5.2. Phonetic Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

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

There are two types of onomatopoeia [4, 124]:

• Direct(which displays itself in words imitating natural sounds) The degree of imitation may be different. Some words at once remind us of things producing sounds, others need our efforts to be decoded.

E.g. ding-dong; buzz; bang, cuckoo; mew, etc.

• Indirect(is formed by sounds which make the utterance an echo of its sense). It reqires the mention of the thing which is the source of the sound.

E.g. And the silken, sad, unsertain rustling of each purple curtain (E.A. Poe) [45]

ALLITERATION is a phonetic stylistic device which aims at imparting a melodic effect to the utterance.. The essense of this SD lies in the repetition of similar sounds (consonant sounds in particular) in close succession [4, 126].

E.g. Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. (E.A. Poe) [45]

RHYME is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combinations of words. Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.

Rhyme may be of two types:

• Full rhymes(presupposes identity of the vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in a stressed syllable).

E.g. might – right; needles – heedles, etc [4]

• Incomplete rhymes, which may be further divided into:

1. vowel rhymes(the vowels in corresponding words are identical, but the consonants may be different)

E.g. flesh – fresh – press [4]

2. consonant rhymes(consonants are identical, but vowels are different)

E.g. worth – forth; tale – tool; Treble – trouble [4]

Modifications of rhyming sometimes go so far as to make one word rhyme with a combinationof words. Such rhymes are calledcompoundorbroken. The peculiarity of this type is that the combination of words is made to sound like one word.

E.g. bottom – forgot'em – shot him [4]

Another modification of compound rhyme is eye-rhyme, where the letters and not the sounds are identical.

E.g. love – prove; flood – brood [4]

According to the way the rhymes are arranged within the stanza, certain models have crystallized [4, 128-129]:

• couplets– when the last words of two successive lines are rhymed.This is commonly marked aa

E.g. In the southern clime,

Where the summer's prime

Never fades away,

Lovely Lyca lay. /W. Blake/ [2]

• triple rhymes – aaa

E.g. Here the sledges with the bells –

Silver bells!

What a world of merriment their melody foretells! /Poe/ [45]

• cross rhymes – abab

E.g. Piping down the valleys wild,

Piping song of pleasant glee,

On a cloud I saw a child,

And he laughing said to me. /W. Blake/ [2]

• framing or ring rhymes – abba

E.g. Exhales on high;

The Sun is freed from fears,

And with soft grateful tears

Ascends the sky. /W. Blake/ [2]

• internal rhymes – the rhyming words are placed not at the end of the lines, but within the lines

E.g. I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers. (Shelley) [4]

Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary. (Poe) [45]

RHYTHMexists in all spheres of human activity and has various forms. It is a deliberate arrangement of speech into regularly recurring units intended to be grasped as a definite periodicity which makes rhythm a SD. Rhythm, therefore, is the main factor which brings order into the utterance. Rhythm reveals itself most conspicuously in music, dance and verse [4].

Rhythm may also be very important in prose, bringing either speed or monotony to the utterance. In the fragment below the rhythmic arrangement of words shows how fast the sails of the windmill were turning:

E.g. In front of them, the sails of the windmill stuttered. They began to turn slowly, with much clattering and creaking, shedding chunks and splinters of rotten vanes.

The speed of the sails increased.

Around, around, around-around-around, around-aroundaround. It turned like a haunted Ferris wheel in a carnival of the damned. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ [34]