English Stylistics for Translators. Стилистика английского языка для переводчиков. Учебное пособие

S -timulated E -mission of R -adiation). This way of world-building is often used for stylistic purposes.

Another type of neologism is the nonce-words, i.e. words coined to suit one particular occasion. Nonce-words remain on the outskirts of the literary vocabulary. They rarely pass into the language as legitimate units of the vocabulary, but they remain in the language as constant manifestations of its power of word-building. Here are some neologisms which have the right to be called so because they will always remain neologisms and never lose their novelty:

“Let me say in the beginning that even if I wanted to avoid Texas I could not, for I am wived in Texas, and mother-in-lawd, and uncled, and aunted, and cousined within an inch of my life.”

The words italicized are hardly registered by English dictionaries as ordinary English words.

3. SPECIAL COLLOQUIAL VOCABULARY

a) Slang

Slang is considered by linguists to be an obscure term. Slang seems to mean everything that is below the standard of usage of present-day English. Webster’s “New World Dictionary of the American Language” gives the following definition 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 humourous expression, and

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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 types considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting either of new words or current words employed in some special sense.”

The definition given by J. B. Greenough and C. L. Kitteridge is also worth quoting: ‘Slang…is a peculiar kind of vagabond

language, always hanging on the outskirts of legitimate speech but continually straying or forcing its way into the most respectable

company.”

Another definition of slang is given by E. Patridge: “Slang is much rather a spoken than a literary language. It originates, nearly always, in speech. To coin a term on a written page is almost inevitably to brand it as a neologism which will either be accepted or become a nonce-word (or phrase), but, except in the rarest instances that term will not be slang.”

The following stylistic layers of words are generally marked as slang.

*Words which may be classed as thieves’ cant, or the jargons of other social groups and professions, like dirt (=’money’), dotty (=’mad’), a barker (=’a gun’), to dance (=’to hang’).

*Colloquial words and phrases like for good, to have a hunch, a show and the like. But there are words as chink (money), fishy (suspicious), governor (father) that are in some dictionaries given with two stylistic notations, coll. and / or sl.

*Figurative words and phrases included in special slang dictionaries, e. g. Scrooge (=’a mean person’); shark (=”a pickpocket, ‘a swindler’); blackcoat (=’a clergyman’).

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*Words derived by means of conversion are also sometimes classified as slang, for example, the noun agent is considered to be neutral whereas the verb to agent is included in one of the American dictionaries as slang.

*Abbreviations of the lab-type, for example, rep (reputation), cig (cigarette), ad (advertisement), sis (sister).

*Set expressions which are generally used in colloquial speech and marked with the notation slang, e.g. to go in for, to cut off with a shilling, in a way, and many others.

*Improprieties of a morphological and syntactical character, e.g.

I says, I don’t know nothing and others.

*Any new coinage that has not gained recognition and therefore has not yet been received into Standard English is easily branded as slang.

Slang is nothing but a deviation from the established norm at

the level of the vocabulary of the language. H. Wentworth and S. Flexner in their “Dictionary of American slang” wrote:

“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. The sheer newness and informality of certain slang words produce pleasure.

“But more important than this expression of a more or less hidden aesthetic motive on the part of the speaker is the slang’s

reflection of the personality, the outward, clearly visible characteristics of the speaker. By and large, the man who uses slang is a forceful, pleasing, acceptable personality.”

Here are some more examples of words that are considered to be slang:

to do a flit (=’to quit one’s flat or lodgings at night without paying the rent or board’)

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rot (=’nonsense’)

the cat’s pyjamas (=’the correct thing) to take stock in (=to be interested in) bread-basket (=’the stomach’)

The most confusing definition of the nature of slang is the following one given by Eric Partridge:

“personality and one’s surroundings (social or occupational) are the two co-efficients, the two chief factors, the determining causes of the nature of slang, as they are of language in general and of style.”

b) Jargonisms

In the non-literary vocabulary of the English language there is a group of words that are called jargonisms. Jargon is a recognized term for a group of words that exists in almost every language and whose aim is to preserve secrecy within one or another social group.

Jargonisms are generally old words with entirely new meanings imposed on them. Most of the jargonisms of any language, and of the English language too, are absolutely incomprehensible to those outside the social group. They may be defined as a code within a code. Thus, the word grease means ‘money’; loaf means ‘head’; a tiger hunter is ‘a gambler’; a lexer is ‘a student preparing for a law course’.

Jargonisms are social in character and they are not regional. There are common jargon and special professional jargons.

In the English language the following jargons are well-known:

-the jargon of thieves and vagabonds ( cant);

-the jargon of jazz people;

-the jargon of the army, known as military slang;

-the jargon of students, sportsmen and many other varieties.

Slang, contrary to jargon, needs no translation. It is not a secret code. It is easily understood by the English-speaking community. Both jargon and slang differ from the ordinary language mainly in

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their vocabularies. The structure of the sentences and the morphology of the language remain practically unchanged. Jargons can migrate into other social strata and sometimes become recognized in the literary language of the nation.

When a jargonism becomes common , it passes to the slang or colloquial word group. The word brass in the meaning of ‘money in general, cash’ is not jargon, but such words as soap and flannel meaning ‘bread’ and ‘cheese’ (naval) can hardly be understood by the language community. Many jargonisms have entered the standard vocabulary. Thus, the words kid, fun, queer, bluff, fib, humbug,, formerly slang words or jargonisms, are now considered to be common colloquial.

‘Jargon distorts words, it does not create them’ , said a wellknown French linguist Vandryes. One source of creating jargonisms is changing the meaning of words and their distorting, another one is using foreign words. Thus words like twig (=”to understand’ of Irish origin) and frow (=’a girl or wife’ from German ‘frau’) are considered to be jargonisms.

c) Professionalisms

Professionalisms are words used in different trade, profession or calling by people connected by common interests both at work and at home. Professionalisms are connected with terms and name anew already-existing concepts, tools or instruments, and have the typical properties of a speech code. The main feature of a professional word is its technicality.

Professionalisms are special words in the non-literary layer of the English vocabulary, whereas terms form a specialized group belonging to the literary layer of words. Terms which are easily decoded enter the neutral stratum of the vocabulary. Professionalisms generally circulate within a definite community. Like terms, professionalisms do not allow any polysemy, they are monosemantic.

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Here are some professionalisms used in different trades:

tin-fish (=’submarine); block-buster (=’a bomb especially designed to destroy blocks of big buildings’); piper (=’a specialist who decorates pastry with the use of a cream-pipe); a midder case (=’a midwifery case’); outer (=’a knockout blow).

Some professionalisms become popular and gradually lose their professional flavour. But they should not be mixed up with jargonisms. Like slang words, they do not aim at secrecy. They have a socially useful function in communication. A good example of professionalisms can be found in Dreiser’s “Financier”:

“Frank soon picked up all the technicalities of the situation.

A “Bull”, he learned, was one who bought in anticipation of a higher price to come; and if he was “loaded” up with a “line” of stocks he was said to be “long”. He sold to “realize” his profit, or if his margins were exhausted he was “wiped out”. A “bear” was one who sold stocks which most frequently he did

not have, in anticipation of a lower price at which he could buy and satisfy his previous sales. He was “short” when he had sold what he did not own, and he was “covered” when he bought to satisfy his sales and to realize his profits or to protect himself against further loss in the case prices advanced instead of declining. He was a “corner” when he found that he could not buy in order to make good the stock he had borrowed for delivery and the return of which had been demanded. He was then obliged to settle practically at a price fixed by these to

whom he and other “shorts” had sold”.

As is seen, each financial professionalism is explained by the author and the words themselves are in inverted commas to stress their peculiar idiomatic sense and also to indicate that the words do not belong to the Standard English vocabulary in the meanings they are used.

Professionalisms are widely used in emotive prose to depict the natural speech of a character. The skillful use of a professional word

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will show the education, breeding, environment and even the psychology of the character. That is why perhaps a literary device known as speech-characterization is so abundantly used in emotive rose. The use of professionalisms forms the most important element of this literary device.

d) Dialectal words

Dialectal words are those which in the process of integration of the English national language remained beyond its literary boundaries, and their usage is confined to a definite locality. There is a definite similarity of functions in the use of slang, cockney and any other form of non-literary English and that of dialectal words. All these groups when used in emotive prose are meant to characterize the speaker as a person of a certain locality, breeding, education, etc.

Some dialectal words have become so familiar in good colloquial or 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’, daft from the Scottish, with the meaning of ‘trouble, cares’. Still they have not lost their dialectal associations and therefore are used in literary English to reproduce the true atmosphere of action and events with characters. The examples of dialectal words usually come from Scottish and the northern dialect retaining the peculiarities of the language spoken in these territories. Here is one of them with translation:

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Dialectal words are only to be found in the style of emotive prose for characterization of personalities through their speech, and very rarely in other styles.

e) Vulgar Words

Vulgarisms are characterized in Webster’s dictionary as phrases or expressions which are in common use; the words which do not necessarily connote coarseness. Some linguists define vulgarisms as colloquialisms of a low or unrefined character. 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 are words called “four-letter” words. A lesser degree of vulgarity is presented by expletives, words like damn, bloody, son of a bitch, to hell, and others. These vulgarisms sometimes appear in a euphemistic spelling, only the initial letter is printed: d - - - (damn!). The function of vulgarisms is almost the same as that of interjections, that is to express strong emotions, mainly annoyance, anger. They are not to be found in any style of speech except emotive prose, and only in the direct speech of the characters.

PART III

PHONETIC AND GRAPHICAL EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND

STYLISTIC DEVICES

General notes

The stylistic approach to the utterance is not confined to its structure and sense. The way how a word, a phrase or a sentence sounds is also very important. It is in combination with other words

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that a word may have a desired phonetic effect. Moreover, the way a separate word sounds may produce a certain euphonic impression.

L. Bloomfield, a well-known American linguist, says:

“…in human speech, different sounds have different meaning. To

study the coordination of certain sounds with certain meanings is to study language”. The sound of a word or the way the words sound in combination contribute to the general effect of the message, particularly when the sound effect has clearly been deliberately worked out. There is even the theory of the sense-independence of separate sounds which is based on a subjective interpretation of sound associations.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is a combination of speech-sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc.), by things (machines or tools, etc.), by people (sighing, laughter, etc.) and by animals. Combination of speech sounds of this type will inevitably be associated with whatever produces the natural sound.

There are two varieties of onomatopoeia: direct and indirect. Direct onomatopoeia is contained in words that imitate natural sounds, as ding-dong, buzz, bang, cuckoo, mew, ping-pong 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:

“Ánd the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain’ (E. A. Poe),

where the repetition of the sound !s ! actually produces the sound of the rusting of the curtain. Indirect onomatopoeia reproducing the sound of wind is used in the following:

“Whenever the moon and stars are set, Whenever the wind is high,

All night long in the dark and wet

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A man goes riding by.” (R. S. Stevenson)

A skilful example of onomatopoetic effect is shown by Robert Southey in his poem “How the Water Comes down at Lodore”. The title of the poem reveals the purpose of the writer. By artful combination of words ending in – ing and by the gradual increase of the number of words in successive lines, the poet achieves the desired sound effect.

“And nearing and clearing,

……………………………

And falling and crawling and sprawling,

…………………………………

And gleaming and streaming and streaming and beaming,

……………………………………….

And in this way the water comes down at Ladore.”

Alliteration

Alliteration is a phonetic stylistic device which aims at imparting a melodic effect to the utterance. The essence of this device lies in the repetition of similar sounds, in particular consonant sounds, in close succession, particularly at the beginning of successive words:

“The possessive instinct never stands still. Through florescence and feud, frosts and fires it follows the laws of progression”. (J. Galsworthy) or,

“Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before.” (E. Poe)

Therefore alliteration is generally regarded as a musical accompaniment of the author’s idea, supporting it with some vague emotional atmosphere which each reader interprets for himself.

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