Conclusion

The present extract is a complete and perfectly balanced entity reflecting the main properties of (Whose?) creative prose in the domain of themes, ideas and mode of writing. The rigorous interpretation of the ideas of the text and the language material testifies to the obvious interdependence between the content and the linguistic form which is a part of the content.

Some notes on the stylistic analysis of the belle-lettre text

The purpose of these notes is very limited. They are supposed to provide the teacher and the students with some basic notions of stylistics and some practical methods of stylistic analysis of the belle-lettre text.

These notes do not aim to substitute a hand-book on English stylistics or a hand-book on methods of stylistic analysis and interpretation. In order to be better prepared for the stylistic analysis of the texts and extracts from the texts collected in the present hand-book the teachers and students are advised to get acquainted with the following hand­books: 1. R. Galperin. Stylistics. M., Higher School Publishing House, 1971; M. Д. Кузнец и Ю.М. Скребнев. Стилистика английского языка. Л., Государственное учебно-педагогическое издательство Министерства просвещения РСФСР, 1960; Ю.С.Степанов. Французская стилистика, М., "Высшая школа", 1965, especially pp. 269-333; V. A. Kucherenko. Seminars in Style. M., Higher School Publishing House, 1971.

The fundamental, notion of stylistics is synonymy. Synonymic means of expression exist on all the levels of language and speech - in phonetics, phonology, in morphemics and morphology, in lexics, and lexicology, in grammar and syntax. Therefore it is necessary to distinguish language synonyms that is language elements of any of the given level which enter into synonymic relations by their functional, denotational or semantic invariants or variants, and speech synonyms that is speech elements of the given level which enter into synonymic relations only occasionally in certain contexts or being used metaphorically. In the multitude of the language synonyms of the given, level it is possible to single out the so-called stylistic synonyms. Stylistic synonyms or synonyms which might be used for stylistic purposes are singled out due to their ability to form semantic or/and stylistic oppositions. E. g. the same person may be reffered to by different words - рабочий, шофер, мастеровой, шоферяга, водитель, ремесленник, трудящийся, передовик, ударник, творец, созидатель, etc. Any of these words compared to the word "рабочий" is semantically and stylistically marked for it contains some additional information including the basic (denotational) information contained in the word "рабочий". Another example - the same idea may be rendered by different syntactic constructions - e. g. "Mr. Pickwick came in"; "Came in Mr. Pickwick", "In came Mr. Pickwick", "Mr. Pickwick did come in", "Mr. Pickwick came in, he did", "It was M., Pickwick who came in " and some more. Any of the syntactic constructions mentioned here compared to the syntactically neutral "Mr. Pickwick came in" contains some additional information logically stressing one of the aspects of the action depicted.

So under markedness in all the cases like these we mean that one of the members of the opposition has some additional information that the other member has not but both members of the opposition indicate the same object in the conceptual or objective reality. Therefore it should be noted that not only stylistic synonyms but all other types of synonyms (ideographic, contextual) may be employed for stylistic purposes. Stylistically marked elements of every language level stand in the paradigmatic relations and constitute the expressive means (further EM) of the given language. So the EM of the language - can be defined as stylistically marked members of the language stylistic oppositions. The EM of any language are usually fixed and recorded in grammars, dictionaries, hand-books, etc. The multitude of stylistically marked language elements of every language level may be subdivided into three major classes - neutral elements, "high" elements, "low" elements.

In speech that is in the text the relations between stylistically marked and stylistically unmarked elements are syntagmatic. Stylistic devices are created only in speech and their emergence is conditioned by the following three types of relations:

a) Determination - a stylistically marked element determines the stylistic colouring of the whole utterance, e. g.

It was many and many a year ago

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

By the name of Annabel Lee (E. Рое).

The high flown word "maiden" placed in the stylistically neutral context makes the whole utterance poetic. Or

That Longfellow chap most likely had written countless books of poetry. (J.London).

The colloquial word "chap" and the demonstrative pronoun "that" placed before a proper name in a stylistically neutral context make the whole utterance colloquial.

b) Interdependence - a combination of two or more stylistically marked elements belonging to the same class. E. g. in official documents only a certain restricted set of words, word combinations, set phrases and syntactic constructions are used.

c) Constellation - a combination of two or more stylistically marked elements which belong to different stylistic classes,

e.g. Philoprogenitiveness, says we, is strong in semi-rural communities. (O'Henry).* or Презанте маво младшего брата Артамошу. (А. Толстой).

Deliberate omission of stylistically marked elements from the text is a stylistic device itself.

The relations between the parts of the belle-lettre text are of the same character - determination, interdependence or constellation.

So stylistic device (further SD) is a deliberate introduction of some syntagmatic relations between stylistically marked and stylistically unmarked elements, within the parts of the text or within some utterance. The frequent application of some SD may result in the fixation of the SD as an EM of the given language - these are the so -called trite epithets, metaphors, similes and the like.

SD is always genuine and taking into consideration this fact we can define SD as a deliberate shift in the existing distribution of the elements of the given level.

The major aim of the stylistic interpretation of the belle - lettre text is to achieve its better understanding by taking into consideration the character and functions of the elements it is constructed with. With analysis of the formal peculiarities of the text we try to penetrate deeper into its semantic structure. So a stylistic interpretation of the text is supposed to consist of two major stages:

a) Analysis of the text.

b) Synthesis of the main idea (ideas) of the text.

The first stage in its turn is subdivided into four successive stages.

1. Analysis of the so-called "Broad literary norm" of the test or analysis of the traditional aspect of the text. The student is supposed to be able to characterize briefly the literary trend or tradition the author of the text belongs to; the established traditions of the given genre of the text; social, cultural and historical background of the author and the text under consideration; the author's predecessors and contemporaries. To achieve these particular ends the student is to resort to his English or American literature course.

2. Analysis of the so-called "Narrow literary norm" of the text or analysis of the innovative aspect of the text. The student is supposed to be able to point out what new aspects in the problems and in the form of the text were put forth by the author and to offer his own consideration concerning these facts. The material of the English literature course should be resorted to.

3. Stating the composition of the text or breaking the text into comparatively independent fragments such as: introduction (manner of presenting the place, time and characters of the text), thе plot, climax, denouement, closing part. Special attention should be paid to the fact if any of the parts is deliberately omitted. If the text is a part of some bigger text the breaking is done correspondingly.

Each part should be analysed separately from the following points of view :

Syntactical peculiarities of the part analysed or of the whole text-length and comparative complexity or simplicity of the sentence structures, types of sentence structures (Characteristic of conversational or oral type of speech or characteristic of written type of speech); usage of special syntactical stylistic devices - such as ellipsis, aposiopesis, nominative sentences, asyndeton, zeugma, different types of repetitions, polysyndeton, parenthetical sentences, stylistic inversions, parallel constructions, chiasmus, anaphora, epiphora, spection or subordination instead of coordination, litotes, rhetorical questions, represential syntactical relations such as detachment, coordination instead of subordinated speech, etc.

Lexical peculiarities - the student is supposed to characterize the words used in text from the stylistic point of view, to indicate their stylistic colouring (high flown, neutral, colloquial), their reference to some special sphere of lexicsarchaic words, neologisms, dialect words, professional terms, scientific terms, slang words, vulgar words, etc. and to give his considerations about the choice of words and their stylistic functions in the tex.t To prove his point of view the student is supposed to supply neutral synonyms to the words chosen by the author.

The phraseology of the fragment should be analysed in the same way.

Semantic stylistic devices - metaphors, epithets, metonymy, hyperbole, puns, similes, personification, allegory, synonymic variations, euphemisms, periphrasis, antithesis, oxymoron, irony, climax, anticlimax.

Phonetic peculiarities of the text- alliteration, assonance, euphony, onomatopia, rythm.

In all thеsе cases two very important points should be taken into consideration:

Firstly, the student is to present his views and explanations of the author's usage of any stylistic device, his choice of some linguistic element among many possibilities.

Secondly, the student is supposed to present his explanations about the relations of the EM and SD used by the author.

4. Stating the relations between the descreet fragments of the text, stating the development of the ideas presented by the author through the events and characters he describes the languagt material used.

After the analysis of the text, some stages of which may be omitted in case of necessity, the student is supposed to formulate the main idea or ideas of the text and to show the relation between the content of the text and the linguistic form which is a part of the content.

Certainly, like any other work of art a piece of literature may be interpreted differently by different readers. That’s why the stylistic interpretations of some texts of the given handbook are first of all illustrative as to the methods of analysis and are not the only interpretations possible. We shall analyse a part of the text and a short story.

One remark more. In our illustrations we omit the first stage of the analysis and only раrtly deal with the second stage for the first two stages are mainly literary, criticism while we confine ourselves to stylistic analysis only.

Texts