III. Comment on the usage of phraseology:

1. I can just remember her. She’s (Irene) a skeleton in the family cupboard, isn’t she? And they’re such fun.”

“She wasn’t much of a skeleton as I remember her”, murmured Euphemia, “extremely well covered” (J.Galsworthy).

2. “Oh, it’s you, Mr.Wormold. I was just thinking of you. Talk of the devil – “ he said, making a joke of it (G.Greene).

3. The Graefin’s two elder sons had made deplorable marriages. <…> The youngest boy, Wratislav, who was the black sheep of a rather greyish family, had as yet made no marriage at all (Saki).

4. “You are really indecently vain of your appearance. A good life is infinitely preferable to good looks”.

“You agree with me that the two are incompatible. I always say beauty is sin deep” (Saki).

5. Nonsense, my dear! Such shame is not even skin deep (R.Aldington).

6. “Good morning,” said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining and the grass was very green. (A.Tolkien)

7. After sounding him, the fellow pulled a long face as long as your arm, and ordered him to stay in bed and give up smoking (J.Galsworthy)

SEMINAR 5

STYLISTIC SYNTAX OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Discussion Points

1. The notion of EM and SDs on the syntactical level.

2. Expressive means of English syntax based on:

• the reduction of the sentence structure: ellipsis, aposiopesis, nominative sentences, asyndeton;

• the redundancy of sentence structure: repetition, enumeration, tautology, polysyndeton, emphatic constructions, parenthetical clauses;

• the violation of word order: stylistic inversion, syntactical split, detachment.

3. Stylistic devices of English syntax based on:

• the interaction of syntactical constructions: parallelism, chiasmus, anaphora, epiphora;

• the transposition of syntactical meaning in context: rhetorical questions;

• the transposition of types and forms of connection: parcellation, coordination instead of subordination, subordination instead of coordination.

Recommended Literature

1. Стилистика английского языка / А.Н.Мороховский, О.П.Воробьева, Н.И.Лихошерст, З.В.Тимошенко. – К.: Вища школа, 1991. – С. 137-162.

2. Galperin I.R. Stylistics. – M.: Higher School, 1981. – P. 202-231, 234-252.

3. Kukharenko V.A. A Book of Practice in Stylistics. – Вінниця.: Нова книга, 2000. – P. 72-90.

Basic notions

A stylistically neutral sentence model in English is a simple two-member sentence, containing subject, predicate and a few possible secondary members with the direct word order: S–P–O–Adv.mod. Deviations from the given sentence pattern are treated as its transforms that may acquire stylistic connotations, in which case they are regarded as EM.

A syntactical EM is represented by a sentence model, bearing additional logical or expressive information promoting the pragmatic effect of the utterance.

Depending on the type of transformation of the neutral syntactical pattern, all EM in English syntax can be subdivided into three groups:

EM based on the reduction of the syntactical pattern results from the omission of some obligatory elements(s) of the sentence structure.

This group includes: ellipsis, aposiopesis, nominative sentences, asyndeton.

EM based on the redundancy of the syntactical pattern results from the addition of some sentence elements or their deliberate repetition.

To this group we refer: repetition, enumeration, syntactic tautology, polysyndeton, emphatic constructions, parenthesis.

EMs based on the violation of the grammatically fixed word order within a sentence or a deliberate isolation of some parts of the sentence.

Here belong: stylistic inversion, syntactical split, detachment.

Ellipsis is a deliberate omission of at least one member of the sentence.

Nominative (nominal) sentences – sentences consisting only of a nominal group, which is semantically and communicatively self-sufficient.

Aposiopesis (Greek – ‘silence’) – intentional abstention from completing the utterance. (also: break-in-the-narrative, stop-short, pull-up).

Asyndeton (Greek – ‘disconnected’) is a deliberate avoidance of conjunctions used to connect sentences, clauses or words.

Repetition is recurrence of the same element (word or phrase) within the sentence. Repetition aims at logical emphasis necessary to fix the attention of the reader (listener) on the key-word of the utterance. Repetition is classified according to the compositional patterns:

1. Ordinary R. has no definite place in the sentence and the repeated unit occurs in various positions without obvious regularity – …a, ….a, a… .

2. Successive R. is a string of closely following each other reiterated units – …a,a,a… This is the most emphatic type of repetition which usually signifies the peak of emotions of the speaker.

3. Framing (ring) R. – a repetition in which the opening word or phrase is repeated at the end of the sentence or a group of sentences, thus forming the ‘frame’ for the non-repeated part of the sentence (utterance) – a…a.

4. Linking R. (catch R. or reduplication or anadiplosis): the last word or phrase of one part of an utterance is repeated at the beginning of the next part, thus hooking the two parts together – …a, a… .

5. If this linking device is used several times in one utterance we get chain R. – …a, a…b, b…c, c… .

Another variety of R. is called synonymical R. which is the reiteration of the same idea by using synonymous words and phrases adding a slightly different nuance of meaning and thus intensifying the impact of the utterance.

In root-repetition it is not the same words that are repeated but the same root.

Syntactical tautology (pleonasm) – a superfluous repetition of semantically identical words or phrases to lay stress on a certain part of the sentence

Enumeration is the usage of homogeneous parts of the sentence aimed at emphasizing the whole utterance or at giving subjective evaluation of the situation.

Polysyndeton – excessive use (repetition) of connectives – mostly conjunctions and prepositions. The repetition of connectives before each component part makes an utterance more rhythmical; so that prose may sometimes resemble a verse.

Emphatic constructions – are used to intensify or contrast any part of the sentence, giving it an emotional charge.

Parenthesis (parenthetic sentences/ clauses) – are sentences or phrases inserted into a syntactical structure without being grammatically connected with it. In writing they are indicated by commas, brackets or dashes.

Stylistic inversion is change of the word order in the sentence, the first and the last positions being most prominent. The direct word order may be changed either completely so that the predicate (predicative) precedes the subject or partially so that the object (adverbial modifier) precedes the subject-predicate Correspondently, we distinguish complete and partial inversion.

Stylistic inversion aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotional colouring to the utterance.

Separation (syntactical split) (дистантне розташування синтаксично зв’язаних одиниць речення) is the splitting of syntactical unities with the fixed order of components succession. Very often it concerns a noun phrase comprising the attributive prepositional adjunct, which may be removed from the word it modifies. Separation may be of two kinds:

• the split of the components in the structure with the direct word order;

• the split of the components in the structure with inversion.

Detachment – a device based on singling out a secondary member of the sentence with the help of punctuation and intonation. Practically any secondary member of the sentence may be detached but most noticeable are cases with a detached attribute.

A syntactical SD can be understood as:

• means and ways of sentences combination within a larger context (SSU, paragraph or text). A SD in this case is created due to the combination of stylistically neutral and stylistically marked sentence models, as well as due to the combination of stylistically non-marked sentences;

• transposition of the syntactical meaning in context. In this case a sentence acquires an additional meaning which is not typical of it.

According to the character of the relations between syntactical structures, possible transposition of meanings in context, and the means and types of connection within a sentence, we distinguish the following groups of syntactical SDs:

1. SDs based on the peculiar formal and semantic interaction of syntactical constructions in a context: parallelism, chiasmus, anaphora, epiphora.

2. SDs based on the transposition of the syntactical meaning in context: rhetorical questions.

3. SDs based on the transposition of the types and means of connection within or between sentences: parcellation, subordination instead of coordination, coordination instead of subordination.

Syntactical parallelism (parallel constructions) – the usage of. similar syntactical structures in several adjacent sentences.

Complete parallelism (balance) is observed when the syntactical pattern of the sentence that follows is completely similar to the preceding one (the same sentence model, word order, grammatical forms). In incomplete parallel constructions some of the elements in the parallel rows may be missing or intentionally omitted (to avoid unnecessary repetition) which results in ellipsis. Parallelism is considered partial when either the beginning or the end of several neighbouring sentences are structurally similar.

Chiasmus is a special type of parallelism. The second part of a chiasmus is, in fact, inversion of the first construction.

Anaphora – implies identity of the initial elements in several adjacent sentences (verse lines, stanzas, paragraphs) and is a kind of lexico-syntactical repetition.

Epiphora is the stylistic figure opposite of anaphora. It is recurrence of some elements concluding several syntactical units (utterances, verse lines, sentences, paragraphs).

Rhetorical question is an emphatic negation or an affirmation in the form of a question.

Parcellation – a deliberate break of the sentence structure into two or more isolated parts, separated by a pause and a period (full stop).