Vulgar words

This is the stylistically lowest group of words which are considered offensive for polite usage. They may be subdivided into 2 groups

• Lexical vulgarisms.

To this group words expressing ideas considered unmentionable in civilized society belong. It is so to speak the very lexical meaning for such words, which is vulgar.

• Stylistic vulgarisms.

They are words the lexical meaning of which have nothing indecent or improper about them. They indecently in civilized life is due solely to their stylistic value – to stylistic connotation, expressing derogatory attitude of the speaker toward the objects of speech.

In real life vulgar words help to express emotions, emotive and expressive assessment of object spoken about. Then used in works of literature they perform the function of characterization. If used too frequently vulgar words lose their emotional quality.

Interaction of stylistically colored words and the context.

The following general rules of stylistic interaction can be stated:

• An elevated word placed in a stylistically neutral context imparts the letter a general coloring of elevation. That is makes the whole utterance solemn or poetic. Provided the subject of the speech is consistent with the stylistic coloring of elevation.

• An elevated word in a neutral context produces humorous effect if the subject of speech or the situation is inconsistent with elevated coloring.

• Sub-neutral words in a neutral context lower the stylistic value of the whole utterance.

• Sub-neutral in a super-neutral context or viceversa produce a comic effect.

Dialect words. Against the background of the literally language dialect words as dialect peculiarities of speech are stylistically relevant. They show the social status of the speaker. On the whole dialects differ from the literally language most of all in the sphere of phonetics and vocabulary. Of special significance for English literature is so-called cockney – the dialog of uneducated people in London.

Stylistic Syntax

Stylistic syntax is the branch of linguistic which investigates the stylistic value of syntactic forms, stylistic functions of syntactic phenomena, their stylistic classifications as well as their belonging to some languages or styles. The very forms of sentences and word combinations may be either expressive or neutral. We are to take for stylistically neutral the structure of the simple sentence not possessing any particular deformities in the number of its constituents or in their order. It is not only a syntactical forms of separate sentences that possess certain kinds of stylistic value but the interrelation of contiguous syntactical forms itself. Thus the expressive means of syntax may be subdivided into the following groups:

• Expressive means based upon the absence of logically indispensable elements;

• Expressive means based upon the excessive use of speech elements;

• Expressive means consisting in an unusual arrangement of linguistic elements;

• Expressive means based upon the interaction of syntactical forms.