances (statements, imperative structures, interrogative structures, exclamations), but each of these can be used in the affirmative and negative variants. 8 basic types of minimal utterances. And we are dealing with transposition when one formal type of utterance is used in the function of another.

• What is formally a statement functions as a question – casual informal nature of discourse (frequent)

• What is formally a question functions as a statement (rhetorical questions) They are equally frequent in all types of discourse (“What business is that of yours?” Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day)

• Negative form – affirmative m-ng (If it isn’t Barney Woods!)

• Negative structure as a request (He supposed she didn’t have such a thing as a biscuit and a glass of claret: he had had no breakfast)

• Expression of negation without gr. negation (As if I ever stopped thinking about the girl)

• Imperative used as negation (catch him doing it! - Держи карман шире!)

• Statement used as negative imperative (“I’ll go to Uncle Harvey and … - Oh yes, I would. Of course, I would. – Well. why wouldn’t you?)

Accumulation manifests itself in several ways, but the most important of these is repetition. It can be immediate (контактный повтор) and distant. Immediate repetition may occur within one sentence or neighbouring sentences, but in any case at close range, to be immediately observable. Distant repetition is a textual device and it can be perceived either in its true dimensions as we go on reading or may at first pass unnoticed or not given its true significance by the reader. (Mark Antony Shakespeare “And Brutos is an honourable man …”)

Levels of repetitions

The smallest unit that can be repeated is the sound (letter).

The next level is morpheme. (The papyri … were sleeping unknown and unintelligible …)

Functional words (Neither wind, nor sand, nor centuries could ever silence the voice of the pyramids)

Notional words (Will you please please please stop talking)

Parallel constructions (Long and loud were the cheers and mighty was the rustling of the flags …)

The patterns of repetition

1. ordinary (Beat beat beat On thy cold gray stones, o sea!)

2. framing is a syntactical arrangement when the repeated element is placed at the beginning of a sequence and at the end of it.

A poetic genre – limerick (1, 5 line repeat each other) There was once a young man of South Bay Making fireworks one summer day He dropped the cigar In the gunpowder jar There was a young man of South Bay

3. anadiplosis (coupling) the repeated element is at the end of the previous sequence and the beginning of the next one (… for each man kills the thing he loves Yet each man does not die. He does not die a death of shame …)

4. repetition in the opening position (anaphora)

5. in the final position (epiphora)

6. Chiasmus (mirror arrangement – the wording and the structure are reversed) sometimes it emerges as a kind of pun. The outamate manifestation of chiasmus is found in a palindrome.

Besides repetition reduplication manifests itself through other devices. One of them is parenthesis – comment in brackets. it is a phrase which at first side provides info of secondary importance that could actually be dispensed with, but sometimes parenthesis works as the semantic nucleus of the sentence. (the well in bleak house)

It also manifests itself in syntactic tautology (this subject is expressed both by a noun and a pronoun) (The widow Douglas, she …) It is used to emphasize either the carelessness of the character’s speech or his poor education.

When the pronoun precedes the noun (is it possible that she, Jane Smith, … - emphatic function)

Polysyndeton (многосоюзие) always accompanies either enumeration or parallel constructions.

Compression

First of all it manifests itself through asyndeton.

Asyndeton makes the utterance more brisk, tense and yet it remains absolutely logical, because the cohesion is so evident that no special cohesive devices are necessary. (Will you allow me to drive you home? I insist: it will give me the greatest pleasure)

Ellipsis

Either one or both chief members of the sentence are missing. Very often they are nominative sentences. (Chapter 1 from “Bleak House”). Nominative sentences help to slow down the tempo of narrative, because they draw the reader’s eye to narrative details. But nominative sentences need not be short. They might create the rhythm (of movement) (Lord God the crazy train rattling through Texas, the sky dark with dust and …) Elliptical sentences needn’t be nominative, they can have the effect of an encyclopedia entry. (Quadroped. Graminivorous. Sheds coat in spring. …)

Aposiopesis (a break in the sentence)

It’s left unfinished. The reasons are:

The speaker is too verbose and may be interrupted

For reasons of tact

A few more syntactical devices are not attributed by scholars to any of the 4 groups.

1. Enumeration

Can be:

• homogenious – it helps to accumulate the desired effect (no thin five-piece affair … but a whole pitful of oboes and trombones and viols and cornets and piccolos)

• heterogeneous – (The houses had little gardens, but they didn’t seem to raise hardly anything in them but weeds and sunflowers, and ashpiles, and old curpled up boots and shoes, and pieces …)

2. Gradation or climax

• qualitative (she was beautiful, irresistible, the very vision of loveliness)

• quantitative (S.Maugham. They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of stairs; they inspected innumerable kitchens. И равно беспредельны просторы для бактерий, людей и планет Заболоцкий)

3. Suspense (=retardation)

Consists in withholding the vital information until the very end of a rather long sentence, which keeps the reader guessing and making hyposesis (And there, ahead, all he could see, as wide as the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun, was the square top of Kilimanjaro. Hemingway) Sometimes a whole text can consist of 1 sentence based on suspense. (If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you)

Sometimes suspense promises a lot but deceives our expectations. Instead of a great and important thing we get smth. intentionally trivial.

Antithesis

Consists in using parallel constructions with antonymic lexical pairs. (Я телом в прахе истлеваю, умом громам повелеваю, я раб, я царь, я червь, я бог)

There exist the so-called (полуотмеченные структуры) semi-marked structures – phrases where predictability of syntax is grossly violated. Sometimes the structure is potentially possible, but it normally doesn’t allow the usage of this vocabulary in the given structure. The other kind really violates syntax and at 1^st sight may even seem non-sensical.

Phonetic Stylistic Devices

They can be subdivided into 2 kinds: those used by authors, and those used by actors (pauses, vary the pitch, the tempo)

Alliteration (consonant repetition, usually in the opening position)

One of the most ancient devices in English poetry. Creates an emotional impact. (he doesn’t die a death of shame, on a day of dark disgrace)

It can establish similarity or contrast, therefore it is very frequent in folk tales (tit for tat, as blind as a bat) (His wife was handsome and horrible) Sometimes an author may accumulate several alliterations which converge within a short context (In the copse, where spring was running riot, with the scent of sop bursting buds) (without rhyme or reason – ни с того ни с сего)

Assonance

Repetition of identical or very similar vowel sounds. (that rare and radiant maiden whom the angels call Lenore nameless here for evermore)

Onomatopeia

Imitation of natural sounds produced by animals or natural phenomena or inanimate objects

Indirect and direct. In cases of direct – word is sufficient to produce the effect of sounf imitation (buzz, moo, mew, splash, bang, roar, grow, Наш кочень очень озабоченю Нож отточен, точен очень – indirect, because the m-ng produced by accumulation of words is the sound of swishing of the knife)

Rhyme

– coincidence of final stressed syllables at the end of the respective lines

Eye-rhyme: love-prove-move-dove

rhyme (curtailed): gap – happen

incomplete: the words are similar to each other phonetically and most of the consonants are identical, but they do not make a rhyme due to either vowel or consonant discrepancies (reader-rider, странник-стражник)

Incomplete rhymes can sometimes have a great textual value being chiefly responsible for the implicit message. They may bring words with distant m-ngs close together ффтв since the rhyme is incomplete and act as textual antonyms (пляшет пред звездами звезда, пляшет шмель и в дудочку дудит, плачет)

W.H. Auden

“O where are you going?” said reader to rider

“O do you imagine”, said fearer to farer

Textual antonyms oppose 2 types of personalities – a brave adventurer and a prudent stay-at-home fellow, but the phonetic similarity of the incomplete rhyme suggests at the same time that this is autodialogue.

Rhythm

Rhythm exists both in prose and in poetry. In poetry it has a greater degree of regularity and manifests itself as meter (размер). On the one hand it is measured , patterned arrangement of syllables, primarily according to stress or length; the specific rhythm determined by the prevailing foot in the line (iambic meter)

Kinds of metric foot (a group of syllables serving as a unit of meter)

1. iambic foot – oO (My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun)

2. trochaic – Oo (Should you ask me whence these stories)

3. dactyl – Ooo (Тучки небесные, вечные странники)

4. amphibrach – oOo (Как ныне сбирается вещий Олег …)

5. anapest – ooO (For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams of the beautiful , Annabel Lee)

Rhythm in prose fiction

A melodious effect (But the river chill and weary, …)

A contrast of moods (nine o’clock, nine-fifteen, stars out, moon round)

A sharp change of rhythm when after a long sentence comes a short one) it’s equally effective in poetry.

Graphical devices

1. use of punctuation marks

2. variations of print (capital letters)

3. stylistic use of spelling

4. arrangement

1

Punctuation is important in rendering the modality of the utterance and its emotional charge.

e.g. if the author uses full stops where we expect enumeration and therefore commas, he either attaches extra-significance to every detail or gives the character some additional time to think things over and formulate his ideas. (Do you feel bad? – Not bad. Absurd. Ridiculous. Pathetic. Stuff like that.)

Multiple dots naturally suggest hesitation and show that the speaker is at a loss or rather embarrassed. e.g. He is a … sort of acquaintance

The dash usually accompanies apiopesis pieces. The dash may suggest the textual m-ng of a novel if it occurs in a strong position. Tomorrow we shall run faster, stretch our arms further. And one fine morning –

So we heat on, boats against the current, borne back ceasecely into the past.

May help to create pauses inside poetic lines

(Июльский ветер мне метёт – путь

И где-то музыка в огне – чуть

Ах, нынче ветру до зари – чуть

Сквозь стенки тонкие груди – в грудь) Цветаева

The pauses serve a bit different purpose in the following example from Emily Dickenson:

As freezing Persons recollect the Snow:

First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –

The use of capital letters give extra emphasis to the capitalized words

May be jocular “First Issue a Reward”.

“What sort of Me?”

Sometimes all words are written in capital letters

Owl was able to spell his own name “WOL”

Sometimes the letter device may suggest that the object is of a great size or produces great noise.

He heard the Ogre coming, “Thump. Thump. THUMP”

Bold type and italics stylistically are able to suggest extra emphasis. e.g. “The catcher in the rye”:

For Christsake cut it up

For humorous purposes:

On the other hand there are moments when babies are asleep. (Oh yes, there are. There must be)

Meaningful absence of punctuation

God becomes man becomes fish becomes bamacle goose becomes featherbed mountain (J. Joyce)

Spelling

Deviations from accepted spelling can become an important stylistic device. Distorted spelling may suggest an eye rhyme.

A young Irish servant in Drogheda

Had a mistress who often annoyheda

Suggesting irony

зряплата

оболгации

To show that the speaker is either very negligent or in a hurry (Honest Ingin)

or ignorant esp. if uses high-flown vocabulary (“Mr Mayor”, says I, “I’m not a regular preordained disaple of S.Q.Lapius. I never took a course in a medical college …”)

Abbreviations

John smith, Ph. D, M.P.

usually makes the style more formal, but it can be put to either ironic or humorous use.

And then this bear, Pooh Bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, F.O.P. (friend of Piglet’s), R.C. (Rabbit’s Companion), P.D. (Pole Discoverer)

(Running for governor):Truly yours, once a decent man, but now –

M.T., B.S., D.T.

Arrangement in prose

Sometimes the logical subdivision of a narrative into paragraphs can be sacrificed for a number of reasons

• to gain suspense – to slow down the narrative – the paragraph is divided into separate sentence

She went to the door and waited for a knock

None came

She waited a full minute.

Sometimes arrangement imitates the actual events

If this is flying I shall never really take to it

In poetry arrangement may be as just important. Sometimes a poem may have a shape which is suggestive of its inner message.

Easter Wings

_________

_______

____

_

____

________

___________

Functional Styles

Classifications of functional styles

Functional style is a sub-language which is used in specific situations with a specific purpose or a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication. The classification of FS causes a lot of controversy. Practically every scholar recognizes such styles as scientific or the style of official documents (sometimes they are called differently), but it is open to doubt whether there exists so-called belles letters style. Galperin believes in its existence, but others think that prose fiction or drama involves most other styles. Publicistic style. Some scholars prefer the term “newspaper style”. Galperin believes that not everything printed in a newspaper cab be calle newspaper style. But journalistic articles belong to the written version of the publicistic style which in its oral version also includes the oratorical style.

Galperin’s ckassification:

1. Belles Lettres

   1. poetry

   2. emotive prose

   3. the drama

2. publicistic style

   1. oratory and speeches

   2. the essay

   3. articles

3. Newspapers

   1. brief news items

   2. headlines

   3. advertisements and announcements

   4. the editorial (передовица)

4. scientific prose

5. official documents

A list of generally recognized styles:

1. Oratorical – informative function, urging, emotive, establishing contact, aesthetic

2. Colloquial + + + + -

3. Poetic + - + - +

4. Newspaper style + + + - -

5. Official document + + - - -

6. Scientific + - - - -

Oratory includes all kinds of public speeches, e.g. polymentary debate, speech at the opening and closing of a meeting, at jubilees, weddings, funerals, anniversaries, in church (sermon), pre-election speeches, the annual speech of the president, queen, etc. Although the oratorical style possesses all the 5 functions, its main function is urging – its purpose is to inspire audience, bring it to your way of thinking, etc. Oratory is characterized by elevated vocabulary, when the occasion calls for it. Yet a public speaker may resort to standard colloquial style or casual colloquial to show that he is one of the crowd. This style abounds in syntactical figures of speech (anaphora, epiphora, absolute constructions, antethesis) in order to achieve expressiveness and also to connect the speech as a unified whole in the listeners minds. It also relies on forms of direct appeal (dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, your honour). Sometimes a publis speaker might make use of the so-called “precision information” – dates and figures. But very often public speakers avoid precision in favour of flowery expressions. Tropes are also abundant, especially epithets, metaphors and allusions. As a rule there can be a number of repetitions, though rather semantic, not word-for-word, because some of the listeners may have joined the audience in the middle of the speech.

The colloquial style

The peculiarities of the style are mostly due to its oral character. It is marked both by compression (abbreviated words – clippings – prof, chef, doc; elliptical sentences esp. questions – Where’s Jack? Gone for a walk? Tired?; words with a broad semantic structure – thing, stuff, business) and by verbosity or redundancy (double subject; pause fillers – so to say, well, you see). his style is not homogenious, because both bookish and colloquial styleds have several degrees of neutral variety. Within the colloquial style we find standard coll. (minimal degradation), casual coll. and low coll.

Common / standard coll.

chap, kid, dad, granny, go ahead, panicky, awfully sorry

Casual coll.

often slang

Low coll.

vulgarisms (swearing words – damn, bloody)

Obscene language

Slang

Traditionally by slang we mean expressive words and phrases which break away from the mmonotony of neutral language and introduce some freshness to the language. Most scholars speak of such slang as of identity to the group (student, military) Other scholars (Skrebnev) tend to believe that slang refers to the vocabulary in general use whereas group restricted slang had better be termed “jargon”. Slang is very short lived (for a generation). its chief function is to mark social identity. It depends on a number of mechanisms:

chicken-liverd = cowardly (metaphor)

bread-busket = stomach (metaphor)

nuke = any nuclear weapon (abbrev)

OD = an overdoze за drug (acronym)

knee-bender = a church-goer (metonymy)

paint-remover = inferior whisky (irony)

graze = eat a meal (styl. restriction)

paint the town red = celebrate wildly (metaphor, hyperbole)

clear as mud (irony)

on double metaphor (завис на 2 часа)

Cant – арго (the jargon of the underworld)

persuader = dagger (metonymy)

a barker = a pistol (metaphor, metonymy)

a lined wallet = a wallet full of money (metaphor)