Основной язык (теоретический курс) Стилистика основного иностранного языка. Учебно-методическое пособие
.pdfyou to eat. And hereafter do remember it: the next time I shan't beg. I shall simply starve. (S. L.)
Prison is where she belongs. And my husband agrees one thousand per cent. (T. C.)
This type of the connection is mainly to be found in various representations of the voice of the personage - dialogue, reported speech, entrusted narrative.
Syntactical stylistic devices based on the peculiar use of colloquial constructions (ellipsis, aposiopesis, nominative sentences).
1. Ellipsis – is the omission of a word necessary for the complete syntactical construction of a sentence, but not necessary for understanding.
In contemporary prose ellipsis is mainly used in dialogue to reflect the natural omissions characterizing oral colloquial speech; in author's introductory remarks - to comment the speech of the characters.
It is the situational nature of our everyday speech which heavily relies on both speakers' awareness of the conditions and details of the communication act that promotes normative colloquial omissions. Imitation of these oral colloquial norms is created by the author through ellipsis, with the main function of achieving the authenticity and plausibility of fictitious dialogue. The stylistic function of ellipsis used in author's narration is to change its tempo, to connect its structure.
e. g. You feel all right? Anything wrong or what? If teenage baby-sitters typical, there's hope yet.
Being used in fiction, they result in achieving some stylistic effect by:
• giving speech characteristics, e.g. Not him, sir. Too pleased with himself. Some gentlemen can't – act... Too stiff.
(A. Christie);
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• emphasising some fact(s), e.g. The robbery Long Ago. Very valuable emeralds... The lady's made and the tweeny (A. Christie);
• imitating spontaneity, e.g. ”Quick – in here.” Poirot led the way into the nearest room... ''Andyou – behind the curtain”
(A. Christie).
2.Aposiopesis (Break-in-the narrative) is a sudden intentional break in the narration or dialogue, is a figure of speech based upon the aesthetic principle of incomplete representation. What is not finished is implied, the sense of the unexpressed is driven inside and the reader is expected to find it out for himself, the context of the situation being his guide. It reflects the emotional or/and the psychological state of the speaker: a sentence may be broken because the speaker's emotions prevent him from finishing it. Another cause of the break is the desire to cut short the information with which the sentence began. The graphic indication of an aposiopesis is, as a rule, a dash or dots.
The authors who refrain from being too outspoken often resort to this device. e. g. On the hall table there were a couple of letters addressed to her. One was the bill. The other...
e.g. I'm sorry, Thomas. By the way, my name is Alden, if you care... e.g. If you hadn't left your own people, your goddamned Old West berry, Saragota, Palm Beach people to take me on – (E. Hemingway)
3.Nominative (one-member) sentences consist only of a nominal group, which is semantically and communicatively selfsufficient. In contrast with elliptical sentences, they have only one principal part, with or without words modifying it.
Isolated verbs, proceeding from the ontological features of a verb as a part of speech, cannot be considered one-member sentences as they always rely on the context for their semantic fulfillment and are thus heavily ellipti-cized sentences.
In creative prose one-member sentences are mostly used in descriptions (of nature, interior, appearance, etc.), where they
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produce the effect of a detailed but laconic picture foregrounding its main components; and as the background of dialogue, mentioning the emotions, attitudes, moods of the speakers.
Nominative sentences may produce the effect of:
• increasing the dynamism of narration, e.g. A remarkable woman - a dangerous woman. No waiting - no preparation. This afternoon - this very afternoon - with him here as witness...
(A. Christie);
• acquainting the reader with the place or background of action, e.g. Three blocks more... Another three blocks.
(D. Hammett)
Syntactical Stylistic Devices Based on Stylistic Use of Structural Meaning (rhetorical questions, litotes)
1.Rhetorical question is one that expects no answer. It is asked in order to make a statement rather than to get a reply. They are frequently used in dramatic situation and in publicist style.
e.g. What was the good of discontented people who fitted in nowhere? Is the day of the supernatural over? (A. Christie).
Rhetorical questions can often be found in modern fiction in the descriptions of the character's inner state, his/her meditations and reflections,
e.g. And then, like a douche of cold water, came the horrible thought, was she right? (A. Christie).
2. Litotes is a peculiar use of negative constructions aimed at establishing a positive feature in a person or thing.
e.g. He was not without taste ... It troubled him not a little
... Love overcomes no small things. He is not uncultured.
Usually litotes presupposes double negation. One through a negative particle (no, not), the other - through a word with negative meaning. Its function is to convey doubts of the speaker concerning the exact characteristics of the object or a feeling.
e.g. He is no coward. – He is a brave man. He was not without taste. - He's tasteful.
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Litotes is especially expressive when the semantic centre of the whole structure is stylistically or/and emotionally coloured.
e.g. Her face was not unhandsome” (A.H.) or ”Her face was not unpretty”. (K. K.)
Functions and stylistic effects:
–to weaken positive characteristics of an object;
–to express doubt/uncertainty as to the value or significance of the object described;
–to create an ironic attitude to the phenomenon described. Syntactical stylistic devices based on the juxtaposition of
the parts of an utterance; syntactical stylistic devices based on the type of connection of the parts; syntactical stylistic devices based on the peculiar use of colloquial constructions; syntactical stylistic devices based on the transference of structural meaning serve the function of embellishing the language of emotive prose.
7.ПЛАН СТИЛИСТИЧЕСКОГО АНАЛИЗА ТЕКСТА
1.Foreword
a.Analysis of the “broad literary norm”.
b.Information about the author, his creative activity and the book, analysis of the “narrow literary norm”.
2. Understanding the Content
a.Reading for general understanding, extracting main points, preliminary definition of the theme (-s).
b.Comprehensive reading – reading for specific information and details.
c.Identifying thematic words, identifying topic-sentences in paragraphs.
d.Identifying the main points and making a plan of the literary text. Division into logical parts.
e.Precis/ summary making.
f.Definition of the theme and the idea.
3. Understanding the Form
a. Function of the title (subtitle, epigraph) for revealing the theme and idea.
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b.Plot structure. The nature of the conflict. The elements of plot (exposition, complication, climax, falling action, denouement). The ordering of the plot.
c.Setting. The function of setting.
d.Form of narration (narration itself, description, dialogue, dramatic monologue, interior monologue, nonpersonal direct speech, stream of consciousness, digression/commentary).
e.Author’s tone.
f.Characters and methods of characterization. System of
images.
g.Emotional atmosphere.
h.Symbol and allegory. Types of symbols and their uses.
i.Style and tone. Language peculiarities.
-Lexical Expressive Means;
-Syntactic Expressive Means;
-Semantic Expressive Means;
-Phonetic Expressive Means;
-Graphic Expressive Means. g. Use of punctuation marks.
4. Making Conclusions
a.Making a conclusion as to the author’s stylistic inventory and the main features which characterize the author’s style.
b.Formulating the message of the text, revealing its moral and philosophical aspect.
8.ХУДОЖЕСТВЕННЫЕ ТЕКСТЫ ДЛЯ СТИЛИСТИЧЕСКОГО АНАЛИЗА
‘The Tyger’
by William Blake
Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
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In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
When the stars threw down their spears And water'd heaven with their tears: Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
Sonnet 73
by W. Shakespeare
That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
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In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire, That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourisht by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
On The Grasshopper And The Cricket by John Keats
The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead; This is the Grasshopper's — he takes the lead
In summer luxury, — he has never done With his delights, for when tired out with fun He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed. The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever, And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.
Extract from
To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee
Harper Lee was born in 1926 in the state of Alabama. In 1945-1949 she studied law at the University of Alabama. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is her first novel. It received almost unanimous critical acclaim and several awards, the Pulitzer Prize among them (1961). A screen play adaptation of the novel was filmed in 1962.
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This book is a magnificent, powerful novel in which the author paints a true and lively picture of a quiet Southern town in Alabama rocked by a young girl's accusation of criminal assault.
Tom Robinson, a Negro, who was charged with raping a white girl, old Bob Swell's daughter, could have a court-appointed defence. When Judge Taylor appointed Atticus Finch, an experienced smart lawyer and a very clever man, he was sure that Atticus would do his best. At least Atticus was the only man in those parti who could keep a jury out so long in a case bite that. Atticus was eager to take up this case in spite of the threats of the Ku-Klux-Klan.
He, too, was sure he would not win, because as he explained it to his son afterwards: "In our courts, when it is a white man's word against a black triad's, the white man always wins. The one place, where a man ought to get a "square deal is in a court-room, be he any color* of the rainbow, but people a way of carrying their resentments right into the jury box. As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it — whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash...
There is nothing more sickening to me than a low-grade white man who'll take advantage of a Negro's ignorance. Don't fool yourselves — it's all adding up and one of these days we're going to pay the bill for it".
Atticus's son Jem aged thirteen and his daughter Jean Louise, nicknamed Scout, aged seven were present at the trial and it is Jean Louise, who describes it...
Atticus was half-way through his speech to fee jury. He had evidently pulled some papers from his briefcase feat rested beside his chair, because they were on his table. Tom Robinson was toying wife them. " "...absence of any corroborative evidence, this
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man was indicted on a capital charge and is now on trial for his life..."
I punched Jem. "How long's he been at it?"
"He's just gone over fee evidence," Jem whispered... We looked down again. Atticus was speaking easily, wife the kind of detachment he used when he dictated a letter. He walked slowly up and down in front of fee jury, and fee jury seemed to be attentive: their heads were up, and they followed Atticus's route with what seemed to be appreciation. I guess it was because Atticus wasn't a thunderer.
Atticus paused, then he did something he didn't ordinarily do. He unhitched his watch and chain and placed them on fee table, saying, "With the court's permission –"
Judge Taylor nodded, and then Atticus did something I never saw him do before or since, in public or in private: he unbuttoned his vest, unbuttoned his collar, loosened his tie, and took off his coat. He never loosened a scrap of his clothing until he undressed at bedtime, and to Jem and me, this was fee equivalent of him standing before us stark naked. We exchanged horrified glances.
Atticus put his hands in his pockets, and as he returned to the jury, I saw his gold-collar button and the tips of his pen and pencil winking in fee light.
"Gentlemen," he said. Jem and I again looked at each other: Atticus might have said "Scout". His voice had lost its aridity, its detachment, and he was talking to fee jury as if they were folks on fee post office corner.
"Gentlemen," he was saying. "I shall be brief, but I would like to use my remaining time with you to remind you that this case is not a difficult one, it requires no minute sifting of complicated, facts, but it does require you to be sure beyond all reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the defendant. To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white.
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"The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence to the effect that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place. It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. The defendant is not guilty, but somebody in this court is.
“I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the state, but my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man's life at stake, which she had done in an effort to get rid of her own guilt.
"I say guilt, gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of, our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance, but I cannot pity her: she is white. She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it. She persisted, and her subsequent reaction is something that all of us have known at one time or another. She did something every child has done — she tried to put the evidence of her offense away from her. But in this case she was no child hiding stolen contraband: she struck out at her victim — of necessity she must put him away from her — he must be removed from her presence, from this world. She must destroy the evidence of her offense.
"What was the .evidence of her offense? Tom Robinson, a human being. She must put Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was her daily reminder of what she did. What did she do? She tempted a Negro.
"She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man. Not an old Uncle, but a strong young Negro man. No code
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