Шпаргалка по стилистике

The subject of stylistics. Its connection with other disciplines.

Stylistics - branch of general linguistics. It has mainly with two tasks: St-s – is regarded as a lang-ge science which deals with the results of the act of communication. There are 2 basic objects of st-s: - stylistic devices and figures of speech; - functional styles. Branches of st-s: - Lexical st-s – studies functions of direct and figurative meanings, also the way contextual meaning of a word is realized in the text. L.S. deals with various types of connotations – expressive, evaluative, emotive; neologisms, dialectal words and their behavior in the text. - Grammatical st-s – is subdivided into morphological and syntactical. Morph-l s. views stylistic potential of gram-l categories of dif-t parts of speech. Potential of the number, pronouns…- Syntactical s. studies syntactic, expressive means, word order and word combinations, dif-t types of sentences and types of syntactic connections. Also deals with origin of the text, its division on the paragraphs, dialogs, direct and indirect speech, the connection of the sentences, types of sentences. - Phonostylistics – phonetical organization of prose and poetic texts. Here are included rhythm, rhythmical structure, rhyme, alliteration, assonance and correlation of the sound form and meaning. Also studies deviation in normative pronunciation. - Functional S (s. of decoding) – deals with all subdivisions of the language and its possible use (newspaper, colloquial style). Its object - correlation of the message and communicative situation.

Expressive means and stylistic devices

Stylistics studies the special media of language which are called stylistic devices and expressive means. Expressive means and stylistic devices form three large groups of phonetic, lexical, syntactical means and devices. Each group is further subdivided according to the principle, purpose and function of a mean or a device in an utterance. Stylistics studies the types of texts which are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of the communication and are called functional styles of language. Expressive means of a language are those phonetic, morphological, word-building, lexical, phraseological and syntactical forms which exist in language-as-a-system for the purpose of logical and/or emotional intensification of the utterance. These intensifying forms have special functions in making the utterances emphatic. A stylistic device is a conscious and intentional intensification of some typical structural and/or semantic property of a language unit (neutral or expressive) promoted to a generalized  status and thus becoming a generative model. A stylistic device is an abstract pattern, a mould into which any content can be poured.

 

Newspaper style includes informative materials: news in brief, headlines, ads, additional articles. But not everything published in the paper can be included in N.S. we mean publicist essays, feature articles, scient. Reviews are not N.S. to attract the readers attention special means are used by british & am. Papers ex: specific headlines, space ordering. We find here a large proportion of dates, personal names of countries, institutions, individuals. To achieve an effect of objectivity in rendering some fact or event most of  info is published anonymously, without the name of newsman who supplied it, with little or no subjective modality. But the position of the paper becomes clear from the choice  not only of subj. matter  but also of words denoting international or domestic issues. Substyles. To understand the language peculiarities of English newspaper style it will be sufficient to analyze the following basic newspaper features:1) brief news items;2) advertisements and announcements;3) headlines; Brief items: its function is to inform the reader. It states only facts without giving comments. The vocabulary used is neutral and common literary. Specific features are: a) special political and economic terms; b) non-term political vocabulary; c) newspaper clichés; d) abbreviations; e) neologisms.

 

Publicistic style. (oratory, speeches, essays, articles)  the style is a perfect ex. Of historical changeability of stylistic differentiation of discourses. In Greece it was practiced in oral form which was named P. in accordance with the name of its corresponding genre. PS is famous for its explicit pragmatic function of persuasion directed at influencing the reader & shaping his views in accordance with the argumentation of the author. We find in PS a blend of the rigorous logical reasoning, reflecting the objective state of things & a strong subjectivity reflecting the authors personal feelings and emotions towards the discussed subject. Substyles: The oratory essays, journalistic articles, radio and TV commentary. Oratory. It makes use of a great hummber of expressive means to arouse and keep the public's interest: repetition, gradation, antithesis, rhetorical questions, emotive words, elements of colloquial speech. Radio and TV commentary is less impersonal and more expressive and emotional. The essay is very subjective and the most colloquial of the all substyles of the publicistic style. It makes use of expressive means and tropes. The journalistic articles are impersonal.

The main peculiarities of belles-lettres style.

Belles-lettres style (the style of fiction) embraces:1)poetry; 2)drama; 3)emotive prose. B-l style or the style of imaginative literature may be called the richest register of communication: besides its own lan-ge means which are not used in any other sphere of communication, b-l st. makes ample use of other styles too, for in numerous works of literary art we find elements of scientific, official and other functional types of speech. Besides informative and persuasive functions, also found in other functional styles, the b-l style has a unique task to impress the reader aesthetically. The form becomes meaningful and carries additional info. Boundless possibilities of expressing one's thoughts and feelings make the b-l style a highly attractive field of research for a linguist.

The belles-lettres style, in each of its concrete representations, fulfils the aesthetic function, which fact singles this style out of others and gives grounds to recognize its systematic uniqueness, i.e. charges it with the status if an autonomous functional style.

The Style of Official Documents

1) Language of business letters; 2) Language of legal documents; 3) Language of diplomacy; 4) Language of military documents; The aim: 1. to reach agreement between two contracting parties; 2. to state the conditions binding two parties in an understanding. Each of substyles of official documents makes use of special terms. Legal documents: military documents, diplomatic documents. The documents use set expressions inherited from early Victorian period. This vocabulary is conservative. Legal documents contain a large proportion of formal and archaic words used in their dictionary meaning. In diplomatic and legal documents many words have Latin and French origin. There are a lot of abbreviations and conventional symbols. The most noticeable feature of grammar is the compositional pattern. Every document has its own stereotyped form. The form itself is informative and tells you with what kind of letter we deal with. Business letters contain: heading, addressing, salutation, the opening, the body, the closing, complimentary clause, the signature. Syntactical features of business letters are - the predominance of extended simple and complex sentences, wide use of participial constructions, homogeneous members. Morphological peculiarities are passive constructions, they make the letters impersonal. There is a tendency to avoid pronoun reference. Its typical feature is to frame equally important factors and to divide them by members in order to avoid ambiguity of the wrong interpretation.

Scientific Prose Style

The style of scientific prose has 3 subdivisions:1) the style of humanitarian sciences; 2) the style of "exact" sciences; 3) the style of popular scientific prose. Its function is to work out and ground theoretically objective knowledge about reality. The aim of communication is to create new concepts, disclose the international laws of existence. The peculiarities are: objectiveness; logical coherence, impersonality, unemotional character, exactness. The scientific prose style consists mostly of ordinary words which tend to be used in their primary logical meaning. Emotiveness depends on the subject of investigation but mostly scientific prose style is unemotional. Grammar: The logical presentation and cohesion of thought manifests itself in a developed feature of scientific syntax is the use of established patterns. - postulatory; - formulative; - argumentative; The impersonal and objective character of scientific prose style is revealed in the frequent use of passive constructions, impersonal sentences. Personal sentences are more frequently used in exact sciences. In humanities we may come across constructions but few. Some features of the style in the text are: - use of quotations and references; - use of foot-notes helps to preserve the logical coherence of ideas. Scientific popular style has the following peculiarities: emotive words, elements of colloquial style.

 

The subject of stylistics. Its definition, its connection with other branches of linguistics.

Stylistics deals with styles. The word style is derived from the Greek word “stylos”, which means a short and sharp stick people used to write on wax-covered tablets. Style is a system of interrelated language means which serves a definite aim in communication (Galperin). Style is a selection of non-distinctive features of language (Bloomfield). Arnold defines stylistics as a branch of linguistics, investigating the principles and effect of choice and usage of phonetic, lexical, grammatical and other language means with the purpose of transmitting thoughts and emotions in different circumstances of communication. Stylistics defined as a branch of general linguistics, which touches upon expressive means, stylistic devices of the language, their relations to the idea expressed; the classification of the existing styles of speech. They are independent and are studied by definite branches of stylistics. Thus, the branch that deals with expressive means and stylistic devices of the language is called linguo-stylistics. Functional styles are investigated in functional stylistics.

 

Expressive means and stylistic devices.

There are 3 main styles of speech: neutral, colloquial, literary. They possess certain layers of the voc. Un the act of communication people may employ them to express their thoughts: ▲ Neutral – My father went away. Colloquial – My dad go out. Literary – My beloved parent retired. In linguistics different terms used to denote particular means of foregrounding of utterances were accepted: expressive of stylistic means, stylistic devices, stylistic markers, tropes, figures of speech. All of them are set against neutral once, because they carry some additional information. Purpose: logical and emotional intensification of the utterance (emotional coloring). Phonetic expressive means refer pitch of the voice, stress, melody, intonation, and manner of speech (most powerful as the human voice can indicate a lot of nuances). Morphological: derogatory (-er) and diminutive (-y) suffixes. ▲ Gangster. Syntactical: inversion, broken sentences, elliptical. Lexical: slang, vulgarisms, poetic words.

 

Meaning from stylistic point of view.

In stylistics a word is treated as a phenomenon which has a potentiality of acquiring new meanings. 3 types of lexical meanings play a very important part in different stylistic devices: logical, emotive, nominal. Logical (1) meaning is a naming of an object or phenomenon by which we recognize the whole of the concept. Primary logical meaning is the one most frequently used, it begins the dictionary article of a word. Secondary logical meaning is the one derived from primary. ▲ He is the man of moderate opinions. “moderate” is realized in its secondary logical meaning derived from primary one. A word used in speech acquires an accidental meaning which should be included into semantic structure of the word it denotes – contextual (2) meaning. Difference between (1) and (2) the first one is materialized in the context, the second is born in the context. Emotive: has reference to the emotions of the speaker towards things defined. 2 types of emotive > permanent, occasional. Nominal meaning denotes proper and geographical…

 

Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices (onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance).

A phoneme has a strong associative and sound-instrumenting power. Due to its articulatory and acoustic properties certain ideas, feelings, images are awaken. It’s vivid in poetry. Onomatopoeia (sound imitation) is a combination of speech sounds which imitate sounds produced in nature (wind) by things (tools), by people (laughing), by animals (barking). ▲ plink, plink, fizz.

Direct onomatopoeia: words which imitate natural sounds. ▲ buzz. Indirect: combination of sounds which makes the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. ▲ Камыши шуршат в тиши. Alliteration: repetition of similar consonant sounds in close succession. ▲ Functional, fashionable, formidable. Assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually in stressed syllables. ▲ Grace, space,pace.

 

Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices (euphony, rhyme, rhythm).

A phoneme has a strong associative and sound-instrumenting power. Due to its articulatory and acoustic properties certain ideas, feelings, images are awaken. It’s vivid in poetry. Euphony: produced by alliteration or assonance. Sense of ease and comfort in producing or hearing. ▲ Favors unused are favors abused. Euphony is created by the assonance of the vowels [ei, u:] and alliteration [zd] frequent in proverbs. Rhyme: repetition of identical or similar terminal sounds or sound combinations in words. ▲ One, two, three, four, five. I caught a fish alive. Assonance of vowel [ai]. Rhythm: complex unit defined as a regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables (strong and weak elements) which determine the meter in poetry or the measured flow of words in prose.

▲ One, two, three, four. Mary at the cottage door.

 

Graphical expressive means and stylistic devices (marks of punctuation, kinds of type).

They include the use of punctuation, graphical arrangement of phrases, violation of type and spelling. Marks of punctuation: hyphen, dash, comma, period (full-stop), colon, semicolon, exclamation, interrogation, series of dots. They are used not only for the division of speech into its logical parts, but also for emphatic purposes which suggest a definite semantic interpretation of the utterance. ▲ Казнить, нельзя, помиловать. Another group of graphical means is based on the violation of type: italics, bold type, capitalization. Not only words but separate syllables, morphemes may be emphasized by italics (курсив). Spaced type is also included into this group of graphical means though it is not so frequent as italics. ▲ N o w! spaced letters are used for…

 

Graphical expressive means and stylistic devices (graphon, its stylistic function).

Graphical expressive means include the use of punctuation, graphical arrangement of phrases, violation of type and spelling. Graphon: the intentional violation of the generally accepted spelling used to reflect peculiarities of pronunciation or emotional state of the speaker. Types of graphon: multiplication, hyphenation, capitalization, apostrophe. Functions: - to give the reader an idea about smth (level of education, emotional state, origin). – to attract attention. – to make smb memorize it. – to show smth, explain. Graphical means are popular with advertisers. They individualize speech of the character or advertising slogan. ▲ A better stain getter.▲ How do you spell relief? R-O-L-I-P-S – to make reader / listener to remember it.

 

Metaphor (trite, genuine, prolonged), personification.

Metaphor is used to denote the transference of meaning from one word to another, and to designate the process in which a word acquires a derivative meaning. Two phenomena of life are brought to mind by the imposition of some (or all) the properties of one object on the other, deprived of them. Trite (fixed) – predictable, fixed in dictionaries. ▲ legs of the table; winter comes. Genuine: (fresh) unique, unexpectable. ▲ The house was a white elephant but he couldn’t conceive of his father in a smaller place. - describes the size and enigma of the house. Prolonged: if a sentence contains a group of metaphors; consists of principal and contributory images. Metaphors may be prolonged through a group of other lexical stylistic devices. Personification: attribution of personal nature or character to inanimate objects or abstract notions. A thing is presented as a human being. ▲ I’m the Daughter of Earth and Water.

 

Metonymy (trite, genuine), irony.

Metonymy is based on some kind of association connecting the two concept which the dictionary and contextual meaning represent. Trite (fixed) metonymy represents derivative logical meaning of a word and is fixed in dictionaries. ▲ Nothing comes between me and my Calvins (Calvin Klein Jeans). Contextual m. – unexpected substitution of one word to another. ▲ She married into conversation > very talkative man. Synecdoche – m. based on the relation between the part and the whole. ▲ He had five months to feed. Irony: based on simultaneous relation of primary dictionary and contextual logical meanings of a words which stay in opposition to each other. ▲ It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket. It isn’t logical but evaluative meaning is foreground. It isn’t humor – not always make humorous effect but negative.

 

Epithets (semantic and structural classification).

Epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meanings in an attributive word, emotionally colored attitude of the speaker to the object he describes. Semantic class: 1) associated with the noun it refers and 2) unassociated with it. 1 – refer the mind to the concept due to some quality of the object it is attached to. ▲ careful attention. 2 – attributes used to characterize the object by adding a feature unexpected in it. ▲ heart-burning smile. Structurally:

Composition

1) simple   2) compound   3) phrase   4) sentence

ordinary adj.   are built like   is shown    is shown by

▲rosy dreams. comp. adj.    by phrase.  sentence.

▲blue eyed girl   ▲ The cat had don’t-

-you-touch-me-or-I’ll-kill

-you expression of his face.

Another structural variety of epithet is called reversed – two nouns liked in an of-phrase. The evaluating, emotional element is in the noun described. ▲ A doll of the baby.

 

Interaction of logical and emotive meanings (interjections and exclamatory words).

There are words with the function of arousing emotions in the reader. In such words emotiveness prevails over intellectuality. There are also words in which logical meanings is almost entirely lost. These words express feelings which have passed trough out mind. Emotiveness is a category of our minds, feelings are expressed indirectly. That’s why it is natural that some emotive words have become symbols of emotions. Interjections are words which we use to express our feelings strongly and which exist in language in the form of conventional symbols of human emotions. Derivative interjections retain some degree of logical meaning suppressed by emotive one. ▲ Hush! Alas! Gosh! These interjections had once their logical meanings and the shades of them are presented. Primary interjections. They don’t have logical meaning. ▲ Oh! Ah! Wow! There are neutral interjections (bah, oh) and colloquial ones (well). Exclamatory words – words that don’t lose their logical meaning and thus function as interjections. ▲ Heavens! Look out!

 

Stylistic devices based on polysemantic effect (zeugma, pun).

The word is the most changeable of all language units. In the result of the gradual development of the meaning of the word new meanings appear alongside the primary one – derivative meanings. All of them are interconnected with the primary one and create a network – polysemantic effect. Zeugma is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to two adjacent words in the context, the semantic relations being literal and transferred. Zeugma always creates a humorous effect. ▲ Have a Coke and a smile! “Have” is realized in two different meanings: in the word combination “have a Coke” it’s direct (literal), in “have a smile” it’s transferred. Pun – it has a humorous effect which may be based on misinterpretation of the speaker’s utterance by the other or by the result of the speaker’s intended violation of the listener’s expectation. ▲ When are true words – sweet words? When they are candid. Pun is also a play on words of the same sound, it may be based on homonymy, polysemy.

 

Oxymoron, antonomasia.

Oxymoron is a combination of 2 words in which the meanings of the 2 clash, being opposite in sense. ▲ terribly beautiful. One of the two members of oxymoron illuminates the feature observed while the other one offers a purely subjective individual perception of the object. In it the primary logical meaning of the adj. or adverb is capable of resisting the power of semantic change which words undergo in combination. It can be realized in several models: adj. + noun, adverb + adj. Antonomasia is a stylistic device based on the interplay between the logical and nominal meanings of a word realized simultaneously. It has the purpose of pointing but the leading, most characteristic or important trait of the person or event,  inning it as a proper name of this person or event. Antonomasia categorizes the person and indicates both the general and the particular. It gives us information about the bearer of the name. ▲ Mr. Snake. Antonomasia is mostly created by nouns, seldom by attributive combinations or phrases.

 

Intensification of a certain feature of phenomenon (simile, hyperbole, understatement).

The feature of the object which is picked out seems unimportant and frequently transitory. But for a special reason it’s elevated to the greatest importance and made into a telling feature. Simile: imaginative comparison of two unlike objects which belong to different classes. It excludes all the properties of the compared objects except one which is made common to them. ▲ The girl is like a bird. Trite simile points out the analogy between the human being and the animals which have stereotyped traits of character, states. ▲ As wet as a fish. Hyperbole: is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature of a thing or phenomenon. If it is used frequently it may become trite hyperbole. ▲ I’ve told you thousand times! Understatement: when the quality or quantity is underrated. It is deliberate underrating of a feature or property of an object. ▲ Мальчик-с-пальчик. It’s used in Britain in every-day speech as it symbolizes politeness.

 

Intensification of a certain feature of phenomenon (periphrasis, euphemism).

The feature of the object which is picked out seems unimportant and frequently transitory. But for a special reason it’s elevated to the greatest importance and made into a telling feature. Periphrases: is a process which realizes the power of language to coin new names for objects by disclosing some quality of the object. Periphrases is the renaming of an object by a phrase that brings out some particular feature of this object. ▲ The ship of the desert – camel. Language periphrases are trite as it is seen: ▲ He spoke as the father of the nation. Speech periphrases is understandable in a particular context, it is genuine. Euphemism: a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a more acceptable one. ▲ golden-ager – an elderly person. Dysphemism is quite opposite to euphemism. ▲ nipper – a young child. Euphemisms groups: 1) religious 2) moral 3) medical 4) parliamentary.

 

Proverbs and sayings.

They are brief statements which show in condensed form the accumulated life experience of the community and serving as symbols for abstract ideas. They are facts of language collected in dictionaries. There are some features typical for proverbs and sayings: rhythm, rhyme and /or alliteration/ assonance. ▲ Wealth is nothing without health. In this proverb the effect of euphony is achieved through assonance and alliteration, which create rhyme and rhythm. ▲ It is enough to make a cat laugh. No pains, no gains. Proverbs and sayings will never lose their freshness and vigour because they are revived in their modifications which will be commented later on.