Syntactic stylistic devices based on the transposition of sentence meaning

Rhetoric question

Rhetoric question is an emotional statement or negation expressed in the form of a question. Rhetoric question does not require any answer or demand any information but is used to emphasize the idea, to render speaker’s emotions or to call the attention of the listener (reader) to the focus of the utterance. In fact the communicative function of a rhetoric question is not to ask for unknown but to involve the readers into the discussion or emotional experience, give them a clue and make them to arrive at the conclusion themselves.

 

How can what an Englishmen believes be a heresy? It is a contradiction in terms (B. Show).

 

Being your slave, what should I do but tend

Upon the hours and times of your desire (W. Shakespeare).

Rhetoric questions make an indispensable part of emotive prose, poetry and oratorical and publicistic style. They elevate the style of the utterance, serve as powerful means of emotional inducement, or on the contrary are effective tools of irony, sarcasm and derision:

 

Хто може випити Дніпро,

Хто властен виплескати море,

Хто наше злото-серебро

Плугами кривди переоре,

Хто серця чистого добро

Злобою чорною поборе? (М. Рильський)

But who bothers to sort out the conflicting economic, social and other motives here and to mitigate accordingly? Or to study the economics of the social arrangement by which they are so sharply checked? Or cares whether such young fellows become embittered? (Th. Dreiser).

Alongside with rhetoric questions there are other types of the sentence meaning transposition. In colloquial style exclamations, orders, requests, etc. can be shaped as emphatic questions. Thus such utterances as

 

Aren’t you ashamed of yourself!

Тобі не соромно?

Wasn’t it a marvelous trip!

I wonder whether you would mind opening the door?

What on earth are you doing?

Як я втомився!

And that’s supposed to be cultured?

are considered stylistically marked because they render the same meaning more expressively than the neutral utterances do. In some cases the syntactic transposition can be reinforced by lexical or morphological transposition (often with ironic, sarcastic or humorous connotations) as in the following examples:

 

“Lower it gently, it’s work of art” – “I’ll work-of-art you!” (A. Wesker).

There is a point of no return unremarked at the time in most men lives (Gr. Greene. The Comedians).

The variety of syntactic transposition able to increase the expressiveness of an utterance is practically unlimited. Most men of letters use syntactic transposition as a potential tool to create the lively atmosphere of speech, to express humour, irony, satire, to expose their own worldview or attitude towards the characters and situation of speech, etc.

Conclusion

Thus the stylistic devices on the level of syntax is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading him or her towards considering a topic from a different perspective. While syntactic stylistic devices may be used to evoke an emotional response in the audience, there are other reasons to use them. Their goal is to persuade towards a particular course of action or a frame of ideas perception, so appropriate syntactic stylistic devices are used to construct sentences designed both to make the audience receptive through emotional changes and to provide a rational argumentation. From this point of view the devices presented in this lecture generally fall into three categories: those involving emphasis, association, clarification, and focus; those involving physical organization, transition, and disposition or arrangement; and those involving decoration and variety. Sometimes a given device or trope will fall mainly into a single category; but more often the effects of a particular device are multiple, and a single one may operate in all three categories. Parallelism, for instance, helps to order, clarify, emphasize, contribute to beautify of a thought, etc.

In this respect it is worth answering the question of the value of syntactic devices in particular and the tropes or figures of speech in general. Metaphor and metonymy, irony and hyperbole, chiasmus and antithethis -- learning all the intricate terms can be a real challenge. Learning how to recognize the figures in our reading and apply them in our writing can be even harder. So why should we even bother?

Over a century ago, a popular Canadian novelist and professor of rhetoric, James De Mille, offered several good reasons for studying the figures of speech. Though we might word them a bit differently today, the points he made in 1878 still hold true.

Figures of speech are of such importance that they must always occupy a prominent place in every treatise on style or criticism. Though differing in special character or effects, they all have one thing in common, and that is, they contribute beyond anything else to the embellishment of style. Some create a picture before the mind; others gratify the sense of proportion; others adorn the subject by contrasting it with some other which is like or unlike; and thus in various ways they appeal to the aesthetical sensibilities.

They contribute to perspicuity, by the power which many of them have of throwing fresh light upon a subject by presenting it in a new and unexpected form. They are used to illustrate a subject, which thus gains a clearness that could be given in no other way. They add to the persuasiveness of style. They give variety to it, by enabling the author to change his form of expression at will. Thus a perpetual freshness and vivacity is the result, together with an attractive brilliancy. Old thoughts, which have lost their force through familiarity, may thus be rendered striking by assuming a novel shape, under which they have all the force of an original statement.

In the whole world of literature, both ancient and modern, figures of speech occupy a foremost place. The most famous passages of poetry--epic, lyric, and dramatic--the noblest strains of eloquence, the most vivid descriptions, all exhibit their presence and effective force. Not the least sign of their power may be perceived in the common language of every-day life. Veriour stylistic devices are indispensable in eager, animated conversation where they always indicate vivacity or energy. This fact shows that while art and elaboration can make the highest use offigurative language, nature also resorts to it; and as nature has invented it, so she prompts its use and shows its effectiveness.