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

between sentences themselves, between syntactical wholes and within the paragraph.

For long time only two types of connection were analysed by the linguists: - coordination and subordination. The language means of expressing these two types of logical connection of ideas are correspondingly divided into coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. Thus and, but are coordinating, when, because, since and the like are subordinating. But this division does not reflect the real function of the connectives.

New connectives are demanded. Language provides these means, some adverbs and adverbial phrases have begun to function as connectives. Moreover, for stylistic purposes, the division of types of sentences into compound and complex is also inapplicable.

Asyndeton

Asyndeton is connection between parts of a sentence or between sentences without any formal sign. It becomes a stylistic device if there is a deliberate omission of the connective where it is generally expected to be according to the norms of the literary language. Here is an example:

“Soames turned away; he had an utter disinclination for

talk, like one standing before an open grave, watching a coffin slowly lowered.” (J. Galsworthy)

Polysyndeton

Polysyndeton is the stylistic device of connecting sentences or phrases or words by using connectives (mostly conjunctions and prepositions) before each component part, as in:

“The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect.” (Ch. Dickens)

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In the passage from Longfellow’s “The song of Hiavatha”, there is repetition both of conjunctions and prepositions.

“Should you ask me, whence these stories? Whence these legends and traditions,

With the odours of the forest,

With the dew, and damp of meadows, With the curling smoke of wigwams, With the rushing of great rivers, With their frequent repetitions,...”

The Gap-Sentence Link

There is a peculiar type of connection of sentences which can be called the Gap-Sentence Link. The connection therefore is not immediately apparent and it requires a certain mental effort to grasp the interrelation between the parts of the utterance, in other words, to bridge the semantic gap. Here is an example:

“She and that fellow ought to be the sufferers, and they were in Italy.” (J. Galsworthy)

The whole sentence seems to be logically incoherent. But this is only the first impression. After a more careful analysis it becomes clear that the exact logical variant would be:

‘‘Those who ought to suffer were enjoying themselves in Italy

(where well-to-do English people go for holidays).”

In another example the conjunction and is followed by the

dash:

“The Forsytes were resented of something, not individually, but as a family, this resentment expressed itself in an added perfection of raiment, an exuberance of family cordiality, an exaggeration of family importance, and – the sniff.”

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D. PECULIAR USE OF THE COLLOQUIAL

CONSTRUCTIONS

Emotional syntactical structures typical of the spoken language are introduced into the utterance. They are common in dialogue but they stand out in the written language.

Ellipsis

Ellipsis is a typical phenomenon in conversation, arising out of the situation. But in written language it assumes a new quality and becomes a stylistic device. Ellipsis, when used as a stylistic device, always imitates the common features of colloquial language. But being the property of colloquial language, elliptical sentences are rarely used as stylistic devices. The examples are:

“I bring him news will raise his drooping spirits. ” or “...when at her door arose a clatter might awake the dead.”

Break-in-the-Narrative

This device which dictionaries define as “A stopping short for rhetorical effect” is used for intensifying the idea by attracting additional attention and is aimed at conveying to the reader a very strong upsurge of emotions. For example:

‘And oh! If e’er I should forget, I swear –

But that’s impossible, and cannot be.” (J. G. Byron)

As a stylistic device it is used in complex sentences, in particular in conditional sentences, the if-clause being given in full and the second part only implied. This stylistic device in which the role of the intonation implied cannot be overestimated. The pause after the break is generally charged with meaning and it is the intonation only that will decode the communicative significance of the utterance.

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Question-in theNarrative

Usually questions, being both structurally and semantically one of the types of sentences, are asked by one person and expected to be answered by another. But question-in- thenarrative changes the real nature of a question and turns it into a stylistic device. It is asked and answered by one and the same person, usually the author. Here is the case taken from Byron’s “Don Juan”:

“ And starting, she awoke, and what to view?

Oh, Powers of Heaven. What dark eye meets she there?

‘Tis – ‘tis her father’s – fix’d upon the pair.”

“Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could

it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years.” ( Ch. Dickens)

When a question begins to fulfill a function not directly arising from its linguistic and psychological nature, it may have a certain volume of emotional charge. Question-in the-Narrative is a case of this kind.

Represented Speech

There are three ways of reproducing actual speech:

a) repetition of the exact utterance as it was spoken (direct speech), b) conversion of the exact utterance into the relater’s mode of expression (indirect speech), and

c) representation of the actual utterance by a second person, usually the author, as if it has not really been spoken but is only represented in the author’s words (represented speech).

There is also a device which conveys to the reader the unuttered or inner speech of the character, thus presenting his thoughts and feelings. This device is also termed represented speech.

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To distinguish between the two varieties of represented speech we call the representation of the actual utterance through the author’s language uttered represented speech, and the representation of the thoughts and feelings of the character unuttered or inner represented

speech.

Represented speech is that form of utterance which conveys the actual words of the speaker through the mouth of the writer but retains the peculiarities of the speaker’s mode of expression. So represented speech exists in two varieties:

a)uttered represented speech and

b)unuttered or inner represented speech.

a) Uttered Represented Speech

Uttered represented speech demands that the tense should be switched from present to past and that the personal pronouns should be changed from 1st and 2nd person to 3rd person as in indirect speech, but the syntactical structure of the utterance does not change. For example:

“Could he bring a reference from where he now was? He could.” (Th. Dreiser)

Another example is: “A maid came in now with a blue gown very thick and soft. Could she do anything for Miss Freeland? No, thanks, she could not, only, did she know where Mr. Freeland’s room was?” (J. Galsworthy)

This device was widely used by men-of-letters as far back as the 18th century. Nowadays this device is used only in the belleslettres style. It is also efficiently used in newspaper style.

b) Unuttered or Inner Represented Speech

As has often been pointed out, language has two functions: the communicative and the expressive. The communicative function

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serves to convey one’s thoughts, emotions and orders to the mind of a second person. The expressive function serves to shape one’s thoughts and emotions into language forms. The second function is believed to be the only way of materializing thoughts and emotions. Without language forms thought is not yet thought but only something being shaped as thought. This process of materializing one’s thoughts by means of language units is called inner speech.

Inner speech is a psychological phenomenon. But when it is wrought into full utterance, it ceases to be inner speech, acquires a communicative function and becomes a phenomenon of language. The expressive function of language is suppressed by its communicative function, and the reader is presented with a complete language unit capable of carrying information. This device is called inner represented speech. Here is an example:

“An idea had occurred to Soames. His cousin Jolyon was Irene’s trustee, the first step would be to go down and see hm at

Robin Hill. Robin Hill! The odd – the very odd feeling those words brought back. Robin Hill – the house Bosinney had built

for him and Irene – the house they had never lived in – the fatal house! And Jolyon lived there now! H’m!” (J. Galsworthy) This device is undoubtedly an excellent one to depict a

character. It gives the writer an opportunity to show the inner springs which guide his character’s actions and utterances. Inner represented speech, unlike uttered represented speech, is usually introduced by verbs of mental perception as think, meditate, feel, occur, wonder, ask and the like. But very often inner represented speech thrusts itself into the narrative of the author without any introductory words. Sometimes the shift from the author’s speech to inner represented speech is practically imperceptible:

“Then, too, in old Jolyon’s mind was always the secret ache that the son of James – of James, whom he had always thought

such a poor thing, should be pursuing the paths of success, while his own son - !” (J. Galsworthy)

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Inner represented speech remains the monopoly of the belleslettres style, and especially of emotive prose.

E. TRANSFERRED USE OF STRUCTURAL MEANING

Every syntactical structure has its definite function, which is sometimes called its structural meaning. When a structure is used in some other function it may be said to assume a new meaning which is similar to lexical transferred meaning. Among syntactical stylistic devices there are two in which this transference of structural meaning is to be seen. They are rhetorical questions and litotes.

Rhetorical Questions

The rhetorical questions is a special syntactical stylistic device the essence of which consists in reshaping the grammatical meaning of the interrogative sentence. In other words, the question is no longer a question but a statement expressed in the form of an interrogative sentence. It has been stated elsewhere that questions are more emotional than statements. When a question is repeated as in these lines from Poe’s “The Raven”:

“ –Is there –is there balm in Gilead?! Tell me – tell me- I implore!-“ the degree of emotiveness increases and the particular shade of meaning becomes more apparent. The rhetorical question re-enforces this essential quality of interrogative sentences and uses it to convey a stronger shade of emotional meaning. This stylistic device is mostly used in publicist style.

Litotes

Litotes is a stylistic device consisting of a peculiar use of negative constructions. The negation plus noun or adjective serves to establish a positive feature in a person or a thing.

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Compare: It’s not a bad thing – It’s a good thing. Or He is no coward – He is a brave man.

Litotes is a deliberate understatement used to produce a stylistic effect. It is no a pure negation, but a negation that includes affirmation.

There are the following examples of the sentences in which litotes is used:

He was not without taste. It troubled him not a little.

He found that this was no easy task.

PART VI

FUNCTIONAL STYLES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Introductory remarks

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 a given stage in the development of the literary language, but it changes, and sometimes considerably, from one period to another.

Style of a language is a historical category. Thus, the style of emotive prose actually began to function as an independent style after the second half of the 16th century and the newspaper style originated from the publicist style. The development of each style is predetermined by the changes in the norms of standard English and is greatly influenced by changing social conditions, the process of science and the development of cultural life in the country.

The English literary language has evolved a number of styles with substyles and variants easily distinguishable one from another.

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“Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style” , wrote J. Swift.

A. THE BELLES-LETTRES STYLE

The belles-lettres style is a general term for three substyles:

*The language of poetry, or simply verse.

*Emotive prose, or language of fiction.

*The language of the drama, or language of plays.

Each style has certain common features but enjoys some individuality. Generally the belles-lettres style has a cognitive function as well as aesthetic one and this style has something in common with scientific style. But there is difference in the manner of thinking and writing of the man-of-lettres and the man-of-science.

Meanwhile, “Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive and

widely effective mode of saying things, and hence its importance.”, wrote Heinrich Heine pointing out the unusual character of its style.

Individuality in selecting language means and stylistic devices is extremely apparent in poetic style, becomes gradually less in publicist style, is hardly noticeable in the style of scientific prose and is entirely lacking in newspapers and in official style.

LANGUAGE OF POETRY

The first substyle is verse with orderly form, which is based mainly on the rhythmic and phonetic arrangement of the utterances. Both the syntactical and semantic aspects of the poetic substyle may be defined as compact, for they are held in check by rhythmic patterns.

Verses are usually characterized by brevity of expression, epigram-like utterances, and fresh, unexpected imagery. Syntactically this brevity is shown in elliptical and fragmentary

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sentences, in detached constructions, in inversion, asyndeton and other syntactical peculiarities. Rhythm and rhyme in compositional patterns are main properties of the poetic substyles.

The most widely recognized compositional patterns making classical verse are:

1.alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables,

2.equilinearity or an equal number of syllables in the line,

3.a natural pause at the end of the line,

4.identity of stanzas pattern ,

5.established patterns of rhyming.

In modern versification free verses appear which in extreme cases border on prose. English verse, like all verse, emanated from song.

The unit of measure of poetic rhythm in English versification is not so much of a quantitative as of a qualitative character.

There are five most recognizable English metrical patterns:

1.Iambic metre, in which the unstressed syllable is

followed by a stressed one. It is graphically represented

as................................................................

e. g. Oh let me true in love but truly write

....................................................................

2.Trochaic metre, where the order is reversed, i. e. a stressed syllable is followed by one unstressed as

.....................................................................

e. g. Would you ask me whence these stories

......................................................................

3.Dactilic metre – stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed as ...............................................

e. g. Cannon to right of them

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