4
5. The belles-lettres style
Belles-lettres style is a generic term for three substyles in which the
main principles and the most general properties of the style are materialized.
These three sub-styles are: '
1. The language of poetry, or simply verse.
2. Emotive p г о s e, or the language of fiction.
3. The language of the drama
The function of belles-lettres style is twofold:
a) to inform and communicate facts and ideas to the reader
b) to affect the reader emotionally
As regard to the poetry the order should be reverse.
All the three sub-styles have quite a number of common features. But in
spite of that each has individual characteristics as well.
The element of emotion is definitely higher in poetry where the author
reveals his feelings directly. Unlike poetry the number of colloquial elements
will be larger in drama where the oral type of language is widely employed
since the form of plays is basically that of dialogs.
While observing this last feature one should also bear in mind that the
functional styles not infrequently interact with one another and with
colloquial speech on the other hand.
Emotive prose may amply use the elements from other functional styles,
those of official documentation, scientific prose, publicistic speeches and
newspapers. As far as colloquial speech is concerned, it remains an integral
component of the belles-lettres style. It’s naturally used in plays, dialogues
of stories, novels. Elements of colloquial speech, when used in fiction, help
portray a character through his speech, but such elements are hardly possible
in the author’s narrative proper. The purpose of the belles-lettres style is
not to prove but only to suggest a possible interpretation of the phenomena of
life by forcing the reader to see the viewpoint of the writer. This is the cognitive function of the
belles-lettres style.
In showing the difference in the manner of thinking of the man-of
letters and the man-of-science, N. A. Dobrolubov writes:
"The man-of-letters... thinks concretely, never losing sight of
particular phenomena and images; the other (the man-of-science) strives to
generalize, to merge all particulars in one general formula." *
The belles-lettres style rests on certain indispensable linguistic
features which are:
1. Genuine, not trite, imagery, achieved by purely linguistic devices.
2. The use of words in contextual and very often in more than one
dictionary meaning, or at least greatly influenced by the lexical environment.
5. The introduction of the typical features of colloquial language to a
full degree (in plays) or a lesser one (in emotive prose) or a slight degree,
if any (in poems).
21) Simile is a stylistic device based on
comparison of two objects or notions belonging to different spheres of life.
This is an explicit statement of partial identity of two objects. The objects
compared are not identical, though they have some resemblance, some common
features. Emphasising their partial identity gives new characteristics to the
referent.
e.g. Unhappiness
was like a hungry animal waiting beside the track for any
victim (G. Greene).
As a stylistic device, simile shouldn't
be mixed with a grammatical comparison. Simile
is based on a certain image while in grammatical comparison two objects
belonging to the same class are likened.
e.g. She was as tall as her father(gr. comp.) She was as tall as an elm.
(simile)
Simile
may be trite and original. Original
similes are created by the writers. A fresh simile, especially an elaborate
one, discovering unexpected and striking similarities, is one of the best
image-creating devices.
e.g. Drunk as a
lord (trite). Her eyes were no warmer than an
iceberg
(original).
Structurally, simile may be simple
and sustained (in which the author finds it necessary to
explain the image introduced by the simile)
e.g. The
soldier cried like a child. He cried like a boy. . . but a boy suddenly
overwhelmed by middle age...
Formally, the simile is manifested:
·grammatically, with the help of
conjunctions (as if; as thought, like, than, as. . .as): e.g. She looked at him as
uncomprehendingly as a mouse might look as a gravestone.
·lexically,
by means of the words expressing likeness (remind,
resemble, seem, appear). It is called disguised
simile .e.g. He reminded me of a hungry cat.
Similes shouldn't be mixed with metaphors,
which are implicit/ hidden comparison. However, the difference between the two
is not only structural but semantic as well. Simile and metaphor are different
in their linguistic nature:
·metaphor
aims at identifying the objects; simile aims at finding some point of
resemblance by keeping the objects apart;
·metaphor
only implies the feature which serves as the ground for comparison, simile,
more often than not, indicates this feature, so it is semantically more
definite.
Functions and
stylistic effects:
Øto emphasise a partial identity of two objects;
Øto give new characteristics to the
referent;
Øto deepen our knowledge of the object described;
Øto create imagery.
5
6. Publicistic Style
This style became recognised as a separate one in the middle of the 18th
century. It has three distinct sub-styles, each characterised by its own
peculiar features. They are:
1) oratorical style
2) the style of essays
3) the style of articles
Publicistic style exists in two forms, written and oral. Essays and
articles naturally belong to the former: speeches, oratories, radio and TV
commentaries are traditionally shaped in an oral form.
a. Oratories and Speeches
The principal aim here is to inform and persuade the audience, to evoke
a desired reaction on its part, to stimulate the listeners to some activity.
Being in oral representation it retains some peculiarities of standard
oral speech such as direct address to the audience, use of contractions like
I’ll, don’t, you’ve, etc., use of imperative mood, use of colloquialisms and
second person of pronouns, etc.
Besides, pronunciation, intonation, speaker’s appearance, gestures,
mimics are of considerable importance.
Speech and orations are delivered as monologues. Their vocabulary
comprises a lot of literary, bookish words and the syntactical structure is
logically ordered and paragraphed. Such structures are combined by subordinate
and coordinative connectives.
To make the speech more comprehensible, emphatic, emotive the orator
often uses repetitions of various kinds: anaphorical with parallel
constructions, word and phrase repetitions, synonymical groups, etc. In fact,
repetition proves to be one of the most typical syntactical stylistic devices
in oratorical sub-style.
General balance and rhythm of the utterance help the listeners remember
the major idea or ideas of the speech.
b. Essays
An essay is a limited prose composition on some definite, perhaps
scientific or political or legal or economic or literary topic.
As a separate literary genre it came into being as early as in the 16th
century (*all the dates are given in regard as to the English language). But
most popular they became in the 18th century when essays was the principle
literary genre dealing with political and social problems of the then England
An essay is not supposed to treat a problem thoroughly. It is rather an
expression of the author’s personal approach to the problem discussed. Thus
this sub-style mostly depends on the writer’s individuality.
c. Articles
The aim of a newspaper or magazine article is to interpret news, give
comments on political, cultural, economic events of the day or to explain and
convince the reader on something. The singleness of purpose determines the
existence of a number of common principles characteristic for both this latter
sub-styles and the newspaper functional style.
22. Periphrasis is a word combination which is used
instead of one word, designating an object. Periphrasis indicates the feature
of the notion which impresses the writer most of all, and it conveys a purely
individual perception. Its stylistic effect varies from evaluation to humor.
e.g.
alterations and improvements of truth – lies.
two
hundred pages of blood-curdling narrative -thriller.
Under
his arm he bore the instruments of destruction – guns/revolver. The hospital was crowded with the surgically
interesting products(the
wounded)
of the fighting in Africa (I. Shaw).
As a
result of frequent repetition, periphrasis can become well established as a
synonymous expression for the word generally used to designate the object. It
is called traditional, dictionary or language periphrasis,
e.g. gentlemen of the long robe (lawyers), the better (fair, gentle) sex(women), my better half(my
spouse), the minions of the law(police).
Functions and
stylistic effects
to convey an
individual perception of an object;
to foreground a feature the writer wants to stress;
to intensify the noticeable property of an object by naming the object
by the property.
6
7.Newspaper Style
English newspaper dates back to the 17th century as the first English
newspaper named “The News of the Present Week” appeared in 1622.
Newspaper deals with newspaper printed matter but not everything printed
in newspapers automatically belongs to this style.
The main communicative aim here is to impart information. This is
achieved by brief news items and communiqués, reports, articles,
advertisements, announcements, obituaries, etc.
Though most of the vocabulary used in newspapers is neutral and common
literary so that it could be understood by the majority of reader or by the target
readers, there are some peculiarities in this respect.
Newspaper language is characterised by a rather ample use of economic
and political terms as well as abstract words. Newspaper clichés and
phraseology are often employed here.
Conciseness of forms and expressiveness being the major objectives of
this style demand a great number of abbreviations, which can denote people’s
posts, sometimes geograohical names, famous political figures, writers, etc:
Qbc – Quebec
Clipped forms are also characteristic:
H-bomb, Lib – Liberal party
As any newspaper is sensitive to everything new, neologisms frequently
first come into being on its pages.
The basic peculiarities of the newspaper style can also be found in its
syntactical structure. The syntax here may be complicated as the whole contents
is sometimes conveyed in one or two sentences.
Among the most striking peculiarities is an extremely wide range of the
headline patterns. The language of newspaper headlines has many times been the
subject of a thorough scrutiny for linguists.
Here we may come across ellipsis, chiasmus, interrogation, rhetorical
questions. Unusual are the semantic (functional) links between the headlines
and the article text.
Of special importance is the graphical organisation of lines and letters
in a headline. Punctuation marks, especially dash, are widely used. The
language of this style presents a combination of different vocabulary strata.
It’s extremely rich in stylistic means, both lexical and syntactical
23. Hyperbole is created
in case one common quantitative feature characterises an object in a greater
degree. It is a deliberate overstatement, exaggeration that is used to
intensify one of the features of the object. It is an expression of emotional
evaluation of reality by a speaker who is either unrestrained by ethical
conventions or knows that exaggeration would be welcome.
e.g. The coffee shop
smell was strong enough to build a garage on. (R.
Chandler)
e.g. His grey face
was so long that he could wind it twice round his neck (R.
Chandler)
e.g. One
after another those people lay down on the ground to laugh–
and two of them died.
Hyperbole is mainly used to intensify physical
qualities of objects or people: size, colour, quantity, age etc.,
e.g. Her family is one aunt about a thousand
years old (F.Sc. Fitzgerald).
The use of
hyperbole may show the overflow of emotions,
e.g. I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers could
not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum (W. Shakespeare).
Hyperbole differs from mere exaggeration in that it is
intended to be understood as an exaggeration. It is intended to sharpen the
reader's ability to make a logical assessment of the utterance.
Hyperbole,
as any other semasiological expressive means, may become trite through frequent
repetition: e.g. for ages, scared to death, I beg
thousand pardons, etc.
Genuine hyperbole is original and
fresh.
e.g. He was one of those guys that think they 're
being pansy if they don't break around 40 of your fingers when they shake hands
with you. (J.Salinger)
Functions and
stylistic effects:
Øto express the intensity of strong feelings;
Øto show an overflow of emotions;
Øto intensify one of the features of an object;
Øto suggest the presence of the opposite
quality;
Øto create a humorous effect.
7
9.THE STYLE OF OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS
This one can be divided into the following sub-styles. These are:
1. business documents,
2. legal documents,
3. diplomacy,
4. military pacts and treaties.
The predominant function of this style is communicative and it lies in
expressing certain relations between governments, parties, the state and the
citizens, etc.
Official documents of the above types can assume various forms: they may
be official statements, pacts, charters, treaties, business correspondence,
military orders, instructions, minutes of proceedings, etc. In the first place,
just like in scientific prose, all words here should be used here in their
direct logical meaning. The language of official documents abounds in clichés,
terms and set expressions which prove to be stable and permanent, for example:
the above-said, the above-mentioned, in accordance with, on behalf of, in every
respect, etc.
Archaic forms may also be met, like thereof, hereby, herewith,
therefrom.
Each sub-style is recognized by its own terminology, standard language
formulae, fossilized expressions. Besides, the variants of official style are
characterized by their compositional patterns because every official document
has its own form, design, which is always suggestive of the information
contained. Thus, business letters typically begin with the name and address of
the sender and the date of the letter which is followed by the name and address
of the addressee.
Treaties, charters, pacts being documents of considerable size still may
consist of two, three or even one sentence, organized into well-developed
paragraphs or infinitival, gerundial, participial constructions.
Graphically each paragraph may begin with small letter. The paragraphs
then should be separated by semi-columns. Widely used are italics, bold type
and capital lettering. The paragraphs can be combined together asyndetically.
One more characteristic feature of this style is the use of abbreviations,
shortening, conventional symbols, schemes, diagrams and other illustrations.
24. Litotes is a
peculiar use of negative constructions aimed at establishing a positive feature
in a person or thing.
e.g. He was not without taste ... It troubled him not
a little ... Love overcomes no small things. He is not uncultured.
Usually litotes presupposes double negation. One
through a negative particle (no, not), the
other – through a word with negative meaning. Its function is to convey doubts
of the speaker concerning the exact characteristics of the object or a feeling.
e.g. He
is no coward. – He is a brave man. He
was not without taste. -
He's tasteful.
Litotes
is especially expressive when the semantic centre of the whole structure is
stylistically or/and emotionally coloured.
e.g. Her face was not unhandsome" (A.H.) or "Her face was not unpretty".(K.K.)
Functions and
stylistic effects:
Øto weaken positive characteristics of an
object;
Øto express doubt/uncertainty as to the value or significance of the
object described;
Øto create an ironic attitude to the
phenomenon described.
8
10. SEMANTIC STRUCTURE OF THE WORD
Word – is a single distinct
meaningful element of speech or writing, used with others (or sometimes alone)
to form a sentence and typically shown with a space on either side when written
or printed.
The semantic structure of the word. Types of lexical meaning.
The branch of Linguistics which studies the meaning of different
linguistic units is called Semantics. The part of Lexicology which studies the
meaning and the development of meaning of words is called Semasiology.
There are different approaches to the problem of word meaning:
1) The referential, or denotational approach is characterized by the
thought that (тем что) the essence (суть) of meaning lies in the
interconnection and interdependence between: the word as the soundform, the
referent, and the concept. Here meaning is the realization of the
concept/notion by means of a definite language system.
2)The functional, or contextual approach is characterized by the idea
that the meaning of a linguistic unit may be studied only through its relation
to other linguistic units. Thus, meaning is understood as the function of
linguistic signs, or their use in context.
Word meaning is represented by different types of meaning: grammatical,
lexical, lexico-grammatical.Grammatical meaning is the component of word
meaning, recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words. It
is expressed by:
word-form (such as books, girls, boys – the meaning of plurarity;
looked, asked – tense meaning);
the position of the word in relation to other words (e.g. He sings well,
She dances badly – ‘sings’ and ‘dances’ are found in identical positions
between a pronoun and an adverb, their identical distribution proves that they
have identical gr.m.)
Lexico-grammatical meaning of the word is the common denominator
(знаменатель) to all the meanings of the words belonging to a certain
lexico-grammatical class or group of words.
Lexical meaning is the component of word meaning recurrent in all the
forms of the word. The word forms go, goes, went, gone, going have different
gr.m., but they have one and the same l.m. ‘the process of movement’.
The main component of L.m are:
The denotational meaning of
words is the same for all the speakers. It is the realization of the concept by
means of the given language.
The pragmatic aspect of l.m. is the part of meaning, that conveys
information on the situation of communication: information on the ‘time and
space’ relationship of the participants, information on the participants in the
given language community, information on the register of communication.
The connotational meaning
conveys the speaker’s attitude toward what he is speaking about. There are 4
main types of connotations: a) The emotional connotation expresses human
emotions and feelings (e.g. daddy, father); b) The evaluative connotation
expresses approval or disapproval (e.g. agent and spy, planning and
scheming=planning secretly); c) The intensifying connotation adds emphasis
(усиление) to the meaning. (e.g. enormous, huge, tremendous=very); d) The
stylistic connotation determines the functional speech style
25. Oxymoron is a
combination of two words with opposite meanings which exclude each other:
e. g.
speaking silence, cold fire, living death.
The two semantically contrasting ideas are expressed
by syntactically interdependent words (in predicative, attributive or adverbial
phrases):
e.g. He was
certain the whites could easily detect his adoring
hatred to them (R.Wright).
Oxymoron reveals
the contradictory sides of one and the same phenomenon. One of its elements
discloses some objectively existing feature while the other serves to convey
the author's personal attitude towards this quality(pleasantly
ugly, crowded loneliness, unanswerable reply). Such semantic
incompatibility does not only create unexpected combinations of words,
violating the existing norms of compatibility, but reveals some unexpected
qualities of the denotatum as well.
As soon as an oxymoron gets into circulation, it loses
its stylistic value, becoming trite: pretty bad, awfully nice, terribly good.
Original oxymorons are created by the authors to make
the utterance emotionally charged, vivid, and fresh, e.g.
Oh, brawling love! Oh, loving hate! Oh ,heavy lightness! Serious vanity!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! (W.Shakespeare).
Originality and specificity of oxymoron becomes
especially evident in non-attributive structures which also, not
infrequently, are used to express semantic contradiction, as in
e.g. "the street damaged by
improvements" (O. H.) or
"silence was louder than thunder"(U.).
56
Close to oxymoron is paradox –
a statement that is absurd on the surface.e.g. War is
peace. The worse - the better.
Functions and
stylistic effects:
Øto
reveal the contradictory sides of one and the same phenomenon;
Øto reveal some unexpected qualities of the
denotatum;
Øto create an original, emotionally charged
utterance.
Such names immediately raise associations with certain
human qualities due to the denotational meaning of a common noun.
9
11. CONNOTATIVE MEANING TYPES
Соnnоtаtive meaning consists of four components:
1. emotive; 2. evaluative; 3. expressive; 4. stylistic.
А word is always characterised bу its denotative mеаning but not
necessarily bу connotation. Тhе four components mау bе аll present at оnce, or
in different combinations or they mау not bе found in the word at аl.
1. Emotive connotations express various feelings оr emotions. Еmоtions
differ from feelings. Emotions like joy, disappointment, pleasure, anger,
worry, surprise are mоrе short-lived. Feelings imply а more stable state, or
attitude, such as love, hatred, respect, pride, dignity, etc. The emotive
component of meaning mау bе occasional от usual (i.е. inherent and adherent).
It is important to distinguish words with emotive connotations from
words, describing or naming emotions and feelings like anger оr fеаr, because
the latter аrе а special vocabulary subgroup whose denotative meanings аrе
emotions. They do not connote the speaker's state of mind оr his emotional
attitude to the subject of speech.
2. The evaluative component charges the word with negative, positive,
ironic or other types of connotation conveying the speaker's attitude in
relation to the object of speech. Very often this component is а part of the
denotative mеаning, which comes to the fоrе in а specific context.
The verb to sneak means «to mоvе silently and secretly, usu. for a bad
purpose». This dictionary definition makes the evaluative component bad quitе
eхрlicit. Two derivatives a sneak and sneaky have both preserved а dеrоgаtory
evaluаtivе connotation. But the negative component disappears though in still
another derivative sneakers (shoes with a soft sole). It shows that еvеn words
of the same root mау either have or lack аn еvаluative component in their inner
form.
3. Expressive connotation either increases or decreases the
expressiveness of the message. Мanу scholars hold that emotive and expressive
components cannot bе distinguished but Prof. I.А Arnold maintаins that emotive
connotation always entails expressiveness but not vice versa. То prove her point
she comments оn the example bу А. Ноrnbу and R. Fowler with the word «thing»
applied to а girl. When the word is used with аn emotive adjective like «sweet»
it becomes еmоtive itself: «She was а sweet little thing». But in other
sentences like «She was а small thin delicate thing with spectacles», she
argues, this is not true and the word «thing» is definitely expressive but not
emotive. Another group of words that help create this expressive effect are the
so-called «intensifiers», words like «absolutely, frightfully, really, quite»,
etc.
4. Finally there is stylistic connotation. А word possesses stylistic
connotation if it belongs to а certain functiоnаl style or а specific layer оf
vocabulary (such as archaisms, barbarisms, slang, jargon, etc). Stylistic
connotation is usually immediately recognizаblе.
Galperin operates three types of lexical meaning that are stylistically
relevant - logical, emotive and nominal. Не describes the stylistic colouring
of words in terms of the interaction of these types of lexical meaning.
Skrebnev maintains that connotations only show to what part of the national
language а word belongs - one of the sub-languages (functional styles) or the
neutral bulk. Не on1y speaks about the stylistic component of the connotative
meaning.
26. Antonomasia is a lexical stylistic device in
which a proper name is used instead of a common noun or vice versa, i.e. It is
renaming for giving an additional information about the bearer of the name.
There are two types:
·When
the proper name of a person, who is famous for some reasons, is put for a
person having the same features.
e.g. Her
husband is an Othello. He is the Napoleon of crime (C. Doyle).
·A common noun is used instead of a proper
name (speaking/token/telling names):
e. g. I agree
with you Mr. Logic. My Dear Simplicity. Lady Teazle or Mr. Surface.
"There are three doctors in an illness like
yours. I don't mean only inyself, my partner and the radiologist who does
your X-rays,the three I'm referring to are Dr. Rest,
Dr. Diet and Dr. Fresh Air." (D. Cusack).
Such names immediately raise associations with certain
human qualities due to the denotational meaning of a common noun.
10
THE ROLE OF THE CONTEXT IN THE ACTUALIZATION OF
MEANING.
The most essential feature of a word is that it expresses the concept of
a thing, process, phenomenon, naming (denoting) them. Concept is a logical
category, its linguistic counterpart is meaning. Meaning, as the outstanding scholar
L. Vygotsky put it, is the unity of generalization, communication and thinking.
An entity of extreme complexity, the meaning of a word is liable to historical
changes, of which you know from the course of lexicology and which are
responsible for the formation of an expanded semantic structure of a word. This
structure is constituted of various types of lexical meanings, the major one
being denotational, which informs of the subject of communication; and also
including connotational, which informs about the participants and conditions of
communication.
The number, importance and the overlapping character of connotational
meanings incorporated into the semantic structure of a word, are brought forth
by the context, i.e. a concrete speech act that identifies and actualizes each
one. More than that: each context does not only specify the existing semantic
(both denotational and connotational) possibilities of a word, but also is
capable of adding new ones, or deviating rather considerably from what is registered
in the dictionary. Because of that all contextual meanings of a word can never
be exhausted or comprehensively enumerated. Compare the following cases of
contextual use of the verb "to pop" in Stan Barstow's novel "Ask
Me Tomorrow":
1. His face is red at first and then it goes white and his eyes stare as
if they'll pop out of his head.
2. "Just pop into the scullery and get me something to stand this
on."
3. "There is a fish and chip shop up on the main road. I thought
you might show your gratitude by popping up for some."
4. "I've no need to change or anything then." "No, just
pop your coat on and you're fine."
5. "Actually Mrs. Swallow is out. But she won't be long. She's
popped up the road to the shops."
6. "Would you like me to pop downstairs and make you a cup of
cocoa?"
In the semantic actualization of a word the context plays a dual role:
on one hand, it cuts off all meanings irrelevant for the given communicative
situation. On the other, it foregrounds one of the meaningful options of a
word, focusing the communicators' attention on one of the denotational or
connonational components of its semantic structure.
The significance of the context is comparatively small in the field of
stylistic connotations, because the word is labelled stylistically before it
enters some context, i.e. in the dictionary: recollect the well-known
contractions -vulg., arch., si., etc., which make an indispensable part of a
dictionary entry. So there is sense to start the survey of connotational
meanings with the stylistic differentiation of the vocabulary.
27. Zeugma
– from Greek means to join/ to combine. It
is a simultaneous realisation of two meanings of a polysemantic unit.
It is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic
relations to the adjacent word in the context, the semantic relations being on
the one hand literal, and on the other, transferred. The primary and derivative
meanings clash. By making the two meanings conspicuous in this particular way,
each of them stands out clearly.
e.g. If the country doesn't go to the
dogs or the Radicals,we shall have you Prime
Minister some day (O.Wilde). The verb "to go"
here realises two meanings: to go to the dogs(to
perish) and to go to the Radicals(to become
politically radical).
e. g. Dora plunged at once into
privileged intimacy and into the middle of the room.(Ch. Dickens)
e.g. Everything was short including tobacco and
people's tempers.(E. Hemingway)
e.g. It was my older brother - her
darling - who was to inherit her resoluteness, her
stubbornness, her table silver and some of her eccentricities. (J.
Cheever)
Polysemantic verbs that have a practically unlimited lexical valency can
be combined with nouns of most varying semantic groups, homogeneous members
that are not connected semantically. Thus it combines syntactical and lexical
characteristics. Syntactically it is based on the similar structures;
semantically it comprises different meanings, which leads to logical and
semantic incompatibility.
Functions and stylistic effects:
Øto
create a humorous effect.
2. Pun/ paronomasia/ play on words is a device based
on polysemy, homonymy or phonetic similarity used to achieve a humorous effect.
The use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more meanings, or
the use of two or more words of the same or nearly the same sound with
different meanings, so as to produce a humorous effect.
Many jokes and funny stories
are based on pun.
e.g. – I wonder if I can
see your mother, little boy. Is she engaged?
- Engaged?! She's
married.
There are several kinds of pun:
·pun
based on polysemy:
e.g. - What is the
meaning of the word "matrimony"? - Father says it isn't a word, it's
a sentence
"Sentence":
1) предложение, 2) приговор.
e.g. The quickest way to
break a bad habit is to drop it. "Break": 1)
разбивать,
2) бросать (привычку), "Drop":
ронять, бросать.
e.g. They had the
appearance of men to whom life had appeared as a reversible coat -seamy on both sides. (O.Henry)
"seamy" – 1) изнанка,
2)тёмная,
неприглядная сторона.
pun based on
complete or partial homonymy:
e.g. Professor: What kept you out
of class yesterday -acute indigestion (острое расстройство)?
Student: No, a cute engineer
(симпатичный инженер).
·pun
based on phonetic similarity:
e.g. A cynic was standing in front
of an exhibition of modern picture labelled "Art Objects".
"Well", he announced to the attendant in charge, "I
should think Art would object, and I can't say that I blame it."
e.g. -I've spent last
summer in a very pretty city of Switzerland
-Bernel
-No , I almost froze.
Functions and
stylistic effects:
Øto
achieve a humorous effect;
Øto
add originality to the nomination of the object.
It is difficult to draw a hard and fast distinction
between zeugma and pun.
The only reliable distinguishing feature is a structural one: zeugma is the
realization of two meanings with the help of a verb which is made to refer to
different subjects or objects (direct and indirect). The pun is more independent.
It is not obligatory to have one word in the sentence to which the pun-word refers.
It is more dependent on the context.
e.g. - Did you miss my
lecture? - Not at all.
Pun
seems to be more varied and resembles zeugma in its humourous effect only.
11
.STYLISTIC DIFFERENTIATION OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY
The word-stock of a language may be represented as a definite system in
which different aspects of words may be singled out as interdependent. For
linguistic stylistics a special type of classification, viz. stylistic
classification, is the most important.
The word-stock of the English language may be 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 (aspect) it shares with all the subgroups within the layer. The
aspect of the literary layer is its markedly bookish character; the aspect of
the colloquial layer of words is its lively spoken character. The aspect of the
neutral layer is its universal character. That means it is unrestricted in its
use.
The literary layer of words consists of groups accepted as legitimate members of the
English vocabulary; they have no local or dialectal character. The literary
vocabulary consists of the following groups of words: 1. common literary; 2.
terms and learned words; 3. poetic words; 4. archaic words; 5.barbarisms and
foreign words; 6. literary coinages including nonce-words.
The colloquial layer of words is not infrequently limited to a definite
language community or confined to a special locality where it circulates. The
colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups: 1. common colloquial
words; 2. slang; 3. jargonisms; 4. professional words; 5. dialectal words; 6.
vulgar words; 7. colloquial coinages.
The common literary words are chiefly used in writing and in polished speech. They are used
informal communication. Literary words are mainly observed in the written form.
One can always tell a literaryword from a colloquial word, because literary
words are used to satisfy communicative demands of official, scientific, poetic
messages, while colloquial words are employed in non-official everyday
communication. Literary words stand in opposition to colloquial words forming
pairs of synonyms which are based oncontrasting relationsLiterary words serve to satisfy communicative demands of official,
scientific, poetic messages, while the colloquial ones are employed in
non-official everyday communication. Though there is no immediate correlation
between the written and the oral forms of speech on one hand, and the literary
and colloquial words, on the other, yet, for the most part, the first ones are
mainly observed in the written form, as most literary messages appear in
writing. And vice versa: though there are many examples of colloquialisms in
writing (informal letters, diaries, certain passages of memoirs, etc.), their
usage is associated with the oral form of communication.
Consequently, taking for analysis printed materials we shall find
literary words in authorial speech, de-scriptions, considerations, while
colloquialisms will be observed in the types of discourse, simulating (copying)
everyday oral communication — i.e., in the dialogue (or interior monologue) pf
a prose work.
When we classify some speech (text) fragment as literary or colloquial
it does not mean that all the words constituting it have a corresponding
stylistic meaning. More than that: words with a pronounced stylistic
connotation are few in any type of discourse, the overwhelming majority of its
lexis being neutral. As our fam-ous philologist L.V. Shcherba once said — a
stylistically coloured word is like a, drop of paint added to a glass of pure
water and colouring the whole of it.
Neither of the two named groups of words, possessing a stylistic
meaning, is homogeneous as to the quality of the meaning, frequency of use,
sphere of application, or the number and character of potential users. This is
why each one is further divided into the general, i.e. known to and used by
most native speakers in generalized literary (formal) or colloquial (informal)
communication, and special bulks. The latter ones, in their turn, are
subdivided into subgroups, each one serving a rather narrow; specified
communicative purpose.
So, among special literary words, as a rule, at least two major
subgroups are mentioned. They are:
1. Terms, i.e. words denoting objects, processes, phenomena of science,
humanities, technique.
2. Archaisms, i.e. words, a) denoting historical phenomena which are no
more in use (such as “yeoman”, “vassal”, “falconet”). These are historical
words.
b) used in poetry in the XVII-XIX cc. (such as “steed” for “horse”;
“quoth” for “said”; “woe” for “sor-row”). These are poetic words.
c) in the course of language history ousted by newer synonymic words
(such as “whereof = of which; “to deem” = to think; “repast” = meal; “nay” =
no) or forms (“maketh” = makes; “thou wilt” = you will; “breth-ren” =
brothers). These are called archaic words (archaic forms) proper.
Literary words, both general
(also called learned, bookish, high-flown) and special, contribute to the message
the tone of solemnity, sophistication, seriousness, gravity, learnedness. They
are used in official papers and documents, in scientific communication, in high
poetry, in authorial speech of creative prose.
Antithesis. Stylistic opposition.
Antithesis is a SD
consisting of two steps, the lexical meanings of which stand in opposition. The
main function is to stress heterogeneity of the described phenomenon, to show
it as a dialectical unity of two or more opposing features.
E.g.Some people have much
to live on, but little to live for.
E.g.I like big
parties, they are so intimate.
12
The word-stock of the English language may be 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 (aspect) it shares with all the subgroups within the layer. The
aspect of the literary layer is its markedly bookish character; the aspect of
the colloquial layer of words is its lively spoken character. The aspect of the
neutral layer is its universal character. That means it is unrestricted in its
use.
The literary layer of words consists of groups accepted as legitimate members of the
English vocabulary; they have no local or dialectal character. The literary
vocabulary consists of the following groups of words: 1. common literary; 2.
terms and learned words; 3. poetic words; 4. archaic words; 5.barbarisms and
foreign words; 6. literary coinages including nonce-words.
The colloquial layer of words is not infrequently limited to a definite
language community or confined to a special locality where it circulates. The
colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups: 1. common colloquial
words; 2. slang; 3. jargonisms; 4. professional words; 5. dialectal words; 6.
vulgar words; 7. colloquial coinages.
The common literary words are chiefly used in writing and in polished speech. They are used
informal communication. Literary words are mainly observed in the written form.
One can always tell a literaryword from a colloquial word, because literary
words are used to satisfy communicative demands of official, scientific, poetic
messages, while colloquial words are employed in non-official everyday
communication. Literary words stand in opposition to colloquial words forming
pairs of synonyms which are based oncontrasting relationsLiterary words serve to satisfy communicative demands of official,
scientific, poetic messages, while the colloquial ones are employed in
non-official everyday communication. Though there is no immediate correlation
between the written and the oral forms of speech on one hand, and the literary
and colloquial words, on the other, yet, for the most part, the first ones are
mainly observed in the written form, as most literary messages appear in
writing. And vice versa: though there are many examples of colloquialisms in
writing (informal letters, diaries, certain passages of memoirs, etc.), their
usage is associated with the oral form of communication.
Consequently, taking for analysis printed materials we shall find
literary words in authorial speech, de-scriptions, considerations, while
colloquialisms will be observed in the types of discourse, simulating (copying)
everyday oral communication — i.e., in the dialogue (or interior monologue) pf
a prose work.
When we classify some speech (text) fragment as literary or colloquial
it does not mean that all the words constituting it have a corresponding
stylistic meaning. More than that: words with a pronounced stylistic
connotation are few in any type of discourse, the overwhelming majority of its
lexis being neutral. As our fam-ous philologist L.V. Shcherba once said — a
stylistically coloured word is like a, drop of paint added to a glass of pure
water and colouring the whole of it.
Neither of the two named groups of words, possessing a stylistic
meaning, is homogeneous as to the quality of the meaning, frequency of use,
sphere of application, or the number and character of potential users. This is
why each one is further divided into the general, i.e. known to and used by
most native speakers in generalized literary (formal) or colloquial (informal)
communication, and special bulks. The latter ones, in their turn, are
subdivided into subgroups, each one serving a rather narrow; specified
communicative purpose.
So, among special literary words, as a rule, at least two major
subgroups are mentioned. They are:
1. Terms, i.e. words denoting objects, processes, phenomena of science,
humanities, technique.
2. Archaisms, i.e. words, a) denoting historical phenomena which are no
more in use (such as “yeoman”, “vassal”, “falconet”). These are historical
words.
b) used in poetry in the XVII-XIX cc. (such as “steed” for “horse”;
“quoth” for “said”; “woe” for “sor-row”). These are poetic words.
c) in the course of language history ousted by newer synonymic words
(such as “whereof = of which; “to deem” = to think; “repast” = meal; “nay” =
no) or forms (“maketh” = makes; “thou wilt” = you will; “breth-ren” =
brothers). These are called archaic words (archaic forms) proper.
Literary words, both general
(also called learned, bookish, high-flown) and special, contribute to the message
the tone of solemnity, sophistication, seriousness, gravity, learnedness. They
are used in official papers and documents, in scientific communication, in high
poetry, in authorial speech of creative prose.
Arrangement of
sentence members. Inversion. Types.
The effect of the majority of syntactical
stylistic devices depends on either the completeness
of the structure or on the arrangement
of its members. The order in
which words (clauses) follow each other is of extreme importance not only for
the logical coherence of the sentence but also for its connotational meanings.
The following sprawling rambling sentence from E. Waugh’s novel Vile Bodies, with clauses heaping one over
another, testifies to the carelessness, talkativeness and emotionality of the
speaker: “Well, Tony rang up Michael and told him that I’d said that William
thought Michael had written the review because of the reviews I had written of
Michael’s book last November, though, as a matter of fact, it was Tony himself
who wrote it.” (E.W.) More examples showing the validity of the syntactical
pattern were shown in Exercise I on the previous page.
One of the most
prominent places among the SDs dealing with the arrangement of members of the
sentence decidedly belongs to repetition. We have already seen the repetition of a phoneme
(as in alliteration), of a morpheme (as in rhyming, or plain morphemic
repetition).
Inversion which was briefly mentioned in the definition
of chiasmus is very often used as an independent SD in which the direct word
order is changed either completely so that the predicate (predicative) precedes
the subject, or partially so that the object precedes the subject predicate
pair. Correspondingly, we differentiate between a partial and
a complete inversion.
The stylistic
device of inversion should not be confused with grammatical inversion which is
a norm in interrogative constructions. Stylistic inversion deals with the
rearrangement of the normative word order. Questions may also be rearranged:
“Your mother is at home?” asks one of the characters of J. Baldwin’s novel. The
inverted question presupposes the answer with more certainty than the normative
one. It is the assuredness of the speaker of the positive answer that constitutes
additional information which is brought into the question by the inverted word
order. Interrogative constructions with the direct word order may be viewed as
cases of two step (double) inversion: direct w/o →grammatical
inversion→ direct w/o.
13
Colloquial words, on the contrary, mark the message as informal, non-official,
conversational. Apart from general colloquial words, widely used by all
speakers of the language in their everyday communication (e.g. “dad”, “kid”,
“crony”, “fan”, “to pop”, “folks”), such special subgroups may be mentioned:
Common standard colloquial words
Common colloquial words are always more emotionally coloured than
literary ones. They are used ininformal communication.Both literary and
colloquial words have their upper and lower ranges. The lower range of literary
wordsapproaches the neutral layer and has a tendency to pass into that layer.
The upper range of the colloquial layer can easily pass into the neutral layer
too. The lines of demarcation between common colloquial and neutral andcommon
literary and neutral are blurred. Here we may see the process of
interpenetration of the stylistic layers.The stylistic function of the
different layers of the English Vocabulary depends in many respects on their
interaction when they are opposed to one another. It is interesting to note
that anything written assumes agreater degree of significance than what is only
spoken. If the spoken takes the place of the written or viceversa, it means
that we are faced with a stylistic device.
Special colloquial vocabulary
a) Slang
The term slang is ambiguous and obscure. The “New Oxford English
Dictionary” defines slang as follows:1) the special vocabulary used by any set
of persons of low or disreputable character; language of a low andvulgar type…;
2) the cant or jargon of a certain class or period; 3) language of highly
colloquial typeconsidered as below the level of standard educated speech, and
consisting either of new
words or current wordsemployed in
some special sense.In England
and USA
b) Jargonisms
Jargon is a recognized term for a group of words that exist in almost
every language and whose aim is to preserve secrecy within one or another
social group. Jargonisms are generally old words with entirely newmeanings
imposed on them. Most of the jargonisms of any language are absolutely
incomprehensible to thoseoutside the social group which has invented them. They
may be defined as a code within a code. Jargonisms aresocial in character. In England and in the USA
c) Professionalisms
Professionalisms are the words used in a definite trade, profession or
calling by people connected bycommon interests both at work or at home.
Professional words name anew already existing concepts, tools or instruments,
and have the typical properties of a special code. Their main feature is
technicality. They aremonosemantic.Professionalisms do not aim at secrecy. They
fulfill a socially useful function in communication, facilitatinga quick and
adequate grasp of the message. Professionalisms are used in emotive prose to
depict the naturalspeech of a character. The skilful use of a professional word
will show not only the vocation of a character, butalso his education,
breeding, environment and sometimes even his psychology.
d) Dialectal words
Dialectal words are those which in the process of integration of the
English national language remained beyond its literary boundaries, and their
use is generally confined to a definite locality. There sometimes is confusion
between the terms dialectal, slang and vernacular. All these groups when used
in emotive prose aremeant to characterize the speaker as a person of a certain
locality, breeding, education, etc.Some dialectal words are universally
accepted as recognized units of the standard colloquial English. Of quite a
different nature are dialectal words which are easily recognized as corruptions
of standard Englishwords. Dialectal words are only to be found in the style of
emotive prose, very rarely in other styles. And evenhere their use is confined
to the function of characterizing personalities through their speech.
e) Vulgar words
The term vulgarism is rather misleading. Webster’s “New International
Dictionary” defines vulgarism as “avulgar phrase or expression, or one used
only in colloquial, or, esp. in unrefined or low, speech”. I.R.Galperindefines
vulgarisms as expletives or swear-words and obscene words and expressions.There
are different degrees of vulgar words. Some of them, the obscene ones, are
called “four-letter” words.A lesser degree of vulgarity is presented by
expletives and they sometimes appear in euphemistic spelling.The function of
vulgarisms is almost the same as that of interjections, that is to express
strong emotions.They are not to be found in any style of speech except emotive
prose, and here only in the direct speech of thecharacters.
f) Colloquial coinages
Colloquial coinages (nonce-words) are spontaneous and elusive. Most of
them disappear from the languageleaving no trace in it. Some nonce-words and
meanings may acquire legitimacy and thus become facts of thelanguage, while on
the other hand they may be classified as literary or colloquial according to
which of themeanings is being dealt with.When a nonce-word comes into general
use and is fixed in dictionaries, it is classified as a neologism for avery
short period of time. This shows the objective reality of contemporary life.
Technical progress is so rapidthat it builds new notions and concepts which in
their turn require new words to signify them. Nonce-coinageappears in all
spheres of life
Detachment. Detached sentence
members.
A specific
arrangement of sentence members is observed in detachment, a
stylistic device based on singling out a secondary member of the sentence with
the help of punctuation (intonation). The word order here is not violated, but
secondary members obtain their own stress and intonation because they are
detached from the rest of the sentence by commas, dashes or even a full stop as
in the following cases: “He had been nearly killed, ingloriously, in a jeep
accident.” (I.Sh.) “I have to beg you for money. Daily.” (S.L.) Both
“ingloriously” and “daily” remain adverbial modifiers, occupy their proper
normative places, following the modified verbs, but—due to detachment and
the ensuing additional pause and stress—are foregrounded into the focus of the
reader’s attention.
14
EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES EXPRESSIVE
MEANS
Expressive means of a language are those linguistic forms and properties
that have the potential to make the utterance emphatic or expressive. These can
be found on all levels - phonetic, graphical, morphological, lexical or
syntactical.
Expressive means and stylistic devices have a lot in common but they are
not completely synonymous. All stylistic devices belong to expressive means but
not all expressive means are stylistic devices. Phonetic phenomena such as
vocal pitch, pauses, logical stress, and drawling, or staccato pronunciation
are all expressive without being stylistic devices
Morphological forms like diminutive suffixes may have an expressive effect:
girlie, piggy, doggy, etc. An unexpected use of the author's nonce words like:
He glasnosted his love affair with this movie star (People) is another example
of morphological expressive means.
Lexical expressive means may be illustrated by a special group of
intensifiers - awfully, terribly, absolutely, etc. or words that retain their
logical meaning while being used emphatically: It was a very special
evening/event/gift.
There are also special grammatical forms and syntactical patterns
attributing expressiveness, such as: I do know you! I'm really angry with that
dog of yours! That you should deceive me! If only I could help you!
Stylistic devices
A stylistic device is a literary model in which semantic and structural
features are blended so that it represents a generalised pattern.
Prof. I. R. Galperin calls a stylistic device a generative model when
through frequent use a language fact is transformed into a stylistic device.
Thus we may say that some expressive means have evolved into stylistic devices
which represent a more abstract form or set of forms. A stylistic device
combines some general semantic meaning with a certain linguistic form resulting
in stylistic effect. It is like an algorithm employed for an expressive
purpose. For example, the interplay, interaction, or clash of the dictionary
and contextual meanings of words will bring about such stylistic devices as
metaphor, metonymy or irony.
The nature of the interaction may be affinity (likeness by nature),
proximity (nearness in place, time, order, occurrence, relation) or contrast
(opposition).
Respectively there is metaphor based on the principle of affinity,
metonymy based on proximity and irony based on opposition.
The evolution of a stylistic device such as metaphor could be seen from four
examples that demonstrate this linguistic mechanism (interplay of dictionary
and contextual meaning based on the principle of affinity):
1. My new dress is as pink as this flower: comparison (ground for
comparison - the colour of the flower).
2. Her cheeks were as red as a tulip: simile (ground for simile -
colour/beauty/health/freshness)
3. She is a real flower: metaphor (ground for metaphor - frail/
fragrant/tender/beautiful/helpless...).
My love is a red, red rose: metaphor (ground for metaphor - passionateIbeautifulIstrong...).
4. Ruby lips, hair of gold, snow-white skin: trite metaphors so
frequently employed that they hardly have any stylistic power left because
metaphor dies of overuse. Such metaphors are also called hackneyed or even
dead.
. Types of connection: polysyndeton,
asyndeton, attachment.
The arrangement of sentence
members, the completeness of sentence structure necessarily involve
various types of connection used
within the sentence or between sentences. Repeated use of conjunctions is
called polysyndeton; deliberate
omission of them is, correspondingly, named asyndeton. Both polysyndeton and asyndeton, have a strong
rhythmic impact. Besides, the function of polysyndeton is to strengthen the
idea of equal logical (emotive) importance of connected sentences, while
asyndeton, cutting off connecting words, helps to create the effect of terse,
energetic, active prose.
Asyndeton is
connection between parts of a sentence or between sentences without any formal
sign, when there is a deliberate omission of the connective conjunctions where
it is generally expected to be according to the norms of the literary language.E.g. Arthur looked at his watch; it was nine o’clock. (Voynich)
E.g. The policeman took no notice of them; his feet were planted apart on the strip of crimson carpet stretched across the pavement; his face, under the helmet, wore the same solid, watching look as theirs. (Galsworthy)
Polysyndeton is a SD of connecting words, sentences or phrases by using connective conjunctions.
E.g. The heaviest rain, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. (Dickens)
The Gap-Sentence Link is a type of sentence connection, which is not immediately obvious and it requires a certain mental effort to grasp the interrelation between the parts, i.e. to bridge the semantic gap.
E.g.She and that fellow ought to be sufferers, and they were in
These two types of connection are more characteristic of the author’s
speech. The third type—attachment (gap sentence, leaning sentence,
link) on the contrary, is mainly to be found in various
representations of the voice of the personage—dialogue, reported speech,
entrusted narrative. In the attachment the second part of the utterance is
separated from the first one by a full stop though their semantic and
grammatical ties remain very strong. The second part appears as an afterthought
and is often connected with the beginning of the utterance with the help of a
conjunction which brings the latter into the foregrounded opening position. Cf.:
“It wasn’t his fault. It was yours. And mine. I now humbly beg you to give me
the money with which to buy meals for you to eat. And hereafter do re member
it: the next time I shan’t beg. I shall simply starve.” (S.L.); “Prison is
where she belongs. And my husband agrees one thousand per cent.” (T.C.)
15,
17
Types of narration.
A work of creative
prose is never homogeneous as to the form and essence of the information it
carries. Both very much depend on the viewpoint of the addresser, as the author
and his personages may offer different angles of perception of the same object.
Naturally, it is the author who organizes this effect of polyphony, but we, the
readers, while reading the text, identify various views with various
personages, not attributing them directly to the writer. The latter’s views and
emotions are most explicitly expressed in the author’s speech (or the author’s narrative). The unfolding of
the plot is mainly concentrated here, personages are given characteristics, the
time and the place of action are also described here, as the author sees them.
The author’s narrative supplies the reader with direct information about the
author’s preferences and objections, beliefs and contradictions, i.e. serves
the major source of shaping up the author’s image.
In contemporary
prose, in an effort to make his writing more plausible, to impress the reader
with the effect of authenticity of the described events, the writer entrusts
some fictitious character (who might also participate in the narrated events)
with the task of story telling. The writer himself thus hides behind the figure
of the narrator, presents all the events of the story from the latter’s
viewpoint and only sporadically emerges in the narrative with his own
considerations, which may reinforce or contradict those expressed by the
narrator. This form of the author’s speech is called entrusted
narrative. The structure of
the entrusted narrative is much more complicated than that of the author’s
narrative proper, because instead of one commanding, organizing image of the
author, we have the hierarchy of the narrator’s image seemingly arranging the
pros and cons of the related problem and, looming above the narrator’s image,
there stands the image of the author, the true and actual creator of it all,
responsible for all the views and evaluations of the text and serving the major
and predominant force of textual cohesion and unity.
Entrusted narrative can be carried out in the 1st person singular, when
the narrator proceeds with his story openly and explicitly, from his own name,
as, e.g., in The Catcher in the Rye by
J.D. Salinger, or The Great Gatsby by Sc.
Fitzgerald, or AII the King’s Menby R.P.
Warren. In the first book Holden Caulfield himself retells about the crisis in
his own life which makes the focus of the novel. In the second book Nick
Carraway tells about Jay Gatsby, whom he met only occasionally, so that to tell
Gatsby’s life story he had to rely on the knowledge of other personages too.
And in the third book Jack Burden renders the dramatic career of Willie Stark,
himself being one of the closest associates of the man. In the first case the
narration has fewer deviations from the main line, than in the other two in
which the narrators have to supply the reader also with the information about
themselves and their connection with the protagonist.
Entrusted narrative
may also be anonymous. The narrator
does not openly claim responsibility for the views and evaluations but the
manner of presentation, the angle of description very strongly suggest that the
story is told not by the author himself but by some of his factotums, which we
see, e.g., in the prose of Fl. O’Connor, С. McCullers, E.
Hemingway, E. Caldwell.
The narrative, both
the author’s and the entrusted, is not the only type of narration observed in
creative prose. A very important place here is occupied by dialogue, where
personages express their minds in the form of uttered speech. In their exchange
of remarks the participants of the dialogue, while discussing other people and
their actions, expose themselves too. So dialogue is one of the most
significant forms of the personage’s self characterization, which allows the
author to seemingly eliminate himself from the process.
Another form, which obtained a position of utmost significance in
contemporary prose, is interior speech of the
personage, which allows the
author (and the readers) to peep into the inner world of the character, to
observe his ideas and views in the making. Interior speech is best known in the
form of interior monologue, a rather
lengthy piece of the text (half a page and over) dealing with one major topic
of the character’s thinking, offering causes for his past, present or future
actions. Short insets of interior speech present
immediate mental and emotional reactions of the personage to the remark or
action of other characters.
The workings of our
brain are not intended for communication and are, correspondingly, structured
in their own unique way. The imaginative reflection of mental processes,
presented in the form of interior speech, being a part of the text, one of the
major functions of which is communicative, necessarily undergoes some linguistic
structuring to make it understandable to the readers. In extreme cases, though,
this desire to be understood by others is out shadowed by the author’s effort
to portray the disjointed, purely associative manner of thinking, which makes
interior speech almost or completely incomprehensible. These cases exercise the
so called stream of consciousness technique which
is especially popular with representatives of modernism in contemporary
literature.
So the personage’s
viewpoint can be realized in the uttered (dialogue) and inner (interior) speech
forms. Both are introduced into the text by the author’s
remarks containing indication of the personage (his name or the
name substitute) and of the act of speaking (thinking) expressed by such verbs
as “to say”, “to think” and their numerous synonyms.
To separate and
individualize the sphere of the personage, language means employed in the
dialogue and interior speech differ from those used in the author’s narrative
and, in their unity and combination, they constitute the personage’s speech characteristic which is in dispensable in
the creation of his image in the novel.
The last—the fourth—type of narration observed in artistic prose is
a peculiar blend of the viewpoints and language spheres of both the author and
the character. It was first observed and analysed almost a hundred years ago,
with the term represented (reported) speech attached
to it. Represented speech serves to show either the mental re production of a
once uttered remark, or the character’s thinking. The first case is known
as represented uttered speech, the
second one as represented inner speech. The
latter is close to the personage’s interior speech in essence, but differs from
it in form: it is rendered in the third person singular and may have the
author’s qualitative words, i.e. it reflects the presence of the author’s
viewpoint alongside that of the character, while interior speech belongs to the
personage completely, formally too, which is materialized through the first
person pronouns and the language idiosyncrasies of the character.
Parallel
constructions. Chiasmus.
Parallel construction is a device, which deals
not so much with a sentence but with supra-phrasal units and paragraphs. The
necessary condition in parallel construction is identical or similar structure
in two or more sentences or parts of a sentence in close succession.
E.g. There were, [...], real silver spoons to
stir the tea with, and real china cups to drink it out of,
and plates of the same to hold the cakes and toast in. (Dickens)
Parallel constructions are often backed up by
repetition of words (lexical repetition) and conjunctions or
prepositions (polysyndeton). Pure parallel construction, however,
depends only on repetition of the syntactical design of the sentence.
Parallel constructions may be partial and complete. Partial parallel
arrangement is the repetition of some part of successive sentences or clauses.
E.g. Our senses perceive no
extremes. Too much sound deafens us; too much light dazzles us; too great
distance or proximity hinders our view.
Complete parallel arrangement, also called balance,
is the repetition of identical structures throughout the corresponding
sentences.
E.g. And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot.
(Shakespeare)
Chiasmus (reversed parallel
constructions) is a SD based on the repetition of a syntactic pattern of two
successive sentences or parts of a sentence, in which the word-order of one of
the sentences is inverted as compared to that of the other.
E.g. He kissed her, she allowed him to be kissed.
E.g. He looked at the gun, and the
gun looked back at him.
The device is effective as it helps to lay stress on
the second part of the utterance, which is opposite in structure. Chiasmus can
appear only when there are two successive or coordinate parts of a sentence.
16,18
Narrative compositional forms.
The four types of narration briefly described above are singled out on
the basis of the viewpoint commanding the organization of each one. If it is
semantics of the text that is taken as the foundation of the classification
then we shall deal with the three narrative
compositional forms traditionally singled out in poetics
and stylistics. They are: narrative proper where
the unfolding of the plot is concentrated. This is the most dynamic
compositional form of the text. Two other forms —description and
argumentation — are static. The
former supplies the details of the appearance of people and things “populating”
the book, of the place and time of action, the latter offers causes and effects
of the personage’s behaviour, his (or the author’s) considerations about moral,
ethical, ideological and other issues. It is rather seldom that any of these
compositional forms is used in a “pure”, uninterrupted way. As a rule they
intermingle even within the boundaries of a paragraph.
All the
compositional forms can be found in each of the types of narration but with
strongly varying frequences.
Repetition. As a syntactical SD
repetition is recurrence of the same word, word combination, phrase for two and
more times. According to the place which the repeated unit occupies in a
sentence (utterance), repetition is classified into several types:
1.anaphora: the beginning of
two or more successive sentences (clauses) is repeated:a...,
a..., a... . The main stylistic function of anaphora is not so
much to emphasize the repeated unit as to create the background for the
nonrepeated unit, which, through its novelty, becomes foregrounded. The
background forming function of anaphora is also evident from the kind of words
which are repeated anaphorically.
2.epiphora: the end of successive
sentences (clauses) is repeated:
...a, ...a,
...a. The main function of epiphora is to add stress to the
final words of the sentence.
3.framing: the beginning of
the sentence is repeated in the end, thus forming the “frame” for the non
repeated part of the sentence (utterance):a... a. The
function of framing is to elucidate the notion mentioned in the beginning of
the sentence. Between two appearances of the repeated unit there comes the
developing middle part of the sentence which explains and clarifies what was
introduced in the beginning, so that by the time it is used for the second time
its semantics is concretized and specified.
4.catch
repetition (anadiplosis): the end of one clause
(sentence) is repeated in the beginning of the following one: ...a, a... .
Specification of
the semantics occurs here too, but on a more modest level.
5.chain
repetition presents several successive anadiploses:...a, a...b, b...c, c... . The effect is that of
the smoothly developing logical reasoning.
6.ordinary
repetition has no definite place in the sentence and the repeated
unit occurs in various positions:...a, ...a..., a...
. Ordinary repetition emphasizes both the logical and the emotional
meanings of the reiterated word (phrase).
7.successive
repetition is a string of closely following each other reiterated
units: ...a, a, a... . This is the most
emphatic type of repetition which signifies the peak of emotions of the
speaker.
18
·
What we here call individual
style, therefore, is a unique combination of language units, expressive means
and stylistic devices peculiar to a given writer, which makes that writer's
works or even utterances easily recognizable. Hence, individual style may be
likened to a proper name. It. has nominal character. The analogy is, of course,
conventional, but it helps to understand the uniqueness of the writer's
idiosyncrasy. Individual style is based on a thorough knowledge of the
contemporary language and also of earlier periods in its development.
Decoding stylistics is the most recent trend in stylistic research that employs theoretical findings in such areas of science as information theory, psychology, statistical studies in combination with linguistics, literary theory, history of art, literary criticism, etc.
Decoding stylistics helps the reader in his or her understanding of a literary work by explaining or decoding the information that may be hidden from immediate view in specific allusions, cultural or political parallels, peculiar use of irony or euphemism, etc.
The term ‘decoding stylistics’ came from the application of the theory of information to linguistics by such authors as M. Riffatrre, R. Jacobson, P. Guiraud, F. Danes, Y. Lotman, I. V. Arnold and others.
In a rather simplified version this theory presents a creative process in the following mode. The writer receives diverse information from the outside world. Some of it becomes a source for his creative work. He processes this information and recreates it in his own esthetic images that become a vehicle to pass his vision to the addressee, his readers. The process of internalizing of the outside information and translating it into his imagery is called ‘encoding’.
The reader is supposed to decode the information contained in the text of a literary work.
However to encode the information does not mean to have it delivered or passed intact to the recipient. There are more obstacles here than meet the eye. In contrast to the writer who is always concrete the reader who is addressed is in fact an abstract notion, he is any of the thousands of people who may read this book. This abstract reader may not be prepared or willing to decode the message or even take it. The reasons are numerous and various.
In M. Tsvetaeva’s essay «Poets on Critics» in which she maintains that reading is co-creative work on the part of the reader if he wants to understand and enjoy a work of art.Reading
From the reader’s point of view the important thing is not what the author wanted to say but what he managed to convey in the text of his work. That’s why decoding stylistics deals with the notions of stylistics of the author and stylistics of the reader. Essential concepts of decoding stylistic analysis and types of foregrounding
Decoding stylistics investigates the levels phonetic, graphical, lexical, and grammatical. It studies expressive means provided by each level not as isolated devices that demonstrate some stylistic function but as a part of the general pattern on the background of relatively lengthy segments of the text, from a paragraph to the level of the whole work. The underlying idea implies that stylistic analysis can only be valid when it takes into account the overall concept and aesthetic system of the author reflected in his writing.
Ideas, events, characters, emotions and an author’s attitudes are all encoded in the text through language. The reader is expected to perceive and decipher these things by reading and interpreting the text. Decoding stylistics is actually the reader’s stylistics that is engaged in recreating the author’s vision of the world with the help of concrete text elements and their interaction throughout the text.
Decoding stylistics is the most recent trend in stylistic research that employs theoretical findings in such areas of science as information theory, psychology, statistical studies in combination with linguistics, literary theory, history of art, literary criticism, etc.
Decoding stylistics helps the reader in his or her understanding of a literary work by explaining or decoding the information that may be hidden from immediate view in specific allusions, cultural or political parallels, peculiar use of irony or euphemism, etc.
The term ‘decoding stylistics’ came from the application of the theory of information to linguistics by such authors as M. Riffatrre, R. Jacobson, P. Guiraud, F. Danes, Y. Lotman, I. V. Arnold and others.
In a rather simplified version this theory presents a creative process in the following mode. The writer receives diverse information from the outside world. Some of it becomes a source for his creative work. He processes this information and recreates it in his own esthetic images that become a vehicle to pass his vision to the addressee, his readers. The process of internalizing of the outside information and translating it into his imagery is called ‘encoding’.
The reader is supposed to decode the information contained in the text of a literary work.
However to encode the information does not mean to have it delivered or passed intact to the recipient. There are more obstacles here than meet the eye. In contrast to the writer who is always concrete the reader who is addressed is in fact an abstract notion, he is any of the thousands of people who may read this book. This abstract reader may not be prepared or willing to decode the message or even take it. The reasons are numerous and various.
In M. Tsvetaeva’s essay «Poets on Critics» in which she maintains that reading is co-creative work on the part of the reader if he wants to understand and enjoy a work of art.
From the reader’s point of view the important thing is not what the author wanted to say but what he managed to convey in the text of his work. That’s why decoding stylistics deals with the notions of stylistics of the author and stylistics of the reader. Essential concepts of decoding stylistic analysis and types of foregrounding
Decoding stylistics investigates the levels phonetic, graphical, lexical, and grammatical. It studies expressive means provided by each level not as isolated devices that demonstrate some stylistic function but as a part of the general pattern on the background of relatively lengthy segments of the text, from a paragraph to the level of the whole work. The underlying idea implies that stylistic analysis can only be valid when it takes into account the overall concept and aesthetic system of the author reflected in his writing.
Ideas, events, characters, emotions and an author’s attitudes are all encoded in the text through language. The reader is expected to perceive and decipher these things by reading and interpreting the text. Decoding stylistics is actually the reader’s stylistics that is engaged in recreating the author’s vision of the world with the help of concrete text elements and their interaction throughout the text.
One of the fundamental
concepts of decoding stylistics is
foregrounding. The essence of this concept
consists in the following. Foregrounding means a specific role that some
language items play in a certain context when the reader’s attention cannot but
be drawn to item. In a literary text such items become stylistically marked
features that build up its stylistic function.
Suspense and its functions.
Suspense is a compositional
device which consists in arranging the matter of a communication so that the
less important, descriptive, subordinate parts are amasses at the beginning,
while the main idea is withheld till the end of the sentence. Thus the reader’s
attention is held and his interest kept up:
E.g.Mankind, says
a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. Was obliging enough to read and explain
to me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw. (Charles
Lamb)
Sentences of this type are called periodic
sentences, or periods. Their function is to create suspense, to keep
the reader in a state of uncertainty and expectation. This device is especially
favoured by orators, apparently due to the strong influence of intonation which
helps to create the desired atmosphere of expectation and emotional tension
which goes with it.
Suspense always requires long stretches of
speech or writing, but the main purpose is to prepare the reader for the only
logical conclusion of the utterance.
E.g.If you can
keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust
yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance to their doubting too;
[…]
If you can talk with
crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common
touch
If neither foes nor
loving friends can hurt you,
20
Completeness of sentence structure. Ellipsis. Break.
The second, some what smaller, group of
syntactical SDs deals not so much with specificities of the arrangement as with
the completeness of sentence structure. The
most prominent place here belongs to ellipsis, or
deliberate omission of at least one member of the sentence, as in the famous
quotation from Macbeth:
What! all my pretty
chickens and their dam
at one fell swoop?
In contemporary prose ellipsis is mainly used in dialogue where it is
consciously employed by the author to reflect the natural omissions characterizing
oral colloquial speech. Often ellipsis is met close to dialogue, in author’s
introductory remarks commenting the speech of the characters. Elliptical
remarks in prose resemble stage directions in drama. Both save only the most
vital information letting out those bits of it which can be easily reassembled
from the situation. It is the situational nature of our everyday speech which
heavily relies on both speakers’ awareness of the conditions and details of the
communication act that promotes normative colloquial omissions. Imitation of
these oral colloquial norms is created by the author through ellipsis, with the
main function of achieving the authenticity and plausibility of fictitious
dialogue.
Ellipsis is the
basis of the so called telegraphic style, in
which connectives and redundant words are left out. In the early twenties
British railways had an inscription over luggage racks in the carriages: “The
use of this rack for heavy and bulky packages involves risk of injury to
passengers and is prohibited.” Forty years later it was reduced to the
elliptical: “For light articles only.” The same progress from full completed
messages to clipped phrases was made in drivers’ directions: “Please drive
slowly”, “Drive slowly”, “Slow”.
The biggest
contributors to the telegraphic style are one
member sentences, i.e.
sentences consisting only of a nominal group, which is semantically and
communicatively self sufficient. Isolated verbs, proceeding from the
ontological features of a verb as a part of speech, cannot be considered one
member sentences as they always rely on the context for their semantic
fulfilment and are thus heavily ellipticized sentences. In creative prose one
member sentences are mostly used in descriptions (of nature, interior,
appearance, etc.), where they produce the effect of a detailed but laconic
picture foregrounding its main components; and as the background of dialogue,
mentioning the emotions, attitudes, moods of the speakers.
In apokoinu constructions the
omission of the pronominal (adverbial) connective creates a blend of the main
and the subordinate clauses so that the predicative or the object of the first
one is simultaneously used as the subject of the second one. Cf.: “There was a
door led into the kitchen.” (Sh.A.) “He was the man killed that deer.” (R.W.)
The double syntactical function played by one word produces the general
impression of clumsiness of speech and is used as a means of speech
characteristics in dialogue, in reported speech and the type of narrative known
as “entrusted” in which the author entrusts the telling of the story to an
imaginary narrator who is either an observer or participant of the described
events.
The last SD which
promotes the incompleteness of sentence structure is break
(aposiopesis). Break is also
used mainly in the dialogue or in other forms of narrative imitating
spontaneous oral speech. It reflects the emotional or/and the psychological
state of the speaker: a sentence may be broken because the speaker’s emotions
prevent him from finishing it. Another cause of the break is the desire to cut
short the information with which the sentence began. In such cases there are
usually special remarks by the author, indicating the intentional abruptness of
the end. (See examples in Exercise IV.) In many cases break is the result of
the speaker’s uncertainty as to what exactly he is to promise (to threaten, to
beg).
To mark the break, dashes and
dots are used. It is only in cast iron structures that full stops may also
appear, as in the well known phrases “Good intentions,
There are fifteen basic punctuation
marks in English grammar. These include the period, comma, exclamation point,
question mark, colon, semicolon, bullet point, dash, hyphen, parenthesis, bracket, brace, ellipsis, quotation mark, and apostrophe. The following are a few examples of these marks being used
in a sentence.
Punctuation serves as a pause
within a sentence, which is often necessary in order to emphasize certain
phrases or words in order to help readers and listeners understand better what
the writer or speaker is trying to convey. Thus, the basic function of
punctuation is to place stress on certain sections of a sentence.
Punctuation marks are also
used to divide text into words and phrases when necessary in order to better
clarify the meaning of those words or phrases. On the contrary, using
punctuation incorrectly can convey an entirely different meaning of a sentence
from the one that was originally intended.
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