PHONETIC EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND DEVICES

Alliteration (аллитерация)

Assonance (accoнанс)

Alliteration is a device based on repetition of the same or similar sounds at close distance, which makes speech more expressive. It is frequently used in idioms:

blind as a bat', tit for tat ( = an eye for an eye)', tit-bit (лакомый кусочек)', (It is) neck or nothing (пан или пропал)', bag and baggage', last but not least', waste not, want not', as good as gold', as green as grass', willy-nilly (volence-nolence)', hurly-burly (= noise)', to shilly-shally/to dilly-dally ( = to waste time without taking action). Note also the use of alliteration in poetry:

1.A fly and a flea in the flue were imprisoned.

Said the fly, 'Let us flee ',

Said the flea, 'Let us fly',

So they flew through a flaw in the flue

2.We wonder whether the weather

Will weather the wether,

Or whether the weather the wether will kill.

3./ love your hills and I love your dales,

And I love your flocks a-bleating (Keats) (the sound [1] repeated)

4.O, my love is like a red, red rose,

That's newly sprung in June.

O, my love is like the melodie, ,

That's sweetly played in tune. (R. Burns) ([r, 1] repeated)

Ye whose hearts are fresh and simple,

Who have faith In God and Nature,

Who believe, that in all ages

Every human heart is human. (Longfellow) ([h] repeated)

Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering,

Long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream

before. (Edgar Poe) ([d] repeated)

A variant of alliteration is assonance, i.e. repetition of the same or similar vowels only, as in the phrase wear and tear (My shoes show signs of wear and tear, the wear and tear of city life).

This device is sometimes found in poetic speech; see the repetition of the vowel [e] in the line:

Tenderly bury the fair young dead. (M. La Costa) or the repetition of the diphthong [ei] in the lines

Tell this soul, with sorrow laden, if within the distant Aiden,

I shall clasp a sainted maiden, whom the angels name Lenore —

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels name

Lenor? (E. Poe)

The term "assonance" is also used to denote an imperfect rhyme (=неточная рифма), when only vowels are rhymed: number — blunder, same — cane.

Onomatopoeia (ономатопея, звукоподражание)

This term denotes sound imitation, i.e. the use of words which denote some phenomenon by imitating its real sounding. It may be imitation of the sounds produced by animals: buzz (sounds of bees); hiss (snakes); bow-wow (dogs); mew/miaow and purr (cats); hoink (pigs); baa-baa (sheep); cackle (chickens); quack (ducks); cuckoo; caw (crows); moo (cows). It may also be imitation of other natural noises: bubble (булькать); rustle (шуршать); splash (плескаться); flop (щлёпнуться); whistle (cвистеть); giggle, chuckle (xихикать, хмыкать); roar (peветь); tinkle (звякнуть); ding-dong, jingle (= звенеть), click (щелкать), tick, tick-tuck (тикать); bang, slap, rap, tap (звук удара), etc.

Words built on the basis of onomatopoeia make speech especially expressive when used in their figurative meanings: Cars were whizzing past (=moving very fast); The pot was bubbling on the fire (= boiling and making this sound); The crowd buzzed with excitement (= made a noise like that); I'll just give him a buzz (= phone call).

Onomatopoeia may also be used in poetry:

We 're foot — slog — slog — slog — slogging over Africa –

Foot —foot —foot —foot — slogging over Africa.

(Boots — boots — boots — boots — moving up and down again!) (Kipling)

THE USE OF RHYTHM AND RHYME IN VERSIFICATION

(СТИХОСЛОЖЕНИЕ)

Rhythm in poetic speech is produced by regular alternation (чередование) of stressed and unstressed syllables. Why do you cry, Willie ? ( ' u u | ' u u)

Why do you cry ? ( ' u u | ')

Why, Willie, why, Willie, ( ' u u ' u u)

Why, Willie, Why? ( 'uu ')

For a purely syllabic (силлабическая) system of versification (e.g. in French poetry), the important feature is the same number of syllables in different lines, whether stressed or unstressed. For a purely tonic (тоническая) system (as in Anglo-Saxon poetry of old times) the important feature is the number of stressed syllables (tonic = 'stressed'). For the syllabic-tonic (силлабо-тоническая) system of versification, which is typical of modern English (and Russian) poetry, the important feature is the same number of stressed and unstressed syllables.

A division (ompeзoк) of the poetic line from stress to stress, which contains one stressed syllable and one or two unstressed syllables, is called a Foot (cmonа). The foot is the main unit of rhythm in poetic speech. According to the correlation of stressed and unstressed syllables within the foot, we distinguish the following 5 types of feet:

1) trochee (xopeй), or a trochaic foot (xopeичecкая cmo­nа), with two syllables, of which the first is stressed and the second unstressed:

Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater, ( ' u I ' u I ' u I ' u)

Had a wife and couldn 't keep her

See also the Russian trochaic foot:

Прибежали в избу деmu

Bmoponяx зовym omцa ...

2) iambus (ямб), or an iambic foot, with two syllables, of which the first is unstressed, the second stressed:

And then my love and I shall pace, (u'lu'Iu'Iu')

My jet black hair in pearly braids. (Coleridge)

Moй дядя самых честных правил,

Когда не в шутку занемог...

3) dactyl (дактиль), or a dactylic foot: three syllables, the first stressed, the other two unstressed:

Why do you cry, Willie? ( ' u u I ' u u)

4) amphibrach (амфu6paxuй), or an amphibrachic foot: three syllables with the stress on the second:

A diller, a dollar, a ten o 'clock scholar... (u' u I u' u | u' u I u ' u)

5) anapaest (aнanecm): three syllables, stress on the third: Said the flee, 'Let us fly', (u u ' 1 u u ' ) Said the fly, 'Let us flee',

So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

The type of foot and the number of feet in the line determine the Metre of the verse (cmuxomворный размep). Here we distinguish:

iambic trimetre (mpexcmoпный ямб): three iambic feet in a line:

Who sets an apple tree (u ' 1 u ' I u ')

May live to see its end,

Who sets a pear tree

May set it for a friend.

iambic tetrametre (четыpёхстопный ямб): four iambic feet in a line:

And then my love and I shall pace, (u ' I u ' I u ' I u ')

My jet black hair in pearly braids. (Coleridge)

iambic pentametre (пятистопный ямб)

Her lovely looks a sprightly mind disclose (u ' I u ' I u Iu' lu ')

Quick as her eyes and as unfixed as those. (A. Pope)

trochaic trimeter (mpexcmoпный хорей)

Ring - a — ring of roses, ( ' u I ' u I ' u~)

Pocket full of posies

trochaic triameter (четырёхстопный хорей)

Peter, Peter, pumpkin-eater ( ' u I ' u I ' u I ' u)

amphibrachic tetrameter (четырёхстопный амфибрахий)

A diller, a dollar, a ten o 'clock scholar (u ' u I u ' u 1 u ' u lu' u)

A verse with four or more feet in a line usually has a caesura (цезура), i.e. a pause in the middle of the line:

Praised be the Art || whose subtle power could stay

Yon cloud, and fix it || in that glorious shape;

Nor would permit || the thin smoke to escape,

Nor those bright sunbeams || to forsake the day. (W. Wordsworth)

English versification is often characterized by certain Irregularities (нарушения) in the metre, e.g. a combination of one-syllable and two syllable feet

Pease porridge hot ( ' I ' u I ' I)

Pease porridge cold, ( ' I ' u I ' I)

Pease porridge in the pot ( ' I ' u | ' u I ')

Nine days old. ( ' I ' I ' I)

or a combination of one-syllable, two-syllable and three-syllable feet

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. ('ul' ul' uul')

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, ('ul' ul' uul'l)

All the King's horses and all the King's men ( ' u u I ' u u f ' uul')

Couldn 't (put Humpty Dumpty together again. ( ' ~ I ' ~ ~I ' ~ ~ I ' ~ ~I ')

Another kind of irregularity is represented by the so called Pyrrhic foot (пиррихий), in which the rhythm is broken due to the use of unstressed words in the place of the expected stressed syllables, or vice versa, as in

Can death be sleep, when life is but a dream. (John Keats) (u '(u 'I u ' |u u u ')

or as in the second line of the extract from A. Pope below:

Her lovely looks a sprightly mind disclose (u ' I u ' I u ' Iu ' Iu')

Quick as her eyes and as unfixed as those. (A. Pope) ( ' | u u '| u u u ' |u ')

Rhyme (рифма) is created by the repetition of the same sounds in the last stressed syllable of two (or more) lines in a stanza (строфа).

By the type of the stressed syllable we distinguish the male rhyme (мужская рифма), when the stress falls on the last syllable in the rhymed lines, and the female rhyme (женская рифма), when it falls on the last but one syllable:

When the lamp is shattered (female rhyme)

The light in the dust lies dead; (male rhyme)

When the cloud is scattered, (female)

The rainbow's glory is shed, (male) (P. B. Shelley)

See also the alternation of male and female rhymes in the Russian verse in Pushkin's rhymed novel «Евгений Онегин»:

Мой дядя самых честных правил, (женская рифма)

Когда не в шутку занемог, (мужская рифма)

Он уважать себя заставил (женская рифма)

И лучше выдумать на мог. (мужская рифма)

There may be paired rhymes (парные, смежные рифмы), when the rhyming pattern is aabb:

The seed ye sow, another reaps', (a)

The wealth ye find, another keeps; (a)

The robes ye weave, another wears; (b)

The arms ye forge, another bears, (b) (Shelley)

or alternate rhymes (перекрёстные рифмы), with the pattern abab:

A slumber did my spirit seal; (a)