Branches of Stylistics

According to Galperin: Stylisitics is a branch of general linguistics, which

deals with the following two interdependent tasks:

a) studies the totality of special linguistic means ( stylistic devices and

expressive means ) which secure the desirable effect of the utterance;

b) studies certain types of texts ”discourse” which due to the choice and
arrangement of the language are distinguished by the pragmatic aspect of
communication (functional styles) Depending on the school of thought there
are:

1. Unguo-stylistics;

2. Literary Stylistics;

3. Stylistics of decoding;

1. Linguo - Stylistics is the study of literary discourse from a linguistic

orientation. The Unguistics is concerned with the language codes themselves
and particular messages of interest and so far as to exemplify how the codes
are constructed.

2. Literary Stylistics: is to explicate the message to interprete and evaluate

literary writings as the works of art.

3. Stylistics of decoding can be presented in the following way: sender -

message - receiver speaker - book - reader.

Expressive means of a language are those phonetic means, morphological

forms, means of word-building and lexical, phraseological and syntactical
forms, all of which function in the language for emotional or logical
intensification of the utterance. These intensifying forms have been fixed in
grammar books and dictionaries, e.g. The use of shallio. the second and third
person may be regarded as an expressive means.

For example, He shall do it = I shall make him do it.

Among word-building we find a great many forms which help intensify it. The
diminutive suffixes such as -y (ie), -let dearie, streamlet.

We may also refer to what are called neologisms and nonce-words formed by
means of nonproductive suffixes: mistressmanship, cleanorama, tellethone.

Stylistics observes not only the nature of an expressive means but also its
capacity of becoming a stylistic device.

What is then a stylistic device? It is a conscious and intentional, literary use

of some of the facts of the language (excluding expressive means ) in which
the most essential features (both structural and semantic ) of the language
forms are raised to a generalized level and thereby present a generative
model.

As the subject of stylistic analysis is the language in the process of its use, it
is quite natural that the analysis touches upon all aspects of language i.e. its
phonetics, vocabulary and grammar system. Accordingly it falls into:

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BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

69

Lexical stylistics with two subgroups: a) lexicological stylistics and b)

semasiological stylisics.

a) Lexical stylistics studies different components of contextual meanings of

words in particular the expressive, evaluative and emotive potential of words
belonging to different layers of the vocabulary: dialect words, terms,
colloquial words, slang, foreign words, neologisms etc. They are all studied
with the view of their interaction with different tasks of the context.

Of great importance is the stylistic analysis of proverbs and phraseology.

b) Semasiological styLstics studies functions of the transferred meanings of

words and wordcombinations (metaphor, simile, metonymy etc.)

Grammatical stylistics falls into a) morphological stylistics and b) syntactical

stylistics.

a) Morphological stylistics studies stylistic possibilities within different

grammatical categories adherent to this or that part of speech.

b) Syntactical stylistics investigates expressive possibilities of word-order,

types of sentences, types of syntactical constructions. The first place is given
here to Figures of Speech i.e. a deliberate deviation trom ttie syntactical
norm..

Phono-stylistics studies peculiarities of the sound oiganization of speech:

rhythm, alliteration, onomatopoeia etc if they are used in a stylistic function.
It also studies the use of non-standard pronunciation.

Functional styles is a part of linguistics which studies functional styles, i.e.

systems of means of expression depending on different spheres and
situations of communication.

1. Lexicological Stylistics

Lexicological stylistics deals with the principles of stylistic description of

lexical and phraseological units in abstraction from the context in which they
function. It studies possibilities of words belonging to different functional
emotional groups of words (e.g. archaisms, neologisms, jargons).

All the immeasurable richness of the vocabulary of any civilized language

cannot be memorized or even understood by an individual native speaker; it
is only the most common words that are widely used in actual
communication. Nearly half a million words have been registered in the
famous New English Dictionary of 13 volumes as belonging to the English
language, but not all of them fully deserve the title of English words: many of
them are never heard, or uttered, or written by the average Englishman.

In accordance with the division of language into literal and colloquial we may
represent the whole vocabulary of the English language as being divided into
three main layers: the literary layer, the neutral layer and the colloquial layer.

The literary layer is marked by a bookish character; the colloquial layer by its
lively, spoken character. The neutral layer has a universal character and can
be used in all spheres of human activities.

The following synonyms will illustrate the relations that exist between
neutral, literary and colloquial words.

neutral

child

father

fellow

go away

continue

colloquial kid daddy chap / guy get out goon

literary

infant

parent

associate

retire

proceed
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

boy / girl teenager youth / maiden

Special Lexical Vocabulary

Now we shall examine, in a very general manner, word-groups singled out by

traditional lexicology and their stylisties functions.

Poetic words form a rather insignificant layer of literary vocabulary. Their

main function is to sustain the special elevated atmosphere of poetry, e.g.
Whilomen ( at some past time ) in Albion’s isle (the oldest name of Britain)
there dwell a youth.,..

Poetic tradition has kept alive such archaic words as quath (p. t.) to speak;
eftsoon - again, soon after - which are used even by modern ballad-mongers.
Poetic words in an ordinary environment may have a satirical effect.

Archaic words are rarely used highly literary words which are aimed at
producing an elevated effect. Lexical archaisms (archaisms proper) are
obsolete words replaced by new ones (e.g. anon - at once; haply - perhaps;
befall - happen etc; historical words / material archaisms - they have gone out
of use with the disappearance of concepts and phenomena ( e.g. hauberk,
falconet, knightetc.); morphological archaisms - thou, thee, ye etc.

The function of archaisms is to recreate the atmosphere of antiquity; if used

in an inappropriate surrounding archaisms cause a humorous effect, e.g.
Pritbee, do me the favour, as to inquire after my astrologer, Martinus Calioty,
and send him to me hither presently.

Archaisation of the text is achieved by insertion of separate words and not by

the use of the language of some past epoch, e.g. The situation in which the
archaism is not appropriate to the context. In B. Shaw’s play ’How he Lied to
her Husband’ a youth of 18, speaking of his feelings towards a female of 37,
expresses himself in a language which is not in conformity with the situation.

”Perfect love casteth off fear”.

Archaisms may have other functions found in other styles. They are
frequently found in the style of official documents; and in all kinds of legal
documents one can find obsolescent (obsolete) words which would long have
become obsolete if it were not for that special use. e.g. aforesaid, hereby,
therewith, hereinafternamed.

The function of archaisms in official documents is terminological in character.

Terms are mostly used in special works dealing with the notions of some
branch of science. But they may as well appear in other styles; when used in
fiction, they may acquire a stylistic function either to indicate stylistic
peculiarities of the subject dealt with, or to make some reference to the
occupation of the character whose speech would naturally contain special
words and expressions.

e.g. Andrew Manson’s speech - ’Citadel’ by Cronin.

Martin’s speech - ’Martin Eden1 by J. London.

Foreign words and Barbarisms. Barbarisms are words originally borrowed

from a foreign language and usually assimilated into the native vocabulary,
so as not to differ from its units in appearance or in sound. Most of them have
corresponding English synonyms: chic- stylish; boa mot- a clever witty saying;
en passant- in passing.

We should distinguish between barbarisms and foreign words for purely

stylistic purposes. Foreign words do not belong to the English vocabulary,
they are not registered in English dictionaries. Barbarisms are. Both
barbarisms and foreign words are widely used in various styles with various
aims. One of these functions is to supply local colour, e.g. ’Vanity Fair’by
Thakeray. (A German town where a boy with a good appetite is made a focus
of attention.)

’The little boy, too, we observed had a famous appetite, and consumed
schinken, and braten,
:s

T
BRANCHES OF STYUSTICS

71

and kartoffeln, and cranberry jam ... with a gallantry that did honour to his
nation’.

Foreign words may also have the function of conveying the idea of the foreign
origin or cultural and educational status of the personage.

Literary Coinages. The coining of new words is dictated by the need to

indicate new concepts as a result of the development of science. It may also
be the result of a search for a more economical, brief form of utterance for
expressiveness.

The first type of newly coined words may be named terminological coinages.
The second i.e. words coined for expressiveness, may be named stylistic
coinages.

New words are usually coined according to productive models for word-
building. But new words of literary bookish type may be formed with the help
of non-productive affixes and they will be immediately recognized because of
their unexpectedness.

e.g.-ize moisturize, pedestrianize, vUligizeetc.

-ee interrodatee, enrollee, amputee etc.

-ship showmanship, supermanship

-ese translatese, Johnsonese

There is still another means of word-building in English - blending of two

words into one. e.g. avigation (aviation + navigation)
brunch (breakfast +lunch )

Usually newly coined words are heavily stylistically loaded, their major
stylistic function being the creation c’ the effect of laconism, terseness and
implication of witty humour and satire.

Special - jiloquial Vocabulary

The colloquial layer of words as qualified in most English and American

dictionaries is not infrequently limited to a definite language community or
confined to a special locality when it circulates. It falls into the following
groups:

1. common colloquial words;

2. slang;

3. jargonisms;

4. professionalisms;

5. dialect words;

6. vulgar words;

7. colloquial coinages. They all have a tinge of informality or familiarity about

them. There is nothing ethically improper in their stylistic colouring, except
that they cannot be used in formal speech.

Slang. Slang is part of the vocabulary consisting of commonly understood and

widely used words and expressions of humorous and derogatory character -
intentional substitutes for neutral or elevated words and expressions. Slang
never goes stale, it is replaced by a new slangism. The reason of appearance
of slang is in the aspiration of the speaker to novelty and concreteness. As
soon as a slangish word comes to be used because of its intrinsic merits, not
because it is the wrong word and the/efore a funny word, it ceases to be
slang - it becomes a colloquial word, and later perhaps even an ordinary
neutral word. Here are instances of words which first appeared as slang, but
are quite neutral today: skyscraper, cab, taxi, movies, pub, .photo

Slang is not homogenious stylistically. There are many kinds of slang, e.g.
Cockney, public house, commercial, military, theatrical, parliamentary and
others. There is also a standard slang, the slang common to all those who
though using received standard English in their writing and speech.
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

also use an informal language.

Here are more examples of slang. Due to its striving to novelty slang is rich in
synonyms.

FOOD: chuck, chow, grub, hash;

MONEY: jack, tin, brass, oof, slippery stuff.

Various figures of speech participate in slang formation.

UPPER STOREY for ’head1 - metonymy

KILLING for ’astonishing’ - hyperbole

SOME for ’excellent’ or ’bad’ - understatement

CLEAR AS MUD - irony

Certain slang words are mere distortions of standard words: cripes ( instead
of ’Christ Abbreviation is also a widely used means of word-building in slang:
math, exam, prof, ( originally jargon words current among students and
schoolchildren). Sometimes new words are just invented shenanigans
(’tricks’, ’pranks’).

The contrast between what is standard English and what is broken, non-
literary has been achieved by means of setting common vocabulary ( also
syntactical design) against jargons, slang and all kinds of distortion of forms
( phonetic, morphological, lexical and syntactical ) and this resulted in a
tendency in some contemporary dictionaries to replace the label ’si.’ by ’inf.’
or ’coll And this is again due to the ambiguity of the term.

Jargonisms. Jargon words appear in professional or social groups as informal,

often humorous replacers of words already existing in neutral or superneutral
vocabulary. The use of jargon implies defiance, a kind of naughtiness in
lingual behavior.

Jargon words can be roughly subdivided into two groups. One of them
consists of names of objects, phenomena, and processes characteristic of the
given profession - not the real denominations, but rather nicknames, as
apposed to the official terms used in this professional sphere.

The other group is made up of terms of the professional objects, phenomena,

and processes Thus we may say that jargon words are either non-
terminological, unofficial substitutes for professional terms (sometimes called
’professionalisms’), or official terms misused deliberately, to express
disrespect.
Examples of the first group: in soldiers’ jargon picture show is battle; sewing
machine means machine-gun; put in a bag-killed in action.

Examples of the second group are: - big gun means an important person, CI
-Government Issue; dug-out - a retired soldier returned to active service.

Every professional group has its own jargon. We distinguish students’ jargon,
musicians’ jargon, lawyers’ jargon, soldiers’ jargon and so on. Many jargon
words come to be used outside the professional sphere in which they first
appeared, thus becoming ’slang words’. A peculiar place is occupied by cant,
a secret lingo of the undarworld - of thieves and robbers. The present-day
function is to serve as a sign of recognition: he who talks cant gives, proof of
being a professional criminal.

e.g. Ain ’t a lifer, not him! Cot a stretch in stir for pulling a leather up in Chi
means :” He was j: not sentenced to imprisonment for life: he only has to
serve for having stolen a purse up in Chicago’ |

Many jargon words have entered the standard vocabulary: kid, queer, fun,
bluff, fib, humbug, they have become dejargonized.

Professionalisms. Professionalisms are words used in a definite trade,

profession or calling by>, people connected by common interests both at
work and at home. They are close to terms.
BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

73

Professional words name anew already existing concepts, tools or

instruments, and have the typical properties of special code. The main
feature of a professionalism is its technicality. They circulate within a definite
community (thus being different from terms ). The semantic structure of the
term is usually clear, that of a professionalism is dimmed by the image on
which the meaning of a professionalism is based, e.g. tin-fish - submarine;
block-buster- a film; a piper- a specialist who decorates pastry with the use of
a cream-piper; outer - a knockout blow. Professionalisms should not be mixed
with jargons, they are not aimed at secrecy. They fulfill a socially useful
function in communication, facilitating a quick and adequate grasp of the
message.

Professionalisms are used in emotive prose to depict the natural speech of

characters. The skillful use of a professional word will show not only the
vocation of the chaiacter, but also his education, breeding, environment and
sometimes even his psychology.

Dialectal words. Dialectal words are those which in the process of the
intergration of the English language remained beyond its literary boundaries
and their use is generally confined to a definite locality.

There is sometimes a difficulty in distinguishing between dialectal words and

colloquial words. Some dialectal words have become so familiar in good
colloquial or standard colloquial English that they are universally recognized
as units of standard colloquial English. To these belong: lass- a girl or a
beloved girl; a lad- a boy or a young man; da A from the Scottish and the
Northern dialect - of unsound mind, silly; fash (Scottish) - trouble, cares. Still
they have not lost their dialectal associations.

Of quite a different nature are dialect words which are easily recognized as
corruption of Standard English words. E.g. hinnyliom ’honey’; fifty from
’sister’ (being a childish corruption of words); cutty- a naughty girl or woman.

All above mentioned examples come from the Scottish and Northern dialects.
Among other dialects used for stylistic purposes in literature is the southern
dialect. It has a phonetic peculiarity that distinguishes it from other dialects:
initial [s] and [f] are voiced and are written in the direct speech of characters
as ’z’ and V; e.g. volk (folk), vound (found), vox (fox); zee (see), zinking
(sinking).

Dialect words are only to be found in the style of emotive prose very rarely in
other styles, and only in the function of characterization of personages
through their speech.

Vulgar words or vulgarisms. This stylistically lowest group consists of words

which are considered too offensive for polite usage. Objectionable words may
be divided into two groups: lexical vulgarisms and stylistic vulgarisms.
To the first group belong words expressing ideas considered unmentionable in
civilized society. Among lexical vulgarisms are various oaths. Quite
unmentionable are the so called ’fourletter words’ (practically every word
denoting the most intimate spheres of human anatomy physiology consists of
four letters).

The ousting of objectionable words by norms of ethics is inevitably followed

by the creation of all soi^s of substitutes. The word bloody is replaced by
words beginning with the same sound combination: blooming, blasted,
blessed, blamed, etc.

The second group - stylistic vulgarisms - are words and phrases the lexical
meaning of which has nothing indecent about them. Their impropriety in
civilized life is due to their stylistic value - to stylistic connotations expressing
a derogatory attitude of the speaker towards the object of speech.

Vulgarisms are often used in conversation out of habit, without any thought of
what they mean, in imitation of those who use them in order not to seem old-
fashioned or prudish. Unfortunately in modern fiction they have gained
legitimacy. However, they will never acquire the status of Standard
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

English vocabulary. Their function is that of interjections, to express strong emotions,

mainly, annoyance, anger, vexation and the like.

Colloquial coinages. Colloquial coinages ( nonce-words ), unlike those of a bookish

character, are spontaneous and elusive. Not all of them are fixed in dictionaries or
even in writing and therefore disappear from the language, leaving no trace in it.
There is nothing ethically improper in their stylistic colouring, except that they cannot
be used in formal speech. Colloquilialisms include:

a) colloquial words proper ( colloquial synonyms of neutral words ): chap (’fellow’),

chunc (’lump’), sniffy’tQ.isda.iiiful’), or such that have no counterpart in the neutral
or literary sphere: molly-doddle (’an effeminate man or boy’), drifter fa person
without a steady job’). To this group belong ’nursery’words: mummy f mother’), dad
/’father’), tummy (’stomach’), gee-gee (’horse’).

b) phonetic variants of neutral words: gaffer (’grandfather’), baccy (’tobacco’), feller

(’fellow’); a special place is taken by phonetic contractions of auxiliary and modal
verbs: shan’t, won’t, don’t, ’ve, ’d, 11, etc.

c) diminutives of neutral ( or colloquial ) words: granny, daddy, lassie, piggy; of

proper names: Bobby, Polly, Becky, Johnny, etc.d) colloquial meanings of
polysemantic words: spoon (’a man of low mentality1), a hedgehog ( ’an
unmanageable person’). Pretty (’good-looking’) is neutral; pretty’ fairly1 (pretty
good, pretty quick) is colloquial. e) most of interjections: gee I, ehl , well, why. Oh is
a universal signal of emotion, used both in low and high spheres of communication.

Phraseology and its stylistic use

What was said above concerning the vocabulary is more or less applicable to the
English phraseology: set phrases possess properties of individual words. Some of
them are elevated: an earthly paradise; to breath one’s last; the sword of Damocles.
Some are below neutral: to rain cats and dogs; to be in one’s cups (to be drunk); big
bug /”important official’); small fry (’unimportant people1). Even what might be
called neutral phrases produce a certain stylistic effect. Idioms and set expressions
impart local colouring to the text; besides, they have not lost their metaphoric
essence, hence they are more expressive than unidiomatic statements.

A very effective stylistic device often used by writers consists in violating the
traditional norms of the use of set phrases, e.g. He had been standing there nearly
two hours, shifting from foot to unaccustomed foot. (Galsworthy). The phrase ’shifting
from foot to foot1 is altered by inserting an additional component. Another way of
violation of the phraseological unit is its

prolongation: ’Little Jon had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth which was
rather curly and large.’(Galsworthy) Adding the attributive clause to ’mouth’,
Galsworthy revives the primary meaning of the word and freshens up the whole
expression.

On the basis of the ancient admonition, spare the rod and spoil the child (= if you do
not punish your offspring, you will spoil him) the view point of the educational trend
at the beginning of the twentieth century is thus summarized by Galsworthy: ’Parents
had exalted notions of giving their offspring a good time. They spoiled their rods,
spared their children, and anticipated the results with enthusiasm.’ As we have seen,
the violation of

phraseological units is in achieving humorous effect. This stylistic device is used not
only in belleslettres style. Here are some instances from newspapers illustrating the
stylistic use of proverbs, sayings and word-combinations. A newspaper editorial once
had the following headline: ’Proof of the Pudding’ (from ’The proof of the pudding is in
the eating’). Here is a recast of a well known proverb used by an advertising agency:
’Early to bed and early to rise, No use - unless you advertise.’ (From ’Early to bed and
early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’). A dealer in the window blinds
slightly alters the well known saying - ’Love is blind’, advertising his
BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

75

merchandise thus: ’Our Love is Btinds’.Ail similar cases of using phraseology,

which disclose the inner form of speech cliches, render the speech vividness
and expressiveness.
2. Semaseological Stylistics

Whenever we name an object or characterize a situation, we either follow the

usual, collectively accepted, rules of naming, or deviate from them. If we are
guided by the rules (saying what everyone would say), there is no transfer,
there is nothing for stylistics to analyse in our speech act. If we deviate from
accepted standards, and when this deviation is of such a degree that it
causes unexpectedness, we deal with a specific variety of tropes (figures of
speech). Stylistic figures of speech fall into two types as to their concrete
aims and will be considered accordingly as figures of quality and figures of
relations. Figures of Quality

Here belong 3 groups: metaphoric group, metonymic group, and mixed

group. They all give qualitative characteristics of the object of speech.

Metaphoric Group

In the basis of the metaphoric group lies the principle of identification of two
objects. It includes simile, metaphor, epithet and personification.

1. Simile - a figure of speech, which draws comparison between two different

objects in one or more aspects (an imaginative comparison). We should
distinguish between two words: ’comparison’ and ’simile’. Comparison means
juxtaposition of two objects belonging to one class of things for the purpose
of establishing the degree of their likeness or difference. To use a simile is to
characterize one object by bringing it into contact with another object
belonging to an entirely different class of things.

Similes have formal elements in their structure: like, as, such as, as if as
though, seem, the semantic nature of the last three is such that they only
remotely suggest resemblance. E.g. ’It was that moment of the year when
the countryside seems to faint from its own loveliness, from the intoxication
of its scents and sounds’. (Galsworthy). Simile maybe also introduced by
lexical means indicating likeness between compared objects.

e.g. ’He reminded James, as he said afterwards, of a hungry cat.’

(Galsworthy) ’She had a strange resemblance to a captive owl’. (G.) Possible
are structural variations of simile:

1. The sign of comparison of two objects is directly mentioned. E.g. ’He is as

beautiful as a

weathercock’. (O.W.)
2. The character of resemblance is only meant, e.g. My heart is like a singing
bird.

Look at the moon. How strange the moon seems: She is tike a woman, rising
from a tomb. She is like a dead woman. (O.W.)

3. The image suggested by the simile is not quite clear and the author gives
an explanation.

E.g. ’He had a face like a choir-boy’s - but a choir-boy suddenly overwhelmed
by middle age; chubby, pretty doll-like, but withered’.

The three epithets are a kind of the key to the simile. The simile usually
serves as means to a clearer meaning. By comparing the object or
phenomenon, the writer describes, with a concrete and familiar thing, he
makes his description clearer and more picturesque. Besides making a
narrative more concrete and definite, the simile helps the author to reveal
feelings of his own as well.

In the English language as in any other there is a long list of traditional

similes which must be regarded as phraseological units. In them the names of
animals, plants, natural phenomena are often used.
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLIST!CS

e.g. sly as a fox as weak as a cat

as bold as brass as good as gold

as dead as a door nail to swim like a duck

They are often used in the direct speech of characters, thus individualizing
their speech; and rather seldom are used in the author’s narrative.

2. Metaphor. The stylistic device based on the principle of identification of two

objects is called metaphor. It is the interaction between the logical and
contextual-logical meanings of a word which is based on a likeness between
objects and implies analogy and comparison between them.

Metaphor can be embodied in all meaningful parts of speech: nouns, verbs,

adjectives, adverbs. E.g. n. The machine sitting at the desk was no longer a
man; it was a busy New York broker. (O.H.) v. In the slanting beams that
streamed through the open window, the dust danced and was golden. (O. W.)

adv. The leaves fell sorrowfully.

adj. The pillow remained sleepless.

Metaphors expressed by adverbs and adjectives are called metaphoric

epithets and will be dealt with later on.

Metaphors, like all stylistic devices can be classified according to their

unexpectedness. Thus metaphors which are absolutely unexpected are called
genuine metaphors. Those which are constantly used in speech and therefore
are often fixed in dictionaries as expressive means of language are trite
(dead, traditional) metaphors. Examples of trite metaphors - a ray of hope,
floods of tears, a flight of imagination. Sometimes a metaphor is not confined
in one image. The writer finds it necessary to prolong the image. He does so
by adding a number of other images, but all these additional images are
linked with the main, central image. Such metaphors are called sustained or
prolonged metaphors.

e.g. ... any dispassionate spectator would have been induced to wonder that
the indignant fire which flashed from his eyes, did not melt the glasses of his
spectacles - so majestic was his wrath. (Dickens).

The metaphors ’flashed’ and ’melt’ are connected with the main image,
expressed by the word ’fire’. This prolonged image helps the author to
achieve exaggeration and to give a touch of humour to the description of Mr.
Pickwick’s indignation.
The stylistic function is twofold: by evoking images and suggesting analogies
it makes the author’s thought more concrete, definite and clear and at the
same it reveals the author’s emotional attitude towards what is said.

3. Epithet. Epithet is a stylistic device showing the purely individual emotional

attitude of the writer or the speaker towards the object mentioned, e.g.
Shining serenely as some immeasurable mirror beneath the smiling face of
the heaven, the solitary ocean lay in unrippled silence. (Fr. Bullen). Epithets
can be classified from the point of view of their compositional structure. They
may be divided into simple, compound, and phrase epithets. Simple epithets
are ordinary adjectives or adverbs.

Compound epithets are built like compound adjectives, e.g. heart-burning

sight, cloud-shapen giant. The tendency to cram into one language unit as
much information as possible has led to new compositional models for
epithets which are called phrase epithets.

e.g. ’So think first of her, but not in the ’I love you so that nothing will induce
me to marry you’ fashion. (Galsworhty). .,._*--

e.g. ’ There is something about evening service in a country church that

makes a fellow feel
BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

77

drowsy and peaceful. Sort of end-of-a-perfect-day feeling.’ (P.G. Wodehouse).

Another structural variety of the epithet is the one that is called reversed. It is based
on the illogical relations between the modifier and the modified, e.g. the shadow of a
smile, a devil of a job, a dog of a fellow, a long nightshirt of mackintosh etc.

In all the examples it is the second word (a smile, a job, a fellow, a mackintosh) that
is modified but it is formally piaced in the position of a modifier, while the actual
modifier is given the place of the modified word. From the viewpoint of their
expressive power epithets can be regarded as those transferring the quality of one
object to its closest neighbour, e.g. ’He was a thin, wiry man with a tobacco-stained
smile. (Steinbeck) Tobacco-stained’ teeth present an objective description of teeth,
but when the same definition is given to a smile it becomes an individual evaluation
of the same, and is classified as a transferred epithet. A new feature is revealed by a
metaphoric epithet, which presents a metaphor within an epithet.

e.g. ’A spasm of high-voltage nervousness ran through him’. (Howard) In most cases
metaphoric epithet is expressed by adjectives and adverbs: ’frowning walls,
whispering streams’ (Londony, ’The mommg \ooted tevety. \LH’Nraace\

Variability and flexibility make it one of the most widely and frequently used stylistic
device.
4. Personification. Personification is another variety of metaphor. Personification is
attributing human properties to lifeless objects - mostly to abstract notions, such as
thoughts, actions, intentions, emotions, seasons of the year, etc.

The stylistic purposes of personification are varied. In poetry and fiction the purpose
of personification is to help to visualize the description, to impart dynamic force to it
or to reproduce the particular mood of the viewer. In his ballad ’John Barleycorn’ R.
Burns personifies barleycorn by ascribing such notions as die, his head, was dead,
bending joints and drooping head.

Personification is often effected by direct address. The object addressed is thus

treated as if it could rsally perceive the author’s appeal: O stretch thy reign, fair
Peace! From shore to shore Till conquest cease, and slavery be nor more. (Pope)

Another formal device of personification is capitalization of the word which expresses

a personified notion:

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet. (Byron)

Metonymic Group

The metonymic group includes such figures of speech in which the transfer of the
name from one object to another is based on definite relations between them (the
object implied and the object named). To this group belong metonymy and
synecdoche.
Metonymy. If instead directly naming an object of speech we use the name of some
other object which is closely connected with it as a condition of its existence, or as its
constant belonging, or as a result characteristic of it, the notion has a vivid
expression. And this is the essence of metonymy as a stylistic device. In metonymy
relations between the object named and the object implied are various and
numerous:

1) Names of tools (or an organ of the body) instead of names of actions - ’As the
sword is the worst argument that can be used, so should it be the last’.( Byron). ’Give
every man thine ear and a few thy voice’. 2) Consequence instead of cause - ... ’the
fish desperately takes the death’ (instead of it snaps at the fish-hook). 3)
Characteristic feature of the object - ’Blue suit greened, might have
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

even winked. But big nose in the grey suit still stared’. (Priestly) 4) Symbol
instead of object symbolized - crown for king or queen. 5) The container
instead of the thing contained - The hall applauded. 6) The material instead
of the thing it is made of - ”The marble spoke’. Metonyui/ as a stylistic device
(a genuine stylistic device) is used to achieve concreteness of description. By
giving a specific detail connected with the phenomenon, the author evokes a
concrete and life-like image •and reveals certain feelings of his own.

Synecdoche. The term denotes the simplest kind of metonymy: using the
name of a part to denote the whole or vice versa. A typical example of
traditional synecdoche is the word hands used instead of the word workers)
(Hands wanted) or sailors (AH hands on deck\). Or a hundred head of cattle,
here a part stands for the whole. The same in the use of the singular (the so
called generic singular) when the plural (the whole class) is ’neant - A student
is expected to know... (or: The student...)

The opposite type of synecdoche (’the whole for the part1) occurs when the
name of the species, as in Stop torturing the poor animaA (instead of... the
poor dog\); or ’when the plural of disapprobation’ is resorted to: Reading:
books when I am talking to you\ (actually, one cannot read more than one
book at a time).

Mixed Group

To this group belong figures having double nature. Metaphoric as well as

metonymic transfer is in their basis. They are Allegory and antonomasia.

1. Allegory. Allegory is an expression of abstract ideas through concrete

pictures. The term is mostly employed with reference to more or less
complete texts. The purpose of allegory as a stylistic device is to intensify the
influence of logical contents of speech by adding to it an element of
emotional character.

Proverbs may serve as simplest examples of allegory. Thus in the proverb All
is not gold that glitters the question is not about the gold and its glitter, but
about the fact that not always outer beauty speaks of inner value.
(=Appearances are deceptive).

The above mentioned proverb is metaphoric allegory as it is based on

similarity of abstract and generalized notions to concrete things and
phenomena. In metonymic allegory the name of some object which is a
traditional material sign of some idea, i.e. its symbol, is used instead of its
direct expression.

When, for instance, we hear the words It is time to beat your swords into
ploughshares, we understand it as an appeal to stop hostilities in favour of
peace. Certain genres of literature are allegorical throughout: thus, fairy
stories and, especially, fables always imply something different, something
more important for human problems than what they seem to denote literarily.
Allegory is found in philosophical or satirical novels. In his allegorical satire
’Gulliver’s Travels’ Swift depicts contemporary England with her vices,
political intrigues, and religious stnfe.

2. Antonomasia. Using a proper name as a common noun and vice versa

using a descriptive word-combination instead of a proper noun is called
antonomasia.To the first group of antonomasia we shall refer those cases in
which a proper noun is used for a common noun. It can be on the basis of
metaphoric as well as on metonymic transfer. Proper noun in this type of
antonomasia expresses some quality, which was the leading passion with the
character whose name is used. This is metaphoric antonomasia. Thus, a
traitor may be referred to as Brutus, a ladies’ man deserves the name of Don
Juan. This type of antonomasia is always trite for the writer repeats the well
known, often mentioned facts.

Metonymic antonomasia is observed in cases when a personal name stands

for something
BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

79

connected with the bearer of that name who really once existed, e.g. He has -sold his
Vandykes. (Hurst) This is my real Goya. (Galsworthy) In the second type of
antonomasia we observe the following: practically any common noun can be used as
a proper noun. It is always original. In such cases the person’s name serves his first
characteristics. Thus Dickens names the talkative and boastful adventurer from the
’Pickwick Papers’ Mr. Jingle, creating the association with the sound produced by
constant shaking of the tongue of the bell. Most often these name-characteristics are
used by humourists and satirists. Here are some Sheridan’s personages-. Mr.
Credulous, Mr.Backbite, Mr. Snake, Mr. Carefree, Miss Languish; Byron’s: Miss
Reading, Miss Raw, Miss Showman.

Such names present certain difficulties for translators who are to convey the logical
meaning carried by them and at the same time to preserve their English nature. But
to characterize a person through his name is not the only function of antonomasia.
Very often it helps to give concrete expression for abstract notion: Lady Teazle: ’Oh! I
am quite undone! Now, Mr. Logic - Oh! What will become of me?....(Sheridan) The
context in such cases is indispensable. Interesting are the cases when instead of a
proper noun a word-combination or a whole phrase characteristic of a person is used.
Here we deal with a kind of periphrasis, e.g. ’Your Mrs. What’s- her- name sounds
very English’. (B. Nickols) The stylistic effect of such antonomasia very much depends
on the unexpectedness of a name being expressed by a word combination.

Figures of Relations

Figures of relations are based on particular, intentionally organized relations between

meanings of words and word-combinations in one context; or between meanings of
words of the given linguistic unit and words which are meant and replaced by them.
They are relations of identity with special use of synonyms, euphemisms, and
periphrasis; relations of contrast with antithesis, oxymoron, and irony; relations of
inequality with climax and anticlimax, hyperbole and litotes.

Relations of Identity

1. Synonyms. We shall speak of a simultaneous use of two or more synonyms of one

and the same synonymous group within one narrative and not about the choice of
synonyms which is the subject of lexicology. The simultaneous use and not the choice
of synonyms is a figure of speech (a stylistic device). Their are two ways of using
synonyms simultaneously: paired synonyms and synonymic variations.

Paired synonyms: two synonyms are used together to fully express the notion. The
use of the second synonym does not mean the repetition of one and the same idea,
the second synonym adds some quality to the given notion, and both synonyms,
placed together, achieve greater expressiveness than each used separately. WE shall
call these additional synonyms specifiers. Thus, if W. Scott says ’the wild and
unrestrained^’, he uses the words not as absolute synonyms, joy may be wild but
still restrained, thus ’unrestrained’adds some new quality to the notion ’wildjoy’.

Such synonyms as lord and master, really and truly turned into cliches. Most often
one of them is native the other - foreign by origin.
Synonymic variations. Often within one narrative we find two or more synonyms
expressing analogous or identical thought. Such variations help to avoid monotony of
speech. We shall call them replacers .e.g. He brought home numberless prizes. He
told his mother countless stories every night about his school companions.
(Thackeray)

Some words are synonyms only for the given context, they may be called contextual
synonyms, e.g. She told his name to the trees.
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

She whispered ii to the flowers.

She breathed’it to the birds. (Leacock)

The mentioned ways of using synonyms may serve a really expressive means
provided their dosage and purpose in the narrative are carefully thought out.

2) Periphrasis is the renaming of an object that brings out some particular

feature of the object. The essence of the device is that it is decipherable only
in the context. If a periphrasis is understandable outside the context, it is not
a stylistic device but merely a synonymou* expression. Such easily
decipherable periphrases are also called traditional: the cap and gown
(student body); d gentleman of the long robe fa. lawyer); the fair/better sex
/Women); my better half (my wife); a man about town (a London society
idler); the man in the street (an ordinary person). Periphrasis as a stylistic
device is a new nomination of an object by disclosing some quality of the
object and making it alone represent the object, but at the same time
preserving in the mind the ordinary name of the concept. E.g. ’You are my
true and honourable wife as dear to me as are the ruddy drops that visit my
sad heart,’ (blood)

Periphrasis may be logical and figurative. Logical periphrases are based on

logical notions: a certain feature of an object is taken to denote the whole
object, or a wider notion is substituted for the concrete notion, e.g. Mr.
Snodgrass bore under his arm the instrument of the destruction. (Dickens)

Figurative periphrasis may be based on metaphor (metaphoric periphrasis) or

on metonymy (metonymic periphrasis), e.g. ’Back foolish tears, back to your
native spring’, (eyes) (Shakespeare) It is a metaphoric periphrasis, e.g. A
tremendous whack came down on Tom’s shoulder and its duplicate on Joe’s;
and for the space of two minutes the dust continued to Qy from the two
jackets and the whole school to enjoy it. (M. Twain) It is a metonymic
periphrasis and means to fight.

3. Euphemisms. There is a variety of periphrasis which is called euphemistic.

Euphemisms, as is known, is a word or a phrase used to replace an
unpleasant word or a phrase by a conventionally more acceptable one, for
example: the word to die has bred the following euphemisms,: to pass away
to expire, to be no more, to depart, to join the majority; and more facetious
ones: to kick the bucket, to give up the ghost, to go west.

Euphemisms exist in the language as synonyms for words regarded as rude

or indecent.’In contrast to euphemisms euphemistic periphrasis is a stylistic
device. It is used for various stylistic purposes, usually to achieve a humorous
or satirical effect.
Relations of contrast

1. Antithesis is such an arrangement of ideas or terms as emphasizes a

contrast. It denotes any active confrontation. The two opposed notions may
refer to the same object of thought or to different objects. We may distinguish
three varieties of antithesis.

a. Within one speech unit (a word-combination, a sentence, or extended

narrative) two, contrary as to their meaning words characterize one and the
same object of speech. The purpose of this device is to show complex and
contradictory nature of the object of speech, as in the following example:

’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; it was
the spring of Hope, it was the winter of Despair; we had everything before
us , we had nothing before us on the right and in front and behind...’
(Dickens)

b. Two different objects of speech opposed to each other receive opposite

characteristics. The
T
BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

81

I device serves to underline their incompatibility: ’Large houses are still

occupied while weavers’ cottages stand empty.’ (Gaskell)

’His fees were high; his lessons were light.’ (O. Henry)

c. Two contrasting objects of speech receive their peculiar characteristics as

to quality, action

etc.

’For the old struggle - mere stagnation, and in place of danger and death, the
dull monotony of security and the horror of an unending decay]’ (Leacock)

Stylistic antithesis is not only an effective stylistic devise, but as all

expressive means it is an pression of inner, elevated contents of speech.

2. Oxymoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun

or an adverb with I adjective) in which the meaning of the two clashes, being
opposite in sense:

’His honour rooted in dishonour stood

And faith unfaithful kepi him falsely true.’ (Tennyson)

The oxymoron reveals the contradictory nature of one and the same
phenomenon. One of its nponents discloses some objectively existing feature
or quality while the other serves to convey j author’s individual attitude
towards the same.

e.g. ’the houses filled with guests and all of them plastered in diamonds and
stinking of titles, \ one of them less than an earl!’ (Du Maurier) The contextual
meanings of ’diamonds’ and ’titles’ Fdo not differ from their logical meanings,
whereas the contextual meaning of ’stinking ’ and [ plastered is emotive and
shows the speaker’s personal view of the bejewelled and betitled assembly. ;
Two opposite ideas very naturally repulse each other so that a once created
oxymoron is practically never repeated in different contexts and so does not
become trite.

3. Irony. (Greek eironeia - taockery concealed1)

It denotes a trope / figure based on direct opposition of the meaning to the
sense. It is the use of words, word-combinations and sentences in the
meanings opposite to those directly expressed by them (i.e. opposite to their
logical meaning) for purpose of ridicule. Thus in the sentence: ’It must be
delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s
pocket.’ The word ”delightful’ acquires a meaning quite the opposite to its
primary dictionary meaning, that is ’unpleasant’, ’not delightful’.

Irony is generally used to convey a negative meaning. The effect of irony

largely depends on the unexpectedness and seeming lack of logic of a word
used by the author in an incompatible context. The reader is fully aware of
the contrast between what is logically expected and what is said. This
contrast of meanings very often produces a humorous effect.

Sometimes irony is not pointed out at all: its presence in the text is deduced
only by reasoning, he reader cannot possibly believe that the author can be
praising the object of speech in earnest. Sometimes the whole of the
narrative is ironical, as the case is with the description the matrimonial
schemes of Becky Sharp. (Thackeray)

Relations of Inequality

1. niTtm-r presents a structure in which every consecutive sentence or phrase

is emotionally onger or logically more important than the preceding one.e.g.
’For that instant there was no one else in the room, in the house, in the
world, besides themselves...’ (Wilson) Such an organization of the utterance
creates a gradual intensification of its significance, both logical and emotive,
and absorbs the reader’s attention more completely: ’It must be a warm
pursuit in such a climate,1 observed Mr. Pickwick.’ Warm! - red-hot! -
scorching/ - glowing/1
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLIST!CS

A peculiar variety is observed in those cases when a negative structure undergoes

intensification: ’No tree, no shrub, no blade of grass ... that was not owned’.
(Galsworthy) ’Be careful’, said Mr. Jingle - not a look, not a wink, ’said Mr. Tupman.
’Not a syllable - not a whisper’ (Dickens)

As we sea every consecutive part of the climax is expressed by a word presenting a

less significant concept, so that instead of an increase there is a certain decrease of
logical importance and emotion:

Compre: warm - red-hot- scorching - glowing and tree - -shrub - blade of grass But on
closer observation it appears that the idea of some decrease is premature, because
the negative particle attached to the ’decreasing’ members of the climax, changes
the whole picture. The smaller becomes the quantity or importance of a concept, the
stronger is the negation, i.e. the more efficient and to the point is the climax.

2. Anticlimax. A real anticlimax is a sudden deception of the recipient: it consists in

adding one weaker element to one or several stronger ones, mentioned before. The
recipient is disappointed in his expectations: he predicted a stronger element to
follow; instead, some insignificant idea follows the significant one (ones). This usually
brings forth a humorous effect.

The majority of famous O. Wilde’s and B. Shaw’s paradoxes are based on anticlimax:
’Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except
the obvious.’ (O,W.) ’Harris never weeps, he knows not why. If Harris’ eyes fill with
tears, you can bet it is because Harris has been eating raw onions... (J. K. J.)

3. Hyperbole is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration, the aim of which is to

intensify one of the features of the object in question to such a degree as will show
its utter absurdity: ’God, cried buckets. I saw it ten times.’

Like many stylistic devises hyperbole may lose its quality as a stylistic device through
frequent repetition and become a unit of the language- as-a-system, (language
expressive means): a thousand pardons, scared to death etc.

Word-combinations of the type: a drop of water=not much water, a cat size pony=a
very smal pony - present a kind of hyperbole - exaggeration of insignificance - (small
quality, small size).

4. Litotes. The stylistic device of litotes is used to diminish the positive characteristics
of a thing or a phenomenon. It is based on discrepancy between the syntactical form,
which is negative, and the meaning, which is positive.

e.g. She said it ,but not impatiently, (with patience).

The obligatory presence of the particle not makes the statement less categorical and
conveys certain doubts of the speaker.

Compare: ’It was not unnatural if Gilbert felt a certain embarrassment.’(Maugham)

and ’It was natural if...’ and you will see that the peculiar structure of litotes
interferes into the semantic field and influences it, supplying an additional emotive
shade to the idea expressed.
The structure of litotes is rather rigid: its first element is always the negative particle
’not’ (or ’no’) and its second component is, too, always negative in meaning if not in
form: not without doubt; He is no fool.

3. Morphological Stylistics

Now we shall consider the stylistic effect of using different parts of speech in an
unusuall lexico-grammatical and grammatical meanings. Such a divergence between
what is traditionally] denoted and what is situationally denoted on the level of
morphology is called transposition
vICHES OF STYUSTICS

83

grammatical metaphor. The rendering of emotions, evaluations and expressiveness,

and sometimes functional and stylistic connotations are achieved at the expense of
the violation of usual grammatical connections. Every part of speech, depending on
its particular grammatical category and means of its expression, may be subjectedc
to transformation.

Let us begin with the noun. Expressive possibilities arise here, first of all, with the
unusual use of the number and case and also with the character of the pronoun
substitution.

The most widely known type of such transposition is the so called personification
when human feelings, thoughts, speech (antromorphism) are ascribed to natural
phenomena, objects, animals, and this is connected with the change of pronouns (it
becomes he, she etc.)

e.g. Roll on, thou dark and blue Ocean - roll!

The common noun Ocean becomes a proper noun, it is replaced by the pronoun thou,
is written in a capital letter and is used in the function of a rhetorical address
(apostrophe).

Possessive case of nouns is another formal sign of personification which is also

marked by expressiveness. Even the use of the names of countries, cities in the
possessive case renders them some elevation.

Compare: London’s people and the people of London my country’s laws and the laws
of the ountry. It renders the text some loftiness.

Another type of transposition are metaphors, when names of animals, birds, fantastic
beings ’ receive metaphoric, emotional colour and not rarely have a derogatory
meaning: mule, pig, duck, shark, snake, swine, toad, wolf, worm, angel, tabby, devil
etc. I was not going to have all the old tabbies bossing her around, because she is
not what they call our class. The women are called here.

Transposition of adjectives may acquire not only emotive and expressive but
functionally ylistic colouring, e.g. Listen, my sweet. Come on, my lovely] Adjectives
are converted into nouns. Transposition of abstract nouns ( refers to people):

Compare: The chubby little eccentricity- a chubby eccentnc child.

He is a disgrace to his family- He is a disgraceful son. The old oddity - an odd old
person. In her word-combinations substantivation may have a bookish colouring, i.e.
functionally stylistic onnotation

a flush of heat - a hot flush

a man of intelligence - an intelligent man he dark of the night - the dark night the
dark of intensity - the intense dark

The substantivised adjective proves to be more abstract and bookish than the
derived rioun.
The plural number. Funny sounds the use of the plural number when -s is added to
the whole ntence. e.g. One I-am-sorry-for -you is worth twenty I-told-you-so’s.

Genitive also serves as a contextual indicator of personification: ’Holly Wood’s Studio

Empty’ ’HollyWood Studio Empty’. These are titles.

The article. The functioning of the article gives an illustrious example of the fact that
the code is a system of signs, rules of their functioning, restrictions to these rules.
The indefinite article may indicate belonging to a famous family, in this case an
evaluative component is always present, and the connotation is rather complicated.
For instance, ’Elisabeth was a Tudor’. What is meant here is that family features of
nobility belong to this person. But with another example of the occasional use of the
indefinite article ’She was a Dodson’ (’The Mill on the Floss’ D. Elliot) the name
Dodson is lar off being aristocratic. The Dodsons are arrogant, rude philistines. The
definite article, used before the proper name, may indicate that the person is a
celebrity in good or bad sense. For
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

instance, ’Know my partner. Old Robinson. Yes, the Robinson. Don’t you
know? The notorious Robinson. (Conrad Lord Jim). The use of the article in
enumeration is of special interest. In attributive word combinations with a
number of dependent homogeneous members are usually placed between
the first article and the noun. And there is no need in repeating the article
before each word, but it may be needed for stylistic purposes, e.g. Under the
low sky the grass shown wift a brilliant, an almost artificial sheen. (C.P. Snow)

The appearance of the second article is unexpected and drawing the

attention to the following word, underlines its importance and creates the
impression of the appearance of a new word combination.

The adjective. The category of comparison is the only grammar category in

contemporarj English characteristic of adjectives. It renders the degree of
intensity expressed by the adjectival sign and as such is very close to the
category of stylistic expressiveness. It is especially true elative whose
grammatical meaning is an irrelatively great measure of the sign: a most
valuab& idea, the newest fashion of all. There are also syntactical means for
rendering elative: a foolish, foolish wife, a most foolish wife, the most foolish
of wives, my fool of a wife, my wife is footishnesi herself, she is as foolish as
can be, is she as foolish as that?

In low colloquial style or in popular speech possible is the intensification by

means of that. Shi is that foolish. In literary colloquial style emotional
evaluative component is introduced will evaluative words in pairs: nice and
warm, good and strong.

Only qualitative and quantitative adjectives have the category of comparison.

But when othei* kinds of adjectives are used in comparative or superlative
degree of which it is not characteristic they acquire great expressiveness, e.g.
You cannot be deader than dead. (Hemingway)

The verb. The verb has much more developed system of word-building and a
greater number ol grammatical categories than any other part of speech.
Thus we may assume that its stylistt* potential is considerable. And here
again transposition is an important expressive means. In livel; emotional
narrative about events in the past or expected in the future ’The Present
Historical Tensei is used. The continuous forms (present, past or future) are
used instead the indefinite forms. Itiir more emotional, sometimes they can
express a momentary irritation, e.g. One day I’m no longs spending; my days
running a sweet stall, I may write a book about us all.

Sometimes the continuous form, due to its emotiveness, proves to be milder

and more pohti than simple present, e.g. The kind Mrs. Eliot puts mildly: ’I’d
better show you the way. He isflA feeling so good to day.’ |

As to the perfect it is the omission of the auxiliary verb: ”You done this.
4. Syntactical stylistics I

What is studied here is a set of parallel syntactical structures and their

comparative stylist!’ analysis. We shall consider special forms of syntactical
organization of English speech used ai expressive means thus rendering the
utterance additional semantic shades. These forms art’ purposeful deviations
from the neutral syntactical norm of the English language. Under deviations!
of the norm we understand, for instance, absence of expected members of
the sentence, thei| repetition or unusual distribution in the sentence. They
are apt to produce a certain stylistic And the analysis of such cases is the
subject of syntactical stylistics. Stylistic effect can be creal not only within
one sentence but within larger and more complicated spans of utterance
(sentem paragraphs, chapters and the whole work).

In accordance with syntactical stylistic expressive means can be classified as

follows:
1. From the point of view of quantitative characteristics of the syntactical
structure there
BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS 85

two possible varieties of deviations-a. the absence of elements which are

obligatory in a neutral construction; b. excess of non-essential
elements/redundancy of syntactical elements.

2. With regard to the distribution of the elements we should deal with various
types of inversion.

3. By analyzing the general syntactical meanings, communicative aims of

sentences, stylistic effect of shifts in syntactical means of changes in the use
of syntactical forms are established.

Absence of Elements which are Obligatory in a neutral

Construction.

Ellipsis (of Greek origin ’ellipsis’ - The deliberate omission of one or more
principal words (usually the subject, the predicate). The missing parts are
either present in the syntactical environment of the sentence (context) or
they are implied by the situation. For example, ’ The tide did Ma good. Rested
her.’ (D. Carter) The second sentence is elliptical, as the subject of the
sentence is missing.

The omission of some parts of the sentence is an ordinary and typical feature
of the oral type of speech. In belles-lettres style the peculiarities of the
structure of the oral type of speech are partially reflected in the speech of
characters. ’I’ll see nobody for half an hour, Marcey,’ said the boss.
’Understand? Nobody at all.’ (Mansfield)

The omission of some parts of the sentence in the example given above
reflects the informal and careless character of speech. Some parts of the
sentence may be omitted due to the speaker’s excitement. Such cases of
omission reflecting the natural structure of the oral type of speech are not a
stylistic device. The stylistic device of ellipsis is sometimes used in the
author’s narrative, but more frequently it is used in represented speech.

’Serve him right, he should arrange his affairs better!’ So any respectable
Forsyte’ (Galsworthy). The predicate is missing and the reader is to supply
what is omitted.

The stylistic device of ellipsis not only makes the sentence laconic and
prominent but creates the effect of implication forcing the reader to read
between the lines. The stylistic device of ellipsis used in inner represented
speech creates a stylistic effect of the natural abruptness and the
fragmentary character of the process of thinking.

’It would have been a good idea to bring along one of Doc’s new capsules.
Could have gone into a drug store and asked for a glass of water and taken
one.’ (D. Carter).
Nominative sentences/One-member sentences. The communicative function
of a nominative sentence is a mere statement of the existence of an object, a
phenomenon: ’London. Fog everywhere. Implacable November weather.’

Though syntactically different from elliptical sentences, nominative sentences

(which comprise only one principal part expressed by a noun or a noun
equivalent) resemble the former because of their brevity. Nominative
sentences are especially (important) suitable for preliminary descriptions
introducing the reader to the situation. They are often used to present the
background of the action as in the example:

’Men, palms, red plush seats, white marble tables, waiters in aprons. Miss
Moss walked through them all.’ (Mansfield)

One-member sentences may be used to heighten the emotional tension of

the narrative or to single out the character or the author’s attitude towards
what is happening. Absence of auxiliary elements.

Auxiliary verbs, articles, prepositions, conjunctions as well as the link verb be

are very often
86

A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

dropped in informal oral communication.

’I been waiting here all morning...’ (Robbins)

’ You feel like telling mel’ (Salinger)

’She still writing: poetry?’ (Miller)

’Thatbe enough? (Markus)

Articles, both the definite and indefinite are omitted in the following
examples:

’ Third time lucky-that will be the idea.’ (Christie)

’Post here yefi’ (Amis)

1Chair comfortable?’ (Pinter)

1Beautifulwoman, but no subtlety...’ (Christie)

The articles are mostly dropped when the noun or the nominal group occupy
the initial position in the sentence.

Prepositions are absent mostly in adverbial modifiers of place and time:

’ Where was he born?

’London.’ (Kanin)

’ What time did you get inV (Amis)

’I told you we’ll go Friday.’ (Hellman)

Zeugma is use of a word in the same grammatical relation to the adjacent

word in the context, one inetaphoric and the other literal in sense, e. g. The
boys took their books and places. (Dickens) AtnoonMrs. Tuipin would get out
of bed and humour, put on kimano, airs, and the water to boil for coffee. (O.
Henry) Two cases of using zeugma - v. to get(out) is blended with n. bed and
humour forming a free word-combination with the first and a phraseological
unit with the second; v. to put on yokes with three words and in each of the
three combinations its semantics is different:

Stylistic effect caused by zeugma lies entirely in the sphere of semantics. The
use of zeugma serves, as a rule, humouristic purposes; the comic is caused
by contrariness between identity of constructions and their semantic
heterogeneity. Very often combinations forming zeugma are syntactically
homogeneous members of the sentence and from the view point of the
formal structure of the sentence do not violate syntactical norm.

e.g. She dropped a tear and a handkerchief. (Dickens)

She possessed two false teeth and a sympathetic heart. (O.H.) Zeugma is a
stylistic device, as it is based on intentional ’economy’ of syntactical means
with the aim of a certain stylistic result.

Excess of non-essential elements. (Redundancy of syntactical elements) The

redundancy, structural and material, occurs, first of all, in the increased
number of elements used. It must be borne in mind that all superfluous
elements have a stylistic feature in common: additional words and more
complicated constructions aim at emphasizing the thought (or part of the
thought) expressed.

Repetition as a stylistic device is recurrence of the same word or phrase

within the sentence with the view of expressiveness. Examples of repetition
are abundant in colloquial speech; as well as in poetry, imaginative prose,
and emotional public speeches; and hardly ever occur in scientific,
technological or legal texts. Repetition within phrases (parts of the sentence)
typical of colloquial speech concerns mostly qualifying adverbs and
adjectives: very, very good; for ever and ever \ a little, Little girl.
BRANCH!

e.g.

(Chase) i (Dickens)

The

imparts a emphasis unprepari

Synt

form of th The noun comes to 1

e.g.

redundant took me A

Somi in the fora

e.g..

Para!

sentences identity o Parallelisn sentences, two sentei rhythmical

More
Anapl adjacent s< element tin

e.g. F. Farev

The a line.

Epiph elements cc

e.g. 7 peaceful pi Epiphora, t poetry.

Framii lyntactlcal \

’Moat,

tverytbJnf
BRANCHES OF STYUSTICS

87

e.g. They both looked hard, tough and ruthless, and they both looked very,
,very, very lethal. (Chase) Scrooge went to bed again and thought and
thought and thought it over and over and over. (Dickens)

The element (elements) attract the reader’s attention as being the most
important; in a way it imparts additional sense to the whole utterance.
Repetition as an expressive device, as a means of emphasis, should be
differentiated from cases of chance recurrence of the same word in an
unprepared, confused or stuttering colloquial speech: ’I-I-Inever met her
before here’.

Syntactical tautology (or prolepsis). The term implies recurrence of the noun
subject in the form of the corresponding personal pronoun. The stylistic
function of this construction is emphasis. The noun subject separated from
the rest of the sentence by the unstressed pronominal subject comes to be
detached from the sentence - made more prominent,

e.g. Miss Tiltie, she slept forty days and nights without waking up. (O.H.) The
use of the redundant pronominal subject is a typical feature of popular
speech, e.g. The widow Douglass, she took me for her son, and allowed she
would civilize me... (M. Twain)

Sometimes prolepsis occurs in quite an opposite form: the recurrence of the

personal pronoun in the form of the noun subject.

e.g. She developed power, this woman - this wife of his. (Galsworthy)

Parallelism. Repetition may also concern the syntactical structure of

sentences. Adjacent sentences are often identical or analogous by their
syntactical structures. Assimilation or even identity of two or more
neighbouring sentences is called parallelism (parallel constructions).
Parallelism, as a matter of fact, is a variety of repetition, but not a repetition
of lexically identical sentences, only a repetition of syntactical costructions:
John kept silent; Mary was thinking. The two sentences are identical
structurally, but different lexically. Parallelism strongly affects the rhythmical
organization of the paragraph, so it is eminent in oratoric speech, in pathetic
extracts. More often it so happens that parallel sentences contain the same
lexical elements: Anaphora. This term implies identity of beginnings of one or
several initial elements in adjacent sentences (stanzas, paragraphs). This
device serves the purpose of strengthening the element that recurs.

e.g. Farewell to the forests and wild hanging woods,

Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring Goods... (Burns)

The anaphoric Farewell to the,., is accompanied by complete parallelism of

the rest of each line.
Epiphora. This stylistic figure is opposed to anaphora. It is recurrence of one
or several dements concluding two or more syntactical units.

e.g. The white washed room was pure white as of old, the methodical book-
keeping was in peaceful progress as of old, and some distant howler was
hanging against a cell door as of old. Epiphora, to a still greater extent than
anaphora, regulates the rhythm and makes prose resemble poetry.

Framing. This term is used to denote the recurrence of the initial

segment at the very end of a lyntactical unit (sentence,
paragraph, stanza):

’Money it what he’s after, money,’ (Galore)

’Never wonder, By meant of addition, subtraction, multiplication

and division, tettie everytbtaff somehow, and never wonder,’(
A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTK

88

Anadiplosis (from the Greek ’doubling’): the final element or elements of a

sentence paragraph, stanza, etc. recurs at the very beginning of the next
sentence, paragraph, stanza.

With Bewick on my knee, I was then happy; happy at least in my own way.”
(Bronte)

Chiasmus (from the letter X-chi) means crossing. The term denotes what is
sometimes characterized as ’parallelism reversed1: two syntactical
constructions (sentences or phrases) as parallel, but their members (words)
change places, their syntactical positions. What is the subjectn the first
becomes an object or a predicative in the second (thus their functions
change.) e.g. Thejn might have been the infirmary, the infirmarymight have
been the jail.’ (Dickens)

Polysyndeton. The term, as opposed to ’syndeton,’ means excessive use

(repetition) ol conjunctions-the conjunction ’and’ in most cases. In poetry and
fiction, the repetition of ’and either underlines the simultaneity of actions or
close connection of properties enumerated A classical example of
polysyndeton of this kind is the famous poem by Robert Southey. A few lines
will suffice:

Advancing and glancing and dancing/, and prancing Recoiling, toiling, and
toiling and boiling, And dashing, and flashing, and splashing, and clashing;
And so never ending, and always descending.... And in this way the water
comes down atLodore.

e.g. He put on coat and found bis mug and plate and knife and went outside
(Aldridge). It may also promote a high-flown tonality of narrative as in the
example:

And only one thing really troubled him sitting there-the melancholy craving in
his heartbecause the sun was like enchantment on his face and on the clouds
and on the golden biiA leaves.... (Galsworthy).

On the other hand, excessive use of the conjunction ’and’ often betrays the
poverty of tht speaker’s syntax, showing the primitiveness of the character,
e.g. // (the tent) is soaked and heavy and it flops about, and tumbles down on
you, and clings around your head, and makes you mad. (Ji]

Unusual distribution of Elements/ Components of Speech. Change

of Word Ordeij

Inversion
Every noticeable change in word order is called ’inversion.’ It is important to
distinguisi between grammatical inversion and syntactical inversion.
Grammatical inversion is that wkl brings about a cardinal change in the
grammatical meaning of the sentence (syntactical structure] E.g. You are
here-Are you here? He has come-Has he come?-& declarative sentence i
transformed into an interrogative one, and the result is grammatical
inversion. Stylistic invars® does not change the grammatical essence of the
sentence: it consists of an unusual arrangement t words for the purpose of
making one of them more conspicuous, more important, more emphatic
Compare: They slid down with its variant Down they slid. There is no
grammatical change, but tit word ’down’ sounds very strong in the second
sentence.

The unusual first place in the sentence may be occupied by a predicative-.

’Inexplicable was the astonishment of the little party when they returned to
find out that Mi Pickwick had disappeared.’ (Dickens)

Occasionally, the first place is occupied by a simple verbal predicate. Here

are two exampls from Jack London:

’Came a day when he dragged himself into the Enquirer alley, and there was
no Cheese-Face ’Came frightful days of snow and rain.’
BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

89

’Came another tiny moment, while they waited laughing and talking.’
(Mansfield). The object is placed before the predicate: ”Yes, sir, that you can.
’(Pendleton)

’During that descent be could remember bis father quite distinctly..., but his
mother he couldn ’t see.’ (Galsworthy)

An adverbial modifier may not infrequently come to the foreground.

’And doggedly along by the railings of the Grand Park towards his father’s
house, he went trying to tread on his shadow.’ (Galsworthy)

Communicative Aims of sentences

Re-evaluation of syntactical meaning. Grammatical syntactical forms are

sometimes used not in a function which is not theirs originally. It turns out
that the affirmative, negative, interrogative, exhortative (i.e. order or
request) sentences are interchangeable. They may replace one another
fulfilling the same (or nearly the same) communicative intention, thus
becoming stylistically relevant.

Quasi-affirmative sentences. They are negative in form but the implication of

such sentences is affirmative: ’Isn’tit too bad?’equals ’That’s too bad.’It is a
certain variety of rhetorical question (namely those with a negative
predicate).

’Don’tlremember/’implies I do remember.

The interrogative form makes the statement that is implied much stronger
than it would be if expressed directly. Quasi-negative sentences. Most of
them are rhetorical questions with affirmative predicates:

’Did I say a word about the money?’ (Shaw)

The implication is ’/ did not say....’

Negative implication is also typical of special questions.

’What’s the good of a man behind a bit of glass... ? What use is he there and
what’s the good of their banks?’ (J.K.J.)

Affective negative is also expressed in colloquial speech by a clause of unreal

comparison beginning with as if and containing a predicate in the affirmative
form:
’As if I ever stopped thinking about the girl, and her confounded vowels and
consonants.’ (Shaw)

Quasi-negatives are also set expressions (cf. and the like). Pickering (slowly):
I think I know what you mean, Mr. Higgins.

Higgins: Well, dash me ifI do /(Shaw)

Quasi-imperative sentences are those which express inducement (order or

request) without imperative form of the verb. Some of them do not name the
action, but only mention the object or qualification of a self-evident action.

’Tea. For two. Out here.’ (Shaw)

’Here/ Quick/’or with the adverb ’Off with you!’ Types of Syntactical
Connections Viewed Stylistically

Words, phrases, clauses and sentences are connected with one another in
speech. Most often words and phrases are combined semantically, sometimes
by auxiliary elements (prepositions and conjunctions). Clauses and
independent sentences can be joined to one another asyndetically.
90

A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

Stylistically relevant are changes in the type of connection.

Detachment. One of the secondary parts of the sentence by some specific

considerations of the writer is placed so that it seems formally independent of
the word it logically refers to. Such parts of structure are called detached or
isolated. In writing and in print they are separated by punctuation marks
(mostly by commas or dashes). The general stylistic effect of detachment is
strengthening, emphasizing the word (or phrase) in question.

E.g. ’How could John, with his heart of gold. Leave his family?

Any secondary part may be detached. ”Very small and child-like, he never
looked more than fourteen’ (attribute), ’Brave boy, he saved my life and shall
not regret it’ (appositive), ’Talent, Mr, Micawber has, capital, Mr. Micawberhas
not (direct object), ’Bitterly, she complained ofapainin her back’ /adverbial
modifier/ A variant of detached construction is parenthesis. One of most
important stylistic functions of using a parenthetic sentence is to create two
parallel speech plans in the narrative. This stylistic device may serve to
convey the inner speech of the character.

E.g. Here is a long passage - what an enormous prospective I make of it! -

leading from Peggoty’s kitchen to the front door. (Dickens) The parenthetic
form of the statement makes it more conspicuous, more important than it
would be if it had been the subordinate clause.

Subordination and coordination. Clauses and independent sentences are

combined by way of subordination or coordination. Besides they may be
combined asyndetically. The same semantic lelations between two
neighbouring1 utterances may be expressed in to different ways:

When the clock struck twelve, he came <- subordination

The clock struck twelve, and he came -coordination

The clock struck twelve, he came - asyndetic connection

The use of complex sentences, especially with complicated phrasal

conjunctions, such as a’ view of the fact that or with regard to... is a sign of
formal written type of speech. Much simple I conjunctions are preferred in
everyday oral communication - when, where, if, and the like. f

In oral speech we mostly find either asyndeton, or frequent use of the

universal conjunction and. E.g. You never can tell in these cases who they are
going to turn out and it’s best to be on tk safe side. (Dreiser) The conjunction
and evidently signalizes the relation of cause and consequence between the
two clauses. E.g. ’Open that silly mouth of yours just once, and you find
yourself’A jail...I (D.Usseau) This compound sentence is an equivalent of a
complex sentence vrithi subordinate clause of condition (If you open...)
Suspense - holding the reader in tense anticipate is often realized through the
separation of predicate from subject or predicative by the deliberate
introduction between them of a phrase, clause or sentence (frequently
parenthetic). Suspense is deliberate slowing down of the thought, postponing
its completion to the very end of the utterance E.g. All this Mrs. Snagsby, as
an injured woman and the friend of Mrs, Chadband, and the Mom of Mr.
Chadband and the mourner of the late Mr. Talkingh om, is here to certify,
(Dickens)

Suspense always requires long stretches of speech. The main purpose of the
device is It prepare the reader for the only logical conclusion. It is a
psychological effect that is aimed ii particular,

Reported, or Represented Speech

The description of thoughts and feelings of characters by

conveying them through presentation of inner speech, i,e,
reflecting thl process of their thinking, is caUed re speech,
Introducing the represented speech into the narrative the author
creates the effeet character’s immediate presence and
participation, B,g, ffe tawmea weeking and sleeping, ton
BRANCH

succeedi
- these s the whol If he con

The

referred t the quote immediat speech p. norms an they help part in fan
eliminate but coexis with indir the rules speech: th exclamato

4. Phone

Phon

acoustic e

This part i

prosody di

and espec

prosodic v

sounds, of
same vowe

which eithe

prose - mo

phrases: ’Pi

Prejudice1 (

not least,

sound... Alii

For instana

the alliterat

unemployed

Once upon

combination

laughter, pa

indirect. Dir

cuckoo, tint

transferred i

noisy; strem

Indirect ono

utterance ar

curtain.. .(Po(

the curtain.
BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

91

succeeding one another. What a great country America was! What a great
thing to be an artist there!
- these simple dramatic things... If he could only do it! If he could only do itl If
he could only stir the whole country so that his name would be like that
ofDore in France or Verestchagin in Russia. If be could but get fire into his
work, the fire he felt! (Dreiser).

The morphological structure of the given example is that of indirect speech:

the character is referred to in the third person singular, the verb and
pronouns are of the same form, too. But though the quotation marks are
absent and the structure of the passage does not indicate the author’s
immediate presence, -Still there are certain features which distinguish it from
the author’s indirect speech proper. They are the syntactical and lexical
aspects of the passage which are close to the norms and patterns ojf direct
speech. See how many explanatory sentences are there in the extract: they
help tu reflect the .emotional state of the character. Parallel constructions,
repetitions - all take part in bringing in the character himself with his ideas,
dreams and sentiments. The writer does not eliminate himself completely
from the narrative as it happens with the introduction of direct speech but
coexists with the personage. What is characteristic of represented speech?
a)features in common with indirect speech: no inverted commas; the use of
the pronoun in the third person; observance of the rules of sequence of
tenses; b) features distinguishing represented speech from indirect speech:
the use of typical for a personage’s manner, words and expressions; the use
of interjections, exclamatory and interrogative sentences the words yes and
no.

4. Phonetic Stylistics

Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devises are used for the purpose of
producing a certain acoustic effect, giving emphasis te the utterance and
arousing emotions in the reader or listener. This part of stylistics deals with
prosody and interaction of speech sound in sequences. The term prosody
denotes general supefsegmental-characteristics Of speech (tonality, length,
force, tempo, and especially’the alternation of stressed and unstressed
elements - rhythm). The number of prosodic variants (intonational treatment)
is theoretically unlimited. As for interaction of speech sounds, of considerable
importance is the recurrence of ’the same consonant (’alliteration’) or the
same vowel (’assonance’). Alliteration - recurrence of aij initial consonant in
two or more words which either follow one another or appear close enough to
be noticeable. We find it in poetry and in prose - more often than in other
languages - very often in titles of books, in slogans, and in set phrases:
’Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club’ (Dickens), ’Sense and Sensibility’,
’Pride and Prejudice’ (Jane Austine), ’The Last Leaf, ’Retrieved Reformation’
(O.H.); set expressions: last .but not least, now or never, forgive and forget.
Hosus£ and home, good as gold, safe and sound...Alliteration is so favoured
in English that sometimes it is used to the detriment to the sense. For
instance, the demand of the unemployed Work or wages\ Is absurd, if one
does not know that the alliterated word wages stands here for the dole
(charitable gift of money claimable by the unemployed). Assonance is a
phonetic stylistic device, signifying recurrence of stressed vowels. E.g. Once
upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary... (Poe).
Onomotopeia is a combination of speech sounds produced in nature (wind,
sea, thunder), by people (sighing, laughter, patter of feet etc.) and by
animals. There are two varieties of onomatopeia direct and indirect. Direct
onomotopeia is contained in words that imitate natural sounds, as ding-dong,
buzz, cuckoo, tintinnabulation, mew, ping-pong, roar and the like. Such words
may by used in a transferred meaning, for instance, ding-dong (the sound ot
bells sound continuously) may denote: noisy; strenuously contented.
Examples are: a ding-dong struggle, a ding-dong go on something. Indirect
onomotopeia is a combinations of sounds the aim of which is to make the
sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. E.g. And the silken, sad,
uncertain, rustling of each purple curtain...(Poe), where the repetition of the
sound [s] actually produces the sound of the rustling of the curtain. Indirect
onomotopeia, unlike alliteration, demands some mention of what makes the
92

A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYUSTICS

sound as rustling (of curtains) in the example above.

Euphony is such an effective combination of sounds and such an

arrangement of utterance which produce a pleasing acoustic effect. It is a
kind of sound instrumentation, in which the meaning of the word, or rather
the general mood of the verse or prose passage is supported by a sound
image. Here is a strophe from Byron’s ’Parisine’.

It is the hour when from the boughs The nightingale’s high note is heard; It is
the hour when lovers’ vows Seem sweet in every whispered word; And gentle
winds, and waters near, Make music to the lonely ear.

It is not difficult to notice that the euphone of this stanza is created on the
predominance of vowels, especially of long vowels and diphthongs; the sound
[w], the nasal sonants [m] [n] and lateral sonant [1] are also reiterated.

The selections of sounds is aimed not as much at the precise reproduction of

real sounding of the described movements and phenomena as at arousing a
certain emotional state in the listener, analogous, to some extent, to that
impression which may be associated in the speaker’s mind to the sounds and
sound combinations.

Phonetic peculiarities of speech may be reproduced in writing when writers

resort to ’graphons’, i.e. unusual, non-standard spelling of words, showing
either deviation from Standard English or some peculiarity in pronouncing
words or phrases emphatically.
Purely individual pronunciation of certain sounds is observed in the graphon
th which stands for the letter 5, as does a personage of ’Hard Times’by
Dickens: ’Thquirel... Your thervanl Thithitb a badpieth ofbithnith, thith ith...’

In many cases, they show deviations from Standard English typical for whole
groups of English speakers. Typical in this respect the reproduction of
cockney. For instance, ’the dropping of H-s1 Enry Iggens; the substitution of
the diphthong [ai] for the diphthong [ei]. In writing it is usually/ instead of a,
ai, or ay. E.g. ’Is that my wife?... I see it is, from your fyce... I want the truth
-Imustf ’aye it!... If that’s ’er fyce there, then that’s ’er body in the gallery - ...
(Galsworthy). Variants of pronunciation are also of importance for stylistics. A
speaker may strengthen, emphasize, make more prominent the word when
he, for instance, intensifies its initial consonants, which is shown in the
graphon as doubling the letter: ’N-nof sounds more decisive more emphatic
than a mere ’No! Another way of intensifying a word or a phrase is uttering
each syllable or, generally, part of a word as a phonetically independent unit
in retarded tempo. Graphically this graphon is hyphenated: ’Impos-sible!’
Sometimes part of the utterance is specially modulated by the speaker
(changing volume and pitch: rise-fall in monosyllabic and disyllabic words
and, possibly, rise-fall-rise in polysyllables) The corresponding graphons in
print are italics or capitalization:

She was simply beautiful. I’LL NEVER see him again.

Sometimes curious instances of combinations of graphic means can be found

as in the example: ’His wife,’ I said. ’W-I-F-E. Homebody. Helpmate. Didn’t he
tell you?’ (Myer) ’Appeeee Noooooyeeeeeerrrf (Idem) Here the reader may
not at once recognize the well-known phrase: Happy New Year’

Functional Styles Used in Stylistics

We have studied stylistic means and principles of their choice. We have also
considered their usage for the purpose of enriching the vocabulary. However,
there exist other principles of choosing
BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

93

stylistic means. And they are also the subject of stylistic analysis.

The question is about the choice of the whole totality of speech means, that
present a special form of speech activity which is called functional style of the
language. The choice of speech means depends not on the speaker’s
aspiration for strengthening expressiveness of speech, but on his estimation
of the speech situation itself.

This estimation comprises several aspects.

1. The definition of the character of the situation of the given speech act -
whether it is official or intimate, solemn or natural (free and easy going) and
so on.

2. The speaker’s attitude to the addressee of speech i.e. taking onto account
the degree of intiinacy between the speaker and the listener as well as the
number of people to whom the speech is addressed.

3. ” The realization of purposes of communication, that may be different -

business information,

scientific explanation, speaker’s emotional attitude towards the object of

speech, official agreement etc. At last the very mechanism of communication
may be different, it may be either in written or oral form.

According to T. Kuznets and Y. Scrennev the division of functional styles is as

follows: I Literary-bookish style and II Colloquial style. I. Arnold also speaks of
the two - Literary and Colloquial groups of style, distinguishing Neutral style
as opposed to the two main groups. Neutral style is possible in any speech
situation of any character. The literary style corresponds to a thought out
speech, say, before a large audience, i.e. public speech, usually called
bookish. The colloquial style - to an unprepared speech of every day
communication.

literary-Bookish Style

It falls into:

1. Publicistic style (newspaper style, oratorical style)

2. $cientific-prose style

3. The style of official documents

4. Poetic style (being of special interest if dealing with works of past epochs,
not existing now)
The main feature of these styles is strict conformity of all the forms of speech
(the use of words, syntactical structures, phonetic side of speech) to the norm
of standard English, striving to a precise expression of thought, removal of
lowered words.

Publicistic Style. The general aim of publicistic style is to impact public

opinion, to cause the reader (listener) to accept the point of view expressed
in the speech, essay or article. Publicistic style may vary depending on the
theme, on the cultural level of the supposed reader and never upon an
individual temperament and linguistic tastes of the author. But its main
features are always the same. In a particular way publicistic style is aspected
in newspaper texts. Not all the printed matter found in newspapers comes
under newspaper style. One finds not only news and comments on it, but
stories and poems, crossword puzzles, chess problems and the like. Of
course, the latter cannot be considered specimens of publicistic style. The
orator’s speech may appear in an oral form of publicistic style. Contemporary
orator’s speech is less rhetoric (more simplified) but still tradition is very
strong. The orators enrich their speeches using vivid and variegated
expressive means.

Scientific-prose style. Its purpose is to inform some knowledge, pertaining to

a certain branch of science that accounts for abundance of scientific
terminology. As *o grammar peculiarities it is syntactical precision, that is
why no ellipsis is found (as a rule), participial, gerundial constructions
94

A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

and infinitives as attributes are in abundance and passive voice as well in

branches of physics’ math, history, natural sciences and technique. In some
philosophic, pedagogical, linguistic works scientific prose style is used side by
side with publicistic style.

The style of official documents. It is marked by its traditional nature. Definite

speech cliches, strict forms are characteristic of this style. Typical in this
respect is an extract from ”The White Monkey’ (Galsworthy) .The dying
George Forsyte dictates his will to Soames. ’My three screws to young Val
Dartie, because he’s the only Forsyte that knows a horse from a donkey. ’A
throaty chuckle sounded ghastly in the ears of-Soames. ’What have you
said?’ Soames read: ’I hereby leave my three race horses to my kinsman,
Valerius Dartie of Wandson, Sussex, because he has special knowledge ol
horses’. So in lexis we find archaisms (kinsman, ilk, henceforth, hence,
heritor...), specialized foreign words: status quo, persona grate, entente
cordiale..., commercial terms: aviso, acceptor, account current, contractor...,
judicial: acquittal, inhibition, manslaughter ... As to syntax - very extended
sentences embracing the whole content of the document.

Colloquial Style |

The second of the main functional styles of Modern English may be called
’free’ as it contains more or less substantial deviations from the strict literary
norm. Oral form usually of dialogue character is the leading feature of this
style. ’Free’ style is subdivided into two types: literary colloquial style and low
colloquial style.

1. Literary-colloquial style. It is intermediate between literary elaborate style

and ’free’ style. It comprises features of both. However, as to its main
features it stands nearer to ’free1 style. On the one hand it does not contain
jargon words, dialect words, vulgarisms; very often bookish and foreign words
are used in it. Its syntax is in accordance with strict rules of the literary
pattern. This makes it related to literary elaborate style. On the other hand,
there are some peculiarities that mak it related to ’free’ style. For instance, it
admits words with suffixes of subjective evaluation (Charlie duckie, dearie) as
well as epithets replacing them (dear, little, sweet etc.) Interjections: oh, wet
why, there and exclamations like: Dear me, Good gracious are also widely
used. As an exceptai lowered words are met as well. Syntactical constructions
are usually not complicated: simple sentences though with wide use of
participial and infinitival elements are characteristic of this style This style is
usually used when speakers must confine themselves to the forms ol
conventional ’society’ rules or when they speak on serious or business
subjects. E.g. Two people, little acquainted, are speaking trying to stick to the
tone of underlined society correctness.

Sartorius: I do not disturb you, I hope, Mr. Cokane.

Cokane: By no means. Our friend Trench has entrusted me with a difcult and
delicate tasi He has requested me, as a friend of the family, to write to them
on a subject that concerns you.

Sartorius: Indeed, Mr. Cokane. Well, the communication cannot be in better

hands.

The colour of the remarks is purposely literal, no contracted forms (do not
could not) but i there is a colloquial element (well).

2. Low-colloquial Style.

All numerous peculiarities of this style are deviations from the literary norm.
In lexis the important of them are: wide usage of lowered words and slang, a
tendency to constant substitute of neutral or bookish words with post-position
elements.

to land = to put down

BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

95

to remove (a stain) = to take out, \

to proceed, to continue = to go on

Interjections of the type: well, why, there, dear me, oh my, gee are most often
met. Low-

colloquial speech abounds in universal words: v. fix, get; n. thing, business,

affair; adj. nice, jolly, rotten, foul, swell; the pronoun some. Syntax has the
following specific features: In complex sentences asyndetical connection
prevails over synd«tical. Coordination over subordination; wide usage of the
conjunction ’and’; wide usage of ellipsis: ’What are you doing? - Trying to put
on my coat.’ The tautological repetition (esp ui the type, ”You are crazy, you
are’,) and the so called disjunctive question: ’Nice weather, isn’t it?’. The
abundant use of parenthetical elements: indeed, sure, no doubt, perhaps,
maybe, which are turned into word-parasites: Really? Perhaps, I’m rather. Is
very old thing, you know. From phonetic point of view oral speech is
characterized by careless pronunciation: feller= fellow, dunno=don’t know,
attaboy=that’s a boy. Low colloquial speech is characterized by emotional
colouring which can be perceived in abundance of interjections and
parenthetic words, numerous hyperboles and repetitions. E.g.’Oh, Pete, did I
tell you what that dub of a cashier said when I came in late yesterday? Oh, it
was perfectly pricelessl”Did you notice how Dotty was dancing? Gee, wasn ’t
she the HmitfLovf colloquial style is used in a written form as well in private
correspondence, intimate diaries etc. In the newspaper or to be exact in
columns dealing with sensational trials it acquires, so to say, sort of a
tradition. The style of headlines and advertisements is peculiar in this
respect. The headline must be at most brief, loud, it must contain a hint at
the theme of an article (or notice) not to clear to interest the reader,
skimming through multipaged English papers: ’Dies after Locos Collide’; 87-
th Congress Ends with Little for People; Boy Blue Slung his Hook; -’ Boy blue’
-evidently ’in’is missing - dressed in, the jargon expression ’to sling one’s
hook’ its stylistic equivalent.

Advertisements also have their own peculiarities. Those who offer work
usually place ads ^’ tne type: ’Cook wanted’ with enumeration of conditions
of work. Those who seek work Uoaally give some information about
themselves: Single man, aged 30 no ties, seeks situation Jj any capacity,
climate and conditions, main qualifications: loyalty and initiative. Laconism of
private ads is caused not only by consideration of economy but by the
necessity to inform the main characteristics in such a form which might help
find what is needed at once. In English newspapers there are columns of ads
about engagements, marriages, births, deaths, special commemoration of
the dead. In journalistic jargon all such ads are called in play - The catches,
matches, hatches and dispatches.
Such are, in general and in short, features of ’Functional Styles’ in Modern
English

University Questions

1. What is stylistics? Write a brief note on the various branches of Stylistics.

2. What are the various lexical and terminological tools required to

stylistically analyse a text?

3. Discuss various branches of stylistics in detail.

4. • Discuss various phonetic and morphological devices for stylistic

analysis.
10

Stylistics and Other Fields of Study

Or