089378 953F8 Znamenskaya t a Stilistika Angliyskogo Yazyka Osnovy Kursa

Contents

Preface ........................................................................................ 7

Chapter 1. The Object of Stylistics .......................................... 9

1.1. Problems of stylistic research ................................. 9

1.2. Stylistics of language and speech ........................... 14

1.3. Types of stylistic research and branches of stylistics 16

1.4. Stylistics and other linguistic disciplines ................ 19

1.5. Stylistic neutrality and stylistic colouring .............. 20

1.6. Stylistic function notion ...................................... 24

Practice Section ............................................................... 28

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language ................... 33

2.1. Expressive means and stylistic devices ................... 34

2.2. Different classifications of expressive means .... 37

2.2.1. Hellenistic Roman rhetoric system .............. 39

2.2.2. Stylistic theory and classification of expresssive

means by G. Leech ....................................... 45

Contents

2.2.3. I. R. Galperin's classification of expressive means

and stylistic devices ..................................... 50

2.2.4. Classification of expressive means and

stylistic devices by Y. M. Skrebnev ............... 57

Practice Section .............................................................. 76

Chapter 3. Stylistic Grammar................................................... 87

3.1. The theory of grammatical gradation. Marked, semi-

marked and unmarked structures ............................ 87

3.2. Grammatical metaphor and types of grammatical

transposition ............................................................ 89

3.3. Morphological stylistics. Stylistic potential of the

parts of speech ........................................................ 92

3.3.1. The noun and its stylistic potential .............. 92

3.3.2. The article and its stylistic potential............. 95

3.3.3. The stylistic power of the pronoun .............. 97

3.3.4. The adjective and its stylistic functions ... 101

3.3.5. The verb and its stylistic properties ............. 103

3.3.6. Affixation and its expressiveness .................. 107

3.4. Stylistic syntax ........................................................ 110


Contents

Chapter 4. The Theory of Functional Styles ............................. 122

4.1. The notion of style in functional stylistics .............. 122

4.2. Correlation of style, norm and function in the language

................................................................................ 124

4.3. Language varieties: regional, social, occupational . 128

4.4. An overview of functional style systems ................. 133

4.5. Distinctive linguistic features of the major functional styles of English ...................................................... 145

4.5.1. Literary colloquial style ................................ 145

4.5.2. Familiar colloquial style ............................... 148

4.5.3. Publicist (media) style .................................. 150

4.5.4. The style of official documents .................... 153

4.5.5. Scientific/academic style .............................. 155


Chapter 5. Decoding Stylistics and Its Fundamental Notions . 162

5.1. Stylistics of the author and of the reader. The notions of encoding and decoding ........................................... 163

5.2. Essential concepts of decoding stylistic analysis

and types of foregrounding .................................... 166

5.2.1. Convergence ................................................ 169

5.2.2. Defeated expectancy .................................. 171

Contents

5.2.3. Coupling ....................................................... 173

5.2.4. Semantic field ............................................ 176

5.2.5. Semi-marked structures ............................ 179


Glossary for the Course of Stylistics ......................................... 190

Sources ....................................................................................... 202

Dictionaries ................................................................................. 204

List of Authors and Publications Quoted .................................. 205

Preface

The book suggests the fundamentals of stylistic theory that outline

such basic areas of research as expressive resources of the language,

stylistic differentiation of vocabulary, varieties of the national language

and sociolinguistic and pragmatic factors that determine functional

styles.

The second chapter will take a student of English to the beginnings

of stylistics in Greek and Roman schools of rhetoric and show how-

much modern terminology and classifications of expressive means

owe to rhetoric.

An important part of the book is devoted to the new tendencies and

schools of stylistics that assimilated advancements in the linguistic

science in such trends of the 20"1 century as functional, decoding

and grammatical stylistics.

The material on the wealth of expressive means of English will help a student of philology, a would-be teacher and a reader of literature not only to receive orientation in how to fully decode the message of

the work of art and therefore enjoy it all the more but also to improve their own style of expression.

he chapter on functional styles highlights the importance of «time a"

place» m language usage. It tells how the same language differs

len used

for different purposes on different occasions in communi- ation with different people. It explains why we adopt different uses of

Preface

language as we go through our day. A selection of distinctive features

of each functional style will help to identify and use it correctly

whether you deal with producing or analysing a text of a certain

functional type.

Chapters on grammar stylistics and decoding stylistics are intended

to introduce the student to the secrets of how a stylistic device works.

Modern linguistics may help to identify the nature and algorithm of

stylistic effect by showing what kind of semantic change, grammatical

transposition or lexical deviation results in various stylistic outcomes.

This book combines theoretical study and practice. Each chapter is

supplied with a special section that enables the student and the teacher

to revise and process the theoretical part by drawing conclusions and

parallels, doing comparison and critical analysis. Another type of prac-

tice involves creative tasks on stylistic analysis and interpretation, such

as identifying devices in literary texts, explaining their function and

the principle of performance, decoding the implications they create.

The knowledge of the theoretical background of stylistic research and

the experience of integrating it into one's analytical reading skills

will enhance the competence and proficiency of a future teacher of

English. Working with literary texts on this level also helps to

develop one's cultural scope and aesthetic taste. It will also enrich

the student's linguistic and stylistic thesaurus.

The author owes acknowledgements for the kindly assistance in

reading and stylistic editing of this work to a colleague from the

Shimer College of Chicago, a lecturer in English and American

literature S. Sklar.

Chapter 1 The Object of Stylistics

Problems of stylistic research. Stylistics of language and speech.

Types of stylistic research and branches of stylistics. Stylistics

and other linguistic disciplines. Stylistic neutrality and stylistic

coloring. Stylistic function notion.

1.1. Problems of stylistic research

Units of language on different levels are studied by traditional

branches of linguistics such as phonetics that deals with speech

sounds and intonation; lexicology that treats words, their meaning

and vocabulary structure, grammar that analyses forms of words and

their function in a sentence which is studied by syntax. These areas

of linguistic study are rather clearly defined and av

e a long-term

tradition of regarding language phenomena from a

leve,-oriented point

of view. Thus the subject matter and the material under study of

these linguistic disciplines are more or less clear-cut.

Chapter 1. The Object of Stylistics

It gets more complicated when we talk, about stylistics. Some scholars

claim that this is a comparatively new branch of linguistics, which has

only a few decades of intense linguistic interest behind it. The term

stylistics really came into existence not too long ago. In point of fact

the scope of problems and the object of stylistic study go as far back

as ancient schools of rhetoric and poetics.

The problem that makes the definition of stylistics a curious one deals

both with the object and the material of studies. When we speak of the

stylistic value of a text we cannot proceed from the level-biased

approach that is so logically described through the hierarchical system

of sounds, words and clauses. Not only may each of these linguistic

units be charged with a certain stylistic meaning but the interaction of

these elements, as well as the structure and composition of the whole

text are stylistically pertinent.

Another problem has to do with a whole set of special linguistic

means that create what we call «style». Style may be belles-letters or

scientific or neutral or low colloquial or archaic or pompous, or a

combination of those. Style may also be typical of a certain writer-

Shakespearean style, Dickensian style, etc. There is the style of the j

press, the style of official documents, the style of social etiquette and

even an individual style of a speaker or writer—his idiolect.

Stylistics deals with styles. Different scholars have defined style

differently at different times. Out of this variety we shall quote the

most representative ones that scan the period from the 50ies to the

90ies of the 20<л

century.

In 1955 the Academician V.V.Vinogradov defined style as «socially

recognized and functionally conditioned internally united totality of

the ways of using, selecting and combining the means of lingual


ourse in the sphere of one national language or another...» /о

73) In 1971 Prof- J- R- Galperin offered his definition of style s a

system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in

communication.» (36, p. 18).

According to Prof. Y. M. Skrebnev, whose book on stylistics was

published in 1994, «style is what differentiates a group of homogeneous

texts (an individual text) from all other groups (other texts)... Style

can be roughly defined as the peculiarity, the set of specific features

of a text type or of a specific text.» (47, p. 9).

All these definitions point out the systematic and functionally deter-

mined character of the notion of style.

The authors of handbooks on German (E. Riesel, M. P. Bran-des),

French (Y. S. Stepanov, R. G. Piotrovsky, K. A. Dolinin), English (I.

R. Galperin, I. V. Arnold, Y. M. Skrebnev, V. A. Maltsev, V. A.

Kukharenko, A. N. Morokhovsky and others) and Russian (M. N.

Kozhina, I. B. Golub) stylistics published in our country over the

recent decades propose more or less analogous systems of styles

based on a broad subdivision of all styles into two classes: literary

and colloquial and their varieties. These generally include from three

to five functional styles.

Since functional styles will be further specially discussed in a separate

chapter at this stage we shall limit ourselves to only three popular

viewpoints in English language style classifications.

rof' LR-Galperin distinguishes 5 groups of functional styles for the

written variety of language while Prof. I.V.Amold suggests only two

ajor types of styles - colloquial and literary bookish — with their

«пег division into substyles (see chapter 4.4).

Chapter 1. The Object of Stylistics ___________

Prof. Y. M. Skrebnev suggests a most unconventional viewpoint on

the number of styles. He maintains that the number of sublanguages

and styles is infinite (if we include individual styles, styles mentioned

in linguistic literature such as telegraphic, oratorical, reference book,

Shakespearean, short story, or the style of literature on electronics,

computer language, etc.).

Of course the problem of style definition is not the only one stylistic

research deals with.

Stylistics is that branch of linguistics, which studies the principles, and

effect of choice and usage of different language elements in rendering

thought and emotion under different conditions of communication.

Therefore it is concerned with such issues as

1) the aesthetic function of language;

2) expressive means in language;

3) synonymous ways of rendering one and the same idea;

4) emotional colouring in language;

5) a system of special devices called stylistic devices;

6) the splitting of the literary language into separate systems called

style;

7) the interrelation between language and thought;

8) the individual manner of an author in making use of the language

(47, p. 5).

These issues cover the overall scope of stylistic research and can only

be representative of stylistics as a discipline of linguistic study taken

as a whole. So it should be noted that each of them is concerned

with only a limited area of research:

12


The aesthetic function of language is an immanent part of works

of art—poetry and imaginative prose but it leaves out works of

science, diplomatic or commercial correspondence, technical

instructions and many other types of texts.

2 Expressive means of language are mostly employed in types of

speech that aim to affect the reader or listener: poetry, fiction,

oratory, and informal intercourse but rarely in technical texts or

business language.

3. It is due to the possibility of choice, the possibility of using

synonymous ways of rendering ideas that styles are formed. With

the change of wording a change in meaning (however slight it

might be) takes place inevitably.

4. The emotional colouring of words and sentences creates a certain

stylistic effect and makes a text either a highly lyrical piece of

description or a satirical derision with a different stylistic value.

However not all texts eligible for stylistic study are necessarily

marked by this quality.

5. No work of art, no text or speech consists of a system of stylistic

devices but there's no doubt about the fact that the style of

anything is formed by the combination of features peculiar to it,

that whatever we say or write, hear or read is not style by itself

but has style, it demonstrates stylistic features.

Any national language contains a number of*sublanguages» or microlanguages or varieties of language with their own specific eatures, their own styles. Besides these functional styles that are oted in the norm of the language there exist the so-called «sub-standard» types of speech such as slang, barbarisms, vulgarisms,

taboo and so on.


7. Interrelation between thought and language can be described щ

terms of an inseparable whole so when the form is changed a

change in content takes place. The author's intent and the forms

he uses to render it as well as the reader's interpretation of it is

the subject of a special branch of stylistics—decoding stylistics.

8. We can hardly object to the proposition that style is also above |

other things the individual manner of expression of an author in

his use of the language. At the same time the individual manner

can only appear out of a number of elements provided by the

common background and employed and combined in a specific |

manner.

Thus speaking of stylistics as a science we have to bear in mind that

the object of its research is versatile and multi-dimensional and the

study of any of the above-mentioned problems will be a fragmentary

description. It's essential that we look at the object of stylistic study

in its totality.

1.2. Stylistics of language and speech

One of the fundamental concepts of linguistics is the dichotomy of

«language and speech» (langue—parole) introduced by F. de Saussure.

According to it language is a system of elementary and complex signs-

phonemes, morphemes, words, word combinations, utterances and

combinations of utterances. Language as such a system exists m

human minds only and linguistic forms or units can be systematise"

into paradigms.

1.2. Stylistics of language and speech

language is a mentally organised system of linguistic units. An ъ0

.. aj speaker never uses it. When we use these units we mix

m in acts of speech. As distinct from language speech is not relv

mental phenomenon, not a system but a process of combining these

linguistic elements into linear linguistic units that are called

syntagmatic.

The result of this process is the linear or syntagmatic combination of

vowels and consonants into words, words into word-combinations

and sentences and combination of sentences into texts. The word

«syntagmatic» is a purely linguistic term meaning a coherent sequence

of words (written, uttered or just remembered).

StyUstics is a branch of linguistics that deals with texts, not with the

system of signs or process of speech production as such. But within

these texts elements stylistically relevant are studied both

syntagmatically and paradigmatically (loosely classifying all stylistic

means paradigmatically into tropes and syntagmatically into figures

of speech).

Eventually this brings us to the notions of stylistics of language and stylistics of speech. Their difference lies in the material studied. the stylistics of language analyses permanent or inherent stylistic roperties of language elements while the stylistics of speech studies stylistic properties, which appear in a context, and they are called adherent.

word'' WOrds

'ike

тол

мач, штудировать, соизволять or English these prevaricate

' comprehend, lass are bookish or archaic and of the^6

the'r

inherent Properties. The unexpected use of any ProperT

W°

rdS '"

3 modem

context

wil

> be an adherent stylistic


So stylistics of language describes and classifies the inherent stylistic

colouring of language units. Stylistics of speech studies the compost, tion of the utterance—the arrangement, selection and distribution of different words, and their adherent qualities.

1.3. Types of stylistic research and branches of

stylistics

Literary and linguistic stylistics

According to the type of stylistic research we can distinguish literary stylistics and lingua-stylistics. They have some meeting points or links in that they have common objects of research. Consequently they have certain areas of cross-reference. Both study the common ground of:

1) the literary language from the point of view of its variability;

2) the idiolect (individual speech) of a writer;

3) poetic speech that has its own specific laws.

The points of difference proceed from the different points of analysis.

While lingua-stylistics studies

• Functional styles (in their development and current state).

• The linguistic nature of the expressive means of the language,

their systematic character and their functions.

Literary stylistics is focused on

• The composition of a work of art.

Types of stylistic research and branches of stylistics

. Various literary genres. ,

The writer's outlook.

Comparative stylistics

Comparative stylistics is connected with the contrastive study of more

than one language.

It analyses the stylistic resources not inherent in a separate language

but at the crossroads of two languages, or two literatures and is

obviously linked to the theory of translation.

Decoding stylistics

A comparatively new branch of stylistics is the decoding stylistics,

which can be traced back to the works of L. V. Shcherba, B. A. Larin,

M. Riffaterre, R. Jackobson and other scholars of the Prague linguistic

circle. A serious contribution into this branch of stylistic study was

also made by Prof. I. V. Arnold (3, 4). Each act of speech has the

performer, or sender of speech and the recipient. The former does the

act of encoding and the latter the act of decoding the information.

Jf we analyse the text from the author's (encoding) point of view

we

should consider the epoch, the historical situation, the personal

Political, social and aesthetic views of the author.

' we try to treat the same text from the reader's angle of view max" haVS

t0

disre

8ard

^s background knowledge and get the sitio mUm

ltlformation

from

the text itself (its vocabulary, compose ' sen,e

nce arrangement,

etc.). The first approach manifests -valence of the literary analysis.

The second is based almost


exclusively on the linguistic analysis. Decoding stylistics is an attempt to harmoniously combine the two methods of stylistic research and enable the scholar to interpret a work of art with a minimum loss of its purport and message.

Functional stylistics

Special mention should be made of functional stylistics which is a

branch of lingua-stylistics that investigates functional styles, that is special sublanguages or varieties of the national language such as

scientific, colloquial, business, publicist and so on.

However many types of stylistics may exist or spring into existence they will all consider the same source material for stylistic analysis-sounds, words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs and texts. That's why any kind of stylistic research will be based on the level-forming branches that include:

Stylistic lexicology

Stylistic Lexicology studies the semantic structure of the word and

the interrelation (or interplay) of the connotative and denotative

meanings of the word, as well as the interrelation of the stylistic

connotations of the word and the context.

Stylistic Phonetics (or Phonostylistics) is engaged in the study of style-

forming phonetic features of the text. It describes the prosodic features

of prose and poetry and variants of pronunciation in different types of

speech (colloquial or oratory or recital).

1.4. Stylistics and other linguistic disciplines

Stylistic grammar

Stylistic Morphology is interested in the stylistic potentials of specific

grammatical forms and categories, such as the number of the noun,

or the peculiar use of tense forms of the verb, etc.

Stylistic Syntax is one of the oldest branches of stylistic studies that

grew out of classical rhetoric. The material in question lends itself

readily to analysis and description. Stylistic syntax has to do with the

expressive order of words, types of syntactic links (asyndeton,

polysyndeton), figures of speech (antithesis, chiasmus, etc.). It also

deals with bigger units from paragraph onwards.

1.4. Stylistics and other linguistic disciplines

As is obvious from the names of the branches or types of stylistic

studies this science is very closely linked to the linguistic disciplines

philology students are familiar with: phonetics, lexicology and

grammar due to the common study source.

Stylistics interacts with such theoretical discipline as semasiology. This

is a branch of linguistics whose area of study is a most complicated

and enormous sphere—that of meaning. The term semantics is also

widely used in linguistics in relation to verbal meanings. Semasiology

in its turn is often related to the theory of signs in general and deals

with visual as well as verbal meanings.

Meaning is not attached to the level of the word only, or for that

matter to one level at all but correlates with all of them—morphemes,

words, phrases or texts. This is one of the most challenging areas of


research since practically all stylistic effects are based on the interplay

between different kinds of meaning on different levels. Suffice it to

say that there are numerous types of linguistic meanings attached to

linguistic units, such as grammatical, lexical, logical, denotative,

connotative, emotive, evaluative, expressive and stylistic.

Onomasiology (or onomatology) is the theory of naming dealing with

the choice of words when naming or assessing some object or

phenomenon. In stylistic analysis we often have to do with a transfer

of nominal meaning in a text (antonomasia, metaphor, metonymy,

etc.)

The theory of functional styles investigates the structure of the

national linguistic space—what constitutes the literary language, the

sublanguages and dialects mentioned more than once already.

Literary stylistics will inevitably overlap with areas of literary studies such as the theory of imagery, literary genres, the art of composition, etc.

Decoding stylistics in many ways borders culture studies in the broad sense of that word including the history of art, aesthetic trends and even information theory.

1.5. Stylistic neutrality and stylistic colouring

Speaking of the notion of style and stylistic colouring we cannot avoid the problem of the norm and neutrality and stylistic colouring in contrast to it.


Most scholars abroad and in this country giving definitions of style

come to the conclusion that style may be defined as deviation from

the lingual norm. It means that what is stylistically conspicuous,

stylistically relevant or stylistically coloured is a departure from the

norm of a given national language. (G. Leech, M. Riffaterre, M.

Halliday, R.Jacobson and others).

There are authors who object to the use of the word «norm» for various

reasons. Thus Y. M. Skrebnev argues that since we acknowledge the

existence of a variety of sublanguages within a national language we

should also acknowledge that each of them has a norm of its own. So

the sentence «I haven't ever done anything» (or «I don't know

anything») as juxtaposed to the sentence «I ain't never done nothing»

(«I don't know nothing») is not the norm itself but merely conforms

to the literary norm.

The second sentence («I ain't never done nothing») most certainly

deviates from the literary norm (from standard English) but if fully

conforms to the requirements of the uncultivated part of the English

speaking population who merely have their own conception of the

norm. So Skrebnev claims there are as many norms as there are

sublanguages. Each language is subject to its own norm. To reject

this would mean admitting abnormality of everything that is not

neutral. Only ABC-books and texts for foreigners would be

considered «normal». Everything that has style, everything that

demonstrates peculiarities of whatever kind would be considered

abnormal, including works by Dickens, Twain, O'Henry, Galsworthy

and so on (47, pp. 21-22).

For all its challenging and defiant character this argument seems to

contain a grain of truth and it does stand to reason that what we

_____________ Chapter 1. The Object of Stylistics

often call «the norm» in terms of stylistics would be more appropriate to call «neutrality».

Since style is the specificity of a sublanguage it is self-evident that non-specific units of it do not participate in the formation of its style;

units belonging to all the sublanguages are stylistically neutral. Thus we observe an opposition of stylistically coloured specific elements to stylistically neutral non-specific elements.

The stylistic colouring is nothing but the knowledge where, in what particular type of communication, the unit in question is current. On hearing for instance the above-cited utterance «I don't know nothing» («I ain't never done nothing») we compare it with what we know

about standard and non-standard forms of English and this will permit us to pass judgement on what we have heard or read.

Professor Howard M. Mims of Cleveland State University did an accurate study of grammatical deviations found in American English that he terms vernacular (non-standard) variants (44). He made a list of 20 grammatical forms which he calls relatively common and some

of them are so frequent in every-day speech that you hardly register them as deviations from the norm, e. g. They ready to go instead of They are ready to go; Joyce has fifty cent in her bank account instead of Joyce has fifty cents in her bank account; My brother, he's a doctor instead of My brother is a doctor, He don't know nothing instead of He doesn't know anything.

The majority of the words are neutral. Stylistically coloured words-bookish, solemn, poetic, official or colloquial, rustic, dialectal, vulgar—have each a kind of label on them showing where the unit was «manufactured», where it generally belongs.


Within the stylistically coloured words there is another opposition

between formal vocabulary and informal vocabulary.

These terms have many synonyms offered by different authors. Roman

Jacobson described this opposition as casual and non-casual, other

terminologies name them as bookish and colloquial or formal and

informal, correct and common.

Stylistically coloured words are limited to specific conditions of

communication. If you isolate a stylistically coloured word it will still

preserve its label or «trade-mark» and have the flavour of poetic or

artistic colouring.

You're sure to recognise words like decease, attire, decline (a proposal)

as bookish and distinguish die, clothes, refuse as neutral while such

units as snuff it, rags (togs), turn down will immediately strike you as

colloquial or informal.

In surveying the units commonly called neutral can we assert that

they only denote without connoting? That is not completely true.

If we take stylistically neutral words separately, we may call them

neutral without doubt. But occasionally in a certain context, in a

specific distribution one of many implicit meanings of a word we

normally consider neutral may prevail. Specific distribution may also

create unexpected additional colouring of a generally neutral word.

Such stylistic connotation is called occasional.

Stylistic connotations may be inherent or adherent. Stylistically

coloured words possess inherent stylistic connotations. Stylistically

neutral words will have only adherent (occasional) stylistic connota-

tions acquired in a certain context.


A luxury hotel for dogs is to be opened at Lima, Peru a city of 30.000

dogs. The furry guests will have separate hygienic kennels, top medical

care and high standard cuisine, including the best bones. (Mailer)

Two examples from this passage demonstrate how both stylistically marked and neutral words may change their colouring due to the context:

cuisine -»inherently formal (bookish, high-flown); -» adherent connotation in the context—lowered/humorous;

bones -» stylistically neutral;

-4 adherent connotation in the context—elevated/humorous.

1.6. Stylistic function notion

Like other linguistic disciplines stylistics deals with the lexical,

grammatical, phonetic and phraseological data of the language.

However there is a distinctive difference between stylistics and the

other linguistic subjects. Stylistics does not study or describe separate

linguistic units like phonemes or words or clauses as such. It studies

their stylistic/unction. Stylistics is interested in the expressive potential

of these units and their interaction in a text.

Stylistics focuses on the expressive properties of linguistic units, their functioning and interaction in conveying ideas and emotions in a certain text or communicative context.

Stylistics interprets the opposition or clash between the contextual

meaning of a word and its denotative meaning.


Accordingly stylistics is first and foremost engaged in the study of

connotative meanings.

In brief the semantic structure (or the meaning) of a word roughly

consists of its grammatical meaning (noun, verb, adjective) and its

lexical meaning. Lexical meaning can further on be subdivided into

denotative (linked to the logical or nominative meaning) and

connotative meanings. Connotative meaning is only connected with

extra-linguistic circumstances such as the situation of communication

and the participants of communication. Connotative meaning consists

of four components:

1) emotive;

2) evaluative;

3) expressive;

4) stylistic.

A word is always characterised by its denotative meaning but not

necessarily by connotation. The four components may be all present

at once, or in different combinations or they may not be found in the

word at all.

1. Emotive connotations express various feelings or emotions. Emo-

tions differ from feelings. Emotions like ./ay, disappointment, pleasure,

anger, worry, surprise are more short-lived. Feelings imply a more

stable state, or attitude, such as love, hatred, respect, pride, dignity,

etc. The emotive component of meaning may be occasional or usual

(i.e. inherent and adherent).

It is important to distinguish words with emotive connotations from

words, describing or naming emotions and feelings like anger or


fear, because the latter are a special vocabulary subgroup whose

denotative meanings are emotions. They do not connote the speaker's

state of mind or his emotional attitude to the subject of speech.

Thus if a psychiatrist were to say You should be able to control feelings

of anger, impatience and disappointment dealing with a child as a piece

of advice to young parents the sentence would have no emotive

power. It may be considered stylistically neutral.

On the other hand an apparently neutral word like big will become

charged with emotive connotation in a mother's proud description of

her baby: He is a BIG boy already!

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 a part

of the denotative meaning, which comes to the fore in a specific

context.

The verb to sneak means «to move silently and secretly, usu. for a

bad purpose» (8). This dictionary definition makes the evaluative

component bad quite explicit. Two derivatives a sneak and sneaky

have both preserved a derogatory evaluative connotation. But the

negative component disappears though in still another derivative

sneakers (shoes with a soft sole). It shows that even words of the

same root may either have or lack an evaluative component in their

inner form.

3. Expressive connotation either increases or decreases the expres

siveness of the message. Many scholars hold that emotive and

expressive components cannot be distinguished but Prof. I.A.Arnold


maintains that emotive connotation always entails expressiveness but

not vice versa. To prove her point she comments on the example by

A. Hornby and R. Fowler with the word «thing» applied to a girl (4,

p. ПЗ).

When the word is used with an emotive adjective like «sweet» it

becomes emotive itself: «She was a sweet little thing». But in other

sentences like «She was a 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. A word possesses stylistic

connotation if it belongs to a certain functional style or a specific

layer of vocabulary (such as archaisms, barbarisms, slang, jargon,

etc). Stylistic connotation is usually immediately recognizable.

Yonder, slumber, thence immediately connote poetic or elevated

writing.

Words like price index or negotiate assets are indicative of business

language.

This detailed and systematic description of the connotative meaning

of a word is suggested by the Leningrad school in the works of Prof.

I. V. Arnold, Z. Y. Turayeva, and others.

Galperin operates three types of lexical meaning that are stylistically

relevant—logical, emotive and nominal. He 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 a word belongs—one of the sub-

languages (functional styles) or the neutral bulk. He only speaks

about the stylistic component of the connotative meaning.

Practice Section

1. Comment on the notions of style and sublanguages in the national language.

2. What are the interdisciplinary links of stylistics and other lin-

guistic subjects such as phonetics, lexicology, grammar, and

semasiology? Provide examples.

How does stylistics differ from them in its subject-matter and

fields of study?

3. Give an outline of the stylistic differentiation of the national

English vocabulary: neutral, literary, colloquial layers of words;

areas of their overlapping. Describe literary and common collo-

quial stratums of vocabulary, their stratification.

4. How does stylistic colouring and stylistic neutrality relate to

inherent and adherent stylistic connotation?

5. Can you distinguish neutral, formal and informal among the

following groups of words.

Practice Section

A B C

1. currency money dough

2. to talk to converse to chat

3. to chow down to eat to dine

4. to start to commence to kick off

5. insane nuts mentally ill

6. spouse hubby husband

7. to leave to withdraw to shoot off

8. geezer senior citizen old man

9. veracious opens sincere

10. mushy emotional sentimental

6. What kind of adherent stylistic meaning appears in the otherwise

neutral word feeling?

I've got no feeling paying interest, provided that it's reasonable. (Shute)

I've got no feeling against small town life. I rather like it. (Shute)

7. To what stratum of vocabulary do the words in bold type in

the following sentences belong stylistically? Provide neutral or

colloquial variants for them:

/ expect you've seen my hand often enough coming out with the grub.

(Waugh)

She betrayed some embarrassment when she handed Paul the tickets,

and a hauteur which subsequently made her feel very foolish. (Cather)

Chapter 1. The Object of Stylistics Practice Section

I must be off to my digs. (Waugh)

When the old boy popped off he left Philbrick everything, except a few

books to Grade. (Waugh)

He looked her over and decided that she was not appropriately dressed

and must be a fool to sit downstairs in such togs. (Cather)

It was broken at length by the arrival of Flossie, splendidly attired in

magenta and green. (Waugh)

8. Consider the following utterances from the point of view of the

grammatical norm. What elements can be labelled as deviations

from standard English? How do they comply with the norms of

colloquial English according to Mims and Skrebnev?

Sita decided that she would lay down in the dark even if Mrs. Waldvogel

came in and bit her. (Erdrich)

Always popular with the boys, he was, even when he was so full he

couldn't hardly fight. (Waugh)

...he used to earn five pound a night... (Waugh)

/ wouldn't sell it not for a hundred quid, I wouldn't. (Waugh)

There was a rapping at the bedroom door. «I'll learn that Luden Sorrels

to tomcat.» (Chappel)

9. How does the choice of words in each case contribute to the

stylistic character of the following passages? How would you

define their functional colouring in terms of technical, poetic,

bookish, commercial, dialectal, religious, elevated, colloquial,

legal or other style?

Make up lists of words that create this tenor in the texts given

below.

Whilst humble pilgrims lodged in hospices, a travelling knight would

normally stay with a merchant. (Rutherfurd)

Fo' what you go by dem, eh? W'y not keep to yo'self? Dey don' want

you, dey don' care fo'you. H' ain'you got no sense? (Dunbar-Nelson)

They sent me down to the aerodrome next morning in a car. I made a

check over the machine, cleaned filters, drained sumps, swept out the

cabin, and refuelled. Finally I took off at about ten thirty for the

short flight down to Batavia across the Sunda straits, and found the

aerodrome and came on to the circuit behind the Constellation of K. L.

M. (Shute)

We ask Thee, Lord, the old man cried, to look after this childt. Fa-

therless he is. But what does the earthly father matter before Tliee? The

childt is Thine, he is Thy childt, Lord, what father has a man but Thee?

(Lawrence)

-We are the silver band the Lord bless and keep you, said the

stationmaster in one breath, the band that no one could beat whatever

but two indeed in the Eisteddfod that for all North Wales was look you.

I see, said the Doctor, I see. That's splendid. Well, will you please go

into your tent, the little tent over there.

To march about you would not like us? Suggested the stationmaster, we

have a fine flaglook you that embroidered for us was in silks. (Waugh)

The evidence is perfectly clear. The deceased woman was unfaithful to

her husband during his absence overseas and gave birth to a child out

of wedlock.


Her husband seemed to behave with commendable restraint and wrote

nothing to her which would have led her to take her life... The deceased

appears to have been the victim of her own conscience and as the time

for the return of her husband drew near she became mentally upset. Fi

find that the deceased committed suicide while the balance of her mind\

was temporarily deranged. (Shute)

/ say, I've met an awful good chap called Miles. Regular topper. You\

know, pally. That's what I like about a really decent party—you meet]

such topping fellows. I mean some chaps it takes absolutely years tot

know, but a chap like Miles I feel is a pal straight away. (Waugh)

She sang first of the birth of love in the hearts of a boy and a girl. And

on the topmost spray of the Rose-tree there blossomed a marvellous rose,

petal following petal, as song followed song. Pale was it, at first as the

mist that hangs over the river—pale as the feet of the morning. (Wilde) ;

He went slowly about the corridors, through the writing—rooms, smoking- j rooms, reception-rooms, as though he were exploring the chambers of

an enchanted palace, built and peopled for him alone.

When he reached the dining-room he sat down at a table near a window. \

The flowers, the white linen, the many-coloured wine-glasses, the gay \ toilettes of the women, the low popping of corks, the undulating repetitions i

of the Blue Danube from the orchestra, all flooded Paul's dream with bewildering radiance. (Cather)

Chapter 2

Expressive Resources of the Language

Expressive means and stylistic devices. Different classifications

of expressive means and stylistic devices from antique to modern

times.

In my reading of modern French novels I

had acquired the habit of underlining ex-

pressions, which struck me as aberrant from

general usage, and it often happened that the

underlined passages taken together seemed

to offer a certain consistency. I wondered if

it would be possible to establish a common

denominator for all or most of these devi-

ations, could we find a common spiritual

etymon or the psychological root of 'several'

individual 'traits of style' in a writer.

Leo Spitzer. Linguistics and Literary History

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language 2.1. Expressive means and stylistic devices

2.1. 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 expres-

sive effect: girlie, piggy, doggy, etc. An unexpected use of the

author's nonce words like: He glasnosted his love affair with th:

movie star (People) is another example of morphological expressive

means.

Lexical expressive means may be illustrated by a special group о

intensifiers—awfully, terribly, absolutely, etc. or words that retain thei

logical meaning while being used emphatically: // was a very sped e

vening/event/gift.

There are also special grammatical forms and syntactical patterns

attributing expressiveness, such as: / do know you! I'm really angry

with that dog of у ours! 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 cer-

tain linguistic form resulting in stylistic effect. It is like an algorithm

employed for an expressive purpose. For example, the interplay, in-

teraction, 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/beautifu 1/helpless...).

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language 2.2. Different classifications of expressive means

My love is a red, red rose: metaphor (ground for metaphor—

passionate/beautiful/strong...).

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 aiso

called hackneyed or even dead.

A famous literary example of an author's defiance against immoderate \

use of trite metaphors is W. Shakespeare's Sonnet 130

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

The more unexpected, the less predictable is the ground for com-

parison the more expressive is the metaphor which in this case got a

special name of genuine or authentic metaphor. Associations sug-

gested by the genuine metaphor are varied, not limited to any definite

number and stimulated by the individual experience or imagination.

2.2. Different classifications of expressive means

In spite of the belief that rhetoric is an outmoded discipline it is in

rhetoric that we find most of the terms contemporary stylistics

generally employs as its metalanguage. Rhetoric is the initial source

of information about metaphor, metonymy, epithet, antithesis, chi-

asmus, anaphora and many more. The classical rhetoric gave us still

widely used terms of tropes and figures of speech.

That is why before looking into the new stylistic theories and findings

it's good to look back and see what's been there for centuries. The

problems of language in antique times became a concern of scholars

because of the necessity to comment on literature and poetry. This

necessity was caused by the fact that mythology and lyrical poetry was

the study material on which the youth was brought up, taught to read

and write and generally educated. Analysis of literary texts helped to

transfer into the sphere of oratorical art the first philosophical notions

and concepts.

The first linguistic theory called sophistry appeared in the fifth century

В. С Oration played a paramount role in the social and political life

of Greece so the art of rhetoric developed into a school.

Antique tradition ascribes some of the fundamental rhetorical no-

tions to the Greek philosopher Gorgius (483-375 В. С). Together

with another scholar named Trasimachus they created the first

school of rhetoric whose principles were later developed by Aristotle

(384-322 В. С.) in his books «Rhetoric» and «Poetics».

Aristotle differentiated literary language and colloquial language. This

first theory of style included 3 subdivisions:


• the choice of words;

• word combinations;

• figures.

1. The choice of words included lexical expressive means such as

foreign words, archaisms, neologisms, poetic words, nonce

words and metaphor.

2. Word combinations involved 3 things:

a) order of words;

b) word-combinations;

c) rhythm and period (in rhetoric, a complete sentence).

3. Figures of speech. This part included only 3 devices used by the

antique authors always in the same order.

a) antithesis;

b) assonance of colons;

c) equality of colons.

A colon in rhetoric means one of the sections of a rhythmical period

in Greek chorus consisting of a sequence of 2 to 6 feet.

Later contributions by other authors were made into the art of

speaking and writing so that the most complete and well developed

antique system, that came down to us is called the Hellenistic Roman

rhetoric system. It divided all expressive means into 3 large groups:

Tropes, Rhythm (Figures of Speech) and Types of Speech.

A condensed description of this system gives one an idea how much

we owe the antique tradition in modern stylistic studies.

2.2.1- Hellenistic Roman rhetoric system

Tropes:

1. Metaphor—the application of a word (phrase) to an object

(concept) it doesn't literally denote to suggest comparison with

another object or concept.

E. g. A mighty Fortress is our God.

2. Puzzle (Riddle)—a statement that requires thinking over a con-

fusing or difficult problem that needs to be solved.

3. Synecdoche—the mention of a part for the whole.

E. g. A fleet of 50 sail, (ships)

4. Metonymy—substitution of one word for another on the basis

of real connection.

E.g. Crown for sovereign; Homer for Homer's poems; wealth for rich

people.

5. Catachresis—misuse of a word due to the false folk etymology

or wrong application of a term in a sense that does not belong

to the word.

E. g. Alibi for excuse; mental for weak-minded; mutual for common;

disinterested for uninterested.

A later term for it is malapropism that became current due to Mrs.

Malaprop, a character from R. Sheridan's The Rivals (1775). This

sort of misuse is mostly based on similarity in sound.


E. g. That young violinist is certainly a child progeny (instead of prodigy).

6. Epithet—a word or phrase used to describe someone or some-1 thing with a purpose to praise or blame.

E. g. ft was a lovely, summery evening.

7. Periphrasis—putting things in a round about way in order to] bring out some important feature or explain more clearly the idea or situation described.

E.g. Igot an Arab boy... and paid him twenty rupees a month, about

thirty bob, at which he was highly delighted. (Shute)

8. Hyperbole—use of exaggerated terms for emphasis.

E. g. A 1000 apologies; to wait an eternity; he is stronger than a lion.

9. Antonomasia—use of a proper name to express a general idea or conversely a common name for a proper one.

E. g. The fron Lady; a Solomon; Don Juan.

Figures of Speech that create Rhythm

These expressive means were divided into 4 large groups:

Figures that create rhythm by means of addition 1. Doubling

(reduplication, repetition) of words and sounds.

E. g. Tip-top, helter-skelter, wishy-washy; oh, the dreary, dreary

moorland.

2. Epenalepsis (polysyndeton) conjunctions: use of several con

junctions.

E. g. He thought, and thought, and thought; f hadn't realized until

then how small the houses were, how small and mean the shops. (Shute)

3. Anaphora: repetition of a word or words at the beginning of two

or more clauses, sentences or verses.

E.g. No tree, no shrub, no blade of grass, not a bird or beast, not even

a fish that was not owned!

4. Enjambment: running on of one thought into the next line,

couplet or stanza without breaking the syntactical pattern.

E.g. fn Ocean's wide domains Half

buried in the sands Lie skeletons

in chains With shackled feet and

hands.

(Longfellow)

5. Asyndeton: omission of conjunction.

E.g. He provided the poor with jobs, with opportunity, with self-respect.

_______ Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

Figures based on compression

1. Zeugma (syllepsis): a figure by which a verb, adjective or other

part of speech, relating to one noun is referred to another.

E. g. He lost his hat and his temper, with weeping eyes and hearts.

2. Chiasmus—a reversal in the order of words in one of two parallel phrases.

E. g. He went to the country, to the town went she.

3. Ellipsis—omission of words needed to complete the construction or the sense.

E.g. Tomorrow at 1.30; The ringleader was hanged and his followers imprisoned.

Figures based on assonance or accord

1. Equality of colons—used to have a power to segment and arrange.

2. Proportions and harmony of colons.

Figures based on opposition

1. Antithesis—choice or arrangement of words that emphasises a contrast.

E. g. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, wise men use them; Give me liberty or give me death.


2. Paradiastola—the lengthening of a syllable regularly short (in

Greek poetry).

3. Anastrophe—a term of rhetoric, meaning, the upsetting for

effect of the normal order of words (inversion in contemporary

terms).

E. g. Me he restored, him he hanged.

Types of speech

Ancient authors distinguished speech for practical and aesthetic

purposes. Rhetoric dealt with the latter which was supposed to

answer certain requirements, such as a definite choice of words, their

assonance, deviation from ordinary vocabulary and employment of

special stratums like poetic diction, neologisms and archaisms,

onomatopoeia as well as appellation to tropes. One of the most

important devices to create a necessary high-flown or dramatic effect

was an elaborate rhythmical arrangement of eloquent speech that

involved the obligatory use of the so-called figures or schemes. The

quality of rhetoric as an art of speech was measured in terms of

skilful combination, convergence, abundance or absence of these

devices. Respectively all kinds of speech were labelled and repre-

sented in a kind of hierarchy including the following types: elevated:

flowery /florid/ exquisite; poetic; normal; dry; scanty; hackneyed;

tasteless.

Attempts to analyse and determine the style-forming features of prose

also began in ancient times. Demetrius of Alexandria who lived in

Greece in the 3d century ВС was an Athenian orator, statesman and

Philosopher. He used the ideas of such earlier theorists as Aristotle


and characterized styles by rhetoric of purpose that required certain

grammatical constructions.

The Plain Style, he said, is simple, using many active verbs and

keeping its subjects (nouns) spare. Its purposes include lucidity,

clarity, familiarity, and the necessity to get its work done crisply and

well. So this style uses few difficult compounds, coinages or

qualifications (such as epithets or modifiers). It avoids harsh sounds,

or odd orders. It employs helpful connective terms and clear clauses

with firm endings. In every way it tries to be natural, following the

order of events themselves with moderation and repetition as in

dialogue.

The Eloquent Style in contrast changes the natural order of events to

effect control over them and give the narration expressive power

rather than sequential account. So this style may be called passive in

contrast to active.

As strong assumptions are made subjects are tremendously amplified

without the activity of predication because inherent qualities rather

than new relations are stressed. Sentences are lengthy, rounded, well

balanced, with a great deal of elaborately connected material. Words

can be unusual, coined; meanings can be implied, oblique, and

symbolic. Sounds can fill the mouth, perhaps, harshly.

Two centuries later a Greek rhetorician and historian Dionysius of

Halicarnassus who lived in Rome in the 1*' century ВС characterized

one of the Greek orators in such a way: «His harmony is natural,

stately, spacious, articulated by pauses rather than strongly polished

and joined by connectives; naturally off-balance, not rounded and

symmetrical.» (43, p. 123).

Dionyssius wrote over twenty books, most famous of which are «On

Imitation», «Commentaries on the Ancient Orators» and «On the

Arrangement of Words». The latter is the only surviving ancient study

of principles of word order and euphony.

For the Romans a recommended proportion for language units in

verse was two nouns and two adjectives to one verb, which they called

«the golden line».

Gradually the choices of certain stylistic features in different combi-

nations settled into three types—plain, middle and high.

Nowadays there exist dozens of classifications of expressive means

of a language and all of them involve to a great measure the same

elements. They differ often only in terminology and criteria of

classification.

Three of the modern classifications of expressive means in the English

language that are commonly recognized and used in teaching stylistics

today will be discussed further in brief.

They have been offered by G. Leech, I. R Galperin and У. M. Skreb-nev.

2.2.2. Stylistic theory and classification of

expresssive means by G. Leech

One of the first linguists who tried «to modernize» traditional

rhetoric system was a British scholar G. Leech. In 1967 his

contribution into stylistic theory in the book «Essays on Style a"d

Language» was published in London (39). Paying tribute to lhe

descriptive linguistics popular at the time he tried to show


how linguistic theory could be accommodated to the task ofj

describing such rhetorical figures as metaphor, parallelism, allit-l

eration, personification and others in the present-day study ofj

literature.

Proceeding from the popular definition of literature as the creative use

of language Leech claims that this can be equated with the use of

deviant forms of language. According to his theory the] first principle

with which a linguist should approach literature isj the degree of

generality of statement about language. There are] two particularly

important ways in which the description of language entails

generalization. In the first place language operates by what may be called

descriptive generalization. For example, a grammarian may! give

descriptions of such pronouns as /, they, it, him, etc. as objective

personal pronouns with the following categories: first/third person,

singular/plural, masculine, non-reflexive, animate/inanimate.

Although they require many ways of description they are all pronouns

and each of them may be explicitly described in this fashion.

The other type of generalization is implicit and would be appropriate in

the case of such words as language and dialect. This sort of description

would be composed of individual events of speaking, writing, hearing

and reading. From these events generalization may cover the linguistic

behaviour of whole populations. In this connection Leech maintains 1

the importance of distinguishing two scales in the language. He calls

them «register scale» and «dialect scale». «Register scale» distinguishes

spoken language from written language, the language of respect from

that of condescension, advertising from science, etc. The term covers

linguistic activity within society. «Dialect scale» differentiates

language of people of different age, sex, social strata, geographical

area or individual linguistic habits (ideolect).

According to Leech the literary work of a particular author must be

studied with reference to both—«dialect scale» and «register scale».

The notion of generality essential to Leech's criteria of classifying

stylistic devices has to do with linguistic deviation.

He points out that it's a commonplace to say that writers and poets

use language in an unorthodox way and are allowed a certain degree

of «poetic licence». «Poetic licence» relates to the scales of descriptive

and institutional delicacy.

Words like thou, thee, thine, thy not only involve description by

number and person but in social meaning have «a strangeness value»

or connotative value because they are charged with overtones of piety,

historical period, poetics, etc.

The language of literature is on the whole marked by a number of

deviant features. Thus Leech builds his classification on the principle

of distinction between the normal and deviant features in the language

of literature.

Among deviant features he distinguishes paradigmatic and syntagmatic

deviations. All figures can be initially divided into syntagmatic or

paradigmatic. Linguistic units are connected syntagmatically when

they combine sequentially in a linear linguistic form.

Paradigmatic items enter into a system of possible selections at one

Point of the chain. Syntagmatic items can be viewed horizontally,

Paradigmatic—vertically.

Paradigmatic figures give the writer a choice from equivalent items,

which are contrasted to the normal range of choices. For instance,

certain nouns can normally be followed by certain adverbs, the choice

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

dictated by their normal lexical valency: inches/feet/yard ~r away, e. g. He was standing only a few feet away.

However the author's choice of a noun may upset the normal system

and create a paradigmatic deviation that we come across in literary

and poetic language: farmyards away, a grief ago, all sun long.

Schematically this relationship could look like this

inches

feet normal away

yards farmyard deviant

away

The contrast between deviation and norm may be accounted for by

metaphor which involves semantic transfer of combinatory links.

Another example of paradigmatic deviation is personification. In this

case we deal with purely grammatical oppositions of personal/

impersonal; animate/inanimate; concrete/abstract.

This type of deviation entails the use of an inanimate noun in a context appropriate to a personal noun.

As Connie had said, she handled just like any other aeroplane, except that

she had better manners than most. (Shute). In this example she stands

for the aeroplane and makes it personified on the grammatical level.

The deviant use of she in this passage is reinforced by the collocation

with better manners, which can only be associated with human beings.


aeroplane

train normal inanimate neuter it

car aeroplane deviant animate female

she

This sort of paradigmatic deviation Leech calls «unique deviation»

because it comes as an unexpected and unpredictable choice that

defies the norm. He compares it with what the Prague school of

linguistics called «foregrounding».

Unlike paradigmatic figures based on the effect of gap in the expected

choice of a linguistic form syntagmatic deviant features result from

the opposite. Instead of missing the predictable choice the author

imposes the same kind of choice in the same place. A syntagmatic

chain of language units provides a choice of equivalents to be made

at different points in this chain, but the writer repeatedly makes the

same selection. Leech illustrates this by alliteration in the furrow

followed where the choice of alliterated words is not necessary but

superimposed for stylistic effect on the ordinary background.

This principle visibly stands out in some tongue-twisters due to the

deliberate overuse of the same sound in every word of the phrase. So

instead of a sentence like "Robert turned over a hoop in a circle" we

nave the intentional redundancy of "r" in "Robert Rowley rolled a

inches normal away

feet

yards

farmyard deviant away

aeroplane normal inanimate neuter it

train

car

aeroplane deviant animate female she

round roll round".

Basically the difference drawn by Leech between syntagmatic and

Paradigmatic deviations comes down to the redundancy of choice in

the first case and a gap in the predicted pattern in the second.


This classification includes other subdivisions and details that cannot

all be covered here but may be further studied in Leech's book.

This approach was an attempt to treat stylistic devices with reference

to linguistic theory that would help to analyse the nature of stylistic

function viewed as a result of deviation from the lexical and

grammatical norm of the language.

2.2.3. I. R. Galperfn's classification of expressive means and

stylistic devices

The classification suggested by Prof. Galperin is simply organised and

very detailed. His manual «Stylistics» published in 1971 includes the

following subdivision of expressive means and stylistic devices based

on the level-oriented approach:

1. Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices.

2. Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices.

3. Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices*.

1. Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices To

this group Galperin refers such means as:

1) onomatopoeia (direct and indirect): ding-dong; silver bells... tin-kle, tinkle;

2) alliteration (initial rhyme): to rob Peter to pay Paul;

' To avoid repetition in each classification definitions of all stylistic devices are given in the glossary

3) rhyme (full, incomplete, compound or broken, eye rhyme,

internal rhyme. Also, stanza rhymes: couplets, triple, cross,

framing/ring);

4) rhythm.

2. Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices

There are three big subdivisions in this class of devices and they all

deal with the semantic nature of a word or phrase. However the

criteria of selection of means for each subdivision are different and

manifest different semantic processes.

I. In the first subdivision the principle of classification is the interac-

tion of different types of a word's meanings: dictionary, contextual,

derivative, nominal, and emotive. The stylistic effect of the lexical

means is achieved through the binary opposition of dictionary and

contextual or logical and emotive or primary and derivative meanings

of a word.

A. The first group includes means based on the interplay of dictionary

and contextual meanings:

metaphor: Dear Nature is the kindest Mother still. (Byron)

metonymy:

The camp, the pulpit and the law For

rich man's sons are free.

(Shelly)


irony: // must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one's pocket.

B. The second unites means based on the interaction of primary and derivative meanings:

polysemy: Massachusetts was hostile to the American flag, and she

would not allow it to be hoisted on her State House;

zeugma and pun: May's mother always stood on her gentility; and Dot's

mother never stood on anything but her active little feet. (Dickens)

C. The third group comprises means based on the opposition of logical and emotive meanings:

interjections and exclamatory words:

All present life is but an interjection

An 'Oh' or 'Ah' of joy or misery,

Or a 'Ha! ha!' or 'Bah!'-a yawn or 'Pooh!'

Of which perhaps the latter is most true.

(Byron)

epithet: a well-matched, fairly-balanced give-and-take couple. (Di-ckens)

oxymoron: peopled desert, populous solitude, proud humility. (Byron)

D. The fourth group is based on the interaction of logical and nominal meanings and includes:

antonomasia; Mr. Facing-Both-Ways does not get very far in this world. I (The Times)

II. The principle for distinguishing the second big subdivision ac-

cording to Galperin is entirely different from the first one and is

based on the interaction between two lexical meanings simultaneous-

ly materialised in the context. This kind of interaction helps to call

special attention to a certain feature of the object described. Here

belong:

simile: treacherous as a snake, faithful as a dog, slow as a tortoise.

periphrasis: a gentleman of the long robe (a lawyer); the fair sex.

(women)

euphemism: In private I should call him a liar. In the Press you should

use the words: 'Reckless disregard for truth'. (Galsworthy)

hyperbole: The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in and

the sun and the moon were made to give them light. (Dickens)

Ш. The third subdivision comprises stable word combinations in

their interaction with the context:

cliches: clockwork precision, crushing defeat, the whip and carrot policy.

proverbs and sayings: Come! he said, milk's spilt. (Galsworthy)

epigrams: A thing of beauty is a joy for ever. (Keats)

Quotations: Ecclesiastes said, 'that all is vanity'. (Byron)

allusions: Shakespeare talks of the herald Mercury. (Byron)

decomposition of set phrases: You know which side the law's buttered.

(Galsworthy)


3. Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices

Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices are not paradigmatic

but syntagmatic or structural means. In defining syntactical devices

Galperin proceeds from the following thesis: the structural elements

have their own independent meaning and this meaning may affect

the lexical meaning. In doing so it may impart a special contextual

meaning to some of the lexical units.

The principal criteria for classifying syntactical stylistic devices are: ]

— the juxtaposition of the parts of an utterance;

— the type of connection of the parts;

— the peculiar use of colloquial constructions;

— the transference of structural meaning.

Devices built on the principle of juxtaposition

inversion (several types): A tone of most extravagant comparison Miss Tox said it in. (Dickens)

Down dropped the breeze. (Colerigde)

detached constructions: She was lovely: all of her—delightful. (Dreiser)

parallel constructions:

The seeds ye sow—another reaps, The

robes ye weave—another wears The

arms ye forge—another bears.

(Shelley)

chiasmus:

In the days of old men made manners

Manners now make men.

(Byron)

repetition: For glances beget ogles, ogles sighs, sighs wishes, wishes

words, and words a letter. (Byron)

enumeration: The principle production of these towns... appear to be

soldiers, sailors, Jews, chalk, shrimps, officers, and dock-yard men.

(Dickens)

suspense:

Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle-Know ye the land of the cedar and vine...

'Tis the clime of the East—'tis the land of the Sun.

(Byron)

climax: They looked at hundred of houses, they climbed thousands of

stairs, they inspected innumerable kitchens. (Maugham)

antithesis: Youth is lovely, age is lonely; Youth is fiery, age is frost.

(Longfellow)

Devices based on the type of connection include

Asyndeton: Soams turned away; he had an utter disinclination for talk,

''ke one standing before an open grave... (Galsworthy)


polysyndeton: The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could

boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. (Dickens)

gap-sentence link: It was an afternoon to dream. And she took outi Jon's letters. (Galsworthy)

Figures united by the peculiar use of colloquial constructions

Ellipsis: Nothing so difficult as a beginning; how soft the chin which' bears his touch. (Byron)

Aposiopesis (break-in-the-narrative): Good intentions but -; You just come home or I'll...

Question in the narrative: Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? (Dickens)

Represented speech (uttered and unuttered or inner represented speech):

Marshal asked the crowd to disperse and urged responsible diggers to prevent any disturbance... (Prichard)

Over and over he was asking himself, would she receive him ?

Transferred use of structural meaning involves such figures as

Rhetorical questions: How long must we suffer? Where is the end? (Norris)

Litotes: He was no gentle lamb (London); Mr. Bardell was no deceiver.} (Dickens)

Since «Stylistics» by Galperin is the basic manual recommended for

this course at university level no further transposition of its content is

deemed necessary. However other attempts have been made to clas-

sify all expressive means and stylistic devices because some principles

applied in this system do not look completely consistent and reliable.

There are two big subdivisions here that classify all devices into either

lexical or syntactical. At the same time there is a kind of mixture of

principles since some devices obviously involve both lexical and syn-

tactical features, e. g. antithesis, climax, periphrasis, irony, and others.

According to Galperin there are structural and compositional syntac-

tical devices, devices built on transferred structural meaning and the

type of syntactical connection and devices that involve a peculiar use

of colloquial constructions. Though very detailed this classification

provokes some questions concerning the criteria used in placing the

group 'peculiar use of colloquial constructions' among the syntactical

means and the group called 'peculiar use of set expressions' among

the lexical devices. Another criterion used for classifying lexical ex-

pressive means namely, 'intensification of a certain feature of a thing

or phenomenon' also seems rather dubious. Formulated like this it

could be equally applied to quite a number of devices placed by the

author in other subdivisions of this classification with a different

criteria of identification, such as metaphor, metonymy, epithet,

repetition, inversion, suspense, etc. It does not seem quite just to

Place all cases of ellipsis, aposiopesis or represented speech among

colloquial constructions.

2.2.4. Classification of expressive means and stylistic devices by

Y. M.Skrebnev

One of the latest classifications of expressive means and stylistic

devices is given in the book «Fundamentals of English Stylistics» ЪУ Y. м. Skrebnev published in 1994 (47). Skrebnev's approach



demonstrates a combination of principles observed in Leech's system

of paradigmatic and syntagmatic subdivision and the level-oriented

approach on which Galperin's classification is founded. At the same

time it differs from both since Skrebnev managed to avoid mechanical

superposition of one system onto another and created a new consistent

method of the hierarchical arrangement of this material.

Skrebnev starts with a holistic view, constructing a kind of language

pyramid.

He doesn't pigeonhole expressive means and stylistic devices into

appropriate layers of language like Leech and Galperin. Skrebnev

first subdivides stylistics into paradigmatic stylistics (or stylistics of

units) and syntagmatic stylistics (or stylistics of sequences). Then he

explores the levels of the language and regards all stylistically relevant

phenomena according to this level principle in both paradigmatic and

syntagmatic stylistics.

He also uniquely singles out one more level. In addition to phonetics,

morphology, lexicology and syntax he adds semasiology (or

semantics).

According to Skrebnev the relationship between these five levels and

two aspects of stylistic analysis is bilateral. The same linguistic material

of these levels provides stylistic features studied by paradigmatic and

syntagmatic stylistics. The difference lies in its different arrangement.

Paradigmatic «- 1. Phonetics -> Syntagmatic

stylistics «- 2. Morphology -> stylistics

(Stylistics of units) «- 3. Lexicology -> (Stylistics of

«- 4. Syntax -» sequences)

<- 5. Semasiology ->

paradigmatic stylistics

Looking closer into this system we'll be able to distinguish specific

units and their stylistic potentials or functions. Thus paradigmatic

stylistics (styUstics of units) is subdivided into five branches.

paradigmatic phonetics actually describes phonographical stylistic

features of a written text. Since we cannot hear written speech but in

our «mind» writers often resort to graphic means to reproduce the

phonetic peculiarities of individual speech or dialect. Such intentional

non-standard spelling is called «graphons» (a term borrowed from

V.A.Kucharenko).

/ know these Eye- talians! (Lawrence)—in this case the graphon is

used to show despise or contempt of the speaker for Italians.

In Cockney speech whose phonetic peculiarities are all too well

known you'll hear [ai] in place of [ei], [a:] instead of [au], they drop

«h's» and so on. It frequently becomes a means of speech

characterisation and often creates a humorous effect.

The author illustrates it with a story of a cockney family trying to

impress a visitor with their «correct» English:

<'Father, said one of the children at breakfast. —I want some more 'am

Phase».—You mustn't say 'am, my child, the correct form is 'am,—

retorted his father, passing the plate with sliced ham on it. «But I did

say 'am, pleaded the boy». «No, you didn't: you said 'am instead of

'am». The mother turned to the guest smiling: «Oh, don't mind them, s'r, pray. They are both trying to say 'am and both think it is 'am they

Qre saying» (47, p. 41).


Other graphic means to emphasise the «unheard» phonetic character

istics such as the pitch of voice, the stress, and other melodic feature

are italics, capitalisation, repetition of letters, onomatopoeia (soun'

imitation).

E. g. I AM sorry; «Appeeee Noooooyeeeeerr» (Happy New Year) cock-

a-doodle-doo.

Paradigmatic morphology observes the stylistic potentials of gram:

forms, which Leech would describe as deviant. Out of several va

rieties of morphological categorial forms the author chooses a less

predictable or unpredictable one, which renders this form some

stylistic connotation. The peculiar use of a number of grammaiical

categories for stylistic purposes may serve as an ample example of

this type of expressive means.

The use of a present tense of a verb on the background of a past-tense

narration got a special name historical present in linguistics.

E. g. What else do J remember? Let me see.

There comes out of the cloud our house... (Dickens)

Another category that helps create stylistic colouring is that of gender.

The result of its deviant use is personification and depersonification.

As Skrebnev points out although the morphological category of gender

is practically non-existent in modern English special rules concern

whole classes of nouns that are traditionally associated with feminine

or masculine gender. Thus countries are generally classed as feminine

(France sent her representative to the conference.) Abstract notions

associated with strength and fierceness are personified as masculine

while feminine is associated with beauty or gentleness (death, fear,

war, anger—he, spring, peace, kindness—she). Names of vessel

and other vehicles (ship, boat, carriage, coach, car) are treated as

feminine.

/Another deviant use of this category according to Skrebnev is the use

of animate nouns as inanimate ones that he terms «depersonification»

illustrated by the following passage:

«Where did you find it?» asked Mord Em'ly of Miss Gilliken with a

satirical accent.

«Who are you calling "it"?» demanded Mr. Barden aggressively. «P'raps

you'll kindly call me 'im and not it». (Partridge)

Similar cases of deviation on the morphological level are given by the

author for the categories of person, number, mood and some others.

Paradigmatic lexicology subdivides English vocabulary into stylistic

layers. In most works on this problem (cf. books by Galperin, Arnold,

Vinogradov) all words of the national language are usually described

in terms of neutral, literary and colloquial with further subdivision

into poetic, archaic, foreign, jargonisms, slang, etc.

Skrebnev uses different terms for practically the same purposes. His

terminology includes correspondingly neutral, positive (elevated) and

negative (degraded) layers.

Subdivision inside these categories is much the same with the ex-

clusion of such groups as bookish and archaic words and special

terms that Galperin, for example, includes into the special literary

vocabulary (described as positive in Skrebnev's system) while Skreb-

nev claims that they may have both a positive and negative stylistic

function depending on the purpose of the utterance and the context.

The same consideration concerns the so-called barbarisms or foreign


words whose stylistic value (elevated or degraded) depends on the

kind of text in which they are used. To illustrate his point Skrebnee

gives two examples of barbarisms used by people of different sociajB

class and age. Used by an upper-class character from John Galsworl

thy the word chic has a tinge of elegance showing the character**

knowledge of French. He maintains that Italian words ciao and

bambina current among Russian youngsters at one time were alsol

considered stylistically 'higher' than their Russian equivalents. At the

same time it's hard to say whether they should all be classified asl

positive just because they are of foreign origin. Each instance of usee

should be considered individually.

Stylistic differentiation suggested by Skrebnev includes the following

stratification

Positive/elevated

poetic;

official;

professional.

Bookish and archaic words occupy a peculiar place among the other 1

positive words due to the fact that they can be found in any other

group (poetic, official or professional).

Neutral

Negative/degraded

colloquial;

neologisms;

jargon;

slang;

nonce-words;

vulgar words.

Special mention is made of terms. The author maintains that the

stylistic function of terms varies in different types of speech. In non-

professional spheres, such as literary prose, newspaper texts,

everyday speech special terms are associated with socially presti-

gious occupations and therefore are marked as elevated. On the other

hand the use of non-popular terms, unknown to the average speaker,

shows a pretentious manner of speech, lack of taste or tact.

Paradigmatic syntax has to do with the sentence paradigm: complete-

ness of sentence structure, communicative types of sentences, word

order, and type of syntactical connection.

Paradigmatic syntactical means of expression arranged according to

these four types include

Completeness of sentence structure

ellipsis;

aposiopesis;

one-member nominative sentences.

Redundancy: repetition of sentence parts, syntactic tautology (prolepsis),

Polysyndeton.


Word order

Inversion of sentence members.

Communicative types of sentences

Quasi-affirmative sentences: Isn't that too bad? = That is too bad.

Quasi-interrogative sentences: Here you are to write down your age and

birthplace = How old are you? Where were you born?

Quasi-negative sentences: Did I say a word about the money (Shaw) = /

did not say...

Quasi-imperative sentences: Here! Quick! — Come here! Be quick!

In these types of sentences the syntactical formal meaning of the

structure contradicts the actual meaning implied so that negative

sentences read affirmative, questions do not require answers but are

in fact declarative sentences (rhetorical questions), etc. One commu-

nicative meaning appears in disguise of another. Skrebnev holds that

«the task of stylistic analysis is to find out to what type of speech

(and its sublanguage) the given construction belongs.» (47, p. 100).

Type of syntactic connection

detachment;

parenthetic elements;

asyndetic subordination and coordination.

Paradigmatic semasiology deals with transfer of names or what are

traditionally known as tropes. In Skrebnev's classification these

expressive means received the term based on their ability to rename:

figures of replacement.

All figures of replacement are subdivided into 2 groups: figures of

quantity and figures of quality.

Figures of quantity. In figures of quantity renaming is based on

inexactitude of measurements, in other words it's either saying too

much (overestimating, intensifying the properties) or too little

(underestimating the size, value, importance, etc.) about the object or

phenomenon. Accordingly there are two figures of this type.

Hyperbole

E.g. You couldn't hear yourself think for the noise.

Meosis (understatement, litotes).

E. g. It's not unusual for him to come home at this hour.

According to Skrebnev this is the most primitive type of renaming.

Figures of quality comprise 3 types of renaming:

• transfer based on a real connection between the object of nomi-

nation and the object whose name it's given.

This is called metonymy in its two forms: synecdoche and periphrasis.

E- g. I'm all ears; Hands wanted.

Periphrasis and its varieties euphemism and anti-euphemism.


E. g. Ladies and the worser halves; I never call a spade a spade, I ca

it a bloody shovel.

• transfer based on affinity (similarity, not real connection

metaphor.

Skrebnev describes metaphor as an expressive renaming on the basis

of similarity of two objects. The speaker searches for associations in]

his mind's eye, the ground for comparison is not so open to view as

with metonymy. It's more complicated in nature. Metaphor has no

formal limitations Skrebnev maintains, and that is why this not a

purely lexical stylistic device as many authors describe it (s Galperin's

classification).

This is a device that can involve a word, a part of a sentence о a

whole sentence. We may add that whole works of art can be viewe as

metaphoric and an example of it is the novel by John Updike «Th

Centaur».

As for the varieties there are not just simple metaphors like She i a

flower, but sustained metaphors, also called extended, when one

metaphorical statement creating an image is followed by another

linked to the previous one: This is a day of your golden opportunity,

Sarge. Don't let it turn to brass. (Pendelton)

Often a sustained metaphor gives rise to a device called catachresis

(or mixed metaphor)—which consists in the incongruity of the parts of

a sustained metaphor. This happens when objects of the two or more

parts of a sustained metaphor belong to different semantic spheres and

the logical chain seems disconnected. The effect is' usually comical.

£. g. «For somewhere», said Poirot to himself indulging an absolute riot

0f mixed metaphors «there is in the hay a needle, and among the sleeping

dogs there is one on whom I shall put my foot, and by shooting the arrow

into the air, one will come down and hit a glass-house!» (Christie)

A Belgian speaking English confused a number of popular proverbs

and quotations that in reality look like the following: to look for a

needle in a haystack; to let sleeping dogs lie; to put one's foot down; I

shot an arrow into the air (Longfellow); people who live in glass houses

should not throw stones.

Other varieties of metaphor according to Skrebnev also include

Allusion defined as reference to a famous historical, literary, mytho-

logical or biblical character or event, commonly known.

E.g. It's his Achilles heel (myth of vulnerability).

Personification—attributing human properties to lifeless objects.

E.g. How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Stol'n on his wing

my three and twentieth year! (Milton)

Antonomasia defined as a variety of allusion, because in Skrebnev's

view it's the use of the name of a historical, literary, mythological or

biblical personage applied to a person described. Some of the most

famous ones are Brutus (traitor), Don Juan (lady's man).

It should be noted that this definition is only limited to the allusive

nature of this device. There is another approach (cf. Galperin and

others) in which antonomasia also covers instances of transference of

common nouns in place of proper names, such as Mr. Noble Knight,

Duke the Iron Heart.


Allegory expresses abstract ideas through concrete pictures.

E. g. The scales of justice; It's time to beat your swords into ploughshar

It should be noted that allegory is not just a stylistic term, but als a

term of art in general and can be found in other artistic forms:

painting, sculpture, dance, and architecture.

• transfer by contrast when the two objects are opposed implies irony.

Irony (meaning «concealed mockery», in Greek eironeia) is a device

based on the opposition of meaning to the sense (dictionary and

contextual). Here we observe the greatest semantic shift between the

notion named and the notion meant.

Skrebnev distinguishes 2 kinds of ironic utterances:

— obviously explicit ironical, which no one would take at their fac

value due to the situation, tune and structure.

E. g. A fine friend you are! That's a pretty kettle offish!

— and implicit, when the ironical message is communicated agaii

a wider context like in Oscar Wilde's tale «The Devoted Friend» I

where the real meaning of the title only becomes obvious after

you read the story. On the whole irony is used with the aim of

critical evaluation and the general scheme is praise stands for j

blame and extremely rarely in the reverse order. However when |

it does happen the term in the latter case is astheism.

E. g. Clever bastard! Lucky devil!

One of the powerful techniques of achieving ironic effect is the

mixture of registers of speech (social styles appropriate for the

occasion): high-flown style on socially low topics or vice versa.

Syntagmatic stylistics

Syntagmatic stylistics (stylistics of sequences) deals with the stylistic

functions of linguistic units used in syntagmatic chains, in linear

combinations, not separately but in connection with other units.

Syntagmatic stylistics falls into the same level determined branches.

Syntagmatic phonetics deals with the interaction of speech sounds

and intonation, sentence stress, tempo. All these features that charac-

terise suprasegmental speech phonetically are sometimes also called

prosodic.

So stylistic phonetics studies such stylistic devices and expressive

means as alliteration (recurrence of the initial consonant in two or

more words in close succession). It's a typically English feature

because ancient English poetry was based more on alliteration than

on rhyme. We find a vestige of this once all-embracing literary device

in proverbs and sayings that came down to us.

E. g. Now or never; Last but not least; As good as gold.

With time its function broadened into prose and other types of texts.

It became very popular in titles, headlines and slogans.

». g. Pride and Prejudice. (Austin)

posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club. (Dickens)


Work or wages/; Workers of the world, unite!

Speaking of the change of this device's role chronologically we

should make special note of its prominence in certain professional

areas of modern English that has not been mentioned by Skrebnev.

Today alliteration is one of the favourite devices of commercials and

advertising language.

E. g. New whipped cream: No mixing or measuring. No beating or bothering.

Colgate toothpaste: The Flavor's Fresher than ever—It's New. Improved. Fortified.

Assonance (the recurrence of stressed vowels).

E. g. ... Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if within the distant Aiden; /|

shall clasp a sainted maiden, whom the angels name Lenore. (Рое)

Paronomasia (using words similar in sound but different in meaning with euphonic effect).

The popular example to illustrate this device is drawn from E. A. Poe's Raven.

E.g. And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

Rhythm and meter.

The pattern of interchange of strong and weak segments is called

rhythm. It's a regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables

that make a poetic text. Various combinations of stressed and un-

stressed syllables determine the metre (iambus, dactyl, trochee, etc.).

Rhyme is another feature that distinguishes verse from prose and

consists in the acoustic coincidence of stressed syllables at the end of

verse lines.

Here's an example to illustrate dactylic meter and rhyme given in

Skrebnev's book

Take her up tenderly,

Lift her with care,

Fashion'd so slenderly

Young and so fair.

(Hood)

Syntagmatic morphology deals with the importance of grammar forms

used in a paragraph or text that help in creating a certain stylistic

effect.

We find much in common between Skrebnev's description of this

area and Leech's definition of syntagmatic deviant figures. Skrebnev

writes: «Varying the morphological means of expressing grammatical

notions is based... upon the general rule: monotonous repetition of

morphemes or frequent recurrence of morphological meanings

expressed differently...» (47, p. 146).

He also indicates that while it is normally considered a stylistic fault

it acquires special meaning when used on purpose. He describes the

effect achieved by the use of morphological synonyms of the genetive

with Shakespeare—the possessive case (Shakespeare's plays),

prepositional o/-phrase (the plays of Shakespeare) and an attributive

noun (Shakespeare plays) as «elegant variation» of style.


Syntagmatic lexicology studies the «word-and-context» juxtaposition

that presents a number of stylistic problems—especially those con-

nected with co-occurrence of words of various stylistic colourings.

Each of these cases must be considered individually because each

literary text is unique in its choice and combination of words. Such

phenomena as various instances of intentional and unintentional

lexical mixtures as well as varieties of lexical recurrence fall in wifl

this approach.

Some new more modern stylistic terms appear in this connection-

stylistic irradiation, heterostylistic texts, etc. We can observe this sor of

stylistic mixture in a passage from O'Henry provided by Skrebnev:

Jeff, says Andy after a long time, quite unseldom I have seen fit to

impugn your molars when you have been chewing the rag with me about

your conscientious way of doing business... (47, p. 149).

Syntagmatic syntax deals with more familiar phenomena since it has

to do with the use of sentences in a text. Skrebnev distinguishes

purely syntactical repetition to which he refers

parallelism as structural repetition of sentences though often accom-

panied by the lexical repetition

E. g. The cock is crowing,

The stream is flowing...

(Wordsworth)

and lexico-syntactical devices such as

anaphora (identity of beginnings, initial elements).

E. g. If only little Edward were twenty, old enough to marry well and

fend for himself, instead often. If only it were not necessary to provide

a dowaryforhis daughter. If only his own debts were less. (Rutherfurd)

Epiphora (opposite of the anaphora, identical elements at the end of

sentences, paragraphs, chapters, stanzas).

E. g. For all averred, I had killed the bird.

That made the breeze to blow. Ah

wretch! Said they, the bird to slay,

That made the breeze to blow!

(Coleridge)

Framing (repetition of some element at the beginning and at the end

of a sentence, paragraph or stanza).

E. g. Never wonder. By means of addition, subtraction, multiplication

and division, settle everything somehow, and never wonder. (Dickens)

Anadiplosis (the final element of one sentence, paragraph, stanza is

repeated in the initial part of the next sentence, paragraph, stanza.

E.g. Three fishers went sailing out into the West. Out into

the West, as the sun went down.

(Kingsley)

Chiasmus (parallelism reversed, two parallel syntactical constructions

contain a reversed order of their members).

E. g. That he sings and he sings, and for ever sings he— I

love my Love and my Love loves me!

(Coleridge)


Syntagmatic semasiology or semasiology of sequences deals with

semantic relationships expressed at the lengh of a whole text. As

distinct from paradigmatic semasiology which studies the stylistic

effect of renaming syntagmatic semasiology studies types of names

used for linear arrangement of meanings.

Skrebnev calls these repetitions of meanings represented by sense units

in a text figures of co-occurrence. The most general types of] semantic

relationships can be described as identical, different orl opposite.

Accordingly he singles out figures of identity, figures of\ inequality and

figures of contrast.

Figures of identity

Simile (an explicit statement of partial identity: affinity, likeness, similarity of 2 objects).

E. g. My heart is like a singing bird. (Rosetti)

Synonymous replacement (use of synonyms or synonymous phrases

to avoid monotony or as situational substitutes).

E. g. He brought home numberless prizes. He told his mother counties stories. (Thackeray)

E.g. I was trembly and shaky from head to foot.

Figures of inequality

Clarifying (specifying) synonyms (synonymous repetition used to

characterise different aspects of the same referent).

E.g. You undercut, sinful, insidious hog. (O'Henry)

Climax (gradation of emphatic elements growing in strength).

E. g. What difference if it rained, hailed, blew, snowed, cycloned?

(O'Henry).

Anti-climax (back gradation—instead of a few elements growing in

intensity without relief there unexpectedly appears a weak or

contrastive element that makes the statement humorous or ridiculous).

E. g. The woman who could face the very devil himself or a mouse—goes

all to pieces in front of a flash of lightning. (Twain)

Zeugma (combination of unequal, or incompatible words based on

the economy of syntactical units).

E. g. She dropped a tear and her pocket handkerchief. (Dickens)

Pun (play upon words based on polysemy or homonymy).

E. g. What steps would you take if an empty tank were coming toward

you?—Long ones.

Disguised tautology (semantic difference in formally coincidental parts

of a sentence, repetition here does not emphasise the idea but carries

a different information in each of the two parts).

E. g. For East is East, and West is West... (Kipling)

Figures of contrast

Oxymoron (a logical collision of seemingly incompatible words).

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language Practice Section

E. g. His honour rooted in dishonour stood,

And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.

(Tennyson)

Antithesis (anti-statement, active confrontation of notions used tol

show the contradictory nature of the subject described).

E. g. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of

wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was

the era of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of

Darkness... Hope... Despair. (Dickens)

His fees were high, his lessons were light. (O'Henry)

An overview of the classifications presented here shows rather varie

approaches to practically the same material. And even though thej

contain inconsistencies and certain contradictions they reflect tluj

scholars' attempts to overcome an inventorial description of devices,

They obviously bring stylistic study of expressive means to an advanced

level, sustained by the linguistic research of the 20'л century that

allows to explore and explain the linguistic nature of the stylistic

function. This contribution into stylistic theory made by modem'

linguistics is not contained to classifying studies only. It has inspired

exploration of other areas of research such as decoding stylistics or

stylistic grammar that will be discussed in further chapters.

Practice Section

1. What is the relationship between the denotative and connotative

meanings of a word?

Can a word connote without denoting and vice versa?

What are the four components of the connotative meaning and

how are they represented in a word if at all?

2. Expound on the expressive and emotive power of the noun thing

in the following examples:

Jennie wanted to sleep with me—the sly thing/ But I told her I should

undoubtedly rest better for a night alone. (Gilman)

-/ believe, one day, I shall fall awfully in love.

-Probably you never will, said Lucille brutally. That's what most old

maids are thinking all the time.

Yvette looked at her sister from pensive but apparently insouciant eyes.

Is it? she said. Do you really think so, Lucille? How perfectly awful for

them, poor things! (Lawrence)

She was an honest little thing, but perhaps her honesty was too rational.

(Lawrence)

So they were, this queer couple, the tiny, finely formed little Jewess with

her big, resentful, reproachful eyes, and her mop of carefully-barbed

black, curly hair, an elegant little thing in her way; and the big,

pale-eyed young man, powerful and wintry, the remnant, surely of

some old uncanny Danish stock... (Lawrence)

3. How do the notions of expressive means and stylistic devices

correlate? Provide examples to illustrate your point.

4. Compare the principles of classifications given in chapter 2.

Which of them seem most logical to you? Sustain your view.


Draw parallels between Leech's paradigmatic and syntagmatic

deviations and Skrebnev's classification. Apply these criteria to

the analysis of the use of brethren and married in the following

examples. Consider the grammatical category of number in A

and the nature of semantic transfer in B. Supply the kind of

tables suggested by Leech to describe the normal and deviant

features of similar character.

Comment on the kind of deviation in the nonce-word sistern in A and the effect it produces.

A. Praise God and not the Devil, shouted one of the Maker's male shills

from the other side of the room.

The criminal lowered his eyes and muttered at his shoes: Ah cut anybody who bruise me with Latin, goddammit. Listen to him take the Mighty name in vain, brethren and sistern/ said

Reinhart. (Berger)

B. My father was still feisty in 1940—he was thirty years old and

restless, maybe a little wild beneath the yoke of my mother's family. He

truly had married not only my mother but my grandmother as well, and

also the mule and the two elderly horses and the cows and chickens and

the two perilous-looking barns and the whole rocky hundred acres of

Carolina mountain farm. (Chappel)

5. What kind of syntagmatic deviation (according to Leech) is

observed in the following instance? What is the term for this

device in rhetoric and other stylistic classifications? Where does

it belong according to Galperin and Skrebnev?

And in the manner of the Anglo-Saxon poetry that was its inspiration,

he ended his sermon resoundingly:

High on the hill in sight of heaven,

Our Lord was led and lifted up.

That willing warrior came while the world wept,

And a terrible shadow shaded the sun

For us He was broken and gave His blood

King of all creation Christ on the Rood.

(Rutherfurd)

6. What types of phonographic expressive means are used in the

sentences given below? How do different classifications name

and place them?

Стоп, now. I'm not bringing this up with the idea of throwing anything

back in your teeth—my God. (Salinger)

Little Dicky strains and yaps back from the safety of Mary's arms.

(Erdrich)

Why shouldn't we all go over to the Metropole at Cwmpryddygfor dinner

one night?" (Waugh)

I hear Lionel's supposeta be runnin away. (Salinger)

Who's that dear, dim, drunk little man? (Waugh) No

chitchat please. (O'Hara)

/ prayed for the city to be cleared of people, for the gift of being

alone—a-l-o-n-e: which is the one New York prayer... (Salinger)

* Here Cwmpryddyg is an invented Welsh town, an allusion to the difficult Welsh

language.


Sense of sin is sense of waste. (Waugh)

Colonel Logan is in the army, and presumably «the Major» was a soldier

at the time Dennis was born. (Follett)

7. Comment on the types of transfer used in such tropes as

metaphor, metonymy, allegory, simile, allusion, personification,

antonomasia. Compare their place in Galperin's and Skrebnev's

systems. Read up on the nature of transfer in a poetic image in

terms of tenor, vehicle and ground: И. В. Арнольд Стилистика

современного английского языка. М., 1990. С. 74-82. Name

and explain the kind of semantic transfer observed in the

following passages.

The first time my father met Johnson Gibbs they fought like tomcats.

(Chappel)

/ love plants. I don't like cut flowers. Only the ones that grow in the

ground. And these water lilies... Each white petal is a great tear of milk.

Each slender stalk is a green life rope. (Erdrich)

/ think we should drink a toast to Fortune, a much-maligned lady.

(Waugh)

...the first sigh of the instruments seemed to free some hilarious and

potent spirit within him; something that struggled there like the Genius

in the bottle found by the Arab fisherman. (Cather)

But he, too, knew the necessity of keeping as clear as possible from

that poisonous many-headed serpent, the tongue of the people.

(Lawrence)

lily had started to ask me about Eunice. «Really, Gentle Heart», she

said, «what in the world did you do to my poor little sister to make her

skulk away like a thief in the night?» (Shaw)

The green tumour of hate burst inside her. (Lawrence)

She adjusted herself however quite rapidly to her new conception of

people. She had to live. It is useless to quarrel with your bread and butter.

(Lawrence)

...then the Tudors and the dissolution of the Church, then Lloyd George,

the temperance movement, Non-conformity and lust stalking hand in

hand through the country, wasting and ravaging. (Waugh)

When the stars threw down their spears,

And water'd heaven with their tears, Did

he smile his work to see?

(Blake)

As distinct from the above devices based on some sort of affinity,

real or imaginary, there are a number of expressive means based

on contrast or incompatibility (oxymoron, antithesis, zeugma,

pun, malapropism, mixture of words from different stylistic strata

of vocabulary), Their stylistic effect depends on the message and

intent of the author and varies in emphasis and colouring. It

maybe dramatic, pathetic, elevated, etc. Sometimes the ultimate

stylistic effect is irony. Ironic, humorous or satiric effect is always

built on contrast although devices that help to achieve it may not

necessarily be based on contrast (e. g. they may be hyperbole,

litotes, allusion, periphrasis, metaphor, etc.)


Some of the basic techniques to achieve verbal irony are:

• praise by blame (or sham praise) which means implying the

opposite of what is said;

• minimizing the good qualities and magnifying the bad ones;

• contrast between manner and matter, i. e. inserting irrelev;

matter in presumably serious statements;

• interpolating comic interludes in tragic narration;

• mixing formal language and slang;

• making isolated instances seem typical;

• quoting authorities to fit immediate purpose;

• allusive irony: specific allusions to people, ideas, situations, etc.

that clash discordantly with the object of irony;

• connotative ambivalence: the simultaneous presence of incom-

patible but relevant connotations.

Bearing this in mind comment on the humorous or ironic impact

of the following examples.

Explain where possible what stylistic devices effect the techniques

of verbal irony.

—Have you at any time been detained in a mental home or similar

institution? If so, give particulars.

I was at Scone College, Oxford, for two years, said Paul.

The doctor looked up for the first time.—Don't you dare to make jokes

here, my man, he said, or I'll have you in the strait-jacket in less than

no time. (Waugh)

I like that. Me trying to be funny. (Waugh)

Practice Section

I drew a dozen or more samples of what I thought were typical examples

of American commercial art. ...I drew people in evening clothes stepping

out of limousines on opening nights—lean, erect, super-chic couples

who had obviously never in their lives inflicted suffering as a result of

underarm carelessness—couples, in fact, who perhaps didn't have any

underarms. ...I drew laughing, high-breasted girls aquaplaning without

a care in the world, as a result of being amply protected against such

national evils as bleeding gums, facial blemishes, unsightly hairs, and

faulty or inadequate life insurance. I drew housewives who, until they

reached for the right soap flakes, laid themselves wide open to straggly

hair, poor posture, unruly children, disaffected husbands, rough (but

slender) hands, untidy (but enormous) kitchens. (Salinger)

I made a Jell-0 salad.—Oh, she says, what kind?— The kind full of nuts

and bolts, I say, plus washers of all types. I raided Russel's toolbox for

the special ingredients. (Erdrich)

Was that the woman like Napoleon the Great? (Waugh)

They always say that she poisoned her husband... there was a great

deal of talk about it at the time. Perhaps you remember the case?—No,

said Paul—Powdered glass, said Flossie shrilly,—in his coffee.—Turkish

coffee, said Dingy. (Waugh)

You folks all think the coloured man hasn't got a soul. Anythin's good

enough for the poor coloured man. Beat him, put him in chains; load

him with burdens... Here Paul observed a responsive glitter in Lady

Circumference's eye. (Waugh)

In the south they also drink a good deal of tequila, which is a spirit

"lade from the juice of the cactus. It has to be taken with a pinch of

salt. (Atkinson)


«They could have killed you too, he said, his teeth chattering. If you

had arrived two minutes earlier. Forgive me. Forgive all of us. Dolce

Italia. Paradise for tourists.» He laughed eerily. (Shaw)

He was talking very excitedly to me, said the Vicar... He seems deeply

interested in Church matters. Are you quite sure he is right in the head?

I have noticed again and again since I have been in the Church that lay

interest in ecclesiastical matters is often a prelude to insanity. (Waugh)

So you're the Doctor's hired assassin, eh? Well, I hope you keep a firm

hand on my toad of a son. (Waugh)

9. Explain why the following sentences fall into the category of

quasi-questions, quasi-statements or quasi-negatives in Skreb-

nev's classification. What's their actual meaning?

—/ wish I could go back to school all over again.—Don't we all, he

said. (Shaw)

Are all women different?

Oh, are they! (O'Hara)

/ don't think no worse of you for it, no, darned if I do. (Lawrence)

If it isn't diamonds all over his fingers! (Caldwell)

Devil if I know what to make of these people down here. (Christie)

Contact my father again and I'll strangle you. (Donleavy)

Don't you ever talk to Rose?

Rose? Not about Mildred. Rose misses Mildred as much as I do. We

don't even want to see each other. (O'Hara)

10. Why are instances of repetition in the sentences given below

called disguised tautology? How does it differ from regular

tautology? What does this sort of repetition imply?

Life is life.

There are doctors and doctors.

A small town's a small town, wherever it is, I said. (Shute)

I got nothing against Joe Chapin, but he's not me. I'm me, and another

man is still another man. (O'Hara)

Well, if it can't be helped, it can't be helped, I said manfully. (Shaw)

Milan is a city, which cannot be summed up in a few words. For Dalian

speakers, the old Milanese dialect expression «Milan I'e Milam- (Milan

is just Milan) is probably the best description one can give. iPeroni)

Beer was beer, too, in those days—not the gassy staff in bottles. (Dickens)

11. Does the term anti-climax (back-gradation) imply the opposite

of climax (gradation)? What effect does each of these devices

provide? How is it achieved in the following cases:

—Philbrick, there must be champagne-cup, and will you help the men

putting up the marquee? And Flags, Diana!... No expense should be

spared... And there must be flowers, Diana, banks officers, said the

Doctor with an expensive gesture. The prizes shall stand among the

banks of flowers-Flowers, youth, wisdom, the glitter of jewels,

music, said ihe Doctor. I here must be a band.


—I never heard of such a thing, said Dingy. A band indeed/ You'll be

having fireworks next.

—Andfireworks, said the Doctor, and do you think it would be a good

thing to buy Mr. Prendergast a new tie? (Waugh)

We needed a kind rain, a blessing rain, that lasted a week. We needed

wafer. (Erdrich)

At first there were going to be forty guests but the invitation list grew

larger and the party plans more elaborate, until Arthur said that with

so many people they ought to hire an orchestra, and with an orchestra

there would be dancing, and with dancing there ought to be a good

sized orchestra. The original small dinner became a dinner dance at

the Lantenengo Country Club. Invitations were sent to more than three

hundred persons... (O'Hara)

Even the most hardened criminal there—he was serving his third sentence

for blackmail—remarked how the whole carriage seemed to be flooded

with the detectable savour of Champs-Elysee in early June. (Waugh)

Hullo, Prendy, old wine-skin! How are things with you?

Admirable, said Mr. Prendergast. I never have known them better. I

have just caned twenty-three boys. (Waugh)

Chapter 3

Stylistic Grammar

The theory of grammatical gradation. Marked, semi-marked and

unmarked structures. Grammatical metaphor. Types of gramma-

tical transposition. Morphological stylistlcs. Stylistic potential of

the parts of speech. Stylistic syntax.

3.1. The theory of grammatical gradation.

Marked, semi-marked and unmarked structures

One of the least investigated areas of stylistic research is the stylistic

potential of the morphology of the English language. There is quite a

lot of research in the field of syntagmatic stylistics connected with

syntactical structures but very little has been written about the stylistic

Properties of the parts of speech and such grammatical categories as

gender, number or person. So it seems logical to throw some light on

these problems.

An essentially different approach of modern scholars to stylistic

research is explained by a different concept that lies at the root of this

approach. If ancient rhetoric mostly dealt in registering, classifying

Chapter 3. Stylistic Grammar 3.2. Grammatical metaphor and types of grammatical transposition

and describing stylistic expressive means, modern stylistics proceeds

from the nature of the stylistic effect and studies the mechanism 0f

the stylistic function. The major principle of the stylistic effect is the

opposition between the norm and deviation from the norm on

whatever level of the language. Roman Jacobson gave it the most

generalized definition of defeated expectancy; he claimed that it is1

the secret of any stylistic effect because the recipient is ready and

willing for anything but what he actually sees. Skrebnev describes it

as the opposition between the traditional meaning and situational

meaning, Arnold maintains that the very essence of poetic language

is the violation of the norm. These deviations may occur on any level

of the language—phonetic, graphical, morphological, lexical or

syntactical. It should be noted though that not every deviation from

the norm results in expressiveness. There are deviations that will only

create absurdity or linguistic nonsense. For example, you can't

normally use the article with an adverb or adjective.

Noam Chomsky, an American scholar and founder of the generative

linguistic school, formulated this rule in grammar that he called

grammatical gradation (27). He constructed a scale with two poles—j

grammatically correct structures at one extreme point of this scale

and grammatically incorrect structures at the other. The first he called

grammatically marked structures, the second—unmarked structures.

The latter ones cannot be generated by the linguistic laws of the given

language, therefore they cannot exist in it. If we take the Russian

sentence that completely agrees with the grammatical laws of this lan-

guage Решил он меня обмануть and make a word for word translation

into English we'll get a grammatically incorrect structure 'Decided

* In Chomsky's theory grammatically incorrect (unmarked) structures are labeled

with an asterisk.

ne me to deceive. A native speaker cannot produce such a sentence

because it disagrees with the basic rule of word order arrangement in

English. It will have to be placed at the extreme point of the pole

that opposes correct or marked structures. This sentence belongs to

what Chomsky calls unmarked structures.

Between these two poles there is space for the so-called semi-marked

structures. These are structures marked by the deviation from lexical

or grammatical valency. This means that words and grammar forms

carry an unusual grammatical or referential meaning. In other terms

this is called «transposition», a phenomenon that destroys customary

(normal, regular, standard) valences and thus creates expressiveness

of the utterance.

3.2. Grammatical metaphor and types

of grammatical transposition

Some scholars (e. g. Prof. E. I. Shendels) use the term grammatical

metaphor for this kind of phenomena (30, 31). We know that lexical

metaphor is based on the transfer of the name of one object on to

another due to some common ground. The same mechanism works

in the formation of a grammatical metaphor.

Linguistic units, such as words, possess not only lexical meanings but

also grammatical ones that are correlated with extra-linguistic reality.

Such grammatical categories as plurality and singularity reflect the

distinction between a multitude and oneness in the real world. Such

classifying grammatical meanings as the noun, the verb or the adjective

represent objects, actions and qualities that exist in this world. Howev-

er this extra-linguistic reality may be represented in different languages

Chapter 3. Stylistic Grammar 3.2. Grammatical metaphor and types of grammatical transposition

in a different way. The notion of definiteness or indefiniteness is gram-

matically expressed in English by a special class of words—the article.

In Russian it's expressed differently. Gender exists as a grammatical

category of the noun in Russian but not in English and so on.

A grammatical form, as well as a lexical unit possesses a denotative

and a connotative meaning. There are at least three types of denotative

grammatical meanings. Two of these have some kind of reference with

the extra-linguistic reality and one has zero denotation, i. e. there is

no reference between the grammatical meaning and outside world.

1. The first type of grammatical denotation reflects relations o|

objects in outside reality such as singularity and plurality.

2. The second type denotes the relation of the speaker to the first

type of denotation. It shows how objective relations are perceived

by reactions to the outside world. This type of denotative meaning

is expressed by such categories as modality, voice, definiteness

and indefiniteness.

3. The third type of denotative meaning has no reference to the

extra-linguistic reality. This is an intralinguistc denotation,

conveying relations among linguistic units proper, e. g. the

formation of past tense forms of regular and irregular verbs.

Denotative meanings show what this or that grammatical form desig-

nates but they do not show how they express the same relation. How-

ever a grammatical form may carry additional expressive information,

it can evoke associations, emotions and impressions. It may connote

as well as denote. Connotations aroused by a grammatical form are ad-

herent subjective components, such as expressive or intensified mean-

ing, emotive or evaluative colouring. The new connotative meaning of

grammatical forms appears when we observe a certain clash between

form and meaning or deviation in the norm of use of some forms.

The stylistic effect produced is often called grammatical metaphor.

According to Shendels we may speak of grammatical metaphor when

there is a transposition (transfer) of a grammatical form from one

type of grammatical relation to another. In such cases we deal with a

redistribution of grammatical and lexical meanings that create new

connotations.

Types of grammatical transposition

Generally speaking we may distinguish 3 types of grammatical trans-

position.

1. The first deals with the transposition of a certain grammar form

into a new syntactical distribution with the resulting effect of

contrast. The so-called 'historical present' is a good illustration

of this type: a verb in the Present Indefinite form is used against

the background of the Past Indefinite narration. The effect of

vividness, an illusion of «presence», a lapse in time into the

reality of the reader is achieved.

Everything went as easy as drinking, Jimmy said. There was a garage just

round the corner behind Belgrave Square where he used to go every morn-

ing to watch them messing about with the cars. Crazy about cars the kid

was. Jimmy comes in one day with his motorbike and side-car and asks

for some petrol. He comes up and looks at it in the way he had. (Waugh)

2. The second type of transposition involves both—the lexical and

grammatical meanings. The use of the plural form with a noun

whose lexical denotative meaning is incompatible with plurality

(abstract nouns, proper names) may serve as an apt example.

Chapter 3. Stylistic Grammar 3.3. Morphological stylistics

The look on her face... was full of secret resentments, and longings, and fears. (Mitchell)

3. Transposition of classifying grammatical meanings, that brings

together situationally incompatible forms—for instance, the use of a common noun as a proper one.

The effect is personification of inanimate objects or antonomasia (a person becomes a symbol of a quality or trait—/V/r. Know-Ail, Mr.

Truth, speaking names).

Lord and Lady Circumference, Mr. Parakeet, Prof. Silenus, Colonel MacAdder. (Waugh)

3.3. Morphological stylistics.

Stylistic potential of the parts of speech

3.3.1. The noun and its stylistic potential

The stylistic power of a noun is closely linked to the grammatical

categories this part of speech possesses. First of all these are the

categories of number, person and case.

The use of a singular noun instead of an appropriate plural form

creates a generalized, elevated effect often bordering on symbolization.

The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes

From leaf to flower and from flower to fruit And

fruit and leaf are as gold and fire.

(Swinbum)

The contrary device—the use of plural instead of singular—as a rule

,nakes the description more powerful and large-scale.

The clamour of waters, snows, winds, rains... (Hemingway)

The lone and level sands stretch far away. (Shelly)

The plural form of an abstract noun, whose lexical meaning is alien

to the notion of number makes it not only more expressive, but brings

about what Vinogradov called aesthetic semantic growth.

Heaven remained rigidly in its proper place on the other side of death,

and on this side flourished the injustices, the cruelties, the meannesses,

that elsewhere people so cleverly hushed up. (Green)

Thus one feeling is represented as a number of emotional states, each

with a certain connotation of a new meaning. Emotions may signify

concrete events, happenings, doings.

Proper names employed as plural lend the narration a unique gener-

alizing effect:

If you forget to invite somebody's Aunt Millie, I want to be able to say I

had nothing to do with it.

There were numerous Aunt Millies because of, and in spite of Arthur's

and Edith's triple checking of the list. (O'Hara)

These examples represent the second type of grammatical metaphor

formed by the transposition of the lexical and grammatical meanings.

The third type of transposition can be seen on the example of

Personification. This is a device in which grammatical metaphor aPpears due to the classifying transposition of a noun, because nouns


are divided into animate and inanimate and only animate nouns have

he category of person.

Personification transposes a common noun into the class of proper

names by attributing to it thoughts or qualities of a human being. As

a result the syntactical, morphological and lexical valency of this noun

changes:

England's mastery of the seas, too, was growing even greater. Last year

her trading rivals the Dutch had pushed out of several colonies... (Ru-

therford)

The category of case (possessive case) which is typical of the proper

nouns, since it denotes possession becomes a mark of personification

in cases like the following one:

Love's first snowdrop Virgin kiss!

(Burns)

Abstract nouns transposed into the class of personal nouns are

charged with various emotional connotations, as in the following

examples where personification appears due to the unexpected lexico-

grammatical valency:

The woebegone fragment of womanhood in the corner looked a little less

terrified when she saw the wine. (Waugh)

The chubby little eccentricity, (a child)

The old oddity (an odd old person). (Arnold)

The emotive connotations in such cases may range from affection to

irony or distaste.

go, although the English noun has fewer grammatical categories than

the Russian one, its stylistic potential in producing grammatical

metaphor is high enough.

3.3.2. The article and its stylistic potential

The article may be a very expressive element of narration especially

when used with proper names.

For example, the indefinite article may convey evaluative connotations

when used with a proper name:

I'm a Marlow by birth, and we are a hot-blooded family. (Follett)

It may be charged with a negative evaluative connotation and diminish

the importance of someone's personality, make it sound insignificant.

Besides Rain, Nan and Mrs. Prewett, there was a Mrs. Kingsley, the

wife of one of the Governors. (Dolgopolova)

Л Forsyte is not an uncommon animal. (Galsworthy)

The definite article used with a proper name may become a powerful

expressive means to emphasize the person's good or bad qualities.

Well, she was married to him. And what was more she loved him. Not

'be Stanley whom everyone saw, not the everyday one; but a timid,

sensitive, innocent Stanley who knelt down every night to say his

Prayers... (Dolgopolova)


You are not the Andrew Manson I married. (Cronin)

In the first case the use of two different articles in relation to one

person throws into relief the contradictory features of his character. |

The second example implies that this article embodies all the good

qualities that Andrew Manson used to have and lost in the eyes of his

wife.

The definite article in the following example serves as an intensifier

of the epithet used in the character's description:

My good fellow, I said suavely, what brings me here is this: I want to

see the evening sun go down over the snow-tipped Sierra Nevada.

Within the hour he had spread this all over the town and I was pointed

out for the rest of my visit as the mad Englishman. (Atkinson)

The definite article may contribute to the devices of gradation or help

create the rhythm of the narration as in the following examples:

But then he would lose Sondra, his connections here, and his uncle—this

world! The loss! The loss! The loss! (Dreiser)

No article, or the omission of article before a common noun conveys

a maximum level of abstraction, generalization.

Tlie postmaster and postmistress, husband and wife, ...looked carefully

at every piece of mail... (Erdrich)

How infuriating it was! Land which looked like baked sand became the

Garden of Eden if only you could get water. You could draw a line with

a pencil: on one side, a waterless barren; on the other, an irrigated

luxuriance. (Michener)

tfot sound, not quiver as if horse and man had turned to metal.

(Dolgopolova)

They went as though car and driver were one indivisible whole. (Dol-

gopolova)

3.3.3. The stylistic power of the pronoun

The stylistic functions of the pronoun also depend on the disparity

between the traditional and contextual (situational) meanings. This is

the grammatical metaphor of the first type based on the transposition

of the form, when one pronoun is transposed into the action sphere

of another pronoun.

So personal pronouns We, You, They and others can be employed in

the meaning different from their dictionary meaning.

The pronoun We that means «speaking together or on behalf of other

people» can be used with reference to a single person, the speaker,

and is called the plural of majesty (Pluralis Majestatis). It is used in

Royal speech, decrees of King, etc.

And for that offence immediately do we exile him hence. (Shakespeare)

The plural of modesty or the author's we is used with the purpose to

identify oneself with the audience or society at large. Employing the

plural of modesty the author involves the reader into the action

making him a participant of the events and imparting the emotions

Prevailing in the narration to the reader.

My poor dear child, cried Miss Crawly, ...is our passion unrequited

then?


Are we pining in secret? Tell me all, and let me console you. (Thackeray)

The pronoun you is often used as an intensifier in an expressive

address or imperative:

Just you go in and win. (Waugh)

Get out of my house, you fool, you idiot, you stupid old Briggs.

(Thackeray)

In the following sentence the personal pronoun they has a purely

expressive function because it does not substitute any real characters

but has a generalising meaning and indicates some abstract entity.

The implication is meant to oppose the speaker and his interlocutor

to this indefinite collective group of people.

All the people like us are we, and everyone else is they. (Kipling)

Such pronouns as One, You, We have two major connotations: that of

'identification' of the speaker and the audience and 'generalization'

(contrary to the individual meaning).

Note should be made of the fact that such pronouns as We, One, You

that are often used in a generalized meaning of 'a human being' may

have a different stylistic value for different authors.

Speaking of such English writers as Aldus Huxley, Bertrand Russel and

D. H. Lawrence, J. Miles writes in her book «Style and Proportion»:

The power of Huxley's general ONE is closer to Russel's WE than to

Lawrence's YOU though all are talking about human nature.

She points out that scientists like Charles Darwin, Adam Smith and

many others write using ONE much in the same way as Huxley does.

She maintains that it is not merely the subject of writing but the

attitude, purpose and sense of verbal tradition that establish these

distinctions in expression (41).

Employed by the author as a means of speech characterisation the

overuse of the / pronoun testifies to the speaker's complacency and

egomania while you or one used in reference to oneself characterise

the speaker as a reserved, self-controlled person. At the same time

the speaker creates a closer rapport with his interlocutor and achieves

empathy.

— You can always build another image for yourself to fall in love with.

—No, you can't. That's the trouble, you lose the capacity for building.

You run short of the stuff that creates beautiful illusions. (Priestly)

When the speaker uses the third person pronoun instead of / or we he

or she sort of looks at oneself from a distance, which produces the

effect of estrangement and generalization. Here is an example from

{Catherine Mansfield's diary provided in Arnold's book Стилистика

английского языка (4, С. 187).

/ do not want to write; I want to live. What does she mean by that? It's

hard to say.

Possessive pronouns may be loaded with evaluative connotations and

devoid of any grammatical meaning of possession.

Watch what you're about, my man! (Cronin)

Your precious Charles or Frank or your stupid Ashley/ (Mitchell)

The same function is fulfilled by the absolute possessive form in

structures like Well, you tell that Herman of yours to mind his own

business. (London)


The range of feelings they express may include irony, sarcasm, anger contempt, resentment, irritation, etc.

Demonstrative pronouns may greatly enhance the expressive colouring of the utterance.

That wonderful girl! That beauty! That world of wealth and social position she lived in! (London)

These lawyers! Don't you know they don't eat often? (Dreiser)

In these examples the demonstrative pronouns do not point at

anything but the excitement of the speaker.

Pronouns are a powerful means to convey the atmosphere of informal

or familiar communication or an attempt to achieve it.

// was Robert Ackly, this guy, that roomed right next to me. (Salinger)

Claws in, you cat. (Shaw)

Through the figurative use of the personal pronouns the author may achieve metaphorical images and even create sustained compositional metaphors.

Thus using the personal pronoun she instead of the word «sea» in

one of his best works The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway

imparts to this word the category of feminine gender that enables

him to bring the feeling of the old man to the sea to a different, more

dramatic and more human level.

He always thought of the sea as 'la mar' which is what people call her

in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say beta

(hings about her but they are always said as though she were a woman.

(Hemingway)

In the same book he calls a huge and strong fish a he:

He is a great fish and I must convince him, he thought. I must never let

flint learn his strength. (Hemingway)

Such recurrent use of these pronouns throughout the novel is charged

with the message of the old man's animating the elemental forces of

the sea and its inhabitants and the vision of himself as a part of

nature. In this case the use of the pronouns becomes a compositional

device.

All in all we can see that pronouns possess a strong stylistic potential that is realized due to the violation of the normal links with their object of reference.

3.3.4. The adjective and its stylistic functions

The only grammatical category of the English adjective today is that

of comparison. Comparison is only the property of qualitative and

Quantitative adjectives, but not of the relative ones.

When adjectives that are not normally used in a comparative degree are used with this category they are charged with a strong expressive power.

Mrs. Thompson, Old Man Fellow's housekeeper had found him deader

than a doornail... (Mangum)

This is a vivid example of a grammatical transposition of the second 1Уре built on the incongruity of the lexical and grammatical meanings.


In the following example the unexpected superlative adjective degree forms lend the sentence a certain rhythm and make it even more expressive:

...fifteen millions of workers, understood to be the strangest, the cun-

ningest, the willingest our Earth ever had. (Skrebnev)

The commercial functional style makes a wide use of the violation of

grammatical norms to captivate the reader's attention:

The orangemostest drink in the world.

The transposition of other parts of speech into the adjective creates

stylistically marked pieces of description as in the following sentence:

A camouflage of general suffuse and dirty-jeaned drabness covers

everybody and we merge into the background. (Marshall)

The use of comparative or superlative forms with other parts of speech

may also convey a humorous colouring:

He was the most married man I've ever met. (Arnold)

Another stylistic aspect of the adjective comes to the fore when an

adjective gets substantivized and acquires the qualities of a noun such

as «solid, firm, tangible, hard,» etc.

All Europe was in arms, and England would join. The impossible had

happened. (Aldington)

The stylistic function of the adjective is achieved through the deviant

use of the degrees of comparison that results mostly in grammatical

metaphors of the second type (lexical and grammatical incongruity).

•j-]ie same effect is also caused by the substantivized use of the

a(ijectives.

3.3.5. The verb and its stylistic properties

The verb is one of the oldest parts of speech and has a very developed

grammatical paradigm. It possesses more grammatical categories that

any other part of speech. All deviant usages of its tense, voice and

aspect forms have strong stylistic connotations and play an important

role in creating a metaphorical meaning. A vivid example of the

grammatical metaphor of the first type (form transposition) is the

use of 'historical present' that makes the description very pictorial,

almost visible.

The letter was received by a person of the royal family. While reading

it she was interrupted, had no time to hide it and was obliged to put

it open on the table. At this enters the Minister D... He sees the letter

and guesses her secret. He first talks to her on business, then takes out

a letter from his pocket, reads it, puts it down on the table near the other

letter, talks for some more minutes, then, when taking leave, takes the

royal lady's letter from the table instead of his own. The owner of the

letter saw it, was afraid to say anything for there were other people in

the room. (Рое)

The use of 'historical present' pursues the aim of joining different

time systems—that of the characters, of the author and of the reader

all of whom may belong to different epochs. This can be done by making a reader into an on-looker or a witness whose timeframe is

synchronous with the narration. The outcome is an effect of empathy

ensured by the correlation of different time and tense systems.


The combination and unification of different time layers may also be

achieved due to the universal character of the phenomenon described

a phenomenon that is typical of any society at any time and thus

make the reader a part of the events described.

Various shades of modality impart stylistically coloured expressiveness

to the utterance. The Imperative form and the Present Indefinite

referred to the future render determination, as in the following

example:

Edward, let there be an end of this. I go home. (Dickens)

The use of shall with the second or third person will denote the

speaker's emotions, intention or determination:

If there's a disputed decision, he said genially, they shall race again.

(Waugh)

Tlie prizes shall stand among the bank of flowers. (Waugh)

Similar connotations are evoked by the emphatic use of will with the

first person pronoun:

—Adam. Are you tight again ?

—Look out of the window and see if you can see a Daimler waiting.

—Adam, what have you been doing? I will be told. (Waugh)

Likewise continuous forms do not always express continuity of the

action and are frequently used to convey the emotional state of the

speaker. Actually all 'exceptions to the rule' are not really exceptions.

They should be considered as the forms in the domain of stylistic

studies because they are used to proclaim the speaker's state of mind,

his mood, his intentions or feelings.

go continuous forms may express:

• conviction, determination, persistence:

Well, she's never coming here again, I tell you that straight; (Maugham)

• impatience, irritation:

—/ didn't mean to hurt you.

-You did. You're doing nothing else; (Shaw)

• surprise, indignation, disapproval:

Women kill me. They are always leaving their goddam bags out in the

middle of the aisle. (Salinger)

Present Continuous may be used instead of the Present Indefinite

form to characterize the current emotional state or behaviour:

-How is Carol?

—Blooming, Charley said. She is being so brave. (Shaw)

You are being very absurd, Laura, he said coldly. (Mansfield)

Verbs of physical and mental perception do not regularly have

continuous forms. When they do, however, we observe a semi-

marked structure that is highly emphatic due to the incompatible

combination of lexical meaning and grammatical form.

Why, you must be the famous Captain Butler we have been hearing so much about—the blockade runner. (Mitchell)

r must say you're disappointing me, my dear fellow. (Berger)


The use of non-finite forms of the verb such as the infinitive and

participle I in place of the personal forms communicates certain

stylistic connotations to the utterance.

Consider the following examples containing non-finite verb forms:

Expect Leo to propose to her! (Lawrence)

The real meaning of the sentence is It's hard to believe that Leo would

propose to her!

Death! To decide about death! (Galsworthy)

The implication of this sentence reads Be couldn't decide about death!

To take steps! How? Winifred's affair was bad enough! To have a double

dose of publicity in the family! (Galsworthy)

The meaning of this sentence could be rendered as He must take some

steps to avoid a double dose of publicity in the family!

Far be it from him to ask after Reinhart's unprecedented geiup and

environs. (Berger)

Such use of the verb be is a means of character sketching: He was not

the kind of person to ask such questions.

Since the sentences containing the infinitive have no explicit doer of

the action these sentences acquire a generalized universal character.

The world of the personage and the reader blend into one whole as if

the question is asked of the reader (what to do, how to act). This

creates empathy. The same happens when participle I is used

impersonally:

jhe whole thing is preposterous—preposterous! Slinging accusations like

this! (Christie)

But I tell you there must be some mistake. Splendor taking dope! It's

ridiculous. He is a nonchemical physician, among other things. (Berger)

The passive voice of the verb when viewed from a stylistic angle may

demonstrate such functions as extreme generalisation and deperson-

alisation because an utterance is devoid of the doer of an action and

the action itself loses direction.

...he is a long-time citizen and to be trusted... (Michener)

Little Mexico, the area was called contemptuously, as sad and filthy

a collection of dwellings as had ever been allowed to exist in the west.

(Michener)

The use of the auxiliary do in affirmative sentences is a notable

emphatic device:

/ don't want to look at Sit a. I sip my coffee as long as possible. Then

I do look at her and see that all the colour has left her face, she is

fearfully pale. (Erdrich)

So the stylistic potential of the verb is high enough. The major mechanism of creating additional connotations is the transposition of verb forms that brings about the appearance of metaphors of the first and second types.

^•3.6. Affixation and its expressiveness

Unlike Russian the English language does not possess a great, variety

of word-forming resources.


In Russian we have a very developed system of affixes, with eval-

uative and expressive meanings: diminutive, derogatory, endearing, exaggerating, etc.

Consider such a variety of adjectives малый-маленький-махонь-

кий—малюсенький; большой—большеватый—большущий, преог-

ромнейший; плохой— плоховатенький—плохонький. There are no

morphological equivalents for these in English.

We can find some evaluative affixes as a remnant of the former

morphological system or as a result of borrowing from other languages,

such as: weakling, piglet, rivulet, girlie, lambkin, kitchenette.

Diminutive suffixes make up words denoting small dimensions, but

also giving them a caressing, jocular or pejorative ring.

These suffixes enable the speaker to communicate his positive or negative evaluation of a person or thing.

The suffix -ian/-ean means 'like someone or something, especially

connected with a particular thing, place or person', e. g. the pre-

Tolstoyan novel. It also denotes someone skilled in or studying a

particular subject: a historian.

The connotations this suffix may convey are positive and it is

frequently used with proper names, especially famous in art, literature,

music, etc. Such adjectives as Mozartean, Skakespearean, Wagnerian

mean like Mozart, Shakespeare, Wagner or in that style.

However some of these adjectives may possess connotations connected

with common associations with the work and life of famous people

that may have either positive or negative colouring. For instance The

Longman Dictionary of the English Language and Culture gives such

definitions of the adjective Dickensian: suggesting Charles Dickens or

kis writing, e. g. a the old-fashioned, unpleasant dirtiness of Victorian

England: Most deputies work two to an office in a space of Dickensian

grinmess. b the cheerfulness of Victorian amusements and customs: a

real Dickensian Christmas.

The suffix -ish is not merely a neutral morpheme meaning a small

degree of quality like blue—bluish, but it serves to create 'delicate or

tactful' occasional evaluative adjectives—baldish, dullish, biggish.

Another meaning is 'belonging or having characteristics of somebody

or something'.

Most dictionaries also point out that -ish may show disapproval {self-

ish, snobbish, raffish) and often has a derogatory meaning indicating

the bad qualities of something or qualities which are not suitable to

what it describes (e.g. mannish in relation to a woman).

Another suffix used similarly is—esque, indicating style, manner, or

distinctive character: arabesque, Romanesque. When used with the

names of famous people it means 'in the manner or style of this

particular person'. Due to its French origin it is considered bookish

and associated with exquisite elevated style. Such connotations are

implied in adjectives like Dantesque, Turneresque, Kafkaesque.

Most frequently used suffixes of the negative evaluation are: -ard, -

ster, -aster, -eer or half-affix -monger: drunkard, scandal-monger,

black-marketeer, mobster.

Considering the problem of expressive affixes differentiation should

be made between negative affixes such as in-, un~, ir-, поп-, etc.

{unbending, irregular, non-profit) and evaluative derogatory affixes.

Evaluative affixes with derogatory connotations demonstrate the

Chapter 3. Stylistic Grammar 3.4. Stylistic syntax

speaker's attitude to the phenomenon while negative affixes normally

represent objects and phenomena that are either devoid of some

quality or do not exist at all (e. g. a non-profit organization has mostly

positive connotations).

All these examples show that stylistic potentials of grammatical forms

are great enough. Stylistic analysis of a work of art among other

things should include the analysis of the grammatical level that

enables a student to capture the subtle shades of mood or rhythmical

arrangement or the dynamics of the composition.

3.4. Stylistic syntax

Syntactical categories have long been the object of stylistic research.

There are different syntactical means and different classifications.

The classifications discussed earlier in this book demonstrate different

categorization of expressive means connected with syntax. However

there axe a few general principles on which most of the syntactical

expressive means are built. The purpose of this paragraph is to

consider the basic techniques that create stylistic function on the

syntactical level common for most stylistic figures of this type and

illustrate them with separate devices.

The major principles at work on the sentence level are

I. The omission or absence of one or more parts of the sentence. II.

Reiteration (repetition) of some parts.

III. The inverted word order.

IV. The interaction of adjacent sentences.

j# The omission of the obligatory parts of a sentence results in ellipsis

of various types. An elliptical sentence is a sentence with one or more

of the parts left out. As a rule the omitted part can be reconstructed

from the context. In this case ellipsis brings into relief typical features

of colloquial English casual talk.

The laconic compressed character of elliptical sentences lends a

flavour of liveliness to colloquial English. In fiction elliptical

sentences have a manifold stylistic function. First of all they help

create a sense of immediacy and local colour. Besides they may add

to the character's make up, they lead to a better understanding of a

mood of a personage.

Wish I was young enough to wear that kind of thing. Older I get the

more I like colour. We're both pretty long in the tooth, eh? (Waugh)

Often elliptical sentences are used in represented speech because

syntactically it resembles direct speech. The use of elliptical sentences

in fiction is not limited to conversation. They are sometimes used in

the author's narration and in the exposition (description which opens

a chapter or a book).

/ remember now, that Sita's braid did not hurt. It was only soft and

heavy, smelling of Castile soap, but still I yelled as though something

terrible was happening. Stop! Get off! Let go! Because I couldn't stand

how strong she was. (Erdrich)

A variety of ellipsis in English are one-member nominal sentences.

They have no separate subject and predicate but one main part

instead. One-member sentences call attention to the subject named,

to its existence and even more to its interrelations with other objects.

Nominal sentences are often used in descriptive narration and in

Chapter 3. Stylistic Grammar

exposition. The economy of the construction gives a dynamic rhyth^

to the passage. One-member sentences are also common in stage

remarks and represented speech.

Matchbooks. Coaster trays. Hotel towels and washcloths. He was sending

her the samples of whatever he was selling at the time. Fuller brushes.

Radio antennas. Cans of hair spray or special wonder-working floor

cleaners. (Erdrich)

Break-in-the narrative is a device that consists in the emotional halt

in the middle or towards the end of an utterance. Arnold

distinguishes two kinds: suppression and aposiopesis. Suppression

leaves the sentence unfinished as a result of the speaker's deliberation

to do so. The use of suppression can be accounted for by a desire not

to mention something that could be reconstructed from the context

or the situation. It is just the part that is not mentioned that attracts

the reader's attention. It's a peculiar use of emphasis that lends the

narration a certain psychological tension.

If everyone at twenty realized that half his life was to be lived after forty... (Waugh)

Aposiopesis means an involuntary halt in speech because the speaker

is too excited or overwhelmed to continue.

But Mr. Meredith, Esther Silversleeves said at last, these people are

heathens! Esther was the most religious of the family.—Surly you cannot

wish... her voice trailed off. (Rutherfurd)

Decomposition is also built on omission, splitting the sentences into

separate snatches. They are the result of detachment of parts of

sentences. This device helps to throw in the effect of relief or express


a highly dynamic pace of narration. Decomposition maybe combined

with ellipsis.

Him, of all things! Him! Never! (Lawrence)

II. Reiteration is never a mechanical repetition of a word or structure.

It is always accompanied by new connotations. The repetition stresses

not the denotative but the connotative meaning.

The usage area of reiteration is casual and non-casual speech, prose

and poetry.

Different types of reiteration may be classified on the compositional

principle:

Anaphora is the repetition of the same element at the beginning of

two or more successive clauses, sentences or verses.

They were poor in space, poor in light, poor in quiet, poor in repose,

and poor in the atmosphere of privacy—poor in everything that makes

a man's home his castle. (Cheever)

Framing is an arrangement of repeated elements at the beginning and

at the end of one or more sentences that creates a kind of structural

encasement.

He had been good for me when I was a callow and an ignorant youth;

he was good for me now. (Shute)

Anadiplosis is such a figure in which a word or group of words

completing a sentence is repeated at the beginning of a succeeding

sentence. It often shows the interaction of different parts of a

Paragraph or text.


My wife has brown hair, dark eyes, and a gentle disposition. Because

of her gentle disposition, I sometimes think that she spoils the children,

(Cheever)

Epiphora consists in the repetition of certain elements at the end of

two or more successive clauses, sentences or paragraphs.

Trouble is, I don't know if I want a business or not. Or even if I can pay for it, if I did want it. (Shute)

III. Inversion is upsetting of the normal order of words, which is an important feature of English.

By changing the logical order this device helps to convey new shades of meaning. The denotative meaning is the same but the emotive

colouring is different.

Galperin describes five types of inversion that are connected with the

fixed syntactical position of the sentence members. Each type of

inversion produces a specific stylistic effect: it may render an elevated

tone to the narration:

Ofbeechen green, and shadows numberless,

Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

(Keats)

/ will make my kitchen, and you will keep your room,

Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom.

(Stevenson)

— or make it quick-paced and dynamic:

In he got and away they went. (Waugh)


Bang went Phi/brick's revolver. Off trotted the boys on another race.

(Waugh)

Sometimes inversion may contribute to the humorous effect of the

description or speech characterisation:

To march about you would not like us? suggested the station master.

(Waugh)

IV. Interaction of adjacent sentences is a compositional syntactical

technique.

One of the major emphatic means is the use of parallel constructions.

They are similarly built and used in close succession. It is a variety

of repetition on the level of a syntactical model. Parallel

constructions more than anything else create a certain rhythmical

arrangement of speech. The sameness of the structure stresses the

difference or the similarity of the meaning. Sometimes parallel

constructions assume a peculiar form and the word order of the first

phrase is inverted in the second. The resulting device is called

chiasmus. It is often accompanied by a lexical repetition:

They had loved her, and she had loved them. (Caldwell)

Work— work—work!

From weary chime to chime/

Work— work—work As

prisoners work for crime!

Band, and gusset, and seam

Seam, and gusset, and band...

(Hood)


The climax is such an arrangement of a series of clauses or phrases

that form an ascending scale, in which each of the sen-1 tences is

stronger in intensity of expression than the previous one.

We're nice people and there isn't going to be room for nice people any \

more. It's ended, it's all over, it's dead. (Cheever)

Another device is the anticlimax, also called back gradation, which is

a figure of speech that consists in an abrupt and often ludicrous

descent, which contrasts with the previous rise. The descent is often |

achieved by the addition of a detail that ruins the elevated tenor of J

the previous narration.

Its main stylistic function is to give the thought an unexpected j

humorous or ironic twist.

/ hate and detest every bit of it, said Professor Silenus gravely. Nothing

I have ever done has caused me so much disgust. With a deep sigh he

rose from the table and walked from the room, the fork with which he

had been eating still held in his hand. (Waugh)

Practice Section

1. What are the basic principles of stylistic grammar? How does ;

grammatical metaphor correlate with lexical metaphor?

2. What is the essence of the grammatical gradation theory? De-

scribe the types of grammatical transposition and provide your

own examples to illustrate each type.

Practice Section

3. Consider the following sentences and comment on the function

of morphological grammatical categories and parts of speech that

create stylistic function: One night I am standing in front of Mindy's

restaurant on Broadway, thinking of practically nothing whatever,

when all of a sudden I feel a very terrible pain in my left foot.

(Runyon)

It's good, that, to see you again, Mr. Philip, said Jim. (Caldwell)

Earth colours are his theme. When he shows up at the door, we see that

he's even dressing in them. His pants are grey. His shin is the same

colour as his skin. Flesh colour. (Erdrich)

Now, the Andorrans were a brave, warlike people centuries ago, as

everybody was at one time or another—for example, take your Assyr-

ians, who are now extinct; or your Swedes, who fought in the Thirty

Years' War but haven't done much since except lie in the sun and turn

brown... (Berger)

A gaunt and Halloweenish grin was plastered to her face. (Erdrich)

/ walked past Mrs. Shumway, who jerked her head around in a startled

woodpeckerish way... (Erdrich)

She's the Honourable Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde, you know—sister-in-law

of Lord Pastmaster—a very wealthy woman, South American. (Waugh)

—there are two kinds of people, which we may call the hurtersand the

hurtees. The first get their satisfaction by working their will on somebody ehe. The second like to be imposed upon. (Burger)

To hear her was to be beginning to despair. (Jarrell)


But they domanage the building? Mrs. Doubleday said to him. (Cheever)

A band indeed! You' 11 be having fireworks next. (Waugh)

I stare down at the bright orange capsules... I have to listen... so we

look at each other, up and down, and up and down... Without us, they

say, without Loise, it's the state hospital. (Erdrich)

Ah! That must be Aunt Augusta. Only relatives, or creditors, ever ring

in that Wagnerian manner. (Wilde)

I got nothing against Joe Chapin, but he's not me. I'm me, and another

man is still another man. (O'Hara)

That's not the Mr. Littlejohn I used to know. (Waugh)

/ pronounce that the sentence on the defendants, Noelle Page and

Lawrence Douglas, shall be execution by a firing squad. (Sheldon)

They are all being so formal. Let's play a game to break the ice. (Bell)

/ wondered how the Moroccan boy... could stand meekly aside and

watch her go off with another man.

Actors, I thought. They must divide themselves into compartments.

(Shaw)

Oh, J guess I love you, I do love the children, but I love myself, I love

my life, it has some value and some promise for me... (Cheever)

Let him say his piece, the darling. Isn't he divine? (Waugh)

Ft never was the individual sounds of a language, but the melodies behind

them, that Dr. Rosenbaum imitated. For these his ear was Mozartian.

(Jarrell)

Practice Section

They are allowed to have the train stoppedat every cross-roads... (Atkin-

son)

That's thefoolest thing I ever heard. (Berger)

4. Arrange syntactical expressive means described in Galperin's

classification into four groups according to the major principles

of stylistic syntax in addition to the illustrations given in the

chapter above.

5. Identify syntactical stylistic devices used in the examples below

and comment on their meaning in the context:

/ should have brought down a more attractive dress. This one, with its

white petals gone dull in the shower steam, with its belt of lavender and

prickling lace at each pulse point, I don't like. (Erdrich)

/ begin my windshield-wiper wave, as instructed by our gym teacher,

who has been a contestant for Miss North Dakota. Back and forth very

slowly. Smile, smile, smile. (Erdrich)

Except for the work in the quarries, life at Egdon was almost the same

as at Blackstone.

'Slops outside,' chapel, privacy. (Waugh)

It was for this reason the rector had so abjectly curled up, still so abjectly

curled up before She-who-was Cynthia: because of his slave's fear of her

contempt, the contempt of a born-free nature for a base-born nature.

(Lawrence)

The warder rang the bell—Inside, you two! he shouted. (Waugh)

—Old man, Miles said amiably, if I may say so, I think you're missing fhe point.


—Iff may say so, sir, Philippe said, I think I am missing nothing. What

is the point? (Shaw)

You asked me what I had going this time. What I have going is wine. ',

With the way the world's drinking these days, being in wine is like

having a license to steal. (Shaw)

How kind of you, Alfred! She has asked about you, and expressed her

intention—her intention, if you please.'—to know you. (Caldwell)

When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country

one amuses other people. (Wilde)

—There are lots of things I wanted to do—I wanted to climb the

Matterhom but I wouldn't blame the fact that I haven't on anyone else.

—You. Clime the Matterhom. Ha. You couldn't even climb the

Washington Monument. (Cheever)

There was no Olga. I had no consolation. Then I felt desperate, desolate,

crushed. (Cheever)

— You get cold, riding a bicycle? he asked.

—My hands! she said clasping them nervously. (Lawrence)

If the man had been frightening before, he was now a perfect horror.

(Berger)

My dear fellow, the way you flirt with Gwendolen is perfectly dis-

graceful. It is almost as bad as the way Gwendolen flirts with you.

(Wilde)

Trouble is, I don't know if I want a business or not. Or even if I can

pay for it, if I did want it. (Shute)

Practice Section

A man has a right to get married and have children, and I'd earned the

right to have a wife, both in work and money. A man's got a right to live

in his own place. A man has a right to make his life where he can look

after his Dad and Mum a bit when they get old. (Shute)

...already we were operating Jive aircraft of four different types, and if

we got a Tramp we should have six aircraft of five types...

A Tramp it would have to be, and I told them of my money difficulty.

(Shute)

Damrey Phong, though healthy, is a humid place. (Shute)

He's made his declaration. He loves me. He can't live without me. He'd

walk through fire to hear the notes of my voice. (Cheever)

Chapter 4

The Theory of Functional Styles

The notion of style in functional stylistics. Correlation of style

norm and function in the language. Language varieties: regional,

social, occupational. An overview of functional style systems.

Distinctive linguistic features of the major functional styles of

English

4.1. The notion of style in functional stylistics

The notion of style has to do with how we use the language under

specific circumstances for a specific purpose. The notion of using

English, for instance, involves much more than using our knowledge

of its linguistic structure. It also involves awareness of the numerous

situations in which English can be used as a special medium of com- j

munication with its own set of distinctive and recognizable features.

The various branches of linguistics that investigate the topic, such as

sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis,

textlinguistics, and stylistics present a remarkable range of method-

ologies and emphases. We'll be interested in how stylistic research

treats of the subject.

4.1. The notion of style in functional stylistics

Linguistic literature gives various definitions of the notion 'style' that

generally boil down to the following three meanings of this term:

• A variety of the national language traditionally used in one of

the socially identifiable spheres of life that is characterised by a

particular set of linguistic features, including vocabulary,

grammar and pronunciation. These are chiefly associated with

the social and regional varieties, such as educated, colloquial, low

colloquial, dialectal, uneducated, etc. From this point of view

the most broad and well known subdivision in many national

languages today usually describes these varieties as neutral,

literary (high) and colloquial (low): e. g. Cockney, upper-class,

educated English.

• Generally accepted linguistic identity of oral and written units

of discourse, such as public speech, a lecture, a friendly letter, a

newspaper article, etc. Such units demonstrate style not only in

a special choice of linguistic means but in their very

arrangement, i. e. composition of a speech act, that creates a

category of text marked by oratory, scientific, familiar or

publicist style.

• Individual manner of expression determined by personal factors,

such as educational background, professional experience, sense

of humour, etc.: e.g. personal style of communication, the style

of Pushkin's early poetry.

Style is our knowledge how language is used to create and interpret

texts and conversational interactions. It involves being aware of the

range of situations in which a language can be used in a distinctive

Chapter 4. The Theory of Functional Styles

and predictable way and of the possibilities available ю us when we

want to produce or respond to creative uses of the language.

Stylistic features relate to constraints on language use that may be only

temporary features of our spoken or written language. We often adopt

different group uses of language as we go through our day; we may use

a different style speaking with our children in the family, reporting to

our boss at work or practicing sports. We change our speaking or

writing style to make a particular effect: imitating somebody's accent

when telling a story, giving a humorous account of events in an

informal letter and so on. Style is first and foremost the result of our

choice of content of our message and the appropriate range of

language means to deliver the message effectively.

Uses of English in numerous situations that require definite stylistic

features are studied by the theory of functional styles.

This theory involves consideration of such notions as norm and

function in their relation to style.

4.2. Correlation of style, norm and function

in the language

Any national language uses the notion of 'correct language' which

involves conformity to the grammatical, lexical and phonetic stan-

dards accepted as normative in this society. The favoured variety is

usually a version of the standard written language, especially as

encountered in literature or in the formal spoken language that most

closely reflects literary style. It is presented in dictionaries, grammars

and other official manuals. Those who speak and write in this way


are said to be using language 'correctly', those who do not are said to

be using it 'incorrectly'. Correct usage is associated with the notion of

the linguistic norm. The norm is closely related to the system of the

language as an abstract ideal system. The system provides and

determines the general rules of usage of its elements, the norm is the

actual use of these provisions by individual speakers under specific

conditions of communication.

Individual use of the language implies a personal selection of linguistic

means on all levels. When this use conforms to the general laws of

the language this use will coincide with what is called the literary

norm of the national language.

However the literary norm is not a homogeneous and calcified entity.

It varies due to a number of factors, such as regional, social,

situational, personal, etc.

The norm will be dictated by the social roles of the participants of

communication, their age and family or other relations. An important

role in the selection of this or that variety of the norm belongs to the

purpose of the utterance, or its function. Informal language on a

formal occasion is as inappropriate as formal language on an

informal occasion. To say that a usage is appropriate is only to say

that it is performing its function satisfactorily. We shall use different

'norms' speaking with elderly people and our peers, teachers and

students, giving an interview or testimony in court. This brings us to

the notion of the norm variation.

The prevailing public attitude is that certain forms of usage are

"correct" and others — "incorrect". Teachers of English are supposed

to know the difference between "right" and "wrong" in language.

The real fact about usage in natural languages is that it is diverse


and subject to change. Some scholars (R.I.McDavid) hold that "щ

the usage of native speakers whatever is is right; but some usages are

more appropriate than others, at least socially". What determines the

appropriateness is the speakers' age, education, sophistication, social

position (44, p. 20).

Others (J. Algeo) describe Standard English as current (neither old-

fashioned nor faddishly new), widespread (not limited to a particular

locale or group) and generally accepted (suggested instead of correct)

(32, p. 23-24).

The norm of the language implies various realisations of the language

structure that are sometimes called its subsystems, registers or J

varieties.

I.V.Arnold presents these relations as a system of oppositions:

Structure : : norm : : individual use

National norm : : dialect

Neutral style : : colloquial style : : bookish style

Literary correct speech : : common colloquial

Functional styles are subsystems of the language and represent

varieties of the norm of the national language. Their evolution and

development has been determined by the specific factors of

communication in various spheres of human activity. Each of them is

characterised by its own parameters in vocabulary usage, syntactical

expression, phraseology, etc.

The term 'functional style' reflects peculiar functions of the language

in this or that type of communicative interaction. Proceeding from

the generally acknowledged language functions Prof. I. V. Arnold


'Function/

Style

intellectual communicative

pragmatic emotive phatic aesthetic

oratorical + + + + +

colloquial + + + + —

poetic + — + — +

publicist and newspaper

+ + + — —

official + + — — —

scientific + — — — —

suggested a description ot tunctionai styles oasea on tne comoinauon

of the linguistic functions they fulfil.

The table presents functional styles as a kind of hierarchy according

to the number of functions fulfilled by each style, oratorical and

scientific being almost complete opposites.

However not all texts have boundaries that are easy to identify in the

use of distinctive language. For example, the oratorical style has a lot

of common features with the publicist one, which in its turn is often

comparable with the style of humanities, such as political science,

history or philosophy.

The point of departure for discerning functional styles is the so-called

neutral style that is stylistically non-marked and reflects the norms of

the language. It serves as a kind of universal background for the

expression of stylistically marked elements in texts of any functional

type. It can be rarely observed in the individual use of the language

and as Skrebnev remarked, perhaps, only handbooks for foreigners

and primers could be qualified as stylistically neutral (47, p. 22).

__________ Chapter 4. The Theory of Functional Styles

4.3. Language varieties:

regional, social, occupational

The particular set of features, which identifies a language variety,

does not represent the features of the language as a whole. Variety

features depend on the presence of certain factors in a social situation.

Classifications of these factors vary, but we may group them into

two types according to most general dimensions: sociolinguistic and

stylistic factors.

Sociolinguistic factors are connected with very broad situational

constraints on language use. They chiefly identify the regional and

social varieties of the language. They are relatively permanent features

of the spoken and written language, over which we have comparatively

little conscious control. We tend not to change our regional or social

group way of speaking in every-day communication and usually we

are not aware of using it.

Stylistic factors relate to restrictions on language use that are much

more narrowly constrained, and identify individual preferences in

usage (phraseology, special vocabulary, language of literature) or the

varieties that are associated with occupational groups (lawyers,

journalists, scholars). These are features, over which we are able to

exercise some degree of conscious control.

As David Crystal, a famous British linguist puts it, regional language

variation of English provides a geographical answer to the question

'Where are you from, in the English-speaking world?'

English is considered mother tongue in the UK, US, Australia, Ire-

land, New Zealand, Caribbean nations. In Canada and South Africa

4.3. Language varieties: regional, social, occupational

English is one of the two native languages. Speakers of these countries

use different kinds of English in different areas within these countries.

These are regional varieties of English that are sometimes called re-

gional dialects. We can see some differences in the use of English on

the example of regional varieties of American English. In the speech

of educated southerners one can hear such forms as seed, seen instead

of saw or clam, dim, dome, doom, dum instead of the standard

climbed. Bostonians use cleanser instead of dry cleaner's (compare

examples from Russian — парадное used in St.-Petersburg for подъезд

or гаманок used in the rural Urals and Siberia for кошелек).

Social language variation provides an answer to a somewhat different

question 'Who are you?' or 'What are you in the eyes of the English-

speaking society to which you belong?' (33, p. 393). Actually social

variation provides several possible answers, because people may

acquire several identities as they participate in the social structure.

One and the same person may belong to different social groups and

perform different social roles. A person may at the same time be

described as 'a parent', 'a wife', 'an architect', 'a feminist', 'a senior

citizen', 'a member of Parliament', 'an amateur sculptor', 'a theatre-

goer'; the possibilities may be endless.

Any of these identities can have consequences for the kind of

language we use. Language more than anything else will testify to our

permanent and temporary roles in social life.

Some features of social variation lead to particular linguistic con-

sequences. In many ways our pronunciation, choice of words and

constructions, general strategy of communication are defined by the

age, sex and socio-economic aspects. Choice of occupation has a less

predictable influence, though in some contexts, e. g. medicine or law

it can be highly distinctive.

Chapter 4. The Theory of Functional Styles __________ — --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------■ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adopting a specific social role, such as making a congratulatory

speech or conducting a panel talk, invariably entails a choice of

appropriate linguistic forms.

Differences in language choices that correlate with the subject of

discussion, the audience, the genre, the occasion and the purpose or

the medium of communication are called registers.

In other words, we identify the uses to which language is put: the

subject it treats, the circumstances in which it is used, the social rela-

tionships among its users and the purposes of its use. We adapt what

we want to say or write to the circumstances in which we are commu-

nicating. We use different words in discussing politics, sports, theology

or computer technologies. We arrange our sentences differently in

talking to babies, bosses, close friends or making announcements, etc.

Sentence structure differs between recipes, telegrams, stock-market

reports and thank-you notes. English is pronounced differently from a

pulpit or over the counter of a fast-order restaurant. The medium of

communication is also relevant: when listening on the phone we have

to make frequent responses: I see, oh, yes, well to let the person know

we are still there and paying attention. They tell little about us as

persons but a good deal about how we respond to the circumstances

of communication. Regional and social variations depend on who we

are, register depends on who we are communicating with, where,

how, and about what. Registers are functional options available to us

in social and personal communication.

We adapt our language to the occasion for which we use it. An

important dimension of variation in English is the degree of formality

of a language event stretching from the coronation of a British

sovereign to a relaxed get-together of alumni. The continuum of

formality may be arbitrarily divided into any number of subsegments

4.3. Language varieties: regional, social, occupational

for purposes of discussion. For example, a presidential inauguration

address may be labeled as ritual, a request to city officials for action

as formal, a discussion among members of a civic club as collegial, a

conversation between good friends as familiar, comments of husband

and wife watching TV as intimate. Hardly any aspect of language -

phonetic, lexical or grammatical - is the same in the five situations.

Each of these situations calls for its own kind of language. The variety

used in the intimate kind of talk would be ridiculous or even grotesque

in a ritual speech and vice versa.

Across the world attitudes to social variation differ a lot. All countries

display social stratification, though some have more clearly defined

boundaries than others and therefore more distinct features of class

dialect. Britain is usually said to be linguistically more class-conscious

than other English-speaking countries.

In Great Britain the grammar and pronunciation used by educated

people from the south of England, called Received Standard, have

informally achieved highest status. Fostered by the public schools

Winchester, Eton and the like as well as the two great universities,

Oxford and Cambridge, Received Standard became the accepted

national standard. Used normally by upper-class families RS as

taught in the public schools to children of the newly rich has been

one of the ways for the established order to accommodate the new

wealth. RS was adopted as the usual model for teaching English to

native speakers of other languages. The educational systems of the

Commonwealth in Asia and Africa have been modeled on British

practice and in Europe there still is a notion that RS is "better" or

'more elegant" than American English.

For example, in England one accent has traditionally dominated over

all others and the notion of respectable social standing is usually

Chapter 4. The Theory of Functional Styles __________

associated with Received Pronunciation (RP), considered to be the

'prestige accent'.

However today with the breakdown of rigid divisions between social

classes and the development of mass media RP is no longer the j

prerogative of social elite. Today it is best described as an 'educated'

accent which actually has several varieties. Most educated people have

developed an accent, which is a mixture of RP and various regional

features that sometimes is called 'modified RP'.

This is one example that shows a general trend in modern English-

regionally modified speech is no longer stigmatised as 'low', it can

even be an advantage, expressing such social values as solidarity and

democracy. A pure RP accent, by contrast can even evoke hostility,

especially in those parts of Britain that have their own regional norms,

e. g. Scotland and Wales.

Occupational varieties of the national language are normally associated

with a particular way of earning a living. They belong to the group of

stylistically determined varieties and differ from both regional and

social sublanguages.

Features of language that identify people's geographical or social

origins, once established can hardly change over a short period of

time. It would be very difficult to change your accent if you move

from one part of the country to another with a different regional

norm; it is equally difficult to transform the linguistic indicators of

our social background (vocabulary and structural expression).

Occupational varieties are not like that. Their linguistic features may

be just as distinctive as regional or social features, but they are only

in temporary use. They 'go with the territory'—adopted as we begin

4.4. An overview of functional style systems

work and given up as we finish it. People who cannot stop 'talking

shop' even when they are not at work are rather an exception to the

rule.

Any professional field could serve as an illustration of occupational

linguistic identity. There are no class distinctions here. Factory

workers have to master a special glossary of technical terms and

administrative vocabulary (seniority labels, term of service, severance

pay, fringe benefits, safety regulation) in order to carry out professional

communication. To fulfil their tasks they develop jargon and

professional slang, which set them apart from outsiders. The more

specialised the occupation and the more senior or professional the

position the more technical the language. Also, if an occupation has a

long-lasting and firmly established tradition it is likely to have its

own linguistic rituals which its members accept as a criterion of

proficiency. The highly distinctive languages of law, government and

religion provide the clearest cases, with their unique grammar,

vocabulary, and patterns of discourse. Of course, all occupations are

linguistically distinctive to a certain degree. In some cases it involves

only special terms; in others it may be a combination of linguistic

features on different levels as will be shown in the last section of this

chapter.

4.4. Ал overview of functional style systems

As has been mentioned before there are a great many classifications

of language varieties that are called sublanguages, substyles, registers

and functional styles that use various criteria for their definition and

categorisation. The term generally accepted by most Russian scholars

Chapter 4. The Theory of Functional Styles __________ I

is functional styles. It is also used in this course. A few classifications of

the functional styles in modern English will be considered in thi

chapter.

Books by I. R. Galperin on English Stylistics (1958, 1971, 1977)

are among most acknowledged sources of stylistic research in this

country.

Galperin distinguishes 5 functional styles and suggests their subdi-

vision into substyles in modern English according to the following

scheme:

1. The Belles-Lettres Style:

a) poetry;

b) emotive prose;

c) the language of the drama.

2. Publicist Style:

a) oratory and speeches;

b) the essay;

c) articles.

3. Newspaper Style:

a) brief news items;

b) headlines;

c) advertisements and announcements;

d) the editorial.

4. Scientific Prose Style.

5. The Style of Official documents:

a) business documents;

b) legal documents;


c) the language of diplomacy;

d) military documents.

Prof. Galperin differs from many other scholars in his views on

functional styles because he includes in his classification only the

written variety of the language. In his opinion style is the result of

creative activity of the writer who consciously and deliberately selects

language means that create style. Colloquial speech, according to

him, by its very nature will not lend itself to careful selection of

linguistic features and there is no stylistic intention expressed on the

part of the speaker. At the same time his classification contains such

varieties of publicist style as oratory and speeches. What he actually

means is probably not so much the spoken variety of the language

but spontaneous colloquial speech, a viewpoint which nevertheless

seems to give ground for debate. As we pointed out in sections two

and three of this chapter individual speech, oral variety included, is

always marked by stylistic features that show the speaker's educational,

social and professional background. Moreover we always assume some

socially determined role and consciously choose appropriate language

means to perform it and achieve the aim of communication.

Scholars' views vary on some other items of this classification. There

is no unanimity about the belles-lettres style. In fact Galperin's

position is not shared by the majority. This notion comes under

criticism because it seems rather artificial especially in reference to

modern prose. It is certainly true that many works of fiction may

contain emotionally coloured passages of emotive writing that are

marked by special image-creating devices, such as tropes and figures

of speech. These are typically found in the author's narrative, lyrical

digressions, expositions, descriptions of nature or reflections on the

characters' emotional or mental state.


At the same time many writers give an account of external events,

social life and reproduce their characters' direct speech. Sometimes

they quote extracts from legal documents, newspapers items, ad-

vertisements, slogans, headlines, e. g. K. Vonnegut, J. Dos Passos,

etc. which do not belong to belles-lettres style in its traditional

meaning.

As a matter of fact, in modern works of fiction we may encounter

practically any functional speech type imaginable. So most other clas-

sifications do not distinguish the language of fiction as a separate style.

In 1960 the book «Stylistics of the English Language» by M. D. Kuz-

netz and Y. M. Skrebnev appeared. The book was a kind of brief outline

of stylistic problems. The styles and their varieties distinguished by

these authors included:

1. Literary or Bookish Style:

a) publicist style;

b) scientific (technological) style;

c) official documents.

2. PVee («Colloquial») Style:

a) literary colloquial style;

b) familiar colloquial style.

As can be seen from this classification, both poetry and imaginative

prose have not been included (as non-homogeneous objects) although

the book is supplied with a chapter on versification.

Next comes the well-known work by I. V. Arnold «Stylistics of Modern

English» (decoding stylistics) published in 1973 and revised in 1981.

Some theses of this author have already been presented in this


chapter (i. e. those that concern the notions of norm, neutrality and

function in their stylistic aspect). Speaking of functional styles,

Arnold starts with the a kind of abstract notion termed 'neutral style'.

It has no distinctive features and its function is to provide a standard

background for the other styles. The other 'real' styles can be broadly

divided into two groups according to the scholar's approach: different

varieties of colloquial styles and several types of literary bookish

styles.

1. Colloquial Styles:

a) literary colloquial;

b) familiar colloquial;

c) common colloquial.

2. Literary Bookish Styles:

a) scientific;

b) official documents;

c) publicist (newspaper);

d) oratorical;

e) poetic.

This system presents an accurate description of the many social and

extralinguistic factors that influence the choice of specific language

for a definite communicative purpose. At the same time the inclusion

of neutral style in this classification seems rather odd since unlike the

others it's non-existent in individual use and should probably be

associated only with the structure of the language.

One type of sublanguages suggested by Arnold in her classification—

publicist or newspaper—fell under the criticism of Skrebnev who

argues that the diversity of genres in newspapers is evident to any lay-

man: along with the «leader» (or editorial) the newspaper page gives


a column to political observers, some space is taken by sensational

reports; newspapers are often full of lengthy essays on economics,

law, morals, art, etc. Much space is also given to miscellaneous news

items, local events; some papers publish sequences of stories or

novels; and most papers sell their pages to advertising firms. This

enumeration of newspaper genres could go on and on. Therefore,

Skrebnev maintains, we can hardly speak of such functional style at

all.

Of course Arnold is quite aware of the diversity of newspaper writings.

However what she really means is the newspaper material specific of

the newspaper only: political news, police reports, press reviews,

editorials.

In a word, newspaper style should be spoken of only when the

materials that serve to inform the reader are meant. Then we can

speak of distinctive style— forming features including a special choice

of words, abundance of international words, newspaper cliches and

nonce words, etc.

It should be noted however that many scholars consider the language

of the press as a separate style and some researchers even single out

newspaper headlines as a functional style.

One of the relatively recent books on stylistics is the handbook by A.

N. Morokhovsky and his co-authors O. P. Vorobyova, N. I. Lik-

nosherst and Z. V. Timoshenko «Stylistics of the English language»

published in Kiev in 1984. In the final chapter of the book «Stylistic

Differentiation of Modern English» a concise but exhaustive review

of factors that should be taken into account in treating the problem of

functional styles is presented. The book suggests the following style

classes:


1. Official business style.

2. Scientific-professional style.

3. Publicist style.

4. Literary colloquial style.

5. Familiar colloquial style.

Each style, according to Morokhovsky has a combination of distinctive

features. Among them we find oppositions like 'artistic— non-artistic',

'presence of personality—absence of it', 'formal— informal situation',

'equal— unequal social status' (of the participants of communication),

'written or oral form'. Morokhovsky emphasizes that these five classes

of what he calls «speech activity» are abstractions rather than realities,

they can seldom be observed in their pure forms: mixing styles is the

common practice.

On the whole Morokhovsky's concept is one of the few that attempt

to differentiate and arrange the taxonomy of cardinal linguistic

notions. According to Morokhovsky's approach language as a system

includes types of thinking differentiating poetic and straightforward

language, oral and written speech, and ultimately, bookish and

colloquial functional types of language. The next problem is stylistics

of 'speech activity' connected with social stereotypes of speech

behaviour. Morokhovsky defines this in the following way:

«Stereotypes of speech behaviour or functional styles of speech

activity are norms for wide classes of texts or utterances, in which

general social roles are embodied—poet, journalist, manager,

politician, scholar, teacher, father, mother, etc.» (15, p. 234).

The number of stereotypes (functional styles) is not unlimited but

great enough. For example, texts in official business style may be


administrative, juridical, military, commercial, diplomatic, etc. Stjn further differentiation deals with a division of texts into genres. Thus military texts (official style) comprise 'commands, reports, regulations, manuals, instructions'; diplomatic documents include 'notes, declarations, agreements, treaties', etc. In addition to all this we may speak of 'the individual style' with regard to any kind of text.

In the same year (1984) V. A. Maltzev published a smaller book on stylistics entitled «Essays on English Stylistics» in Minsk.

His theory is based on the broad division of lingual material into «informal» and «formal» varieties and adherence to Skrebnev's system of functional styles.

Prof. Skrebnev uses the term sublanguages in the meaning that is usually attributed to functional styles. The major difference in his use of this term is that he considers innumerable situational communicative products as sublanguages, including each speaker's idiolect. Each act of speech is a sublanguage. This makes the notion of functional style somewhat vague and difficult to define. At the same time Skrebnev recognizes the major opposition of 'formal' and 'informal' sphere of language use and suggests «a very rough and approximate gradation of subspheres and their respective sublanguages» (47, p. 200).

The formal sublanguages in Skrebnev's opinion belong exclusively to the written variety of lingual intercourse. He avoids the claim of inconsistency for including certain types of speeches into this sphere by arguing that texts of some of the types can be read aloud in public

His rough subdivision of formal styles includes:


a) private correspondence with a stranger;

b) business correspondence between representatives of commercial or other establishments;

c) diplomatic correspondence, international treaties;

d) legal documents (civil law—testaments, settlements; criminal

law—verdicts, sentences);

e) personal documents (certificates, diplomas, etc.).

The informal colloquial sphere includes all types of colloquial language—literary, non-literary, vulgar, ungrammatical, social di-alects, the vernacular of the underworld, etc. This cannot be inven-toried because of its unlimited varieties.

Of course formal and informal spheres do not exist in severely

separated worlds.

The user of the first speech type is fully aware of his social responsibil-ity. He knows the requirements he has to meet and the conventions he must observe. But the same person may change his lingual behaviour with the change of the environment or situation. Sometimes he is forced to abide by laws that are very different from those he regularly uses: speaking with children, making a speech before parliament or during an electoral campaign.

The first type of speech—'formal'—comprises the varieties that are used in spheres of official communication, science, technol-ogy, poetry and fiction, newspaper texts, oratory, etc. It's ob-vious that many of these varieties can be further subdivided into smaller classes or sublanguages. For example, in the sphere °f science and technology almost each science has a metalan-


guage of its own. The language of computer technology, e.g., i% not

so limited to the technological sphere as at the time of its

beginnings—'to be computer-friendly' has given rise to many other

coinages like 'media-friendly', 'market-friendly', 'environmentally

friendly', etc.

In the informal type of speech we shan't find so many varieties as in

the formal one, but it is used by a much greater number of people.

The first and most important informal variety is colloquial style. This

is the language used by educated people in informal situations. These

people may resort to jargon or slang or even vulgar language to

express their negative attitude to somebody or something.

Uneducated people speak «popular» or ungrammatical language, be

it English or Russian.

There is also a problem of dialects that would require special con-

sideration that cannot be done within this course. Dialects are not

really «ungrammatical» types of a national language, some scholars

hold, but a different language with its own laws. However it may

have been true in the last century but not now. And what Skrebnev

writes on this problem seems to be argumentative enough.

«Dialects are current in the countryside; cities are nearly untouched

by them. In the 19th century England some of the aristocracy were

not ashamed of using their local dialects. Nowadays owing to the

sound media (radio, cinema and TV) non-standard English in Britain

is nearly, as in this country, a sure sign of cultural inferiority, e.g. the

status of Cockney.» (47, p. 198).

4.4. An overview of functional style systems __________

In his classification of functional styles of modern English that he calls

language varieties the famous British linguist D. Crystal suggests the

following subdivision of these styles: regional, social, occupational,

restricted and individual. (33, 34)

Regional varieties of English reflect the geographical origin of the

language used by the speaker. Lancashire variety, Canadian English,

Cockney, etc.

Social variations testify to the speaker's family, education, social

status background: upper class and non-upper class, a political

activist, a member of the proletariat, a Times reader, etc.

Occupational styles present quite a big group that includes the

following types:

a) religious English;

b) scientific English;

c) legal English;

d) plain (official) English;

e) political English;

f) news media English further subdivided into:

• newsreporting;

• journalistics;

• broadcasting;

• sportscommentary;

• advertising.

Restricted English includes very tightly constrained uses of language

when little or no linguistic variation is permitted. In these cases


special rules are created by man to be consciously learned and used. These rules control everything that can be said. According to Crystal restricted varieties appear both in domestic and occupational spheres and include the following types:

a) knitwrite in books on knitting;

b) cookwrite in recipe books;

c) congratulatory messages;

d) newspaper announcements;

e) newspaper headlines;

f) sportscasting scores;

g) airspeak, the language of air traffic control;

h) emergencyspeak, the language for the emergency services;

i) e-mail variety, etc.

Individual variation involves types of speech that arise from the speak-

er's personal differences meaning such features as physique, interests,

personality, experience and so on. Each individual has a different

idiolect, a variety of the language that is as personally distinctive as a

fingerprint. A particular blend of social and geographical backgrounds

may produce a distinctive accent or dialect. Educational history, oc- I

cupational experience, personal skills and tastes, hobbies or literary

preferences will foster the use of habitual words and turns of phrase, or

certain kinds of grammatical construction.

Also noticeable will be favourite discourse practices—a tendency to

develop points in an argument in a certain way, or an inclination for

certain kinds of metaphor. Some people are 'good conversational-

4.5. Distinctive linguistic features of the major functional styles

ists', 'good story-tellers', 'good letter-writers', 'good speech-makers'.

What actually makes them so is the subject of stylistic research.

There are also a number of cases where individuality in the use of

English—a personal style—is considered to be a matter of particular

importance and worthy of study in its own right. Such is the study of

the individual style of a writer or poet: Shakespeare's style, Faulkner's

style, and the like.

4.5. Distinctive linguistic features of the major

functional styles of English

A description of five major functional styles given in this section is

based on their most distinctive features on each level of the language

structure: pnonetical (where possible), morphological, syntactical,

lexical and compositional. A peculiar combination of these features

and special emphasis on some of them creates the paradigm of what is

called a scientific or publicist text, a legal or other official document,

colloquial or formal speech.

4.5.1. Literary colloquial style

Phonetic features

Standard pronunciation in compliance with the national norm,

enunciation.

Phonetic compression of frequently used forms, e.g. it's, don't, I've.


Omission of unaccented elements due to the quick tempo, e. g. you

know him ?

Morphological features

Use of regular morphological features, with interception of evaluative

suffixes e. g. deary, doggie, duckie.

Prevalence of active and finite verb forms.

Syntactical features

Use of simple sentences with a number of participial and infinitive

constructions and numerous parentheses.

Syntactically correct utterances compliant with the literary norm.

Use of various types of syntactical compression, simplicity of syntac-tical connection.

Use of grammar forms for emphatic purposes, e. g. progressive verb

forms to express emotions of irritation, anger etc.

Decomposition and ellipsis of sentences in a dialogue (easily recon-

structed from the context).

Use of special colloquial phrases, e.g. that friend of yours.

Lexical features

Wide range of vocabulary strata in accordance with the register of

communication and participants' roles: formal and informal, neutral

and bookish, terms and foreign words.


Basic stock of communicative vocabulary—stylistically neutral.

Use of socially accepted contracted forms and abbreviations, e. g.

fridge for refrigerator, ice for ice-cream, TV for television, CD for

compact disk, etc.

Use of etiquette language and conversational formulas, such as nice

to see you, my pleasure, on behalf of, etc.

Extensive use of intensifiers and gap-fillers, e. g. absolutely, definitely,

awfully, kind of, so to speak, I mean, if I may say so.

Use of interjections and exclamations, e. g. Dear me, My God, Goodness, well, why, now, oh.

Extensive use of phrasal verbs let sb down, put up with, stand sb up.

Use of words of indefinite meaning like thing, stuff.

Avoidance of slang, vulgarisms, dialect words, jargon.

Use of phraseological expressions, idioms and figures of speech.

Compositional features

Can be used in written and spoken varieties: dialogue, monologue,

personal letters, diaries, essays, articles, etc.

Prepared types of texts may have thought out and logical composi-

tion, to a certain extent determined by conventional forms (letters,

Presentations, articles, interviews).

Spontaneous types have a loose structure, relative coherence and uniformity of form and content.


4.5.2. Familiar colloquial style

Represented in spoken variety.

Phonetic features

Casual and often careless pronunciation, use of deviant forms, e. g,

gonna instead of going to, whatcha instead of what do you, dunno

instead of don't know.

Use of reduced and contracted forms, e.g. you're, they've, Pd.

Omission of unaccented elements due to quick tempo, e.g. you hear

me?

Emphasis on intonation as a powerful semantic and stylistic instru-

ment capable to render subtle nuances of thought and feeling.

Use of onomatopoeic words, e.g. whoosh, hush, stop yodelling, yum,

yak.


Use of evaluative suffixes, nonce words formed on morphological and

phonetic analogy with other nominal words: e.g. baldish, mawkish,

moody, hanky-panky, helter-skelter, plates of meet (feet), okeydoke.


Use of simple short sentences.

Dialogues are usually of the question-answer type.


Use of echo questions, parallel structures, repetitions of various

kinds.

In complex sentences asyndetic coordination is the norm.

Coordination is used more often than subordination, repeated use of

conjunction and is a sign of spontaneity rather than an expressive

device.

Extensive use of ellipsis, including the subject of the sentence e. g.

Can't say anything.

Extensive use of syntactic tautology, e. g. 77га/ girl, she was something

else!

Abundance of gap-fillers and parenthetical elements, such as sure,

indeed, to be more exact, okay, well.

Lexical features

Combination of neutral, familiar and low colloquial vocabulary,

including slang, vulgar and taboo words.

Extensive use of words of general meaning, specified in meaning by

the situation guy, job, get, do, fix, affair.

Limited vocabulary resources, use of the same word in different

meanings it may not possess, e. g. 'some' meaning good: some guy!

some game! 'nice' meaning impressive, fascinating, high quality: nice

music.

Abundance of specific colloquial interjections: boy, wow, hey, there, ahoy.


Use of hyperbole, epithets, evaluative vocabulary, trite metaphors and

simile, e.g. if you say it once more I'll kill you, as old as the hills

horrid, awesome, etc.

Tautological substitution of personal pronouns and names by other

nouns, e. g. you-baby, Johnny-boy.

Mixture of curse words and euphemisms, e. g. damn, dash, darned,

shoot.

Extensive use of collocations and phrasal verbs instead of neutral and

literary equivalents: e. g. to turn in instead of to go to bed.


Use of deviant language on all levels.

Strong emotional colouring.

Loose syntactical organisation of an utterance.

Frequently little coherence or adherence to the topic.

No special compositional patterns.

4.5.3. Publicist (media) style

Phonetic features (in oratory)

Standard pronunciation, wide use of prosody as a means of conveying

the sut ; shades of meaning, overtones and emotions.

Phonetic compression.



Frequent use of non-finite verb forms, such as gerund, participle,

infinitive.

Use of non-perfect verb forms.

Omission of articles, link verbs, auxiliaries, pronouns, especially in

headlines and news items.


Frequent use of rhetorical questions and interrogatives in oratory

speech.

In headlines: use of impersonal sentences, elliptical constructions,

interrogative sentences, infinitive complexes and attributive groups.

In news items and articles: news items comprise one or two, rarely

three, sentences.

Absence of complex coordination with chain of subordinate clauses

and a number of conjunctions.

Prepositional phrases are used much more than synonymous gerundial

phrases.

Absence of exclamatory sentences, break-in-the narrative, other

expressively charged constructions.

Articles demonstrate more syntactical organisation and logical ar-

rangement of sentences.


Lexical features

Newspaper cliches and set phrases.

Terminological variety: scientific, sports, poUtical, technical, etc. •

Abbreviations and acronyms.

Numerous proper names, toponyms, anthroponyms, names of enter-

prises, institutions, international words, dates and figures.

Abstract notion words, elevated and bookish words.

In headlines: frequent use of pun, violated phraseology, vivid stylistic

devices.

In oratory speech: words of elevated and bookish character, colloquial

words and phrases, frequent use of such stylistic devices as metaphor,

alliteration, allusion, irony, etc.

Use of conventional forms of address and trite phases.


Text arrangement is marked by precision, logic and expressive power.

Carefully selected vocabulary.

Variety of topics.

Wide use of quotations, direct speech and represented speech.

Use of parallel constructions throughout the text.


In oratory: simplicity of structural expression, clarity of message,

argumentative power.

In headlines: use of devices to arrest attention: rhyme, pun, puzzle,

high degree of compression, graphical means.

In news items and articles: strict arrangement of titles and subtitles,

emphasis on the headline.

Careful subdivision into paragraphs, clearly defined position of the

sections of an article: the most important information is carried in

the opening paragraph; often in the first sentence.

4.5.4. The style of official documents


Adherence to the norm, sometimes outdated or even archaic, e. g. in

legal documents.


Use of long complex sentences with several types of coordination and

subordination (up to 70% of the text).

Use of passive and participial constructions, numerous connectives.

Use of objects, attributes and all sorts of modifiers in the identifying

and explanatory function.

Extensive use of detached constructions and parenthesis.


Use of participle I and participle II as openers in the initial expository

statement.

A general syntactical mode of combining several pronouncements

into one sentence.

Information texts are based on standard normative syntax reasonably

simplified.

Lexical features

Prevalence of stylistically neutral and bookish vocabulary.

Use of terminology, e.g. legal: acquittal, testimony, aggravated iarceny;

commercial: advance payment, insurance, wholesale, etc.

Use of proper names (names of enterprises, companies, etc.) and

titles.

Abstraction of persons, e.g. use of party instead of the name.

Officialese vocabulary: cliches, opening and conclusive phrases.

Conventional and archaic forms and words: kinsman, hereof, thereto,

thereby, ilk.

Foreign words, especially Latin and French: status quo, force majeure,

persona поп grata.

Abbreviations, contractions, conventional symbols: M. P. (member of

Parliament), Ltd {limited), $, etc.

Use of words in their primary denotative meaning.


Absence of tropes, no evaluative and emotive colouring of vocabulary.

Seldom use of substitute words: it, one, that.


Special compositional design: coded graphical layout, clear-cut subdi-

vision of texts into units of information; logical arrangement of these

units, order-of-priority organisation of content and information.

Conventional composition of treaties, agreements, protocols, etc.:

division into two parts, a preamble and a main part.

Use of stereotyped, official phraseology.

Accurate use of punctuation.

Generally objective, concrete, unemotional and impersonal style of

narration.

4.5.5. Scientific/academic style


Terminological word building and word-derivation: neologism for-

mation by affixation and conversion.

Restricted use of finite verb forms.

Use of 'the author's we' instead of I.

Frequent use of impersonal constructions.



Complete and standard syntactical mode of expression.

Syntactical precision to ensure the logical sequence of thought and

argumentation.

Direct word order.

Use of lengthy sentences with subordinate clauses.

Extensive use of participial, gerundial and infinitive complexes.

Extensive use of adverbial and prepositional phrases.

Frequent use of parenthesis introduced by a dash.

Abundance of attributive groups with a descriptive function.

Preferential use of prepositional attributive groups instead of the

descriptive of phrase.

Avoidance of ellipsis, even usually omitted conjunctions like 'that'

and 'which'.

Prevalence of nominal constructions over the verbal ones to avoid

time reference for the sake of generalisation.

Frequent use of passive and non-finite verb forms to achieve objec-

tivity and impersonality.

Use of impersonal forms and sentences such as mention should be

made, it can be inferred, assuming that, etc.


Lexical features

Extensive use of bookish words e. g. presume, infer, preconception,

cognitive.

Abundance of scientific terminology and phraseology.

Use of words in their primary dictionary meaning, restricted use of

connotative contextual meanings.

Use of numerous neologisms.

Abundance of proper names.

Restricted use of emotive colouring, interjections, expressive phrase-

ology, phrasal verbs, colloquial vocabulary.

Seldom use of tropes, such as metaphor, hyperbole, simile, etc.


Types of texts compositionally depend on the scientific genre: mono-

graph, article, presentation, thesis, dissertation, etc.

In scientific proper and technical texts e.g. mathematics: highly

formalized text with the prevalence of formulae, tables, diagrams

supplied with concise commentary phrases.

In humanitarian texts (history, philosophy): descriptive narration,

supplied with argumentation and interpretation.

Logical and consistent narration, sequential presentation of material

and facts.


Extensive use of citation, references and foot-notes.

Restricted use of expressive means and stylistic devices.

Extensive use of conventional set phrases at certain points to empha-

sise the logical character of the narration, e. g. as we have seen, in

conclusion, finally, as mentioned above.

Use of digressions to debate or support a certain point.

Definite structural arrangement in a hierarchical order: introduction,

chapters, paragraphs, conclusion.

Special set of connective phrases and words to sustain coherence and

logic, such as consequently, on the contrary, likewise.

Extensive use of double conjunctions like as... as, either... or, both...

and, etc.

Compositionally arranged sentence patterns: postulatory (at the be-

ginning), argumentative (in the central part), formulative (in the

conclusion).

Distinctive features described above by no means present an exhaustive

nomenclature for each type. A careful study of each functional style

requires investigation of the numerous types of texts of various genres

that represent each style. That obviously cannot be done in the

framework of this course. It is also one of the reasons why the style

of literature has not been included in this description. It is hardly

worthwhile trying to make any generalizations about the sphere of

belles-lettres style, which includes such an array of genres whether in

prose, or poetry, or drama, let alone the peculiar styles of separate

authors.

Practice Section

practice Section

1. What extralinguistic factors are involved in the notion of style?

How do style and personal factors correlate? What styles exist

in any national language?

2. What is the literary norm of a language? What does the term 'a

norm variation' imply? How is each style characterised by the

function it fulfils?

3. Comment on the sociolinguistic and stylistic factors that account

for the use of regional, social, and occupational varieties of the

language.

4. Compare the classifications of functional styles in English de-

scribed in this chapter.

5. Identify the functional style in each of the texts given below and

point out the distinctive features that testify to its specific

character.

It has long been known that when exposed to light under suitable

conditions of temperature and moisture, the green parts of plants use

carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen to it. These

exchanges are the opposite of those, which occur in respiration. The

process is called photosynthesis. In photosynthesis, carbohydrates are

synthesized from carbon dioxide and water by the chloroplasts of plant

cells in the presence of light. Oxygen is the product of the reaction.

For each molecule of carbon dioxide used, one molecule of oxygen is

released. A summary chemical equation for photosynthesis is:

6C02 = 6H20 ------------- > С6Н12Об + 602.


You was sharp, wasn't you, to catch me like that, eh? By Ga-ard

you had me fixed proper, proper you had. Darn me, you fixed me up

proper— proper, you did.

I don't think no worse of you for it, no, darned if I do. Fine pluck in

a woman's what I admire. That I do indeed.

Wefetfrom the start, we did. And, my word, you begin again quick the

minute you see me, you did. Darn me, you was too sharp for me. A darn

fine woman, puts up a darn good fight. Darn me if I could find a woman

in all the darn States as could get me down like that. Wonderful fine

woman you be, truth to say, at this minute. (Lawrence)

Wal-Mart told to raise German prices

Wal-Mart's European expansion plans suffered their second blow in

a week as the German competition authority ordered the retailer to raise

key prices in its German hypermarkets.

Prince to buy Kirch pay-TV stake

Prince Al-Valeed of Saudi Arabia plans to buy a 3.2 per cent stake in \

the pay television operation of German Leo Kirch.

Japanese debt downgraded second time

The Japanese government was struck a humiliating blow when Moody's,

the US credit rating agency, downgraded Japan's domestic currency debt

for the second time in two years.

SAP prices consultancy at top of range

SAP, Europe's largest software group, is likely to price shares in SAP

SI, its consultancy, at the top of its book-building range.

Enel subsidiary mulls Infostrada buy

Enel, Italy's main electricity utility, expressed strong interest in its

telecommunications subsidiary, Wind, buying its Italian fixed-line rival,

Infostrada.

Practice Section _^_^_________

In your letter of 15th ultimo you advise us of the problem of finding

skilled personnel. In this connection we wish to state that only about

12 per cent of skilled workforce is engaged in minor industrial activity

associated with servicing the city's growth.

We enclose herewith a schedule of the work and the work progress report

thereon and we wish to state that among considerations influencing the

selection of sites is the desire to maintain residential amenity.

We wish to state that several specialized industries have been established

in terms of article 3 of the said contract.

«ft certainly is great Bourbon!» said Bartlett, smacking his lips and

putting his glass back on the tray.

« You bet it is!» Greg agreed. «I mean you can't buy that kind of stuff any-

more. I mean it's real stuff. You help yourself when you want another.

Mr. Bartlett is going to stay all night, sweetheart. I told him he could

get a whole lot more of a line on us that way than just interviewing me

in the office. I mean I'm tongue-tied when it comes to talking about my

work and my success. I mean it's better to see me out here as I am, in

my home, with my family.»

«But, sweetheart,» said his wife, «what about Mr. Latham?» «Gosh! I

forgot all about him! I must phone and see if I can call it off. That's

terrible!» (Lardner)

6. Find texts demonstrative of each functional type and analyse

their distinctive features on all levels as described in chapter 4.

Chapter 5

Decoding Stylistics

and Its Fundamental Notions

Stylistics of the author and of the reader. The notions of encoding

and decoding. Essential concepts of decoding stylistic analysis

and types of foregrounding.

How often with all the theoretical experience

of method accumulated in me over the years

have I stared blankly quite similar to one of

my beginning students at a page that would

not yield its magic.

Leo Spitzer. Linguistic and Literary History

Чем рассказывать мне, что в данной веши

хотела дать — я, лучше покажи мне, что

сумел от нее взять — ты.

М. Цветаева: Поэт о критике

5.1. Stylistics of the author and of the reader

5.1. Stylistics of the author and of the reader.

The notions of encoding and decoding

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 goes beyond the traditional analysis of a work of fiction

which usually gives either an evaluative explanatory commentary on

the historical, cultural, biographical or geographical background of

the work and its author or suggests a kind of stylistic analysis that

comprises an inventory of stylistic devices and expressive means found

in the text.

Neither of these approaches seems quite satisfactory. The first kind of

analysis is typically done by a literary critic and may tend to become

an arbitrary or judgmental reflection of his personal esthetic or other

preferences and tastes. Such critiques may be detached from the text

and based on the critic's inferences of what he conjectures as the

author's intention. Many authors resent critical analysis of this sort as

an attitude but not real evaluation.

The other approach tends to pursue another extreme: a formal

registration of the data of the text. It divests a work of art of its magic

and poetry by a pragmatic and statistical treatment that dissects the

text and explains but little.

Decoding stylistics makes an attempt to regard the esthetic value of a

text based on the interaction of specific textual elements, stylistic

devices and compositional structure in delivering the author's

Chapter 5. Decoding Stylistics and Its Fundamental Notions

message. This method does not consider the stylistic function of any

stylistically important feature separately but only as a part of the

whole text. So expressive means and stylistic devices are treated in

their interaction and distribution within the text as carriers of the

author's purport and creative idiom. By this the stylistic study of a

literary work acquires a new, semasiological dimension in which the

stylistic elements become signs of the author's vision of the world.

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 euphemy, etc.

The term 'decoding stylistics' came from the application of the theory

of information to linguistics by such authors as M. Riffatrre, R. Ja-

cobson, RGuiraud, 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'.

To encode certain information an author resorts to certain means—

meaningful units that are organized according to certain rules. The

salient feature of this information encoded by the author is called the

message.

The process of encoding will only make any sense if besides the

encoder who sends the information it includes the recipient or the

5.1. Stylistics of the author and of the reader

addressee who in this case is the reader. 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.

A literary work on its way to the reader encounters quite a number of

hindrances of all sorts—social, historical, temporal, cultural and so

on. Many of these differences between the author and his reader are

inevitable. Readers and authors may be separated by historical

epochs, social conventions, religious and political views, cultural and

national traditions. Moreover, even if the author and the reader

belong to the same society no reader can completely identify himself

with the author either emotionally, intellectually or esthetically.

Apart from these objective and personal factors we cannot disregard

the complexity of certain works of art. Many of them are quite

sophisticated in form and content. Some are full of implications that

create more than one semantic plane and may contain

understatements, semantic accretion, or open-ended composition that

makes the reader waver about the outcome. Others require of the

reader a wide educational thesaurus and knowledge of history,

philosophy, mythology or religion.

The readers will differ not only from the author but also from each

other. They have a different life experience, educational background,

cultural level and tastes.


All these factors often preclude easy decoding and show how difficult it is for the message to reach the reader and be appropriately construed by him. The message encoded and sent may differ from the message received after decoding.

So the result may be a failure on either side. The reader may complain that he couldn't understand what the author wanted to say, while the author may resent being misinterpreted. A good illustration of the problem of mutual understanding is provided 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 is not so much a hobby done at leisure as solving a kind of puzzle. What is reading but divining, interpreting, unraveling the mystery, wrapped in between the lines, beyond the words, she writes. So if the reader has no imagination no book stands a chance (29, p. 274-296).

From the reader's point of view the important tiling 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.


and types of foregrounding

Decoding stylistics investigates the same levels as Iinguastylistics— phonetic, graphical, lexical, and grammatical. The basic difference is that 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 discernible 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.

A systematic and elaborate presentation of decoding stylistics as a branch of general stylistics can be found in the book of Prof. Arnold Стилистика современного английского языка. (Стилистика де-кодирования) so here we shall limit ourselves to the description of its most general principles and concepts.

One of the fundamental concepts of decoding stylistics is foregroun-

ding. The notion itself was suggested by the scholars of the Prague linguistic circle that was founded in 1926 and existed until early 50s. Among its members were some of the most outstanding linguists of the 20

<Л century, such as N. S. Trubetskoy, S. O. Kart-sevsky, R. Jacobson,

V. Matezius, B. Tmka, J. Vachek, V. Skalichka and others (20). The Prague circle represented a trend of structural linguistics and devel-oped a number of ideas and notions that made a valuable contribution into modern linguistic theory, for example, phonology and the theory of oppositions, the theory of functional sentence perspective, the no-tions of norm and codification, functional styles and dialectology, etc.


The Prague school introduced into linguistics a functional approach

to language. Their central thesis postulated that language is not a

rigorous petrified structure but a dynamic functional system. In other

words language is a system of means of expression that serve a

definite purpose in communication. Their views exerted profound

influence on stylistic research in areas of functional styles study, the

norm and its variations in the national language, as well as the study

of poetic language, i. e. the language of literature. It was for this latter

sphere that the notion of foregrounding was formulated.

Prof. Arnold has highlighted various treatments of the term by

different authors in her book on decoding stylistics but the essence of

the 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 them. In a literary text such

items become stylistically marked features that build up its stylistic

function.

Descriptive, statistical, distributional and other kinds of linguistic

analysis show that there are certain modes of language use and

arrangement to achieve the effect of foregrounding. It may be j based

on various types of deviation or redundancy or unexpected combination

of language units, etc. Arnold points out that sometimes the effect of

foregrounding can be achieved in a peculiar way by the very absence of

any expressive or distinctive features precisely because they are

expected in certain types of texts, e. g. the absence of rhythmical

arrangement in verse.

However decoding stylistics laid down a few principal methods that

ensure the effect of foregrounding in a literary text. Among them we

can name convergence of expressive means, irradiation, defeated

expectancy, coupling, semantic fields, semi-marked structures.


5.2.1. Convergence

Convergence as the term implies denotes a combination or accumula-

tion of stylistic devices promoting the same idea, emotion or motive.

Stylistic function is not the property and purpose of expressive means

of the language as such. Any type of expressive means will make

sense stylistically when treated as a part of a bigger unit, the context,

or the whole text. It means that there is no immediate dependence

between a certain stylistic device and a definite stylistic function.

A stylistic device is not attached to this or that stylistic effect.

Therefore a hyperbole, for instance, may provide any number of

effects: tragic, comical, pathetic or grotesque. Inversion may give the

narration a highly elevated tone or an ironic ring of parody.

This «chameleon» quality of a stylistic device enables the author to

apply different devices for the same purpose. The use of more than

one type of expressive means in close succession is a powerful

technique to support the idea that carries paramount importance in

the author's view. Such redundancy ensures the delivery of the

message to the reader.

An extract from E. Waugh's novel «Decline and Fall» demonstrates

convergence of expressive means used to create an effect of the glam-

orous appearance of a very colorful lady character who symbolizes

the high style of living, beauty and grandeur.

The door opened and from the cushions within emerged a tall young man

in a clinging dove-gray coat. After him, like the first breath of spring in

'he Champs-Elysee came Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde—two lizard-skin feet,

silk legs, chinchilla body, a tight little black hat, pinned with platinum


and diamonds, and the high invariable voice that may be heard in any

Ritz Hotel from New York to Budapest.

Inversion used in both sentences (...from the cushion within emerged

a tall man; ...like the first breath of spring came Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde)

at once sets an elevated tone of the passage.

The simile that brings about a sensory image of awakening nature

together with the allusion to Paris—the symbol of the world's capital

of pleasures—sustains this impression: like the first breath of spring in

the Champs-Ely see. A few other allusions to the world capitals and

their best hotels—New York, Budapest, any Ritz Hotel all symbolize

the wealthy way of life of the lady who belongs to the international

jet-set distinguished from the rest of the world by her money, beauty

and aristocratic descent.

The use of metonymy creates the cinematographic effect of shots and

fragments of the picture as perceived by the gazing crowd and suggests

the details usually blown up in fashionable newspaper columns on

high society life: two lizard-skin feet, silk legs, chichilla body, a tight

little black hat... the invariable voice.

The choice of words associated with high-quality life style: exotic

materials, expensive clothes and jewelry creates a semantic field that

enhances the impression still further (lizard, silk, chinchilla, platinum

and diamonds). A special contribution to the high-flown style of

description is made by the careful choice of words that belong to the

literary bookish stratum: emerge, cushions, dove, invariable.

Even the name of the character—Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde—is a device

in itself, it's the so-called speaking name, a variety of antonomasia-

Not only its implication (best) but also the structure symbolizes the


lady's high social standing because hyphenated names in Britain

testify to the noble ancestry. So the total effect of extravagance and

glamour is achieved by the concentrated use of at least eight types of

expressive means within one paragraph.

5.2.2. Defeated expectancy

Defeated expectancy is a principle considered by some linguists (Ja-

cobson, Riffaterre) as the basic principle of a stylistic function. Its use

is not limited to some definite level or type of devices. The essence

of the notion is connected with the process of decoding by the reader

of the literary text.

The linear organization of the text mentally prepares the reader for

the consequential and logical development of ideas and unfolding of

the events. The normal arrangement of the text both in form and

content is based on its predictability which means that the appearance

of any element in the text is prepared by the preceding arrangement

and choice of elements, e. g. the subject of the sentence will normally

be followed by the predicate, you can supply parts of certain set

phrases or collocation after you see the first element, etc.

An example from Oscar Wilde's play «The Importance of Being

Earnest» perfectly illustrates how predictability of the structure plays

a joke on the speaker who cannot extricate himself from the grip of

the syntactical composition:

Miss Fairfax, ever since I met you I have admired you more than any

girl... I have met... since I met you. (Wilde)

The speaker is compelled to unravel the structure almost against his

will, and the pauses show he is caught in the trap of the structure

unable either to stop or say anything new. The clash between the


perfectly rounded phrase and empty content creates a humorous effect and shows at the same time how powerful are the inherent laws of syntagmatic arrangement.

Without predictability there would be no coherence and no decoding. At the same time stylistically distinctive features are often based on the deviation from the norm and predictability. An appearance of an unpredictable element may upset the process of decoding. Even though not completely unpredictable a stylistic device is still a low expectancy element and it is sure to catch the reader's eye. The decoding process meets an obstacle, which is given the full force of the reader's attention. Such concentration on this specific feature enables the author to effect his purpose.

Defeated expectancy may come up on any level of the language. It may be an unusual word against the background of otherwise lexically homogeneous text.

It may be an author's coinage with an unusual suffix; it may be a case of semantic incongruity or grammatical transposition. Among devices that are based on this principle we can name pun, zeugma, paradox, oxymoron, irony, anti-climax, etc.

Defeated expectancy is particularly effective when the preceding narration has a high degree of orderly organized elements that create a maximum degree of predictability and logical arrangement of the contextual linguistic material.

Paradox is a fine example of defeated expectancy. The following example demonstrates how paradox works in such highly predictable cases as proverbs and phraseology. Everybody knows the proverb Marriages are made in Heaven.


Oscar Wilde, a renowned master of paradox, introduces an unexpected element and the phrase acquires an inverted implication Divorces are made in Heaven. The unexpected ironic connotation is enhanced by the fact that the substitute is actually the antonym of the original element. The reader is forced to make an effort at interpreting the new maxim so that it would make sense.

5.2.3. Coupling

Coupling is another technique that helps in decoding the message implied in a literary work. While convergence and defeated expectancy both focus the reader's attention on the particularly significant parts of the text coupling deals with the arrangement of textual elements (hat provide trie unity and cohesion of the whole structure. The notion of coupling was introduced by S. Levin in his work «Linguistic Structures in Poetry» in 1962 (40).

Coupling is more than many other devices connected with the level of the text. This method of text analysis helps us to decode ideas, their interaction, inner semantic and structural links and ensures compositional integrity.

Coupling is based on the affinity of elements that occupy similar po-sitions throughout the text. Coupling provides cohesion, consistency and unity of the text form and content.

Like defeated expectancy it can be found on any level of the ianguage, so the affinity may be different in nature; it may be phonetic, structural or semantic. Particularly prominent types of affinity are provided by the phonetic expressive means. They are


obviously cases of alliteration, assonance, paranomasia, as well as

such prosodic features as rhyme, rhythm and meter.

Syntactical affinity is achieved by all kinds of parallelism and syntac-

tical repetition—anadiplosis, anaphora, framing, chiasmus, epiphora

to name but a few.

Semantic coupling is demonstrated by the use of synonyms and

antonyms, both direct and contextual, root repetition, paraphrase,

sustained metaphor, semantic fields, recurrence of images, connota-

tions or symbols.

The latter can be easily detected in the works of some poets who

create their own system of recurrent esthetic symbols for certain

ideas, notions and beliefs.

Some of the well-known symbols are seasons (cf. the symbolic

meaning of winter in Robert Frost's poetry), trees (the symbolic

meaning of a birch tree, a maple in Sergei Yesenin's poetic work, the

meaning of a moutain-ash tree for Marina Tsvetaeva), animals (the

leopard, hyena, bulls, fish in Ernest Hemingway's works) and so on.

These symbols do not only recur in a separate work by these authors

but also generally represent the typical imagery of the author's poetic

vision.

An illustration of the coupling technique is given below in the passage

from John O'Hara's novel Ten North Frederick. The main organizing

principle here is contrast.

Lloyd Williams lived in Collieryville, a mining town three or four miles

from 10 North Frederick, but separated from the Chapins' home and

their life by the accepted differences of money and prestige; the miners'

poolroom, and the Gibbsville Club; sickening poverty, and four live-in


servants for a family of four; The Second Thursdays, and the chicken-

and-waffle suppers of the English Lutheran Church. Joe Chapin and

Lloyd Williams were courthouse-corridor friends and fellow Republicans,

but Joe was a Company man and Lloyd Williams was a Union man who

was a Republican because to be anything else in Lantenengo County was

futile and foolish. (O'Hara)

The central idea of the passage is to underline the difference between

two men who actually represent the class differences between the

rich upper class and the lower working class. So the social contrast

shown through the details of personal life of the two characters is the

message with a generalizing power. This passage shows how coupling

can be an effective tool to decode this message.

There is a pronounced affinity of the syntactical structure in both

sentences. The first contains a chain of parallel detached clauses

connected by and (which is an adversative conjunction here). They

contain a number of antitheses. The contrast is enhanced by the use

of contextual antonyms that occupy identical positions in the clauses:

the miners' poolroom and the Gibbseville Club; sickening poverty and four

servants for a family of four. The Second Thursdays and the Church sup-

pers. The same device is used in the second sentence: Joe was a Compa-

ny man and Lloyd Williams was a Union man. There are a few instances

of phonetic affinity, alliteration: four servants for a family of four,

courthouse-corridor, friends and fellow Republicans; futile and foolish.

The passage presents an interesting case of semantic coupling through

symbols. The details of personal and class difference chosen by the

author are all charged with symbolic value. There is a definite

connection between them all however diverse they may appear at first

sight. They are all grouped so that they symbolize either money and

prestige or poverty and social deprivation.

Chapter 5. Decoding Styllstics and Its Fundamental Notions

The first group creates the semantic field of wealth and power: money,

social prestige, the Gibbsville Club (symbol of wealth, high social stand-

ing, belonging to the select society), four live-in servants for a family

of four (that only rich people can afford), The Second Thursdays (tra-

ditional reception days for people of a certain circle, formal dinner

parties for people of high standing), a Company man (a member of a

financially and socially influential group, political elite). The second

semantic field comprises words denoting and symbolizing poverty and

social inferiority: miners' poolroom (a working class kind of leisure),

sickening poverty, chicken -and-waffle suppers of, the English Lutheran

Church (implying informal gatherings where people cook together

and share food), a Union man (a representative of the working class).

The similarity of these elements' positions in this text makes the

contrast all the more striking.

A minor case of coupling in the passage above is the use of zeugma in

the first sentence when the word separated is simultaneously linked to

two different objects home and life in two different meanings—direct

and figurative.

5.2.4. Semantic field

Semantic field is a method of decoding stylistics closely connected

with coupling. It identifies lexical elements in text segments and the

whole work that provide its thematic and compositional cohesion.

To reveal this sort of cohesion decoding must carefully observe not

only lexical and synonymous repetition but semantic affinity which

finds expression in cases of lexico-semantic variants, connotations

and associations aroused by a specific use or distribution of lexical

units, thematic pertinence of seemingly unrelated words.


This type of analysis shows how cohesion is achieved on a less

explicit level sometimes called the vertical context. Lexical elements

of this sort are charged with implications and adherent meanings that

establish invisible links throughout the text and create a kind of

semantic background so that the work is laced with certain kind of

imagery.

Lexical ties relevant to this kind of analysis will include synonymous

and antonymous relations, morphological derivation, relations of

inclusion (various types of hyponymy and entailment), common

semes in the denotative or connotative meanings of different words.

If a word manifests semantic links with one or more other words in

the text it shows thematic relevance and several links of this sort may

be considered a semantic field, an illustration of which was offered

in the previous example on coupling. Semantic ties in that example

(mostly impUcit) are based on the adherent and symbolic

connotations (Church meals, Club member, live-in servants, Union

man, etc) and create a semantic field specific to the theme and

message of this work: the contrast between wealth and poverty, upper

class and working class.

In the next example we obseive the semantic field of a less complicated

nature created by more explicit means.

Joe kept saying he did not want a fortieth birthday party. He said he

did not like parties—a palpable untruth—and particularly and especially

a large party in honor of his reaching forty...

At first there were going to be forty guests but the invitation list grew

larger and the party plans more elaborate, until Arthur said that with

so many people they ought to hire an orchestra, and with an orchestra


there would be dancing, and with dancing there ought to be a good-size

orchestra. The original small dinner became a dinner dance at the

Lantenengo Country Club. Invitations were sent to more than three

hundred persons... (O'Hara)

The thematic word of the passage is party. It recurs four times in

these four sentences. It is obviously related to such words used as its

substitutes as dinner and dinner dance which become contextual

synonyms within the frame of the central stylistic device of this

piece—the climax.

Semantic relations of inclusion by entailment and hyponymy are

represented by such words as birthday (party), (party) in honor, (party)

plans, invitation (list), guests, people, persons, orchestra, dancing.

The subtheme of the major theme is the scale of the celebration

connected with the importance of the date—the main character

reached the age of forty considered an important milestone in a

man's life and career. So there is a semantic field around the figure

forty—its lexical repetition and morphological derivation (forty—

forty—fortieth) and the word large amplified throughout by

contextual synonyms, morphological derivatives and relations of

entailment (large—larger—more—many—good-size—more-three

hundred).

Another type of semantic relationship that contributes to the seman-

tic field analysis is the use of antonyms and contrastive elements

associated with the themes in question: large—small, forty—three hun-

dred, small dinner—dinner dance, orchestra—good-sized orchestra, did

not like—untruth. The magnitude and importance of the event are

further enhanced by the use of synonymous intensifiers particularly

and especially.


5.2.5. Semi-marked structures

Semi-marked structures are a variety of defeated expectancy associ-

ated with the deviation from the grammatical and lexical norm. It's

an extreme case of defeated expectancy much stronger than low ex-

pectancy encountered in a paradox or anti-climax, the unpredictable

element is used contrary to the norm so it produces a very strong

emphatic impact.

In the following lines by G. Baker we observe a semi-marked structure

on a grammatical basis:

The stupid heart that will not learn

The everywhere of grief

The word everywhere is not a noun, but an adverb and cannot be

used with an article and a preposition, besides grief is an abstract

noun that cannot be used as an object with a noun denoting location.

However the lines make sense for the poet and the readers who

interpret them as the poetic equivalent of the author's overwhelming

feeling of sadness and dejection.

Lexical deviation from the norm usually means breaking the laws of

semantic compatibility and lexical valency. Arnold considers semi-

marked structures as a part of tropes based on the unexpected or

unpredictable relations established between objects and phenomena

by the author.

If you had to predict what elements would combine well with such

words and expressions as to try one's best to..., to like ... or what

epithets, you would choose for words like father or movement you

would hardly come up with such incompatible combinations that we

observe in the following sentences:


She ... tried her best to spoil the party. (Erdrich)

Montezuma and Archuleta had recently started a mock-seriousseparatisi

movement, seeking to join New Mexico. (Michener)

Would you believe it, that unnatural father wouldn't stump up. (Waugh |

He liked the ugly little college... (Waugh)

Such combination of lexical units in our normal everyday speech is

rare. However in spite of their apparent incongruity semi-marked

structures of both types are widely used in literary texts that are fuh

of sophisticated correlations which help to read sense into most

unpredictable combinations of lexical units.

This chapter contains but a brief outline of decoding stylistics and its

basic principles and notions. As has been mentioned above more

detailed and extensive description of decoding analysis and its cor-

relation with the traditional stylistic methods and notions can be

found in the works of such Russian and foreign authors as M. Rif-

faterre, G. Leech, S. Levin, P. Guiraud, L. Dolezel, I. V. Arnold, Yu.

M. Lotman, Yu. S. Stepanov and others.

The role and purpose of this trend in stylistics was appropriately

summed up by I. V. Arnold in her book on decoding stylistics:

«Modern stylistics in not so much interested in the identification of

separate devices as in discovering the common mechanism of tropes

and their effect.» (4, p. 155).

Now, using the achievements of the 20*л century linguistics, scholars

try to answer the question how stylistic function works rather than

what effect it produces.

Practice Section

Practice Section

1. What is implied in the separation of the author's stylistics from

the reader's? How do the processes of encoding and decoding

differ?

2. Comment on the factors that may prevent the reader from

adequately decoding the author's imagery and message?

3. Speak on the origin and importance of the notion foregrounding

for stylistic analysis.

4. There is a convergence of expressive means in the passage

below. Try to identify separate devices that contribute to the

poetic description of a beautiful young girl: types of repetition,

metaphor, sustained metaphor, catachresis, alliteration,

inversion, coupling, semantic field:

On her face was that tender look of sleep, which a nodding flower has

when it is full out. Like a mysterious early /lower, she was full out,

like a snowdrop which spreads its three white wings in a flight into the

waking sleep of its brief blossoming. The waking sleep of her full-opened

virginity, entranced like a snowdrop in the sunshine, was upon her.

(Lawrence)

The basic principle in the next passage (that describes how only

one of the two relatives became the sole heir to the old man's

money) is that of contrast and the method of convergence ensures

the ample interpretation of the author's intention. Explain the

intention and find the devices that deliver it.

From the start Philbrick was the apple of the old chap's eye, while he

couldn't stick Miss Grade at any price.


Philbrick could spout Shakespeare and Hamlet and things by the yard

before Grade could read «The cat sat on the mat». When he was

eight he had a sonnet printed in the local paper. After that Grade

wasn't in it anywhere. She lived with the servants like Cinderella.

(Waugh)

5. How is the effect of defeated expectancy achieved in the examples

below? What are the specific devices employed in each case?

Celestine finally turned on the bench and put her hand over Dot's.

—Honey, she said, would it kill you to say 'yes'?

— Yes, said Dot. (Erdrich)

St. Valentine's Day, I remembered, anniversary for lovers and massacre.

(Shaw)

—It's little stinkers like you, he said, who turn decent masters savage. —

Do you think that's so very complimentary?

—I think it's one of the most complimentary things I ever heard said

about a master, said Beste-Chetwynde. (Waugh)

/ think that, if anything, sports are rather worse than concerts, said

Mr. Prendergast. They at least happen indoors. (Waugh)

...the Indian burial mound this town is named for contain the things

that each Indian used in their lives. People have found stone grinders,

hunting arrows and jewelry of colored bones. So I think it's no use. Even

buried, our things survive. (Erdrich)

— Would this be of any use? Asked Philbrick, producing an enormous

service revolver. Only take care, it's loaded.

Practice Section

— The very thing, said the Doctor. Only fire into the ground, mind. We

must do everything we can to avoid an accident. Do you always carry

that about with you ? —Only when I'm wearing my diamonds, said

Philbrick. (Waugh)

When we visited Athens, we saw the Apocalypse. (Maleska)

Texans, quite apart from being tall and lean, turned out to be short and

stout, hospitable, stingy to a degree, generous to a fault, even-tempered,

cantankerous, doleful, and happy as the day is long. (Atkinson)

6. Explain how the principle of coupling can be used in analyzing

the following passages. What types of coupling can you identify

here?

Feeding animals while men and women starve, he said bitterly. It was a

topic; a topic dry, scentless and colourless as a pressed flower, a topic

on which in the school debating society one had despaired of finding

anything new to say. (Waugh)

You asked me what I had going this time. What I have going is wine.

With the way the world's drinking these days, being in wine is like

having a license to steal. (Shaw)

7. In many cases coupling relies a lot on semantic fields analysis.

Show how these principles interact in the following passage.

The truth is that motor-cars offer a very happy illustration of the

metaphysical distinction between 'being' and 'becoming'. Some cars,

mere vehicles, with no purpose above bare locomotion, mechanical

drudges... have definite 'being' just as much as their occupants. They

are bought all screwed up and numbered and painted,

Chapter 5. Decoding Stylistlcs and Its Fundamental Notions

and there they stay through various declensions of ownership, brightened

now and then with a lick of paint... but still maintaining their essential

identity to the scrap heap.

Not so the real cars, that become masters of men; those vital creations

of metal who exist solely for their own propulsion through space, for

whom their drivers are as important as the stenographer to a stockbroker.

These are in perpetual flux; a vortex of combining and disintegrating

units, like the confluence of traffic where many roads meet. (Waugh)

8. Workings in groups of two or three try to define the themes of

the following text with a description of a thunderstorm. Let

each group arrange the vocabulary of the passage into

semantically related fields, for example: storm sounds, shapes,

colors, supernatural forces, etc.

We... looked out the mucking hole to where a tower of lightning stood. It

was a broad round shaft like a great radiant auger, boring into cloud

and mud at once. Burning. Transparent. And inside this cylinder of

white-purple light swam shoals of creatures we could never have

imagined. Shapes filmy and iridescent and veined like dragonfly wings

erranded between the earth and heavens. They were moving to a music

we couldn't hear, the thunder blotting it out for us. Or maybe the

cannonade of thunder was music for them, but measure that we couldn't

understand.

We didn't know what they were.

They were storm angels. Or maybe they were natural creatures whose

natural element was storm, as the sea is natural to the squid and shark.

We couldn't make out their whole shapes. Were they mermaids or tigers?

Were they clothed in shining linen or in flashing armor? We saw what

we thought we saw, whatever they were, whatever they were in process

of becoming.

Practice Section

This tower of energies went away then, and there was another thrust of

lightning just outside the wall. It was a less impressive display, just an

ordinary lightning stroke, but it lifted the three of us thrashing in midair

for a long moment, then dropped us breathless and sightless on the damp

ground. (Chappell)

9. Comment on the type of deviation in the following semi-marked

structures.

Did you ever see a dream walking? (Cheever)

Man in the day or wind at night

Laid the crops low, broke the grape's joy. (Thomas)

/ think cards are divine, particularly the kings. Such naughty old faces!

(Waugh)

The Maker's white coat and black visage had disappeared from the street

doorway. Reinhart got a premonition of doom when he saw the color

combination with which they had been replaced: policeman's midnight

blue and Slavic-red face, but the pace helped keep his upper lip stiff.

(Berger)

Ask Pamela; she's so brave and manly. (Waugh)

// was Granny whom she came to detest with all her soul... her Yvette

really hated, with that pure, sheer hatred which is almost a joy.

(Lawrence)

...everyone who spoke, it seemed, was but biding his time to shout the

old village street refrain which had haunted him all his life, «Nigger!—

Nigger!—White Nigger!» (Dunbar-Nelson)


To hear him speak French, if you didn't try to understand what he was

saying, was as good as attending «Phedre»: he seemed a cloud that had

divorced a textbook of geometry to marry Guillaume Apollinaire... (Jar-

rell)

10. Read the story by Paul Jennings and try to apply some of the

principles of decoding to find out the real meaning and the im-

plications of what the author encoded. Comment on the author's

use of such devices as sustained metaphor, allegory, allusions,

irony and phonographical means. Can you find instances of

semi-marked structures, defeated expectancy, convergence and

other means of foregrounding. Speak about the theme and the

message of this story.

Red-blooded 3Д rose

There was once an article in the Observer by Dr Bronowski in which

he said that mathematics ought to be taught as a language. At the time

I had fantasies of passages like this:

* Crib for art students, beatnita, peasants: (The

Government)2: the government squared. > 1:

more than one. =: equals. Vour troubles: the root of our troubles. .

2: point to recurring.

Practice Section

But of course that wasn't the idea at all. Years ago I got off the

mathematics train at Quadratic Equations—a neat, airy little station

with trellis, ivy, roses, a sunlit platform. There was just a hint of

weirdness now and then—stationmaster made clicking noises in his

throat, there was an occasional far-off harmonious humming in the sky,

strange bells rang; one knew the frontier was not far away,

Where the line crosses into the vast country of Incomprehensibility, the

jagged peaks of the Calculus Mountains standing up, a day's journey

over its illimitable plains.

The train thundered off into those no doubt exhilarating spaces, but

without me. 1 sniffed the mountainy air a little, then I crossed the line

by the footbridge and went back in a fusty suburban train to my home

town. Contemptible Ignorance. This train had no engine; it was simply

a train of carriages rolling gently down through the warm orchards of

Amnesia Hill.

The only language we speak in that town is, well, language (we're not

mad about it like those people at Oxford; we know the world is infinite

and real, language is about it, it isn't it). But we have got typewriters,

and they introduce mathematics into language in their own way.

Even without those figures on the top row, 1 to 9 (all you need) there

is something statistical about the typewriter as it sits there. It contains

instantaneously the entire alphabet, the awful pregnant potentiality of

everything. I am certain most readers of this article will have read

somewhere or other a reference to the odds against a monkey's sitting at

a typewriter and writing Hamlet.

For some reason philosophical writers about chance, design and purpose

are led irresistibly to this analogy. Nobody ever suggests the monkey's

Chapter 5. Decoding Stylistlcs and Its Fundamental Notions

writing Hamlet with a pen, as Shakespeare did. With a pen a monkey

would get distracted, draw funny faces, found a school of poetry of its

own. There's something about having the whole alphabet in front of it,

on a machine, that goads the monkey to go on, for millions of years (but

surely the evolution would be quicker?), persevering after heartbreaking

setbacks; think of getting the whole of King Lear right until it came to

the lines over the dead body of Cornelia, which would come out:

Thou 'It come no more

Never, never, never, never, ever or, on

my typewriter — Necer, neved, lever,

nexelm vrevney.

The typewriter knows very well how to mix language and mathematics,

the resources between A and Zand 1 and 9, in its own sly way. Mine likes

to put 3/4 instead of the letter p. How brilliantly this introduces a nuance, a

frisson of chance and doubt into many words that begin so well with this

confident, explosive consonant! How often is one disappointed by a

watery 3/4 ale ale! How often does some much-publicized meeting of

statesmen result in the signing of something that the typists of both sides

know is just а 3/4 act! How many

3/4 apists one knows! How many

people praised for their courage are not so much plucky as just 3/4 lucky.

Most of all, is not the most common form of social occasion to-day the

cocktail 3Д arty? One always goes expecting a real party, but nine times

out of ten turns out to be a 3/4 arty; all the people there have some

sort of connection with the '3/4' arts such as advertising, films, news

3/4

apers—although there is often a real 3/4 ainter or two. After a few

3/4

ink gins one of the 3/4 ainters makes a

3/4 ass at one of those strange

silent girls, with long hair and sullen 3/4 outing lips, that one always sees

at 3/4 arties (doubtless he thinks she will be

3/4 liable). There may be

Practice Section

some V. I., y4 (on my typewriter the capital 3/4 is a '/4) * as the chief

guest—an M. J/4, or a fashionable

3/4 reacher (nothing so grand as the '/4

rime Minister, of course. Guests like that are only at real parties, given

by Top y4 eople); but at a 3/4 arty it is always difficult to get the

interesting guest to himself, to 3/4 in him down in an argument, because of

the 3/4 rattle going on all round.

Of course this isn't mathematical language in Dr Bronowski's sense. But

you've got to admit it's figurative.

' That's mathematics for you. I have an obscure feeling it should be either 9/i6 or

l'/2-

Glossary for the Course of Stylistics

A - j

acoustic adj. concerned with sound

adherent adj. added shades of meaning

affinity n. similarity, inherent likeness

allegory n. a story, poem, painting, etc. in which the

characters and actions represent general truths, good and bad

qualities, etc.

alliteration n. repetition of the same consonant or sound

group at the beginning of two or more words that are close to each

other

allusion n. reference to some literary, historical, mythologi-

cal, biblical, etc. character or event commonly known

anadiplosis n. repetition of the last word or phrase in

one clause or poetic line at the beginning of the next

anaphora n. repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning

of successive clauses or lines of verse

anastrophe n. a term of rhetoric, which means upsetting

for effect of the normal order of a preposition before a noun or of

an object after a verb, cf. inversion


anticlimax n. a sudden drop from the dignified

or important in thought or expression to the commonplace or

trivial, sometimes for humorous effect

antique adj. the ancient style, esp. Greek or Roman; classical

antithesis n. opposition or contrast of ideas, notions,

qualities in the parts of one sentenceor in different sentences

antonomasia n. the use of a proper name in place of a

common one or vice versa to emphasise some feature or quality

apokoinu n. a construction in which the subject of one

sentence is at the same time the subject of the second, a kind of

ellipsis

aposiopesis n. a sudden breaking off in the midst of

a sentence as if from inability or unwillingness to proceed

argot n. the vocabulary peculiar to a particular class of

people, esp. that of an underworld group devised for private

communication

Aristotlen. Greek philosopher, pupil of Plato (384-382

ВС)

assonance n. 1. resemblance of sounds 2. partial rhyme

created by the stressed vowel sounds

astheism n. deprecation meant as approval

asyndeton n. the omission of conjunctions

В

belles lettres n. literature or writing about literary subjects


С

catachresisn. incorrect use of a word, as by misappli-

cation 01 terminology or by strained or mixed

metaphor

chiasmus n. inversion of the second of two parallel

phrases or clauses

cliche n. an expression or idea that has become trite

climax n. a rhetorical series of ideas, images, etc. arranged

progressively so that the most forceful is last

colon n. in Greek prosody a section of a prosodic period,

consisting of a group from two to six feet forming a rhythmic unit

with a principal accent

connotation n. idea or notion suggested by or associated

with a word, phrase, etc. in addition to its denotation

connotative adj. having connotations

convergence n. concentration of various devices and

expressive means in one place to support an important idea and

ensure the delivery of the message

couplet n. two successive lines of poetry, esp. of the same

length that rhyme

coupling n. the affinity of elements that occupy a similar

position and contribute to the cohesion of the text


D

dactyl n. a metrical foot that consists of one accented

syllable followed by two unaccented ones

Demetrius of Alexandria n. Greek orator

and philosopher (b. 350 ВС)

denotative adj. indicative of the direct

explicit meaning or reference of a word or term

detachment n. a seemingly independent part of a

sentence that carries some additional information

device n. a literary model intended to produce a particular

effect in a work of literature

Dionyslus of Halicarnassus n. Greek

rhetorician, critic and historian (1st cent. ВС)

E

ellipsis n. all sorts of omission in a sentence

emotive adj. characterised by, expressing or producing

emotion

empathy n. ability to share in another's emotions, thoughts

or feelings

enjambment n. in prosody: the running on of a sentence

from one line to the next without a syntactical break


enumeration n. a device by means of which homo-

geneous parts of a sentence are made semantically heteroge-

neous

epenalepsis n. a term of rhetoric meaning repetitive

use of conjunctions in close succession, (cf. polysyndeton)

epigram n. 1. a short poem with a witty or satirical point

2. any terse, witty, pointed statement, often with a clever twist

in thought.

epiphora n. repetition of words or phrases at the end of

consecutive clauses or sentences

epithet n. an adjective or descriptive phrase used to char-

acterise a person or object with the aim to give them subjective

evaluation

euphonic adj. characterised by euphony

euphony n. a harmonious combination of sounds that create

a pleasing effect to the ear

evaluative adj. giving judgement about the value of

something

explicit adj. clearly stated and leaving nothing implied

F

figure of speech n. a stylistic device of whatever kind, including tropes

and syntactical expressive means


figures of contrast*: those based on opposition (incompatibility) of

co-occurring notions

figures of co-occurrence*: devices based on interrelations of two or

more units of meaning actually following one another

figures of identity*: co-occurrence of synonymous or similar notions

figures of inequality*: those based on differentiation of co-occurring

notions

figures of quality*: renaming based on radical qualitative difference

between notion named and notion meant

figures of quantity*: renaming based on only qualitative difference

between traditional names and those actually used

figures of replacement*: tropes, 'renamings', replacing traditional

names by situational ones

G

gap-sentence link seemingly incoherent connection of two sentences

based on an unexpected semantic leap; the reader is supposed to

grasp the implied motivation for such connection

Gorgias n. Greek philosopher (483-375 B.C.), founded

one of the first rhetoric schools

graphonn. intentional misspelling to show deviations from

received pronunciation: individual manner,

mispronunciation, dialectal features, etc.

* These terms and their definitions belong to Prof. Skrebnev.

Glossary for the Course of Stylistlcs

н

Hellenistic adj. of Greek history, language and culture

after tne death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.)

hierarchicaladj. arranged in order of rank, grade, class,

etc.

hyperbole n. exaggeration for effect not meant to be

taken literally

I

iambus n. a metrical foot, consisting of one unaccented

syllable followed by one accented

idiolect n. a particular person's use of language, individual

style of expression

imagery n. ideas presented in a poetical form; figurative

descriptions and figures of speech collectively

implicit adj. implied: suggested or to be understood though

not plainly expressed

inherent adj. existing in something or someone as a

permanent and inseparable element, quality or attribute

inversion n. a reversal of the normal order of words in a

sentence

irony n. a stylistic device in which the words express

a meaning that is often the direct opposite of the intended meaning

Glossary for the Course of Styiistics

irradiation n. the influence of a specifically coloured

word against the stylistically different tenor of the narration

J

jargon n. the language, esp. the vocabulary, peculiar to a

particular trade, profession or group

juridical adj. related to the law

L

litotes n. understatement for effect, esp. that in which an

affirmative is expressed by a negation of the contrary

M

malapropism n. ludicrous misuse of words, esp.

through confusion caused by resemblance in sound

meiosis n. expressive understatement, litotes

metaphor n. the application of a word or phrase to an

object or concept it does not literally denote, in order to suggest comparison with another object or concept

metaphor sustained/extended a chain of metaphors containing the

central image and some contributory images

meter n. rhythm in verse; measured patterned arrangement

of syllables according to stress or length

metonymy n. transfer of name of one object onto another

to which it is related or of which it is a part


mythology n. myths collectively and the beliefs that they

contain

N

normative adj. having to do with usage norms

О

onomatopoeia n. the formation of a word by imitat-

ing the natural sound; the use of words whose sounds reinforce

their meaning or tone, esp. in poetry

oratorical n. characteristic of or given to oratory

oratory n. the art of an orator; skill or eloquence in public

speaking

oxymoron n. a figure of speech in which opposite or

contradictory ideas are combined

P

paradiastola n. in Greek poetic texts: the lengthening

of a syllable regularly short

parallelism n. the use of identical or similar parallel

syntactical structure in two or more sentences or their parts

paranomasia n. using words similar in sound but

different in meaning for euphonic effect

parlance n. a style or manner of speaking or writing


periphrasis n. renaming of an object by a phrase that

emphasises some particular feature of the object

personage n. a character in a play or book, or in history

personification n. the attribution of personal nature

or character to inanimate objects or abstract notions

polysyndeton n. the use of a number of conjunctions

in close succession

prosody n. 1. the science or art of versification, including

the study of metrical structure, stanza form, etc. 2. the stress

patterns of an utterance

proximity [pro'ksimiti] n. nearness in place, time, order, occurrence

or relation

publicist ['pAbhsist] n. referring to writing and speaking on current

public or political affairs

R

recur v. to happen or occur again, appear at intervals

recurrence n. the instance of recurring, return, repetition

rhetoric n. 1. the art or science of all specialized literary

uses of language in prose or verse, including the figures of speech

2. the art of using language effectively in speaking or writing 3.

artificial eloquence

rhetorical | adj. using or characterised by rhetoric

rhyme n. a regular recurrence of corresponding sounds at the

ends of lines in verse


rhythm n. 1. a regular recurrence of elements in a system

of motion: the rhythm of speech, dancing music, etc. 2. an

effect of ordered movement in a work of art, literature, drama,

etc. attained through patterns in the timing, spacing, repetition,

accenting, etc. of the elements 3. in prosody: a metrical (feet) or

rhythmical (iambus, trochee, etc.) form

s

simile n. a figure of speech in which two unlike things are

explicitly compared by the use of like, as, resemble, etc.

solemn adj. arousing feelings of awe, very impressive

sophistry n. in ancient Greece: the methods or practices

of the sophists, any group of teachers of rhetoric, politics,

philosophy, some of whom were notorious for their clever

specious arguments. 2. misleading but clever, plausible and

subtle reasoning

stanza n. a group of lines in a repeating pattern forming a

division of a poem

suspense n. a compositional device that consists in with-

holding the most important information or idea till the end of

the sentence, passage or text

syllepsis n. a term of rhetoric: the use of a word or

expression to perform two syntactic functions, cf. zeugma

synecdoche n. a figure of speech based on transfer by

contiguity in which a part is used for a whole, an individual for

a class, a material for a thing or the reverse of any of these; a

variety of metonymy


T

tautology n. needless repetition of an idea in a different

word, phrase or sentence; redundancy; pleonasm

terminology n. the system of terms used in a specific

science, art or specialised subject

trochee . n. in prosody: a foot of two syllables, a stressed

followed by an unstressed one

transfer v. to convey, carry, remove or send from one

position, place or person to another

transfer a. the act of transferring

transference n. the act or process of transferring

Trasimachus n. Greek philosopher, together with

Gorgius created one of the first schools of rhetoric in ancient

Greece (c. 4 ВС)

trope n. a figure of speech based on some kind of transfer of

denomination

V

versification n. 1. the art, practice or theory of poetic

composition 2. the form or style of a poem; metrical structure

z

zeugma n. a figure of speech in which a single word,

usually a verb or adjective, is syntactically related to two or more

words, though having a different sense in relation to each

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Documents

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