ԳՅՈՒՄՐՈՒ Մ. ՆԱԼԲԱՆԴՅԱՆԻ ԱՆՎԱՆ ՊԵՏԱԿԱՆ ՄԱՆԿԱՎԱՐԺԱԿԱՆ ԻՆՍՏԻՏՈՒՏ
ԱՆԳԼԵՐԵՆ ԼԵԶՎԻ և ՆՐԱ ԴԱՍԱՎԱՆԴՄԱՆ ՄԵԹՈԴԻԿԱՅԻ ԱՄԲԻՈՆ
Մասնագիտություն –Թարգմանչական գործ անգլերեն-հայերեն և ռուսերեն-անգլերեն/բակալավր
Կուրս/կիսամյակ – III/II
Ոճագիտություն
ԿՐԵԴԻՏՆԵՐԻ ՔԱՆԱԿ ԼՍԱՐԱՅԻՆ ԺԱՄ –
ԴԱՍԱԽՈՍՈՒԹՅՈՒՆ -
2/60
32
16
ԳՈՐԾՆԱԿԱՆ ՊԱՐԱՊՄՈՒՆՔ ՍԵՄԻՆԱՐ ՊԱՐԱՊՄՈՒՆՔ –
ՇԱԲԱԹԱԿԱՆ ԺԱՄ –
ԴԱՍԱԽՈՍՈՒԹՅՈՒՆՆԵՐ
1.
Stylistics as a Separate Branch of Linguistics
2.
Stylistic Classification of the English Vocabulary
3.
Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices
4.
Phono-Graphical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices
5.
Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices
6.
Lexico-Syntactical Stylistic Devices
7.
Syntactical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices
8.
Functional Styles of the English Language/Belle-Letter Style, Newspaper Style
16
2
Դասախոս՝ ___________բ.գ.թ. Հեղինե Իսահակյան
ԳՅՈՒՄՐԻ 2014թ.
LESSON 1
STYLISTICS AS A SEPARATE BRANCH OF LINGUISTICS
Units of language on different levels are studied by branches of linguistics, such as phonetics
that deals with 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 have a
long-term tradition of regarding language phenomena from a level-oriented point of view. Thus
the subject matter and the material under study of these linguistic disciplines are more or less
clear-cut. 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. 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.
DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO THE NOTION OF STYLE
Another problem has to do with a whole set of special linguistic means that create what we call
"style". 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
20thcentury. 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 intercourse in the sphere of one national language or another...". In 1971
Prof. I. R. Galperin offered his definition of style "as a system of interrelated language means
which serves a definite aim in communication." 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." All these definitions
point out the systematic and functionally determined character of the notion of style.Thus,
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stylistics is a branch of linguistics, which investigates principles and effects of choice and use of
lexical, grammatical, phonetic and other language means for transmission of thoughts and
emotions in various conditions of intercourse. In order to define the borders of Stylistics first of
all it is necessary to go into the question of what is style.
The word style is derived from the Latin word ''stilus'' which meant a short stick sharp at one end
and flat at the other, used by the Romans for writing on wax tablets. Now the word ''style'' has
obtained a wider use. A very popular notion of style among linguists is that style is a technique
of expression. The word style is widely used in Literature to signify literary genre. Thus we
speak of classical style, or the style of classicism; realistic style, the style of romanticism, etc. It
is applied to various kinds of literary works: the fable, novel, ballad, story,etc.
In fact style can be applied to any kind of human activity: architecture, clothes, behaviour, and
so on. Thus, ''style'' is a specific characteristic of human activity in its general sense, arising as
a result of choice within the accepted norms of a definite mode.
Language is the vehicle of human communication, and speech communication should be
regarded as a specific kind of human activity. So the same idea, thought, emotion may be
expressed in different ways: it may be expressed orally or in written form, in prose or in poetry,
using the standard language or colloquial expressions.
INDIVIDUAL STYLE
The term individual style is applied to the sphere of linguistic and literary science, which deals
with the peculiarities of a writer's individual manner of using language means to achieve the
effect he desires.
The speech of an individual which is characterized by peculiarities typical of that particular
individual is called an idiolect. The idea of individual style brings up the problem of the
correspondence between thought and expression. Themostessentialsidesofthisproblemare:
 Thought and language are inseparable;
 Language is a means of materializing thoughts.
Individual style is a unique combination of language units, expressive means and stylistic
devices, peculiar to a given writer, which makes that writer's works or even utterances easily
recognizable.
Selection, or deliberate choice of language, which we hold to be the main feature of individual
style brings up the question of norms.
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In the literary language the norm is the invariant of the phonemic, morphological, lexical and
syntactical patterns in circulation during a given period in the development of the given
language. The norm of the language always presupposes a recognized or received standard.At
the same time it likewise presupposes vacillations from the received standard.
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 colouringin 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, О'Henry,
Galsworthy and so on.
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 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
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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 judgment 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. 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.
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Stylistic connotations may be inherent or adherent. Stylistically coloured words possess
inherent stylistic connotations. Stylistically neutral words will have only adherent (occasional)
stylistic connotations acquired in a certain context.
A luxury hotel for dogs isto 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;
- adherent connotation in the context - elevated/humorous.
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 function. 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:

emotive;

evaluative;
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
expressive;

stylistic.
A word is always characterised by its denotative meaning but not necessarily by
connotation. The four components may be all presentat once, or in different combinations or
they may not be found in the word at all.
Emotive connotations express various feelings or emotions. Emotions differ from feelings.
Emotions like joy, 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 likebig will become charged with emotive
connotation in a mother's proud description of her baby: He is a BIG boy already!
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.
Expressive connotation either increases or decreases the expressiveness 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.
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
7
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.
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.
I.R. 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.
LESSON 2
STYLISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY
The stock of any language can be divided into three main layers:the literary layer, the neutral
layer, the colloquial layer.
The aspect of the literary layer is its bookish character, which makes the layer more or less
stable. Whereas the aspect of the colloquial layer of words is its lively, spoken character. That
means it is unrestricted in its use. The aspect of neutral layer is its universal character. It can
be employed in all styles of the language and in all spheres of human activity. It is this that
makes the layer the most stable of all.
The literary vocabulary consists of the following groups of words:
 Commonliterary
 Termsandlearnedwords
 Poeticwords
 Archaicwords
 Barbarismsandforeignwords
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 Literary coinages including nonce-words.
The colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups:
 Commoncolloquialwords
 Slang
 Jargonisms
 Proffesionalwords
 Dialectalwords
 Vulgarwords
 Colloquialcoinages.
The common literary, neutral and common colloquial words are grouped under the term
Standard English Vocabulary (SEV). Other groups in the literary layer are regarded as Special
Literary Vocabulary and those in the colloquial layer are regarded as Special Colloquial (nonliterary) Vocabulary.
STANDARD ENGLISH VOCABULARY
Neutral words which form the bulk of the English vocabulary are used in both literary and
colloquial language. Neutral words are the main source of synonymy and polysemy. It's the
neutral stock of words that is so prolific in the production of new meanings. Unlike other groups,
the neutral group of words can't be considered as having a special stylisticcolouring, whereas
both literary and colloquial words have a definite stylistic colouring.
Common literary words are chiefly used in writing and in polished speech. One can always
tell s literary word from a colloquial word. Literary units stand in opposition to colloquial units.
This is especially apparent when pairs of synonyms, literary and colloquial, can be formed
which stand in contrasting relation.
Common colloquial vocabulary is considered to be part of SEV. They approach the neutral bulk
of the English vocabulary. Thus, the words 'teenager' and 'hippie' (a young person who leads an
unordered and unconventional life) are colloquial words, passinginto the neutral vocabulary.
They are gradually losing their non-standard character and becoming widely recognized.
The spoken language abounds in set expressions which are colloquial in character, eg., all
sorts of things; just a bit; How is life treating you? So-so; to be sick and tired of. However, they
have not lost their colloquial association and therefore, still remain in the colloquial stratum of
the English vocabulary.
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Colloquial
Neutral
Literary
teenager
boy (girl)
youth (maiden)
flapper
young girl
maiden
go ahead
begin
commence
go on
continue
proceed
daddy father
parent
SPECIAL LITERARY VOCABULARY
TERMS
Terms are mostly and predominantly used in special works dealing with the notions of
some branch of science. Therefore it may be said that they belong to the style of language of
science. But their use is not confined to this style. They may as well appear in other styles - in
newspaper style, in publicist and practically in all other existing styles of language. But their
function in this case changes. They do not always fulfill their basic function, that of bearing
exact reference to a given concept. When used in the belles-lettres style, for instance, a term
may acquire a stylistic function and consequently become a SD. This happens when a term is
used in such a way that two meanings are materialized simultaneously.
The function of terms, if encountered in other styles, is either to indicate the technical
peculiarities of the subject dealt with, or to make some reference to the occupation of a
character whose language would naturally contain special words and expressions.
In this connection it is interesting to analyse the stylistic effect of the medical terminology
used by A. J. Cronin in his novel "The Citadel". The frequent use of medical terms in the novel is
explained by its subject-matter - the life of a physician - and also by the fact that the writer
himself is a physician and finds it natural to use medical terminology.
POETIC AND HIGHLY LITERARY WORDS
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Poetic words form a rather insignificant layer of the special literary vocabulary. They are
mostly archaic or very rarely used highly literary words which aim at producing an elevated
effect. They have a marked tendency to detach themselves from the common literary wordstock and gradually assume the quality of terms denoting certain definite notions and calling
forth poetic diction.
Poetic words and expressions are called upon to sustain the special elevated atmosphere of
poetry. This may be said to be the main function of poetic words.
Poetical tradition has kept alive such archaic words and forms as yclept (p. p. of the old verb
clipian - to call, name); quoth (p. t. of owed-an - to speak); eftsoons(eftsona,- again, soon
after), which are used even by modern ballad-mongers. Let us note in passing that archaic
words are here to be understood as units that have either entirely gone out of use, or as words
some of whose meanings have grown archaic, e. g. hall in the following line from Byron's Childe
Harold's Pilgrimage:
Deserted is my own good hall, its hearth is desolate.
Poetical words and word-combinations can be likened to terms in that they do not easily
yield to polysemy. They are said to evoke emotive meanings. Poetic words are not freely built in
contrast to neutral, colloquial and common literary words, or terms. The commonest means is
by compounding, e. g. 'young-eyed', 'rosy-fingered'.
Some writers make abundant use of this word-building means. Thus Arthur Hailey in his
novel "In High Places" has 'serious-faced', 'high-ceilinged', 'tall-backed'. There is, however,
one means of creating new poetic words still recognized as productive even in present-day
English, viz. the use of a contracted form of a word instead of the full one, e. g. 'drear' instead
of dreary, 'scant' (scanty). Sometimes the reverse process leads to the birth of a poeticism, e.
g. vasty' (vast. The vasty deep, i. e. the ocean); 'steepy' (steep),'paly' (pale).
ARCHAIC, OBSOLESCENT AND OBSOLETE WORDS
The word-stock of a language is in an increasing state of change. Words change their
meaning and sometimes drop out of the language altogether. New words spring up and replace
the old ones. Some words stay in the language a very long time and do not lose their faculty of
gaining new meanings and becoming richer and richer polysemantically. Other words live but a
short time and are like bubbles on the surface of water — they disappear leaving no trace of
their existence.
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In registering these processes the role of dictionaries can hardly be over-estimated.
Dictionaries serve to retain this or that word in a language either as a relic of ancient times,
where it lived and circulated, or as a still living unit of the system, though it may have lost some
of its meanings. They may also preserve certain nonce-creations which were never intended for
general use.
We shall distinguish three stages in the aging process of words:
The beginning of the aging process when the word becomes rarely used. Such words are called
obsolescent, i.e. they are in the stage of gradually passing out of general use. To this category
first of all belong morphological forms belonging to the earlier stages in the development of the
language. In the English language these are the pronouns thou and its forms thee, thy and
thine; the corresponding verbal ending -est and the verb-forms art, wilt (thou makest, thou wilt);
the ending -(e)th instead of -(e)s (he maketh) and the pronoun ye.
To the category of obsolescent words belong many French borrowings which have been
kept in the literary language as a means of preserving the spirit of earlier periods, e. g. a pallet
(a straw mattress); a palfrey (a small horse); garniture (furniture).
The second group of archaic words are those that have already gone completely out of
use but are still recognized by the English-speaking community: e. g. methinks (it seems to
me); nay (no). These words are called obsolete.
The third group, which may be called archaic proper, are words which are no longer
recognizable in modern English, words that were in use in Old English and which have either
dropped out of the language entirely or have changed in their appearance so much that they
have become unrecognizable, e. g. troth (faith); a losel (a worthless, lazy fellow).
The border lines between the groups are not distinct. In fact they interpenetrate. It is specially
difficult to distinguish between obsolete and obsolescent words. But the difference is important
when we come to deal with the stylistic aspect of an utterance in which the given word serves a
certain stylistic purpose. Obsolete and obsolescent words have separate functions.
Archaic words are primarily and predominantly used in the creation of a realistic
background to historical novels. It must be pointed out, however, that the use of historical words
(terms) in a passage written in scientific style, say, in an essay on the history of the Danish
invasion, will bear no stylistic function at all. But the same terms when used in historical novels
assume a different stylistic value. They carry, as it ' were, a special volume of information
adding to the logical aspect of the communication.
This, the main function of archaisms, finds different interpretation in different novels by
different writers.
The stylistic significance of archaic words in historical novels and in other works of fiction
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(emotive literature - belles-lettres) is different. In historical novels, as has been pointed out, they
maintain "local colour", i.e. they perform the function of creating the atmosphere of the past. The
reader is, as it were, transplanted into another epoch and therefore perceives the use of archaic
words as a natural mode of communication.
Not so when archaic words are encountered in a depiction of events of present-day life.
Here archaisms assume the function of a SD proper. Stylistic functions of archaic words are
based on the temporal perception of events described. Even when used in the terminological
aspect, as for instance in law, archaic words will mark the utterance as being connected with
something remote and the reader gets the impression that he is faced with a time-honoured
tradition.
BARBARISMS AND FOREIGN WORDS
In the vocabulary of the English language there is a considerable layer of words called
barbarisms. These are words of foreign origin which have not entirely been assimilated into the
English language. They bear the appearance of a 'borrowing and are felt as something alien to
the native tongue. The role foreign borrowings played in the development of the English literary
language is well known, and the great majority of these borrowed words now form part of the
rank and file of the English vocabulary. It is the science of linguistics, in particular its branch
etymology, that reveals the foreign nature of this or that word. But most of what were formerly
foreign borrowings are now, from a purely stylistic position, not regarded as foreign. But still
there are some words which retain their foreign appearance to a greater or lesser degree.
These words, which are called barbarisms, are, like archaisms, also considered to be on the
outskirts of the literary language.
Most of them have corresponding English synonyms; e. g. chic (stylish); bon mot (a clever
witty saying); en passant ( in passing); and many other words and phrases.
It is very important for purely stylistic purposes to distinguish between barbarisms and
foreign words proper. Barbarisms are words which have already become facts of the English
language. They are, as it were, part and parcel of the English word-stock, though they remain
on the outskirts of the literary vocabulary. Foreign words, though used for certain stylistic
purposes, do not belong to the English vocabulary. They are not registered by English
dictionaries, except in a kind of addenda which gives the meanings of the foreign words most
frequently used in literary English. Barbarisms are generally given in the body of the dictionary.
In printed works foreign words and phrases are generally italicized to indicate their alien
13
nature or their stylistic value. Barbarisms, on the contrary, are not made conspicuous in the text
unless they bear a special bad of stylistic information.
There are foreign words in the English vocabulary which fulfil a terminological function.
Therefore, though they still retain their foreign appearance, they should not be regarded as
barbarisms. Such words as soviet, kolkhoz and the like denote certain concepts which reflect
an objective reality not familiar to English-speaking communities. There are no names for them
in English and so they have to be explained. New concepts of this type are generally given the
names they have in the language of the people whose reality they reflect.
LITERARY COINAGES INCLUDING NONCE-WORDS
There is a term in linguistics which by its very nature is ambiguous and that is the term
neologism. In dictionaries it is generally defined as a new word or a new meaning for an
established word. Everything in this definition is vague. How long should words or their meanings be regarded as new? Which words of those that appear as new in the language, say during
the life-time of one generation, can be regarded as established? It is suggestive that the latest
editions of certain dictionaries avoid the use of the stylistic notation "neologism" apparently
because of its ambiguous character. If a word is fixed in a dictionary and provided that the
dictionary is reliable, it ceases to be a neologism. If a new meaning is recognized as an element
in the semantic structure of a lexical unit, it ceases to be new. However, if we wish to-divide the
word-stock of a language into chronological periods, we can conventionally mark off a period
which might be called new.
Every period in the development of a language produces an enormous number of new words or
new meanings of established words. Most of them do not live long. They are not meant to live
long. They are, as it were, coined for use at the moment of speech, and therefore possess a
peculiar property —that of temporariness. The given word or meaning holds only in the given
context and is meant only to "serve the occasion."
The coining of new words generally arises first of all with the need to designate new concepts
resulting from the development of science and also with the need to express nuances of
meaning called forth by a deeper understanding of the nature of the phenomenon in question. It
may also be the result of a search for a more economical, brief and compact form of utterance
which proves to be a more expressive means of communicating the idea.
The first type of newly coined words, i.e. those which designate newborn concepts, may be
named terminological coinages. The second type, i.e. words coined because their creators seek
14
expressive utterance may be named stylistic coinages.
New words are mainly coined according to the productive models for word-building in the
given language.
Among new coinages of a literary-bookish type must be mentioned a considerable layer of
words appearing in the publicistic style, mainly in newspaper articles and magazines and also in
the newspaper style — mostly in newspaper headlines. To these belongs the word Blimp — a
name coined by Low, the well-known English cartoonist. The name was coined to designate an
English colonel famous for his conceit, brutality, 'ultra-conservatism. This word gave birth to a
derivative, viz. Blimpish. Other examples are 'backlash' (in 'backlash policy') and its opposite
'front lash'.
Many coinages disappear entirely from the language, leaving no mark of their even brief
existence. Other literary neologisms leave traces in the vocabulary because they are fixed in the
literature of their time. In other words, new literary-bookish coinages will always leave traces in
the language, inasmuch as they appear in writing. This is not the case with colloquial coinages.
These are spontaneous, and due to their linguistic nature, cannot be fixed unless special care is
taken by specialists to preserve them.
Most of the literary-bookish coinages are built by means of affixation and word
compounding. This is but natural; new words built in this manner will be immediately perceived
because of their unexpectedness. Unexpectedness in the use of words is the natural device of
those writers who seek to achieve the sensational effect.
15
LESSON3
SPECIAL COLLOQUIAL VOCABULARY
SLANG
There is hardly any other term that is as ambiguous and obscure as the term slang. Slang
seems to mean everything that is below the standard of usage of present-day English. Much
has been said and written about it. This is probably due to the uncertainty of the concept itself.
No one has yet given a more or less satisfactory definition of the term. Nor has it been specified
by any linguist who deals with the problem of the English vocabulary.
The distinctions between slang and other groups of unconventional English, though perhaps
subtle and sometimes difficult to grasp, should nevertheless be subjected to a more detailed
linguistic specification.
The "New Oxford English Dictionary" defines slang as follows:
 the special vocabulary used by any set of persons of a low or disreputable character;
language of a low and vulgar type. (Now merged in c. /cant/)',
 the cant or jargon of a certain class or period;
 language of a highly colloquial type considered as below the level of standard
educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in
some special sense."
In most of the dictionaries sl. (slang) is used as convenient stylistic notation for a word or a
phrase that cannot be specified more exactly. The obscure etymology of the term itself affects
its use as a stylistic notation. Whenever the notation appears in a dictionary it may serve as an
indication that the unit presented is non-literary, but not pinpointed. That is the reason why the
various dictionaries disagree in the use of this term when applied as a stylistic notation.
Some linguists, when characterizing the most conspicuous features of slang, point out that it
requires continuous innovation. It never grows stale. If a slang word or phrase does become
stale, it is replaced by a new slangism. It is claimed that this satisfies the natural desire for
fresh, newly created words and expressions, which give to an utterance emotional colouring
and a subjective evaluation.
Here are some more examples of words that are considered slang:
to take stock in -'to be interested in, attach importance, give credence to'
bread-basket-'the stomach' (a jocular use)
rot - 'nonsense!'
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the cat's pyjamas -'the correct thing'
JARGONISMS
In the non-literary vocabulary of the English language there is a group of words that are called
jargonisms. Jargon is a recognized term for a group of words that exists in almost every
language and whose aim is to preserve secrecy within one or another social group. Jargonisms
are generally old words with entirely new meanings imposed on them. The traditional meaning
of the words is immaterial, only the new, improvised meaning is of importance. Most of the
Jargonisms of any language, and of the English language too, are absolutely incomprehensible
to those outside the social group which has invented them. They may be defined as a code
within a code, that is special meanings of words that are imposed on the recognized code—the
dictionary meaning of the words.
Thus the word grease means 'money'; loaf means 'head'; a tiger hunter is 'a gambler'.
Jargonisms are social in character. They are not regional. In Britain and in the US almost any
social group of people has its own jargon. The following jargons are well known in the English
language: the jargon of thieves and vagabonds, generally known as cant; the jargon of jazz
people; the jargon of the army, known as military slang; the jargon of sportsmen, and many
others.
The various jargons (which in fact are nothing but a definite group of words) remain a foreign
language to the outsiders of any particular social group.
Slang, contrary to jargon, needs no translation. It is not a secret code. It is easily understood by
the English-speaking community and is only regarded as something not quite regular. It must
also be remembered that both jargon and slang differ from ordinary language mainly in their
vocabularies. Jargonisms do not always remain the possession of a given social group. Some
of them migrate into other social strata and sometimes become recognized in the literary
language of the nation.
There are hundreds of words, once Jargonisms or slang, which have become legitimate
members of the English literary language.
Here are some examples of jargon:
Humrnen -'a false arrest' (American)
Matlo(w) -'a sailor' (from the French word 'matelof)
Man and wife -'a knife' (rhyming slang)
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PROFESSIONALISMS
Professionalisms, as the term itself signifies, are the words used in a definite trade,
profession or calling by people connected by common interests both at work and at home. They
commonly designate some working process or implement of labour. Professionalisms are
correlated to terms. Terms, as has already been indicated, are coined to nominate new
concepts that appear in the process of, and as a result of, technical progress and the
development of science.
Professional words name anew already-existing concepts, tools or instruments, and have the
typical properties of a special code. The main feature of a professionalism is its technicality.
Professionalisms are special words in the non-literary layer of the English vocabulary, whereas
terms are a specialized group belonging to the literary layer of words. Terms, if they are
connected with a field or branch of science or technique well-known to ordinary people, are
easily decoded and enter the neutral stratum of the vocabulary. Professionalisms generally
remain in circulation within a definite community, as they are linked to a common occupation
and common social interests. The semantic structure of the term is usually transparent and is
therefore easily understood. The semantic structure of a professionalism is often dimmed by the
image on which the meaning of the professionalism is based, particularly when the features of
the object in question reflect the process of the work, metaphorically or metonymically. Like
terms, professionalisms do not allow any polysemy, they are monosemantic.
Here are some professionalisms used in different trades:
tin-fish (submarine);
block-buster ( a bomb especially designed to destroy
blocks of big buildings);
piper(a specialist who decorates pastry with the use of a cream-pipe).
Some professionalisms, however, like certain terms, become popular and gradually lose
their professional flavour.
DIALECTAL WORDS
This group of words is obviously opposed to the other groups of the non-literary English
vocabulary and therefore its stylistic, functions can be more or less clearly defined. Dialectal
words are those which in the process of integration of the English national language remained.
There is sometimes a difficulty in distinguishing dialectal words from colloquial words. Some
18
dialectal words have become so familiar in good colloquial or standard colloquial English that
they are universally accepted as recognized units of the standard colloquial English. To these
words belong lass, meaning 'a girl or a beloved girl, and the corresponding lad, 'a boy or a
young man. Still they have not lost their dialectal associations and therefore are used in literary
English with the above-mentioned stylistic function of characterization.
Of quite a different nature are dialectal words which are easily recognized as corruptions of
standard English words, although etymologically they may have sprung from the peculiarities of
certain dialects. The following words may serve as examples: hinny from honey; tittle apparently from sister, being a childish corruption of the word; cutty meaning a 'testy or naughty girl
or woman.
Dialectal words are only to be found in the style of emotive prose, very rarely in other styles.
And even here their use is confined to the function of characterizing personalities through their
speech. Writers who use dialectal words for the purpose of characterizing the speech of a
person in a piece of emotive prose or drama, introduce them into the word texture in different
ways. Some writers make an unrestrained use of dialectal words and also slang,jargonisms and
professionalisms, not only in characterization, but also in their narrative. Other writers use
dialectal words sparingly, introducing only units which are understandable to the intelligent
English reader, or they make use of units which they think will enrich the standard English
vocabulary.
VULGAR WORDS OR VULGARISMS
The term vulgarism, as used to single out a definite group of words of non-standard English, is
rather misleading. The ambiguity of the term apparently proceeds from the etymology of the
word. Vulgar, as explained by the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, means
a) words or names employed in ordinary speech;
b) common, familiar;
c) commonly current or prevalent, generally or widely disseminated.
Vulgarisms are:
 expletives and swear words which are of an abusive character, like 'damn', 'bloody', to
hell', 'goddam' and, as some dictionaries state, used now as general exclamations;
 obscene words. These are known as four-letter words the use of which is banned in any
form of intercourse as being indecent. All of these words are of Anglo-Saxon origin.
Vulgarisms are often used in conversation out of habit, without any thought of what they mean,
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or intimitation of those who use them in order not to seem old-fashioned or prudish.
Unfortunately in modern fiction these words have gained legitimacy. The most vulgar of them
are now to be found even in good novels. However, they will never acquire the status of
standard English vocabulary and will always remain on the outskirts.
The function of expletives is almost the same as that of interjections, that is to express strong
emotions, mainly annoyance, anger, vexation and the like. They are not to be found in any
functional style of language except emotive prose, and here only in the direct speech of the
characters.
COLLOQUIAL COINAGES
Colloquial coinages (nonce-words), unlike those of a literary-bookish character, are
spontaneous and elusive. This proceeds from the very nature of the colloquial words as such.
Not all of the colloquial nonce-words are fixed in dictionaries or even in writing and therefore
most of them disappear from the language leaving no trace in it whatsoever.
Unlike literary-bookish coinages, nonce-words of a colloquial nature are not usually built by
means of affixes but are based on certain semantic changes in words that are almost
imperceptible to the linguistic observer until the word finds its way into print.
It is only a careful stylistic analysis of the utterance as a whole that will reveal a new shade of
meaning inserted into the semantic structure of a given word or word-combination.
Writers often show that they are conscious of the specific character of the nonce-word they use
by various means.
In some cases it is difficult to draw a line of demarcation between nonce-words of bookish and
of colloquial origin. Some words which have undoubtedly sprung from the literary-bookish
stratum have become popular in ordinary colloquial language and have acquired new meanings
in their new environment.
Some nonce-words and meanings may, on the one hand, acquire legitimacy and thus
become facts of the language, while, on the other hand, they may be classified аs literary
orcolloquial according to which of the meanings is being dealt with.
Literary nonce-words, on the other hand, may retain the label nonce for ever, as, for example,
Byron's "weatherology."Nonce-coinage appears in all spheres of life. Almost every calling has
some favourite catch-words which may live but a short time. They may become permanent and
generally accepted terms, or they may remain nonce-words, as, for example, hateshipsused by
John O'Hara in "Ten North Frederic."
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LESSON4
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 staccato
pronunciation are all expressive without being stylistic devices.
Morphological forms like diminutive suffixes may have an expressive effect: girlie, piggy,
doggy, etc. An unexpected use of the author's nonce words like: He glasnostedhis love affair
with this movie star (People) is another example of morphological expressive means.
Lexical expressive means may be illustrated by a special group of intensifiers - awfully,
terribly, absolutely, etc. or words that retain their logical meaning while being used emphatically:
Itwas a very special evening/event/gift.
There
are
also
special
grammatical
forms
and
syntactical
patterns
attributing
expressiveness, such as: Ido know you! I'm really angry with that dog of yours! That you
should deceive me! If only I could help you!
STYLISTIC DEVICES
A stylistic device is a literary model in which semantic and structural features are blended
so that it represents a generalised pattern.
Prof. I. R. Galperin calls a stylistic device a generative model when through frequent use a
language fact is transformed into a stylistic device. Thus we may say that some expressive
means have evolved into stylistic devices which represent a more abstract form or set of forms.
A stylistic device combines some general semantic meaning with a certain linguistic form
resulting in stylistic effect. It is like an algorithm employed for an expressive purpose. For
example, the interplay, interaction, or clash of the dictionary and contextual meanings of words
will bring about such stylistic devices as metaphor, metonymy or irony.
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I. R. GALPERIN'S CLASSIFICATION OF EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND SD
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:
 onomatopoeia (direct and indirect): ding-dong; silver bells... tinkle, tinkle;
 alliteration (initial rhyme): to rob Peter to pay Paul;
 assonance;
 rhyme (full, incomplete, compound or broken, eye rhyme, internal rhyme. Also, stanza
rhymes: couplets, triple, cross, framing ring);
 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 interaction 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: It 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 Bouse;
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 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. (Dickens)
 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. (The Times)
II. The principle for distinguishing the second big subdivision according to I.R. Galperin is
entirely different from the first one and is based on the interaction between two lexical meanings
simultaneously materialized 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)
 STYLISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY
 The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in and the sun and the moon were
made to give them light. (Dickens)
III. 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 I.R. Galperin proceeds from the following
23
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, like one standing
before an open grave... (Galsworthy)
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 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 out 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)
Lesson 5
Phono-Graphical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices
Still, devoid of denotational or connotational meaning, a phoneme, according to recent studies,
has a strong associative and sound-instrumenting power.The theory of sound symbolism is
based on the assumption that separate sounds due to their articulatory and acoustic properties
may awake certain ideas, perceptions, feelings, images, vague though they might be. Recent
investigations have shown that "it is rash to deny the existence of universal, or widespread,
types of sound symbolism." In poetry we cannot help feeling that the arrangement of sounds
carries a definite aesthetic function. Poetry is not entirely divorced from music. Such notions as
harmony, euphony, rhythm and other sound phenomena undoubtedly are not indifferent to the
general effect produced by a verbal chain. Poetry, unlike prose, is meant to be read out loud
and any oral performance of a message inevitably involves definite musical (in the broad sense
of the word) interpretation.
Now let us see what phonetic SDs secure this musical function.
ONOMATOPOEIA
25
Onomatopoeia is a combination of speech-sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in
nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc), by things (machines or tools, etc), by people (sighing, laughter,
patter of feet, etc) and by animals. Combinations of speech sounds of this type will inevitably be
associated with whatever produces the natural sound. Therefore the relation between
onomatopoeia and the phenomenon it is supposed to represent is one of metonymy.
There are two varieties of onomatopoeia: direct and indirect.
Onomatopoetic words can be used in a transferred meaning, as for instance, ding-dong, which
represents the sound of bells rung continuously, may mean 1) noisy, 2) strenuously contested.
Indirect onomatopoeia is sometimes called "echo-writing". For example, 'And the silken, sad,
uncertain rustling of each purple curtain' (E. A. Poe),where the repetition of the sound [s]
actually produces the sound of the rustling of the curtain.
Indirect onomatopoeia, unlike alliteration, demands some mention of what makes the sound, as
rustling (of curtains) in the line above. The same can be said of the sound [w] if it aims at
reproducing, let us say, the sound of wind. "Whenever the moon and stars are set, Whenever
the wind is high, All night long" in the dark and wet A man goes riding by." (R. S. Stevenson)
Assonance
Assonance is a stylistic devicewhich aims at imparting a melodic effect to the utterance.
The essence of this device liesin the repetition of similar vowels, usually in stressed syllables.
For example, Nor soul helps flesh now more than flesh helps soul (R. Browning).
Alliteration
Alliteration is a phonetic stylistic device which aims at imparting a melodic effect to the
utterance. The essence of this device lies in the repetition of similar sounds, in particular
consonant sounds, in close succession, particularly at the beginning of successive words:
"Deep into the darkness peering, long stood there wondering, fearing. "Doubting, dreaming
dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before'' (E. A. Poe).
Alliteration, like most phonetic expressive means, does not bear any lexical or other meaning
unless we agree that a sound meaning exists as such. But even so we may not be able to
specify clearly the character of this meaning, and the" term will merely suggest that a certain
amount of information is contained in the repetition of sounds, as is the case with the repetition
of lexical units.
However, certain sounds, if repeated, may produce an effect that can be specified.Therefore
alliteration is generally regarded as a musical accompaniment of the author's idea, supporting it
26
with some vague emotional atmosphere which each reader interprets for himself. Thus the
repetition of the sound [d] in the lines quoted from Poe's poem "The Raven" prompts the feeling
of anxiety, fear, horror, anguish or all these feelings simultaneously.
Both assonance and alliteration may produce the effect of euphony (a sense of ease and
comfort in pronouncing or hearing) or cacophony (a sense of strain and discomfort in
pronouncing or hearing).
Rhyme
Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combinations of words.
Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are
usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.
Identity and particularly similarity of sound combinations may be relative. We distinguish
between full rhymes and incomplete rhymes. The full rhyme presupposes identity of the
vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in a stressed syllable, as in might,
right;needless, heedless. When there is identity of the stressed syllable, including the initial
consonant of the second syllable (in polysyllabic words), we have exact or identical rhymes.
Incomplete rhymes present a greater variety. They can be divided into two main groups: vowel
rhymes and consonant rhymes. In vowel rhymes the vowels of the syllables in corresponding
words are identical, but the consonants may be different, as in flesh— fresh—press.
Consonant rhymes, on the contrary, show concordance in consonants and disparity in vowels,
as in worth—forth; tale—tool— Treble—trouble; flung—long.
According to the way the rhymes are arranged within the stanza, certain models have
crystallized, for instance:
1. couplets —when the last words of two successive lines are rhymed. This is commonly
marked aa.
2. triple rhymes—aaa
3. cross rhymes—abab
4. framing or ring rhymes—abba
There is still another variety of rhyme which is called internal rhyme. "I bring fresh showers for
the thirsting flowers." (Shelley).
Internal rhyme breaks the line into two distinct parts, at the same time more strongly
consolidating the ideas expressed in these two parts.
The distinctive function of rhyme is particularly felt when it occurs unexpectedly in ordinary
27
speech or in prose. The listener's attention is caught by the rhyme and he may lose the thread
of the discourse.
Rhythm
Rhythm exists in all spheres of human activity and assumes multifarious forms. It is a mighty
weapon in stirring up emotions whatever its nature or origin, whether it is musical- mechanical,
or symmetrical, as in architecture.
Rhythm can be perceived only provided that there is some kind of experience in catching the
opposite elements or features in their correlation, and, what is of paramount importance,
experience in catching the regularity of alternating patterns. Rhythm is primarily periodicity,
which requires specification as to the type of periodicity. According to some investigations,
rhythmical periodicity in verse "requires intervals of about three quarters of a second between
successive peaks of periods." It is a deliberate arrangement of speech into regularly recurring
units intended to be grasped as a definite periodicity which makes rhythm a stylistic device.
Rhythm, therefore, is the main factor which brings order into the utterance. The influence of the
rhythm on the semantic aspect of theutterance is now being carefully investigated and it
becomes apparent that orderly phonetic arrangement of the utterance calls forth orderly
syntactical structures which, in their turn, suggest an orderly segmenting of the sense-groups.
The conscious perception of rhythms must be acquired by training, as must the perception of
any stylistic device.
Rhythm in language necessarily demands oppositions that alternate: long, short; stressed,
unstressed; high, low; and other contrasting segments of speech.
Academician V. M. Zirmunsky suggests that the concept of rhythm should be distinguished from
that of metre. Metre is any form of periodicity in verse, its kind being determined by the
character and number of syllables of which it consists. The metre is an ideal phenomenon
characterized by its strict regularity, consistency and unchangeability. Rhythm is flexible and
sometimes an effort is required to perceive it. In classical verse it is perceived at the
background of the metre. In accented verse—by the number of stresses in a line.In prose - by
the alternation of similar syntactical patterns. He gives the following definition of verse rhythm. It
is "the actual alternation of stress which appears as a result of interaction between the ideal
metrical law and the natural phonetic properties of the given language material."
The most observable rhythmical patterns in prose are based on the use of certain stylistic
syntactical devices, namely, enumeration, repetition, parallel construction (in particular,
balance) and chiasmus.
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To create additional information in a prose discourse sound-instrumenting is seldom
used. In contemporary advertising, mass media and, above all, imaginative prose sound is
foregrounded mainly through the change of its accepted graphical representation. This
intentional violation of the graphical shape of a word (or word combination) used to reflect its
authentic pronunciation is called graphon.
Graphons, indicating irregularities or carelessness of pronunciation were occasionally
introduced into English novels and journalism as early as the beginning of the eighteenth
century and since then have acquired an ever growing frequency of usage, popularity among
writers, journalists, advertizers, and a continuously widening scope of functions.
Graphon proved to be an extremely concise but effective means of supplying information
about the speaker’s origin, social and educational background, physical or emotional condition,
etc. So, when the famous Thackeray’s character — butler Yellowplush — impresses his
listeners
with
the
learned
words
pronouncing
them
as
“sellybrated”(celebrated),
“bennyviolent” (benevolent), “illygitmit” (illegitimate), “jewinile” (juvenile), or when the no
less famous Mr. Babbitt uses “peerading” (parading), “Eytalians” (Italians), “peepul”
(people) — the reader obtains not only the vivid image and the social, cultural, educational
characteristics of the personages, but also both Thackeray’s and S. Lewis’ sarcastic attitude to
them.
Graphon, thus individualizing the character’s speech, adds to his plausibility, vividness,
memorability. At the same time, graphon is very good at conveying the atmosphere of authentic
live communication, of the informality of the speech act. Some amalgamated forms, which are
the result of strong assimilation, became cliches in contemporary prose dialogue: “gimme” (give
me), “lemme” (letme), “gonna” (going to), “gotta” (got to), “coupla” (couple of), “mighta” (might
have), “willya” (will you), etc.
This flavour of informality and authenticity brought graphon popularity with advertisers.
Big and small eating places invite customers to attend their “Pik-kwik store”, or “The Donut
(doughnut) Place”, or the “Rite Bread Shop”, or the “Wok-in Fast Food Restaurant”, etc.
Graphical changes may reflect not only the peculiarities of, pronunciation, but are also used to
convey the intensity of the stress, emphasizing and thus foregrounding the stressed words. To
such purely graphical means, not involving the violations, we should refer all changes of the
type (italics, capitalization), spacing of graphemes (hyphenation, multiplication) and of lines.
According to the frequency of usage, variability of functions, the first place among
graphical means of foregrounding is occupied by italics. Besides italicizing words, to add to their
logical or emotive significance, separate syllables and morphemes may also be emphasized by
italics (which is highly characteristic of D. Salinger or T. Capote). Intensity of speech (often in
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commands) is transmitted through the multiplication of a grapheme or capitalization of the word,
as in Babbitt’s shriek “Alllllaboarrrrrd”, or in the desperate appeal in A. Huxley’s Brave New
World — “Help. Help. HELP.” Hyphenation of a word suggests the rhymed or clipped manner in
which it is uttered as in the humiliating comment from Fl. O’Connor’s story — “grinning like a
chim-pan-zee”.
Summing up the informational options of the graphical arrangement of a word (a line, a
discourse), one sees their varied application for recreating the individual and social peculiarities
of the speaker, the atmosphere of the communication act — all aimed at revealing and
emphasizing the author’s viewpoint.
LESSON 6
LEXICAL EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES
MEANING FROM A STYLISTIC POINT OF VIEW
Stylistics is a domain where meaning assumes paramount importance. This is so because the
term 'meaning' is applied not only to words, word-combinations, sentences but also to the
manner of expression into which the matter is cast.
"The linguistic term meaning has been “defined in so many ways that there appears an urgent
need to clarify it; particularly in view of the fact that in so many lexical, grammatical and
phonetic SDs this category is treated differently. Stylistic device is mainly realized when a
twofold application of meaning is apparent.
The problem of meaning in general linguistics deals mainly with such aspects of the term as the
interrelation between meaning and concept, meaning and sign, meaning and referent. The
general tendency is to regard meaning as something stable at a given period of time. This is
reasonable, otherwise no dictionary would be able to cope with the problem of defining the
meaning of words. Moreover, no communication would be possible.
In stylistics meaning is also viewed as a category which is able to acquire meanings imposed on
the words by the context. That is why such "meanings are called contextual meanings. This
category also takes under observation meanings which have fallen out of use.
In stylistics it is important to discriminate shades or nuances of meaning, to atomize the
meaning, the component parts of which are now called the seme, i.e. the smallest units of which
meaning of a Word consists.
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In the analysis of SDs, it is veryimportant to discriminate between the meanings of a given
word or construction in order to adequately comprehend the idea and purport of a passage and
of a complete work.
It is now common knowledge that lexical meaning differs from grammatical meaning in more
than one way. Lexical meaning refers the mind to some concrete concept, phenomenon, or
thing of objective reality, whether real or imaginary. Lexical meaning is thus a means by which a
word-form is made to express a definite concept.
Grammatical meaning refers our mind to relations between words or to some forms of words or
constructions bearing upon their structural functions in the language-as-a-system. Grammatical
meaning can thus be adequately called "structural meaning".
There are no words which are deprived of grammatical meaning inasmuch as all words belong
to some system and consequently have their place in the system, and also inasmuch as they
always function in speech displaying their functional properties. It is the same with sentences.
Every sentence has its own independent structural meaning. This structural meaning may in
some cases be influenced or affected by the lexical meanings of the components or by
intonation. In the sentence 'I shall never go to that place again, we have a number of words with
lexical meanings (never, go, place, again) and words with only grammatical meaning (/, shall,
that) and also the meaning of the whole sentence, which is defined as a structure in statement
form.
But each of the meanings, being closely interwoven and interdependent, can nonethe less be
regarded as relatively autonomous and therefore be analyzed separately.
It is significant that words acquire different status when analyzed in isolation or in the sentence.
This double aspect causes in the long run the growth of the semantic structure of a word,
especially when the two aspects frequently interweave.
Words can be classed according to different principles: morphological "(parts of speech),
semantic (synonyms, antonyms, thematic), stylistic, and other types of classification. In each of
these classifications lexical or/and grammatical meanings assume different manifestations. In a
morphological classification words are grouped according to their grammatical meanings; in a
semantic classification, according to their logical (referential) meanings, in a stylistic
classification, according to their stylistic meaning.
Lexical meanings are closely related to concepts. They are sometimes identified with concepts.
But concept is a purely logical category, whereas meaning is a linguistic one. In linguistics it is
necessary to view meaning as the representation of a concept through one of its properties.
Concept, as is known, is versatile; it is characterized by a number of properties. Meaning takes
one of these properties and makes it represent the concept as a whole. Therefore meaning in
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reference to concept becomes, as it were, a kind of metonymy. This statement is significant
inasmuch as it will further explain the stylistic function of certain meanings. One and the same
concept can be represented in a number of linguistic manifestations (meanings).
The variability of "meanings caused by the multifarious practical application of the basic
(fundamental) meaning when used in speech has led to the birth of a notion known as
polysemanticism. This is a linguistic category which contains a great degree of ambiguity. On
the one hand, we perceive meaning as a representation of a definite concept by means of a
word. On the other hand, we state that the same concept may be expressed by different
meanings all belonging to the same word.Still more confusing is the well-recognized fact that
different concepts may be expressed by one and the same word.
The ability of a word to be polysemantic, i.e. to comprise several lexical meanings, becomes a
crucial issue for stylistic studies. It must be clearly understood that the multitude of meanings
that a word may have is not limited by dictionaries where this multitude has already been
recognized and fixed. Some meanings, which for the time being have not as yet been
recognized as legitimate members of the semantic structure of the given word, may, in the
course of time, through frequent use become such and subsequently become fixed in
dictionaries.
A stylistic approach to the issue in question takes into consideration the fact that every word, no
matter how rich in meanings it may be, leaves the door open for new shades and nuances and
even for independent meanings. True, such meanings are not always easily accepted as
normal. Moreover, many of them are rejected both by scholars and the people and therefore are
not recognized as facts of language. Such meanings become obscure in the family of lexical
meanings of a word; they can only be traced back to the original use. However, some of these
meanings are occasionally re-established in the vocabulary at a later time.
Three types of meaning can be distinguished, which we shall call logical, emotive and
nominal respectively.
Logical meaning is the precise naming of a feature of the idea, phenomenon orobject, the
name by which we recognize the whole of the concept. This meaning is also synonymously
called referential meaning or direct meaning. Referential meanings are liable to change. As a
result the referential meanings of one word may denote different concepts. It is therefore necessary to distinguish between primary and secondary referential, or logical, meaning.
Thus, the, adverb inwardly has the primary logical meaning of 'internally', or 'within'. Its
secondary logical meanings are: 'towards the centre', 'mentally', 'secretly', which are to some
extent derived from the primary meaning. Some dictionaries give a very extended list of primary
and secondary logical meanings, and it is essential for stylistic purposes to distinguish them, as
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some stylistic devices are built on the interplay of primary and secondary logical meanings.All
the meanings fixed by authoritative English and American dictionaries comprise what is called
the semantic structure of the word. The meanings that are to be found in speech or writing and
which are accidental should not be regarded as components of the semantic structure of the
word. They may be transitory, inasmuch as they depend on the context. They are contextual
meanings. Such meanings are therefore also called derivative meanings.
Let us compare the meanings of the word presence in the following two sentences.
"The governor said that he would not allow the presence of federal troops on the soil of his
State."
"...the General has been faced with the problem of the country's presence on foreign soil, the
stubborn resistance of officers and officials..."
In the first sentence the word presence merely means '...the state of being present', whereas in
the second sentence the meaning of the word expands into '...occupation', i. e. the seizure and
control of an area, especially foreign territory, by military forces.
The first meaning is the dictionary meaning of the word. The second meaning is a contextual.
When the two meanings clearly co-exist in the utterance, we say there is an interaction of
dictionary and contextual meanings. When only one meaning is perceived by the reader, we are
sure to find this meaning in dictionaries as a derivative one.
Emotive meaning of wordsplays an important role in stylistics. Therefore it should never be
underrated. A very Keen eye or 'ear will-always distinguish elements of emotive meaning.
Emotional colouring may be regarded as a rudimentary stage of emotive meaning.
Nominal meaning is a derivative logical meaning. To distinguish nominal meaning from
logical meaning the former is designated by a capital letter. Such words as .Smith Longfellow,
Everest, Black Sea, Thames, Byron are said to have nominal meaning. The logical meaning
from which they originate may in the course of time be forgotten and therefore not easily traced
back. Most proper names have nominal meanings which may be regarded as homonyms of
common nouns with their logical or emotive meanings, as Hope, Browning, Taylor, Scotland,
Black, Chandler, Chester (from the Latin word castra - 'camp'). Hence logical meanings which
nominate an object, at the same time signify the whole class of these objects.
LESSON7
INTERACTION OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF LEXICAL MEANING
INTERACTION OF PRIMARY DICTIONARY AND CONTEXTUALLY IMPOSED MEANINGS
33
Words in context, as has been pointed out, may acquire additional lexical meanings not
fixed in dictionaries, i.e. contextual meanings. The latter may sometimes deviate from the
dictionary meaning to such a degree that the new meaning even becomes the opposite of the
primary meaning. This is especially the case when we deal with transferred meanings.
Transferred meaning is practically the interrelation between two types of lexical meaning:
dictionary and contextual. The contextual meaning will always depend on the dictionary (logical)
meaning to a greater or lesser extent. When the deviation from the acknowledged meaning is
carried to a degree that it causes an unexpected turn in the recognized logical meanings, we
register a stylistic device.
The transferred meaning of a word may be fixed in dictionaries as a result of long and
frequent use of the word other than in its primary meaning. In this case we register a derivative
meaning of the word. The term 'transferred' points to the process of formation of the derivative
meaning.
When, however, we perceive two meanings of a word simultaneously, we are confronted with a
stylistic device in which the two meanings interact.
The interaction or interplay between the primary dictionary meaning (the meaning which
is registered in the language code as an easily recognized sign for an abstract notion
designating a certain phenomenon or object) and a meaning which is imposed on the word by a
micro-context may be maintained along different lines. One line is when the author identifies two
objects which have nothing in common, but in which he subjectively sees a function, or a
property, or a feature, or a quality that may make the reader perceive these two objects as
identical. Another line is when the author finds it possible to substitute one object for another on
the grounds that there is some kind of interdependence or interrelation between the two
corresponding objects. A third line is when a certain property or quality of an object is used in an
oppositeor contradictory sense.
The stylistic device based on the principle of identification of two objects is called a
metaphor. The SD based on the principle of substitution of one object for another is called
metonymy and the SD based on contrary concepts is called irony.
METAPHOR
The term 'metaphor', as the etymology of the word reveals, means transference of some quality
from one object to another. From the times of ancient Greek and Roman rhetoric, the term has
been known to denotethe transference of meaning from one word to another. It is still widely
34
used to designate the process in which a word acquires a derivative meaning. Language as a
whole has been figuratively defined as a dictionary of faded metaphors.
Thus by transference of meaning the words grasp, get and see come to have the derivative
meaning of understand. When these words are used with that meaning we can only register the
derivative meaning existing in the semantic structures of the words. Though the derivative
meaning is metaphorical in origin, there is no stylistic effect because the primary meaning is no
longer felt.
A metaphor becomes a stylistic device when two different phenomena (things, events, ideas,
actions) are simultaneously brought to mind by the imposition of some or all of the inherent
properties of one object on the other which by nature is deprived of these properties. Such an
imposition generally results when the creator of the metaphor finds in the two corresponding
objects certain features which to his eye have something in common.
I.R. Galperin suggests defining metaphor as the power of realizing two lexical meanings
simultaneously.Due to this power metaphor is one of the most potent means of creating images.
An image is a sensory perception of an abstract notion already existing in the mind.
Consequently, to create an image means to bring a phenomenon from the highly abstract to the
essentially concrete. Thus in the example "Dear Nature is the kindest Mother still"
(Byron)where the two concepts Mother and Nature are brought-together in the interplayof their
meanings, brings up the image of Nature materialized into but not likened to the image of
Mother. The identification is most clearly observed when the metaphor is embodied either in an
attributive word, as in pearly teeth, voiceless sounds, or in a predicative word-combination, as in
the example with Nature and Mother. In this case we deal with conceptual metaphor.
Metaphors, like all stylistic devices, can be classified according to their degree of
unexpectedness. Thus metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, i.e. are quite unpredictable,
are called genuine metaphors. Those which are commonly used in speech and therefore are
sometimes even fixed in dictionaries as expressive means of language are trite metaphors, or
dead metaphors. Their predictability therefore is apparent. Genuine metaphors are regarded as
belonging to language-in-action, i.e. speech metaphors; trite metaphors belong to the languageas-a-system, i.e. language proper, and are usually fixed in dictionaries as units of the language.
The metaphor is often defined as a compressed simile. But this definition lacks precision.
Moreover, it is misleading, inasmuch as the metaphor aims at identifying the objects, while the
simile aims at finding some point of resemblance by keeping the objects apart. That is why
these two stylistic devices are viewed as belonging to two different groups of SDs. They are
different in their linguistic nature.The degree of identification of objects or phenomena in a metaphor varies according to its syntactic function in the sentence and to the part of speech in which
35
it is embodied.
The constant use of a metaphor gradually leads to the breaking up of the primary meaning. The
metaphoric use of the word begins to affect the dictionary meaning, adding to it fresh
connotations or shades of meaning. But this influence, however strong it may be, will never
reach the degree where the dictionary meaning entirely disappears. If it did, we should have no
stylistic device. It is a law of stylistics that in a stylistic device the stability of the dictionary
meaning is always retained, no matter how great the influence of the contextual meaning may
be.
METONYMY
Metonymy is based on a different type of relation between the dictionary and contextual
meanings, a relation based not on identification, but on some kind of association connecting the
two concepts which these meanings represent.
Thus, the word crown may stand for 'king or queen',cup or glass for 'the drink it contains',the
bench- as a generic term for 'magistrates and justices',a hand is used for a worker,the
cradlestands for infancy, earliest stages, place of origin, and the grave stands for death.
Metonymy used in language-in-action, i.e. contextual metonymy, is genuine metonymy and
reveals a quite unexpected substitution of one word for another, or one concept for another, on
the ground of some strong impression produced by a chance feature of the thing
Many attempts have been made to pin-point the types of relation which metonymy is based on.
Among them the following are most common:
 A concrete thing used instead of an abstract notion. In this case the thing becomes a
symbol of the notion, as in "The camp, the pulpit and the lawfor rich men's sons are
free." (Shelley)
 The container instead of the thing contained: The hall applauded.
 The relation of proximity, as in:
"The round game table was boisterous and happy." (Dickens)
 The material instead of the thing made of it, as in: "The marble spoke."
 The instrument which the doer uses in performing the action instead of the action or the
doer himself, as in:
"Well, Mr. Weller, says the gentleman, you're a very good whip, and can do what you
like with your horses, we know." (Dickens)
There are many other types of relations which may serve as a basis for metonymy.
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It must also be noted that metonymy, being a means of building up imagery, generally concerns
concrete objects, which are generalized. The process of generalization is easily carried out with
the help of the definite article. Therefore instances of metonymy are very often used with the
definite article, or with no article at all.
IRONY
Irony is a stylistic device also based on the simultaneous realization of two logical meanings—
dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings stand in opposition to each other. For example,
"It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one's
pocket."
Irony can be of three types: verbal, dramatic and situational.
Verbal irony is the most common type of irony. Verbal irony is when a character or person says
something, but means the exact opposite. This type of irony is used to create humor, make a
point, or be mean. Verbal irony can also be called sarcasm if the speaker is making fun of
somebody. Sarcasm is very popular in everyday language. Ex, Nick just got an F on his test.
Maria looks at Nick and says, "Good job! You must have studied hard."Maria is using verbal
irony to be sarcastic.Dramatic Irony is a type of irony often found in humorous and suspenseful
literature or movies. Dramatic irony is when the audience is aware of something that the
character is not. Ex, While watching a suspenseful movie, the audience sees the bad guy enter
a house, turn off the electricity, and hide in a dark room. Then, the main character walks into the
dark house alone. The character does not know that the bad guy is in the room, but the
audience does. This creates suspense or drama because the audience knows something that
the character does not.
The final type of irony is situational irony. Situational irony is when you expect one thing to
happen but get the exact opposite. One great example of situational irony can be found in O.
Henry's ''The Gift of the Magi''.
LESSON 8
INTERACTION OF PRIMARY AND DERIVATIVE LOGICAL MEANINGS
37
STYLISTIC DEVICES BASED ON POLYSEMANTIC EFFECT: ZEUGMA AND PUN
Zeugma is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to two
adjacent words in the context, the semebeing on the one hand, literal, and, on the other,
transferred.
"Dora, plunging at once into privileged intimacy and into the middle of the room"(B.
Shaw).
'To plunge' (into the middle of a room) materializes the meaning to rush into' or 'enter
impetuously'. Here it is used in its concrete, primary, literal meaning; in 'to plunge into privileged
intimacy' the word 'plunge' is used in its derivative meaning.
Or'' Have you seen spirits or have taken any?
This stylistic device is particularly favoured in English emotive prose and in poetry. The revival
of the original meanings of words must be regarded as an essential quality of work in the belleslettres style.
Zeugmaisastrong, and effective device to maintain the purity of the primary meaning when the
two meanings clash. By making the two meanings conspicuous in this particular way, each of
them stands out clearly.
Pun is another stylistic device based on the interaction of two words or phrases. It is difficult to
draw clear distinction between zeugma and the pun. The pun is more independent. There need
not necessarily be a word in the sentence to which the pun-word refers. This does not mean,
however, that the pun is entirely free. Like any other stylistic device, it must depend on a
context. But the context may be of a more expanded character sometimes even as large as a
whole work of emotive prose. Thus the title of one of Oscar Wilde's plays, "The Importance of
Being Earnest" has a pun in it, inasmuch as the name of the hero and the adjective meaning
'seriously-minded' are both present in our mind.
Puns are often used in riddles and jokes, for example, in this riddle: What is the difference
between a schoolmaster and an engine-driver? (One trains the mind and the other minds
the train.)
INTERACTION OF LOGICAL AND EMOTIVE MEANINGS
There are words the function of which is to arouse emotion in the leader or listener. Some
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emotive words have become the recognized symbols of emotions; the emotions are, as it were,
not expressed directly but referred to.
"The sensory stage of cognition of objective reality is not only the basis of abstract thinking, it
also accompanies it, bringing the elements of sensory stimuli into the process of conceptual
thinking, and thus defining the sensory grounds of the concepts as well as the combination of
sensory images and logical concepts in a single act of thinking.
INTERJECTIONS AND EXCLAMATORY WORDS
Interjections are words we use when we express our feelings strongly and which may be said
to exist in language as correlational symbols of human emotions.In traditional grammars the
interjection is regarded as a part of speech, alongside other parts of speech, as the noun,
adjective, verb, etc. But there is another view which regards the interjection not as a part of
speech but as a sentence. There is much to uphold this view. Indeed, a word taken separately
is deprived of any intonation which will suggest a complete idea, that is, a pronouncement;
whereas a word- interjection will always manifest a definite attitude on the part of the speaker
towards the problem and therefore have intonation. The pauses between words are very brief,
sometimes hardly perceptible, whereas the pause between" the interjection and the words that
follow is so long, so significant that it may be equalled to the pauses between sentences.
However, a closer investigation into the nature and functions of the interjection proves beyond
doubt that the interjection is not a sentence; it is a word with strong emotive meaning. The
pauses that frame interjections can be accounted for by the sudden transfer from the emotional
to the logical or vice versa.
Interjections can be divided into primary and derivative. Primary interjections are generally
devoid of any logical meaning. Derivative interjections may retain a modicum of logical
meaning, though this is always suppressed by the volume of emotive meaning. Oft! AhlBahl
Pooh!Hush! Alas!are primary interjections, though some of them once had logical meaning.
'Heavens!', 'good gracious!', 'dear me!', 'God!', 'Come on!', 'Look here!', 'dear!', 'by the Lord!',
'God knows!', 'Bless me!', 'Humbug!' and many others of this kind are not interjections as such;
a better name for them would be exclamatory words and word-combinations generally used as
interjections.
It must be noted here that some adjectives, nouns and adverbs can also take on the function of
interjections—for example, such words as terrible!, awful!, great!', wonderful!, splendid!', fine!,
man!, boy! With proper intonation and with an adequate pause such as follows an interjection,
these words may acquire a strong emotional colouring and are equal in force to interjections. In
39
that case we may say that some adjectives and adverbs have acquired an additional
grammatical meaning, that of the interjection.
THE EPITHET
The epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an
attributive word/phrase and used to characterize an object pointing out to the reader, and
frequently imposing on him, some of the properties or features of the object with the aim of
giving an individual perception and evaluation of these features or properties. The epithet is
markedly subjective and evaluative. The logical attribute is purely objective, non-evaluating. It is
descriptive and indicates an inherent or prominent feature of the thing or phenomenon in
question.
Thus, in 'green meadows', 'white snow', 'round table', 'blue skies', 'pale complexion', 'lofty
mountains' and the like,- the adjectives are more logical attributes than epithets. They indicate
those qualities of the objects which may be regarded as generally recognized. But in 'wild
wind', 'loud ocean', 'remorseless dash of billows', 'formidable waves', 'heart-burning
smile', the adjectives do not point to inherent qualities of the objects described. They are
subjectively evaluative.The epithet makes a strong impact on the reader.
Epithets may be classified from different standpoints: semantic and structural. Semantically,
epithets may be divided into two groups: those associated with the noun following and those
unassociated with it.
The associated epithet immediately refers the mind to the concept in question due to some
actual quality of the object it is attached to, for instance, 'dark forest, 'dreary midnight',
'careful attention', 'unwearyingly research', 'fantastic terrors', etc.
Unassociated epithets are attributes used to characterize the object by adding a feature not
inherent in it, i.e. a feature which may be so unexpected as to strike the reader by its novelty,
as, for instance, 'heartburning smile', 'bootless cries', 'sullen earth', 'voiceless sands', etc.
The adjectives here do not indicate any property inherent in the objects in question. They
impose, as it were, a property on them which is fitting only in the given circumstances. It may
seem strange, unusual, or even accidental.
The function of epithets of this kind remains basically the same: "to show the evaluating,
subjective attitude of the writer towards the thing described.
This inner semantic quality of the attributive relations in lexical combinations, as they are called
40
by O. S. Akhmanova, is, perhaps, most striking in the phrase and sentence epithets. Here are
some examples of phrase epithets:
"Personally I detest her (Gioconda's) smug, mystery-making, Qome-hither-but-go-awayagain-because-butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth expression.
Another distributional model is the transferred epithet. Transferred epithets are ordinary logical
attributes generally describing the state of a human being, but made to refer to an inanimate
object, for example: "sick chamber, sleepless pillow, restless pace, breathless eagerness,
tinbreakfasted morning, merry hours, a disapproving finger.
The meaning of the logical attributes in such combinations acquires a definite emotional
colouring.
OXYMORON
Oxymoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb with an
adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense, for example:
'low skyscraper', 'sweet sorrow', 'nice rascal', 'pleasantly ugly face', 'a deafening silence'.
The essence of oxymoron consists in the capacity of the primary meaning of the adjective or
adverb to resist for some time the overwhelming power of semantic change which words
undergo in combination. The forcible combination of non-combinative words seems to develop
what may be called a kind of centrifugal force which keeps them apart, in contrast to ordinary
word-combinations where centripetal force is in action.
LESSON 9
INTERACTION OF LOGICAL AND NOMINAL MEANINGS
INTENSIFICATION OF A CERTAIN FEATURE OF A THING OR PHENOMENON
ANTONOMASIA
The interplay between the logical and nominal meanings of a word is called
antonomasia. The two kinds of meanings must be realized in the word simultaneously. If only
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one meaning is materialized in the context, there is no stylistic device, as in hooligan, boycott.
We easily recognize such words as Smith, White, Brown, Green, Fowler and others as proper
names. But such names as Miss Sharp or Mr. Zero may be called token or telling names. They
give some information to the reader about the bearer of the name. The nominal meaning is not
intended to give any information about the person. It only serves the purpose of identification.
Antonomasia is intended to point out the leading, most characteristic feature of a person or
event, at the same time pinning this leading trait as a proper name to the person or event
concerned.
Antonomasia may be likened to the epithet in essence if not in form. It categorizes the
person and thus simultaneously indicates both the general and the particular.
"I say this to our American friends. Mr. Facing-Both-Ways does not get very far in this
world." (The Times)
EUPHEMISM
There is a variety of periphrasis which is called euphemistic.Euphemismis a word or phrase
used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a conventionally more acceptable one, for
example, the word 'to die' has bred the following euphemisms: to pass away, to expire, to be no
more, to depart, to join the majority, to be gone, and the more facetious ones: to kick the bucket,
to give up the ghost, to go west.
The linguistic peculiarity of euphemism lies in the fact that every euphemism must call up a
definite synonym in the mind of the reader or listener. This synonym, or dominant in a group of
synonyms, as it is often called, must follow the euphemism like a shadow, as 'to possess a vivid
imagination', or 'to tell stories' in the proper context will call up the unpleasant verb to lie. The
euphemistic synonyms given above are part of the language-as-a-system. They have not been
freshly invented. They are expressive means of the language and are to be found in all good
dictionaries. They cannot be regarded as stylistic devices because they do not call to mind the
keyword or dominant of the group; in other words, they refer the mind to the concept directly,
not through the medium of another word.
Euphemisms may be divided into several groups according to their spheres of application. The
most recognized are the following: 1) religious, 2) moral, 3) medical and 4) parliamentary.
The life of euphemisms is short. They very soon become closely associated with the referent
(the object named) and give way to a newly-coined word or combination of words, which, being
the sign of a sign, throws another veil over an unpleasant or indelicate concept.
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HYPERBOLE
Another SD which also has the function of intensifying one certain property of the object
described is hyperbole. It can be defined as a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a
feature essential (unlike periphrasis) to the object or phenomenon. In its extreme form this
exaggeration is carried to an illogical degree, sometimes ad absurdum. For example:
"Those three words (Dombey and Son) conveyed the one idea of Mr. Dombey's life. The earth
was made for Dombey and Son to trade in and the sun and moon were made to give them light.
Rivers and seas were formed to float their ships; rainbows gave them promise of fair weather;
winds blew for or against their enterprises; stars and planets circled in their orbits to preserve
inviolate a system of which they were the centre." (Dickens)
Hyperbole is a device which sharpens the reader's ability to make a logical assessment of the
utterance. This is achieved, as is the case with other devices, by awakening the dichotomy of
thought and feeling where thought takes the upper hand though not to the detriment of feeling.
Hyperbole is aimed at exaggerating quantity or quality. When it is directed the opposite
way, when the size, shape, dimensions, characteristic features of the object are hot overrated,
but intentionally underrated, we deal with understatement. The mechanism of its creation and
functioning is identical with that of hyperbole, and it does not signify the actual state’ of affairs in
reality, but presents the latter through the emotionally coloured perception and rendering of the
speaker. It is not the actual diminishing or growing of the object that is conveyed by a hyperbole
or understatement. It is a transient subjective impression that finds its realization in these SDs.
They differ only in the direction of the flow of roused emotions. English is well known for its
preference for understatement in everyday speech — “I am rather annoyed” instead of “I’m
infuriated”, “The wind is rather strong” instead of “There’s a gale blowing outside” are
typical of British polite speech, but are less characteristic of American English.
Some hyperboles and understatements (both used individually and as the final effect of
some other SD) have become fixed, as we have in “Snow White”, or “Liliput”, or
“Gargantua”.
THE CLICHE
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A cliche is generally defined as an expression that has become hackneyed and trite. As
Random House Dictionary has it, "a cliche ... has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long
over-use..."
This definition lacks one point that should be emphasized; that is, a cliche strives after
originality, whereas it has lost the aesthetic generating power it once had. There is always a
contradiction between what is aimed at and what is actually attained. Examples of real cliches
are 'rosy dreams of youth', 'the patter of little feet', 'deceptively simple'.
Definitions taken from various dictionaries show that cliche is a derogatory term and it is
therefore necessary to avoid anything that may be called by that name. But the fact is that most
of the widely recognized word-combinations which have been adopted by the language are
unjustly classified as cliches. The aversion for cliches has gone so far that most of the lexical
units based on simile are branded as cliches.
PROVERBS AND SAYINGS
Proverbs and sayings are facts of language. They are collected in dictionaries. There are
special dictionaries of proverbs and sayings. It is impossible to arrange proverbs and sayings in
a form that would present a pattern even though they have some typical features by which it is
possible to determine whether or not we are dealing with one. These typical features are:
rhythm, sometimes rhyme and/or alliteration. But the most characteristic feature of a proverb or
a saying lies not |in its formal linguistic expression, but in the content-form of the utterance. As
is known, a proverb or a saying is a peculiar mode of utterance which is mainly characterized by
its brevity.
Proverbs and sayings have certain purely linguistic features which must always be taken into
account in order to distinguish them from ordinary sentences. Proverbs are brief statements
showing in condensed form the accumulated life experience of the community and serving as
conventional practical symbols for abstract ideas. They are usually didactic and image bearing.
Many of them through frequency of repetition have become polished and wrought into verse-like
shape, as in the following:
"to cut one's coat according to one's cloth."
"Early to bed and early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."
This device is used not only in the belles-lettres style. Here are some instances from
newspapers and magazines illustrating the stylistic use of proverbs, sayings and other word44
combinations:
"...and whether the Ministry of Economrc Warfare is being allowed enough financial rope to do
its worst." (from 'Give a thief rope enough and he'll hang himself).
"The waters will remain sufficiently troubled for somebody's fishing to be profitable" (Economist)
(from 'It is good fishing in troubled waters').
EPIGRAMS
An epigram is a stylistic device akin to a proverb. Epigrams are coined by individuals whose
names we know, while proverbs are the coinage of the people. In other words, we are always
aware of the parentage of an epigram and therefore, when using one, we usually make a
reference to its author.
Epigrams are terse, witty, pointed statements, showing the ingenious turn of mind of the
originator. Epigrams possess a great degree of independence and therefore, if taken out of the
context, will retain the wholeness of the idea they express.
Writers who seek aesthetic precision use the epigram abundantly; others use it to characterize
the hero of their work. Somerset Maugham is particularly fond of it and many of his novels and
stories abound in epigrams. Here are some from "The Painted Veil."
"He that bends shall be made straight."
"Failure is the foundation of success and success is the lurkingplace of failure..."
QUOTATIONS
A quotation is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech and the like used by
way of authority, illustration, proof or as a basis for further speculation on the matter in hand.
By repeating a passage in a new environment, we attach to the utterance an importance it might
not have had in the context whence it was taken. Moreover, we give it the status, temporary
though it may be, of a stable language unit. What is quoted must be worth quoting, since a
quotation will inevitably acquire some degree of generalization. Quotations are usually marked
off in the text by inverted commas (" "), dashes (—), italics or other graphical means.
They are mostly used accompanied by a reference to the author of the quotation, unless he is
well known to the reader or audience. The reference is made either in the text or in a foot-note
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and assumes various forms, as, for instance:
"as (so and so) has it"; "(So and so) once said that"...; "Here we quote (so and so)".
A quotation is the exact reproduction of an actual utterance made by a certain author. The work
containing the utterance quoted must have been published or at least spoken in public; for
quotations are echoes of somebody else's words.
ALLUSIONS
An allusion is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary, mythological,
biblical fact or to "a fact ofeveryday life made in the course of speaking or writing. The use of
allusion presupposes knowledge of the fact, thing or person alluded to on the part of the reader
or listener. As a rule no indication of the source is given. This is one of the notable differences
between quotation and allusion. Another difference is of a structural nature: a quotation must
repeat the exact wording of the original even though the meaning may be modified by the new
context; an allusion is only a mention of a word or phrase which may be regarded as the keyword of the utterance. An allusion has certain important semantic peculiarities, in that the
meaning of the word (the allusion) should be regarded as a form for the new meaning. In other
words, the primary meaning of the word or phrase which is assumed to be known (i.e. the
allusion) serves as a vessel into which new meaning is poured. So here there is also a kind of
interplay between two meanings.
An illustrative example for the quotation-allusion may serve the last sentence taken from
Somerset Maugham's novel "The Painted Veil". The last words uttered by the dying man are
"The dog it was that died." These are the concluding lines of Goldsmith's "Elegy on the Death
of a Mad Dog." Unless the reader knows the Elegy, he will not understand the implication
embodied in this quotation. Consequently, the quotation here becomes an allusion which runs
through the whole plot of the novel. Moreover, the psychological tuning of the novel can be
deciphered only by drawing a parallel between the poem and the plot of the novel.
The main character is dying, having failed to revenge himself upon his unfaithful wife. He was
punished by death for having plotted evil. This is the inference to be drawn from the allusion.
DECOMPOSITION OF SET PHRASES
Linguistic fusions are set phrases, the meaning of which is understood only from the
combination as a whole, as to pull a person's leg or to have something at one's finger tips.
The meaning of the whole cannot be derived from the meanings of the component parts. The
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stylistic device of decomposition of fused set phrases consists in reviving the independent
meanings which make up the component parts of the fusion. In other words, it makes each word
of the combination acquire its literal meaning which, of course, in many cases leads to the
realization of an absurdity. Here is an example of
"They wounded two doves with one stone. It's not Obama's fault he attracts such absurd kneejerk adulation from the world's elites, all for a series of compelling speeches and pledges to
cooperate with the world community... Now, the prize is officially a late-night joke." (New York
Daily News, December 10, 2009).
In this example the proverb to kill two birds with one stoneis decomposed into they wounded
two doves with one stone.
LESSON 10
SYNTACTICAL EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES
Stylistics takes as the object of its analysis the expressive means and stylistic devices of the
language which are based on some significant structural point in an utterance, whether it
consists of one sentence or a string of sentences
STYLISTIC INVERSION
Word-order is a crucial syntactical problem in many languages. In English it has peculiarities
which have been caused by the concrete and specific way the language has developed. O.
Jespersen states that the English language "...has developed a tolerably fired word-order which
in the great majority of cases shows without fail what is the Subject of the sentence."
The folIowing types of inversion are most frequently met in both English prose and English
poetry.
1. The object is placed at the beginning of the sentence
2. Theattribute is placed after the word it modifies (postposition of theattribute). This model
isoften used when there is more than one attribute, for example:
… with fingers weary and worn..." (Thomas Hood)
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3. a) The predicative is placed at the beginning as in "A good generous prayer it was." (Mark
Twain).
b) the predicative stands before the link-verb as in
"Rude am I in my speech..." (Shakespeare)
4. The adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence, as in:
"Eagerly I wished the morrow." (Poe)
5. Both modifier and predicate stand before the subject, as in:
"In went Mr. Pickwick." (Dickens) "Down dropped the breeze..." (Coleridge)
These five models comprise the mostcommonmodels of inversion.
DETACHED CONSTRUCTION (PARCELLATION)
A sentence by some specificconsideration of the writer is placed so that it seems formally
independent of separate structures are called detached. The detached part, being torn away
from its referent, assumes a greater degree of significance and is given prominence by
intonation. The structural patterns of detached constructions have not yet been classified, but
the most noticeable cases are those in whichattribute or an adverbial modifier is placed not in
immediate proximity to its referent, but in some other position, as in thefollowingexample:
It takes a month to learn to control it financially. And many years to learn to control it
psychologically (J. Fowles)
The essential quality of detached construction lies in the fact that the isolated parts represent a
kind of independent whole thrust into the sentence or placed in a position which will make the
phrase (or word) seem independent. But a detached phrase cannot rise to the rank of a primary
member of the sentence—it always remains secondary from the semantic point of view. This
clash of the structural and semantic aspects of detached constructions produces the desired
effect—forcing the reader to interpret the logical connections between the component parts of
the sentence. Logical ties between them always exist in spite of the absence of syntactical
indicators.
PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION
The necessary condition in parallel construction is identical, or similar, syntactical structure in
two or more sentences or parts of a sentence in close succession, as in:
"There were real silver spoons to stir the tea with, and real china cups to drink it out of, and
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plates of the same to hold the cakes and toast in." (Dickens)
Parallel constructions are often backed up by repetition of words (lexical repetition) and
conjunctions and prepositions (polysyndeton). Pure parallel construction, however, does not
depend on any other kind of repetition but the repetition of the syntactical design of the
sentence. Parallel constructions may be partial or complete. Partial parallel arrangement is the
repetition of some parts of successive sentences or clauses, as in:
"It is the mob that labour in your fields and serve in your houses—that man your navy and
recruit your army,—that have enabled you to defy all the world, and can also defy you when
neglect and calamity have driven them to despair." (Byron)
The attributive clauses here all begin with the subordinate conjunction that which is followed by
a verb in the same form, except the last (have enabled). The verbs, however, are followed
either by adverbial modifiers of place (in your fields, in your houses) or by direct objects (your
navy, your army). The third attributive clause is not built on the pattern of the first two, although
it preserves the parallel structure in general (that+verb-predicate+object), while the fourth has
broken away entirely.
Complete parallel arrangement, also called balance, maintains the principle of identical
structures throughout the corresponding sentences, as in:
"The seeds ye sow — another reaps, The robes ye weave—another wears…(P. B.
Shelley).
Parallel construction is most frequently used in enumeration, antithesis and in climax, thus
consolidating the general effect achieved by these stylistic devices.
CHIASMUS (REVERSED PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION)
Syntactical chiasmus is sometimes used to break the monotony of parallel constructions. But
whatever the purpose of chiasmus, it willalways bring in some new shade of meaning or
additional emphasis on some portion of the second part. Ex, He didn't know the town and the
town didn't know him.
REPETITION
One of the most prominent places among the SDs dealing with the arrangement of
members of the sentence decidedly belongs to repetition. ’ We have already seen the repetition
of a phoneme (as in alliteration), of a morpheme (as in rhyming, or plain morphemic repetition).
As a syntactical SD repetition is recurrence of the same word, word combination, phrase for two
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and more times. According to the place which the repeated unit occupies in a sentence
(utterance), repetition is classified into several types:

anaphora:the beginning of two or more successive sentences (clauses) is
repeated — a..., a..., a... . The main stylistic function of anaphora is not so much to
emphasize the repeated unit as to create the background textile nonrepeated unit,
which, through its novelty, becomes foregrounded. The background-forming function
of anaphora is also evident from the kind of words which are repeated anaphorically.
Ex, Because they died we still live. Because a star explodes and a thousand
worlds like ours die, we know this world is.(J.Fowles).

epiphora:the end of successive sentences (clauses) is repeated -...a, ...a, ...a. The
main function of epiphora is to add stress to the final words of the sentence. Ex. He
and Dick were one mind, one will, one appetite(J.Fowles).
 framing:the beginning of the sentence is repeated in the end, thus forming the
“frame” for the non-repeated part of the sentence (utterance) — a... a. The
function of framing is to elucidate the notion mentioned in the beginning of the
sentence. Between two appearances of the repeated unit there comes the
developing middle part of the sentence which explains and clarifies what was
introduced in the beginning, so that by the time it is used for the second time its
semantics is concretized and specified.

anadiplosis-the end of one clause (sentence) is repeated in the beginning of the
following one -...a, a.... Specification of the semantics occurs here too, but on a
’more modest level. Ex. It was set in a triumphant smile, a smile that has been
smug if it had not been so full of the purest metaphysical good
humour(J.Fowles).
 chain repetitionpresents several successive anadiploses -...a, a...b, b...c, c. The
effect is that of the smoothly developing logical reasoning.

ordinary repetitionhas no definite place in the sentence and the repeated unit
occurs in various positions — ...a, ...a..., a.. . Ordinary repetition emphasizes both
the logical and the emotional meanings of the reiterated word (phrase).
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
successive repetitionis a string of closely following each other reiterated
units — ...a, a, a... This is the most emphatic type of repetition which signifies the
peak of emotions of the speaker.
As we see from the brief description, repetition is a powerful means of emphasis. Besides,
repetition adds rhythm and balance to the utterance.
ENUMERATION
Enumeration is a stylistic device by which separate things, objects, phenomena, properties,
actions are named one by one so that they produce a chain, the links of which, being
syntactically in the same position (homogeneous parts of speech), are forced to display some
kind of semantic homogeneity, remote though it may seem.
Let us examine the following cases of enumeration:
"There Harold gazes on a work divine,
A blending of all beauties; streams and dells,
Fruit, foliage, crag, wood, cornfield, mountain, vine
And chiefless castles breathing stern farewells
From grey but leafy walls, where Ruin greenly dwells." (Byron)
There is hardly anything in this enumeration that could be regarded as making some extra
impact on the reader. Each word is closely associated semantically with the followingpreceding
words in the enumeration, and the effect is what the reader associates with natural scenery.The
utterance is perfectly coherent and there is no halt in the natural flow of the communication. In
other words, there is nothing specially to arrest the reader's attention; no effort is required to
decipher the message: it yields itself easily to immediate perception.
SUSPENSE
Suspense is a compositional device which consists in arranging the of a communication in such
a way that the less important, "descriptive, subordinate parts are placed at the beginning, the
main idea being withheld till the end of the sentence. Thus the reader's attention is held and his
interest kept up, for example:
"Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. was obliging enough to read and
explain to me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw'' (Charles Lamb).
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LEXICO-SYNTACTICAL STYLISTIC DEVICES/ ANTITHESIS.
CLIMAX. SIMILE. LITOTES. PERIPHRASIS
Syntactical stylistic devices add logical, emotive, expressive information to the utterance
regardless of lexical meanings of sentence components. There are certain structures though,
whose emphasis depends not only on the arrangement of sentence members but also on the
lexico-semantic aspect of the utterance. They are known as lexico-syntactical SDs.
ANTITHESIS
In order to characterize a thing or phenomenon from a specific point of view, it may be
necessary not to find points of resemblance or association between it and some other thing or
phenomenon, but to find points of sharp contrast, that is, to set one against the other, for
example: "A saint abroad, and a devil at home" (Bunyan); "Better to reign in hell than serve in
heaven." (Milton)
A line of demarcation must be drawn between logical opposition and stylistic opposition. Any
opposition will be based on the contrasting features of two objects. These contrasting features
are represented in pairs of words which we call antonyms, provided that all the properties of the
two objects in question may be set one against another, as 'saint' - 'devil', 'reign'-'serve', 'hell' 'heaven'.It is not only the semantic aspect which explains the linguistic nature of antithesis, the
structural pattern also plays an important role. Antithesis is generally moulded in parallel
construction. The antagonistic features of the two objects or phenomena are more easily
perceived.
CLIMAX (GRADATION)
Climax is an arrangement of sentences (or of the homogeneous parts of one sentence) which
secures a gradual increase in significance, importance, or emotional tension in the utterance, as
in:
These two men were one, the only one, the man of men: our Lord Jesus Christ (J.Fowles).
Each successive unit is perceived as stronger than the preceding one. A gradual increase in
significance may be maintained in three ways: logical, emotional and quantitative.
Logical сlimax is based on the relative importance of the component parts looked at from
the point of view of the concepts embodied in them. This relative importance may be evaluated
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both objectively and subjectively, the author's attitude towards the objects or phenomena in
question being disclosed.
Emotional сlimax is based on the relative emotional tension produced by words with emotive
meaning. Of course, emotional climax based on synonymous strings of words with emotive
meaning will inevitably cause certain semantic differences in these words — such is the
linguistic nature of stylistic synonyms—, but emotive meaning will be the prevailing one.
Emotional climax is mainly found in sentences, more rarely in longer syntactical units. This is
natural. Emotional charge cannot hold long.
Finally, we come to quantitative climax. This is an evident increase in the volume of the
corresponding concepts, as in:
"They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of stairs; they inspected
innumerable kitchens." (Maugham).
Here the climax is achieved by simple numerical increase.
The indispensable constituents of climax are:

the distributional constituent: close proximity of the component parts arranged in
increasing order of importance or significance;

the syntactical pattern: parallel constructions with possible lexical repetition;

the connotative constituent: the explanatory context which helps the reader to grasp the
gradation.
Climax, like many other stylistic devices, is a means by which the author discloses his
world, outlook, his evaluation of objective facts and phenomena. The concrete stylistic
function of this device is to show the relative importance of things as seen by the author
(especially in emotional climax), or to impress upon the reader the significance of the things
described by suggested comparison, or to depict phenomena dynamically.
SIMILE
The intensification of some one feature of the concept in question is realized in a device
called simile. Ordinary comparison and simile must not be confused. They represent two
diverse processes. Comparison means weighing two objects belonging to one class of things
with the purpose of establishing the degree of their sameness or difference. To use a simile is to
characterize one object by bringing it into contact with another object belonging to an entirely
different class of things. Comparison takes into consideration all the properties of the two
objects, stressing the one that is compared. Simile excludes all the properties of the two objects
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except one which is made common to them. For example, the boy seems to be as clever as his
mother' is ordinary comparison. 'Boy' and mother belong to the same class of objects—human
beings—so this is not a simile but ordinary comparison.
But in the sentence"Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare" (Byron), we have a simile.
'Maidens' and 'moths' belong to heterogeneous classes of objects and Byron has found the
concept moth to indicate one of the secondary features of the concept maiden, i.e. being easily
lured.
PERIPHRASIS
Periphrasis is a device which, according to Webster's dictionary, denotes the use of a
longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter and plainer form of expression. It is also called
circumlocution due to the round-about or indirect way used to name a familiar object or
phenomenon. Viewed from the angle of its linguistic nature, periphrasis represents the
renaming of an object and as such may be considered along with a more general group of word
designations replacing the direct names of their denotata. One and the same object may be
identified in different ways and accordingly acquire different appellations. Thus, in different
situations a certain person can be denoted, for instance, as either 'his benefactor', or 'this bore',
or 'the narrator', or 'the wretched witness', etc. These names will be his only in a short fragment
of the discourse, the criterion of their choice being furnished by the context. Such naming units
may be called secondary, textually-confined designations and are generally composed of a
word-combination.
As a SD, periphrasis aims at pointing to one of the seemingly insignificant or barely
noticeable features or properties of the given object, and intensifies this property by naming the
object by the property. Periphrasis makes the reader perceive the new appellation against the
background of the one existing in the language code and the twofold simultaneous perception
secures the stylistic effect. At the same time periphrasis, like simile, has a certain cognitive
function inasmuch as it deepens our knowledge of the phenomenon described. The essence of
the device is that it is decipherable only in context. If a periphrastic locution is understandable
outside the context, it is not a stylistic device but merely a synonymous expression. Such easily
decipherable periphrases are also called traditional, dictionary or language periphrases. The
others are speech periphrases. Here are some examples of well-known dictionary periphrases
(periphrastic synonyms):
the cap and gown (student body); a gentleman of the long robe (a lawyer); the fair sex
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(women); my better half (my wife).
LITOTES
Litotes is a two-component structure in which two negations are joined to give a positive
evaluation. Thus “not unkindly” actually means “kindly”, though the positive effect is weakened
and some lack of the speaker’s confidence in his statement is implied. The first component of a
litotes is always the negative particle “not”, while the second, always negative in semantics,
varies in form from a negatively affixed word (as above) to a negative phrase.
Litotes is especially expressive when the semantic centre of the whole • structure is
stylistically or/and emotionally coloured, as in the case of the following occasional creations:
“Her face was not unhandsome” (A.H.) or “Her face was not unpretty” (K.K.).
The function of litotes has much in common with that of understatement — both weaken
the effect of the utterance. The uniqueness of litotes lies in its specific “double negative”
structure and in its weakening only the positive evaluation.
LECTURE 12
FUNCTIONAL STYLES
Language means which we choose for communication depend on several factors, the
most important among them being the situation of the communication act. Indeed, depending on
the situation (which includes the purpose of the communication and its participants) we adhere
either to informal, or to formal manner. The former is observed in everyday non-official
communication which is known as colloquial speech. Colloquial speech occupies a prominent
place in our lives, and is viewed by some linguists as a system of language means so strongly
differing from those presented in the formal (literary) communication that it can be classified as
an independent entity with its own peculiar units and rules of their structuring. The literary
communication, most often (but not always) materialized in the written form, is not
homogeneous, and proceeding from its function (purpose) we speak of different functional
styles. As the whole of the language itself, functional styles are also changeable. Their quantity
55
and quality change in the course of their development. At present most scholars differentiate
such functional styles: scientific, official, publicist, newspaper, belles-lettres.
Scientific styleis employed in professional communication. Its most conspicuous feature
is the abundance of terms denoting objects, phenomena and processes characteristic of some
particular field of science and technique. Scientific style is also known for its precision, clarity
and logical cohesion which is responsible for the repeated use of such cliches as: “Proceeding
from...”; “As it was said above...”; “In connection with..” and other lexico-syntactical forms
emphasizing the logical connection and interdependence of consecutive parts of the discourse.
Official style,or the style of official documents, is the most conservative one. It
preserves cast-iron forms of structuring and uses syntactical constructions and words long
known as archaic and not observed anywhere else. Addressing documents and official letters,
signing them, expressing the reasons and considerations leading to the subject of the document
(letter) — all this is strictly regulated both lexically and syntactically. All emotiveness and
subjective modality are completely banned out of this style.
Publicist style is a perfect example of the historical changeability of stylistic
differentiation of discourses. In ancient Greece, e.g., it was practiced mainly in its oral form and
was best known as oratoric style, within which views and sentiments of the addresser (orator)
found their expression. Nowadays political, ideological, ethical, social beliefs and statements of
the addresser are prevailingly expressed in the written form, which was labelled publicist in
accordance with the name of the corresponding genre and its practitioners. Publicist style is
famous for its explicit pragmatic function of persuasion directed at influencing the reader and
shaping his views, in accordance with the argumentation of the author. Correspondingly, we find
in publicist style a blend of the rigorous logical reasoning, reflecting the objective state of things,
and a strong subjectivity reflecting the author’s personal feelings and emotions towards the
discussed subject.
Newspaper style, as it is evident from its name, is found in newspapers. You should not
conclude though that everything published in a newspaper should be referred to the newspaper
style. The paper contains vastly varying materials, some of them being publicist essays,
some — feature articles, some — scientific reviews, some — official stock-exchange accounts
etc., so that a daily (weekly) newspaper also offers a variety of styles. When we mention
“newspaper style”, we mean informative materials, characteristic of newspaper only and not
found in other publications. To attract the reader’s attention to the news, special graphical
means are used. British and American papers are notorious for the change of type, specific
headlines, space ordering, etc. We find here a large proportion of dates and personal names of
countries, territories, institutions, individuals. To achieve the effect of objectivity and impartiality
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in rendering some fact or event, most of the newspaper information is published anonymously,
without the name of the newsman who supplied it, with little or no subjective modality. But the
position and attitude of the paper, nonetheless, become clear from the choice not only of the
subject-matter but also of the words denoting international or domestic issues.
Belles-lettres style, or the style of imaginative literature may be called the richest
register of communication: besides its own language means which are not used in any other
sphere of communication, belles-lettres style makes ample use of other styles too, for in
numerous works of literary art we find elements of scientific, official and other functional types of
speech. Besides informative and persuasive functions, also found in other functional styles, the
belles-lettres style has a unique task to impress the reader aesthetically. Boundless possibilities
of expressing one’s thoughts and feelings make the belles-lettres style a highly attractive field of
research for a linguist.
Speaking of belles-lettres style most scholars almost automatically refer to it prose works,
regarding poetry the domain of a special poetic style. Viewed diachronically this opinion does
not seem controversial, for poems of previous centuries, indeed, adhered to a very specific
vocabulary and its ordering. But poetry of the twentieth century does not show much difference
from prose vocabulary, its subjects are no more limited to several specific “poetic” fields but
widely cover practically all spheres of existence of contemporary man. So it is hardly relevant to
speak of a separate poetic style in reference to contemporary literature.
Finishing this brief outline of functional styles observed in modern English, it is necessary
to stress, again, two points. The first one concerns the dichotomy — written: oral, which is not
synonymous to the dichotomy literary: colloquial, the former opposition meaning the form of
presentation, the latter — the choice of language means. There are colloquial messages in the
written form (such as personal letters, informal notes, diaries and journals) and vice versa: we
have examples of literary discourses in the oral form (as in a recital, lecture, report, paper read
at a conference etc.).
The second point deals with the flexibility of style boundaries: the borders within which a
style presumably functions are not rigid and allow various degrees of overlapping and melting
into each other. It is not accidental that rather often we speak of intermediate cases such as the
popular scientific style which combines the features of scientific and belles-lettres styles,or the
style of new journalism which is a combination of publicist, newspaper and belles-lettres styles
etc.
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REFERENCES
1.Galperin I. R. Stylistics (Revised): Moscow: Higher School,2004. – 332 p.
2.ZnamenskayaТ. A. Stylistics of the English Language. Fundamentals of the course. M.:
Editorial, 2004-.208p.
3.Кухаренко В.А. Практикум стилистиkи английского языка. Нова кинига, 2000
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