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The subject of stylistics.
Linguistic stylistics is a newly developing branch of linguistic science which is thought to go back to ancient rhetoric and poetics. Much has been contributed to it by Russian, Soviet and foreign scholars (филологи). Among them Ломоносов, Виноградов, Пешковский, Ахманова, И.Р. Гальперин, И.В. Арнольд, Charles Bally, Middleton Murry, Ullmann, and others…
‘Style’ in a broad sense of the word concerns many spheres of our life. The term ’Style’ applied in linguistics has several meanings. Here are some of them:
A) literary genre (for example, style of romanticism)
B) author's individual style, manner of writing (Hemingway's style)
C) technique of expression (he writes in a clear style)
Before we decide what problems Stylistics deals with let us analyze some other widely known definitions of STYLE :
‘Style is a quality of language which communicates precisely emotions and thoughts or a system of emotions and thoughts peculiar to the author’ (Murry).
‘Style is a contextually restricted linguistic variation (Nils Eric Enkvist);’;
‘Style is a product of individual choices and patterns of choices among linguistic possibilities’ (Seymour Chatman).
The functioning of language in different spheres of human activity with different communicative tasks, in various communicative situations causes linguistic variation - вариативность.
The fact is that any idea can be expressed in many different ways..
Buy – purchase – get
Покупать – buy – neutral; purchase – bookish, literary mostly used in business; Foreign investers are not permitted to purchase land. get – colloquial : Our car is on its last legs. – it’s time we got a new one. As for the word buy, though it is neutral it is not to be used in advertising and is replaced by words and expressions that denote possession: have, if it’s yours, you deserve it, it’ll be your best, etc). Therefore, in a particular situation of communication, the speaker or writer will have to make a choice.
The properties of style mentioned in the definitions were summed up by the famous French scholar Charles Bally who claims that stylistics studies synonymous language resources and their adequate functioning.
We are motivated by some particular principles in choosing a particular word, phrase, grammar forms or phonetic pattern from among other synonymous possibilities
The verb to die – доминанта – neutral: its synonyms are: expire – bookish, literary, used in formal communication; pass away – euphemism, polite; to go euphemism; to go to one's last home - a phraseological euphemism ; meet one's Maker – in religious discourse it sounds elevated, in other cases it may sound humorous, jocular; to kick the bucket – informal, humorous, to snuff It – informal, humorous,or to peg out - informal British, etc.
Your Excellency – used to address an ambassador. Your Majesty – to address a monarch, Your Royal Highness – to address a prince or princess.
(Episode in Spasa House, residence of the US Ambassador in Russia, told by Tomakhin. ‘It’s my wife who is excellent here’ these were the jocular words of the official who was left by the ambassador in charge of the party, said with a smile in answer to the formal greeting of professor Tomakhin : Good afternoon, your Excellency!)
If we offer someone to sit down we can say: Take a seat – mostly in a theatre; or May I offer you a chair? - very polite and formal. Please, be seated – to a large audience on a formal occasion. Sit! – to a dog if you want it to sit down. Have a seat – to someone who has to wait for a few minutes. A set phrase Take the weight off you feet means sit down and rest. For example: Take the weight off you feet and have a coffee. ( Can you imagine confusing all those and saying ‘ Take the weight off your feet to a large audience’ on a formal occasion? )
The choice in this case depends on the situational conditions of the communication act.
Let us compare two other utterances:
He made his mother very unhappy – He broke his mother’s heart. The two utterances have the same denotative meaning, but different stylistic values. The first one presents the fact objectively while the second one with its metaphorical, figurative expression Broke his mother’s heart is emotionally loaded and expressive.
If we assume that style is the result of a motivated choice, it follows that we must decide what linguistic and extralinguistic factors predetermine the choice and arrangement of language means when we speak or write. Here are the main factors:
Let us go back to the first factor –
1. the aim of communication. There is always some aim when we speak or write. According to the aim of communication and the function of language means (языковые средства) professor Гальперин divides the language into a system of sublanguages/sub-styles:
The belles-lettres style due to its functions is characterized by a certain system of language means which conform to the aim and norms of this style.
the readers
added to the ones mentioned above.
A) on the lexical level: terms, other groups of literary words, sometimes archaic words especially adverbs and conjunctions (therein – in a particular place, thereupon – immediately after smth else happens; instead of spoken ‘ a bit the literary to some extent and not its colloquial synonym “a bit” (Russian– в некоторой степени| чуть-чуть)
B) in grammar: impersonal sentences and passive constructions.
There are several substyles of the style of official documents. They are:
Other linguists have other classifications. Thus, I.V. Arnold singles out four styles:
Poetic style
Scientific style
Newspaper style
Colloquial style. But she overlooks the style of official intercourse.
Galperin I.R. does not include into the system colloquial style because his definition of functional style excludes colloquial language. According to Galperin I.R., the functional style is a system of interrelated language means within the English literary language which serve a definite aim of communication.
As professor Skrebnev writes “The mastery of sublanguages is akin to speaking several languages”.
2 . the form of communication. There is a tendency to regard the Spoken variety of language as less polished than written language and somehow less fully structured. Spoken language tends to be more informal. The problem of varieties of language (spoken/written) and their peculiarities is studied in this course of Stylistics.
3. The situational conditions of the communicative act have very much to do with the choice and arrangement of language means in the corresponding utterance. The different relationships that exist between us and our audience in different situations will lead us to modify our language. Our language must fit in with circumstances.
Ex. George Bernard Shaw, the famous British playwright, in his lecture about the English language said that English was so different. If you are in the street without a watch and you want to know the time, you will stop a passer-by and politely enquire: Excuse me, could you tell me the time, please? But if you are at home and you want to know the time and you will say to your wife: Excuse, me, could you tell me the time, please? She will think I have gone mad, because it would have been common in those circumstances to say ‘What clock’s’t? – (What clock is it?).
The age and sex, the state of mind of the addresser as well as the addressee are also important factors of language variation.
4. the degree of formality. The more casual the situation is in which we find ourselves, the more likely we are to select a less formal type of language. The famous linguist Martin Joos in his book "The Five Clocks" presents the range of language variation depending on the scale of formality as 5 registers.
A more widespread classification comprises three registers: formal, neutral and informal.
Ex. 1
To be competent in the use of English includes a capacity to select the register that is appropriate for the situation in which we find ourselves.
5 The degree of expressiveness is another important factor. It is closely related to the writer’s intentions and feelings, which affect the stylistic quality of the text or utterance. This quality manifests itself in emotionally coloured units, expressive means and stylistic devices. Thus, Stylistics studies expressive means and stylistic devices: phonetic, lexico-phraseological, syntactical and graphical.
They are employed in those spheres of speech that aim to impress – poetry, fiction, oratory, advertising, in some genres of mass media. Let us analyze the headline of a newspaper article:
a) ‘A beautiful new swan spreads her wings’. From the context it is clear that it means ‘A new ballet dancer starts her career’. The metaphor SWAN and the phrase SPREADS HER WINGS suggest that the dancer was as beautiful and graceful as a swan, and also that she was prepared to start her career as a dancer. The headline aims to impress the reader, by arousing fresh association and appealing to the reader’s feelings.
One more example. It is from ‘Gone with the Wind’ by Margaret Mitchel. It is in the author’s description of Melanie.
b) ‘Melanie looked and was as good as bread, as simple as earth, as transparent as spring water.. The device of parallel constructions enriched by the device of very expressive simile in each component part, helps the author to appeal to the readers’ minds and feelings and convince them of Melanie’s kindness, purity and really good nature.
Thus, to sum up, Stylistics studies
1) varieties of language – spoken and written, and their peculiarities;
2) functional styles of the English language, their typical features
and interrelation of the styles;
3) stylistic differentiation of the English vocabulary;
4) expressive means and stylistic devices, their stylistic functions;
5) the problem of the English literary norm and deviations from the norm. (Example – the title of the musical “Me and My Girl” which was on at Adelphie Theatre in London. The perfectly correct wording would have been ‘My Girl and I’, another possibility which is more informal is ‘My Girl and Me’. The choice of the first one - a deviant grammar form - was motivated by the fact that the girl of the title is a Cockney.
(but the norms are getting more and more flexible. For example, emmachisit? = How much is it?)
Stylistics also studies the individual manner of an author in making use of language.
What should be taken into consideration in the study of Stylistics ? They are the following aspects:
The main aims of a course in Stylistics are as follows:
firstly, Stylistic analysis broadens theoretical horizons of a language learner, teaches them the skill of competent reading, adequate translation and the rules of situational use of language;
Secondly, it develops the learner’s skill in shaping certain information into a message.
Among fundamental, basic concepts of linguistic stylistics are those that were mentioned in the previous lectures. They are registers of language, functional styles, expressive means, stylistic devices. Other basic concepts are:
1) stylistic neutrality and stylistic colouring, 2) the norm and deviations from the norm, 3) language- as -a system and language in action, 4) connotation, 5) foregrounding.
(to be discussed in the lecture to follow)
Varieties of language.
The spoken/written variety. The spoken variety is primary. It has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages it is richer due to intonation, gestures, mimics, which contribute a great deal to the success of the communication. But you must have an interlocutor. Disadvantages – you don't have an opportunity to change or correct what you've said. The written variety: There is no interlocutor, but you can improve or change what you have put on paper. A disadvantage of this form of communication is absence of intonation, prosodic features (speed, tempo and loudness of the utterance). There are other features of these two varieties.
Each variety has its own language peculiarities:
|
Spoken variety |
Written variety |
Here are some of them:
these morphological peculiarities may be regarded as typical of some territorial or social dialect. or as violation of grammar norms caused by a certain carelessness of colloquial speech or by an excited state of mind of the speaker, or the speaker may be very angry or drunk.
as signs of hesitation (mumbling words)
The phrase Do you mind!!! (With the falling tone) can show that the person is annoyed – видишь, что ты наделал!! . –Or in a brief dialogue -You've been rude recently. –When have I been rude? Which means I've never been rude. – here present perfect is used after ‘when’ so grammar of spoken English is idiomatic as well as lexis. |
|
Stylistic differentiation of the English vocabulary.
The division of the English language into 2 varieties
(spoken and written) was accompanied by stylistic differentiation of the English vocabulary.
The matter is that the written variety is characterized by the use of typically literary/bookish words. Thus we can speak about the literary layer of words – литературный пласт. The spoken variety is characterized by the use of colloquial words having a lively, spoken character.
The majority of words make up the neutral layer. They form the bulk of the English vocabulary. It consists of words and phrases which have a universal character – they can be used in both written and spoken varieties. They're the most stable words. They do not change much in the course of time. They are words like TABLE, Buy, TAKE, Man, CHILD which are stylistically neutral. It means they have no stylistic colouring.
The literary layer is made up of words and phrases that are more or less stable.
Colloquial words are not considered to be stable.
In the centre – most frequently used words. The farther from the centre – the more specified the word is.
The layers overlap because the vocabulary of a language presents a system. When words from colloquial layer become more stable and more widely used not only in oral speech but in writing, they can penetrate into the neutral layer.
The literary layer can be divided into common literary vocabulary (общеупотребительная литературная лексика) and special literary vocabulary (стилистически ограниченная лексика).
The colloquial layer: is made up of common colloquial vocabulary (общеупотребительная разговорная лексика) and special colloquial vocabulary (специальная разговорная лексика; фамильярно-разговорная; нелитературная лексика; субколлоквиальная лексика).
Neutral words together with common literary and common colloquial words constitute Standard English vocabulary (нормативная; общеупотребительная лексика).
On the outskirts of the lexical system are special literary and special colloquial words and phrases.
Special literary vocabulary includes:
terms
archaic and historical words
poeticisms and highly literary words
barbarisms (сохраняют иностранное произношение и написание) and foreign words
literary coinages (words created by the speaker/author – they seem very new) and nonce words – авторские неологизмы.
Special colloquial vocabulary includes:
slang
jargon
professionalisms – what people use in casual settings to avoid using terms
vulgarisms
dialect words
Special layers are restricted in their usage.
Standard English Vocabulary
Standard English vocabulary consists of neutral, common literary and common colloquial words and expressions..
Neutral words have a universal character; they can be used in spoken and written language. They are the most stable units and do not change much in the course of time. Their frequency is very high. Besides, they are stylistically neutral : they have no stylistic colouring, no positive or negative connotation, they are not marked by any labels in dictionaries. They are polysemantic and some of their meanings may be stylistically coloured. Let us analyse the semantic structure of the adjective ‘mean’.
Neutral words are the main source of polysemy and synonymy. They are apt to generate new stylistic variants. nut – head, cool (прохладный) – excellent.
Although neutral words are devoid of stylistic colouring, in some contexts they may acquire it. Example from The Airport by Arthur Hailey. When Roberta being angry with her father reveals it in her choice of the word FATHER addressing him, not Dad or Daddy. She intentionally repeats it several times so that her father, being annoyed with it, says: ‘and stop calling me father!’
Common literary vocabulary is more or less stable, with a bookish character: purchase, arrive at a decision. Such words can either show respect or establish a longer distance between the speaker and the addressee. In formal situations they may suggest that the speaker is above the others. In casual or intimate registers common literary words may sound funny and out of place. When used inappropriately, they may cause humor.
A good example of it is in The Pygmalion by B. Shaw, when Eliza Dolittle having learnt to speak about the weather was on her first visit for afternoon tea to the mother of professor Higgins. Mrs. Higgins asked Eliza ‘conversationally : ‘Will it rain do you think?
The answer was: ‘The shallow depression in the west of these islands is likely to move slowly in an easterly direction. There are no indications of any great change in the barometrical situation’. The highly formal words and grammar patterns would sound appropriate in a formal register, but not in this casual setting of an afternoon tea-gathering where these bookish words are entirely out of place.
That is why Freddy, a young man who was there, exclaimed: Ha! Ha! How awfully funny!
Eliza’s immediate reaction was not as refined or polite as her speech about the weather. She said: What is wrong with that, young man? I bet I got it right! ‘
What followed was in sharp contrast with the common literary words and terms of her speech about the weather –they were cockney words (do sb in = kill, pinch= steal, etc.) Also Grammar of uneducated speech.
--- My aunt died of influenza: so they said …. But it’s my belief they done the old woman in. … What become of her new straw hat that should have come to me? Somebody pinched it.’
When she was asked who had done it, she said: ‘ …them as pinched it done her in.’ Thus, the conversation sounds extremely funny and humorous due to the sharp contrast between firstly -a) casual register of the question and formal register of Eliza’s speech; secondly - b) perfectly correct and formal wording of her speech and non-literary words of Cockney, informal, uneducated forms of grammar; thirdly - c) the traditionally British subject- matter of the weather (at the beginning) and a very personal topic ( not traditionally acceptable in polite conversation in Britain). Contrast, as a rule, is a powerful means of creating stylistic devices.
Common colloquial vocabulary is mostly used in the spoken variety, it is rather unstable. Common colloquial words have a distinct lively, spoken character. They are emotionally coloured and are marked in dictionaries as spoken/informal. Those that are on the borderline with neutral words may have no stylistic label in dictionaries. Such words have a tendency to penetrate into the neutral layer. Example: Kid was a word of slang, now it is common colloquial. Or, the word Teenager was colloquial, now – neutral. Words are like living beings. Other examples are : to guess (Am) , to reckon, brainy (clever), to be a bit under the weather ( to be feeling slightly ill or depressed)
A great number of phrasal verbs are part of common colloquial vocabulary: to hook up – to get together, start a relationship, to pick up something- to buy smth, especially unexpectedly and smth cheap
Special literary vocabulary is made up of 5 groups.
All of them have common features:
they are used exclusively in the written language
they are restricted in their usage to certain types of texts
their frequency is rather low
used in inappropriate contexts they may create a comic effect (jocular, humorous, ironical, satirical, sarcastic)
Each group has a certain set of stylistic functions ( что такое функция – some additional information – for example, emotional, evaluative, expressive, humorous, embellishing, etc., which a language unit acquires in the process of its interaction with other units in a text, in other words in language –in – action.
TERMS Terms
Special functions of inappropriate usage
Archaic and historical words
Archaic words have been replaced in the course of time by modern English words (theeàyou; anonàat once; nayàno). Obsolescent – words that are sometimes used and are still recognizable – слова, выходящие из употребления.
Functions:
Poeticisms
Mostly used in poetry. To identify them: by stylistic labels – highly liter, lit., poet.
words of French and Latin origin clothesàgarment. Birches in their spring garment. Attire – наряд
poetic terms used only in poetry: steed, the eye of heavenß sun, the welkinß the sky; meadßmeadow (как злато-золото) – omission of a part of a word
compound words: night-long eyes
They are used
in poetry, to embellish the expression of an idea, (in The Bells by E Poe the word tintennabulation (изящный перезвон) But not all poets use poeticisms
in inappropriate contexts (in the casual setting or spoken variety )abodehighly literßhouse – обитель, welcome to my humble abode –is used as a means of creating humor
Barbarisms
words of foreign origin but which have not been fully assimilated and which have retained their foreign appearance chic – stylish. Chef – head cook, bon mot – a clever, witty saying, nee – maiden name
foreign words – entirely alien to the eng language. They don’t belong to the eng vocabulary. In the text they are generally italicized
terminological borrowings kolkhoz, kaphtan, tsar;, international musical terms solo, tenor – belong to literally bookish style.
Their functions:
Literally coinages (неологизмы) and nonce-words (авторские неологизмы).
Literally coinages are newly coined words which are created by journalists, poets and writers. They are fresh words, meant to suit one particular occasion. If the word is not accepted by the English speaking community, it remains a kind of nonce-word which is used by a particular author on a particular occasion. (like Mayakovskiy’s молоткастый, серпастый советский паспорт) But if the word is accepted it retains its freshness and novelty until it gets fixed in dictionaries and becomes a fact of the language. For example, this was the case with the word stardom –used in the meaning of ‘glory’ in the headline of an article ‘From Obscurity to Stardom. Explain it.
Кухаренко considered the term “occasionalism” better suited to these group of words.
They appear by means of word-building
|
Affixation |
Other means of word-building |
|||
|
suffixes |
prefixes |
Con version |
blending |
compound words |
|
-ness, -ise , -dom, - hood. New-Zealandness, villagise, sisterhood |
UN- Anti – anti-everything. Anti-hero |
to wild (as a verb) in The young men are wilding I am wived it Texas, mother-in-lawed, uncled, aunted Nonce -w The haves The have-nots |
Parts of 2 words are put together: Oxbridge (Oxbridge students – students of the two best British universities); Emoticon (emotion + icon) : ) (sth that makes you smile frienemy |
a mouse-potato (sb who sits at the computer all the time), couch- potato (sb on pension, watching TV and channel surfing) Words formed by analogy with commonly used words: to house- sit, ← to baby-sit Screenagers - similar to ←teenagers -young people who spend much of their time watching TV, sitting at their computers, using their mobile phones) |
Used to provide freshness and novelty of expression. Many of them bear a touch of humour: surface knowingness, ’The Smashingest birthday’ – the headline of an article about one hundredth birthday of the Mother Queen. They are usually used to attract the readers’ attention in mass media: headlines of articles, in slogans of advertisements, in poetry and some books of emotive prose.
The main groups of special colloquial vocabulary
Slang, jargon, vulgar words, professionalisms, dialect words. They all
possess common properties. These words and expressions are:
1.non-literally, below the level of Standard English, Their expressiveness ranges from humorous and jocular to rude and vulgar. Some of them have derogatory connotation and sound offensive
2 Extremely unstable, fleeting.
3 mostly used in the intimate, casual registers of oral communication.
4 in the speech of personages in books of fiction they have a stylistic
function of creating speech characteristics (речевые портреты).
5.The most striking differ-s between the national variants of the English language (British English, American E., Canadian English, Australian and New Zealand can be observed in the domain of special colloquial vocabulary.
6.The means of word-formation are very much the same:
neutral words developing new meanings, in most cases on the basis of metaphoric or metonymic mechanism of forming new words.
Coffin nail (the literal meaning гвоздь в гроб)developed the figurative meaning of bad habit(cigarette) on the basis of its metaphoric usage. Wheels – car (metonymic : part of smth implies the whole of it)
Other examples: Bag - a plain, unattractive woman (now an offensive and insulting word) Cool – excellent.
nut, loaf – head) dosh – money, bag(woman, esp about an old woman)
affixation - er, - or; - o, - oo. Fiver – (5) a pound-note. Tenner – ten pounds. Cooler – prison. Kiddo – kid, oldo – old (special coll. words)
reduplication boo-boo – an embarrassing mistake
Woop,Woop – in Australian informal English- a place that is far from any towns or cities
rhyming nitty-gritty (the base, main thing) of the question, boob tube –TV set,to party-hearty – to have a great time, funny money – money whose value changes often= illegal money (infml)
shortening, Various kinds of clippings., Doc, fridge, fella, hubby (husband), telly-TV set, ret –cigarette. Half a mo. Just a sec.
This type of word- formation is very popular in Australian English: – uni – university, journo – journalist. Example : She‘ll become a journo when she leaves the uni. Some clippings quickly become old-fashioned : fab (fabulous).
“Fab” is now old-fashioned.
Now let us concentrate on some peculiarities of each group.
(Eric Partridge, Маковский …
Some linguists use the term “slang” to refer to jargons and other groups of special colloquial vocabulary. It s important to distinguish between them.
There are several points of difference between slang and jargon.
1. While slang can be used by all social groups, jargon is restricted in its usage to particular social groups of people, such as young people, well-off people and on the other hand pickpockets, thieves, drug addicts, prisoners, etc.
2. Besides, slang words are understood by everybody, whereas jargon is aimed at preserving secrecy within a particular social or age groups of people.
Slang is used to denote those concepts that we come across in everyday life everyday (man, woman, girl, boy, money , work, etc ...)
It is a level of vocabulary phenomena which is extremely unstable. It does not live long.
For example: Awesome – extremely good (mainly used by young people now).
|
In the 40 ties |
wizard |
|
60 ties |
groovy, fab(ulous) |
|
70 ties |
cosmic |
|
80 ties |
brill, wicked |
|
90 ties |
Cool – impressive because it is fashionable or attractive |
It is important to remember that slang words in Britain, the USA, Australia do not always coincide.
Cockney rhyming slang (there are special dictionaries of rhyming slang
It is as a rule a combination of two or three words North and south in which the terminal component rhymes with the word which it can replace this highly idiomatic combination. Here it is the word MOUTH For example, He opened his North and South ); apples and pears – stairs, china plate – mate; mince pies – eyes; bacon and eggs – legs, battle and strife – wife.
They are extremely idiomatic, humorous, expressive and very popular in Australia. Not so much in America or Canada. In Britain rhyming slang was popular in the 1930ies. At present it is in the process of revival in humorous genres, in comedies, musicals and plays staged in theatres.
Example the play Me and My Girl (in Adelphi Theatre, London 1990ies)
We must always remember though that “slang is never respectable, when it becomes respectable it is no longer slang”.
Jargon
Is a considerable number of words and expressions which is restricted socially to a certain group of society. A kind of secret code within a social group of people: teenagers, students (Хвост вместо формального и неприятного академическая задолженность, formed on the basis of metaphoric mechanism) Some words of jargon are based on metonymic replacement, others display a euphemistic potential in order to replace unpleasant sounding words ( names of drugs used by drug – sellers)
Another means of wordbuilding is backorder of letters in words. Pickpockets sometimes use them (eno for one , owt - two)
As soon as jargons lose their secrecy they either are replaced by new words or become part of slang.
Professionalisms
are special colloquial equivalents of terms
they colour the language, add more liveliness to everyday informal
talk of people of the same profession and interests
They do not aim to keep secrecy
walkie-talkie- portable radio transmitter, later on the analogy another word was created - walkie – lookie video transmitter (not fixed in dictionaries so far) lotion-motion (used by American truck drivers for- gasoline )
gassers - анестезиологи- anaesthetists
slasshers – general doctors
Vulgar words are coarse and rude words which are divided into two main types
|
Hackneyed vulgarisms |
Vulgarisms proper |
|
(стереотипные) devil, hell, damn, avoided or replaced by euphemisms in polite conversation. For example, the title of William Golding’s well-known book ‘Lord of the Flies’ is a euphemism for ‘devil’ |
(Taboo words, unacceptable in polite conversation, called ‘four-letter words’) dickens – devilkins. She was as clever as the dickens. (very clever –чертовски умна) A dickens of a mess - The phrase is informal, British, old-fashioned, used to emphasize smth spoken about. Ex. When Boris Eltsin was Russia’s president an American journalist interviewed Naina Eltsina, and after the interview he said that she was as clever as the dickens. (very clever –чертовски умна) Unfortunately, a Russian interpreter made a funny mistake saying in Russian: Она умна как Диккенс, though Charles Dickens had absolutely nothing to do with it. |
Dialect words
EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES
The expressive means of a language as well as stylistic devices serve to intensify the utterance lexically, morphologically phonetically as well as by syntactical means of the language.
Expressive means of the language:
Expressive means of
forms which exist in the language for the purpose of logical and emotional intensification of the utterance.
Lexical: recharge my batteries – have a holiday.
Phonetic: all kinds of intonation (accidental rise), drawling/prolonging of a sound, pauses. It sh-sh-shall be done.
Syntactical: negative/interrogative forms are expressive syntactical synonyms of declarative sentences:
Isn't it a lovely day? – It’s a lovely day.
Inversion is another powerful means of expressiveness.
Other expressive means of syntax are length of sentences, and their completeness. For example, a short sentence forming a paragraph, most likely bears special significance.
Morphological: more expressive, emotionally coloured equivalent. Pr. Cont. instead of Pr. Ind. They are always quarrelling. It conveys annoyance on the part of the speaker.
A Stylistic device is a conscious, intentional intensification of some typical semantic or structural property of a language unit thus creating an abstract pattern (Galperin).
Stylistic devices belong to language-In-action (речь). They are less predictable than expressive means. The more unpredictable the device is, the more expressive it sounds. Some stylistic devices are very individual; they may be the creation of a particular writer. Если в потоке речи – current of information – неуместно использованы стилистические приемы – информационная помеха (ошибка). If a metaphor is fixed in dictionaries it is no longer considered to be an element of language-in-action as it loses its freshness becomes a unit of language-as-a-system.
In treating the problem of stylistic devices we must bear in mind that a literary text is a complex and undivided structure of interdependent elements. All elements of a text find justification and are equally important to the understanding of the whole.
LEXICO-PHRASEOLOGICAL STYLISTIC DEVICES.
They are of three classes:
The scheme: mechanisms – types – stylistic functions.
1] includes the following devices:
Metaphor –is based on the interaction between logical and contextual meanings of the word due to a certain similarity of two different objects or phenomena., for example an object and an animal, or a human being and an object. Metaphor is a word used in a figurative meaning, not a literal one.
The semantic structure : Tenor, vehicle and implicit ground for comparison.
He broke his mother’s heart. Compare the word “broke” in this utterance and in He broke his new watch. (figurative in the first one and literal in the second).
They are brought together in the mind of the speaker/writer due to some similarity between them, obvious or more difficult to discover.
( Swallow the hint, one’s pride. The night swallowed them up. )
- Metaphors can be embodied in different notional parts of speech: verb, noun, and adverb. She snaked her way through the crowd. The leaves fell down sorrowfully. Trite metaphor is easy to decode due to its high predictability, so that its expressive power is limited.
- According to the degree of unexpectedness metaphors can be
Examples of trite metaphor are seeds of evil; ray of hope. Their predictability is high; they are fixed in dictionaries as secondary meanings of words, and are in fact what we call in Russian ЯЗЫКОВАЯ МЕТАФОРА. So metaphor is a means of nomination which helps to form new meanings of words. Trite metaphor is easy to decode due to its high predictability, so that its expressive power is limited.
Sally is a block of ice. Richard is a gorilla.- fierce, nasty, violent like that animal.[although gorilla is in fact a quiet, peaceful animal, our negative associations are based on the traditionally negative opinion of its character]
is
Carl Sandburg: "Fog"
The fog comes
On little cat feet
It sits looking
at the harbour and city On silent haunches
And then moves on.
Points of similarity: appearance, grey/white soft
Behavior and traits silent, , curious, enigmatic, unpredictable
Fog - cat
,
Metaphors can also be
Another type of metaphor is Personification in which the author identifies inanimate object with a human being. The face of London. Pain of the ocean.
The main stylistic functions of metaphor is creating imagery. Genuine metaphors are used in emotive prose, poetry, imaginative literature, and trite metaphors are a typical feature of spoken English, newspaper and publicist styles. Scientists tend to trite metaphor in even in scientifi
A new approach to metaphors was worked out by Lakoff and Johnson and described in their book “Metaphors we live by”
They maintain that metaphors that we use in speech structure the way we think. We discuss economy in terms of human health : getting over an illness,
an Ailing economy, we talk about life as a journey with its roads, paths, bumps, crossroads, etc. we talk about countries as if they were people: France and her neighbours
We often talk about books in terms of food – we devour books have appetite for them. About argument as a war or battle where we defend ourselves, attack, win or are defeated. They are called conceptual metaphors and its semantic structure is TARGET DOMAIN – SOURCE DOMAIN and the ground or foundation for the comparison. It is as a rule , implicit.
Conceptual metaphors are frequently used in Mass media, popular science writings.
Metonymy – метонимия. It's based on the interaction of logical and contextual meanings of the word, but the relation that brings 2 different concepts (понятия) together is association. It connects 2 different concepts thus one word may be used instead of another one. Съесть 2 тарелки (супа).. Example: The parks of London are the property of English Crown.
There are two main types of metonymy:
They are built on certain types of semantic relations between the object mentioned and the object implied:
There are several other semantic models.
Shelley: Scepter and crown must tumble down
And in the dust be equal made with the poor, crooked scythe and spade.
Metonymic epithet She lives at an expensive address. -
The aim of metonymy is creating imaginary, especially if it is a contextual one.
Its other function is bringing to the foreground some significant detail of the object described.
Irony – the contextual meaning of the word/phrase becomes the opposite of its logical meaning.
It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one's pocket. The word that contains irony must be logically stressed.
Only words with positive connotation can be used as this device. Some of them are: nice, clever, superb, interesting, sweet. . Stony smiled the sweet smile of an alligator. Sometimes irony is not easy to identify. In a spoken utterance a sarcastic intonation may mark the irony.
There are several types of irony.
In verbal irony we can observe a contrast between what is said and what is actually meant. Delightful in the above-mentioned example.
In Russian : Молодец! Опять все перепутал!
2 In Dramatic irony the audience and the reader know something that one or more of the characters do not know. Gwendolen thinks that Jack’s name is Earnest. In “The Importance of Being Earnest”. The audience knows that Jack has lied about his name.
3 In the case of Situational irony an event turns out to be the reverse of what is expected or intended.
Irony is very much appreciated by the English – it's a mild, vague way of expressing criticism. For example: This is a nice mess you’ve got us into!
Here the word nice acquires the meaning ‘unpleasant’.
Or: She’s not too nice in her business methods. In this utterance ‘ nice’ means ‘not honest’, and is a mild way of expressing criticism. Its use has become one of the most characteristic features of ‘postmodern’ texts and aesthetic practices.
Understatement, overstatement and exaggeration may slide into irony.
Antonomasia – антономазия – nominal meaning interacts with the logical. The two meanings are simultaneously realized. Собакевич.Молчалин A proper name and the capital letter is the main signal to this device.
Writers of children's and humorous novels and stories give their personages so called speaking names to characterize them through their names Незнайка, Знайка,. Айболит Mrs Becky Sharp – from “Vanity Fair” by Thackeray . .
Mr Kelada in Maugham’s story “Mr Know-All” gave the impression of knowing everything, that is why he was nicknamed in such a way.
Sometimes antonomasia is used in newspapers and magazines: How much does Mr Average earn? Mr Toad among the pond life. Toady – someone, who flatters to someone, who is higher socially, more important, has more power, who wants to derive some benefit from it.
It is not always easy to identify this device.
Mr Snoop-ums – мистер Проныра
This device sometimes presents difficulties for translation.
Thus, the name Mr Chattarino can be translated as мистер Балаболо
or мистер Болтолино, but not as мистер Болтун, as association with the Italian name would be lost in translation.
+
Among those stylistic devices, that are based on the interaction between logical and emotive meanings are epithet and oxymoron.
Epithet – shows a purely individual subjective emotional attitude of the speaker or writer towards the object in question.
|
Silver chain , wild animal, green meadows |
Silver moon , wilder joy, green years |
|
The adjective display the logical meanings of the words, (серебряная, дикое, зеленые) which point to inherent features of the object in question. They are not epithets, they are descriptive attributes |
They are epithets. They are point to the speaker individual, emotional attitude to the object in question |
Logic + emotions = metaphorical epithets.
They are expressed by
They are structurally divided into
simple (one word) epithet: silvery laugh
a compound word : night-long eyes, heart-burning smile
phrase epithet: devil of a girl, white, faded rabbit of a woman, Giant of a man
sentence – epithet. Devil – make – care attitude. It can be expressed by a complex sentence:
The man's eyes had a move –if – you –dare expression.
There are epithets called two-step epithets. They have a fixed structure: Adverb + adjective : a pompously majestic female. This kind of epithet is a typical feature of newspaper reviews on books, films, etc.
Transferred (or metonymic epithet) describes the state of a human being but is made to refer to an inanimate object: a sleepless pillow, merry hours, a narrow-minded room.
Isabel shrugged an indifferent shoulder.
They're used in written variety of language or creative and high prose, used to create an elevated effect. Sometimes it sounds humorous (Champaign -bottle-legged woman)
Oxymoron is a figurative combination of two incongruous or contradictory words in which the meanings of which clash as they are opposite in sense.
Complex simplicity, deafening silence.
The context sounds quite unexpected, unusual. This unexpectedness causes a powerful effect, reinforced by defeated expectancy.
In the “Taming of the Shrew” Biondello pronounces “Master! Master! News, such old news as you never heard of”. Bolisto answers: “Is it new and old too, how may that be?”
Oxymoron can be expressed by
adjective + noun (old news, deafening silence, sweet sorrow, complex simplicity
adverb + adjective (falsely true, annoyingly well- bred, horribly beautiful
other patterns : doomed to liberty, damaged by improvements, full of nothing, crowded loneliness
reflects the philosophy of human life (collision of good and bad, black and white, etc) Due to this, oxymoron is often to be found in titles of books and films:: Мертвые души, Оптимистическая трагедия, Живой труп, Горячий снег.
reflects life itself
appearance of oxymoron in a text is not accidental.
Oxymoron is a predominant stylistic device in O’Henry’s story “The Cop and the Anthem”: “the streets damaged by improvements” and “doomed to liberty”.
Pun (каламбур) is a play on words based on different meanings of words and words that sound alike. Besides, punning causes the effect of defeated expectancy. For example, a humorous recommendation says: “If your wife has made up her mind to learn to drive a car, don’t stand in her way.” ’Don’t stand in her way’ is a polysemantic phrase which means 1) stand on the road, 2) prevent smth. Both meanings fit the context, are equally valid, both meanings are opposed. The contrast makes the joke even more amusing. More examples from advertisements:
The slogan of the ad advertising the services of an insurance company reads: Where there is a Will, there is a way. The word ‘Will’ in this context means завещание, but the original meaning’of will’ (желание, воля)in the context of a familiar proverb is not entirely faded away. Thus the ad says: If you have the will -–(document) and if you wish the company will help you to inherit property.
Puns are also based on the use of homonyms. They either sound or are written in the same way. Punning displays and appeals to the English sense of humour. An advertisement of a new bus route in Oxford contains an amusing slogan: (a “Take the wait off your feet”. The word WAIT replaces the word WEIGHT – вес, thus, the slogan says 1) don’t waste your time time, waiting for a regular big bus, and 2) take the weight off your feet - don’t stand, which is bad and tiring for the legs. This play on words in a familiar phrase serves to appeal to those who read it, to make them smile and enjoy the witty play on words, so that their minds will open to the intended influence.
Puns are used in jokes, anecdotes, riddles, humorous stories, advertisements to attract the readers’ attention, make a statement fresh, and influence or even manipulate them.
Zeugma (зевгма) Он пил чай с сахаром, с женой и с удовольствием. In the language-as-a system homogeneous members must be semantically related. ( Он пил чай с сахаром, печеньем и вареньем) But intentional violation of linguistic rules, a kind of playing with words, is extremely common in literature.
It creates a comic effect: humor, irony or sarcasm. It is mainly used in humorous and satirical writing. It may reveal the speaker’s sense of humour , which is considered to be typical of the British.
Maugham "Cakes and ale": …matters of big business or fornication
He snatched his coat from the hook by the door and a kiss from the lips of his wife.
ДОБАВИТЬ из лекций!!!!
2) Stylistic devices that serve to intensify a certain feature of thing/phenomenon:
Simile (сравнение) is used to intensify a certain feature of a thing or phenomena by expressing a likeness between 2 different objects (human - animal)
He is as greedy as a wolf.
It must not be confused with logical comparison (the boy is as tall as his father) – objects of the same nature.
Formal elements: as… as… , like, as if, remind, resemble.
The semantic feature of the simile can be shown in the following way.
|
She is as |
cunning as |
a fox |
|
- tenor, object which is compared |
- foundation |
- vehicle, with which he tenor is compared |
All the 3 components of the simile are explicit (выражены языковыми средствами)
She is like a fox. The foundation is implicit (подразумеваемое). You, little fox! – metaphor.
Types
According to the degree of expressiveness & freshness we must distinguish between
cliché (which is used in everyday conversations, official style)
idiom of comparison (fixed in dictionaries. They are facts of language system)
fresh, original, highly poetical (poetry, prose) expressive similes which in some cases need long stretches of context to be understood.
w. Golding ‘the lord of the flies’ “for yards round the fire the heat was like a blow and the breeze was a river of sparks” was like a blow – implicit foundation, breeze was a river of sparks – metaphor. ‘Lord of the flies’ is a euphemism for ‘devil’.
Hyperbole. Aims at intensifying a certain feature of a thing by means of exaggeration of some quality, quantity, size. “the girls were dressed to kill”. Often used in spoken language - “for ages”. If it is smallness that is intensified, we speak about understatement (a woman of a pocket size) used to create a comic effect.
Periphrasis represents the renaming of a familiar object or phenomenon. Страна Восходящего солнца – Япония. The country of the rising sun – Japan. The King of the beasts – lion – metaphor; jealousy – the green-eyed monster (Shakespeare); Shakespeare – the swan of Avon. This device has a long history; it was widely used in the Bible and in Homer's "Iliad". It was popular in the Latin poetry.
The aims of periphrasis:
In the course of time they undergo some changes under the influence of social and economic situations. Слабый пол – weaker sex – in the USA it has a negative meaning gentle sex – это связано с феминистическим движением. Fair sex – women – it retains its usage. I am what I am – женщина не старается выглядеть лучше, чем она есть на самом деле – показать, что это не единственное, что их отличает от мужчин fair sex –women (is becoming old-fashioned).
Many cases of periphrasis are figurative, though some are not – you understand it without difficulty. The king of beasts.- lion.
Some cases of periphrasis require longer stretches of context to be decoded. The destroyer of her figure. The most pardonable of human weaknesses – самая простительная слабость – the author means love.
Figurative periphrasis often creates a comic effect/sounds jocular. To tie the knot –( marry) about men; step off the carpet – marry about women.
Euphemism is a whitewashing device which serves to replace an unpleasant word/expression by a more acceptable one. It sounds mild and vague and may avoid disagreeable and blunt truth. Lie – tell stories; I'm afraid you possess a very vivid imagination; I'm afraid you've been misinformed (in parliament); fib – выдумка; I'm afraid you're economical with the truth.
They are used in different spheres of our life:
It much depends on time whether the word can be used or not.
Although some sacred things are protected: God Heaven, as God is too good to be used too often. Rich financially comfortable.
Euphemism can consist of only one word or a phrase, while periphrasis is always a phrase.
3)The Third class is made up of devices based on lexico-phraseological units: idioms, proverbs, allusions
There is a tendency
Avoid paying inheritance tax. Where there's a WILL, there is a way. Will – желание + завещание.
When we deal with set-phrases the meaning of the whole can't be derived from the meaning of its components, the components lose their logical meaning: have one's finger in a pie – be concerned in an affair.
The stylistic device of decomposition of a set-phrase is based on reviving the literal – буквальный, logical meaning to the component parts of the idiom.
There are many different mechanisms. Among them:
the use of words in the following context, which are semantically linked with the component parts of the idiom. It was raining cats and dogs and two kittens and a puppy landed on my window-sill. - …и пара кадушек вылилась…
Decomposition often aims at humour. It's used to refresh the idiom.
the change of the structure: Cut you coat according to the cloth. "As MG is cutting its coat according to its cloth" – alteration.
the end of a familiar proverb is changed. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. when in Rome, use any phone. More haste – less speed. more haste, less justice. This example is the headline of an article which focuses on more careful investigation of crimes.
Another example:
“We recommend an apple a day” – the slogan of an advertisement of a shampoo which is called APPLE. The phrase ‘an apple a day’ is associated in the readers’minds with something good for the health as in the proverb ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away.’ So that
The British who are renowned for their sense of humour and creativity in playing with words, tend to change proverbs, sayings and stereotyped phrases
Here are some of the purposes:
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Absence makes the heart go wander. – they sound alike, but the idea of the distorted variant is not just different, it is opposed to the original and sounds cynical.
Or: ‘ Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’
turns into ‘Early to rise and early to bed makes a man healthy, wealthy and….dead’.
It is not only idioms and proverbs that undergo such changes in living creative speech, they are also titles of popular books, songs and films, familiar quotations and aphorisms.
Без вины виноватые Без вина виноватые (headline of an article in a Russian newspaper)
Allusion. "To be or not to be" TO smoke or not to smoke – we can change it into whatever we like. Educating Rita (a book and then a film) & John & Susie & Peter…- bank offers its services that would help to have enough money to educate children. Wise is the head that wears the crown. uneasy lies the head that wears the crown (Shakespeare) ???КАКАЯ ПЬЕСА?
The question arises: the importance to know as much as possible about history and so on.
Стихийное бедствие нестихийное бедствие.
Defeated expectancy ( and word play)
e.g. from Oliver Twist by Ch. Dickens:
‘And then followed a full description of Oliver’s dress, a person’s appearance and disappearance, with the name of Mr. Brownlow…’ УТОЧНИТЬ ПРИМЕР!!!
This episode follows the kidnapping of Oliver by Bill Sikes and other people from the gang of thieves who were afraid that Oliver might inform the police about the gang. Mr. Brownlow, the kind gentleman, who had been taking care of Oliver is trying to find the boy.
The beginning of the utterance leads us to accept the word appearance in the meaning of внешность, but the
значение - внешность
Appearance
Контекстуальное значение –появление
Мальчика в семье Браунлоу
DISAPPEARANCE 1) исчезновение
2) игра слов : корневой повтор у двух слов
PHONETIC MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES.
They are considered to be the most powerful expressive means.
can be more effective than other means of intensifying the utterance, mainly in oral speech.
There are four phonetic devices:
Alliteration is a deliberate use of similar sounds in close succession, aimed at imparting – передавать a melodic effect of euphony – благозвучие (эвфония). As right as rain. It's deeply rooted in traditions of folklore, so it's often used in sayings, proverbs and idioms. To rob Paul to pay Peter. Fit as a fettle – in good condition. Blind as a bat. Tit for tat.
It's used to attract the readers' attention in titles of books and headlines of articles as well as in advertisements. Be your best. Light and lively. Free and fair, but frustrating. "The oxen" – Thomas Hardy – alliteration is used in one of the lines, which is very important for the understanding of the whole idea of the poem – used in the pivotal – ключевая line: alliteration + metaphor + inversion + exclamation mark: such a stylistically loaded line displays the phenomenon called convergence – конвергенция. "So fair a fancy few would weave – ткать in these years!" the exclamation mark is an expression of strong feelings. "School for scandal" – школа злословия – Sheridan; Pride and pre-justice – Austin; Sense and sensibility.
Alliteration may be in the middle – in the stressed syllables: Нева вздувалась и ревела Котлом клокоча и клубясь.
Onomatopoeia (звукоподражание) – based on imitating sounds produced in nature (animals, moving vehicles, working tools) thunder, wind – natural phenomena. ВСТАВИТЬ ЗВУКОСИМВОЛИЗМ
1. direct onomatopoeia
ding-dong, bang, tick-tock. Usually used in children's stories, books of fiction
e.g. J Joyse the sound of the cricket (pick, pack, puck, pock) drops of water falling softly
2. onomatopoetic words (to hush (keep silent), to whisper, to clatter, to raw, to mumble, mutter, murmur)
3. indirect onomatopoeia (звукопись) - a combination of sounds the aim of which is to make the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. It demands some mention of what produces the repeated sound.
e.g. Stevenson : “Whenever the moon and stars are set,
whenever the wind is high
all night long in the dark and wet
a man goes riding by.”
The sound [w] is conveyed by the word “wind” mentioned in the second line.
This device is effectively used by repeating words which are not onomatopoetic in character.
“The bells” A. E. Poe ( “bells” several times) [l], [i], [o]. “The raven” – the theme of the poem is grief over the loss of an ideal love.
* used in high poetry
“Let the little birds sing , let the little lambs play, spring is here .” ([l] alliteration, onomatopoeia)
Rhyme - repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combination of words.
|
Full rhyme |
Incomplete rhyme |
|
Might –right , day-play |
1/ incomplete vowel rhyme (flesh-press) the vowel is the same |
|
2/ incomplete cons. Rhyme wild-world the consonant is the same |
Rhymless verse (blank verse) - Robert Frost “Rhyme distracts attention of the reader from the idea”. He is also against poeticisms
Eye rhyme (визуальная рифма) - Incomplete rhyme/ visual material. Not the sounds but the letters are identical (love-prove, woods-floods)
According to the way the rhyme is arranged within stanza (четверостишие) we can point out
1/ couplets or adjacent rhyme (смежная): a – a – b – b
2/ cross rhyme (перекрестный): a – b – a – b
3/ framing or ring rhyme (опоясывающий): а – b – b – a
Internal rhyme (внутренняя рифма) - the words are placed within the lines. Shelley “I am the daughter of earth and water” Modification to rhyming sometimes go so far as to make one word rhyme with a combination of words – compound or broken. Bottom – forgot'em. This kind of rhyme usually gives humorous touch to the utterance.
It is used in poetry, in proverbs, headlines of articles. (e.g. when in Rome, do as the Romans do. East or west home is best. No pains, no gains) Murdock meek minions (подхалимы) are making him millions – alliteration [m], rhyming.
In advertisements to make the utterance more expressive and memorable, colourful (use your mouse (компьютерная мышка) to find a house, a “Mars” a day keeps you work rest and play)
Rhythm - created by a regular recurrence of similar or equal units of speech. Used to intensify emotions (euphony) – благозвучие. Poetic rhythm is created by regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables. The structure of the foot (unit) determines the metre (размер стиха)
There are 5 basic feet and, consequently, meters:
1. trochee (хорей) “twinkle, twinkle little star” \ _
2. Iambus (ямб) “I do not like the winter wind” _ \
3. dactyl (дактиль) “cannon to right of them. Cannon to left of them” \ _ _
4. anapest (анапест) “I am monarch of all I survey” _ _ \
5. amphibrach (амфибрахий) “Oh, where are you going to all your big steamers”_ \ _
A careful study of a poem may reveal what we call, irregularities or modification of its normal meter.
It's used in high and refined poetry .
Rhythm in prose is based on the principles of
regular recurrence of similar or equal units of speech. It may be observed within one sentence. It was right and proper, safe and sound / _ / _
parallel construction – he swallowed a hint, with a gulp and a gasp and a grin. _ _ / _ _ / _ _ /
James Joyce “The portrait of the artist of a young man” .
Compositional rhyme. These words were written after the 1st episode “It was cruel and unfair”, after the 2nd – it was cruel and unfair, 3rd – it was unjust and cruel and unfair.”
SYNTACTICAL STYLISTIC DEVICES
Syntax studies types of relations between the units and the reference and syntactical stylistic devices deal with the syntactical arrangement of the utterance which give some emotional colouring and creates logical emphasis
The main stylistic devices
-inversion
-repetition
-parallel construction
-antithesis
Inversion - we must differentiate between grammatical and stylistic inversion.
In grammatical inversion the word order may be changed due to the structure of the utterance. It is inevitable and obligatory. Never before, had I seen such a sight – gram inversion.
In stylistic inversion the author chooses the type of the utterance.
There are several typical patterns / types of change of the word order.
1. object + subject + predicate (“talent Mr. Micauwber has, capital Mr. Micauwber has not” by Dickens “the Oxen”) talent and capital – objects of our thought – рема, logically stressed. + parallel construction, inversion, antithesis. Pivotal line.
2. noun + attribute (“the raven” once upon a midnight dreary)
3. predicate/ predicative + subject He must forget it – the past was done with. Forget it, he must. Rude am I in my speech. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Bright are the stars that shine, dark is the sky.
adverbial modifier + subject + predicate At you feet I fall (Шекспир)
postpositive + subject t+ predicative (+ the verb + subject)
In went Mr. Pick / out they rushed – the action is dynamic and quick in character.
There was not a moment to be lost, away went Alice like the wind.
In an article – up goes unemployment, up goes prices, tumbles the labour vote. (резко подскочили цены… катастрофически упал…)
Used in:
poetry,
articles,
newspapers,
emotive prose,
in speech (rarely),
in public speech.
Ellipsis “nothing so difficult as a beginning” – omitting the link verb.
Repetition (ретардация)- a powerful syntactical stylistic device which adds logical emphasis to some units of the utterance: a morpheme, word, phrase or even sentence. It is a powerful rhetorical device traditionally used in public speeches. It is
It is used to draw the reader’s attention to the key word or phrase of the utterance. It is the same or a similar unit that is repeated throughout the utterance or even a longer stretch of the text.
e.g. It were better that he knew nothing, better for common sense, better for him, better for me.
It is a powerful rhetorical device traditionally used in public speeches. It is
( ‘a government of the people, by the people, for the people’ – from Gettisburg address of Abraham Lincoln)
-- in poetry: My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart’s in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer…
(Robert Burns)
1. anaphora - the repeated unit is at the beginning of the successive parts. The changing information (rheme) is logically emphasized and the repeated unit is the background. “This leaflet is threatening. This leaflet is abusing. This leaflet is insulting.” It serves to convince, by appealling not only to the minds but also to the feelings of the readers. The question arises whether the utterance could have been shortened which would have been in line with the demands of newspaper style. Let’s try to change it transforming the three sentences into one ------
This leaflet is threatening, abusing and insulting. The content of the utterance would be very much the same, but it would lose its expressive power.
2. epiphora - the repeated unit is in the end. “I wake up and I am alone, and I walk about the town and I am alone and talk to people and I am alone, whatever I do, I am alone”
3. chain repetition (reduplication) a……b, b……c, c……d. A smile would come to his face: the smile extended into a laugh, the laugh into the raw, and the raw became general.
4. framing (a compositional pattern)
living is the art of loving
loving is the art of caring
caring is the art of sharing
sharing is the art of living
synonymic repetition (replacing) – it rained and rained. They talked and talked. The book costs probably pounds and pounds.
Used in poetry, in spoken language (to intensify an idea).
Parallel construction – a syntactical stylistic device formed by the same syntactical pattern and this pattern is the basis for several sentences/parts of a sentence in close succession. First you borrow, then you beg. This leaflet is threatening, this leaflet is abusing, this leaflet is insulting. – to influence readers' emotions.
The 1st example is called partial parallelism and the 2nd – complete parallelism (+ repetition – they often go together).
Be bald. Be beautiful. Be brown. – краска д/ волос. It arouses readers' feelings.
(+ inversion – by Dickens) Out came the chase, in went the horses, on sprang the boys, in got the travelers.
The functions:
It is used:
Antithesis – антитеза – резкое противопоставление противоположностей – syntactically it's another case of parallelism, the difference being in the semantic opposition of the components in two similar structures. Youth is lovely, age is lonely. (age – старость, youth & age – contrasted pair, lovely & lonely accept it)
Between two parts conjunction "but" is implicit, though it's not used, we can use transformation to put it in.
Antithesis must be distinguished from contrasting forms of the kind from top to bottom, up and down – we can't insert "but", though they have opposition – so they are based on opposition, not antithesis.
The basic functions of antithesis are
Shakespeare
"A madrigal": youth is hot and bold,
Age is weak and cold,
Youth is wild and age is tame.
Wild – wishing no control
And – the idea is contrasting and can be transferred into "but".
Talent Mr. … has…
Chiasmus – [kai zm s] – хиазм. It's based on the repetition of a syntactical pattern but it has a cross order of words/phrases. Двери закрываются, закрываются двери. Coleridge: Down dropped the breeze, the sails dropped down.
The sudden change in the structure by its unexpectedness requires a slight pause before the 2nd part, drawing the readers'/listeners' attention to the particular utterance which the author thinks very important.
This device was very mush favoured by Byron: 'tis a pity though, in this sublime world, that
Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure.
The witty arrangement of words gives the utterance an epigrammatic character.
The stylistic functions of chiasmus have so far been little investigated, but:
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The engineer minds the train and the teacher trains the mind. |
Sus'pense – ретардация. It's a compositional device, which consists in arranging the information in such a way, that the less important parts of the utterance/poem/story are at the beginning while the main idea is withheld till the end of it. Thus the reader is kept in suspense, it always requires long stretches of speech and writing.
Also – a story "Good shot" – not about выстрел, а снимок.
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In Kipling's "If" where all the 8 stanzas consist of if-clauses only the last 2 lines constitute the principal part of the sentence which conveys the main idea and shows that you can overcome everything. |
If you can keep you head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you… …Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it… And which is more, you'll be a Man, my son. |
Climax – нарастание – an arrangement of sentences of homogeneous parts of one sentence which secures a gradual increase in significance, importance of emotional tension of the utterance. He watched her eagerly, bitterly, ecstatically as she walked lightly from him. – the last adj shows the most emotional part. It was a lovely city, a beautiful city, a fair city, a jem of a city (jew – драг.камень, city is repeated – epiphora; jem – inverted epithet).
The stylistic function is to show the relative importance as seen by the author or to depict the phenomena dynamically.
Litotes – литота – it's a special stylistic device which is based on transference of structural meaning in which negation implies affirmation: It's not uncommon for Russian students nowadays to travel the world/abroad. It's common….
The difference is – the speaker expresses the idea in a less categorical way than in the sentence "it's common…". The sense is – уменьшение категоричности. They're synonymous forms but with slight difference.
Litotes may have a variety of purposes:
There are several means of creating it:
In cases of litotes much depends on intonation and the lexical meaning of the 2nd component.
This device is used in various functional styles including matter-of-fact styles.
Poly'syndeton – полисиндетон/многосоюзие. The poem "If". It's a stylistic device of connecting sentences/phrases by using connectives – связующие элементы before each component part. Generally it's the same. It may be a conjunction, preposition… The connectives are as a rule conj-s and prepositions and, if, but, or, then…
It can also be an adverb or a phrase - the moment – can be transformed into "when".
The functions:
Rhetorical question – in such questions the answer is inside the question: "А судьи кто?" In rhetorical questions we observe a statement in the form of a question. Thus 2 structural meanings interplay : that of a statement and that of a question.
The rhetorical question needs no answer as the answer is in the question itself. "Ну сколько можно тебя ждать? Сколько раз тебе повторять тебе одно и то же?". The implication is very rich. The meaning is a statement but syntactically it's a question. "Who is here so vile that will not love his county? Can be transformed into There's no one here who will not love his country. If we compare the two possibilities we will see that the first one is more emotional and expressive. Besides, it is enriched by a modal shade of meaning. In this case it is conveys the speaker’s confidence (I’m sure) and a touch of challenge that has a powerful impact on the reader or listener. In other cases Rhetorical questions may convey doubt, scorn, other feelings that can be suggested by the context.
It's very important to remember that the intonation of a rhetorical question is special and quite different from that of an ordinary question.
It's used as a stylistic device in
Parceling – парцелляция – it's also a syntactical device consisting in the use of separate parts of the sentence forming a sentence in itself. Tomorrow. At 6. By all means. A sentence may be chopped into parts by fullstops. Nowadays authors penetrate into minds of their personages. This technique of writing is called STREAM of CONSCIENCE (Поток сознания) – Inner thoughts this is what modern writers tend to show in their novels and stories.
Parcelling is a clear indication of the stream of consciousness. Fullstops presuppose pauses typical of the technique of presenting narrative as the mixture of thoughts and sense perception.
Parcelling is used in the interior monologue. It’s intended to represent the way – often ungrammatical – people really think.
The 1st writers: James Joyce – Ireland; William Faulkner – the USA; Virginia Wоolfe – the USA.
In the story ‘Yarrow" written by a modern American writer Carol Joyce Oats ……….
"– But who would know. If he kept going. – чел убил двоюродного брата.
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