The theme: Graphic Expressive Means.

The Aim: To make students acquire the habits of operating with graphic expressive means.

To create additional information in a prose discourse sound-instrumenting is seldom used. In contemporary advertizing, mass media and, above all, creative 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 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), "benny-violent" (benevolent), "illygitmit" (illegitimate), "jewinile" (juvenile), or when the no less famous Mr. Babbitt uses "pee-rading" (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.

On the other hand, "The b-b-b-b-bas-tud-he seen me c-c-c-c-com-ing" in R. P. Warren's Sugar Boy's speech or "You don't mean to thay that thith ith your firth time" (D.C.) show the physical defects of the speakers - the stumbling of one and the lisping of the other.

Graphon, thus individualizing thecharacter'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" (let me), "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 advertizers. 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. The same is true about newspaper, poster and TV advertizing: "Sooper Class Model" cars, "Knee-hi" socks, "Rite Aid" medicines. A recently published book on Cockney was entitled by the authors "The Muvver Tongue",* on back flaps of big freight-cars one can read "Folio me", etc. Graphical changes may reflect not only the peculiarities

Purely graphical means, not involving the viola-tions, we should refer all changes of the type (italics, capi-talization), spacing of graphemes (hyphenation, multiplication) and of lines. The latter was widely exercised in Russian poetry by V. Mayakovsky, famous for his "steps" in verse lines, or A. Voznesensky. In English the most often referred to "graphic-al imagist" was E. E. Cummings.

Lecture 6

The Theme: Stylistic Meaning of Lexico-Expressive Means, Its Correlation with Denotative and Connotative Meanings.

The Aim: To give knowledge to students in recognizing of lexico-expressive means.

The word in a language is always polysemantic, i.e. represents a great number of lexical-semantic variants. On this basis acad. V.V.Vinogradov treats the word in language as the unity of forms and meanings.

Lexical-semantic variant is a word in one of its meanings, i.e. such literal language sign which is the empty of sound-form and meaning, it keeps adequate lexical meaning in the limits peculiar for paradigms and syntactic functions. Word in a context may acquire additional lexical meanings not fixed in dictionaries and these meanings may be called contextual meanings. It may even deviate from the dictionary meaning to such a degree that the new meaning becomes the opposite of the primary meaning. Transferred meaning is the interrelation between 2 types of lexical meaning: dictionary and contextual. The latter will always depend on the logical meaning. 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. We perceive 2 meanings of the word: transferred and derivative simultaneously, we are confronted with a stylistic device in which the 2 meanings interact. Each type of intended substitution results in a stylistic device (SD) called also a trope. The relation between dictionary and contextual logical meanings may be maintained along different lines: on the principle of proximity, or symbol- referent relation, or on position. Thus the stylistic device based on the principle of affinity is metaphor, on the second-metonymy, on the third- irony.

a) Metaphor is the most frequently used device, well- known and elaborated. Metaphor is the transference of name based on the associated likeness between two objects, as in `the pancake`, or ` ball`, or `volcano`` for the `sun`; `silver dust;` for stars; ``vault`, `blanket`, veil` for the sky. The more obvious the similarity, the less need there is for deciphering words in the context. Thus in ` Dear nature is the kindest mother still` (Byron, Childe Harold), no explanatory word is used. Nature is likened to a mother in her attitude to man. The action of nursing is implied but not directly stated. Metaphor can be embodied in all the meaningful parts of speech, in noun, adjectives, verbs, adverbs. In the example ` In the slanting beams that streamed through the open window, the dust dabbed and was golden`. (O. Wild `The picture of Dorian Grey`, or `The leaves fell sorrowfully`. Here it is the adverb that is a metaphor. The metaphor is a semantic way of building new meanings.

Metaphors like all stylistic devices can be classified according to their degree of unexpectedness. 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. Genuine metaphors are regarded as belonging to language –in- action, i.e. speech metaphors; trite metaphors belong to the language-as-a- system, i.e. language proper, and are usually fixed in dictionaries as units of the language. They are time –worn and rubbed into the language, as a ray of hope, floods of tears, a storm of indignation, a flight of fancy, a gleam of mirth, a shadow of smile and the like when the speaker (writer) in his desire to present an elaborate image does not limit its creation then, each supplying of the described phenomenon, this cluster creates a sustained (prolonged) metaphor.

` Dombey`s cup of satisfaction was so full at this moment, however, that he felt he could afford a drop or two of its contents, even to sprinkle on the dust in the by-path of his daughter (Dickens, `Dombey and Son`)/ cup is a trite metaphor and is reversed by the following contributory images: full, drop, contents, sprinkle. The cup is the central image. The contributory word is used in 2 sense simultaneously: direct and indirect/ the key word ` satisfaction`. It is this word that help us to decipher, the idea behind the sustained metaphors. Sometimes the initial metaphors is not trite, but genuine and may also be developed through a number of contributory images so that the whole of the utterance becomes one sustained metaphor. The constant use of a metaphor, i.e. a (metaphor) word in which 2 meanings are blended leads to the staking 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 on the contextual meaning may be. It a metaphor involves likeness between animate

b) Metonymy.

It is based on a different type of relation between the dictionary and contextual meaning, a relation based not on affinity, but not on some kind of association the two concepts which the meanings represent.

Thus the word “crown” may stand for `king or queen`; “cup or glass” for `the drink it contains`.

Metonymy used in language – in- action or speech, i.e. contextual metonymy, is genuine metonymy and reveals a quite unexpected substitutions of one word for another, or even one concept for another. `Miss Jon`s hand trembled as she slipped it through Mr Dombey`s arm, and felt herself escorted up the steps, preceded by a cocked hat and a Babylonian collar `. (Dickens). “Cocked hat and Babylonian collar” stand for the wearer of the articles in question. The function in this examples of genuine metonymy is more likely to point out the insignificance of the wearer rather than his importance, for his personality is reduced to his externally conspicuous features, ` the hat and red collar`. here is the another example of genuine metonymy. “Then they came in. Two of them, a man with long fair moustaches and a silent dark man… Definitely, the moustache and I had nothing in common”. (Doris Jessing `Retreat to Innocence`).

Again we have a feature of a man which catches the eye, in this case his facial appearance: ` the moustaches` stands for the man himself. The function of the metonymy here is to indicate that the speaker knows nothing of the man in question, moreover there is the first time the speaker has seen him.

Metonymy and metaphors differ also in the way they are deciphered. In the process of disclosing the meaning implied in a metaphor, one image excludes the other, that is the metaphor lamp in ` The sky lamp of the night` when deciphered means the moon. This is not the case with (metaphor) metonymy. It, while presenting one object to our mind does not exclude the other. In the example given above the moustache and the man himself are both perceived by the mind. Here are the types of relation which metonymy is based on the most common are:

1. a centered thing used instead of an abstract notion. In this case, the thing becomes a symbol of nation, as in: ` the camp, the pulpit and the law for which man sons are free` (Shelley).

2. the container instead of the ting contained “the hall applauded”.

3. the relation of proximity, as in: ` the round game table was boisterous and happy`. (Dickens)

4. the material instead of the thing made of it, as in: ` the marble spoke”.

5. the instrument which is used in performing the action instead of the act or the doer himself, as in: `Well, Mr Weller, says the gentlemen, you are very good whip, and can do what you like with your horses, we know.` (Dickens)

`As the word is the worst argument that can be used, so should it be the last`.(Byron) It generally concerns concrete things, which are generalized. The process of generalization is easily carried out with the help of the definite article/ or with no article at all as in `There was perfect sympathy between pulpit and pen`. Where ` pulpit` stands for the clergyman and `pen` for the congregation. It is stylistic device which is also based on simultaneous realization of two logical meanings- dictionary and contextual, but the 2 meanings stand in opposition to each other. Example:

`It must be delightful to find myself in a foreign country without a penny in one`s pocket. The meaning is quite opposite not pleasant`, ` not delightful`. The word containing the irony is strongly marked by intonation. It has an emphatic stress and is generally supplied with a special melody.

Irony must not be confused with humor. Humor always causes laughter. The function of irony is not confined to producing a humorous effect. In a sentence like ` how clever of you!` where due to the intonation pattern, the word `clever` conveys a sense opposite to its literal signification, the irony does not cause a ludicrous effect. It rather expresses a feeling of irritation, displeasure, pity or regret. A word used ironically may sometimes express very subtle, almost imperceptible menaces of meaning.

I like parliamentary debate.

Particularly when its not too late Richard Altick says ` The effect of irony lies in the striking disparity between what is said and what is meant. This `striking displayer` is achieved though the interplay of two meanings, which are in opposition to each other. When analyzing the linguistic nature of irony one should fear in mind that irony is generally used to convey a negative meaning. In the mentioned examples irony is embodied in such words as ` delightful`, `clever`, `like`. The contextual meaning always conveys the negation of positive concepts embodied in the dictionary meaning.

1. interaction of primary and derivative logical meaning.

The primary and derivative meanings are sometimes called free and bound meanings, though some of the derivative meanings are not found in present –day English.

Zeugma and pun.

When a word materializes 2 distinct meanings, they are:zeugma and pun.

Zeugma is the use of a word in the some grammatical but different semantic realizations to two adjacent word in the context the semantic realization are literal and transferred at a time. E.g. ` Dora plunging at once into privileged intimacy and into the middle of the room `.(B. Show).` to plunge` (into the middle of the room) materialized the meaning ` to rush onto ` or ` enter imperfuously`. Here it is used in its concrete, literal meaning; in` `to plunge into privileged intimacy` the word `plunge is used in its transferred meaning. This stylistic device is particularly favored in English emotive prose an poetry. Zeugma is a strong and effective device to maintain the purely of the primary meaning when the two meaning clash e.g. ` And May’s mother always stood on her gentility; and Dot`s mother never stood on anything but her active little feet` (Ch. Dickens) the word `stood` is used twice. This structural variant of zeugma, though producing the slight difference in meaning, does not violate the principal of the stylistic device. The 2 meanings of the word ` stand` are simultaneously expressed, one literal and the other transferred.

The pun is another stylistic devise based on the interaction of two well known meanings of a word or phrases. It is difficult to draw distinction between zeugma and the pun. Thus the title of one of the Oscar Wild’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. Another example: ``Bow, to the board,` said Bumble. Oliver brushed away two or three tears that were lingering in his eyes: and seeing no board but the table fortunately bowed to that. (Dickens)

The humorous effect is caused by the interplay, not of two meanings of one word, but of two word. `Board` as a group of officials with functions of administration and management and `board` as a piece of furniture (a table) have become two distinct word.

Interaction of logical and emotive meanings.

The emotive meaning or emotive colorings play a considerable role in stylistics.

Interjections and Exclamatory Words. They are words we use when we express our feelings strongly and which may be said to exist in language as conventional symbols of human emotions. Interjection have no sentence meaning if taken independently.e.g. Oh, where are you going to, all you Big steamers? (Rippling). The interjection `oh` by itself may express various feeling, such as regret, despair, disappointment, sorrow, woe, surprise, astonishment. Lamentation here it precedes a definite sentence and must be regarded as part of it. It denotes the ardent tone of the question. `oh` may be regarded according top theory of information, as a single indicating emotional tension in the following sentence (utterance). Interjections can be divided into primary and derivative. Primary interjections are generally devoid of any logical meaning. Oh! Ok! Bah! Pooh! Yosh! Hush! Alas! Are primary interjections. `Heavens!`, good-gracious, `dear me!`, `yod knows! `, `look here!`, dear! `, ` by the Lord!`, `come on! `, `bless me! `, ` humbug!` and many others are not interjections as such. They are exclamatory words generally used as interjections, i.e. their function is that of the interjection. Some adjectives and adverbs can also take on the function of interjections- for example, such words as terrible!, awful!, great!, wonderful!, splendid!, fine! And the like. Here are some of the meaning that can be expressed by interjections: delightful, joy, admiration, approval, disbelief, astonishment, fright, regret, woe, dissatisfaction, sadness, blame, reproach, protest, sorrow, irony, sarcasm, meanness, v despair,self-assurance, disgust and many others. Interjections like other words in the English vocabulary bear features which mark them as bookish, neutral or colloquial. Thus oh, uh, bash, and the like are neutral: alas, egad (euphemism for `by yod`), to hark are bookish; gosh, why, well are colloquial.

The epithet.

The epithet is subtle and delicate in character. It is not so direct as the interjection. The epithet a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in a attributive word, phrase or even sentence out to the reader, imposing on him, some of the properties or features of the object with the aim of giving an individual perception. The epithet is markedly subjective and evaluation. The logical attribute is purely objective non evaluative. In wild wind, loud ocean, formidable waves, heart- burning smile. They are subjectively evaluate. But in the `green meadows, white snow, round table, blue skies, 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. Epithets may be classified into semantic and structural. Semantically, epithets may be divided into two groups: those associated with the noun following and those unassociated with it. Examples of speech epithets are: ` slavish knees`, `sleepless bay`. The process of strengthening the connection between the epithet and the noun sometimes go so far as to build a specific unit which does not lose its poetic flavor. Such epithets are called fixed and are mostly used in ballads and folk songs. Structurally epithets can be viewed from the angle of a) composition b)distribution. From the point of view of their compositional structure epithets may be divided into simple, compound and phrase epithets. Phrase epithets are such epithets when a phrase and even a whole sentence may become an epithet if the main formal requirement of the epithet is maintained. They are always placed before the nouns they refer to. The reversed epithets are composed of two nouns linked in an of-phrase. The subjective, evaluating, emotional elements is embodied not in the noun attribute but in the noun described, for example: ` the shadow of a smile`, `a devil; of a job` (Maugham). `He smiled brightly, neatly, efficiently, a military abbreviation of a smile` (G. Green.) ` A devil of sea rolls in that day` (Byron) ` A little flying Dutchman of a cab` (Galsworthy) ` a dog of fellow` (Dickens); `her brute of brother` (Galsworthy). such epithets are metaphorical. The noun it qualifies is a metaphor (shadow, devil, military abbreviation). Flying Dutchman, dog. the predicative’s can be classified as epithets. Here are some examples: ` fools that they are`, ` Wicked as he is`. From the point of its distribution the epithets may be arranged in string. In the depiction of NEW YORK O`Henry gives the following string of epithets. `Such of the background of the wonderful, cruel, enchanting, bewildering, fatal, great city.`

`A plump, rosy-checked, wholesome apple faced young woman (Dickens); `a will-matched, fairy-balanced give-and-take couple.` (Dickens) Another distributional model is the transferred epithet. They are ordinary logical attributes generally describing the state of human being; but made refer to an inanimate object, for example: sick chamber, sleepless pillow, restless pace, merry hours, a disapproving finger, is able shrugged an indifferent shoulder. The epithet is a direct and straightforward way of showing the author’s attitude towards the things described, whereas other stylistic devices will reveal the author’s evolution of the object only indirectly.

c) Оxymoron.

It is a combination of 2 words (mostly on adjective or a noun or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the 2 clash, being opposite in sense, for example: ` low skyscraper`, `sweet sorrow`, `pleasantly ugly face`, `

Horridly beautiful`. If the primary meaning of the qualifying word changes or weakens, the stylistic effect of oxymoron is lost. The example from O. Henry’s `The Duel in which one of the heroes thus desecrates his attitude. Towards New York. `I despise its very vastness and power. In has poorest millionaires, the plainest beauties, the lowest skyscrapers, the dolefulness pleasures of any structural model:` abjective+noun. Interaction of logical and nominal meanings.

Antonomonasia.

The interplay between logical and nominal meanings of a word is called antonomasia. It is intended to point out the leading, most characteristic feature of a person or event. It is a much favored device in the belles-lettres style. It is often found in publicity style, that is in magazine and newspaper articles. In essays and in military language. the following are examples: Islay this to American friends. Mr Fcing-Bith-ways does not get very far in thus word (` THE Times`, March 1, 1956) ` I suspect that the nose and don’t knows would far out-number the Yeses` (The spectator. Feb. 17,1959)

Intensification of a certain feature a thing or phenomenon.

b)Simile`Things are best of all learned by Simile`. V.Y. Billings. The intensifications of some feature of the concept in question is realized in a device called simile. Ordinary comparison and simile should not be confused. Comparison means weighting objects belonging to one class of things with the porpoise of establishing the degree of their sameness or difference. Simile excludes all the properties of the 2 objects except one which is made common to them. For example: `The boy seems to be as clever as his mother ` is ordinary comparison. They belong to the same class of objects. But in ` Maidens, like 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. to be easily lured.

Similes have formal elements in their stricture connective words such as like, as such as, as if, seem. Here are some examples of similes taken from various sources and illustrating the variety of structural designs of this stylistic device.

`His mind was restless, but it worked perversely and thoughts jerked through carburetor`. (Maugham)

Sometimes the simile –forming `like` is placed at the end of the phrase almost merging with it and becoming half suffix, for example:` Emily Barton was very pink, very Dresden-china-shepherdess like`. In simple no n-figurative language, it will assume the following form: ` Emily Barton was very pink, and looked like a Dresden-china-shepherdess`.

Periphrasis

It is the re-meaning of an object by a phrase that brings to some particular feature of the object. It is a stylistic device and a new, genuine nomination of an object, a process which realizes the power of language to coin new names for objects by disclosing some quality of the object, even though it may be transitory, and making it along represent the object, but at the same time preserving in the mind the ordinary name of the concept. Here are some such stylistic periphrases: ` I understand you are poor, and wish to earn money by nerving the little boy, my son, who has been so prematurely deprived of what can never be replaced`. (Dickens). Here is another stylistic periphrasis which the last phrases in the sentence deciphers: `And tarot stands upon the place of skulls; The grave of France, the deadly Waterloo.` in some cases periphrasis is regarded as a demerit and should have no place in good, precise writing. Logical periphrasis is based on one of the inheritor of the object described, as in instruments of destruction (Dickens)=pistols. `Love` - the object of his admiration (Dickens)

d)euphemism there is variety of periphrasis which we shall call euphemism. Euphemism is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression, the word ` to die` has bred the following euphemism: to pass away, to be no more, to depart, to join the majority. So euphemisms are synonyms which aim at producing a deliberately mild effect. They refer the mind to the concept directly e.g. Dickens`s ` Pickwick papers`. `They (cannot) think we have come by the horse in some dishonest manner`. The word steal (have stolen it).

e) Hyperbole- it is deliberate overstatement or exaggeration. The following is a good example of hyperbole. A thousand pardons; scared to death; immensely obliged, ` I`d give the word to see him.` Byron says: `When people say:`` I’ve told you fifty times`. They mean to scold, and very often do.`

Lecture 7