Outline Stylistics as a science: object, subject, theory and practice.
1. Stylistics as a science. Branches of stylistics.
Stylistics is a branch of general linguistics. Comparative stylistics is a sub.eld of stylistics that attempts to account for the differences in style between languages. Stylistics – is regarded as a lang-ge science which deals with the results of the act of communication. The object of stylistic analysis is the language in the process of its usage.
There are 2 basic objects of stylistics:
- stylistic devices and figures of speech
- functional styles
special linguistic means which secure the desirable effect of the utterance;
certain types of texts “discourse” which due to the choice and arrangement of the language are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of communication.
The subject of stylistics can be outlined as the study of the nature, functions and structure of stylistic devices on the one hand and on the other the study of each style of language, its aim, its structure, its characteristic features and the effect it produces, as well as its interrelation with other styles of language.
English language as being divided into three main layers: the literary layer, the neutral layer and the colloquial layer. The literary and the colloquial layers contain a number of subgroups each of which has a property it shares with all the subgroups within the layer. This common property, which unites the different groups of words within the layer may be called its aspect. The aspect of the literary layer is its markedly bookish character. It is this that makes the layer more or less stable. The aspect of the colloquial layer of words is its lively spoken character. It is this that makes it unstable, fleeting.
Dwell on the stylistic differentiation of the English and Ukrainian vocabulary.
The vocabulary of the English language consists of three main layers, literary, neutral, and collegial. Literary layer maybe subdivided into common literary words, terms, poetic words, archaic words, barbarism and foreign words, neologisms. Within the collegial vocabulary we distinguish: common collegial words slang jargons, professional words, dialectical words, vulgar words. The neutral layer can be found both in the literary and collegial vocabulary and has no stylistic coloring common literary words have a neutral character to begin, to eat, child, food, money, and prison. Terms – are words denoting nations of special fields of knowledge. Ex: linguistics phoneme, amplitude, anode, electron pain, and antibiotic. Archaic words are those which are not used now, expect special purposes thee, thy, hath (has) makert (make), whay (no). Barbarisms are words, which came into the English vocabulary from other languages and have retained their spelling in pronunciation. In many cases they have English synonyms chic (stylish), bon mot (a clever saying) adieu (good buy). Another group of barbarisms are foreign words, easy to recognize through spelling: en blena (well) voila (there you are) c`estca (that’s it) allez (come on). The stylistic function of barbarisms and foreign words is to create local coloring.
Neologism appear when there is the need to express new ideas and nations. They are produced in accordance with the existing word – building models of the English language.
Professions may not understand the jargons. Exam (examination), maths (mathematics), prof (profession), a big gun (an important person), a sewing machine (machine gun), an egg (an inexperienced aviator).
Professional words are the words used in certain spheres of human activity, mining industry: picks, (parts of mining device, tool) remote (a distant drift) sea: tin – fish (submarine) sparks (radior operator).
The function of the professionalism are different to characterize the speech of a person, to make, the description more realistic and precise. Dialectical words are such words that are connected with a certain area on region. Ex: a lass (a girl or beloved) a lad (a boy or young man) daft (unsound, silly) all of them belong to Scottish dialect and: volk (folk, zee (see) – Southern dialect. Irish: nurley – (hockey), colcen – (girl). Vulgar words – are words market by coarseness of speech or expression they or offensive, indecent.
The vocabulary of Uk. language is stylistically various. According to the sphere of usage we distinguish 2 groups of words: stylistically neutral vocabulary, stylistically marked vocabulary. The latter in its turn splits into bookish (scientific, official, newspaper-publicistic) and colloquial. Stylistically neutral V.: words which are not fixed to some style. It can be used everywhere: in books or magazine, at the conference or meeting, in works of art or in a private letter. Neutral words can name concrete objects, phenomena, abstract notions, features of objects, action. Neutral words constitute the basis of uk. language’s V. They dominate in a text of any style. Bookish V.: words which are used mostly in written types of literary language. Most of them belong to foreign V. or have borrowed stems. Bookish V. can be subdivided into scientific, business-official, newspaper-publicistic. In lexical system of scientific style one singles out so-called general-scientific V used in any of scientific sphere: research, hypothesis, condition, interpretation. Business-official V. prevails in official documents. The main groups of such V. are the names of official papers – statement, instruction, report, explanatory note, record of proceedings; nomenclature names (names of institutions, officials, ministry, Prosecutor-General). Newspaper-publicistic V: 1) social-political V – democracy, publicity, tolerance. 2) the words which have some solemnity, ponderability, inspiration, immortality, grandeur. Colloquial V. is the third stylistic layer of ukr. V. These are the words which have lower (in comparison with neutral V.) stylistic colouring and are used in oral types of language – natural conversation, everyday communication. For example: chatterbox - базіка, heavy hammer - балда, disorder - гармидер, aslant - набакир, hateful - осоружний, tufts of hair - патли, hiding – прочухан. Colloquial words give the language unofficial sounding, so they are inadmissible for business-official and scientific styles however they can be used in publicism and fiction.
Speak on the functional styles of the English and Ukrainian.
A Functional style of language is a system of interrelated language means, which serves a definite aim in communication. Functional styles appear mainly in the literary language. In the English literary language we distinguish the following major Functional Styles (FS).
The language of belle lettre худож-ная проза. The language of publicistic literatures. The language of newspapers. The language of scientific prose.The language of official documents.
Each FS may be characterized by a number of distinctive features and each FS maybe subdivided into a number of sub styles. For example, the belle letre style has the following sub styles: The language style of poetry. The language style of emotive prose. The language style of drama.The most important feature of the poetic style is imagery, which gives rich additional information. This information is created by specific use of words and expressions. This information is to be conveyed through images. The language style of drama is entirely dialogues, but it is not the exact reproduction of oral speech.
Publicistic style of language also may be divided into three sub styles: Oratorical substyle. Radio and TV substyle. Essays the language style of articles. Publicistic style has features in common, with style scientific prose and at the same time has features in common with the emotive prose. The essay. The most characteristic language features of the essay are as follows: 1. The prorate of expression. 2. The use of first person singular. 3. Expanded use of connectives. 4. Abundant use of emotive words.
Newspaper style. The English newspaper style may be defined as a system of lexical, phraseological, grammatical means, aimed at serving the purpose of informing and instructing the reader. In the English newspapers the information is conveyed in the form of Brief new items. Information articles. Press reports. Advertisements, announcements.
Scientific prose style. In the scientific prose style maybe subdivided into the following substyles: The language of business documents. The language of legal documents. The language of diplomacy. The language of military documents.
Highly-developed modern literary ukr. language has ramified system of styles: colloquial, artistic, scientific and publicistic. All styles have oral and written forms. Colloquial style. The sphere of usage – oral everyday communication in a family life, in manufacturing. The main aim – to be a mean of influence and natural intercourse, exchange of ideas, feelings, judgements, clarification of industrial and everyday relations. Artistic style: This is the greatest and the most powerful style of ukr. language. Artistic style is widely used in creative activity, different types of art, in culture and education. With the exception of informative function this type of style also performs the most essential – aesthetic: to have an influence by means of artistic word through the system of images on mind, feeling, to form ideological convictions, moral qualities and aesthetic tastes. The major features: the most important feature – imagery, poetical painting, the aesthetics of communication, expression as intensity of expressing (solemn, polite, sweet, gentle, familiar, joyful, rough). Scientific style. The sphere of usage – scientific activity, education. The main goal – giving data about a person, society, phenomena of a nature, argumentation of hypothesis, classification of knowledge. The main features: clearness of concepts, logical order, generalization of concepts and phenomena, objective analysis, argumentation and persuasiveness of affirmations, detailed conclusions. Publicistic style The sphere of usage: public-political, social-manufacturing, cultural-educational activity, education. The main purposes: with a help of informational-propagandistic methods to solve important, actual, social-political problems. active influence upon a reader, propaganda of certain ideas, convictions, theories and active agitation. The main features: accessibility of language and formation (orientation for the public at large). combination of logical arguments and polemical summary, presence of set of bright means of positive or negative author’s interpretation, which wears mostly tendentious character, wide usage of artistic devices (epithets, similes, metaphors, hyberboles).
Speak on basic sound effects and their stylistic value: onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance.
There is one thing to be taken into account which, in a certain type of communication plays an important role. This is the way a word, a phrase or a sentence sounds.
Verier St Woolman, one of the founders of the theory of sound symbolism claimed that a certain sound when pronounced clearly and strong has special meaning and feeling. For example the sound [d], when repeated often may produce an effect of something evil, negative and wicked.
The sound of a word, or more exactly the way words sound in combination, often contributes something to the general effect of the message, particularly when the sound effect has been deliberately worked out.
The aesthetiс effect of the text is composed not only with the help of sounds and prosody, but with the help of sounds and prosody together with the meaning.
To influence aesthetically the sound part of the text should somehow be highlightened. An author can increase an emotional and aesthetic effect of his work through choosing the words, their arrangement and repetitions.
1. Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is a combination of speech sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc. – splash, bubble, rustle, whistle) by things (machines or tools, etc. - buzz) by people (singing, laughter, yawning, roar, giggle) and animals (moo, bleat, croak - frog).
There are two varieties of onomatopoeia: direct and indirect.
Direct onomatopoeia is contained in words that imitate natural sounds, as thud, bowwow, ding-dong, buzz, bang, ‘cuckoo. These words have different degrees of ‘imitative quality.
e.g. And now there came the chop-chop of wooden hammers.
Indirect onomatopoeia is a combination of sounds the aim of which is to make the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. It is sometimes called "echo writing". Indirect onomatopoeia is sometimes effectively used by repeating words which themselves are not onomatopoetic but they contribute to the general impact of the utterance.
Onomatopoeia helps to create the vivid portrayal of the situation described, and the phonemic structure of the word is important for the creation of expressive and emotive connotations.
2. Alliteration and assonance
Alliteration is a phonetic stylistic device which aims at imparting a melodic effect to the utterance. The essence of this device lies in the repetition of similar sounds, in particular consonant sounds, in close succession, particularly at the beginning of successive words.
Alliteration has a long tradition in English poetry as Germanic and Anglo-Saxon poems were organized with its help. (Beowulf)
Assonance is the repetition of similar stressed vowels within the line or stanza.
“… Tell this soul, with sorrow laden, if within the distant Aiden,
I shall clasp a sainted maiden, whom the angels name Lenore… (E. A. Poe)”
Alliteration, like most phonetic expressive means, does not bear any lexical or other meaning.
Specify different forms of literary discourse presentation: narration, description, dialogue, represented speech. Compositional forms.
Narration refers to the way that a story is told, and so belongs to the level of discourse. The different kinds of narration are categorized by each one's primary grammatical stance: either 1) the narrator speaks from within the story and, so, uses "I" to refer to him- or herself (see first-person narration); in other words, the narrator is a character of some sort in the story itself, even if he is only a passive observer; or 2) the narrator speaks from outside the story and never employs the "I" (see third-person narration).
Description is one of four rhetorical modes (also known as modes of discourse), along with exposition, argumentation, and narration. Each of the rhetorical modes is present in a variety of forms and each has its own purpose and conventions.
Description is also the fiction-writing mode for transmitting a mental image of the particulars of a story.
Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English[1]) is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people.
Represented speech is a stylistic device that may be used only in literature, when the author reports the thoughts of the character and it looks like thinking aloud.
Compositional form refers to how a musical composition is structured. There are many different forms in the world, and I'm not going to touch on all of them here; however, here are some examples of common forms:
Binary: AB Ternary: ABA Baroque: AABB In these forms, the letters represent themes in a musical composition.
Speak on the Stylistic analysis on the graphic level.
In contemporary advertising, mass media and, above all, imaginative prose sound is foregrounded mainly through the change of its accepted graphical representation. This intentional violation of the graphical shape of a word (or word combination) used to reflect its authentic pronunciation is called graphon.
Graphons, indicating irregularities or carelessness of pronunciation were occasionally introduced into English novels and journalism as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century and since then have acquired an ever growing frequency of usage, popularity among writers, journalists, advertizers, and a continuously widening scope of functions.
Graphon proved to be an extremely concise but effective means of supplying information about the speaker’s origin, social and educational background, physical or emotional condition, etc.
Graphon, thus individualizing the character’s speech, adds to his plausibility, vividness, memorability. At the same time, graphon is very good at conveying the atmosphere of authentic live communication, of the informality of the speech act. Some amalgamated forms, which are the result of strong assimilation, became cliches in contemporary prose dialogue: “gimme” (give me), “lemme” (let me), “gonna” (going to), “gotta” (got to), “coupla” (couple of), “mighta” (might have), “willya” (will you), etc.
Graphical changes may reflect not only the peculiarities of, pronunciation, but are also used to convey the intensity of the stress, emphasizing and thus foregrounding the stressed words. To such purely graphical means, not involving the violations, we should refer all changes of the type (italics, capitalization), spacing of graphemes (hyphenation, multiplication) and of lines.
According to the frequency of usage, variability of functions, the first place among graphical means of foregrounding is occupied by italics. Besides italicizing words, to add to their logical or emotive significance, separate syllables and morphemes may also be emphasized by italics (which is highly characteristic of D. Salinger or T. Capote). Intensity of speech (often in commands) is transmitted through the multiplication of a grapheme or capitalization of the word.
Summing up the informational options of the graphical arrangement of a word (a line, a discourse), one sees their varied application for recreating the individual and social peculiarities of the speaker, the atmosphere of the communication act — all aimed at revealing and emphasizing the author’s viewpoint.
Syntactic SD. Different syntactical phenomena may serve as an expressive stylistic means. Its expressive effect may be based on the absence of logically required components of speech - parts of the sentence, formal words or on the other hand on a superabundance of components of speech.
Ellipsis. Elliptical sentences are sentences in which one or more words are omitted, leaving the full form to be understood by the reader or hearer. e.g. I beg your pardon, sir. Didn’t know. Sorry to have bothered you.”
Aposiopesis is found in sentences unfinished logically or structurally due to which the expression of the thought conveyed is limited to a hint. e.g. “If you don’t give me your signature when I come back tomorrow …”(implies threat).
One member sentences are those which have no separate subject and predicate but only one main part. This main part may be expressed by a noun (so-called nominal sentences) or an infinitive (infinitive sentences). e.g. To be alive! To have youth and the world before one!
Zeugma is a figure of speech in which a verb or adjective does duty with two or sometimes more than two nouns and to only one of which it is strictly applicable. Zeugma is based on polysemy, often on the literal and figurative meanings of a word e.g. then came fish and silence.
Superabundance of Components of Speech may be found in different types of repetition and in the emphatic construction.
1. Simple reiteration is limited to the repetition of the same word, phrase or sentence though not necessarily in one sentence or even paragraph, it may be found in much larger syntactical units. 2. The repetition of the root is a special type of reiteration in which only the root of the word and not the full word is repeated. e.g. To live again in the youth of the young (a tinge of regret for fast passing youth). 3. Framing is a type of repetition, when the same word or words, standing at the beginning of the sentence or syntactical unit are repeated at the end of it. e.g. Those kids were getting it all right, with busted heads and bleeding faces – those kids were getting it. 6. Polysyndeton is the repetition of the conjunction or some other formal word before each following homogeneous part of the sentence. It serves as a means of distinguishing each part by isolating them from each other and at the same time connecting them into one sense unit. e.g. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. 7. Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of clauses, sentences, periods, or in poetry at the beginning of lines, stanzas. e.g. “Why didn’t you dare it before?” he asked harshly. “when I hadn’t a job ? When I was starving? 8. Epiphora is the repetition of the same word or words at the end of two or more succeeding clauses, sentences, verses etc. e.g. It’s their wealth and security that makes everything possible makes your art possible, makes literature, science, even religion possible (Galsworthy).
Synonymic Repetition is a peculiar type of repetition consisting in the use of synonymous means to express the same idea. Emphatic Constructions are sentences with the anticipatory “it” which serves to stress any part of the sentence.e.g. It was Winifred who went up to him. e.g. It was while passing through Moulsey lock that Harris told me about his maze experience. Rhetoric questions is a widely used expressive means. It is an affirmative or negative statement in the form of the question. It is emotionally coloured, is distinct from an ordinary question which is asked to draw forth some information, the rhetoric question does not require any answer; e.g. What will not necessity do? Inversion always brings about either change in the logical content of the sentence, or lends an additional emotional colouring to the narration. Enumeration is another expressive means which consists in naming over various qualities or recounting different objects or actions with the purpose of giving a many-sided artistic characterization to the phenomenon described. Represented speech is a form of utterance which renders the actual words of the speaker through the mouth of the writer retaining the peculiarities of the speaker’s manner of expression. There are two varieties of represented speech: Uttered represented speech is employed in belles-letter style and newspaper style.
Unuttered (inner) represented speech renders the thoughts and feelings of the character he does not express aloud.
Dwell on modern models of communication8. Shannon's Model of the Communication Process
Shannon's (1948) model of the communication process is, in important ways, the beginning of the modern field. It provided, for the first time, a general model of the communication process that could be treated as the common ground of such diverse disciplines as journalism, rhetoric, linguistics, and speech and hearing sciences. Part of its success is due to its structuralist reduction of communication to a set of basic constituents that not only explain how communication happens, but why communication sometimes fails.
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Figure 1: Shannon's (1948) Model of the communication process. |
Shannon's model, as shown in Figure 1, breaks the process of communication down into eight discrete components:
An information source.
The message, which is both sent by the information source and received by the destination.
A transmitter. The first, the mouth (sound) and body (gesture), create and modulate a signal. The second layer, which might also be described as a channel, is built of the air (sound) and light (gesture) that enable the transmission of those signals from one person to another.
The signal, which flows through a channel. There may be multiple serial signals, with sound and/or gesture turned into electronic signals, radio waves, or words and pictures in a book.
A carrier or channel. The most commonly used channels include air, light, electricity, radio waves, paper, and postal systems.
Noise, in the form of secondary signals that obscure or confuse the signal carried.
A receiver. In face to face communication a set of ears (sound) and eyes (gesture). In television, several layers of receiver, including an antenna and a television set.
A destination. Presumably a person who consumes and processes the message.
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Figure 3: An Intermediary Model. |
Variations of Figure 3's gatekeeper model are also used in teaching organizational communication, where gatekeepers, in the form of bridges and liaisons, have some ability to shape the organization through their selective sharing of information. These variations are generally more complex in depiction and often take the form of social network diagrams that depict the interaction relationships of dozens of people. There are two elaborations of Shannon's model: the interactive model and the transactive model. The interactive model, a variant of which is shown in Figure 4, elaborates Shannon's model. The key concept associated with this elaboration is that destinations provide feedback on the messages they receive such that the information sources can adapt their messages, in real time. This is an important elaboration, and as generally depicted, a radically oversimplified one. Feedback is a message (or a set of messages). The source of feedback is an information source. The consumer of feedback is a destination. Feedback is transmitted, received, and potentially disruptable via noise sources.
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Figure 4: An Interactive Model: |
The Theory of Speech acts.
According to Searle to understand language one must understand the speaker’s intention. Since language is an intentional behavior it should be treated like a form of action. Searle refers to statement like speech acts. The Speech act is a basic unit of language used to express meaning that is an utterance that expresses our intention. Normally a speech act is a sentence but it can also be a word or a phrase. To understand the speaker’s intention we must capture the meaning of the statement. There are 4 types of speech acts:
Utterance acts
Prepositional acts
Elocutionary acts (promises, questions, or commands)
Perlocutionary acts is the behavioral response from the listener
Speech act theory has contributed to the rules of communication because it provides a basis for examining what happens when speaker’s use different communication and behavioral rules.
Communication process and its elements
Various elements work together to achieve a desired outcome as communication takes place. The basic components or parts of the communication system are: the communicators (sender and receiver), message channel, feedback, noise, situation, and the interdependence of all the elements in the process. By that they are interrelated and work systematically.
SOURCE
The source of the communication transaction is the originator of the message. Also known as the sender of information, the source initiates the communication process. In speech communication, we can identify the source to be the speaker, the one delivering the message. In daily life situations we are all sources of information as we relate to others and speak our ideas to them. We are both a source of message, consciously and unconsciously.
MESSAGE
In the simplest sense, a message may be thought of as an idea, concept, emotion, desire, or feeling that a person desires to share with another human being. A message may be in verbal or non-verbal codes. The purpose of a message is to evoke meaning in another person. Some messages are intentional some are not.
CHANNEL
A channel is the means by which a message moves from a person to another. The channel is the medium or vehicle by which we are able to transmit the message to the recipient. The means we use to communicate is the channel. The country’s president to deliver his message to his fellowmen may speak face to face with an audience, via the broadcast media or via print. Language is the basic medium of communication available to man.
RECEIVER
The receiver gets the message channeled by the source of information. In a one way communication process, he is in the other end. But in a dynamic communication process the receiver may start to share his ideas and hence become also a source of information for the originator of the message. Listeners and audience are receivers of information. In a classroom situation, the students spend a lot of time as receivers of information.
EFFECT
Feedback is that integral part of the human communication process that allows the speaker to monitor the process and to evaluate the success of an attempt to get the desired response from the receiver. Also called “return signals,” it has a regulatory effect upon the speaker since the speaker must adjust to the feedback responses in order to be successful. In a public communication situation, the response of acceptance of the audience with their applause may be considered a feedback.
NOISE Noise may occur anywhere along the communication line, and it may be physical, physiological, or psychological in nature. Noise is any interference in the communication process. Annoying vocal habits of the speaker may interfere in the transmission of his verbal signals. Noise as a barrier may originate from the source or the receiver, from the channel used in sending the message, or outside of the source and receiver’s control. The poor listening of the audience and their unnecessary actions may also interfere in the communication process.
CONTEXT Communication does not take place in a vacuum. Between communicators, the process takes place in a particular communication situation where the identifiable elements of the process work in a dynamic interrelation. This situation is referred to as the context - the when and where of a communication event. Communication contexts vary depending on the need, purpose, number of communicators and the ways exchange is taking place. Communication can be intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, organizational, cultural, public or mediated.
Knowing the elements of communication leads to a more meaningful understanding of the processes that make it work. We communicate and we know it is important for us. To communicate effectively, we need to have an understanding of how these elements work together in a process.
Peculiarities of cross-cultural communication
The key to effective cross-cultural communication is knowledge. First, it is essential that people understand the potential problems of cross-cultural communication, and make a conscious effort to overcome these problems. Second, it is important to assume that one’s efforts will not always be successful, and adjust one’s behavior appropriately.
For example, one should always assume that there is a significant possibility that cultural differences are causing communication problems, and be willing to be patient and forgiving, rather than hostile and aggressive, if problems develop. One should respond slowly and carefully in cross-cultural exchanges, not jumping to the conclusion that you know what is being thought and said.
William Ury’s suggestion for heated conflicts is to stop, listen, and think, or as he puts it "go to the balcony" when the situation gets tense. By this he means withdraw from the situation, step back, and reflect on what is going on before you act. This helps in cross cultural communication as well. When things seem to be going badly, stop or slow down and think. What could be going on here? Is it possible I misinterpreted what they said, or they misinterpreted me? Often misinterpretation is the source of the problem.
Active listening can sometimes be used to check this out–by repeating what one thinks he or she heard, one can confirm that one understands the communication accurately. If words are used differently between languages or cultural groups, however, even active listening can overlook misunderstandings.
Often intermediaries who are familiar with both cultures can be helpful in cross-cultural communication situations. They can translate both the substance and the manner of what is said. For instance, they can tone down strong statements that would be considered appropriate in one culture but not in another, before they are given to people from a culture that does not talk together in such a strong way. They can also adjust the timing of what is said and done. Some cultures move quickly to the point; others talk about other things long enough to establish rapport or a relationship with the other person. If discussion on the primary topic begins too soon, the group that needs a "warm up" first will feel uncomfortable. A mediator or intermediary who understands this can explain the problem, and make appropriate procedural adjustments.
Yet sometimes intermediaries can make communication even more difficult. If a mediator is the same culture or nationality as one of the disputants, but not the other, this gives the appearance of bias, even when none exists. Even when bias is not intended, it is common for mediators to be more supportive or more understanding of the person who is of his or her own culture, simply because they understand them better. Yet when the mediator is of a third cultural group, the potential for cross-cultural misunderstandings increases further. In this case engaging in extra discussions about the process and the manner of carrying out the discussions is appropriate, as is extra time for confirming and re-confirming understandings at every step in the dialogue or negotiating process.