Basics of English Stylistics. Учебное пособие-1

TOPIC VI. STYLISTIC SEMASIOLOGY

In the above examples co-occurrence of two objects simultaneously highlights polysemy or homonymy of the verb.

Figures of contrast are based on direct juxtaposition of ideas, which exclude or incompatible with one another.

Oxymoron (from Greek ‘sharp – dull’) is a stylistic device, consisting of logical collision of two words within a single word combination [4, p. 162]. The most typical structural models are:

Attribute + noun – the ugliness of beauty Adverb + verb – scream silently

Adverb + adjective – awfully nice

That stylistic device is very effective in literature and titles:

O brawling love! O loving hate! O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!

In his soliloquy Romeo meditates on the intrinsic contradictions of his life and human nature.

Antithesis (from Greek ‘against statement’) is a stylistic device when the word co-occurring words are opposite in meaning [4, p. 222]. This stylistic device is very frequent in fiction and oral spontaneous colloquial speech and. There can be several types of it:

•Two opposite or even polar thoughts refer to the same object: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

•Two different objects are contrasted, given different characteristics:

Large houses are still occupied, while weavers’cottages stand empty.

•Twothingsvanbedepictedasquitedifferententitiesnotbythevirtue of their denotative meanings, but rather by the intention of the interlocutor. When used in combination of one sentence their confronting meanings are more conspicuous: It was a place of danger and death. The old struggle was a mere stagnation. The dull monotony of security, the horror of never ending decay.

Aswecanseefromtheexamplescitedabove,themostnaturalandregular expressions of contrast or antithesis are lexical antonyms (best – worst, light – darkness, wisdom – foolishness, everything – nothing, etc.). But the ideas can oppose each other from the speaker’s or the writer’s viewpoint (high fees – low lessons, struggle – stagnation, etc.).

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TOPIC VI. STYLISTIC SEMASIOLOGY

Antithesis is not only an effective emotional stylistic device used in every type of effected speech (fiction, poetry, drama, colloquial speech, oratory, etc.) [1, с. 65–66]. But also, like any other stylistic device it can be the lexical motivation of set expressions. The examples of trite antitheses are: now or never, dead or alive, yes or no, black and white, from top to toe, the first and the last, etc.).

Questions for self-control

1.What does Stylistic Semasiology study?

2.What is the difference between the traditional object and the situational object?

3.On what criteria can the renaming occur?

4.How do you understand the quantitate shift?

5.Why does irony have the greatest shift of meaning?

6.On what models is irony built?

7.What is similar and different between meiosis and litotes?

8.What trope of contiguity are there?

9.How do we call the tropes of contrast?

10.What stylistic devices are similar to metaphor?

Practical tasks

1.Make a chart of semantic stylistic devices. Include the following information: the term, its transcription, definition, classification, examples.

2.State the stylistic devices in the following sentences: Our reforms are as slow as they were last year. Our reforms are as slow as a snail. Our reforms are a slow couch.

3.Identify stylistic devices (hyperbole, meiosis, metaphor, allusion, allegory, periphrasis, metonymy, antonomasia, irony) and explain their stylistic purpose:

• She was experiencing a touch of awe at her daughter’s unexpected triumph.

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TOPIC VI. STYLISTIC SEMASIOLOGY

•I’ll fight for you with my last breath.

•– And you don’t agree? – I don’t disagree.

•Had she stirred up a hornet’s nest? Or, perhaps, a nest in which there were no hornets?

•He had grown tired of his children and of their mother. The very model of a man he was!

•He lived out of one suitcase.

•He washed off the trip.

•That programme was their stalking horse.

•He carried several hand grenades. Very handy for locked doors.

4.Identify stylistic devices (simile, synonymous replacement, climax, back gradation, pun, zeugma, oxymoron, antithesis) and explain their stylistic purpose:

•He jerked like a puppet on a string.

•The dry forbidding desert met the lush forest and grassland.

•Someone has to take the risk so that bloody playboys, millionaires, businessmen and housewives can sleep in peace.

•He smiled a humourless smile.

•And now look at her and her name on the door. – I’m looking, she is beautiful.

•If love is blind why lingerie is so popular?

•Three horses were led out: a sturdy black pony, a light–bay mare and a grey gelding.

•Everyone wanted to say something. People tried to speak, to shout, to begin a question or to voice an exclamation.

5.Study euphemisms as doublespeak and match them with the direct nominations:

Euphemisms: penile insertive behavior, maximum incapacitation, age– controlled environment, rough–and–tumble neighbourhood, subsistence specialist, permanently removed from the society, being walked, impoverished agricultural worker, sales credits, pedestrian facilities, thermal soil remediation unit, thermal therapy kit, victim of habitually detrimental lifestyle, employee repositioning, customer capital cost reduction,transportationcounselor,ownerpretested,physicalexamination,

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GENERAL PRACTICE

wildlife conservation program with some permanent facilities, purification, large,agriculturallybasedindustry,forensicpsychophysiologicaldetection of deception, multidimensional gaming with entertainment complex, air curtain incinerator.

Direct names: fired,slaughterlargenumberofpeople,horseracing,bag oficecubes,analcoholic,peasant,bribesandkickbacks,sexualintercourse, car salesperson, zoo, open pit for burning trash, down payment, a cook, a bar, sidewalks, death penalty, incinerator, slum or ghetto, lie–detector test, a casino, kill, drug test, used, destroy an entire village.

6. Finish the sentences with Antithesis:

Children on board… Save the trees…

The duties include baby–sitting… I’ll prepare coffee…

She cleaned the house…

GENERALPRACTICE

Examples of Lexical Stylistic Devices and Expressive Means

Give the stylistic analysis of the following sentences: identify SDs or Ems and interpret their effective use:

1.And Time, a maniac scattering dust, And Life, a fury slinging flame (Tennyson)

2.She recited her mantra – Head over Heart.

3.His eyes were like sparks.

4.If you can make a fortune out of rags, do it (a designer).

5.“I can’t tell him about the arson. I can’t bring it as my dowry,” – she said in mockery.

6.The horse broke its leg and they had to put it down. Fancy word for a bullet.

7.The black van cut its engine and turned off its lights. It remained there, silent.

8.The earth shook as flames seemed to burst from every window visible for miles around.

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GENERAL PRACTICE

9.He eagerly threw himself into this technological competition where the future might be an atom away.

10. – What was it? – Some kind of explosion. It’s bad. People were killed. 11. The last time Marty consented to leave his place it was from

gentle persuasion that convinced him.

12. Every expert short of heaven says no existing computer could have pulled it off without leaving a trace.

13. An operational DNA computer in the wrong hands is not a pretty picture.

14. As he spoke he was aware the Curly Head was watching him.

15. He had the feeling the Germans would line you up against a wall for target practice.

16. As he sat back in his seat she caught the whiff of liberally applied cologne.

17. To keep sane, she forced herself to see the light side of it. It was there – if you looked hard enough.

18. You were Mr. Honorable, Mr. Salt-of-the-Earth. 19. Perhaps Granny did really know a thing or two.

20. It was known to all that Francine and Granny had little love for each other.

21. As Esther and her brother started down the aisle, one or two others stood,thenMaLeegottoherfeet,andsuddenlytheexodusbecamegeneral.

22. I hoped to meet a good Samaritan.

23. Never mind what Armageddon they are planning.

24. Not once she went to that overpriced butcher shop, just an empty effort to look young. (plastic surgery clinic)

25. Hand grenades can come handy for locked doors.

26. Half the non–advanced nations have little love for the US. 27. I hope the science folks are right.

28. Of course, that means not just money but prestige – the Mount Olympus of prestige.

29. – Allah may forgive me, but you won’t.

–Allah has more time than we.

30.The Balkans are our powder keg.

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GENERAL PRACTICE

31.If I decide to change horses, I’ll let you know.

32.He enjoyed his liquor perhaps too much.

Examples of Syntactical Stylistic Devices and

Expressive Means

Give the stylistic analysis of the following sentences: identify SDs or Ems and interpret their effective use:

1.I’ve spent twenty years under lock and key. Internal darkness, deprivation.At least you owe me a friendly ear for a moment. Just one little story, and then I’ll go.

2.…Render had gone in search of Molly’s third–grade classroom, killing one member of the faculty en route and wounding two others.

3.Molly, Neil, dear friends. I assume it has convinced you that Bacchus and Dionysus are the only gods worth worshipping.

4.His merry-monk face had lost its humour, and monk could be used to describe it now only in reference to an angry ape, for it had a primitive cast, sly and stupidly calculating.

5.The knock-knock-knock of Molly’s heart might also have been the fist of madness rapping on the door of her mind.

6.… He was a big one. He had passed three hundred pounds long ago and wasn’t heading back anytime soon.

7.One of the strangers had a real nose on him. The visitors to the bar started making jokes like ‘Tell us another lie, Pinocchio’ – real intelligent stuff like that.

8.“They wanted Tom’s name. I figured it was time to come clean.” – “You figured that, huh?”

9.“You have to excuse him. He doesn’t say a lot, especially to strangers. His wife’s kinda the same way.” – “It’s a good place to live in, then.”

10.The police were done with Mr. LeBlanc. Now it was my turn and I thought this would be loads of fun.

11.He had to tell the police all about Vinnie’s brilliant plan to let his wayward brother to use his identification.

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THE SCHEME OF THE ANALYSIS OF EMOTIVE PROSE

12.I have an investigation or two that had to be set aside during the process of hiring an assistant.

13.A cab appeared almost out of nowhere and clattered to a stop in front of me.

– I’m sorry, I have no money to pay you!

– Perhaps, not, – the cabman answered, – but I bet you know some magic words that’ll make this magic carpet fly.

– Barker sent you?

– A regular Ali Baba, you are, – the man observed, motioning for me to get in.

14.The creature peered up at me. It was a dog, a very small Pekingese, with the fiercest and most grotesque features I had ever seen, a creature out of an Oriental nightmare. Its fur was coal black, and its face looked as if it had been smashed in with a shovel. It had a mouth full of assorted cutlery.

15.It began pouring rain halfway across Waterloo. Soon I was soaked to the skin. When I entered the house I was dripping on the linoleum. Mac, the second assistant, finally spoke. “Out of a walk, I see.”

“Very observant.You should be a detective. Mr. Barker thought I should get to know the area better.”

“I don’t believe he meant that you should swim the Thames,” – he said acidly.

THE SCHEME OFTHEANALYSIS OF EMOTIVE PROSE

Choose a piece of prose and analyse it according to the plan:

1. Phonetic level

Aesthetic evaluation of sounds Onomatopoeia

Verbalization of extra lingual sounds Alliteration

Assonance

Graphons

Intonation (graphic means)

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THE SCHEME OF THE ANALYSIS OF EMOTIVE PROSE

2.Morphological level

Archaic forms of words Irregular grammar Tense

Determination Gender Person Number

Repetition of grammar forms, parts of speech

3.Lexical level

Set of words (archaic, poetic)

Interaction of primary dictionary and contextually imposed meanings (metaphor, metonymy, irony)

Interaction of primary and derivative logical meanings (polysemantic effect, zeugma, pun)

Interaction of logical and emotive meanings (interjections and exclamatory words, the epithet, oxymoron)

Interaction of logical and nominative meanings. Antonomasia Intensification of a certain feature (simile, periphrasis, euphemism,

hyperbole)

Peculiar use of set expressions, the Cliché, proverbs and sayings, epigrams, quotations

Allusions

Decomposition of set expressions

4. Syntactical level

Inversion

Detached Constructions

Parallel Constructions Repetition Enumeration, Climax

Suspense

Antithesis

Asyndeton

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THE SCHEME OF THE ANALYSIS OF EMOTIVE PROSE

Polysyndeton

The Gap–sentence Link Ellipsis

Break-in-the-Narrative (Aposiopesis) Question-in-the-Narrative

Uttered Represented Speech, Unuttered or inner represented speech Rhetorical Questions

Litotes

Text Analysis 1

Give the stylistic analysis of the following passage:

Passage I. My Cousin Rachel (by D. du Maurier)

“Seecombe disappeared along the corridor. I stood up and wished that I could follow him. Suddenly I felt uneasy, nervous. No sound came from the blue bedroom. She must be reading the letter. Ages seemed to pass. At last she came out of the bedroom, and she stood in the doorway, the letter open in her hand. She was dressed for dinner. Perhaps it was the contrast of her skin against the mourning that made her look so white.

“What have you been doing?” she said.

Her voice sounded quite different. Oddly strained. “Doing?” I said. “Nothing. Why?”

“Don’t lie, Philip. You don’t know how.”

I stood more wretchedly before the fire, staring anywhere but in those searching accusing eyes.

“You have been to Pelyn,” she said; “you rode over there today to see your guardian.”

She was right. I was the most hopeless useless liar. At any rate, to her. “I may have done,” I said. “What if I did?”

“You made him write this letter,” she said.

“No,” I said, swallowing. “I did nothing of the sort. He wrote it of his own accord. There was business to discuss, and it so happened that in talking legal matters it came to the fore, and …”

“And you told him your cousin Rachel proposed giving lessons in Italian, isn’t that the truth?” she said.

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THE SCHEME OF THE ANALYSIS OF EMOTIVE PROSE

I felt cold and miserably ill at ease. “Not exactly,” I said.

“You don’t realize what you have done,” she said; “you make me feel utterly ashamed. If you wish to humiliate me,” she said, “by heaven you have gone the right way about it …” [16, p. 129].

Text Analysis 2

Give the stylistic analysis of the following passage:

Prologue (from Midnight Bayou by N. Roberts)

“Deathwithallitscruelbeautylivedinthebayou.Its shadowsrandeep. Cloaked by them, a whisper in the marsh grass or rushes, in the tangled trap of the kudzu, meant life, or fresh death. Its breath was thick and green, and its eyes gleamed yellow in the dark.

Silent as a snake, its river swam a sinuous line – black water under a fat white moon where the cypress knees broke the surface like bones piercing skin.

Through the dark, moon-dappled water, the long, knobby length of an alligator carved with barely a ripple. Like a secret, its threat was silent. When it struck, its tail whipping a triumphant slice through the water, when it clamped the unwary muskrat in its killing jaws, the bayou echoed with a single short scream.

And the gator sank deep to the muddy bottom with its prey.

Others had known the cruel, silent depths of the river. Knew, even in the vicious summer heat, it was cold, cold.

Vast with secrets, the bayou was never quite still. In the night, under a high hunter’s moon, death was busy. Mosquitoes, voracious vampires of the swamp, whined in a jubilant cloud of greed. Players of the marsh music, they blended with the buzzes, hums and drips that were punctuated by the shocked squeals of the hunted.

In the high limbs of a live oak, shadowed by moss and leaves, an owl hooted its two mournful notes. Alerted, a marsh rabbit ran for his life.

A breeze stirred the air, then was gone, like the single sigh of a ghost. The owls swooped from its perch with a swift spread of wings.

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