Introduction. The General concept of style

3. The relation of proximity: “The round game table was boisterous and happy”.

4. The material instead of the thing made of it: “The marble spoke”; “She wore satin.”

Widely used metonymic meanings are labeled figurative: “hand” for worker, “cradle” for infancy, “grave” for death. Genuine metonymy is cotextual on the ground of some strong impression produced by a chance feature of the thing. Ex., “There was something agreeable in being so intimate with such a waistcoat; in being on such offhand terms so soon with such a pair of whiskers that Tom was uncommonly pleased with himself”. (Hard Times).

Transference of names in metonymy does not involve a necessity for two different words to have a common component in their semantic structure, as is the case with Metaphor, but proceeds from the fact that two objects (phenomena) have common grounds of existence in reality. Such words as “cup” and “tea” have no linguistic (semantic) nearness, but the first one may serve the container of the second, hence – the conversational cliche – “will you have another cup?”, which is case of Metonymy, once original, but due to long  use no more accepted as a fresh SD and became a trite, banal metonymy.

Metaphor and Metonymy differ from each other. As Nikitin M.B. puts it, m-r and m-my are positionally distributed and have syntagmatic relations. M-my gravitates towards the position of the subject and other referent members of the sentence. It cannot be used in the position of the predicate. M-r, on the contrary, with its initial function is strongly connected with the position of the predicate. Similar to singling out one particular type of m-r into the self-contained SD of personification, one type of m-my – namely, the one which is based on the relations b/n part and the whole – is often regarded independently as synecdoche. Its relationship being considered as quantitative. Ex., “It was easier to assume a character without having to tell too many lies and you brought a fresh eye and mind to the job”. "She saw around her many violently red lips, powdered cheeks, cold eyes, arrogant faces and insolent bosoms".

3. Irony, Polysemy, Zeugma, Pun 

When dic-ry and con-l meanings are realized simultaneously but stand in opposition to each other we speak about Irony. The function of I. is not confined to producing a humorous effect; a word used ironical may sometimes express very subtle, almost imperceptible nuances of meaning. I. is generally used to convey a negative meaning. In I. Subjectivity lies in the evaluation of the phenomenon named. The essence of this SD consists in the foregrounding not of the logical, but of the evaluative meaning. So, like all other SD-s, irony does not exist outside the context, which varies from the minimal – a word-combination, to the context of a whole book. Ex., “She turned with the sweet smile of an alligator”.

Polysemy never impedes the correct decoding of a particular lexico-semantic variant of a word. When two dic-ry meanings of a polysemantic word are realized, we deal with Zeugma and Pun.

Zeugma is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to two adjacent words in the context, the semantic relations being on one hand literal, on the other hand – transferred: “She will lose her heart or necklace at a ball”. The word lose is used in its primary meaning – to lose smth. and its transferred meaning – to lose one’s heart. Z. Is a strong and effective device to maintain the purity of the primary meaning when the two meanings clash. By making the two meanings conspicuous in this way, each of them stands out clearly.

Pun is based on the interaction of the two well-known meanings of a word or a phrase. The difference b/n the P & Z is structural. Z. Is more independent.

Ex., “Bow to the Board”, - said Bumble. Oliver brushed away two or three tears and seeing              no board but the table bowed to that”.

The humorous effect is caused by the interplay of two words (not meanings). Board – as a group of officials, board as a piece of furniture. Puns and Z-s are to be found in poetry and emotive prose. It is very important to be able to follow the author’s intention from his manner of expressing yhe nuances of meaning which are potentially present in the semantic structure of existing words.

4. Interjections, Epithet, Oxymoron

Interjections are pure signs of emotions; they are void of any logical meaning. They express emotion in a general way. Without any demarcation – positive or negative – OH! can convey polar feelings – joy and sadness.

For stylistics the indefiniteness of interjections is relevant, for it makes the reader seek additional comments on the feelings expressed. With strong emotive meaning, interjections make up a very specific layer of v-ry.

Epithet is not so direct as interjection; it actually conveys the subjective meaning attitude of the writer. E. is based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in the attributive word. It characterizes an object and points out to the reader some features of an object and gives an individual perception and evaluation of these features. Through long and repeated use e-s become fixed. Many  fixed e-s are closely connected with folklore and can be traced back to folk ballads. Ex., “true love”, “Merry Christmas”, etc.

Epithets can be divided into: a) language epithets (dark forest, dreary night) because they point the feature which is essential to the object described; b) speech epithets. (They characterize the object by adding a feature not inherent in it (sleepless bay).

 Structurally epithets can be divided into: 1) simple; 2) compound; 3) phrase epithets

Simple are ordinary, logic attributes (green meadow). Compound – ex. mischief-making monkey.

Phrase epithets are placed before the noun they refer to. Sometimes they contain the whole sentence.

The structure and semantics of e-s are extremely variable which is explained by their long and wide use. Semantically, there are two main groups, the biggest of them being affective (or emotive proper). They serve to convey the emotional evaluation of the object by the speaker. Most of the qualifying words found in the dic-ry can be and are used as affective e-s. Ex., “gorgeous”, “nasty”, “magnificent”, etc.

The 2d group – figurative or transferred e-s (metaphoric) – is formed by metaphors, metonymies and similes expressed by adjectives. Ex., “the smiling sun”, “the frowning cloud”, “the sleepless pillow”, etc. Like m-r, m-my and simile, corresponding e-s are also based on similarity of characteristics of two objects in the 1^st case, on nearness of the qualified objects in the 2^nd one and on their comparison in the third.

Е-s are used singly, in pairs, in chains, in two step structures and in inverted constructions, also as phrase-attributes. All previously given examples demonstrated single e-s. Pairs are represented by two e-s joined by a conjunction or asyndetically as in “wonderful and incomparable beauty” or “a tired old town”. Chains (strings) of e-s present a group of homogeneous attributive varying in number from 3 up to sometimes 20 or even more. Ex., “You’re a scolding, unjust, abusive, aggravating, bad old creature”.

Two-step e-s are so called, b-sethe process of qualifying seemingly passes two stages: the qualification of the object and the qualification of the qualification itself, as in: “an unnaturally mild day”. Two-step e-s have a fixed structure of Adv. +Adj. Model.

Phrase e-s always produce an original impression. Ex., “the sunshine – in – the – breakfast – room smell”.

A different linguistic mechanism is responsible for the emergence of one more structural type of e-s, namely inverted e-s, (reversed). Ex., instead of “this devilish woman”, - the inverted e-t is “this devil of a woman”. The model is "N +N". Ex.: the giant of a man, a sparrow of a woman.

Oxymoron – is the combination of 2 words (adjective + noun or adjective + adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash being opposite in sense. “Poorest millionaire”, “The peopled desert”; “populous solitude”; “Proud humility”, etc.

5. Hyperbole, Periphrases

Hyperbole – a SD in which emphasis is achieved through deliberate exaggeration, - like epithet relies on the foregrounding of the emotive meaning. The feelings and emotions of the speaker are so ruffled that he resorts in his speech to intensifying the quantitative or the qualitative aspect of the mentioned object. In “I would gladly see the film a hundred times”, - we use trite language hyperboles which, through long and repeated use, have lost their originality and remained signals of the speaker’s roused emotions.

H. may be the final effect of another SD – m-r, simile, irony, as in “The man was like the Rock of Gibraltar”.

H. is aimed at exaggerating quantity or quality when it is directed the opposite way, when the size, shape, characteristic features of the object are not overrated but intentionally underrated, we deal with understatement. For example: “The woman was of a pocket size.” It is not the actual diminishing or growing of the object that is conveyed by a H or understatement. It is a transient subjective impression that finds its realization in these SD-s. They differ only in the direction of the flow of roused emotions.

Periphrasis – is a very peculiar SD which basically consists of using a roundabout form of expression instead of a simpler one, i.e. of using more or less complicated syntactical structure instead of a word. Depending on the mechanism of this substitution, p-s are classified into figurative (metonymic and metaphoric) and logical. Ex., “The hospital was crowded with the surgically interesting products of the fighting in Africa”, where the extended m-my stands for “the wounded”.

Logical p-s are phrases synonymic with the words which were substituted by p-s: “Mr. Du Pont was dressed in the conventional disguise with which Brooks Brothers cover the shame of American millionaires”. B-se the direct nomination of the not too elegant feature of appearance was substituted by a roundabout description, this p-s may be also considered euphemistic, as it offers a more polite qualification instead of a coarser one.

The main function of p-s is to convey a purely individual perception of the described object. The often repeated p-s become trite and serve as universally accepted periphrastic synonyms: “the gentle (soft, weak) sex” (women); “my better half” (my spouse), etc.

 

Questions for Self-Control:

 

1.  How does Galperin differentiate between expressive means and stylistic devices?
2. What is the term for the transferred meaning of a word that is fixed in dictionaries as a result of long and frequent use of the word other than in its primary meaning.
3. What do metaphor and metonymy differ in? What are their functions?
4. What types of metaphor and metonymy do you know? Explain the criteria for their differentiation.
5. Give the classification of epithets and state their functions. Give examples of fixed epithets in the English, Kazakh and Russian languages.
6. What is the function of hyperbole? What is the difference between hyperbole and exaggeration?
7. What is periphrasis? Give examples of periphrasis in the English, Kazakh and Russian languages.
8. Give the definitions of pun, irony and zeugma. Give examples of periphrasis in the English, Kazakh and Russian languages.
9. What is oxymoron? State its functions. Give examples of oxymoron.

 

 

Literature

 

       1. Н.Л.  Еремия Пособие по практической  стилистике и стилистической    интерпретации    текста. Кокшетау, 2006

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

Lecture 5.

Syntactical Expressive Means and SD

2. Stylistic Inversion. Detached Constructions.

3. Repetition and its types.
4. Parallel Construction. Chiasmus.
5. Enumeration. Suspense. Climax. Antithesis.

 

1. Stylistic Inversion. Detached Constructions.

The structural syntactical aspect is sometimes regarded as the crucial issue in stylistic analysis, although the peculiarities of syntactical arrangement are not so conspicuous as the lexical and phraseological properties of the utterance. Syntax is figuratively called the “sinews of style”.

One of the most important syntactical problems in many languages is word order. In English it has peculiarities which have been caused by the specific way the language has developed. O.Jesperson states that English has developed a tolerably fixed word order which in the great majority of cases shows “what is the subject of the sentence.” This fixed word order is – Subject – Predicate – Object.

The predominance of S-P-O word order makes conspicuous any change in the structure of the sentence and demands a modification in the intonation design. The most   conspicuous places in the sentence are considered to be the first and the last. Ex.: “Talent she has, capital she has not.”

There are 2 types of inversion: grammatical and stylistic. Unlike grammatical inversion stylistic inversion does not change the structural meaning of the sentence. Stylistic inversion aims at attaching logical stress and emotional colouring to the surface meaning of the utterance. The following patterns of SI are most frequently used in English:

1. The object is placed at the beginning of the sentence.

Ex.: “Talent she has, capital she has not.”

2. The attribute is placed after the word it modifies (postposition of the attribute).

Ex.: “With fingers weary and worn …”

3. a) The predicative is placed before the subject as in: “A good generous prayer it was.”

b) The predicative stands before the link verb and both are placed before the subject as in:

“Rude am I in my speech…”

4. The adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence, as in:

“My dearest daughter, at your feet I fall.”

“A tone of most extraordinary compassion Miss Tox said it in.”

5. Both modifier and predicate stand before the subject, as in:

 “In went Mr. Pickwick.” (Dickens). “Down dropped the breeze…”

Sometimes one of the secondary parts of the sentence by some specific consideration of the writer is placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it logically refers to. Such parts of the sentence are called detached. They seem to be an isolated part of the sentence. The detached form assumes a greater degree of significance and is given prominence by 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.

Ex.: “June stood in front, fending off this idle curiosity – a little bit of a thing, as somebody said, ‘all hair and spirit’…”

“I have to beg you for money. Daily. He had been nearly killed, ingloriously, in a deep accident.”

Thus words – daily, ingloriously remain adverbial modifiers, occupy their normative places but due to detachment and the additional pause and stress are foregrounded into the focus of the reader’s attention.

2. Repetition and its types.

One of the most prominent places among syntactical SD belongs to repetition. Syntactical repetition is recurrence of the same word, word combination, phrase two or more times. According to the place which the repeated unit occupies in a sentence, repetition is classified into several types:

1)   Anaphora: the beginning of some successive sentences (clauses) is repeated: a…, a…, a….

The function of anaphora is to create the background for the non-repeated unit. Thus, the part that follows the repetition receives greater stress.

Ex.: “Ignorant of the state of the woman; ignorant of how he had watched her, ignorant of Fleur’s desperation…”

2) Epiphora: the end of successive sentences (clauses) is repeated: …a, …a, …a. The function is to stress the final words of the sentence. 

Ex.: “I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that. I am above the rest of mankind, in such a case as that.  I can act with philosophy in such a case as that. ”

3) Framing R.: the beginning of the sentence is repeated in the end, forming “the frame” for the non-repeated part: a …a.

The function of framing is to clarify the notion mentioned in the beginning of the sentence.

“Poor doll’s dressmaker! / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - . Poor doll’s dressmaker! ”

4)  Catch repetition (anadiplosis): the end of one clause is repeated in the beginning of the following one. - …..a, a ……

“….it was a fight, a fight that each time ended …”

5) Chain repetition: several successive catch repetitions: …a, a…b, b …c, c … . The effect is developing logical reasoning.

6) Successive repetition is a string of closely following each other reiterated units: …a, a, a …

It signifies the peak of emotions of the speaker.

3. Parallel Construction. Chiasmus.

Repetition is a powerful means of emphasis. Besides, repetition adds rhythm and balance to the utterance. The latter function is the major one in parallel constructions which are a purely syntactical type of repetition. Here we deal with the reiteration of the structure of several successive sentences (clauses), and not of their lexical “flesh.” Parallel constructions almost always include some type of lexical repetition too, and such a convergence produces a very strong effect, foregrounding at once logical, rhythmic, emotive and expressive aspects of the utterance.

Reversed parallelism is called chiasmus. The second part of a chiasmus is, in fact, inversion of the first construction. (Subject-Predicate- Object   ----- Object – Predicate – Subject).

“Down dropped the breeze, the sails dropped down.”  

    Chiasmus is sometimes achieved by a sudden change from active voice to passive or vice versa. This device is effective in utterance, which is opposite in structure. There exists the so-called lexical chiasmus:  “His jokes were sermons, and his sermons jokes.” Both parts of the parallel construction have the same, the normal word order. However the witty arrangement of the words has given the utterance an epigrammatic character. “In the days of old men made the manners; manners now make men.”

4. Enumeration. Suspense. Climax. Antithesis.

Enumeration is a SD by means of which homogeneous parts of an utterance are made heterogeneous

from the semantic point of view.

“Famine, despair, cold, thirst and heat had done their work on them by turns, and thinn’d them too…”

In homogeneous enumeration each word is closely associated with the following and preceding words in the enumeration, so it doesn’t make extra impact on the reader.

“Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole friend and his sole mourner.” The enumeration here is heterogeneous; the legal terms are placed in the same string as “friend”, “mourner”, producing a clash between terminological vocabulary and common neutral words.

Enumeration is frequently used as a device to depict scenery through a tourists’ eye.

Suspense is a compositional device which consists in arranging the matter of a communication in such a way that the less important, descriptive parts are placed at the beginning, the main idea being postponed to the end of the sentence.  The term “suspense” is also used to denote an expectant uncertainty about the outcome of the plot. To hold the reader in suspense means to keep the final solution just out of sight. The new information is withheld creating the tension of expectation. Detective and adventure stories are examples of suspense fiction.

“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.”

Climax (gradation) is a SD in which each next word combination (clause, sentence0 is logically more important and emotionally stronger and more explicit. Ex.: “Better to borrow, better to beg, better to die.” In climax we deal with strings of synonyms or at least semantically related words belonging to the same thematic group. “Not a look. Not a wink. ”