Additional notes on lecture 15.

There are several structural patterns of litotes.

a) a negative particle and an adjective with a negative prefix.

E.g. 1) He smiled not unkindly.

2) Andrew did not dislike him.

3) He was laughing at her but not unkindly.

4) – How slippery is it, Sam?

- Not uncommon thing with ice.

b) two negative particles.

E.g.: But in his turban and long pale tunic he was not without dignity.

c) a negative particle and a word of negative meaning.

E.g.: 1) And even the doctor, shy but no fool, half unconsciously acknowledged the compliment.

2) Missis Marshal was not a little flattered to think that she and her husband were the only people on board.

3) Brutus: “Not that I loved Cesar less, but I loved Rome more”. (+antithesis)

4) He said not without dignity “Too much talking is unwise”.

d) Sometimes the structure is freer.

E.g.: 1) I’m not sure that I do not agree with you.

2) I felt I wouldn’t say “No” to a cup of tea

Some syntactical EMs and SDs reflect Stylistic Use of Structural Meaning. Among these are Question-in-the-Narrative and Represented Speech (Uttered and Unuttered One)

Question-in-the-Narrative.

A question exists as a syntactical unit of a language to bear a function of asking in communication, i.e. commonly belongs to the spoken language. Question-in-the-Narrative changes the real nature of a question and turns it into a SD. It is asked and answered by the same person (usu. the author).

It becomes alike a parenthetical statement with strong emotional colouring.

e.g. For what is left the poet here? For Greeks a blush - for Greece a tear.

As is seen from these examples the questions asked, unlike rhetorical questions do not contain statements.

Sometimes Question-in-the-Narrative gives an impression of an intimate talk between the writer and the reader.

It is very often used in oratory to serve its purpose of causing the desired reaction to the content of the speech. It gives listeners time to absorb what has been said, and prepares for the next point.

Represented Speech.

There are three ways of reproducing actual speech:

- repetition of the exact utterance as it was spoken (direct speech);

- conversion of the exact utterance into the relater’s mode of expression (indirect speech);

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

There is also a SD termed represented speech. There are two varieties of it – uttered and unuttered (inner).

Uttered represented speech is the representation of the actual utterance through the author’s language.

It demands that the tense should be switched from present to past and personal pronouns changed from 1^st and 2^nd to the 3^rd person as in indirect speech.

e.g. Could he bring a reference from where he was now? He could. (T. Driser).

The device of Uttered represented speech enables the writer to reshape the utterance according to the normal polite literary usage. The device is used in belle-lettres and newspaper styles.

Unuttered (inner) represented speech is the representation of the thoughts and feelings of the character.

The thoughts and feelings going on in one’s mind and reflecting some previous experience are called inner speech.

Inner represented speech, unlike uttered represented speech, expresses feelings and thoughts of the character which are not materialized in spoken or written language by the character. It abounds in exclamatory words and phrases, elliptical constructions, breaks and other means of conveying feelings and psychological states.

The device is an excellent one to depict a character. It fully discloses the feelings and thoughts of a character and makes the desired impact on the reader.

It is usually introduced by verbs as think, meditate, feel, occur, wonder, ask, tell oneself, understand and the like, as in the following: “Over and over he was asking himself: would he receive him? Would she recognize him? What should he say to her?”