Phonetic Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

Practice:

Exercise 4.7. Read the given passages. Analyze the cases of onomatopoeia printed in bold type, try to describe the way different people walked and speak of the effect produced.

Example:

Thumpa-thumpa-thumpa. Gage’s small bare feet thundering along the hallway runner. /Stephen King Pet Sematary/

In the fragment we see a case of onomatopoeia “Thumpa-thumpa-thumpa.” The hyphenated graphical form shows that Gage ran rather than walked, and probably was putting his feet flat on the floor.

1. Dussander shuffled past him and into the living room, his slippers wish-wishing on the floor. /Stephen King Apt Pupil/ (from Different Seasons by S. King)

2. Laurel thought of the listless clup-clup sound of her high heels on the cement, and the lack of echo when Captain Engle cupped his hands around his mouth and called up the escalator for Mr. Toomy. /Stephen King The Langoliers/

3. Hilary parked her car in the garage and walked to the front door. Her heels made an unnaturally loud tock-tock-tock sound on the stone footsteps. /Dean Koontz Whispers/

4. ‘Okay!” The louder clack-clack of her feet. “here’s your snack, Gage. I got to go to school.” /Stephen King Pet Sematary/

Exercise 4.8.Read the given passages and pick out cases ofdirect and indirect onomatopoeiafrom the units in bolt type. Speak about the effect produced by it.

Example:

At the borderland of sleep she heard onrushing wings: wicka-wicka-wicka! /Dean Koontz The Vision/

In this fragment the author resorts to indirect onomatopoeia. The hyphenated unit “wicka-wicka-wicka” illustrates how fast the wings worked and the sound produced by them.

1. She paused a moment longer, listening for voices, for dogs, possibly for the irregular whup-whup-whup of helicopter blades. /Stephen KingThe Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon/

2. Her rage overflowed and she charged the sheets, clawed at them, began pulling them down. Her fingers caught over the first line and it snapped like a guitar string. The sheets hung from it dropped ina sodden, meaty swoop. […] Wilma took a single large, froggy leap and landed on top of one. It made a wearyflooshsound and billowed up, splatering gobbets of mud on her nylons. /Stephen KingNeedful Things/

3. Her foot went into a cold, vicious substance that was too thick to be water and too thin to be mud. […] She fell forward into long grass that hopped with bugs. She got a knee under her and yanked her foot back. It came with a loud sucking plop, but her sneaker stayed down there someplace. /Stephen KingThe Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon/

4. Thump!Something had fallen over in another part of the house. /Dean KoontzThe Eyes of Darkness/

5. He rang the doorbell again, thumbing it twice this time, so the sound from the belly of the house was BingBong! BingBong!/Stephen KingNeedful Things/

Exercise 4.9.Read the given passages and analyze cases ofalliteration,rhymeandrhythmfrom the units in bolt type. Speak about the produced effect and make the rhyme schemes:

1. I go to concert, party, ball –

What profit is in these?

I sit alone against the wall

And strive to look at ease.

The incense that is mine by right

They burn before Her shrine;

And that’s because I’m seventeen

And she is forty-nine.

/from My Rivalby R. Kipling/

2. For the moon never beamswithout bringing medreams

Of the beautiful AnnabelLee;

And the stars never risebut I see the brighteyes

Of the beautiful AnnabelLee;

And so all the night-tide, I lie down by theside

Of my darling,my darling, mylifeand mybride

In her sepulchre there by the sea–

In her tomb by the side of the sea.

/from Annabel Leeby E.A. Poe/

3. Nowhere can a secret keep

always secret, dark and deep,

half so well as in the past,

buried deep to last, to last.

Keep it in your own dark heart,

otherwise the rumors start.

After many years have buried

secrets over which you worried,

no confidant can then betray

all the words you didn’t say.

Only you can then exhume

secrets safe within the tomb

of memory, of memory

within the tomb of memory.

/Dean Koontz Cold Fire/

Checking Your Progress:

Exercise 4.10.Read the given passages and pick out cases ofonomatopoeia(state their kinds),alliteration,rhymeandrhythm. Speak about the effect produced by onomatopoeia. Analyse the rhyme and rhythm patterns, make the rhyme scheme:

1. Ahead of her, on the hummock which was her next stop, three frogs jumped out of the grass and into the water, plip-plip-plop. /Stephen King The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon/

2. In the next yard the haverhills’ mutt began to bellow hysterically in its high, unpleasant voice – yark!yark!yark! – and this did nothing to improve Wilma’s state of mind. /Stephen King Needful Things/

3. Pity not! The Army gave

Freedom to a timid slave:

In which Freedom did he find

Strength of body, will, and mind:

By which strength he came to prove

Mirth, Companionship, and Love:

For which Love to Death he went:

In which Death he lies content.

/Redyard Kipling Ex-clerk/

4. They didn’t talk much during the remainder of the journey. At long last, the train stopped at Hogsmeade station, and there was a great scramble to get out; owls hooted, cats miaowed, and Neville’s pet toad croaked loudly from under his hat. /J. Rowling Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban/

5. The lock turned out to be easy, and as Frank climbed the stairs to the first floor again, he burst into an unseasonal but nonetheless cheery song:

Oh … you better not fight, you better not cry,

You better not pout, I’m telling you why,

Santa Claus is coming to town!

He sees you when you’re sleeping!

He knows when you’re awake!

He knows if you’ve been bad or good,

So you better be good for goodness’ sake!

/Stephen King Needful Things/