Introduction. The General concept of style

To see the difference b/n slang words and their synonyms we’ll regard the oppositions of a slang, colloquialism, and a neutral word:

 

Slang	Colloquial	Neutral
Bird, fruit	chap	man
croaker	doc	doctor
Fish-wrapper	rag	newspaper
pig	bobby	policeman

 

    Slang is used not only for fun, certain groups use it in special spheres. E.g.: US Army slang: brain bucket – steel helmet, captain of latrine – one detailed to clean the latrine, have ants in the pants – be nervous, restless, or jumpy, morale booster – attractive girl, stomach robber – cook, button man - soldier, etc. Business slang: benny – bennies (доход), cash-dispenser – automatic teller machine (банкомат), nest-egg (деньги, сберегаемые для кого-либо спец.)

    A typical example of the slang of social groups is Cockney: “needle and pin” stands for gin, “bees and honey” stands for money, “storm and strife” stands for wife, “gay and frisky” - for whiskey. “Let’s have a butchers” (butcher’s hook-look), “Use your loaf” (loaf of bread-head).

    Slang develops from the attempt to find fresh and vigorous, colourful and humorous expression.

    Jargon – the ethnical or secret v-ry of a certain group (trade, class, age, interest). It is shop talk. Grease – money, to greese the palm (позолотить руку), to laundry money (отмывать деньги), drag – rob vehicles, dar – (damned average raiser) a dilligent student. Jargon may pass into the col-l layer and become recognized by everyone.

    Vulgarisms – swear and obscene words and expressions: damn, to hell, son of a bitch, bloody, etc. Drat it – God rot it, blame (Пропади ты пропадом). – You know blame well (Черт побери, ты все хорошо знаешь), a blamed long time, blankety – a blankety lie (вопиющая ложь), blasted (проклятый) – this room is so blasted chaste. Blooming – a blooming fool (набитый дурак). The function is to express strong emotion, mainly annoyance, anger, vexation.

 

 

Questions for self-control:

 

1. What are the three layers of the English vocabulary? What are the criteria for their differentiation?
2. What are the main features of the colloquial layer? What makes this layer the most dynamic and fleeting of all?
3. What are the main features of the literary layer? Give examples of literary words.
4. Can the words of the literary layer become neutral, why? Can the words of the colloquial layer become neutral? Give examples.
5. Give the classification of the colloquial layer. Give examples of words from each subclass. What do the following words stand for: jargon, vulgarisms, slang
6. Give the classification of the literary layer. Give examples of words from each subclass.
7. What is the function of archaic words? Give their classification.
8. What is the difference between foreign words and barbarisms? What is their function?
9. What is the function of terms and learned words? Which functional style are they used in?

 

Literature

 

1.    Н.М. Разинкина. Практикум по стилистике английского и русского языков: Учебн.пособие. – М.: Высшая школа, 2006

2.    Ю.М. Скребнев Основы стилистики английского языка: Учебник для ин-тов и фак.иностр.яз. – 2-е изд., испр. – М.:ООО «Издательство Астрель», 2000

3.     I.R. Galperin. Stylistics. – Moscow,1977

4.     V.A. Kuharenko. A Book of Practice in Stylistics. – M.:Высшая школа,1986

5.     V.A. Maltzev. Essays of English Stylistics. – Мн.: Высшая школа,1984

6.     T.A.  Znamenskaya. Stylistics of the English Language. М., Комкнига, 2006

 

 

 

Lecture 3.

Phonographical Stylistic Means.

 

1. Phonetic Expressive Means. General Notion.

3. Onomatopoeia.
4. Alliteration.

5. Rhyme and Rhythm.

6. Graphon. Graphical SM.

 

 

      1. The stylistic approach to the utterance is not confined to its structure and sense. There is another thing to be taken into account which, in a certain type of communication, (belles-lettres) plays an important role. This is the way a word, a phrase or a sentence sounds. The sound of most words taken separately has little or no aesthetic value. In combination with other words a word may acquire a desired phonetic effect. The way a certain word sounds may produce a certain euphonic impression, but as it is a matter of individual perception and feeling, this impression is purely subjective.

Some scientists like the French scientist Verier believe that each separate sound expresses a definite feeling or state of mind. Thus [i:] produces the feeling of joy; [u:] –sorrow, seriousness.

Others, like Pasternak, state that sounds should not be taken separately. The music of words results from correlation of the meaning of the utterance with its sound.

The sound of a word, or the way words sound in combination, contribute smth to the general effect of the message, particularly when the sound effect has been deliberately worked out.

2. Onomatopoeia (sound imitation). Onomatopoeia is a combination of speech sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc.), by things (machines or tools), by people (singing, laughter, patter of feet) and by animals. Combinations of speech sounds of this type will inevitably be associated with whatever produces the natural sound. The relation between onomatopoeia and the phenomenon it represents is metonymical.

It is based on the fact that the author selects the words with such sounds which are associated with the emitter or the source or these sounds. For example, the word “buzz” is associated with the telephone. The words with such sounds may be called auditory metaphors. Like the usual metaphors they create a certain image but this image is not visual but auditor:

“Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, pu-we, to-witta-woo”. (Th. Nashe)

This auditory metaphor suggests the singing or chattering of birds. Onomatopoeia may carry on an aesthetical function: it may act pleasurably or unpleasurably on the reader’s or hearer’s feelings.

     There are 2 types of onomatopoeia: direct and indirect. Direct onomatopoeia is contained in words that imitate natural sounds, as ding-dong, buzz, bang, cuckoo, mew, ping-pong, poar, …(give your examples).

Indirect onomatopoeia is a combination of sounds the aim of which is to make the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. It is sometimes called “echo-writing”.

“And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain”.  In this example the repetition of the sound [s] produces the sound of the rustling of the curtain.

      3. Alliteration. It is a means of achieving a desirable musical effect of the utterance.  Alliteration is based on repetition of the same sounds or sound-combinations at relatively short intervals. “Secret and self-contained and solitary as an oyster”. Here the sound [s] is repeated at short intervals.

The essence of this device lies in the repetition of similar sounds, in particular consonant sounds, in close succession, particularly at the beginning of successive words.

“Secret and self-contained and solitary as an oyster”.

“Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming, dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before”. [E.A. Poe]

Alliteration is a sort of musical accompaniment of the utterance. It lends some emotional coloring to the narration but it does not carry sense of its own unless we agree that a sound meaning exists as such. But even if are unable to specify clearly the character of this meaning, still a certain amount of information is contained in the repetition of sounds. The use of alliteration may produce the effect of euphony (a sense of ease and comfort in pronouncing and hearing), or cacophony (a sense of strain and discomfort in pronouncing or hearing).

Ex. 1) “silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain.”

2) “Nor soul helps flesh now more than flesh helps soul”.

Alliteration is generally regarded as a musical accompaniment of the author’s idea, supporting it with some vague emotional atmosphere which each reader interprets for himself. Thus the repetition of the sound [d] in the lines quoted from Poe’s poem “The Raven”  prompts the feeling of anxiety, fear, horror, anguish or all these feelings simultaneously.

Alliteration is used in old poems and songs, and at present in newspaper headlines, titles of books, in proverbs and sayings: tit for tat; blind as a bat; to rob Peter, or pay Paul; sense and sensibility, Fun Fearless Female, etc.  

4. Rhyme. Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal (конечного) sound combinations of words. Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they’re usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.  They distinguish full rhymes and incomplete rhymes.

The full rhyme presupposes identity of the vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in stressed syllables as in might, right, light, fight.

Incomplete rhymes present a greater variety. There are 2 main groups – vowel rhymes and consonant rhymes. In V.R. the vowels of the syllables in corresponding words are identical, but the consonants may be different; flesh – fresh – press. C. R. show concordance in consonants and disparity (несоответствие, неравенство) in vowels – worth-forth; flung – long. Eye-rhyme can only be perceived in the written verse. In ER the letters, not the sound are identical: blood-brood, love – prove.  

Rhythm. Rhythm exists in all spheres of human activity and assumes multifarious (разнообразные) forms. It is a powerful instrument in stirring up emotions. The most general definition of rhythm is from Webster’s New World Dictionary.

Rhythm is a flow, movement, procedure, etc., characterized by basically regular recurrence (повторение) of elements or features, as beat, or  accent, in alteration with opposite or different elements or features. Rhythm is the main factor which brings order into the utterance. Rhythm in language necessarily demands oppositions that alternate (сменять) long –short, stressed-unstressed, high –low and other contrasting segments of speech. Rhythm exists both in poetry and prose.

Prose rhythm, unlike verse rhythm, lacks consistency, as it follows various principles. But it is possible to detect a kind of alteration of syntactical units. The task is then to find these units, analyse them, and ascertain (установить) the manner of alteration (изменение).      

5. Graphon. Graphical SM.

Graphon is a deliberate violation of word structures and word-combinations. Graphical means include:

1) Italics – italicizing adds to the logical and emotive significance of the utterance.

2)  Hyphonization (you spread like a chimpanzee).  – irony, sarcasm.

3) Multiplication (all-ab –b board) – shows intensification of speech.

4) Capitalization (HELP, HELP) – intensity.    

 

Questions for Self-Control

 

1. What are the two opposing views on the stylistic effect of individual sounds?
2. What phonetic expressive means do you know? Give their definitions.
3. What are the two types of sound-imitation? Give examples.
4. What is the function of sound imitation? Why is it often called an auditory metaphor?
5. What is alliteration? Give the definition and state its function.
6. What is graphon? What is achieved by the use of graphon?
7. What other phono-graphical means do you know?
8. Which phono-graphical means are predominantly used in prose and which in poetry?

 

 

Literature

 

1.    Н.М. Разинкина. Практикум по стилистике английского и русского языков: Учебн.пособие. – М.: Высшая школа, 2006

2.    Ю.М. Скребнев Основы  стилистики английского языка:  Учебник для ин-тов и фак.иностр.яз. – 2-е изд., испр. – М.:ООО «Издательство  Астрель», 2000

3.     I.R. Galperin. Stylistics. – Moscow,1977

4.     V.A. Kuharenko. A Book of Practice in Stylistics. – M.:Высшая школа,1986

5.     V.A. Maltzev. Essays of English Stylistics. – Мн.: Высшая школа,1984

6.     T.A.  Znamenskaya. Stylistics of the English Language. М., Комкнига, 2006

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lecture 4.

Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices.

1.

The notion of SD. Lexical SD or tropes.

2.   Simile, Metaphor, Metonymy

3.   Irony, Polysemy, Zeugma, Pun 

4. Interjections, Epithet, Oxymoron
5. Hyperbole, Periphrases

 

 

1. The notion of SD.

Words in context may acquire additional lexical meanings not fixed in dictionaries, i.e. contextual meanings. CM may deviate from the dictionary meaning to such a degree that the new meaning even becomes the opposite of the primary meaning. This is called transferred meaning.

Transferred meaning is the interrelation between 2 types of lexical meaning: dictionary and contextual. The contextual meaning always depends on the dictionary (logical) meaning to a greater or lesser extent. When the deviation from the acknowledged meaning is carried to a degree that it causes an unexpected turn in the recognized logical meaning, we register a SD, also called a trope. The transferred meaning of a word may be fixed in dictionaries as a result of long and frequent use of the word other than in its primary meaning. Then it is called derivative meaning. The relations between the dictionary and contextual meaning may be maintained in the following ways: on the principles of affinity, on that of proximity, or symbol-referent relations, or on opposition.

Every author employs different stylistic means to achieve the utmost expressiveness of his l-ge and lend the desired emotional colouring to his narration. Stylistic means help the reader to disclose the author's attitude to the events described. Many linguists use the term SM-s indiscriminately.

Professor Galperin I.R. differentiates b/n EM and SD-s. EM-s are those phonetic, morphological, lexical, phraseological and syntactical means, which function in the l-ge for emotional or logical intensification of the utterance. For ex., the use of shall in the 2 & 3d person is regarded as an EM: He shall do it.

As for SD, it is more abstract in nature than EM, b-se it forms a pattern of the l-ge, whereas EM do not form patterns, they are registered in dictionaries (ex., proverbs and sayings). All the SD-s are commonly used in l-ge, and are therefore easily predictable. SDs carry a greater amount of information and are less predictable.

The linguists from Leningrad school consider that words and word-groups of the general language fall into 3 big groups: phonetic (alliteration, onomatopoeia), lexical (metaphor, metonymy, etc.,), syntactical (inversion, rhetoric question, aposiopesis). When they occur in a literary text are treated as elements of poetic speech, for in such a text they acquire meaningfulness conditioned by the whole poetic content of the literary text. They call them tropes and figures of speech, which have been worked out in philology and rhetoric since ancient times.

The principle manifested in tropes is that of analogy. Some similar feature in otherwise dissimilar things is discovered and the discovered similarity suggests an image of that which is described. Units of poetic speech that belong to tropes are: simile, metaphor, metonymy, and metaphoric/metonymic epithet. The other collective term for them is imagery.

Figures of speech are: parallel constructions, framing, anaphora, epiphora, alliteration, antithesis, aposiopesis and others. The organizing axes in these are recurrence, analogy/contrast, incomplete representation. The most widely used tropes are: metaphor, metonymy, simile.

 

2. Simile, Metaphor, Metonymy

Simile can be defined as a device based on an analogy b/n two unlike things, which are discovered to possess some feature in common. The formal elements of a S are link words like, as, as if, as though, such as, etc., suffixes -wise, -like and verbs to resemble, to seem, to appear, to look like. For instance, “He looked like a horse and he smiled like a horse”, “She seemed nothing more than a doll”, “… with ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot”. All the above-mentioned formal elements make the S easily recognizable.

Simile should not be confused with simple comparison: objects belonging to the same class are likened in a simple comparison, while in a S we deal with the likening of objects belonging to two different classes, ex., “She is like her mother” – is a simple comparison. “She is like a rose” – is a S used for expressing individual emotions.

When a S is often repeated it becomes trite. Usually such similes are recognized by the conjunctions as…as: as strong as a horse.

Metaphor is based upon analogy, upon a traceable similarity. But in the M, contrary to the Simile, there is no formal element to indicate comparison. The absence of a formal indication in the M-or makes the analogy, it is based on more subtle to perceive. Ex., “Her eyes were too profound and menacing gun-barrels”. (A. Huxley).

In pure linguistic terms, the M-r may be defined as a relation b/n the dictionary and contextual meanings based on the affinity or similarity of certain properties or features of two corresponding objects or things. Metaphor is transference of names based on the associated likeness between two objects, as in the “pancake”, or “ball”, or “volcano” for the “sun”; “silver dust” for “stars”; “veil” for “sky”, etc. Both words have at least one common semantic component.  “Pancake” is round and hot – like “the sun”. These are their common features.

Galperin I.R. points out that the constant use of a M-r gradually leads to the breaking up of the primary meaning. The metaphoric use of the word begins to affect the dic-ry meaning, adding to it fresh connotations or shades of meaning. But this influence, however strong it may be, will never reach the degree where the dic-ry meaning entirely disappears.

Metaphor, as all other SDs may be fresh, original, genuine, when first used, and trite, hackneyed, stale, when often repeated. In the latter case it loses its expressiveness becoming an entry in the dictionary, serving an important source of enriching the vocabulary of the language. 

Sosnovskaya V.B. makes a distinction b/n poetic metaphors and lexical (dead, trite) metaphors. Poetic m-r is based upon a discovery of some new, fresh and striking analogy b/n two things. This is a discovery made by an individual, that is to say, a poetic m-r is always an individual creation. Lexical m-r, on the contrary, is a commonly reproduced lexical unit. It is called dead or trite, b-se it does not call fourth any vivid associations, its function is rather that of an intensifier. Ex., Time flies. (Time passes away). As a rule, such a M-r is an integral part of the word’s semantic structure, constituting one of its figurative meanings. Ex., a puppy – a young dog (literal meaning); - a vain, ill-bred young man (figurative meaning). A distinction is also made b/n a simple or elementary m-r and an extended or prolonged (sustained) metaphor. The m-r is simple when it consists of just one word or a word-group.

The metaphor is prolonged or extended when one word is used in a transferred sense and calls fourth a transference of meaning in the whole sequence of words related to it. Ex., “… and I was not a hawk although I might seem to those who had never hunted…” (E. Hemingway).

Personification, a kind of metaphor, is a device which endows a thing or a phenomenon with features peculiar of a human being: “At that time my virtue slumbered”, “the face of London”, “the pain of the ocean”.

Metonymy – is a different type of relation b/n the dictionary and contextual meanings on the association of contiguity (nearness). The contiguity in metonymy may be based on:

1. A concrete thing used instead of an abstract notion, the thing becoming a symbol. “There was perfect sympathy b/n Pulpit and Pew”. (Where “Pulpit” stands for clergyman and “Pew” for the congregation), Eagle; “Cradle” for “infancy”, etc

2. The container instead of a thing contained. Ex., “The hall applauded”.