Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices

1. INVERSION

2. DETACHMENT

3. PARENTHESIS

4. ELLIPSIS

5. BREAK-IN-THE-NARRATIVE

6. PARALLELISM

7. CHIASMUS

8. REPETITION

9. TAUTOLOGY

10. POLYSYNDDETON

11. ASYNDETON

12. ENNUMERATION

13. SUSPENSE

14. CLYMAX AND GRADATION

15. ANTICLYMAX

16. ANTITHESIS

17. RHETORICAL QUESTION

18. REPRESENTED SPEECH

19. STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS METHOD

Syntax is the main conductor of emotions in a written piece of language. It substitutes gestures, intonation and meanings. Any change of form of a sentence causes a slight modification of its meaning. Syntactical devices are based on:

1. rearrangement of a syntactical structure;

2. peculiar use of lexical meanings of syntactical structures.

1. INVERSION

English is characterized by a fixed word order:

English word order Subject — Predicate — Object

This doesn’t mean that changes of word order are impossible, but that any relocation of sentence parts in English has a more significant stylistic value than in Russian.

The purpose of an unusual arrangement of words is making some of them more important, emphasizing the expressed idea.

This rearranging is called inversion.

Inversion A few steps away were the sun-scratched deserts. Into this society came she when she was 18. On went her old brown jacket, on went her old brown hat.

Inversion can be often found in the works of older classical poets, however, modern poets also use inversion for the sake of emphasis.

Inversion in poetry CHARTLESS I never saw a moor, I never saw the sea; Yet now I know how the heather looks, And what a wave must be. I never spoke with God, Nor visited in Heaven; Yet certain am I of the spot As if the chart were given. (Emily Dickinson. 1830–1886)

2. Detachment

It is a kind of inversion when, as a rule, an adverbial modifier or attribute is syntactically isolated from the words it refers to. Detachment is usually shown by commas, dashes, or brackets.

Detachment Very small and child-like, he never looked more than fourteen. Elegant, weary, infinitely fragile, Mrs. Glamber lay back in her armchair listening.

3. Parenthesis

Parenthesis is a variety of detachment. These are explanatory or qualifying words, clauses, or sentences inserted into a passage with which it doesn't necessarily have any grammatical connection, and from which it is usually marked off by round or square brackets, dashes, or commas.

Some phrases are very often used in the parenthesis, like I guess, I suppose, maybe, perhaps, probably, and etc.

Parenthesis John will come tomorrow, I’m sure. They didn’t see – none could see – her distress, not even her grandfather.

4. Ellipsis

Ellipsis is an omission of one or more words in the sentence. It is typical of spoken colloquial English.

Ellipsis – Were they interesting books? – Don’t know. Haven’t read them. Looked pretty hopeless. Early evening. April. Perhaps, perhaps not.