Problems of stylistic research

Preface

language as we go through our day. A selection of distinctive features of each functional style will help to identify and use it correctly whether you deal with producing or analysing a text of a certain functional type.

Chapters on grammar stylistics and decoding stylistics are intended to introduce the student to the secrets of how a stylistic device works. Modern linguistics may help to identify the nature and algorithm of stylistic effect by showing what kind of semantic change, grammatical transposition or lexical deviation results in various stylistic outcomes.

This book combines theoretical study and practice. Each chapter is supplied with a special section that enables the student and the teacher to revise and process the theoretical part by drawing conclusions and parallels, doing comparison and critical analysis. Another type of prac­tice involves creative tasks on stylistic analysis and interpretation, such as identifying devices in literary texts, explaining their function and the principle of performance, decoding the implications they create.

The knowledge of the theoretical background of stylistic research and the experience of integrating it into one's analytical reading skills will enhance the competence and proficiency of a future teacher of English. Working with literary texts on this level also helps to develop one's cultural scope and aesthetic taste. It will also enrich the student's linguistic and stylistic thesaurus.

The author owes acknowledgements for the kindly assistance in reading and stylistic editing of this work to a colleague from the Shimer College of Chicago, a lecturer in English and American literature S. Sklar.

C hapter 1 The Object of Stylistics

Problems of stylistic research. Stylistics of language and speech. Types of stylistic research and branches of stylistics. Stylistics and other linguistic disciplines. Stylistic neutrality and stylistic coloring. Stylistic function notion.

Stylistics of language and speech

One of the fundamental concepts of linguistics is the dichotomy of «language and speech» (langue—parole) introduced by F. de Saussure. According to it language is a system of elementary and complex signs-phonemes, morphemes, words, word combinations, utterances and combinations of utterances. Language as such a system exists m human minds only and linguistic forms or units can be systematise" into paradigms.

1.2. Stylistics of language and speech

language is a mentally organised system of linguistic units. An ^ъ0.. _aj speaker never uses it. When we use these units we mix

m in acts of speech. As distinct from language speech is not relv mental phenomenon, not a system but a process of combining these linguistic elements into linear linguistic units that are called syntagmatic.

The result of this process is the linear or syntagmatic combination of vowels and consonants into words, words into word-combinations and sentences and combination of sentences into texts. The word «syntagmatic» is a purely linguistic term meaning a coherent sequence of words (written, uttered or just remembered).

StyUstics is a branch of linguistics that deals with texts, not with the system of signs or process of speech production as such. But within these texts elements stylistically relevant are studied both syntagmatically and paradigmatically (loosely classifying all stylistic means paradigmatically into tropes and syntagmatically into figures of speech).

Eventually this brings us to the notions of stylistics of language and stylistics of speech. Their difference lies in the material studied. the stylistics of language analyses permanent or inherent stylistic roperties of language elements while the stylistics of speech studies stylistic properties, which appear in a context, and they are called adherent.

word'' ^WOrds '^{ike тол}мач, штудировать, соизволять or English these ^prevaricate' comprehend, lass are bookish or archaic and of the^^{6 the}'^{r inherent} Properties. The unexpected use of any ProperT ^W°^rdS '" ^{3 modem context wil}> be an adherent stylistic

Chapter 1. The Object of Stylistics

So stylistics of language describes and classifies the inherent styli_sti_c colouring of language units. Stylistics of speech studies the compost, tion of the utterance—the arrangement, selection and distribution of different words, and their adherent qualities.

Types of stylistic research and branches of stylistics

Comparative stylistics

Comparative stylistics is connected with the contrastive study of more than one language.

It analyses the stylistic resources not inherent in a separate language but at the crossroads of two languages, or two literatures and is obviously linked to the theory of translation.

Decoding stylistics

A comparatively new branch of stylistics is the decoding stylistics, which can be traced back to the works of L. V. Shcherba, B. A. Larin, M. Riffaterre, R. Jackobson and other scholars of the Prague linguistic circle. A serious contribution into this branch of stylistic study was also made by Prof. I. V. Arnold (3, 4). Each act of speech has the performer, or sender of speech and the recipient. The former does the act of encoding and the latter the act of decoding the information.

^Jf we analyse the text from the author's (encoding) point of view ^we should consider the epoch, the historical situation, the personal Political, social and aesthetic views of the author.

' we try to treat the same text from the reader's angle of view max" ^{haVS t0 disre}8^ard ^s background knowledge and get the sitio ^{mUm ltlformation from} the text itself (its vocabulary, compo­se ' ^sen,ence arrangement, etc.). The first approach manifests -valence of the literary analysis. The second is based almost

Chapter 1. The Object of Stylistics

exclusively on the linguistic analysis. Decoding stylistics is an attempt to harmoniously combine the two methods of stylistic research and enable the scholar to interpret a work of art with a minimum loss of its purport and message.

Functional stylistics

Special mention should be made of functional stylistics which is a branch of lingua-stylistics that investigates functional styles, that is special sublanguages or varieties of the national language such as scientific, colloquial, business, publicist and so on.

However many types of stylistics may exist or spring into existence they will all consider the same source material for stylistic analysis-sounds, words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs and texts. That's why any kind of stylistic research will be based on the level-forming branches that include:

Stylistic lexicology

Stylistic Lexicology studies the semantic structure of the word and the interrelation (or interplay) of the connotative and denotative meanings of the word, as well as the interrelation of the stylistic connotations of the word and the context.

Stylistic Phonetics (or Phonostylistics) is engaged in the study of style-forming phonetic features of the text. It describes the prosodic features of prose and poetry and variants of pronunciation in different types of speech (colloquial or oratory or recital).

1.4. Stylistics and other linguistic disciplines

Stylistic grammar

Stylistic Morphology is interested in the stylistic potentials of specific grammatical forms and categories, such as the number of the noun, or the peculiar use of tense forms of the verb, etc.

Stylistic Syntax is one of the oldest branches of stylistic studies that grew out of classical rhetoric. The material in question lends itself readily to analysis and description. Stylistic syntax has to do with the expressive order of words, types of syntactic links (asyndeton, polysyndeton), figures of speech (antithesis, chiasmus, etc.). It also deals with bigger units from paragraph onwards.

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/unction. 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.

1.6. Stylistic function notion

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:

1) emotive;

2) evaluative;

3) expressive;

4) stylistic.

A word is always characterised by its denotative meaning but not necessarily by connotation. The four components may be all present at once, or in different combinations or they may not be found in the word at all.

1. Emotive connotations express various feelings or emotions. Emo­tions differ from feelings. Emotions like./ay, 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

Chapter 1. The Object of Stylistics

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 like big will become charged with emotive connotation in a mother's proud description of her baby: He is a BIG boy already!

2. 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.

3. Expressive connotation either increases or decreases the expres­
siveness of the message. Many scholars hold that emotive and
expressive components cannot be distinguished but Prof. I.A.Arnold

1.6. Stylistic function notion

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 (4, p. ПЗ).

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 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.

4. 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.

This detailed and systematic description of the connotative meaning of a word is suggested by the Leningrad school in the works of Prof. I. V. Arnold, Z. Y. Turayeva, and others.

Galperin operates three types of lexical meaning that are stylistically relevant—logical, emotive and nominal. He describes the stylistic

Chapter 1. The Object of Stylistics

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.

Practice Section

1. Comment on the notions of style and sublanguages in the national language.

2. What are the interdisciplinary links of stylistics and other lin­guistic subjects such as phonetics, lexicology, grammar, and semasiology? Provide examples.

How does stylistics differ from them in its subject-matter and fields of study?

3. Give an outline of the stylistic differentiation of the national English vocabulary: neutral, literary, colloquial layers of words; areas of their overlapping. Describe literary and common collo­quial stratums of vocabulary, their stratification.

4. How does stylistic colouring and stylistic neutrality relate to inherent and adherent stylistic connotation?

5. Can you distinguish neutral, formal and informal among the following groups of words.

Practice Section

ABC

1. currency money dough

2. to talk to converse to chat

3. to chow down to eat to dine

4. to start to commence to kick off

5. insane nuts mentally ill

6. spouse hubby husband

7. to leave to withdraw to shoot off

8. geezer senior citizen old man

9. veracious opens sincere
10. mushy emotional sentimental

6. What kind of adherent stylistic meaning appears in the otherwise
neutral word feeling?

I've got no feeling paying interest, provided that it's reasonable. (Shute) I've got no feeling against small town life. I rather like it. (Shute)

7. To what stratum of vocabulary do the words in bold type in
the following sentences belong stylistically? Provide neutral or
colloquial variants for them:

/ expect you've seen my hand often enough coming out with the grub. (Waugh)

She betrayed some embarrassment when she handed Paul the tickets, and a hauteur which subsequently made her feel very foolish. (Cather)

Chapter 1. The Object of Stylistics

Practice Section

 

I must be off to my digs. (Waugh)

When the old boy popped off he left Philbrick everything, except a few books to Grade. (Waugh)

He looked her over and decided that she was not appropriately dressed and must be a fool to sit downstairs in such togs. (Cather)

It was broken at length by the arrival of Flossie, splendidly attired in magenta and green. (Waugh)

8. Consider the following utterances from the point of view of the
grammatical norm. What elements can be labelled as deviations
from standard English? How do they comply with the norms of
colloquial English according to Mims and Skrebnev?

Sita decided that she would lay down in the dark even if Mrs. Waldvogel came in and bit her. (Erdrich)

Always popular with the boys, he was, even when he was so full he couldn't hardly fight. (Waugh)

...he used to earn five pound a night... (Waugh)

/ wouldn't sell it not for a hundred quid, I wouldn't. (Waugh)

There was a rapping at the bedroom door. «I'll learn that Luden Sorrels to tomcat.» (Chappel)

9. How does the choice of words in each case contribute to the
stylistic character of the following passages? How would you
define their functional colouring in terms of technical, poetic,
bookish, commercial, dialectal, religious, elevated, colloquial,
legal or other style?

Make up lists of words that create this tenor in the texts given below.

Whilst humble pilgrims lodged in hospices, a travelling knight would normally stay with a merchant. (Rutherfurd)

Fo' what you go by dem, eh? W'y not keep to yo'self? Dey don' want you, dey don' care fo'you. H' ain'you got no sense? (Dunbar-Nelson)

They sent me down to the aerodrome next morning in a car. I made a check over the machine, cleaned filters, drained sumps, swept out the cabin, and refuelled. Finally I took off at about ten thirty for the short flight down to Batavia across the Sunda straits, and found the aerodrome and came on to the circuit behind the Constellation of K. L. M. (Shute)

We ask Thee, Lord, the old man cried, to look after this childt. Fa­therless he is. But what does the earthly father matter before Tliee? The childt is Thine, he is Thy childt, Lord, what father has a man but Thee? (Lawrence)

-We are the silver band the Lord bless and keep you, said the stationmaster in one breath, the band that no one could beat whatever but two indeed in the Eisteddfod that for all North Wales was look you.

I see, said the Doctor, I see. That's splendid. Well, will you please go into your tent, the little tent over there.

To march about you would not like us? Suggested the stationmaster, we have a fine flaglook you that embroidered for us was in silks. (Waugh)

The evidence is perfectly clear. The deceased woman was unfaithful to her husband during his absence overseas and gave birth to a child out of wedlock.

Chapter 1. The Object of Stylistics

Her husband seemed to behave with commendable restraint and wrote nothing to her which would have led her to take her life... The deceased appears to have been the victim of her own conscience and as the time for the return of her husband drew near she became mentally upset. Fi find that the deceased committed suicide while the balance of her mind\ was temporarily deranged. (Shute)

/ say, I've met an awful good chap called Miles. Regular topper. You\ know, pally. That's what I like about a really decent party—you meet] such topping fellows. I mean some chaps it takes absolutely years tot know, but a chap like Miles I feel is a pal straight away. (Waugh)

She sang first of the birth of love in the hearts of a boy and a girl. And on the topmost spray of the Rose-tree there blossomed a marvellous rose, petal following petal, as song followed song. Pale was it, at first as the mist that hangs over the river—pale as the feet of the morning. (Wilde);

He went slowly about the corridors, through the writing—rooms, smoking- j rooms, reception-rooms, as though he were exploring the chambers of an enchanted palace, built and peopled for him alone.

When he reached the dining-room he sat down at a table near a window. \

The flowers, the white linen, the many-coloured wine-glasses, the gay \ toilettes of the women, the low popping of corks, the undulating repetitions i of the Blue Danube from the orchestra, all flooded Paul's dream with bewildering radiance. (Cather)

Chapter 2

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 drawling, or 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 glasnosted his love affair with th^: movie star (People) is another example of morphological expressive means.

Lexical expressive means may be illustrated by a special group о intensifiers— awfully, terribly, absolutely, etc. or words that retain thei logical meaning while being used emphatically: // was a very sped e vening/event/gift.

There are also special grammatical forms and syntactical patterns attributing expressiveness, such as: / do know you! I'm really angry with that dog of у ours! 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.

The nature of the interaction may be affinity (likeness by nature), proximity (nearness in place, time, order, occurrence, relation) or contrast (opposition).

Respectively there is metaphor based on the principle of affinity, metonymy based on proximity and irony based on opposition.

The evolution of a stylistic device such as metaphor could be seen from four examples that demonstrate this linguistic mechanism (interplay of dictionary and contextual meaning based on the principle of affinity):

1. My new dress is as pink as this flower: comparison (ground for comparison—the colour of the flower).

2. Her cheeks were as red as a tulip: simile (ground for simile— colour/beauty/health/freshness)

3. She is a real flower: metaphor (ground for metaphor—frail/ fragrant/tender/beautifu 1/helpless...).

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

2.2. Different classifications of expressive means

 

 

My love is a red, red rose: metaphor (ground for metaphor— passionate/beautiful/strong...).

4. Ruby lips, hair of gold, snow-white skin: trite metaphors so frequently employed that they hardly have any stylistic power left because metaphor dies of overuse. Such metaphors are aiso called hackneyed or even dead.

A famous literary example of an author's defiance against immoderate \ use of trite metaphors is W. Shakespeare's Sonnet 130

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

I have seen roses damasked, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks;

And in some perfumes is there more delight

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know

That music hath a far more pleasing sound;

I grant I never saw a goddess go;

My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

As any she belied with false compare.

The more unexpected, the less predictable is the ground for com­parison the more expressive is the metaphor which in this case got a special name of genuine or authentic metaphor. Associations sug­gested by the genuine metaphor are varied, not limited to any definite number and stimulated by the individual experience or imagination.

Positive/elevated

poetic;

official;

professional.

Bookish and archaic words occupy a peculiar place among the other 1 positive words due to the fact that they can be found in any other group (poetic, official or professional).

Neutral

Negative/degraded

colloquial; neologisms;

jargon;

slang;

nonce-words;

vulgar words.

Special mention is made of terms. The author maintains that the stylistic function of terms varies in different types of speech. In non-professional spheres, such as literary prose, newspaper texts, everyday speech special terms are associated with socially presti­gious occupations and therefore are marked as elevated. On the other hand the use of non-popular terms, unknown to the average speaker, shows a pretentious manner of speech, lack of taste or tact.

Paradigmatic syntax has to do with the sentence paradigm: complete­ness of sentence structure, communicative types of sentences, word order, and type of syntactical connection.

Paradigmatic syntactical means of expression arranged according to these four types include

Word order

Inversion of sentence members. Communicative types of sentences

Quasi-affirmative sentences: Isn't that too bad? = That is too bad.

Quasi-interrogative sentences: Here you are to write down your age and birthplace = How old are you? Where were you born?

Quasi-negative sentences: Did I say a word about the money (Shaw) = / did not say...

Quasi-imperative sentences: Here! Quick! — Come here! Be quick!

In these types of sentences the syntactical formal meaning of the structure contradicts the actual meaning implied so that negative sentences read affirmative, questions do not require answers but are in fact declarative sentences (rhetorical questions), etc. One commu­nicative meaning appears in disguise of another. Skrebnev holds that «the task of stylistic analysis is to find out to what type of speech (and its sublanguage) the given construction belongs.» (47, p. 100).

Hyperbole

E.g. You couldn't hear yourself think for the noise.

Meosis (understatement, litotes).

E. g. It's not unusual for him to come home at this hour.

According to Skrebnev this is the most primitive type of renaming.

Figures of quality comprise 3 types of renaming:

• transfer based on a real connection between the object of nomi­nation and the object whose name it's given.

This is called metonymy in its two forms: synecdoche and periphrasis.

E- g. I'm all ears; Hands wanted.

Periphrasis and its varieties euphemism and anti-euphemism.

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

2.2. Different classifications of expressive means

 

E. g. Ladies and the worser halves; I never call a spade a spade, I ca it a bloody shovel.

• transfer based on affinity (similarity, not real connection metaphor.

Skrebnev describes metaphor as an expressive renaming on the basis of similarity of two objects. The speaker searches for associations in] his mind's eye, the ground for comparison is not so open to view as with metonymy. It's more complicated in nature. Metaphor has no formal limitations Skrebnev maintains, and that is why this not a purely lexical stylistic device as many authors describe it (s Galperin's classification).

This is a device that can involve a word, a part of a sentence о a whole sentence. We may add that whole works of art can be viewe as metaphoric and an example of it is the novel by John Updike «Th Centaur».

As for the varieties there are not just simple metaphors like She i a flower, but sustained metaphors, also called extended, when one metaphorical statement creating an image is followed by another linked to the previous one: This is a day of your golden opportunity, Sarge. Don't let it turn to brass. (Pendelton)

Often a sustained metaphor gives rise to a device called catachresis (or mixed metaphor)—which consists in the incongruity of the parts of a sustained metaphor. This happens when objects of the two or more parts of a sustained metaphor belong to different semantic spheres and the logical chain seems disconnected. The effect is ' usually comical.

£. g. «For somewhere», said Poirot to himself indulging an absolute riot ₀f mixed metaphors «there is in the hay a needle, and among the sleeping dogs there is one on whom I shall put my foot, and by shooting the arrow into the air, one will come down and hit a glass-house!» (Christie)

A Belgian speaking English confused a number of popular proverbs and quotations that in reality look like the following: to look for a needle in a haystack; to let sleeping dogs lie; to put one's foot down; I shot an arrow into the air (Longfellow); people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

Other varieties of metaphor according to Skrebnev also include

Allusion defined as reference to a famous historical, literary, mytho­logical or biblical character or event, commonly known.

E.g. It's his Achilles heel (myth of vulnerability).

Personification— attributing human properties to lifeless objects.

E.g. How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, Stol'n on his wing my three and twentieth year! (Milton)

Antonomasia defined as a variety of allusion, because in Skrebnev's view it's the use of the name of a historical, literary, mythological or biblical personage applied to a person described. Some of the most famous ones are Brutus (traitor), Don Juan (lady's man).

It should be noted that this definition is only limited to the allusive nature of this device. There is another approach (cf. Galperin and others) in which antonomasia also covers instances of transference of common nouns in place of proper names, such as Mr. Noble Knight, Duke the Iron Heart.

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

2.2. Different classifications of expressive means

 

Allegory expresses abstract ideas through concrete pictures.

E. g. The scales of justice; It's time to beat your swords into ploughshar

It should be noted that allegory is not just a stylistic term, but als a term of art in general and can be found in other artistic forms: painting, sculpture, dance, and architecture.

• transfer by contrast when the two objects are opposed implies irony.

Irony (meaning «concealed mockery», in Greek eironeia) is a device based on the opposition of meaning to the sense (dictionary and contextual). Here we observe the greatest semantic shift between the notion named and the notion meant.

Skrebnev distinguishes 2 kinds of ironic utterances:

— obviously explicit ironical, which no one would take at their fac
value due to the situation, tune and structure.

E. g. A fine friend you are! That's a pretty kettle offish!

— and implicit, when the ironical message is communicated agaii
a wider context like in Oscar Wilde's tale «The Devoted Friend» I
where the real meaning of the title only becomes obvious after
you read the story. On the whole irony is used with the aim of
critical evaluation and the general scheme is praise stands for j
blame and extremely rarely in the reverse order. However when |
it does happen the term in the latter case is astheism.

E. g. Clever bastard! Lucky devil!

One of the powerful techniques of achieving ironic effect is the mixture of registers of speech (social styles appropriate for the occasion): high-flown style on socially low topics or vice versa.

Syntagmatic stylistics

Syntagmatic stylistics (stylistics of sequences) deals with the stylistic functions of linguistic units used in syntagmatic chains, in linear combinations, not separately but in connection with other units. Syntagmatic stylistics falls into the same level determined branches.

Syntagmatic phonetics deals with the interaction of speech sounds and intonation, sentence stress, tempo. All these features that charac­terise suprasegmental speech phonetically are sometimes also called prosodic.

So stylistic phonetics studies such stylistic devices and expressive means as alliteration (recurrence of the initial consonant in two or more words in close succession). It's a typically English feature because ancient English poetry was based more on alliteration than on rhyme. We find a vestige of this once all-embracing literary device in proverbs and sayings that came down to us.

E. g. Now or never; Last but not least; As good as gold.

With time its function broadened into prose and other types of texts.

It became very popular in titles, headlines and slogans.

». g. Pride and Prejudice. (Austin)

^posthumous papers of the Pickwick Club. (Dickens)

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

2.2. Different classifications of expressive means

 

Work or wages/; Workers of the world, unite!

Speaking of the change of this device's role chronologically we should make special note of its prominence in certain professional areas of modern English that has not been mentioned by Skrebnev. Today alliteration is one of the favourite devices of commercials and advertising language.

E. g. New whipped cream: No mixing or measuring. No beating or bothering.

Colgate toothpaste: The Flavor's Fresher than ever—It's New. Improved. Fortified.

Assonance (the recurrence of stressed vowels).

E. g.... Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if within the distant Aiden; /| shall clasp a sainted maiden, whom the angels name Lenore. (Рое)

Paronomasia (using words similar in sound but different in meaning with euphonic effect).

The popular example to illustrate this device is drawn from E. A. Poe's Raven.

E.g. And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting Rhythm and meter.

The pattern of interchange of strong and weak segments is called rhythm. It's a regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables that make a poetic text. Various combinations of stressed and un­stressed syllables determine the metre (iambus, dactyl, trochee, etc.).

Rhyme is another feature that distinguishes verse from prose and consists in the acoustic coincidence of stressed syllables at the end of verse lines.

Here's an example to illustrate dactylic meter and rhyme given in Skrebnev's book

Take her up tenderly, Lift her with care, Fashion'd so slenderly Young and so fair.

(Hood)

Syntagmatic morphology deals with the importance of grammar forms used in a paragraph or text that help in creating a certain stylistic effect.

We find much in common between Skrebnev's description of this area and Leech's definition of syntagmatic deviant figures. Skrebnev writes: «Varying the morphological means of expressing grammatical notions is based... upon the general rule: monotonous repetition of morphemes or frequent recurrence of morphological meanings expressed differently...» (47, p. 146).

He also indicates that while it is normally considered a stylis­tic fault it acquires special meaning when used on purpose. He describes the effect achieved by the use of morphological syn­onyms of the genetive with Shakespeare— the possessive case (Shake­speare's plays), prepositional o/-phrase (the plays of Shakespeare) and an attributive noun (Shakespeare plays) as «elegant variation» of style.

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

2.2. Different classifications of expressive means

 

Syntagmatic lexicology studies the «word-and-context» juxtaposition that presents a number of stylistic problems—especially those con- nected with co-occurrence of words of various stylistic colourings.

Each of these cases must be considered individually because each literary text is unique in its choice and combination of words. Such phenomena as various instances of intentional and unintentional lexical mixtures as well as varieties of lexical recurrence fall in wifl this approach.

Some new more modern stylistic terms appear in this connection-stylistic irradiation, heterostylistic texts, etc. We can observe this sor of stylistic mixture in a passage from O'Henry provided by Skrebnev:

Jeff, says Andy after a long time, quite unseldom I have seen fit to impugn your molars when you have been chewing the rag with me about your conscientious way of doing business... (47, p. 149).

Syntagmatic syntax deals with more familiar phenomena since it has to do with the use of sentences in a text. Skrebnev distinguishes purely syntactical repetition to which he refers

parallelism as structural repetition of sentences though often accom- panied by the lexical repetition

E. g. The cock is crowing, The stream is flowing...

(Wordsworth)

and lexico-syntactical devices such as

anaphora (identity of beginnings, initial elements).

E. g. If only little Edward were twenty, old enough to marry well and fend for himself, instead often. If only it were not necessary to provide a dowaryforhis daughter. If only his own debts were less. (Rutherfurd)

Epiphora (opposite of the anaphora, identical elements at the end of sentences, paragraphs, chapters, stanzas).

E. g. For all averred, I had killed the bird. That made the breeze to blow. Ah wretch! Said they, the bird to slay, That made the breeze to blow!

(Coleridge)

Framing (repetition of some element at the beginning and at the end of a sentence, paragraph or stanza).

E. g. Never wonder. By means of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, settle everything somehow, and never wonder. (Dickens)

Anadiplosis (the final element of one sentence, paragraph, stanza is repeated in the initial part of the next sentence, paragraph, stanza.

E.g. Three fishers went sailing out into the West. Out into the West, as the sun went down.

(Kingsley)

Chiasmus (parallelism reversed, two parallel syntactical constructions contain a reversed order of their members).

E. g. That he sings and he sings, and for ever sings he— I love my Love and my Love loves me!

(Coleridge)

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

2.2. Different classifications of expressive means

 

Syntagmatic semasiology or semasiology of sequences deals with semantic relationships expressed at the lengh of a whole text. As distinct from paradigmatic semasiology which studies the stylistic effect of renaming syntagmatic semasiology studies types of names used for linear arrangement of meanings.

Skrebnev calls these repetitions of meanings represented by sense units in a text figures of co-occurrence. The most general types of] semantic relationships can be described as identical, different orl opposite. Accordingly he singles out figures of identity, figures of\ inequality and figures of contrast.

Figures of identity

Simile (an explicit statement of partial identity: affinity, likeness, similarity of 2 objects).

E. g. My heart is like a singing bird. (Rosetti)

Synonymous replacement (use of synonyms or synonymous phrases to avoid monotony or as situational substitutes).

E. g. He brought home numberless prizes. He told his mother counties stories. (Thackeray)

E.g. I was trembly and shaky from head to foot.

Figures of inequality

 

Clarifying (specifying) synonyms (synonymous repetition used to

characterise different aspects of the same referent).

E.g. You undercut, sinful, insidious hog. (O'Henry)

Climax (gradation of emphatic elements growing in strength).

E. g. What difference if it rained, hailed, blew, snowed, cycloned? (O'Henry).

Anti-climax (back gradation—instead of a few elements growing in intensity without relief there unexpectedly appears a weak or contrastive element that makes the statement humorous or ridiculous).

E. g. The woman who could face the very devil himself or a mouse—goes all to pieces in front of a flash of lightning. (Twain)

Zeugma (combination of unequal, or incompatible words based on the economy of syntactical units).

E. g. She dropped a tear and her pocket handkerchief. (Dickens)

Pun (play upon words based on polysemy or homonymy).

E. g. What steps would you take if an empty tank were coming toward you?—Long ones.

Disguised tautology (semantic difference in formally coincidental parts of a sentence, repetition here does not emphasise the idea but carries a different information in each of the two parts).

E. g. For East is East, and West is West... (Kipling)

Figures of contrast

Oxymoron (a logical collision of seemingly incompatible words).

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

Practice Section

 

E. g. His honour rooted in dishonour stood, And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.

(Tennyson)

Antithesis (anti-statement, active confrontation of notions used tol show the contradictory nature of the subject described).

E. g. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the era of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of Darkness... Hope... Despair. (Dickens)

His fees were high, his lessons were light. (O'Henry)

An overview of the classifications presented here shows rather varie approaches to practically the same material. And even though thej contain inconsistencies and certain contradictions they reflect tluj scholars' attempts to overcome an inventorial description of devices, They obviously bring stylistic study of expressive means to an advanced level, sustained by the linguistic research of the 20'^л century that allows to explore and explain the linguistic nature of the stylistic function. This contribution into stylistic theory made by modem' linguistics is not contained to classifying studies only. It has inspired exploration of other areas of research such as decoding stylistics or stylistic grammar that will be discussed in further chapters.

Practice Section

1. What is the relationship between the denotative and connotative meanings of a word?

Can a word connote without denoting and vice versa?

What are the four components of the connotative meaning and

how are they represented in a word if at all?

2. Expound on the expressive and emotive power of the noun thing in the following examples:

Jennie wanted to sleep with me—the sly thing/ But I told her I should undoubtedly rest better for a night alone. (Gilman)

-/ believe, one day, I shall fall awfully in love.

-Probably you never will, said Lucille brutally. That's what most old

maids are thinking all the time.

Yvette looked at her sister from pensive but apparently insouciant eyes.

Is it? she said. Do you really think so, Lucille? How perfectly awful for

them, poor things! (Lawrence)

She was an honest little thing, but perhaps her honesty was too rational. (Lawrence)

So they were, this queer couple, the tiny, finely formed little Jewess with

her big, resentful, reproachful eyes, and her mop of carefully-barbed black, curly hair, an elegant little thing in her way; and the big, pale-eyed young man, powerful and wintry, the remnant, surely of some old uncanny Danish stock... (Lawrence)

3. How do the notions of expressive means and stylistic devices
correlate? Provide examples to illustrate your point.

4. Compare the principles of classifications given in chapter 2.
Which of them seem most logical to you? Sustain your view.

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

Practice Section

 

Draw parallels between Leech's paradigmatic and syntagmatic deviations and Skrebnev's classification. Apply these criteria to the analysis of the use of brethren and married in the following examples. Consider the grammatical category of number in A and the nature of semantic transfer in B. Supply the kind of tables suggested by Leech to describe the normal and deviant features of similar character.

Comment on the kind of deviation in the nonce-word sistern in A and the effect it produces.

A. Praise God and not the Devil, shouted one of the Maker's male shills
from the other side of the room.

The criminal lowered his eyes and muttered at his shoes:

Ah cut anybody who bruise me with Latin, goddammit.

Listen to him take the Mighty name in vain, brethren and sistern/ said

Reinhart. (Berger)

B. My father was still feisty in 1940— he was thirty years old and
restless, maybe a little wild beneath the yoke of my mother's family. He
truly had married not only my mother but my grandmother as well, and
also the mule and the two elderly horses and the cows and chickens and
the two perilous-looking barns and the whole rocky hundred acres of
Carolina mountain farm. (Chappel)

5. What kind of syntagmatic deviation (according to Leech) is observed in the following instance? What is the term for this device in rhetoric and other stylistic classifications? Where does it belong according to Galperin and Skrebnev?

And in the manner of the Anglo-Saxon poetry that was its inspiration, he ended his sermon resoundingly:

High on the hill in sight of heaven,

Our Lord was led and lifted up.

That willing warrior came while the world wept,

And a terrible shadow shaded the sun

For us He was broken and gave His blood

King of all creation Christ on the Rood.

(Rutherfurd)

6. What types of phonographic expressive means are used in the sentences given below? How do different classifications name and place them?

Стоп, now. I'm not bringing this up with the idea of throwing anything back in your teeth—my God. (Salinger)

Little Dicky strains and yaps back from the safety of Mary's arms. (Erdrich)

Why shouldn't we all go over to the Metropole at Cwmpryddygfor dinner one night?" (Waugh)

I hear Lionel's supposeta be runnin away. (Salinger) Who's that dear, dim, drunk little man? (Waugh) No chitchat please. (O'Hara)

/ prayed for the city to be cleared of people, for the gift of being alone—a-l-o-n-e: which is the one New York prayer... (Salinger)

* Here Cwmpryddyg is an invented Welsh town, an allusion to the difficult Welsh language.

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

Practice Section

 

Sense of sin is sense of waste. (Waugh)

Colonel Logan is in the army, and presumably «the Major» was a soldier at the time Dennis was born. (Follett)

7. Comment on the types of transfer used in such tropes as metaphor, metonymy, allegory, simile, allusion, personification, antonomasia. Compare their place in Galperin's and Skrebnev's systems. Read up on the nature of transfer in a poetic image in terms of tenor, vehicle and ground: И. В. Арнольд Стилистика современного английского языка. М., 1990. С. 74-82. Name and explain the kind of semantic transfer observed in the following passages.

The first time my father met Johnson Gibbs they fought like tomcats. (Chappel)

/ love plants. I don't like cut flowers. Only the ones that grow in the ground. And these water lilies... Each white petal is a great tear of milk. Each slender stalk is a green life rope. (Erdrich)

/ think we should drink a toast to Fortune, a much-maligned lady. (Waugh)

...the first sigh of the instruments seemed to free some hilarious and potent spirit within him; something that struggled there like the Genius in the bottle found by the Arab fisherman. (Cather)

But he, too, knew the necessity of keeping as clear as possible from that poisonous many-headed serpent, the tongue of the people. (Lawrence)

lily had started to ask me about Eunice. «Really, Gentle Heart», she said, «what in the world did you do to my poor little sister to make her skulk away like a thief in the night?» (Shaw)

The green tumour of hate burst inside her. (Lawrence)

She adjusted herself however quite rapidly to her new conception of people. She had to live. It is useless to quarrel with your bread and butter. (Lawrence)

...then the Tudors and the dissolution of the Church, then Lloyd George, the temperance movement, Non-conformity and lust stalking hand in hand through the country, wasting and ravaging. (Waugh)

When the stars threw down their spears, And water'd heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see?

(Blake)

As distinct from the above devices based on some sort of affinity, real or imaginary, there are a number of expressive means based on contrast or incompatibility (oxymoron, antithesis, zeugma, pun, malapropism, mixture of words from different stylistic strata of vocabulary), Their stylistic effect depends on the message and intent of the author and varies in emphasis and colouring. It maybe dramatic, pathetic, elevated, etc. Sometimes the ultimate stylistic effect is irony. Ironic, humorous or satiric effect is always built on contrast although devices that help to achieve it may not necessarily be based on contrast (e. g. they may be hyperbole, litotes, allusion, periphrasis, metaphor, etc.)

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

Some of the basic techniques to achieve verbal irony are:

• praise by blame (or sham praise) which means implying the opposite of what is said;

• minimizing the good qualities and magnifying the bad ones;

• contrast between manner and matter, i. e. inserting irrelev; matter in presumably serious statements;

• interpolating comic interludes in tragic narration;

• mixing formal language and slang;

• making isolated instances seem typical;

• quoting authorities to fit immediate purpose;

• allusive irony: specific allusions to people, ideas, situations, etc. that clash discordantly with the object of irony;

• connotative ambivalence: the simultaneous presence of incom­patible but relevant connotations.

Bearing this in mind comment on the humorous or ironic impact of the following examples.

Explain where possible what stylistic devices effect the techniques of verbal irony.

—Have you at any time been detained in a mental home or similar

institution? If so, give particulars.

I was at Scone College, Oxford, for two years, said Paul.

The doctor looked up for the first time.—Don't you dare to make jokes

here, my man, he said, or I'll have you in the strait-jacket in less than

no time. (Waugh)

I like that. Me trying to be funny. (Waugh)

Practice Section

I drew a dozen or more samples of what I thought were typical examples of American commercial art....I drew people in evening clothes stepping out of limousines on opening nights—lean, erect, super-chic couples who had obviously never in their lives inflicted suffering as a result of underarm carelessness—couples, in fact, who perhaps didn't have any underarms....I drew laughing, high-breasted girls aquaplaning without a care in the world, as a result of being amply protected against such national evils as bleeding gums, facial blemishes, unsightly hairs, and faulty or inadequate life insurance. I drew housewives who, until they reached for the right soap flakes, laid themselves wide open to straggly hair, poor posture, unruly children, disaffected husbands, rough (but slender) hands, untidy (but enormous) kitchens. (Salinger)

I made a Jell-0 salad.—Oh, she says, what kind?— The kind full of nuts and bolts, I say, plus washers of all types. I raided Russel's toolbox for the special ingredients. (Erdrich)

Was that the woman like Napoleon the Great? (Waugh)

They always say that she poisoned her husband... there was a great deal of talk about it at the time. Perhaps you remember the case?—No, said Paul—Powdered glass, said Flossie shrilly,—in his coffee.—Turkish coffee, said Dingy. (Waugh)

You folks all think the coloured man hasn't got a soul. Anythin's good enough for the poor coloured man. Beat him, put him in chains; load him with burdens... Here Paul observed a responsive glitter in Lady Circumference's eye. (Waugh)

In the south they also drink a good deal of tequila, which is a spirit "lade from the juice of the cactus. It has to be taken with a pinch of salt. (Atkinson)

 

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

Practice Section

 

«They could have killed you too, he said, his teeth chattering. If you had arrived two minutes earlier. Forgive me. Forgive all of us. Dolce Italia. Paradise for tourists.» He laughed eerily. (Shaw)

He was talking very excitedly to me, said the Vicar... He seems deeply interested in Church matters. Are you quite sure he is right in the head? I have noticed again and again since I have been in the Church that lay interest in ecclesiastical matters is often a prelude to insanity. (Waugh)

So you're the Doctor's hired assassin, eh? Well, I hope you keep a firm hand on my toad of a son. (Waugh)

9. Explain why the following sentences fall into the category of quasi-questions, quasi-statements or quasi-negatives in Skreb-nev's classification. What's their actual meaning?

—/ wish I could go back to school all over again.—Don't we all, he said. (Shaw)

Are all women different? Oh, are they! (O'Hara)

/ don't think no worse of you for it, no, darned if I do. (Lawrence)

If it isn't diamonds all over his fingers! (Caldwell)

Devil if I know what to make of these people down here. (Christie)

Contact my father again and I'll strangle you. (Donleavy)

Don't you ever talk to Rose?

Rose? Not about Mildred. Rose misses Mildred as much as I do. We

don't even want to see each other. (O'Hara)

10. Why are instances of repetition in the sentences given below
called disguised tautology? How does it differ from regular
tautology? What does this sort of repetition imply?

Life is life.

There are doctors and doctors.

A small town's a small town, wherever it is, I said. (Shute)

I got nothing against Joe Chapin, but he's not me. I'm me, and another man is still another man. (O'Hara)

Well, if it can't be helped, it can't be helped, I said manfully. (Shaw)

Milan is a city, which cannot be summed up in a few words. For Dalian speakers, the old Milanese dialect expression «Milan I'e Milam- (Milan is just Milan) is probably the best description one can give. iPeroni)

Beer was beer, too, in those days—not the gassy staff in bottles. (Dickens)

11. Does the term anti-climax (back-gradation) imply the opposite
of climax (gradation)? What effect does each of these devices
provide? How is it achieved in the following cases:

—Philbrick, there must be champagne-cup, and will you help the men putting up the marquee? And Flags, Diana!... No expense should be spared... And there must be flowers, Diana, banks officers, said the Doctor with an expensive gesture. The prizes shall stand among the banks of flowers-Flowers, youth, wisdom, the glitter of jewels, music, said ihe Doctor. I here must be a band.

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

—I never heard of such a thing, said Dingy. A band indeed/ You'll be having fireworks next.

—Andfireworks, said the Doctor, and do you think it would be a good thing to buy Mr. Prendergast a new tie? (Waugh)

We needed a kind rain, a blessing rain, that lasted a week. We needed wafer. (Erdrich)

At first there were going to be forty guests but the invitation list grew larger and the party plans more elaborate, until Arthur said that with so many people they ought to hire an orchestra, and with an orchestra there would be dancing, and with dancing there ought to be a good sized orchestra. The original small dinner became a dinner dance at the Lantenengo Country Club. Invitations were sent to more than three hundred persons... (O'Hara)

Even the most hardened criminal there—he was serving his third sentence for blackmail—remarked how the whole carriage seemed to be flooded with the detectable savour of Champs-Elysee in early June.