Lexical Stylistic Devices Syntactical Stylistic Devices
Metaphor Inversion
Metonymy Detachment
Irony Parallel constructions
Zeugma Chiasmus
Pun Repetition: anaphora
Epithet epiphora
Oxymoron anadiplosis
Simile chain repetition
Periphrasis synonym repetition
Euphemism pleonasm
Hyperbole tautology
Cliche Enumeration
Epigram Suspense
Quotation Climax / gradation
Allusion Antithesis
Decomposition of Asyndeton
set phrases Polysyndeton
Gap-sentence link
Ellipsis
Aposiopesis / break-in the-
narrative
Question-in-the-narrative
Represented speech: uttered,
unuttered
Rhetorical question
Litotes
СПИСОК ИСПОЛЬЗОВАННОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ
1. И.В. Арнольд. Стилистика современного английского языка (Стилистика декодирования). – М.: “Просвещение”, 1990.
2. И.Р. Гальперин. Стилистика английского языка. – М.: “Высшая школа”, 1977.
3. В.А. Мальцев. Стилистика английского языка. – М.: “Высшая школа”, 1984.
4. В.А. Кухаренко. Семинары по стилистике английского языка. – М.: “Высшая школа”, 1971.
Topic 4
Syntactical Stylistic Devices (SSD)
1. SSD based on different compositional pattern of syntactical
arrangement
2. SSD based on peculiar linkage in a sentence.
3. SSD based on the use of colloquial constructions.
4. SSD based on the stylistic use of structural meaning.
Syntax deals with word-combinations and sentences, the patterns of their arrangement, establishing the norms of their functioning. Stylistics deals with those cases of syntax, which convey emotiveness by means of peculiar arrangements of a sentence structure. These patterns are not violations of the norm; they are registered in the language and are called rhetoric figures or figures of speech.
According to Galperin’s classification there are four groups of syntactical stylistic device singled out on the basis of different principles:
Group1 includes SSD with different compositional pattern of syntactical arrangement: inversion, detachment, parallelism, chiasmus, repetition, suspense, enumeration, climax, antithesis.
Group 2 consists of SSD that present peculiar linkage in a sentence: asyndeton, polysyndeton, and gap-sentence link.
Group 3 includes the cases of peculiar use of colloquial constructions, such as ellipsis, aposiopesis, question-in-the-narrative, represented speech.
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Group 4 is based on the stylistic use of structural meaning here belong rhetorical questions and lilotes.
Group 1 of SSD
The English language is characterized by such a specific feature as fixed word order: subject-predicate-object (SPO). Any normative and deliberate shift from the usual word order results in a certain effect and deviant structures perform different stylistic functions. It should be stressed that these deviant structures are not mistakes if they are used on purpose, they belong to expressive means of the language.
Inversion is a displacement of any sentence member, which results in additional logical or emotional stress in the meaning of the utterance. The stylistic function of the word order is to make prominent or emphatic that part of the sentence that is more important or informative in the speaker’s opinion.
Prominence and emphasis are achieved by placing the word in an unusual position: words normally placed at the beginning of the sentence are placed towards the end whereas words usually occupying positions closer to the end of the sentence are shifted to the beginning. End position is always emphatic for the subject as well as fronting for the objects and predicatives.
We should differentiate among complete, partial and secondary inversion.
Complete inversion is found in sentences where the predicate is displaced and precedes the subject,
e.g., Out went she, indignant and annoyed.
Partial inversion is most frequently observed in the following patterns:
1. the object is in pre-position, i.e. placed at the beginning of the sentence:
But Ernestina she saw only once or twice a year, and Mary she saw every day. (J. Fowles)
Of the woman who stared, Charles noted, there was no sign. (J. Fowles)
2. the attribute is in postposition to the word it modifies, usually more than one attribute are used, e.g., Spring, rather cold and shining.
3.a) predicative is placed before the subject,
e.g., Honest with each other, of course, they hadn’t been.
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(M. Binchy)
Impossible though it is, I’d like you to say you understand.
(M. Binchy)
Calm and quiet the house was. A good generous prayer it was. (Twain)
f) predicative precedes the link-verb and both are placed before the subject,
e.g., Merry was the time.
Rude am I in my speech.(Shakespeare)
But refuse she would. (M. Binchy)
3. the adverbial modifier stands at the beginning of the sentence,
e.g., Never had she seen such disappointment on a face.
My dearest daughter, at your feet I fall. (Dryden)
Eagerly I wished the morning to come. (M. Binchy)
4. both the adverbial modifier and the predicate stand before the subject,
e.g. In those houses were settled people, not travellers, not hermits like herself. (M. Binchy)
In went Mr. Pickwick. (Dickens)
Secondary inversion is connected with the re-establishment of word order of questions. Inverted questions, i.e. statements pronounced with the intonation of the interrogative sentence, can acquire a connotational meaning of the speaker’s awareness of the possible nature of the expected answer.
e.g “.And you’ll come to our wedding? In a few years’ time? “ Stevie said. (M. Binchy)
“And non of these people are going to do anything that will upset us?”
“No, of course not”.(M. Binchy)
Inversion as an emphatic construction is as common as the fixed word order structures. It must be regarded as an expressive means of the language having typical structural models.
Detachment is a SSD through which one of the secondary parts of a sentence is placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it logically refers to.It acquires independent stress and a special intonation pattern that leads to emphatic intensification of its meaning. Graphically an attribute of an adverbial modifier is isolated by commas, dashes, full stops from the words they modify,
e.g., ‘I want to go’, he said, miserable. I have to beg you for money. Daily.
The plane began to move. Backwards. (A.Hailey)
Women so rearly spoke in public. Brides never. ”. (M. Binchy)
A variant of detachment is parenthesis, a detached construction with the explanatory function. Usually it is a qualifying word combination, which does not interrupt the structure of the sentence and is indicated by commas or dashes,
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e.g.,
Parallel constructions or parallelism is identical or similar syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of sentences,
e .g. She would speak of him no more, she would talk of him to nobody. (M. Binchy)
You don’t mention my manners, I don’t mention your intentions.
(M. Binchy)
She didn’t want him to leave. He didn’t want her to go.
(M. Binchy)
First you borrow, then you beg.
The sky was dark and gloomy, the air damp and raw.
Parallel arrangement suggests equal semantic significance of the component parts and it gives a rhythmical design to these component parts.
Chiasmus is also called reversed parallelism, its pattern includes two sentences, the second of which necessarily repeats the reversed structure of the first one, i.e. SPOM, MOPS or MOPS, SPOM,
e.g.,I’ll trust you, Sister, like you trusted me. You were never afraid of me, I’d not be afraid of you. (M. Binchy)
You could have met someone like me, I could have met someone like you. (M. Binchy)
Down dropped the breeze, the sails dropped down.
Chiasmus is used to break the monotony of parallel constructions. Like parallel constructions, chiasmus contributes to the rhythmical quality of the utterance.
Repetition as a SSD aims at logical emphasis necessary to fix the attention of the reader to the key word of the utterance. Repetition is classified according to its compositional design. If the repeated word (or phrase) comes at the beginning of two or more consecutive sentences, clauses or phrases, we deal with anaphora.
e.g ., Her only notion of justice was that she must be right; her only notion of government was an angry bombardment of the impertinent populace. (J. Fowles)
He told her she was a sweet, exquisite child. He told her he had been brute to her.(A.J.Cronin)
Ignorant of the long and stealthy march of passion, ignorant of how Soames had watched her, ignorant of Fleur’s reckless desperation …- ignorant of all this, everybody felt aggrieved. (Galsworthy)
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I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that. I am above the rest of mankind, in such a case as that. I can act with philosophy in such a case as that. (Dickens)
If it occurs at the end, it is called epiphora,
e.g.,This was part of the fun. This was probably the only fun. (M. Binchy)
He could continue seeing her as he liked just as long as he didn’t leave home, didn’t leave Lena, his wife. Because she was his wife. (M. Binchy)
I haven’t got a job. I’m not looking for a job. Furthermore, I am not going to look for a job. ( J.London)
Repetition may also be arranged in the form of a frame: the initial parts of a syntactical unit are repeated at the end of it as well,
e.g., A mistake had been made, and yet it was not a wanton mistake. (A.Hailey) A bubble of muscus came from one tiny nostril, a joyful iridescent bubble. (A.J.Cronin)
This compositional design of repetition is called framing.
Anadiplosis, often called catch-repetition, is such a model of repetition when the last word of one part of an utterance is repeated at the beginning of the next part, thus linking the two parts together,
e.g.,It was as if they were both waiting. Waiting for the day when he would tell her. (M. Binchy)
It was very good news, very good news indeed. (M. Binchy)
I know the world, and the world knows me.
If this model of linking is used several times in the utterance, i.e. there is a succession of anadiploses, the compositional form of repetition is called chain repetition,
e.g., Rapidly the feeling became a strong hunch. The hunch became a conviction, and the conviction became a compulsion. He absolutely had to get home.
There is a variety of repetition which may be called ‘root repetition’ or morphological repetition when not the same word but the same root is repeated.
e.g., To live again in the youth of the young Galsworthy),
Schemmer, Karl Schemmer, was a brute, a brutish brute. (London).
Another variety of repetition may be called synonimical repetition when the same idea is repeated through the use of synonyms,
e.g., The poetry of earth is never dead…The poetry of earth is ceasing never. (Keats)
Synonymic repetition is often criticized as pleonasm or tautology. Pleonasm is the use of more words than are necessary to express the meaning, redundancy of expression. Tautology is the repetition of the same statement, the repetition of the same word or phrase or the same idea or statement in other words.
E.g., It was a clear starry night, and not a cloud was to be seen.
He was the only survivor; no one else was saved.
Any repetition may be found fault with if it is not motivated, if it does not serve certain aims. Stylistic function of any repetition is to intensify an utterance and to convey the author’s attitude towards the character.
Enumeration is a SSD with the help of which separate things; properties or actions are brought together, forming a chain of grammatically homogeneous and semantically heterogeneous parts of the utterance. Enumeration is often found in depicting seneries to make it more vivid to the reader
e.g., The towns and the fields, the woods, the crossroads and the farmhouses slipped past in the night. (M. Binchy)
They drove through the dark Irish countryside, through small villages, past farmhouses with lights in the windows, past herds of cattle looking at them over hedges.. (M. Binchy)
The police formalities and what they would involve, the undertakers, the funeral, the announcement in the papers. (M. Binchy)
Every racing car, even every ice-cream van were plastered with advertisements. He watched donkeys and bells, the priests, beggars, and children, villagers, goats, olive-trees, singing birds.
Suspense or retardation is a SSD based on delay in giving the most important information. The aim of this device is to arrest the reader’s attention by peculiar arrangement of the utterance when less important things are accumulated at the beginning of the utterance and the main idea is withheld till the end of the sentence. Suspense is realized through the separation of the predicate from the subject or predicative by deliberate introduction between them of a phrase, clause or even sentence. In writing subordinate information can be given in brackets, separated by dashes or commas
e.g ., Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend was obliging enough to read and explain to me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw. (Lamb)
Then I turned to Gatsby – and was startled at his expression. He looked – and this is said in all contempts for the babled slander of his garden – as if he had “killed a man”. (F.S.Fitzgerald)
The first supper – there would be another one after midnight – was now being served, and Jordan unvited me to join her own party, who were spread around a table on the other side of the garden. (F.S.Fitzgerald)
Thus, suspense arouses a feeling of expectation and is framed in one sentence so as not to break the intonation pattern and violate emotional tension.
Climax or gradation is an arrangement of words or utterances in an ascending order of importance or emotional intensity. We deal with climax when the strongest word is the last in the series;
e.g.,The buzz of the conversation had become almost a roar. (M. Binchy)
It was as if he felt a burde n, a threat lifted from him. (M. Binchy)
It was a lovely city, a beautiful city, a fair city, a veritable gem of a city.
But when the series of words ends in a different way, when the final element, which the reader expects to be the culminating one appears to be trifling or farcical, we deal with anticlimax. It creates a humorous effect. Anticlimax is often used in paradoxes,
e.g., Women have a wonderful instinct about things, they can discover anything except the obvious.
The children began upon the chocolate biscuits and ended with fight for the last piece of bread. (F.J.Cronin)
The grey suit was well cut, well made, and completely undistinguished. (S.Lewis)
If each step of gradation is supplied with a negative particle the scale of gradation is descending. The negative gradation emphasizes the absence of certain fact, quality, phenomenon. But the stylistic function of both affirmative and negative constructions remains the same. One should differentiate among logical, quantitative and emotional gradation. Logical climax is based on the relative importance of the component parts as seen by the author,
e.g., I was well-inclined to him before I saw him, I liked him when I did see him, I admire him now.
Quantitative climax is an evident increase in volume of
corresponding concepts, e.g., Every one thought he was utterly sincere. Anna Kelly, Deirdre Hanly, Orla Dillon, dozens and dozens more that she could name, hundreds that she had never heard of. (M. Binchy)
They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of
stairs; they inspected innumerable kitchens. (S.Maugham)
“What’ll we do with ourselves this afternoon?”cried Daisy, “and the day after that, and the next thirty years?” (F.S.Fitzgerald)
How many sympathetic people can you find in the world –one in a ten, one in a hundred, one in a thousand?
Emotional climax is based on the gradual increase in emotional evaluation of a certain fact or its feature, on the relative emotional tension produced by words with emotive meaning; e.g., He was sick, shattered, on the verge of a complete collapse. (A.J.Cronin)
It was a lovely city, a beautiful city, a fair city… The stylistic function of climax is to show the relative importance of things as seen by the author to impress upon the reader the significance of the things described by suggested comparison or to depict phenomena dynamically.
Antithesis is a SSD based on relative opposition which arises out of the context through the expansion of objectively contrasting pairs, e.g.,
Youth is lovely, age is lonely,
Youth is fiery, age is frosty. (Longfellow)
Antithesis is a device bordering between stylistics and logics. It should not be mixed up with contrast that is a literary, not a linguistic device, based on logical opposition between the phenomena set one against another. Antithesis has such functions as rhythm forming, copulative, disserving, comparative, but mostly only one function is displayed in each case.
Group 2 of SSD
Asyndeton is a stylistic device of connecting units by a deliberate avoidance of conjunctions or other connecting words,
e.g., With a laugh he would rise, strech himself, swing round his lences, put the slides away. (A.J.Cronin)
Bicket did not answer, his throat felt dry.
The author writes without conjunctions in order to speed up the action.
Polysindeton is a stylistic device of connecting units by means of connectives placed before each component part;
e.g., I heard you were meant to be excited and thrilled and knitting things and getting dinner for your husband and your friends. (M.Binchy)
She saw the town lit up with life and banners and balloons and flowers..(M.Binchy)
Bella soaped his face, and rubbed his face, and soaped his hands, and rubbed his hands.
Polysindeton has a disintegrating function, unlike enumeration, polysindeton causes each member of a string of facts to stand out conspicuously, showing them isolated. The authors use polysindeton to bring every detail and to slow down the action. Besides polysindeton has the function of expressing sequence. Despite different functions in each case, polysindeton creates a rhythmical effect.
Gap-sentence link is a peculiar way of combining sentences, which seem unconnected, together, leaving it to the reader to grasp the idea implied but not stated,
e. g., he and that fellow ought to be the sufferers, and they were in Italy. (Galsworthy)
The implication here is that those who ought to suffer were enjoying themselves in Italy. The gap-sentence link is a stylistic device based on the peculiarities of the spoken language and can be often found in represented speech.
Group 3 of SSD
Ellipsis is an omission of some parts of the utterance that can be easily restored with the help of the context. Ellipsis is a typical feature of colloquial speech, e.g., Tom turned to me.
“You live near here, Nick?”
“Next door.”
“That so?” (F.S.Fitzgerald)
I.R.Galperin underlines the idea that ellipsis, when used as a stylistic device, always imitates the common features of colloquial language, where the situation predetermines not the omission of some member, but its absence. He considers such sentences as ‘See you tomorrow’, ’Won’t do’, ‘Have a good time’ not elliptical but normal syntactical constructions in the spoken language which should not be compared with the structural models of the written language.
Aposiopesis or break-in-the-narrative is a stylistic device that can be defined as a sudden break in the narration, a stopping for rhetorical effect. Aposiopesis conveys to the reader the idea that the speaker cannot proceed overwhelmed by a very strong upsurge of emotions,
e.g., I think that once you’ve found a person that you’re very fond of…I mean a person who’s fond of you, too, and likes you enough to be intersted in your character… (O.Wilde)
This device offers a number of variants in deciphering implications, on the one hand, and is highly predictable, on the other,
e.g., You just come home in time or I’ll…
Good intentions but…
A break-in-the narrative focuses the reader’s attention on what is left unsaid.
e.g.,“ How did it happen?”
“Well, I tried to swing the wheel—“ He broke off, and suddenly I guessed at the truth. (F.S.Fitzgerald)
…”It ripped her open –“
“Don’t tell me, old sport.” He winced. (F.S.Fitzgerald)
Question-in-the narrative is a question that is asked and answered by one and the same person, usually the author,
e.g. Here she was in her car, going at a perfectly normal speed. Should she pull in? She saw a place that was suitable and drew to the side of the road. (M.Binchy)
Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. (Dickens)
Sometimes the question may remain unanswered, e.g., How long must it go on? How long must we suffer? Where is the end? What is the end? (Norris) Very often this device is used in oratory.
Represented speech. Actual speech may be represented in different ways: 1. by exact repetition of the utterance – by direct speech, which is always introduced by a verb of speech such as say, call, cry, etc., and is given as a quotation in inverted commas;
2. by putting a character’s actual words through the author’s mouth in the course of his narration, i.e. by indirect speech;
3. by represented speech which is that form of the utterance which conveys the actual words of the speaker through the mouth of the writer but retains the peculiarities of the speaker’s mode of expression. There are two variants of represented speech: uttered represented speech and unuttered represented speech,
e.g., A maid came in now with a blue gown, very thick and soft. Could she do anything for Miss Freeland? No, thanks, she could not, only, did she know where Mr.Freeland’s room was? (Galsworthy)
Over and over he was asking himself: would she receive him, would she recognize him? What should he say to her? Why weren’t things going well between them? he wondered.
The function of the inner represented speech is to penetrate into the inner life of the characters, that is why it is exclusively used in the belles-lettres style only.
Group 4 of the SSD
Every syntactical structure is said to have a certain function, which is sometimes called its structural meaning. When a structure is used in some other function it may be said to assume a new meaning. There are just two stylistic devices in which such a shift of meaning is to be seen, they are rhetorical questions and litotes.
Rhetorical question is an energetic statement expressed in the form of a question, so that the meaning of the question and that of the statement are interplayed,
e.g.,There was adanger of being drawn into something which was doomed from the start. Who wanted to lock horns with Mr and Mrs O’Brien?. (M.Binchy)
Who is here so vile that will not love his country? (Shakespeare)
Who will be open where there is no sympathy?
Rhetorical questions do not require any answer but the various kinds of modal shades of meaning (such as doubt, challenge, scorn, etc.) arouse emotions in the reader or listener which is the reaction rhetorical questions are aimed at.
Litotes is a SSD consisting in a peculiar use of negative constructions; it is an affirmation expressed by denying its contrary, e.g., not bad – good, not a coward – brave. The negative particle not used with a noun or an adjective is aimed at establishing a positive feature in a person or thing, e.g., My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun…(Shakespeare)...
But the constructions are not equal in presenting the quality: the negative constructions are weaker than the affirmative ones, but in producing a stylistic effect they are stronger as litotes is a deliberate understatement. The stylistic effect of litotes depends greatly on intonation.
A variant of litotes is a construction with two negations, as not unlike, not unpromising, not displeased, e.g.,Some of the wedding presents still not unpacked stood around in boxes. (M.Binchy)
…he would like it to be known that he was not ungeatful. (M.Binchy)
Mary was not faultless. (J.Fowles)
Soames, with his lips and his squared chin was not unlike a bulldog. (Galsworthy) Litotes is used in different styles, excluding the style of official documents and scientific prose.
Topic 4
Morphological Expressive Means
1. Stylistic potential of nounal categories.
2. Stylistic functions of the article.
3. The pronoun as a factor of style.
4. The stylistic use of adjectives.
5. Stylistic potential of verbal categories.
6. Stylistic functions of adverbs.
Morphology is understood as a unity of all morphological oppositions, grammatical categories and means of their expression, including both syntactical and analytical forms. The stylistic potential of word-building morphology can be referred to lexical stylistics, so the attention will be paid to form-building morphology.
Any grammatical form has several meanings, one of which can be regarded as the main and the rest as transferred meanings. Prof. I.V. Arnold considers a stylistic effect of the use of words belonging to different parts of speech in unusual lexico-grammatical and grammatical meanings. She treats the divergence between traditionally designated and situationally designated in the morphological meaning as transposition (it is also called sometimes grammatical metaphor). All notional parts of speech have their specific character of transposition depending on the grammatical categories they possess and the way these categories are expressed.
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