Types of grammatical transposition

Generally speaking we may distinguish 3 types of grammatical trans­position.

The first deals with the transposition of a certain grammar form into a new syntactical distribution with the resulting effect of contrast. The so-called 'historical present' is a good illustration of this type: a verb in the Present Indefinite form is used against the background of the Past Indefinite narration. The effect of vividness, an illusion of «presence», a lapse in time into the reality of the reader is achieved.

Everything went as easy as drinking, Jimmy said. There was a garage just round the corner behind Belgrave Square where he used to go every morn­ing to watch them messing about with the cars. Crazy about cars the kid was. Jimmy comes in one day with his motorbike and side-car and asks for some petrol. He comes up and looks at it in the way he had. (Waugh)

The second type of transposition involves both—the lexical and grammatical meanings. The use of the plural form with a noun whose lexical denotative meaning is incompatible with plurality (abstract nouns, proper names) may serve as an apt example.

 

 

Chapter 3. Stylistic Grammar

The look on her face... was full of secret resentments, and longings, and fears. (Mitchell)

Transposition of classifying grammatical meanings, that brings to­gether situationally incompatible forms—for instance, the use of a common noun as a proper one.

The effect is personification of inanimate objects or antonomasia (a person becomes a symbol of a quality or trait— Mr. Know-Ail, Mr. Truth, speaking names).

Lord and Lady Circumference, Mr. Parakeet, Prof. Silenus, Colonel MacAdder. (Waugh)

3.3. Morphological stylistics.

Stylistic potential of the parts of speech

3.3.1. The noun and its stylistic potential

The stylistic power of a noun is closely linked to the grammatical categories this part of speech possesses. First of all these are the categories of number, person and case.

The use of a singular noun instead of an appropriate plural form creates a generalized, elevated effect often bordering on symbolization. The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes From leaf to flower and from flower to fruit And fruit and leaf are as gold and fire.

(Swinburn)

3.3. Morphological stylistics

Ъе contrary device—the use of plural instead of singular—as a rale makes the description more powerful and large-scale.

The clamour of waters, snows, winds, rains... (Hemingway) The lone and level sands stretch far away. (Shelly)

The plural form of an abstract noun, whose lexical meaning is alien to the notion of number makes it not only more expressive, but brings about what Vinogradov called aesthetic semantic growth.

Heaven remained rigidly in its proper place on the other side of death, and on this side flourished the injustices, the cruelties, the meannesses, that elsewhere people so cleverly hushed up, (Green)

Thus one feeling is represented as a number of emotional states, each with a certain connotation of a new meaning. Emotions may signify concrete events, happenings, doings.

Proper names employed as plural lend the narration a unique gener­alizing effect:

Ifyou forget to invite somebody's Aunt Millie, I want to be able to say I had nothing to do with it.

There were numerous Aunt Millies because of, and in spite of Arthur's and Edith's triple checking of the list. (O'Hara)

These examples represent the second type of grammatical metaphor formed by the transposition of the lexical and grammatical meanings.

The third type of transposition can be seen on the example of personification. This is a device in which grammatical metaphor appears due to the classifying transposition of a noun, because nouns

 

 

Chapter 3. Stylistic Grammar

3.3. Morphological stylistics

 

are divided into animate and inanimate and only animate nouns have the category of person.

Personification transposes a common noun into the class of proper names by attributing to it thoughts or qualities of a human being. As a result the syntactical, morphological and lexical valency of this noun changes:

England's mastery of the seas, too, was growing even greater. Last year her trading rivals the Dutch had pushed out of several colonies... (Ru-therfurd)

The category of case (possessive case) which is typical of the proper nouns, since it denotes possession becomes a mark of personification in cases like the following one:

Love's first snowdrop Virgin kiss!

(Burns)

Abstract nouns transposed into the class of personal nouns are charged with various emotional connotations, as in the following examples where personification appears due to the unexpected lexico-grammatical valency:

The woebegone fragment of womanhood in the corner looked a little less terrified when she saw the wine. (Waugh)

The chubby little eccentricity, (a child)

The old oddity (an odd old person). (Arnold)

The emotive connotations in such cases may range from affection to irony or distaste.

So, although the English noun has fewer grammatical categories than the Russian one, its stylistic potential in producing grammatical metaphor is high enough.