2008

Ministry o f Education and Science o f Ukraine

Ivan Franko National University
o f Lviv

Karolina Lototska

ENGLISH
STYLISTICS
Textbook

Recommended
by the Ministry o f Education
and Science o f Ukraine

Lviv
Ivan Franko National University o f Lviv
Publishing Centre

2008

 811.111 38(075.8)
143.21 - 773
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811.11138(075.8)
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ISBN 978-966-613-653-7
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CO NTENTS
Preface............................................................................................... 8
Lecture 1.WHAT IS STYLISTICS?................................................. 9
Stylistics and the notion of style.................................................. 9
Brief history of stylistics.............................................................. 12
What does stylistics study?.......................................................... 15
Stylistics and other linguistic disciplines.................................... 16
Stylistic analysis.......................................................................... 18
Lecture 2. BASIC N O TIO N S .......................................................... 20
The author s individual style............................................... *......20
The notion of norm/standard...................................................... 21
The notion of code...................................................................... 23
The categories of expressiveness and emotiveness.................... 24
Expressive means and stylistic devices....................................... 26
I .ecture 3. THE NOTION OF CONTEXT........................... .............32
Types and specifications of linguistic context............................. 32
Extralinguistic context................................................................ 33
Stylistic context........................................................................... 36
The theory of strong position...................................................... 36
Meaningfrom a stylistic viewpoint............................................. 38

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Lccture 4. STYLISTIC DIFFERENTIATION

OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY.............................................. 43
National language. Modern varieties of English.......................43
Bookish vs colloquial English.................................................... 44
Literary and colloquial strata of words...................................... 47
Special literary words................................................................. 49
Special colloquial words............................................................. 51
Stylistic coinages........................................................................ 56

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Lecture 5. TROPES. A RHETORICAL IM A G E.............................. 58

Trope as a basic notion of paradigmatic
onomasiology. A rhetorical image.............................................. 58
The study of tropes: various angles of analysis......................... 59
The classificatory problems: tropes and other SDs.................... 61

Lccture 7. M ETO N YM Y.................................................................. 80

Types o f metonymy. Synecdoche................................................. 80
Semi-marked structures.............................................................. 83

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Lccture 6. METAPHOR.................................................................... 66
Metaphor - a complex cultural and sociolinguistic phenomenon ....66
Structural classifications of metaphor........................................ 69
Genuine vs. trite, or dead, metaphors........................................ 74
Special types of metaphor........................................................... 75

Hypallage (metonymical epithet)............................................... 84

Lecture 8. IRONY............................................................................. 86
The essence of irony. Verbal irony.............................................. 86
Sustained (or structural) irony: various types............................ 87
Irony and humour asforms Of the comical. Sarcasm................. 88
Lecture 9. MAJOR STYLISTIC HYBRIDS.................................. 90
Epithet: types andfunctions....................................................... 90
Antonomasia............................................................................... 93
Periphrasis. Euphemism............................................................. 95
Hyperbole. Understatement........................................................ 98
Lecture 10. LEXICAL-SYNTACTIC STYLISTIC DEVICES........ 100
Meiosis. Litotes........................................................................... 100
Oxymoron................................................................................... 100
Simile.......................................................................................... 102
Lecture 11. STYLISTIC USE OF PHRASEOLOGICAL
UNITS AND SET EXPRESSIONS.................................................. 107
Sayings and proverbs.................................................................. 107
I
Stylistic transformations of phraseological units.......................108
I
Allusion....................................................................................... 110
I Lecture 12. MAJOR FIGURES OF INEQUALITY......................... I l l
:J
Types of pun. Paronomasia......................................................... I l l
I
Zeugma....................................................................................... 113
J
Semantically false chains (syllepsis)........................................... 113

Paradox....................................................................................... 113
j Lecture 13. EXPRESSIVE SYNTAX............................................... 115
j
Sentence length and structure..................................................... 115

Stylistic types of sentence............................................................ 116

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Suspense...................................................................................... 116
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The role of punctuation and graphical means............................119
: : Lecture 14. SYNTACTIC EXPRESSIVE MEANS
g i ; AND STYLISTIC DEVICES........................................................... 122
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Classification of syntactic EMs and SDs....................................122
i :I
Incompleteness of sentence structure. Ellipsis.
55 i I
Nominative sentence....................................................................123
*I
Asyndeton. Apokoinu. Aposiopesis..............................................124

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Parcellation................................................................................ 125
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Arrangement of sentence components. Inversion

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Detachment. Parenthesis................
125

Lecture 15. REPETITION

The role oJ icfu'tition m ,n t

.......129
....... 129

TheJunctions of repetition in literary works.............................. 130

Classification of repetitions........................................................ 131
Phonemic, morphemic and lexical repetitions............................ 131
Lecture 16. SYNTACTIC REPETITION. SYNTACTIC
PARALLELISM............................................................................... 140
Series. Binomials, trinomials, catalogues (enumeration)...........140
Polysyndeton...............................................................................141
Parallel patterns. Chiasmus....................................................... 142
The logical-semantic types of parallelism..................................146
Prolepsis (syntactic reduplication, or syntactic tautology)...,.... 150
Lecture 17. OTHER TYPES OF RECURRENCE........................... 153
Synonym repetition.................................................................... 153
Pleonasm. Tautology.................................................................. 156
Onomatopoeia - repetition of sounds and structures................157
Rhythm........................................................................................ 161
I ccture 18. FUNCTIONAL STYLES OF ENGLISH...................... 163
The problems of classification.................................................... 163
The publicist style....................................................................... 167
The newspaper style................................................................... 169
The official style.......................... ...............................................172
The scientific style...................................................................... 172
I ccture 19. THE BELLES-LETTRES STYLE................................ 174
Thefunctions of imaginative literature...................................... 174
Emotive prose............................................................................. 175
Poetry. Poetic diction. Metre and rhyme................................,...178
English verseforms.................................................................... 185
The style of drama...................................................................... 187
Lccture 20. TYPES OF NARRATIVE. NARRATIVE< OMPOSITIONAL FORMS........................................................... 190
The notion of point of view'.......................................................190
Types of narrative. Types of auctorial narration........................ 190
Entrusted narrative. Impersonal and personified 1-narrator.....192
The narrative-compositional forms. Narrative proper.
Description. Argumentation........................................................194
The characters discourse. Dialogue. Interior speech............... 196
Represented speech.....................................................................197
huctical Assignments....................................................................... 201
Hiibjcct Index.................................................................................... 235
UHcrcnces and Recommended Literature........................................ 239
I iM of Authors Whose Texts Were Used as Examples..................... 151

Preface

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English Stylistics is a theoretical textbook and a practical

manual intended for university students majoring in the English
language and literature. Its twenty chapters ("Lectures ) cover all
the main themes traditionally included in the university syllabus
in this subject. The presented approaches, the treatment and sys
tematization of basic concepts have been worked out, formulated
and grounded on the well-known publications of modern home and
foreign stylisticians. The book is based on the course of lectures
delivered by the author to the 3rd-year students of the English de
partment, but it may also be used as a reference book by the 4-5thyear students preparing for their state examinations or working on
graduation papers dealing with stylistics and stylistic analysis of
the text.
The book is designed to combine both the theoretical elucida
tion of the principal problems of stylistics (including some of its
modern, highly interdisciplinary issues and aspects of analysis)
with the practical examination of numerous expressive resources of
the English language. One more aim of the manual is to acquaint
students with the complex terminology employed in style studies
and to develop their ability to differentiate, perceive and interpret
the multifarious language phenomena of various levels in terms of
their stylistic and pragmatic functioning in different oral and writ
ten types of discourse. The book contains thematically arranged
assignments aiming to give students some practical guidance in
thoughtful reading and stylistic analysis, samples of which are pre
sented in the last section of the supplement. The questions for selfcontrol given after each* lecture and a great number of examples
discussed and analysed in the text of the book are meant to prepare
students for conducting independent stylistic analysis of the pas
sages suggested in Practical Assignments. The illustrations are tak
en from both prose and poetry works of prominent authors whose
names are enumerated at the end of the textbook, where students
can also find a subject index and a list of references and literary
sources recommendedfor further reading.

11XTIIRE 1
WHAT IS STYLISTICS?

Stylistics and the notion of style

B rirf history of stylistics
W hat does stylistics study?
Stylistics and other linguistic disciplines
Stylistic analysis

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Sometimes called linguostylistics, this branch of linguistics is

understood differently in modern schools and trends, and each ap
proach has its objective grounds. It is not easy to specify the scope
of problems modem stylistics is to solve, and it happens for the
following reasons.
First, unlike other disciplines that treat one linguistic level
cuch (phonetics, morphology, lexicology, syntax, text linguistics),
stylistics deals with every level and all the levels. Thus it is not a
level discipline. S. Ullmann uses the term parallel describing this
property of stylistics.
Second, the elements of these levels are examined and treated by
stylistics primarily in theirfunctional aspect, i.e. stylistics studies not
only various expressive means, stylistic devices, stylistically marked
Icxical and syntactic models, but also thefunctioning of those ele
ments in the text and of separate subsystems (so-called functional
styles) of language in general [75, p. 8].
Third, the notion of style, which gave birth to the name of this
discipline, is many-sided, versatile and rather controversial. The
word goes back to the Latin word stilus and Greek stylos which
first meant the tool of writing - a pointed stick, sort of a pen used
for writing on wax plates, and then also the manner of writing. The
term style is used most ambiguously in philological studies:
1.
It may mean a variety of language typical of some definite
sphere of social life. This variety has its own parametres: lexical,
grammatical, and phonetic. Traditionally, three most general types of
speech, or styles are distinguished in national languages: neutral,
high (literary) and low (colloquial).
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10

2.
This understanding of style comes close to the notions o f"reg
ister (D.Crystal) and, partially, discourse, first used in Western
linguistics and stylistics which have assimilated the communicative
approach to style study. People use different registers depending on
the communicative situation, the aims of communication as well as
the speakers social and educational status. According to R. Fowler,
register is a sociolinguistic term meaning a distinctive use of lan
guage to fulfil a particular communicative function in a particular
kind of situation [151, p. 191]. Thus in various situations people
usually resort to different ways of conveying some idea:
I have certainly never seen the man. (neutral, standard)
I deny thefact of ever having seen thisperson, (official, book
ish; juridical sphere)
Never seen the chap, not I. (colloquial)
Me, I never clapped eyes on this here guy. (low colloquial,
illiterate)
I have no association with the appearance of the individual
I behold, (high-flown, pompous, affective manner of speech)
(these examples are taken from Yu.M. Srebnevs Fundamen
tals of,English Stylistics [93, p. 11]).
As we have seen, one and the same thing can be expressed in
different ways. To illustrate the point O.S. Akhmanova, for example,
refers to the following short dialogue from Arthur Alexander Milnes
famous book Winnie-the-Pooh:
... The atmospheric conditions have been very unfavourable
lately, said Owl.
"The what?"
"It has been raining , explained Owl.
"Yes", said Christopher Robin. "It has".
The flood level has reached an unprecedented height , said
Owl. "The who?"
"There is a lot of water about, explained Owl. "Yes, said
Christopher Robin, "there is"... [98, pp. 184185].
The sophisticated Owl employs an official weathcr-forccast
language. The boy cannot understand her, so the owl has to trans
late her way of saying it into everyday colloquial. The dialogue, as
a result, sounds funny since here the author resorts to one of most
widely used devices - using the wrong register or clashing the styles
that are incompatible. Therefore, we should remember that using

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Nlylcs/registers inappropriately may have a ludicrous effect. (Imagine

Ilie situation in an operating theatre when a surgeon is addressing a
nurse assisting him as follows: / would be extremely grateful if you
would be so kind as to pass me that scalpel, nurse It is doubtful
that their patient should survive the operation). So the most imporlunt thing is to be consistent in the language we use, i.e. not to mix
Myles/registers (e.g. Today I wanna discuss problems connected
with thermodynamics). We should apply different registers and rules
of communication in different situations and speech contexts: the
learned dissertation will be very different in language from a paper
read out at an academic conference, from a lecture given to students,
nr from a radio-talk delivered to the general public [178, p. 149].
Consequently, certain typified contexts and communicative situ
ations demand the use of some certain vocabulary and syntactic
structures. These definite sets, or paradigms of language units, are
allied functional styles, i.e. they belong to the functional aspects of
lunguage, or in B.N. Golovins [32] terms, they are types of language
functioning (see Lectures 18-19 of this book). Each functional style
in realized in either oral or written forms and has its peculiarities
lit the spheres of lexis, phraseology, word-building, morphology,
syntax, phonetics, in the use of emotional and figurative means of
expressiveness, in having its own system of cliched expressions.
The inventory of functional styles is one more debatable point in
modem stylistics, namely in its very important trend, or branch,
culledfunctional stylistics.
3. The notion of style may mean an individual manner of preKcntation when we deal with the language of oral speech or written
lexts, artistic texts in particular. It is used as a synonym to the notion
of the author s individual style, or the authors idiostyle. Here the
Ibllowing popular, though vague, definitions may sound relevant:
Style is choice, Style is deviations [154, p. 11]. The authors
choice of language means, viewed as correlated with his creative
concepts, is the centre of attention of the authors stylistics, also
called the stylistics of the encoder (the writer/speaker is a person
who encodes the information into the message using a code - the
language). Correspondingly, decoding stylistics deals with problems
connected with adequate reception, or decoding, of the message.
4. Style may be understood as techniques of expression, i.e.
the ability to write clearly, correctly, and adequately in terms of the f j

standards of a concrete communicative type of text. It is the object

of practical stylistics and works on composition.
To summarize the approaches to the notion of style we may quote
one of the most frequently cited definitions given by Seymour Chat
man: Style is a product o findividual choices andpatterns of choices
among linguistic possibilities [quoted from 37, p. 13]. So, if linguis
tics is a study of the materials available to users of language, stylistics
is a study of the particular choices an author/speaker makes from
the available materials, choices that are largely culture-oriented and
situation-based. There is, according to Roger Fowler, afundamental
division between the linguistic materials available (grammatical
facts) and the use made o f them (stylistic facts).
A somewhat narrow treatment of stylistics as the study of
synonymic language resources, suggested by the French linguist
Charles Bally at the beginning of the 20th century, is to some ex
tent in tune with the aforementioned understanding of the notion of
style. In 1909 Ch. Bally published his Traite de Stylistique Frangaise
from which linguistic stylistics originated, though the terms style
and stylistics appeared in the early 19 century in the works of
German romanticists in connection with the notion of individual
creative personality. The first works on stylistics are, probably, The
Philosophy of Style by Herbert Spencer (1852) and Zur Stylistik by
Heiman Steinthal (1866), as well as those by such famous Ukrai
nian and Russian philologists of the 19 century as O. O. Potebnya,
A. N. Veselovsky and others, who started to approach literary texts
from a linguistic viewpoint.
The beginning of modem stylistics in Anglo-American criticism
is usually traced back to the publication of the books listed below:

I
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;.
s

Fowler, Roger (ed.) Essays on Style and Language. London:

Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1966.
Freeman, Donald C. (ed.) Linguistics and Literary Style. New
York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971.
Leech, Geoffrey N, A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry.
London: Longman, 1969.

In Eastern Europe stylistics became a more or less independent

branch of linguistics at the beginning of the 20th century. The mem
bers of the Formalist Linguistic Circle in Moscow (usually called the
Russian Formalists) rejected undue concentration on the author in
12 literary criticism in favour of the analysis of the language of the text.

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I'hcy were interested in the psychological effects produced by that

linguistic structure. The group contained linguists, literary critics and
psychologists. They (as well as the Prague Structuralists - V. Mathrsius, J.Mukafosky) began to develop what became a very influential
aspect of textual study in later stylistics, called the foregrounding
theory. This view suggested that some parts of texts had more efIcct on readers than others in terms of interpretation, because they
were linguistically deviant or specially patterned in some way, thus
liecoming psychologically salient, noticeable (or foregrounded)
lor readers. According to Mick Short, the Russian Formalists were,
in fact, the first stylisticians. But their work was not understood in
lhe west because of the effects of the Russian Revolution in 1917.
A Her the revolution, formalism fell out of favour and, in any case,
ueademic communication between what became the Soviet Union
unci Western Europe and North America virtually ceased [194].
One of the members of the Formalist Linguistic circle was Ro
man Jakobson, one of the most influential linguists of the twentieth
rentury, and the reason for his considerable influence on stylistics, in
addition to his own academic brilliance, was because he linked the
linguistic schools of Russia, Eastern, Western and Central Europe and
Ihe USA by bringing together their different approaches to literature
mid language. He left Moscow in 1920 and moved to Prague, where
lie became one of the founding members of the Prague School of
linguistics. Then, fleeing from the Nazis, he moved first to Scandi
navia andthen, in 1941, to the USA where he died in 1982. Mick
Short compared R.Jakobson with a beneficial virus, who carried his
approach and made a great contribution to literary analysis which
underlies present-day stylistics [see 194],
Since the 60s of the 20th century stylistics has been devel
oping quite intensively. Among Western linguists involved with
linguistic criticism, literary and stylistic analysis we can mention
S.UllmannL-Spitzer, S.B.Chatman, S.R.Levin, D.Crystal, D.Davy,
A.E.Darbyshire, M .Riffat erre, G.N.Leech, R.Barthes, R. de Beaugrande, W.Dressler, R.Fowler, M.A.K.Halliday, M.Short, D.Birch,
II.G.Widdowson, R.Bradford, W.van Peer, K.Wales, G.Cook,
I).Lodge, R.Carter, R.Gibbs, J.McRae and others.
In home linguistics of the second half of the 20 century sty
listics was conceptually grounded and described by G.O .Vinokur
and V.V.Vinogradov (in his books O H3 biKe xyaoacecTBeHHOH

jiHxepaTypbi (1959), CTHjincTHKa. Teopna nosTHHecKoii penn.

rio 3THKa (1963)). Various scientific paradigms, trends and methods
of stylistics and literary studies have been developed and explored in
the works by such prominent scholars of pre-soviet, soviet and post
soviet linguistic schools as Larin B.A., Peshkovsky A.M., Levin V.D.,
Polivanov E.D., Shcherba L.V., Bakhtin M .M ., Tynyanov Y.N., So
rokin Yu.S., Likhachev D.S., Budagov R. A., Shcherba L.V., Galperin
I.R., Stepanov Yu.S., Stepanov G.V., Akhmanova O.S., Arutyunova
N.D., Kozhyna M .N., Lotman Yu.M., Solganik G.Ya., Arnold I.V.,
Skrebnev Yu.M., Zhyrmunsky V.M., Rozental D.E., Odintsov V.V.,
Tomashevsky B.V., Rasinkina N.M ., Golovin B.N., Pelevina N.F.,
Brandes M.P., Maltsev V.A., Kukharenko V.A., Morohovsky O.M.,
Vorobiova O.P. and many others.
Thus the term stylistics is not old but the discipline originated
from ancient Greek and Roman poetics and rhetoric. Modem poetics
is a discipline concerned with the structural forms of literary art, both
poetic and prosaic, and its crucial problem is: what turns a verbal
message into a work of art [179, p. 3]. Rhetoric, actually, underlies
modem practical stylistics, which deals with the norms of language
usage at a given period and teaching these norms to language speak
ers and professionals, such as editors, publishers, writers, journalists,
teachers, interpreters, etc.
The term stylistics became associated with detailed linguistic
criticism because, at the time it developed, the study of authorial
style was a major critical concern, and linguistic analysis, allied to
statistics, was popular with the more linguistically inclined critics.
According to some modem scholars, it is a less happy name now, as
stylisticians have, by and large, moved away from the study of style
and towards the study of how meanings and effects are produced by
literary texts. There have been a few attempts to change the name:
for example to literary linguistics or critical linguistics. But none
of the labels so far proposed adequately covers all the aspects and
areas treated by stylistics, and so Stylistics has survived as the most
popular label, despite its shortcomings [see 194]. What, then, does
it study, and what is meant by stylistics nowadays?

The modem British linguist Henry Widdowson [see 206] places

Nlylistics in the middle of the following scheme:
LINGUISTICS

LANGUAGE

LITERARY CRITICISM

STYLISTICS

LITERATURE

By stylistics he means the study o f literary discourse from a

linguistic orientation, i.e. stylistics is an area o f mediation between
the two disciplines, the two subjects: language and literature. In
R.de Beaugrandes words, stylistics applies linguistics to literature
1124], So the object of stylistic analysis is language fixed/repre
sented in literary texts. Besides, under the influence of pragmatics,
sociolinguistics and psychology modern stylistics includes into the
sphere of its interest non-literary texts, assimilating a wider view of
literature as discourse which must embrace both context and its users
- writers, texts and readers within a sociocultural situation of meaning production and reception. So stylistics cannot and should not be
isolated from other domains of human science, such as literature and
literary criticism, theory of information, semiotics, psychology, logic,
statistics, computer linguistics, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, cogni
tive science, history of language, etc. In general, modem stylistics is
characterized by its complex approach to style study, i.e. by having
recourse to methods, facts and data of other disciplines connected
with language studies.
Despite the fact that the range of interests and tasks is extremely
wide, there are two main, traditional fields of investigation of
stylistics:
1. special language media called expressive means (EMs) and
stylistics devices (SDs)
2. laws of language functioning in various spheres of social
life and communicative situations, namely the functional styles of
(literary) language, their aims and characteristic features.

cKapoMHa UlomoupKQ

As stylistics is not a level discipline (see above), it may legiti

mately be divided into separate branches, such as stylistic phonetics,
or phonostylistics, stylistic morphology, stylistic lexicology, stylistic
syntax, or syntactic stylistics. It is thus connected with other disci
plines, or branches of linguistics, their interdependence and distinc
tions being quite obvious:
Phonostylistics. Unlike phonetics, which studies the articulation
of speech sounds, intonation, rhythm, and accent, phonostylis
tics shows how separate sounds, sound combinations, intonation
and stress can serve as expressive means and stylistic devices
to convey the authors idea, emotions; also how various sound
combinations serve as the basis for rhyme, rhythm, alliteration
(e.g.: Alls well that ends well", All that glitters is not gold).
It deals with prosodic means and sound instrumentation. One of
the objectives of phonostylistics is also intonational functional
styles.
Stylistic lexicology. Lexicology studies the morphemic structure,
history and meanings of words. Stylistics studies the word in
its expressive function. It concerns not only with the language
means as such but with their expressive potential. The word, as
is known, can express the speakers subjective attitude (positive
or negative) or evaluation of the object, phenomenon, action or
quality described. In this case we say that the word acquires a
certain emotional-evaluative connotation. The notion of con
notation is used in lexicology as well, especially when we deal
with synonyms - words that have the same denotation but differ
in connotations. The literal, or actual, referential, meaning of
the word is called denotation, or denotative component of the
semantic structure of the word. Connotation (from the Latin connotatio) means an additional or suggested meaning. It is a sort
of implication or association that the word can have or suggest.
For example, the word 'home" has a connotation (or connotative component) of comfort". The denotation is the objective
relationship between a lexeme and the reality to which it refers:
the denotation of the word spectacles is the object we wear
on our nose". It is actually a dictionary meaning. By contrast,
connotations refer to the personal aspect of lexical meaning, often
the emotional associations which a lexeme incidentally l>i
to
mind. So, for many people the word
has (In- .nm.i.iimns

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of cheapness" and conveniencefor others, discomfort and

inconvenience". Varying according to the experience of indi
viduals, they are to some degree unpredictable. On the other
hand, because people do have some common experiences, many
lexemes have connotations shared by large groups of speakers.
For example, among the widely recognized connotations of the
word city" are bustle, crowds, dust, excitement, fun,
sin, etc. Here we deal with general connotations. They may
even be marked in dictionaries by so called stylistic markers, or
values, such as derogatory, emotive, emphatic, poetic, ironical,
jocular, pejorative, laudatory, euphemistic, humorous, etc. The
language of politics and religion is full of such loaded expressions
(highly charged with connotations); the language of science and
law attempts to avoid connotational vocabulary.
Syntactic stylistics. This branch of stylistics treats grammatical
and syntactic phenomena as EMs which add different emotional
and stylistic colouring to the utterance. Grammar deals with mor
phology and syntax, i.e. rules for forming words and combining
them into sentences. Stylistics studies the peculiarities of individ
ual grammatical forms, word-combinations, sentence-structures,
paragraphs in their stylistic functioning. According to G.Ya.
Solganik, syntactic stylistics is a study of syntactic structures and
forms of speech from the point of view of their stylistic proper
ties [95, p. 8]. For instance, the stylistic possibilities and role of
direct and indirect speech can be exemplified by the lines from the
beginning of J. Austens famous novel Pride and Prejudice:
"My dear Mr. Bennet, said his lady to him one day, have you
heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
But it is , returned she; 'for Mrs. Long has just been here,
and she told me all about it.
Mr. Bennet made no answer.
Do not you want to know who has taken it? cried his wife
Impatiently.
J. Austens use of forms of speech conjures up the image of Mr.
Ik'Imet who is tired of his wifes constant chatter and silly gossip. The
nIiiM to indirect spccch in the second scntencc implies Mr. Bcnnets
we,tty.
M illc i inc. ii".|><nr.i wlncli reflects liis fa m ily situ atio n XI

^Kapojiinn UlomoupKa

most vividly. Critics believe the second sentence to be one of the most
economically expressed sarcastic lines in English literature.
To be able to reveal the content of a work of art (as well as any
other piece of text, including non-literary) in all its implications, to be
able to read between the lines we need to study the stylistic presenta
tion of what is said, i.e. we need careful analysis of linguistic choices
and deviations from norms. These peculiarities, or deviations, are
employed for creative purposes that underlie the authors manner of
telling, or his style. For inexperienced or unsophisticated readers
(and students) it may not seem as essential as plot or characters in
a book, but it is a misjudgment. Style is an indispensable character
istic of any text. Literary texts always express meaning on different
levels or in different layers. In other words, they express something
beyond their literal meaning, and these other layers of meaning
can be explored by attentive reading and analysis. It resembles the
work of an archaeologist: the deeper one digs, the more interesting
ones findings are likely to be. Stylistic analysis helps to foster such
interpretative skills [135, p. 5], skills of competent reading. And it
has among its main objectives the understanding of the effects pro
duced by particular stylistic devices and techniques as well as their
influence on our response to the works other elements - particularly
character, incident, setting, and theme - and to the work as a whole
[see 183]. Using a popular comparison, it is rather like taking a carengine to pieces, looking at each component in detail, then observing
its functioning as the whole engine starts working. Unfortunately, in
the stylistic analysis of a text, especially an artistic text, it is often
impossible to use some strict formal algorithm of research, i.e. a set
of rules and procedures to be followed in stylistic description (as
is possible to do in other spheres of linguistic analysis). Besides,
the existing approaches to stylistic analysis are quite numerous and
diverse, which is explained by the fact that stylistics, as a field of
study, is highly interdisciplinary and considerably eclectic. There
is one more factor of influnce - text perception and understanding
are always rather subjective. Moreover, very many stylistic notions
and categories defy simple description and explanation. Here the
so-called linguistic sense (H. Sweets term), a hardly definable
but obviously real category, assumes great importance. This faculty
of conscious or intuitive feeling about the language peculiarities,

(his innate ability to understand various stylistic properties and po

tentialities of words, phrases and longer text structures is naturally
more developed in some people than in others; but it can always be
strengthened by training and cultivating.
So stylistic analysis is a part of literary studies, of any adequate
linguistic description. Stylistic analysis is practised as a means of
understanding the possible meanings in a text as well as finding out
(he individual properties of concrete texts or text types. Its ultimate
uim is to clarify the message of the authors work through careful
observation and consistent description of language phenomena in
Ihe text under study.

Questions for self-control:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Explain why stylistics is not a level discipline

Dw ell upon the notion of style and various approaches to its interpretation.
How did stylistics develop into an important constituent of linguistics?
W hat isforegrounding?
W hat does stylistics studj?
W hat is the object of functional stylistics? W hat is decoding stylistics?
Expand on the interrelations between stylistics and other branches of linguistics.
W hat is the main purpose of stylistic analysis of a text?

LECTURE 2

| j

iI
gJ
| iI
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20

SASIC NOTIONS

The authors individual style

The notion of norm/ standard
The notion of code
The categories of expressiveness and emotiveness
Expressive means and stylistic devices

To analyse the text professionally we need linguistic competence

which, according to J.McRae, is the ability to process a text in terms
of (1) language, (2) content, (3) effect and (4) impact [see 135]. As
soon as language begins to mean, it begins to expand its meaning, to
make demand on its users (readers) and then questions of interpreta
tions, of shades of meaning, of reaction and response are brought
into play. But linguistic competence (especially for philologists and
other specialists, i.e. people specially trained in the field of language
functioning) presupposes knowledge of major notions and terms that
comprise the metalanguage of linguistics and stylistics: one needs
suitable equipment, or tools, for conducting stylistic analysis
comprehensively. The inventory of special terms used in stylistics
is rather large and often confusing. So it is logical to start with some
fundamental notions that are indispensable for stylistics as a language
science, and besides, we need some working definitions before pro
ceeding to more complex phenomena and their description.
The definition of style as a product of individual choices among
linguistic possibilities brings US to the notion of the individual style
of an author. The creative individuality on the one hand, and the
subjective representation of reality on the other, constitute the organizing axis of any literary work, for in expressing his vision of
the world, the author represents reality in the way that he considers
to be most fitting" [96, p. 7], i.e. he has his own style. I.R.Galperin
defines the authors individual style as a unique combination of
language units, EMs and SDspeculiar to a given writer, which makes
that writers works or even utterances easily recognizable [154,
P- 17]. Let us take a closer look at this definition.

mobu

aHrAiucbkoI

Being unique and peculiar implies some definite treatment of

language means by that writer and his/her preferences for defi
nite language media (expressive means and stylistics devices in
particular) that are noticeable against the background of neutral
language means. That is why it is not justifiable to confuse or use,
as some scholars tend to do, the terms idiolect and idiostyle
(individual style) indiscriminately or interchangeably. Idiolect
means total amount of a language that one person knows and
uses (OALD), and certainly there will be peculiarities typical of
that particular individuals speech. Idiolect, also termed in British
linguistics as a personal dialect, is shaped by the regional and
social characteristics of the speaker and manifested in this persons
pronunciation variety, lexical choices and grammatical patterns,
all of which reflect his social class and education. By contrast,
idiostyle presupposes a deliberate choice of words, sentence-structures and stylistics devices. It is not only a language characteristic
but also a text characteristic. Writers foreground certain features
making their readers be able to imagine and share their feelings
and experiences. The devices they use for that purpose may pass
unobserved by an inexperienced reader but for a linguist study
ing the writers style they are significant. So our task is to learn
how to be able to discern the potentialities of language means in
a work of art, analyse them and appreciate the authors choice and
ideas. As some scholar aptly remarked, readers are losers when
they fail to see in a work of literature all that may be legitimately
seen there.
The style being recognizable implies its being typical of and pecu
liar to the writers works and different from usual ways of expres
sion, i.e. there are somejustifiable deviations from standards, or
norms. Here we have come to the notion of norm which is one
of the most controversial terms used in modem stylistics.

CruAiCTuka

What is norm and what should be considered normal? First,

as Guy Cook puts it, what is normal varies with individuals and in
history [140, p. 154], For example, in Jane Austens prose (early
19 century) you can come across such structures as / know not" or
She was one and twenty", which are considered to be non-standard,
stylistically marked or incorrect in modem English. So the notions of
standard and norm are historicallyflexible. Second, if the norm 21

cKapoMHa UlomoupKa

22

means a recognized or received standard, the question arises: by

whom and for whom? Yu.M.Skrebnev [93] claims quite justifiably
that there are as many norms as there are communicative contexts
(termed by him as sublanguages), and that it would be absurd to
confuse what is neutral with what is normal: the characteristic feature
of norm in language is its plurality. There has never been one single
norm for all. For example, the sentence 7/e hasn t seen anything
is considered standard, or normal by an educated English speaker
since it conforms to the established rules of English grammar. But an
illiterate person might convey the same thought as He ain't never
seen nothing, and this incorrect, substandard way of expression
will be quite normal for him. So what is normal for one might be
a deviation for another. In fact, there is a paradox: norms can be
established only when there are deviations from them. It is true of
any sphere of life. Normality and deviance are an instance of
a mutually defining binary pair, in which neither term can mean
without the other (after H.Cixous and C.Clement [138]). Only the
deviations should be slight and should not exceed the limits set by the
invariant, which is an abstract, ideal notion of norm (at all levels
of the language). Each invariant has its variants - actual realizations
in speech. They might deviate but slightly from the abstract norms
otherwise they will be misleading or unrecognizable. For example,
the long phoneme i: might be longer or shorter as it is pronounced
by different individuals, but it should not be short and open enough
to change its quantitative into qualitative characteristics thus turning
into the short phoneme i and affecting the meaning of the word:
deed:: did.
To sum up, the norm, or standard, can be defined as the invari
ant of the phonetic, morphological, lexical and syntactic patterns
circulating in speech (language-in-action) at a given period of time
[154, p. 19]. There are different normsfor various types of speech.
Thus the notion stylistic norm" becomes relevant in terms of dif
ferent styles or registers: the norms of spoken and written varieties
of language differ in many respects (lexis, grammar, syntax, etc.),
as well as the language of emotive prose differs from that of official
documents, for example; or that o f poetry and drama within the
belles-lettres style.
Furthermore, linguistic and stylistic deviations typical of a certain authors idiostyle should be justifiable, for, as Albert Camus

once wittily remarked, those who write clearly have readers, those
who write obscurely have commentators. True, a genuine style is
marked by its uniqueness, but the uniqueness and greatness are not
necessarily based on sophistication and complexity of style. Great
writers are often famous not necessarily for their experimental writing
manner or elaborate expressions but rather for their subtle treatment
of certain language means.
It has already been stated that the study of an individual writers
style is the objective of stylistics of the encoder. To explain the no
tion of code we need to dwell upon the theory of speech acts and
texts as their result.
The speech act, or act of communication, consists of 3 com
ponents:
ADDRESSER
( Speaker
Author
Encoder)

transmission

MESSAGE
(text)

reception

ADDRESSEE
( Listener
Reader
Decoder)

COMMON CODE

aHrAiucbkoI

The act of communication consists of encoding the message, its

transmission through writing or speech, its reception and decoding by
cither a reader or a listener. The addresser and the addressee should
know the code - the same language and the same background knowl
edge, which facilitates communication. The background knowledge
usually comprises social, cultural, mythological, religious, histori
cal, literary, philosophical and other facts presumably well known
to most readers/listeners. To be able to understand some texts, for
example scientific articles, one needs to have special knowledge
in some definite field of science. And it is decoding stylistics that
deals with adequate decoding, i.e. reception of the message with
out any informational losses or distortions. Literary communication
was described by RJakobson as a process involving six elements:
sender, message, receiver, channel (or contact), context and code.
In pragmatic stylistics and in modem approaches to the theory of
communication, namely those based on D.Sperber and D.Wilsons

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BACKGROUND
(referential)
KNOWLEDGE

CniAicTuka

COMMON
SPEECH
(language)

relevance theory, the understanding of code has been slightly

modified: it is believed that in real communication we transmit more
than we actually encode. Such implicit communication achieves
some unparaphrasable effects (here a particular stress is laid on the
insights into irony and varieties of indirect discourse) [see 185].
This problem is connected with the issue of speech functions
underlying each communicative act. So what are the main func
tions o f speech? Different linguists suggest different classifications.
For example, according to K. Biihlers theory, which was further
developed by R. Jakobson and other scholars, the main linguistic
functions are expressive, informative, and vocative [123]. Each of
these reflects the prevailing component of any communicative act:
the expressive function focuses on the writer/speaker (i.e. express
ing his emotions, attitudes, etc.), the informative function - on the
extralinguistic context (i.e. that of signification) and the vocative one
- on the recipient of the text (i.e. it is pragmatic in essence since its
aim is to affect the reader/readers behaviour in this or that way).
On summarizing various theories in this sphere we may generalize
that two primary and most important functions of speech are com
municative (which consists in sending the information) and stylistic
(which consists in revealing the creative use of language, conveying
and implying different shades of meaning, i.e. expressive-emotionalevaluative overtones).

<rKapojiiHa UlomoupKa

One more important layer of stylistic notions is connected with

foregrounding (see above), which means giving unusualprominence
to one element or property of a text', singling out, making language
elements more noticeable, conspicuous, more effective and therefore
imparting/giving some additional information. Such elements, as it
were, are moved into the front line, or they are foregrounded. In fact,
all language means can be roughly divided into neutral and special
(foregrounded in this or that way) which are called expressive means,
stylistics devices, stylistics markers, tropes, figures of speech, etc. It
happens since they have two major meanings: ordinary (grammati
cal and lexical) and stylistic (expressive-emotive-evaluative). Some
language means possess stylistic meanings, others acquire them in the
context: both are not as easily and quickly decoded as their ordinary
(substantial, referential) ones. So the categories of EXPRESSIVE2 4 NESS and EMOTIVENESS are to be analysed now in this respect.

mobu

aHrAiucbko!
CniAicTuka

Some scholars (see, for ex., O. Grishina [36]) believe that these
notions should not be confused and state that expressiveness is the
realization of the author s intentions to express emotions. Emotive
ness is the expression of feelings and emotions and it can be expressed
verbally and non-verbally. Expressiveness is a kind of emphasis,
intensification of the utterance or a part of it. The emphasis can be
logical and/or emotional, thus the notion expressiveness is broader
than the notion emotiveness. Emotiveness is an integral part of
expressiveness, but they are not always identical. The following
drawing shows their correlation:
As we see, emotive elements
are always expressive, whereas ex
pressive elements may not always be
emotive. According to I.R.Galperin,
there are language means that aim
simply at logical emphasis of certain parts of the utterance and do
not evoke any intellectual representation of feelings. It is most con
spicuously observed in syntactically emphatic sentences such as
those with inversion, repetition but without words conveying some
positive/negative emotions: (1) It took us a very, very long time. (2)
It was Mum who always cared about Roger. However, the intonation
may add some certain emotional colouring to these utterances. Still,
in sentence (1) (if it is not pronounced but only read, and is taken
out of the context) one cannot be absolutely sure whether the author
is pleased with the situation or not. The difference becomes obvious
when a sentence has some words that possess emotive/evaluative
(positive or negative) connotations in their semantic structure. Thus
emotiveness is achieved. Compare: This window wont open. This
broken window won t open! This goddam window won / open! The
underlined word in the third sentence has three stylistic markers in
the dictionary: taboo, slang, and intensive. It conveys the authors
emotions, his negative attitude towards the object described. So
emotive words are also evalua
tive (rascaF\ ducky) but not
all evaluative words should be
emotive (good, bad):
To sum up, it should be
noted that sometimes it is diffi
cult to draw a hard and fast line

of demarcation between logical and emotive emphasis since in real

speech they often overlap and colour the whole of the utterance.
As we have seen, special language means make our speech more
expressive and emotional. What are, then, expressive means (EMs)?
What language media might be termed as EMs? I.R.Galperin gives
the following definition: EMs o f a language are those phonetic,

cKapojiiHQ UlomoupKa

morphological, word-building, lexical, phraseological and syntac

tic forms which exist in language-as-a-system fo r the purpose of
logical and/or emotional intensification o f the utterance [154, p.

27]. The words in bold type are important for the understanding of
the essence of the notion: these language forms, or patterns, exist
in the language, i.e. they are recognized in grammars, dictionaries,
courses in phonetics, etc. as having special functions in making the
utterances emphatic (cf.: He was an unpleasant person:: He was an
extremely unpleasant person). The author/speaker chooses whatever
form he prefers or feels to be right/adequate/relevant for the situation
described from those linguistic materials available.
The term expressive means is sometimes used interchangeably
with the term rhetorical figure (or scheme), more popular in
Anglo-American linguistic tradition. The term goes back to classi
cal rhetoric which defined figures of speech asforms artfully varied
from common usage (Quintilian). Rhetorical figures (or schemes) are
usually described by western linguists as types of arrangement of
individual sounds (the level of phonemes), of words (lexical level)
and sentences (syntactic level). So, as we see, each level of language
has its own arsenal of EMs (or rhetorical figures).
Phonetic EMs are most powerful since the human voice can
convey the subtlest nuances of meaning. We can mention here such
vocal phenomena (the so-called prosodic means) as pitch, melody,
pause, tone, timbre, tempo, etc. To this level scholars usually refer
such devices as alliteration, consonance, assonance, onomatopoeia
(sound imitation).
To the morphological EMs belong the use of Historical Pres
ent, the use of shall with the 2nd person pronoun ( You shall be
sorry!) to express a warning or threatening and some other devices
that alongside their ordinary grammatical functions display a kind
of emphasis.
Word-building EMs are forms that intensify some semantic prop
erties of words, such as diminutive suffixes -y (ie), -let, e.g. auntie,

2 6 sonny, starlet.

C TU A icT uka

Expressive means (figures/schemes) should not be confused

with stylistic devices (SDs) that are called rhetorical tropes. Such
SDs are connected with the figurative language, when a language
unit realizes two meanings simultaneously: an ordinary one (lexical
or structural) already established in the language-as-a-system and
a special one which appears in the text/speech, in the language-inaction (I.R.Galperin). The figurative sense of a word is sometimes
called its tropological sense, tropology being the study of tropes
[see 122]. So the semantic structure of a word is usually affected in
a trope since we use the word in its imaginative, non-literal mean
ing, usually referred to as transferred'. In fact, as V. A.Kukharenko
states, we substitute the existing name of some object by a new, g f

a H F A iu c b k o i m o b u

At the lexical as well asphraseological levels we can single out

some layers of words with inner expressiveness such as:
Inteijections. They possess only the emotive meaning and are used
to show surprise, anger, etc. ( Oh! Ah! Dear me! Wow!).
Words with both the denotative (direct, referential) and connotative
meanings {hate, sympathy, love).
Slang, vulgarisms ( get lost = go away).
Archaic and poetic words that add a lofty tone to the message, a
tone of solemnity, sophistication or historical colouring ( We are
much beholden to you = indebted; morn = morning; billows =
waves; bliss = happiness; brow = forehead;/be = enemy;
woe = sorrow).
Some types of descriptive/characterising epithets that are emo
tively charged (a magnificent day).
Set phrases/idioms, catch-words, proverbs. They add an expres
sive element to the speech (1 .H e wants it very much, he simply
has his heart set on it. 2. Oh, I don / believe her being indifferent.
Absence makes the heart erow fonder. as you know).
Stylistic (or the authors) neologisms (Areyou a stav-up-all-nighterl).
Among syntactical EMs that contribute logical or emotional
emphasis to the utterance there are various types of repetition and
parallelism. They are all well-recognised constructions used for in
tensification. ( Scrooge went to bed again, and thought, and thought,
and thought it over and over and over - an example from Ch.
Dickenss A Christmas Carol).

occasional, individual one, prompted by the speakers imagination,

subjective view an d evaluation of things [166, p.37]. For example,
the word sun ma y be replaced (substituted) in descriptive con texts
by other names, suich as the hot bahI the angry eye, etc., thus vari
ous metaphoric imiages being created. This act of name-exchange,
o r transference, is actually a type o f intended substitution, a devia
tion from the common or main sign ificance of a word or phra se, a
conscious intensification of some structural and/or semantic projperty
o f a neutral or expressive language unit.
The following examples will hel p us see the difference between
literal and non-literal, figurative, meanings o f a word: (1) Mark is an
idle person and (2)i We saw those idle, mountains in the rising sun.
In sentence (1) the: word idle is used in its direct, literal mean
ing - lazy, avoiding work. It might be characterized as a simple
descriptive epithet (EMs). In senten ce (2) the word idle is used
unusually. The mountains are not pe ople, so they cannot be lazy or
avoid working. The: word is used here in its figurative (imaginative,
non-literal, transfe rred) meaning thiat appears in the context and is
understood only in t hat context. As a result, an unusual bright picture
is evoked in the readers mind: the motionless mountains seem to be
sleeping, or resting lazily in the sun. It is a metaphor (metaphorical
epithet) - a SD called a trope.
So all SDs are based on conscious and intentional intensification
o f some typical structural and/or semantic property o f a language
unit, which can be either neutral or <expressive (EMs) [154, p. 30].
SDs function in tex'ts as marked units;: they always carry some kind
of additional inform ation, cither emoti ve or logical. They are less pre
dictable than EMs since they may app>ear in quite unusual surround
ings (in the context). Unlike EMs that follow the natural course of
thought, intensifying it by means com monly used in language [ 1154,
p. 31], SDs, and especially tropes, de mand some time and a certain
effort to decodc theiir meaning and purport.
Why are EMs aind SDs often con fused? It happens because the
ties between them aire dialectical. They are interconnected. On the
one hand, an ample use of some SD may turn it into a simple ex
pressive means - thus appear trite/deadepithets, metaphors, similes,
hyperboles: e.g. once an original simile, the phrase as busy as a

aHrAiucbkoI
CTUAicTuka

As we have already stated, traditional r hetoric divides all! means

of expressiveness into tropes and figures (or schemes), defining the
former (tropes) as being means o f figurative usage of language that
are mostly expressed by a word or phrase:, and the latter (ligures)
as being realized at the level of a sentence or a bigger textu al unit.
Hence, to clarify the distinction between them, tropes are sometimes
called figures o f thought, while figures proper, or schemes. - fig
ures of speech" [see 122].
To facilitate: the process of differentiating between two major
groups of tools of artistic expressiveness (EMs and SDs in his
classification), O.M.Morokhovsky suggests the following criteria
presented in opposition in the table below [75, p. 45]:

mobu

bee has become a set phrase, a comparative idiom; the metaphoric

epithet in the phrase golden locks" has turned into a descriptive
cliche through frequent use; the hyperbolic expression Havent
seen you for agizs" is not meant to be understood literally or even
imaginatively but perceived as a mere conversational formula. On
the other hand, one and the same expressi ve means can be used to
create different S>Ds. For example, high-flown, formal lexemes often
create an official, solemn tone, but in some contexts they can be used
to achieve a humorous, ironic or satirical effect (// is so refined, so
phisticated! - said about something tasteless, dowdy, insipid). And
vice versa, different EMs can take part in creating one SD, such as
a pun (play on words), e.g.:
1. a pun bcised on polysemy: How did you like my daughter's
singing? What do you think o f her execution ? (= performance) - Well,
I am infavour o f it}. (= killing as a punishment).
2. a pun based on partial homonymy/homophones: When is
a door not a door? When it is ajar ( ajar -= slightly open; a ja r = a
glass container).
3. a pun based on the decomposition of phraseological units
and set expressions: Why did silly Billy throw the clock out of the
window? He wa.nted to see the time fly!

29

EMs

Language elements of different levels

which are stylistically markedl within
that level
The stylist ic meaning of EMs i s regis
tered in dictionaries, grammars, i.e. the
language system
The stylistic meaning is conditioned by
the paradigmatic relations of ellcmcnts
of one Ieve I

SDs

Ways of combining speech units of a

lower level within a uni t of a higher level
(e.g. words within a sentence)
The stylistic meaning is generated (ap
pears) in the context

The stylistic meaning i s conditioned by

the syntagmatic relations of elements of
one or different levels

So, according to Morokhovsky, EMs are mostly paradigmatic,

while SD:s are also syntagmatic because they realize their stylistic
meaning only in some defi nite context. Let us exemplify this im
portant point. To describe good weather, for example, the writer/
speaker miay use a number of words usually used to d enote various
kinds of this climatic phenomenon and choose from ithis paradigm
of synony ms:
nice
The weather was * fin e

9CapoAina

UlomoupKQ

wonderful, etc.

The paradigm, as is known, is a vertical set of language units

o f one level (lexical in our example) united on the priinciple of as
sociative s imilarity. Their relations are those o f opposition: or - or;
the speakeir can choose a word from a paradigm of similar units, the
one he/shc believes to be most relevant, appropriate, exact, more
expressive., emotionally chairged, or just best suited the; situation.
As far as tropes arc co ncemcd, the writer/speaker also has a
number of possibilities from where to choose, so as to foreground
some idea and create a new, striking image by deviating from the
usual parad igm (The weatherwas angry/furious.) But in this case the
image will be perceived and the idea will be fully understood only
at the level of the whole con text where this unit is functioning (for
lexical SDs - in our example the word angry (or fiiri ous) - such
a higher level is a phrase, a sentence, sometimes a paragraph, or even
a text), i.e. at the syntagmatic level. (Syntagma is a linea.r, horizontal
set of language units united by the associations of contiguity (and

- and)). So SDs are both paradigmatic and syntagmatic, contextual:

the image of the sun as the hot bal l from one of the examples given
above w ill not be understood if iit is used separat ely, outside the
context (cf.: the hot ball what it is? What sort of a ball? // The hot
ball san k below the horizon, and si ion the nightfell, not less hot and
sultry. The hot ball = the sun).
To 'conclude, all stylistically marked elements must be stud
ied on two levels: paradigmatic <(as compared wi th norms, or
neutral elements) and syntagmaitic (in the contexit) (the approach
first sug gested by M. Riffat .errc [ 1 90]). And the noti on of context is
one of major notions for all types of linguistic studies and stylistic
analysis.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

W hat doyou know about the study of an author's individu a l style?
Elxpand on the notion o f norm, or j tandard. W hat is stylistic norm?
U7//hat speechfunctions doyou knowt ?
U^hat doyou know about the category of expressiveness itv language? Explain
the correlation between expressiveness and emotiveness.
5. W hat are expressive means and styl istics devices? Is there a ny difference hetipeeti
them?
6. S ay some words about the interrelatio. n between rhetoricalfign. res and tropes. W hat
isfigurative language? D w ell upon the notion o f name-transference.
7. W hy should stylistically Marked elennnts be studied syntagn'latically?

CTUAicTuka

aHrAiucbkoi

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1.
2.
3.
4.

ill

LECTURE 3
THE NOTION OF CONTEXT

Types and specifications of linguistic context

Extrah'nguisiic context
Stylistic context
The theory o f strongposition
Meaningfron.t a stylistic viewpoint

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For its basis tl le theory of contact has the statemen t that tex t (Lat.
textus = fabric; interlacing, intertwining, joining) is not a simple
linear composition. It is not just many sentences specifically organ
ized (i.e. text cohesion), but a complex unity based on the princi ple of
consistent organisation of its message, or content (i.e. text integrity,
o*r logical-semantic entity). Text is a structure that is complex in its
inner organization, the elements of which are meaningful on their
own (as they are) and also in the context, i.e. in their relations with
other elements, inc luding extratextu;al ones. The theory of linguistic
context (Latin con textus = connecti on, link) was developed by such
scientists as John F irth [146], N.N. Amosova [120], G.V.Kolshansky
[57-59]. What is a linguistic context1 1t is usually defined as afrag
ment of a text which contains the language unit chosen for analy
sis, necessary and adequate for defining the meaning of this unit.
Linguistic context helps to determine which o f the meanings of a
polysemantic word is realized in the text. It comprises the linguistic
elements that precede or follow a linguistic form and ensure the text
semantic and structural cohesion. It also predetermines the choice
o f one linguistic form over another, for example, if the sentence does
not contain a direct -object, the vfcrb to tell should not be used since
it is intransitive, but some other, synonymous, verbs are to be used
instead [sec 163, p. 35] So we differentiate between grammatical
(morphological, syntactical), lexical and mixed types o f context.
Besides, context can be left or right (i .e. either preceding or follow
ing the unit). Consider some examples:
J. A British subject by birth (=cii*izen);
An interesting subject of conversation (= topic);

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One sfavourite subject at school (= branch of knowledge)

The subject o f a sentence ( - a notion in grammar)
The subiec t-matter (-content of a book/speech)
2. I ll see your house (= have a look at it)
I '11see you to your house (= accomp any you)
I see what vou mean (understand)
I ll see to it (= deal with it).
Depending upton its volume, sch olars distinguish between rnicrocontexts and macrocontexts. Microcontext is that minimum context
in which the element realizes its meaning and decodes associations,
or connotations. Macrocontext is a bigger part of the text which
helps to determine the functions o f the element in the whole: text;
for example, to single out the key-words olf the text is impossible
without taking into consideration the macrooontext. The same iis true
for the treatment of symbols in a work of art or all the works of a
writer. In this ease: the terms thematic context or megacontext
are also used. Thus the boundaries o f micro- and macrocontcx.ts are
i-elative. It means they cannot be determined beforehand because
they depend upont the aims of thi? investigation and the element
o f the analysis ', a word, a phrase, or a sentence. According to some
1inguists the mean ing of a sentence iis also dc termined by the speech
context/discourse. Taken out of discourse, a sentence ceases to be a
unit of speech and becomes a unit o f langua.gc [48, p. 335]. (It is a
well-known fact that a quotation taken out o f its context can be un
derstood or interpreted as having the meaning; different from or even
opposite to what llie author intended to say.) That is why scholars
differentiate between such notions as mean,ing and sense. Outside
the context, a word/phrase/sentence: has some definite meaning but
its sense (including various/possible: implications) may not be clear:
its status becomes; similar to that o f a word/phrase in a dictionary
(supplied with a number of possible: meanings).

We must also differentiate bet ween linguistic context proper

and extralinguistic context. The foiiner, beimg a verbal one, can be
opposed to a non-verbal context, i.e. mime, gestures, body lang uage.
The latter - the so-called extralinguistic context - is actually the
situation of communication, which includes t he conditions, timie and
place of communiication (so-called setting ), the participants and
their relationship, the objectives of their communication, whether it 3 $

jJ
S: I

^5:
j; j
I :

34

is written or oral, conducted in ones native language or in a foreign

one, etc. Language philosophers and pragmialinguists, most notably
J.R. Scarle [quoted in 202, p.45], have defined the extralinguistic
contcxt as a set o f background assumptions that are necessary for
an utterance to be intelligible. In discourse-oriented approaches to
language the cont ext is related to the situation in which an utterance
is embedded [ibi<d., p. 45]. So the main characteristic of the level
of coherent speech (text, discourse) is its being situationally deter
mined or conditioned. The aim, or pragmatics of any speech act is
ithe understanding; of the message; and, as R.Jacobson remarks, it is
i'he situational context that the mes sage refers to, seizeable by the
addressee and eitiher verbal or capable of being verbalized [161,
p. 353]. For example, the phrase Is the window open?" might be
understood as a request either to open or close the window depend
ing upon the situa tion.
In western linguistics the last dccades o f the 20 ccntury have
seen a growth of interest in discourse analysis which focuses very
much on the social' nature ofcommunication and stresses contextual
aspects of meaning determined by the social relations and identities
o f the participants in communication (see G.Cook [140]), buit still
earlier Mikhail Balkhtin (1895-1975) [9-11] wrote about the active
role of a reader, who belongs to the structure of the text. Being con
stantly employed by people, words ca rry opinions, assertions, beliefs,
emotions and inten tions of their useirs. In view of Bakhtins insight
into the multi-layered nature of language (heteroglossia), speech is
di alogic, and speakers exist within their cultural contexts, ideologies
and social intentions.
In this respect we should say some words about cultural con
text viewed in term s of discourse. Discourse, as is known, includes
writers, texts and re aders within a so ciocultural context of meaning
production and reception [ 162, p. 127 ]. Among the first scholars who
extended the notion context to include the so-called context of
cu lture was the British anthropologist Bronislav Malinovski [quoted
from 158, p. 5]. So cultural context re fers to the intentions, assump
tions and presuppositions of speakers; and hearers: their interaction
should make sense for both the participants. And the basis for this
is the knowledge and cultural experie nce the interlocutors share as
representatives of one social and/or cultural community.

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There are also two more specifications o f context that are: usu
ally singled out by scholars: it can be explicit (clearly expressed by
b 'O th verbal and mon-verbal means (gestures, mime)) and implicit
( veiled, hidden, noit clearly expressed but only implied). This imiplicit
( implied) context iis one o f the kinds /types of the text category of
presupposition. For example, the sentence It has grown colder
implies that it was warm some time ago. The use of the word also
in the sentence Is Alfred also mad? " presupposes that other people
d escribed in that context might be insane too. Presupposition is; usually based on the background knowledge about the situatio n (as
the examples above show) or the knowledge about some ge neral
socio-cultural, historical and other facts, including minimum literary
competence, such as being familiar with the names of well-kmown
v/riters and their works (e.g. the names of Agatha Christie or A.rthur
Clarke realize the presupposition about the genre). This understand
ing of implicit context is related to the notion of cultural context
discussed above.

aH rA iu c b k o i m o b u

It is believed that cultural knowledge is organized in cognitive

models (called prototypes). (It is already a sipherc of cognitive linguistics.) For exannple, consider the following sentence: He opened
the door andfaced a pretty young woman with a dog in her .arms.
What kind of a dog would we imagine? Would it be possible to be
atn Alsatian or a Collie, or would we think of a Pekinese or some
other kind of a small lapdog? The example proves that the cognitive
category, or prototype, of a dog in our minds changes and depends
on the context of its use [202, p. 43].
The intertextuial context is one more no tion that attracts sicholairs special attention. M. Bakhtins ideas gave birth to the theory of
i ntertextuality which has been developed by Roland Barthes and
Julia Kristeva. The;ir idea is that all texts are actually intertexts, they
echo other texts, themes, ideas. According to R.Barthes, any text
i:s a new tissue of p>ast citations [quoted from 160, p. 183], intertextuality is a relation of a text with other texts, all those assumptions
and expectations tlhat are shared by both writers and readers.

Each context, as we have seen, specifies the existing semiantic

(both denotational and connotational) possibilities of a word. In
semantic actualization of a word the context plays a dual role: cn the 38

one hand, it cuts o ff all meanings irre levant for the given commi rnicat ivc situation. On t he other, it foregrounds one of the meaningful op
tions of a word, focusing the communicator's attention on one o f the
dlcnotational or connotational components of its sema ntic structure
[ 166, p. 24], Besides, as V.A.Kukharenko states, it is also capable
o f adding new ones, or deviating raither considerably from wlhat is
registered in the dictionary. In this respect we can speak about the
S'O-called stylistic context. The differ-ence between the linguistic and
s,tvlistic contexts w ill be as follows: the linguistic context serves to
n eutralize the polysemy of a word, w hereas the stylistic context adds
n ew senses, realizes various connotations or creates new meanings
o f the word. It can also realize 2 or m ore meanings of the same 'word
si multaneously. (e. g.: the stylistic de vice called zeugma is gene:rated
b y this type of con text - He lost his heart to her and a ll his money.
The word lost is used in two meanings in one context: 1) to fall
im love, 2) to have no longer). The notion of stylistic context and its
th cory were developed in the works by such scholars as Yu. Loti nan,
Mt.Riffaterre, V.Ku kharcnko and others.

38

As we have realized, context is the main notion for styl istic

analysis, the object of which is the whole text whose separate elem ents function together with all othe r text elements of the same and
other.levels. To use M.Riffaterres words, language expresses and
style stresses. To help the reader be able to understand all possible
meanings hidden in the text and to decode the information adcqua tely,
this writer places some significant fo r the message textual compo
nents in so-called st'rong positions. T he theory of strong position is
an essential part of the theory of styliistic context (see the works by
I.V . Arnold, V.A.Kukharenko). The strong position is such a place
in the text where the significant/important elements o f the na rra
tive are most conspicuous in a psychological respect. Such strong
positions are, primarily, titles, beginnings and endings of the text
or its parts (chapters;, stanzas, etc.). Beginnings are usually divided
int o two main group s: conventional (ailso called ab ovo, narrat ive,
haird) and in-medias-res (soft). The hard, or narrative beginning is,
for- example, a tradi tional beginning of fairy-tales or early novels
ami stories where th e first lines in the opening answer tlhe questions
Who? Where? When? , thus introduc ing for the first time the miain
characters and establishing the temporal and space coordinates o f a

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narrative compositi on (personage, time and place), e.g.: Once upon a

time there lived a king in his kingdom by the sea. The narrative/hard
beginnings can be Ifound in some historical novels, in the novels of
thic 18 - early 19 centuries, in chronicles, memoirs, tales for chil
dren, etc., e.g.: "One summer morning, in the year 1756 /..../ the
" Young Rachel", Virginian ship, came up the Avon river ... (ifrom
W .M. Thackerays The Virginians). Hard beginnings have gradually
grown out of fashion. Nowadays it is typical o f modem prosaic works
to have various kinds of soft, or in-medias-res, beginnings (which
means beginnings; from the middle). Such beginnings domiinate
in the novel of the 19-20 centuries, e.g.: "Dora Greenfield left her
husband because she was afraid o f him. She decided six months
later to return to him for the same reason (from I. Murdochs; The
Bell). In soft beginnings the persona.ges and events are depicted as
i f readers were quiite familiar both w ith them and with the situation
described. (A typic al characteristic o f such beginnings is the u:se of
personal pronouns - I, he, she, they - as antecedents of the pr oper
names, i.e. the personages names ap>pear in the text after the u:se of
the pronominal substitutes.) Scholars also single out the so-called
m-ultimas-res beginnings. In such a case the narrative or play begins
al: the actual outco me or ending of 'the story and then proceeds to
relate preceding events in non-chronological order.
As regards the text endings, one of the most concise cominentairies on the properties and peculiarities of narratives in genera I and
emdings in particular, was given by David Lodge. He wrote, Nar
rative /.../ obtains and holds the interest of its audience by raising
questions in their minds about the process it describes, and dela ying
the answers to tho:se questions, or raising new questions as ethers
airc answered. The questions are of two kinds: what happens next?
which generates suspense', and what happened in thepast? and why?
which generates mystery. When all the quest ions are answered!, the
narrative must end. It is characteristic of the modern text, however,
that it ends before all the questions are answered" [ 174, p. 14(5],
Thus we may state that stylistics is a di scipline concentrating
mostly on connotations, those of styl istically coloured words an d inn umerable others which words may acquire in the context. So mean
ing is a notion of paramount importance for stylistics that studies
v arious SDs which, as is known, are mainly realized when a twofold
a pplication of meaning is obvious. Furthermore, there exist such 7

phenomena as polysemy and polyfunctionality of words. Various

meanings o f a polysemantic word used in varying functions have
quite different connotations (see Yu.M.Skrebnev). Another difficulty
lies in the fact that words (phrases, sentences) do not have immediate
and stable connections with ob jects and situations (events) of reality:
they only coirrelate in our mirnds with general i deas of objccts and
events, i.e. thtey denote whole classes of objects, or in other words,
words expresis concepts. (By concept we mean here the general or
abstract idea o f some phenomenon of objective reality.) So words are
signs that express concepts by .their outerform (symbol - combina
tion o f letters) and innerform {meaning).
What is meaning then? This question is easier to ask than to
answer. This essential component of words is defi ned by L .Vygotsky
[30] as the unity o f generalization, communication ana' thinking.
Through meaning words commiunicate concepts, thus acq uiring the
ability to denote real objects, qualities, actions and abstract notions.
Only in a defiinite context (a comcrete speech act)- this or tlhat mean
ing (or conno tation) of a word can be identified and actualized: a
sad man (unhappy); a sad story (pessimistic); a sad stat>e (worthy
of criticism); a sad night (poet., arch. - dark, black). [2, p 141].
To quote J.Thomas, making meaning (which is interactive) is a
dynamic process involving the negotiation of meaning between the
speaker and the hearer, the context o f utterance (physic al, social
and linguistic) and the meaning potential of an utterance [199,
p. 22], Words, as we know, are capable of enrichi ng their semantic
structure by acquiring new meamings and losing old ones. This is
the subject of lexicology. Stylistics is interested in an almost un
limited potenti ality of words of acquiring new meanings, a quality
which is not res tricted to grammatical or semantic acceptability [ 154,
p. 63]. RJakobson wrote about the variability :f meanings, their

manifold andfar-reaching figurative shifts as the ^properties of lani : J guage which induce its creativity', properties that aire called by Gal55 * * perin I.R. self-generating [ibid1
.., p. 59]. It happens for the reason
: 1 already mentioned: since there is: no constant connection, no stable
J interdependence between words and the phenomena o f the snrround^9; ing world, it is n atural that one and the same object may be called dif
ferent names by different speakers in different situaitions. It a Iso hap
pens because every phenomenon has a great number of characteristic
3 8 features (besides those referring it to some definite class of <objects)

(hat might turn out to be essentiall, more important or conspicuous

lor some definite: speaker. We are free to use any denominations that
suit our purpose or the situation. For example, a girl might fi gure in
spcech, depending upon who is talking and in what communicative
situation, as the child, my darling, his dear daughter, honey, that
apple-cheeked creature, etc. Moreover, as we have already stated,
words and expressions traditionally used with reference to a certain
class of objects can be transferred and applied to a represe ntative
of quite a different class. The word sad from the example given
above might be employed to characterize something unexpe cted: a
sad chair. This p hrase will be quite: relevant: and appropriate i n some
descriptive contoxt which characterizes, for instance, a pers on in a
melancholic mood, or someone who is unhappy and lonely, or tired
and frustrated: He took his sad chair and lit a cigarette (the device
is callcd hypallag;e [hi'paebebi], or metonyniical/transferred ejpithet).
Thus the context is capable of addi ng new meanings (called contex
tual) to the word and deviating from those registered in the d ictionary. And this interrelation of various meanings, various assoc iations
produce imagery. The wider the gap between the associated objects
is, the more strik ing image is creat ed.

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Three major types of lexical meaning that take an active part

in creating imagery are termed by I.R.Galperin logical, emotive
and nominal. Th e interplay of these types o f meaning gives birth to
almost all well-k nown stylistic devices:

emotive

nominal

contextual^

Ns^econdary

nominal
scmot ive

primary

logical

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Logical

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Types of Lexical Meaning

Logical mea ning (also called referential, direct, dictionary) is

the name of the whole of the concept, the naming (denoting) of the
given phenomenon through one o f its qualities [167, p. 17]. Logi
cal meaning is a lhistorical category which changes in the course of
time. As a result, one word may denote different concepts, acquiring
primary and seco ndary meanings. For example, the word carnage 33

cKapojiiHa SJlomoupKa

has the following meanings (OALD): 1. a vehicle drawn by horses;

2. a railway car; 3. transporting goods from one place to another;
4. moving part of a machine that supports or moves another part; 5
(dated) way in which somebody holds and moves his head and body.
Dictionaries, as a rule, give a list of primary and secondary (deriva
tive) meanings of a word. Additional lexical meanings that words
may acquire in the context are not registered in dictionaries. Bom
in the context, they are called contextual. For example, the phrase
silver dust has acquired an unusual, additional logical meaning
in the following context: The sky was sprinkled with silver dust. The
words silver dust in this sentence start to mean stars (which
resemble silver dust in the authors imagination), thus a metaphoric
image being created by the interplay of the logical (fine dry silver
powder) and contextual logical (stars) meanings of the lexical
components of the phrase employed by the writer.
Emotive meaning (which is actually a connotative component
of the semantic structure of a word) expresses feelings and emo
tions called forth by the object/phenomenon denoted by the word.
Its function is to show the speakers subjective attitude to the object
spoken of. The emotive meaning in some words coexists with the
logical one: smart, sweet, sonny. There are words with a very strong
emotive meaning which is fixed in dictionaries with the help of
the stylistic marker emot.: e.g. a lot of qualitative or intensifying
adjectives (terrifying, spectacular, fabulous , etc.). Besides, there
are colloquial intensifies such as ,rawfully , terribly and some
other words which even tend to lose their primary logical meaning
in a definite context: You are awfully beautiful today! We 're dread

40

fully sorry. He is tremendously grateful to you! Its terribly good o f

you! Since their original meanings are almost completely suppressed
here by their emphatic function, they start to mean "very. Some

words have entirely lost their logical meanings and function in the
language as interjections, oaths, exclamatory words (oh, ah, gosh,
goodness gracious, etc.). When a word acquires an emotive meaning
in a definite context we speak about its contextual emotive meaning.
This happens* for example, when we deal with metaphoric epithets:
a wooden table - a table made of wood (logical meaning); a wooden
fac e : the contextual emotive meaning underlies the creation of the
metaphoric image - a calm or dull or stupid face (depending upon
the situation).

Nominal meaning of the word characterizes things or beings.

The words with a nominal meaning indicate a particular object out
of a class. So they are classified in grammars as proper nouns/names.
Usually, nominal meanings have historically developed from logical
ones, or in other words, proper names often originated from common
nouns (with logical or emotive meanings): Longfellow, Hope, Smith,
the Black sea. To distinguish such words we use capital letters (brown
- Brown). Sometimes we observe a reverse process when a nominal
meaning may acquire a new logical assumption and becomes the
basis for a new logical meaning: e.g. Duns Scotus was a medieval
scholastic, who happened to be far from wise. From his name a new
word was derived - dunce, which started to mean a dullard, a
stupid person". The words sandwich ", boycott" exemplify the
same mechanism.
Logical meaning
(common noun)

Nominal meaning (proper name)

A new logical meaning

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It is a historical process. But when a writer/speaker resorts to

that mechanism of name-transference, we deal with the cases of new
contextual logical meanings and new contextual nominal meanings
being created in some definite context for stylistic purposes. Let us
look at the examples.
The SDs called speaking/telling, or telltale, or token names "
and antonomasia " (the Greek naming instead) are based on the
process shown schematically above. If the name-transference follows
Ihe first step in our graph, i.e. a common noun is used in the context
in its new (contextual) nominal meaning (as if it were a proper name),
we deal with the speaking name, a device employed by authors
lo characterize their personages: Lady Fury, Mr Coward. If proper
names acquire new contextual logical meanings, we speak about the 41

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(a new common noun)

use of antonomasia [aentsna'meizis], which can be of two types:

metonymic: He bought a Picasso! (= a picture painted by Picasso)
and metaphoric: You are a real Byron! (= a brilliant poet) (mind the
use of articles).
To conclude, the role of context is most important in both mean
ing and sense realization but its significance is not as great in the
sphere of stylistic connotations of words that already possess them
(marked in dictionaries) and enter the context already being connotatively charged. But before proceeding to the discussion of such
groups of the English vocabulary, a few words should be said about
the main varieties of a national language in general.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

1. W hat doyou know about the theory of linguistic context? Give examples of
various types of context.
2. Dw ell upon the notion of extralinguistic context and specifications of cultural
context
3. W hat is implicit context?
4. W hat is the difference between linguistic and stylistic contexts?
5. Why doyou think text beginnings and endings are called strongpositions?
6. W hat types of lexical meaning doyou know? W hat is a contextual meaning?

LECTURE 4
STYLISTIC DIFFERENTIATION
OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY

National language. Modern varieties of English

Bookish vs colloquial English
Uterary and colloquial strata of words
Special literary words
Special colloquial words
Stylistic coinages

im
miiinnin1i i i

English as a national language exists in two major varieties

- literary and non-literary, or dialects. Each of these two varieties of
the national language, in its turn, can be divided into two more types,
all of which are presented in the scheme that follows:
National language
Literary language

............................................................. Dialects

Bookish................. Colloquial < ---------------- Social

(formal) \

S ' (informal)

(jargons)

Local
(territorial

C TU A icT uka

The literary language is a historical category. It obeys definite

phonetic, morphological, lexical, syntactic, stylistic norms recog
nized as standards and serves the state, administrative and cultural
needs of the nation at a given period of time. (The term literary
language should not be confused with the term the language of
literature - here we deal only with the belles-lettres style). Literary
English is sometimes called educated or standard English. It is
used by the majority of educated people in speaking and writing.
It is uniform-national, not limited socially or geographically (cf.:
wee (Scottish colloquial) - small (GB)). The existence of literary
standards in language helps to cause its uniformity and its greater
stability. But these standards undergo gradual changes, they develop | |

a H r A iu c b k o i m o b u

vernaculars)

and improve. Besides, there is no hard and fast division between the
literary and non-literary language varieties. They depend on each
other. On the one hand, the literary language constantly enriches its
vocabulary and forms from the resources of vernaculars (because of
this interaction there appear lexical and grammatical doublets, and the
language standards become unstable). On the other hand, the literary
language influences the non-literary language. As Helen Gardener,
an art historian and educator, once aptly remarked, the knowledge of
literature and literary language enables us to discover standards of
permanence which can save usfrom the domination offashion.
As is seen from the scheme, the literary language exists in two
constantly interacting functional varieties - bookish (formal) and
colloquial (informal/non-formal). They both might be found either
in the written or oral forms. True, most literary bookish messages
appear in writing, but an informal letter, a diary, a novel, a play or
even a modem poem (that is a written text) may include passages
or words typical of the spoken/colloquial language. And vice versa:
an oral speech (a public address, report, lecture) usually has every
characteristic of the bookish language variety. In the paragraphs
that follow some general characteristics of these two varieties are
presented (mostly based on I.R.Galperins and V. V.Buzarovs works
[1 5 4 ; 1 3 2 ]).

Literary bookish English is nearly always written, except when

used in formal public speeches, broadcast talks, prepared lectures,
etc. (Here the communication is in the form of a monologue and often
prepared in advance.) It is the type of language taught at school and
universities and generally used by press, radio and television. It is
also used by educated people in formal situations, in literary prose,
in official reports, scholarly articles, theses and reviews, scientific
textbooks and essays, formal correspondence and business letters.
Thus, written English is typically used in formal contexts, being
informative and discursive. Unlike the spoken language, the written
one changes more slowly and is therefore far more conservative and
homogeneous.
Although there are a lot of common features between formal
written and informal spoken English, there are also very many dif
ferences (both in vocabulary and grammar).The most striking dif
ference lies in the vocabulary used. The vocabulary of the written
4 4 language includes a large number of abstract and international words,

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CTUAicruka

scientific, technical and political terms. The grammar is generally

closely organized and complex. It may make use of long sentences
with several levels of subordination; it also prefers sentences with
non-finite constructions (infinitival, gerundial and participial) which
serve as a certain means of informational condensation. The ar
rangement of sentences is by no means accidental. Each sentence
is logically connected with those preceding and following it, thus
forming a syntactical whole (a paragraph). Contractions and other
conversational forms and structures are out of place here. Another
syntactic peculiarity of the written style is that it prefers hypotactic
constructions (i.e. with subordination) to paratactic ones (with co
ordination). Hence it abounds in all kinds of conjunctions and con
nectives such asfurthermore, moreover, nevertheless, therefore, in
connection with, similarly and some others which have a decidedly
bookish flavour and are rarely used in ordinary conversation.
Spoken English is a type of speech naturally used by the major
ity of educated speakers in private two-way everyday communication
and partly in informal letters to intimate friends. It is mostly in the
form of a dialogue which presupposes the presence of an interlocu
tor and is thus predetermined by the extralinguistic communicative
context. It is supported by the appropriate speech situation and the
meaningful modulations of voice: its rise and fall, its pauses and
stresses, i.e. intonation, and all kinds of gestures, facial expressions,
eye contact, body language. Besides, such factors as, for example,
the common life experience of the interlocutors facilitate and pro
mote mutual understanding. There is constant feed-back between the
speaker and the listener whose main function is mutual intelligibil
ity and communicative effectiveness. Conversational (colloquial)
English seldom appears in writing in its pure form even in plays
and novels, where it is never a faithful reflection of actual conver
sation. But some contemporary authors imitate everyday speech to
the extent that it looks and sounds the way people talk in ordinary
communication, thus presenting good patterns of spoken English of
today (see below).
Spoken English is characterized by its peculiar lexis, phonetics
and grammar. Among the phonetic peculiarities we can mention
dropping or acquiring h at the beginning of words (/ told 'im),
the so-called intrusive r at the word junctures (e.g. law and order
[lo:r and o:ds]). Among the morphological forms that spoken Eng-

46

cKopomHQ SlomoupKQ

46

lish abundantly makes use of are abbreviations of any kind, wordsubstitutes and contracted forms such as: isn 't, aren't, hasn't, can t,
dont, won t, shouldve, couldve, I ll, you d, hes, etc. Non-standard
words and ungrammatical forms as well as slang and dialectal words
are commonly used in conversation by various people, especially
those with little education. To show in writing the peculiarities of the
persons speech authors often resort to graphon, i.e. the intentional
violation of the graphic shape of a word (phrase) used to reflect its
authentic pronunciation. [ 166, p. 11]. It also serves to convey the in
formation of the characters origin, education, physical and emotional
condition, e.g.: ardly any air; darlin ; Idunno, somethink to do with
religion, innit? (D.Lodge) (cockney); I felt kinda sorry (American
English); They are c-c-c-coming (stammering); You thay that thith
ith nithe (lisping), etc. Some forms have already become graphical
cliches in contemporary prose: gimme, lemme, gonna, gotta, wanna,
coupla (= couple of), mighta (= might have), Jeatyet? (AE: = Did
you eat yet?), Canahepya? (= Can I help you?), etc. Among other
typical spelling deviations we should also mention the substitution
of correct letters with other letters imitating phonemic deviations in
a characters speech [93, p. 186], e.g.: dawterr =(daughter); partickler
(=particular); wery (=very); gals (=girls),etc.
The use of the first and second person pronouns I andyou is com
mon in dialogues. Besides, there are some grammatical divergences
between formal and informal English , for example: the use of who
(informal) and whom (formal); the preference in the use of finite
forms (in CQ speech) to non-finite verb forms - gerundial, infiniti
val and participial constructions (in formal contexts) - in sentences
and clauses. The use of phrasal verbs is especially characteristic of
informal English (find out instead of discover, blow up - explode;
give in - surrender). The same is true of multi-word phrasal verbs of
the type to have a bath, to take a rest, etc. Such combinations serve
as synonyms to simple words: to have a smoke - to smoke; to take
care of - to care and in a more formal style their place will be taken
by the corresponding simple synonym (if there is one). Furthermore,
conversational English regularly employs cliches, colloquial expres
sions, idioms, and sentences with so-called nonce-words (a speakers
coinages), proverbs, sayings and quotations. Everyday conversation
is also rich in trite metaphoric and other phrases, which taken literally would make no sense. They include trite hyperboles, idioms of

a H r A iu c b k o i m o b u
C ru A ic T u k a

comparison, euphemisms, jocular or ironical expressions, and the

like, e.g.: I was scared to death. John eats like a horse.
As regards syntax, spoken English makes extensive use of short
and uncomplicated sentences and casual colloquial constructions,
whose structure is simple, often elliptical (leaving out a word or
words) to the utmost. Colloquial language is spontaneous and, as
a rule, coordination is preferred to subordination: such conjunc
tions as and, or, but, also are in frequent use. On the other hand, it
is quite typical of oral speech to have a string of sentences with no
connective words at all (different types of so-called asyndetically
connected clauses - see Lecture 14). There is a tendency to use the
direct word-order in questions rather often. On the whole, interroga
tive, imperative and exclamatory sentences may prevail over state
ments. Another feature is emotionality of spoken English. It employs
emphatic words and words with emotional-evaluative connotations,
thus intensifying the expressiveness of utterances.
In accordance with the division of the language into formal and
informal, the word-stock of English (as of any language) can be
roughly divided into stylistically neutral and stylistically coloured
words, which may be grouped, though unevenly, into three sets, dif
fering from each other by the sphere of its possible usage. The largest
group comprises neutral words. Neutral words are called neutral not
because they do not possess any connotations, but because they pos
sess no fixed stylistic connotations', hence, they are suitable for any
communicative situation (for both formal (literary) and informal (col
loquial), written and oral types of speech). It is a well-known fact that
in actual conversation people use the most common words: accord
ing to scholars research, 43 most current English words comprise
nearly 50% of what is actually used in everyday communication. But
the famous New English Dictionary of 13 volumes contains almost
half a million words, many of which are rarely or never heard, or
uttered, or written by the average Englishman. It means they belong
to some special spheres of human intercourse [93, p.52]. Words used
in special spheres are stylistically coloured. They form two smaller
groups termed respectively literary and colloquial strata [see 154].
While neutral words merely signify corresponding phenomena,
literary and colloquial ones bear some additional information as to
the quality, manner, etc. of the object. They may change the colouring
of a whole neutral utterance. The majority of literary and colloquial 4 7

words have synonyms in the neutral layer of the vocabulary [167,

p. 10]. (Cf.: children - neutral; offspring - formal, sometimes humor
ous; kids - colloquial; nippers - colloquial, often humorous; brats
- colloquial, derogatory).
The problem of stylistic classification of word-classes is not
an easy one. Yu.M. Skrebnev, for example, believes that stylistic
individuality of each word or, in any case, multiplicity of the classes
to which it might belong prevents us from making generalizations
in stylistic lexicology [93, p.58]. Scholars often have to admit the
impossibility of strict differentiation between linguistic units since
their stylistic difference may be of various kinds: it may lie in the
emotional tension connoted in a word, or in the sphere ofapplication.
or in the degree of the quality noted [154, p.73].

48

Generally, all stylistically coloured words differ from the neutral

part of the vocabulary in one of two ways: each ofthem is either more
elevated (high-flown) or less elevated (low) than the class of neutral
units. [93, p.55]. So stylistics deals not so much with the ways of
their stratification as with the issue of their general aesthetic value,
their social prestige": in what context is this or that word most
suitable, and is it too high-flown or too low and coarse to be used in
some definite type o f speech? Besides, literary and colloquial words
have their upper and lower ranges, which are called special and
common vocabulary sets. The latter approaches the neutral layer; in
fact, they overlap (one another): it is here that the process of inter
penetration of the stylistic strata becomes most apparent [ 154, p.73].
It happens because common literary and common colloquial words
are known to and used by most native speakers in generalized liter
ary (formal) or colloquial (informal) communication [ 1 6 6 , p.25].
Together with neutral words they constitute the so-called standard
English vocabulary.
Special literary and special colloquial words serve specialcommunicative purposes and are limited to some definite spheres of com
munication. The context of their use and the topic of communication
define the variety of language we employ, which is called a register
(see lecture 1), e.g.: insolvent is the banking term for penniless".
Special words are traditionally subdivided into several groups, the
major of which are to be briefly discussed below.

mobu

aHrAiucbkoi
CTiiAicruka

Special literary words include terms, archaisms and barba

risms. Poetic vocabulary is often classed as belonging to the group
of archaic lexis.
I. Terms are most concisely defined as words denoting objects,
processes, phenomena of science, humanities, technique" [166,
p.26]. Scholars admit that there are several controversial issues
in the field of terminology [2, p.34]. Ideally, terms should be
monosemantic (i.e. have only one meaning) and should have no
synonyms, which is quite logical in view of their pragmatics and
the sphere of application. But in fact, terms can mdan different
things (e.g. the term style discussed above). They may have
synonyms (e.g.: feminine - female/double/disyllabic rhyme).
Furthermore, terms can easily pass into general usage without
losing connection with their specific fields, as often happens
with various medical terms or those belonging to the spheres of
arts and modem technology. There is one more interesting char
acteristic of terms. Being devoid of any emotional, subjective
connotations, when used in spheres of their typical application,
terms, nevertheless, possess some expressiveness as compared
with neutral words when used in other types of discourse. Why
does it happen? First, a term is always associated by a layman
with socially prestigious spheres [93, p.59]. Second, if terms
are used in non-professional spheres (such as imaginative prose,
newspaper texts, everyday oral speech), they start performing sty
listic functions. Here they are used either to reveal the characters
profession, or as means of personages spccch characteristic (in
fiction), or to create plausibility (for example, in science fiction).
When used excessively, terms may produce an undesirable effect,
especially in non-professional contexts, such as conversational
speech. The effect can be absurd and ridiculous, or that of show
ing-off. Writers often resort to this phenomenon. In speech char
acterization, one of the most favourite devices is the use of terms
in informal situations, such as mere English small talk, aiming at
clashing of styles. The well-known illustration of using special
words in this stylistic function is Eliza Doolittles answer to the
question W ill it rain, do you think?: "The shallow depression
in the west of these islands is likely to move slowly in an easterly
direction. There are no indications of any great change in the

barometrical situation. (from B.Shows Pygmalion). The effect

produced is comical.
Archaic words, or archaisms. To this group Kukharenko, for
example, refers historical words (or historicisms), archaic words
proper and poetic words (or poeticisms). [166, p. 26] The dif
ference between the first two types is most obvious. Historical
words denote historical objects and phenomena which no longer
exist or in use (such as yeoman , "baldric"). Archaisms proper
are words which are partly or fully out of circulation because in
the course of language development they have been replaced by
other, newer synonymic words or forms (e.g. to deem - to
think; "thou -you). Historical words, by contrast, have no syn
onyms. Both archaisms and historical words are used in old prose
and poetry as well as in modem texts of particular genres, mostly
in historical novels where their function is to create the realistic
atmosphere of the past and to render the language people spoke
in those epochs. In poetry such words contribute to its elevated,
lofty style. Poetic words constitute a special layer of archaic and
rare words that possess lofty poetic connotations and are mostly
found in poetry (e.g.: billows - waves; dale" - valley; maid'
- girl; jocund' merry; " I ween - 1 suppose, he kens" - he
knows; oft - often; ofyore - in ancient times). The knowl
edge of English poetic diction is essential for the understanding
of the poetic works of the X V II-X IX centuries (T.Gray, W.Blake,
W.Wordsworth, P.B.Shelley, S.T.Coleridge, J.Keats, A.Tennyson,
R.Browning and others).
Barbarisms ( Latin barbarus = foreign) and foreign words, or
foreignisms. Scholars usually differentiate between these types of
alien vocabulary in the English language. Unlike borrowings,
barbarisms have not entirely been assimilated into the English
language. They have preserved their foreign look, or foreign
sound, or both. Yet they are facts of the language and are widely
used in English (e.g. bon mot, belles-lettres, apropos (from apropos)). Unlike terminological borrowings (e.g. concerto, the blitz),
barbarisms have almost exact synonyms ( apropos " - to the
purpose, well Suited; "bon mot - a witticism; "belles-lettres"
- fiction). Foreignisms do not belong to the English word-stock:
they are not registered in the body of English dictionaries. When
met in literary texts, they are generally italicized to indicate their

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aHrAiucbkoi

foreign origin or their stylistic value, which may be different,

e.g.: The life of the parao was very like that of the Kashmir
Serai on a small scale (the Hindu word parao means a rest
ing-place) (from R.Kiplings Kim). Writers resort to foreign
words with the aim of denoting local phenomena, providing lo
cal colour as a background to the narrative, or as a speech char
acteristic used in direct, reported and represented speech (for
example, to reproduce the actual speech of the local people, or
a personage of a foreign origin), e.g.: Yiefore we could back out
of the room a hugefigure surged out from under the bedclothes
like a surfacing whale, and waddled towards us. It turned out to
be a colossal woman /.../. "Buenas noches. she said politely.
Buenas noches. sehora. " we replied, not to be outdone in good
manners at that hour of the morning. "iHablo con la patrona? "
inquired Dicky. "Si, si, sehor, she said, smiling broadly, tQue
quieres? " (G.Durrell). I.R.Galperin remarked that words which
we do not quite understand sometimes have a peculiar charm
[154, p.90]. The effect of elevation barbarisms and foreignisms
produce accounts for their wide use in publicist style: a person
who knows so many foreign words and phrases is obviously a
very educated person, the reader thinks, and therefore a man
who knows [ibid., p. 91].
Literary words add a tone of solemnity, seriousness and leamedness to the message. It is not without reason that common, or general,
literary words are also called bookish, or learned, since a lot of these
sophisticated words are used in scientific prose (e.g. experimental,
divergent, comprise, homogeneous, etc.). Both common and special
literary words are also employed in official documents (the so-called
officialese: proceed, sufficient, endeavour, inquire), in refined de
scriptive prosaic passages, in high-flown poetic works.
Special colloquial words. Common, or general, colloquial words
are widely used by all speakers in their everyday conversation, i.e. in
non-official, informal communicative situations. As regards special
colloquial vocabulary, scholars traditionally differentiate between the
following subgroups: slang words, jargon words (both social and
professionaljargonisms), vulgarisms, and dialectal words.
1. Slang. Slang words are usually defined as very informal, sub
standard, highly expressive and emotive words. They are gener
ally understood by the majority of language-speakers and are 1

rather widely used by various categories of people, especially

the young and uneducated. Slang words are often mere distor
tions of standard words or various types of abbreviations (e.g.
loony/ie - from lunatic ; yuppie - from a young urban
professional ). As regards their semantics, most slang words are
based on tropeic renaming, mostly metaphorical/metonymical
shifts in reference (e.g. culture-vulture =an avid supporter of
the arts; foam = beer (AE)). Slang words and phrases can be
of humorous, mocking or derogatory, insulting character and
serve as intentional substitutions for neutral and more elevated
words and expressions. So very many common words have a
chain of slang synonyms (e.g. money - dough, bread, dosh, loot,
tin, brass, slippery staff, a stupid person - wally, prat, nerd, jerk,
plonker; lavatory - loo, lav, bog, John, etc.) [177, p. 190]. Some
authors are strongly against slang. They say that it is degrada
tion of the language: ...slang is the great corrupting matter, it
...infects what is round it (see H.W.Fowler [quoted from 2,
p. 18]). Others believe that it is impossible to fight with and pro
hibit it. R.A.Spears, the compiler of NTCs Dictionary of Ameri
can Slang, claims that expressions that can be called slang or
colloquial make up a major part of American communication in
movies, television, newspapers, magazines, and informal spoken
conversation [196, p. vi]. Why do people use slang expressions?
Psychologists believe that the reason is a persons striving for
novelty of expression, for replacing something ordinary and
habitual by a new original name, which w ill be more interest
ing in their opinion. This stylistic tendency is especially strong
with the younger generation, with people who rebel against es
tablished conventions in the speech of their elders. H.Bradley
remarks that people use slang just as they use a nickname instead
of the real name of a person [quoted from 93, p. 68], It is often
difficult to decide what is slang and what is common colloquial.
Scholars usually point out one feature of slang that makes it
differ from common colloquialisms and jargon, and that is its
being short-lived, its quality of never growing old". (Different

generations, for example, used different slang expressions to

say that something was wonderful : pre-war - top-hole; 1940s
-wizard', 1960s-fab, groovy, 1970s-ace, cosmic; 1980s-brill,
wicked', 1990s - cool [ 177, p. 190]). The moment the slang word

becomes stale, it is replaced by a new one. But slang words are

colourful and humorous and may be very catching - they may
become popular with nearly all the groups of speakers. Thus,
if they are used long enough by a wide circle of people, they
may become so well known that they join the layer of common
colloquial English, and later perhaps even the neutral wordstock (e.g. cab, skyscraper, movies, flu, mob). Being striking and
picturesque, slang has a tendency of spreading fast. We should
remember, nevertheless, that slang and very many idioms can
easily be used inappropriately. They are rarely the first choice
of careful writers and speakers or anyone who attempts to be
persuasive and polite when using language in formal situations
or for business purposes.
2. Jargon isms. This group of substandard words exists in almost
any language, but unlike slang, jargon words are social in char
acter and are used by limited groups of people. Jargonisms are
not usually new words invented by speakers, they are gener
ally old words with entirely new meanings imposed on them
[154, p. 110]. Some scholars differentiate between professional

CruAicruka aHrAiucbkoI

use the terms slang and jargon as synonyms, differentiating

between general slang, used by all, and special slang (meaning
jargon ). Yet there is a difference. Slang, contrary to jargon,
needs no translation. The main functional characteristic of jar
gon, both professional and social (such as the theives argot, or
cant) is its being cryptic, i.e. not clearly understandable or not
intended to be understood by others. Every professional group
has its own jargon: we can speak about studentsjargon, military
jargon (sometimes termed as military slang), lawyers jargon,
musiciansjargon, medical jargon, etc. Here are some examples
from American truck-driversjargon: grandma lane - slow lane;
doughnuts - tyres; motion lotion - fuel; eyeballs - headlights;
anklebiters - children; affirmative - yes [ 177, p. 190]. So, unlike
slang, professionaljargonisms cover a narrow semantic field and
comprise names of objects, phenomena, and processes charac
teristic of the given profession (e.g. the word machine-gun is
replaced by sewing-machine in soldiers jargon; one who buys
shares at the stock-exchange with a view to selling them at a

mobu

jargonisms, or professionalisms, and socialjargonisms, or ja r

gonisms proper [166, p. 27]. Anglo-American linguists tend to

profit is called a buir ). These words may be called nicknames

that are opposed to the official terms and special words used in
this or that professional sphere [93, p. 66]. Many professional
words have left the narrow sphere of their circulation and be
come general slang (e.g. exam, prof). Social jargonisms might
be defined as words and phrases used by particular social classes
and groups to conceal the meaning intentionally. It is a sort of
a secret code made up either of ordinary words invested with a
special meaning, or of distorted words [167, p. 15]. Criminals
jargon, or argot, serves as both a kind of password and secret
language for those belonging to the underworld. Writers of fiction
widely used professional and social jargonisms to reproduce the
natural speech of a character and to create a realistic background
for the events depicted. One of the genres which is famous for
using lawyers and criminal jargons for that purpose is a detec
tive novel. Consider the example from J.Mortimers The Best of
Rumpole: Fred was outraged, and Vi, pursing her lips in a sour
gesture of wounded respectability, added, "His D ads always
told him. Never say a word to anyone you re banged up with
- bound to be a grass . (To bang up = to put and lock smb in a
room in a prison; a grass = a person who informs the police of
3.

criminal plans/activities).
Vulgarisms. These are words that are considered too offensive
for polite conversation. Vulgar words are rough, coarse; they
possess a strong emotive meaning, mostly derogatory and insult
ing (e.g. pay dirf = money). Using vulgar language is called
swearing or cursing. Vulgarisms are the lowest social class of
words. Two types of vulgar words are sometimes differentiated
by linguists and classed as lexical and stylistic vulgarisms. [93,
p. 72]. Lexical vulgarisms (also called obscene words) denote
things and ideas considered unmentionable in civilized soci
ety, such as body parts and functions (the so-called four-letter
words ) - they are usually substituted by various euphemisms or
just omitted (e.g. snot = mucus of the nose). Sometimes scien
tific (medical) terms are used instead of frank and dysphemistic
words denoting some definite spheres o f human physiology/
anatomy (cf.: topass water (fml) - to urinate (neut/med) - topiss
(vulg)). Among lexical vulgarisms are also various oaths (swear
words, or expletives [iks'pli:tiv]). The second group comprises

CruAicTuka aHrAiucbkoI

expressing the speakers derogatory, strongly negative attitude

towards the object of speech. Some scholars refer such words to
low slang words (e.g. smeller = nose; mug = face). History
of vulgarisms reflects the history of social ethics [166, p. 27],
In Shakespearean times people were much more linguistically
frank, but in the age of Enlightenment, or the Victorian era, a lot
of words were considered vulgar or obscene and were banned
from use in literature and conversation in polite society. The
Puritan morality forbade the use of very many words that now
seem quite harmless. The ethical standards of the second half of
the XX century changed so drastically that modem European and
American prose not only use any four-letter words (usually as an
effective means of speech characterization) but even approves
this absence of moral censorship in literature and other forms
of art. Paradoxically, when used too frequently and habitually,
substitutes for vulgarisms start acquiring their vulgar connota
tions and vulgar words, by contrast, lose their emotional quality.
Obviously, such lexis soils the literary language. Should it be
employed so frequently in present-day editions and everyday
communication? Is it pragmatically justifiable or simply fash
ionable ? There are people who are shocked and offended by
vulgar language because it is against their religious and moral
beliefs. So it is a good reason not to use vulgarisms, especially
with people we do not know. Besides, when a non-native speaker
uses vulgar English expressions, it may produce quite an unex
pected comic or ludicrous effect.
Dialectal words. As is known, dialects are regional forms of a
language. British English has very many local variations, such
as, for example, the Norfolk, Lancashire dialects, etc. Generally,
scholars distinguish four major dialects in Great Britain: Low
land Scotch, Northern, Midland (central) and Southern. They
differ on both the phonemic and lexical levels. People living
in some districts have their own names for local phenomena or
use their own synonyms instead of standard words accepted by
the language in general. The dialectal lexical peculiarities are
constantly penetrating everyday colloquial speech and slang.
From this level they can move into the common word-stock and
lose their dialectal status, i.e. stop being stylistically marked

mobu

stylistic vulgarisms - words that possess stylistic connotations

gg

(e.g. p e t , la d , lass, d a ft). Dialectal words together

with jargonisms and slang are often used in the style of emotive
prose and in drama to characterize the speaker as a person of
a certain locality, breeding, education, or to create a veracious
local atmosphere.
There is one more special group of words we meet in literary
texts and in conversation that might be generally termed as newly
coined words. Here belong terminological coinages (i.e. neologisms
that are created and introduced into the language as names for new
born concepts, especially in science and technology) and stylistic
coinages , also called the authors neologisms. Stylistics is mostly
interested in the latter group. The authors neologisms are fo rm ed by
means o f word compounding, conversion, derivation and change o f

The majority of stylistic coinages can be found in fiction, in

newspaper articles and magazines. Their expressiveness and fresh
ness appear to be the creators primary aim. Another function of
stylistic neologisms is to produce a humorous effect. I f a new word is
approved by native speakers and becomes widely used, it stops being
a new word and enters the general vocabulary. When a word is coined
to suit one particular occasion and never passes into the system of the
language, it is usually termed a nonce-worcf\ Having served their
one-time purpose, nonce-words disappear completely (in oral speech)
or stay as curiosities (in books of fiction): There was a balcony ful
o f gentlemen (an example from R. Chesterton. The nonce-word is
coined by analogy with words like spoonful , handful) [quoted
from 93, p.71]. In the formation of nonce-words all means of wordbuilding are employed: derivation (with the help of both productive
and non-productive affixes), composition, conversion:
STze objected to George because he was George. I t was,
cXctpoAiHQ SlomoupKQ

meaning.

as it were, his essential Georgeness that offended h e r

(RG.Wodehouse) (affixation);

But I distrust his w a s p it a lit v (O.Nash) (the blending of two

words into one - wasp/waspish+hospitality);

We fla tte d and George d him until at last he said, W ell, I

(M.Spark) (conversion).
To sum up, all the groups of stylistically coloured, or in other
words, connotatively charged words, fulfil various stylistic functions
and add expressiveness and/or emotiveness to the utterance, pasgg sage, or text. When neutral elements - words, phrases and syntactic
must say it s good to see y o u

structures - obtain connotations and stylistic value, we deal with the

process of revaluation of language units, which results in all types
of stylistic devices, including tropes. Trope as one of major stylistic
notions should be dwelt upon in greater detail.
QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:
1.

W hat are the two major varieties of a national language? W hat is literary
language?
2. W hat are the main characteristics of the bookish variety i f English? In what
form is it usuallyfound?
3. D w ell upon the phonetic, lexical and grammatical peculiarities of spoken
English.
4. Explain why neutral words are called neutral?
5. W hat are the main subgroups of special literary and special colloquial words?
6. W hat doyou know of terms and their stylisticfunctions?
7. W hat are the types and role of archaisms and barbarisms in the text?
8. W hat are the main characteristics of slang?
9. W hat types ofjargonisms doyou know?
10. W hat is the place and role of vulgarisms and dialectal words in the literary
language?
11. W hat doyou know of stylistic coinages?

LECTURE 5
THE NOTION OF TROPE.
A RHETORICAL IMAGE

Trope as a basic notion of paradigmatic onomasiology. A rhetorical image

The study of tropes: various angles of analysis
The classificatoty problems: tropes and other SDs

As we have already learned, the majority of SDs are based on

the interaction of different meanings (both denotational and connotational) of a word. Each type of transference of meaning , or
intended substitution (when the name of one object is transferred
onto another object, proceeding from their similarity or closeness)
results in a trope.
Trope is a basic term of paradigmatic semasiology, or rather
paradigmatic onomasiology (science of naming), a branch of stylis
tics. It is a Greek word meaning to turn . Trope is actually a type
of diversion from the literal to the figurative (i.e. the imaginative
use of language). Thus tropes are rhetorical devices that create im
agery. What is a rhetorical image? It is a double picture generated
by linguistic means and based, in Ivor Armstrong Richardss [ 189]
terminology, on the co-presence of a tenor ['tens] and a vehicle
['viakl]. The image is a tenor-vehicle relationship, where the tenor
is the subject of thought in a trope (in rhetoric it is also called the
primum comparandum), and the vehicle is the concept of a thing,
person or an abstract notion with which the tenor is compared or iden
tified (the secundum comparatum). Other terminologists distinguish
between idea and image or target and source. The similar
feature, or connection between these two quite different notions (con
cepts) is called the (common) ground, or the tertium comparationis.
Consider the example:
Beauty is butflower
Which wrinkles will devour (O. Nash), where beauty is the

tenor in this metaphor, and the image of a flower is its vehicle. The
common ground for the identification of these two concepts is their

common features/characteristics: their both being fragile, delicate,

and non-lasting.
Graphically, the relation between the three elements could be
expressed thus:
Tenor (Primum comparandum)
(Beauty)

------
------

Vehicle (secundum comparatum)

(flower)

/
The ground (tertium comparatioms)
(fragile, delicate, non-lasting)

CTUAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

Tropes may be studied and described from various angles [see

179].
What is a trope from logical, psychological, linguistic and se
mantic points of view?
Logically, tropes are based on analogy, when one object is in
ferred to be similar to another one in a certain respect, both being dif
ferent. Analogy is an inveterate human tendency. It predominated in
the development of human culture at the early stages of mans mental
experience, being mostly utilitarian since, as D.Lucas in his Lectures
on Style wrote, there appears little ground for assigning poetic mo
tives to the first man who called the hole in a needle its eye, or the
projections on a saw its teeth [quoted from 186, p. 31].

mobu

Though tropes are sometimes called figures of replacement , it

is not a mere process of replacing one meaning-generating expres
sion with another one of the same meaning. Instead, the combination
of the two semantic fields generates an additional meaning which
opens a range of possibilities for interpretation. Only the double
meaning creates what is called an image: we observe a trope when
we see both meanings (in our example: beauty as an abstract notion,
a combination of qualities, and a flower as a brightly coloured part
of a plant). Hence there is no image in so called dead metaphors
such as the neck of a bottle , since we do not think of or imagine
any human necks when we use the phrase. So tropes, and the im
ages they create, force us to consider the world in new terms. They
expand the meaning potential of language and introduce ambiguity
- a typically literary quality - to a text.

Psychologically, tropes are based on associations, or the mental

process of establishing connections between ideas, feelings, sensa
tions, etc. According to Yu.Skrebnev, the psychological essence of
a trope is just the prominence given to two units o f sense in one
unit o f form [93, p.99]. So a trope is a linguistic unit (word, phrase,
sentence, text) with 2 senses, both felt by language users: e.g. in the
metaphoric periphrasis the Swan of Avon" (for W. Shakespeare) the
original meaning of the word swan (a large beautiful and grace
ful water-bird) remains, it is felt by the user who thus describes the
world-famous playwright and poet.
Linguistically, a trope is a paradigmatic notion (according to
G.H.Leech [see 171]), since it is based on the selection of an item
which is a not a member of the normal range of choices available at
its place in the linguistic chain. It is actually an interaction between
usual and unusual collocations, i.e. an opposition between the devi
ant (unusual) segment and the paradigm of elements that would be
normal in the given context. The following example is borrowed
from V.A.Maltzevs manual [179, p. 93], where he analyses the col
location the tiger sun (sun = tenor (T), tiger = vehicle (V)), taken
from Lowells poem Night Clouds:
Normal paradigm
The

morning
setting
warm
hot
etc

Sun

New Paradigm

the

morning
setting
warm
hot
etc
tiger

J>

Normal

sun

deviant

In terms of semantics, tropes have been studied by very many

linguists. Yu.Levin describes the process in most general terms [see
179, p. 94]. So the tenor-vehicle opposition in a trope develops a
kind of semantic tension which results in the breakdown of the lexi
cal meaning of the words to semes and their rearrangement: a new
nucleus and new peripheral semes appear. In our example the word

tiger has the following semantic markers: animate, non-human,

animal, carnivorous, feline, etc. The seme fierce is somewhere on
the periphery. These semantic components are incompatible with the
semantic markers of the notion sun , such as non-animate, physical
object, non-organic, bright, hot, etc. When brought together, these
semantic structures (lexical meanings of the words tiger" and sun )

Lists of tropes and figures in treatises of classical rhetoric con

tained from 200 up to 400 and more names, only some of which being
used by modem philology. Scholars try to systematize the terms, but
usually fail: the difficulties they face are connected with an exception
ally wide variety of interaction of tropes and figures in all types of
texts. V.P. Moskvin, for example, states that the universal param
eters that could be used to describe all SDs do not exist, because the
system o f tropes and figures is too complex [see 77], To characterize
it by means of one or two rigid formal oppositions is impossible or
rather inexpedient, since tropes, as a rule, interact, intertwine with

CTUAicTuka

Imagery, as we have seen, has a dual structure, and the images of

an artistic work or a writer can be analysed according to the sources
from which they are drawn (vehicles) and/or according to the themes
(tenors) that attract tropes (see St. Ulmann [201]), though there is a
close correlation and interpenetration of the two components.
As means of language expressiveness (i.e. form), tropes are
always connected with the meaning (i.e. content), they embody
it. That is why the study of tropes demands not only a systemic, but
also a historical approach. In different epochs, in various genres, and
even in separate parts of a text, writers attitude to tropes as facts of
poetic language is different. Researching tropes, scholars now focus
their attention on their evolution in connection with the artistic speech
development in general. It is obvious that by analyzing the artists
preferences in using various tropes, the frequency of using tropes
in some texts, or the writers absolute or partial refusal to use them,
we can reveal the typological differences o f authors outlooks, their
philosophy, etc. [48, p. 380].

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

clash, as it were, overlap and rearrange their components, thus mak

ing the peripheral seme fierce, ferocious" of the lexical meaning
tiger" become the nucleus of the new, contextual meaning of this
word: the tiger sun.

cKapomHQ SJlomoypKa

one another and are often combined with various rhetorical figures.
This is a characteristic feature of both literary-poetic texts and other
types of discourse, including spoken English.
Thus, as far as the nomenclature and classification o f tropes is
concerned, there is no consent among scholars. Still, at least three
devices are singled out by the majority of linguists as basic tropes.
They are metaphor, metonymy and irony (verbal). Sometimes lin
guists also add to this group synecdoche [si'nekdoki], which is actu
ally a kind of metonymy (though some scholars differentiate it from
metonymy and believe it to be the central trope on which all other
tropes are based), and personification, which is, in fact, a type of
metaphor. Other linguists include in this list such widely used devices
as simile ['sim ili] (imaginative comparison) and epithet, though
they both have syntactic limitations (see Yu.M.Skrebnev): similes
must possess particles of comparison ( likeVas ) and are not based,
strictly speaking, on name-exchange, or transference. Epithets are
mostly attributes or adverbial modifiers (unlike other basic tropes);
they are partly semantic and partly syntactic notions. Besides, they
might be called stylistic hybrids since they can be metaphorical,
metonymical and ironic. The same is true of antonomasia, one more
SD which can be based on both the metaphoric and metonymical
types of transference. Furthermore, as has been stated already, tropes
and figures interact in the text and this, too, makes their classificatory
analysis still more complicated. It also happens because there exists
such a universal phenomenon when almost any trope can convert
into another, all being closely interconnected with each other (see
N.A. Kozhevnikova [54]). For example, the simile (imaginative
comparison) in The sand glittered like fine white sugar in the sun
(H.Bates) may be converted , or transformed, into a metaphor (to be
decoded from the context) (e.g. Thefine white sugar glittered in the
sun), a metaphor-simile (e.g. The white sugar of the sand glittered in
the sun), a metamorphosis (e.g. The sand became thefine white sugar
glittering in the sun), a metaphoric periphrasis (e.g. The sand, that
fine white sugar, glittered in the sun), etc. This phenomenon is most
typical of the XX century prose: here one and the same object in the
text is often described by various tropeic means of expressiveness.
Modem poetry is also characterized by widely used tropes-hybrids,
i.e. by the interaction and combination of various tropes in one syn62 thesized image.

So, as we may see, the terminological problems on the one

hand (some terms denote general notions, others name particular
phenomena), and on the other, the problem of mixing classificatory
grounds11, i.e. principles of arranging items in groups, lead to a great
number of most subjective classifications that exist in stylistics. We
have chosen three general and, in our opinion, rather logical types
of systematization of SDs and tropes, the first two being based on
the universal quantitative-qualitative and paradigmatic-syntagmatic
principles of analysis; the third - on a purely semantic principle,
i.e. the interaction (interplay) of different types of lexical meaning
that underlies all main SDs. The classifications do not exclude but
rather complement each other.
The five major tropes can be divided into two classes: figures
of quantity and figures of quality (in Yu.Skrebnevs terminology).
(Here the term figure is used in its most general sense (= stylistic
means)):

Meiosis

Metaphor

Metonymy

Irony

Hyperbole and meiosis are most primitive types of renaming

since their basis is inexactitude of measurement, disproportion of
the object and its evaluation. They are opposite: hyperbole exagger
ates and meiosis lessens, or weakens the real characteristics of the
object of speech. Tropes of qualitative replacement (renaming) are
of three main types: transference based on contiguity (i.e. real con
nection between T and V) results in metonymy, transference based
on associated likeness (similarity, affinity) is metaphor, transference
based on contrast generates irony.
One more basic SD, probably the oldest one (together with meta
phor), is simile. It is also based on similarity but is usually placed
among lexical-syntactic SDs named by Yu.Skrebnev figures of co
occurrence . Viewed syntagmatically, figures of co-occurrence are
classified according to the types of linear arrangement of meanings
and their semantic relations. Since meanings of different words can
be either identical (e.g.: a looking-glass - a mirror), or different
(accurate - wonderful), or opposite (hot - cold), these three types of

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

Hyperbole

Figures o f Quality

CTUAicTuka

Figures of^uantity

interrelations are matched by three groups of devices calledfigures

of identity, figures o f inequality, and figures o f contrast (studied
by syntagmatic semasiology). Below only some major devices are
presented [93, p. 165]:
Figures of Co-occurrence

Figures o f identity
Simile
Synonyms - replacers

Figures o f inequality
Synonyms-specifiers
Pun
Zeugma
Gradation (Climax and Anti
climax)

Figures o f contrast
Oxymoron
Antithesis

Yet the mechanism of formation of some of the SDs mentioned

in the tables above is more clearly revealed in the classification based
on the semantic principle suggested by I.R.Galperin who stated that
all types of transference are practically the interrelation between
dictionary and contextual meanings of the words. When the inter
action of different types of meaning causes an unexpected turn in
the recognized logical (referential) meaning of the word, this leads
to the emergence of various SDs, including basic tropes as well as
other, less clear-cut, types of tropes and devices, or so-called stylistic
hybrids. The following tables show their systematization according
to this principle [see 61]:
SDs (tropes) based on the interaction
o f primary logical and contextually imposed meanings
Metaphor______ ______ Metonymy______ ________ Irony
SDs based on the interaction o f primary and derivative logical meanings
Zeugma_____________________ Pun (Play on words)
SDs based on the interaction o f logical and emotive meanings
Epithet_____________ ____________ Oxymoron
SD based on the interaction o f logical and nominal meanings
Antonomasia (various types)

64

We now proceed with the detailed analysis of these and other

stylistic devices. The first trope to be discussed is metaphor, called
by some linguists the heartblood of poetry .

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

1. W hat is a trope? W hat is meant by the notions tenor, vehicle and
ground?
2. Why does the double meaning underlie the process of image-creation?
3. Explain the mechanism of trope generation viewedfrom various angles (logical\
linguistic, etc.).
4. How can tropes be systematized?
5. W hat major tropes doyou know?

LECTURE 6
M ETAPHO R

Metaphor - a complex cultural and sociolinguistic phenomenon

Structural classifications o f metaphor
Genuine vs. trite, or dead, metaphors
Special types o f metaphor

Metaphors have long been viewed as a cultural and sociolin

guistic phenomenon. Metaphor is not just a language notion. It is
used in other spheres of human activity: in fine arts, in architecture,
in music, in cinematography. Modem theories generalize the notion
of metaphor as a guide to our understanding of the world.
Being a complex phenomenon, metaphor is studied by various
branches of linguistics. As a trope, it is studied by stylistics, rheto
ric and poetics; as a source of new meanings of words (so called
conventional metaphors) - by lexicology; as a peculiar type of com
munication, it is studied by pragmatics; as an associative mechanism
- by psychology; as a way of thinking and learning (conceptual
metaphors) - by logic, philosophy and cognitive psychology.
Stylisticians suggest various definitions, classifications and in
terpretations of metaphor as a major trope. Still, if we start with the
etymology of the word, which is Greek, we shall see that it actually
means transference , transference of some quality from one ob
ject to another one. In other words, metaphor is a SD in which one
idea, thing, or action is referred to/named by a word or expression

normally denoting another idea, thing, or action, so as to suggest

| j some common quality shared by the two. (When we say the road of
i I ltfe we assume an identity between the tenor " life and the vehicle
"road").
| :I
V.A.Kukharenko gives the following definition o f metaphor:
jjj'j * metaphor is a transference ofnames based on the associated likeness
between two objects [166, p.38]. M.V. Nikitin [quoted from 179,

<0

p. 102], while comparing simile and metaphor, uses the term simigg lation meaning the basis of metaphor which is a mental process of

comparison of two objects, and this ground of likeness is implicit,

non-verbalized. The subjective association of similarity, the likeness
between most heterogeneous phenomena can be really existing or
supposed [see 179].
I.R.Galperin argues this idea of similarity pointing out that some
common feature (existing or supposed) does not make two objects
in a metaphor be or look similar, as it often happens in an imagina
tive comparison (simile), for example: Merry larks are ploughmen "s
clocks (W. Shakespeare). Galperin states that here there is no simi
larity but a kind of identification: larks have nothing similar with
clocks, they simply function as clocks for ploughmen who use them
as natural instruments for showing time. In comparisons two ob
jects are kept apart though compared (there is some similarity be
tween them, but they are different); in metaphors they are identified,
which is supported even by the structure (cf.: She looks like a star and
For him, she is a star). So he suggests the following interpretation:

CTUAicnika aHrAiucbkoi

When creating a metaphor the writer uses an objectively in

adequate word instead of some common one, e.g.: The news was
a dagger to his heart. The author uses the noun dagger in this
metaphor to characterize the news and its emotional impact on the
person. The word has acquired in the context a new, contextual,
transferred meaning (mostpainful", striking"), though its first
logical meaning (a kind of a weapon ) is also retained, preserved.
The new contextual meaning does not oust it completely, otherwise
no stylistic effect w ill be achieved (as in dead metaphors). Thus
the two concepts coexist in this metaphor, the result of which being
a richer, fuller, more expressive image-generating phrase than some
ordinary one like the news was painfulfor him".
Generally, the functional potential of metaphor is very great.
The importance of this trope was first emphasized by Aristotle in
his Poetics [see 1] in the 4th century B.C. In English literature the
golden period for metaphors was the Renaissance. Men of letters in
those days were skilled in the use of metaphors. And the giant among
them was William Shakespeare whose works abound in metaphorical
images. His famous sayings are mostly based on metaphoric transfer-

mobu

metaphor is based on an imaginative identification of two different

objects, it is a trope which realizes two lexical meanings (logical
and contextual logical) simultaneously. Its function is to achieve a
striking conceptual and aesthetic effect.

ence, and they have long become the elements of the system of the
English language and turned into EMs (e.g. A sea of troubles. There
is no darkness but ignorance. Brevity is the soul of wit). In fact, much
of everyday English is made up of metaphorical words and phrases,
often passed unnoticed (like the branch of an organization ). It
was already Quintilian (in the 1st century) who remarked that due
to metaphor each thing seemed to have its name in language. And
language as a whole has been figuratively defined as a dictionary
of faded metaphors [quoted from 154, p. 140]. Yu.Skrebnev claims
that almost 30% of set phrases in English are metaphors!
Modem Western linguists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in
their book Metaphors We live By (Chicago, 1980) [168] also state
that our everyday speech is much richer in metaphors than we might
suspect. In the light of contemporary cognitive theories they interpret
metaphors as certain ways of conceptualizing the world and as means
of understanding our experience. They define metaphors as means
of viewing one concept in terms of another. Thus, for example, they
state that in English the concept understanding is viewed through
the conceptual metaphor seeing , or in other words, ideas are
conceptualized as light sources. (By conceptual metaphor scholars
understand some functions in our mind which implicitly condition
our thought process [see 142]). So when we talk about understand
ing ideas, we use such phrases as "I see what you mean , "It looks

cKapoMHa SlomoupKa

different from my point of view ", "The argument is clear ", "Could
you elucidate vour remark? , etc. Emotional concepts and concepts

denoting personal relationships are particularly susceptible to meta

phorical understanding, for example, the conceptual metaphor Anger
is Fire is realized in the phrases: She was fuming". "They had a
blazing row , "Smoke was coming out of his ears There are a lot
of everyday expressions which are based on the conceptual metaphor
Love is a Journey: look howfa r weve come; we can t turn back now;
we are at a crossroads; we may have to go our separate ways; our
marriage is on the rocks, etc. So it means that there is a metaphoric

scenario: the lovers are travelers on a journey together, with their

common life goals seen as destinations to be reached, the relationship
is their vehicle, and it allows them to pursue those common goals
together, but the journey is not easy. There are impediments, difficul
ties; there are places (crossroads) where a decision has to be made
gS about which direction to go and whether to keep travelling together

or part. So metaphor in its cognitive aspect involves understanding

one concept, one domain of human experience in terms of a very
different concept, or domain of experience.
Unlike cognitive linguistics, stylistics studies metaphors that
known, is a major feature of a literary text which is, in its turn, one
of the main objects of stylistic analysis and literary linguistics in
general. Artistic texts abound in metaphors since they are powerful
means o f creating new combinations of ideas, striking, unusual im
ages. O f all tropes, metaphor is the most expressive one for it may
draw closer or bring together in one synthetic image incompatible
objects and phenomena, thus interpreting them in a new way, reveal
ing their essence, exposing their inner nature by pulling them out
of their automatic , traditional perception. Metaphor is often treated
by literary critics and stylisticians as a kind of micromodel which
conveys the authors individual perception/vision of the world.
There exist various classifications o f metaphor. It happens be
cause metaphors are very complicated for analysis. First, the meta
phorical renaming can be based on any property - colour, form,
motion, speed, dimensions, value, etc. Second, they can be expressed
by any part of speech. And third, they function as any member of
the sentence.
One of the most detailed structural descriptions of metaphor is
based on the classification suggested by Ch. Brooke-Rose in her book
A Grammar of Metaphor (1958) [129]. Ch. Brooke-Rose grouped
metaphors according to the part of speech they are expressed by
and their syntacticfunctions. She differentiates between noun meta
phors, adjective metaphors, verb metaphors and adverb metaphors.

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

are used mostly in poetry, emotive prose and drama. Imagery, as is

CruAicTuka

Depending upon the type of identification of tenors (T) and vehicles

(V) the scholar divides noun metaphors into four types'.
1.
T is V (or sometimes T seems to be V). T is linked with V
by a copula. The ground for identification is to be decoded from the
suggested resemblance between the two notions, e.g.
Language (T) is the dress of thought (V) (S. Johnson)
Take away love and our earth (T) is a tomb (V). (R. Browning)
There are times when silence (T) is a poem (V). (J. Fowles)
A woman who doesnt talk (T) is a jewel in velvet (V). (I. Mur
dock)
69

 My head (T) is my heart s lifebelt (V) (J. Winterson)

(Compare in Ukrainian: TKummn - cmpatuna xopuda.
(Jl.KocTeHKo); M oh xama 3flaeTbca MeHi Katomoio, mo ruiHBe aecb
y HeBiflOMOMy nopHOMy Mopi. (M.Komo6HHCbKHH) - this is treated
by some linguists as a simile that is developed into a metaphor).

2. T turns into V (or C makes T into V). T is linked with V by

verbs denoting transformation, or there might be the third element
(C) involved in a metaphor, e.g.:
Time (T) became a hunted animal (V). (M. Spark)
Aflush ofpleasure (C) turned Mary sface (T) into a harvest moon
(V). (A. Huxley) [quoted from 179]
...my heart (T) became a captive in a locked room. (V)
(J.Winterson)
(Compare in Ukrainian: Cipa ManenbKa nmaium eAHana ne6o 3
3ewieio b zcmocuy ap<py. (M.KouioGhhcbkhh)). This type of metaphor
is qualified by other scholars as a trope called metamorphosis (see
for ex. Morokhovsky O.M. [75]).
3. The pointing replacement: T .. .this/that V. Here the tenor is
mentioned and then replaced by the vehicle, or vice versa (this/thatV
... T). There are several subtypes of this type of noun metaphor:
A) V can be accompanied by a determinative (this, that, these, those
- demonstrative pronouns; his, her, etc. - possessive pronouns;
the definite article), e.g.:
A woman drew her long black hair (T) out tight and fiddled
whisper music on those strings (V). (T.S. Eliot);
B) V can function as an apposition (Apposition is a kind of attribute,
expressed by a noun which characterizes or explains the word
modified by giving the person or thing another name), e.g.:
Her face (T), a lifting flower (V), rose towards me. (I. Mur
doch)
Out of this nettle (V), danger (T),
We pluck this flo w e r (V), safety (T). (W. Shakespeare). (Mind the
reversed position of the tenor and the vehicle: V .. ..T).
(Compare in Ukrainian: ^HBHCb, hk cae MepexTjiHBo y BiKHa
Micaifb - napy Kenux. (E-I. Ahtohhh); .. .fle Tij]bKH eepcmu, depee m i
3e6pu, nacyrbca b 3anopouiemH TpaBi. (JI.Koctchko))
C) the combination of simile with metaphor: first a simile is used
and then (sometimes after several phrases or words) the vehicle

of the simile is used as that of a metaphor. This is an effective

device for the semantic cohesion of an artistic text e.g.:
Building in Provence (T1) was very similar to trench warfare (V1)
with long periods of boredom interrupted by bursts of violent
and noisy activity. /.../ The assault troop (V2) finally arrived. (P.
Maley) (T2- builders) T1V'

T2<V2
D) with the vocative. This subtype is often qualified as metaphoric
periphrasis, e.g.
Men of England (T), Heirs of Glory (V)! (P.B. Shelley)
Frailty (V), thy name is woman (T)! (W. Shakespeare)
(Compare in Ukrainian: 3opi, oni eecnm oihouH (JI.ykpai'HKa);
JJyMU Moi M o jio d ii - n o u y p ii dim u, i eu M ene noKunynu!
(T.LUeBHemco))

4.
The attributive metaphor: V is part of, or belongs to T, or
attributed by C, from which T is guessed. The attribute can be ex
pressed by an of-phrase, an in-phrase, an adjective, or a combination
of an of-phrase and an adjective, e.g.
Oh, sun-flower! Weary of time (O
Who countest the steps o f the sun (V). (W. Blake) (T - hours or
minutes) (there is one more metaphor: time is personified - see
below)
(Compare in Ukrainian: Can, no KOJiiHa b 6LnoMy TyMam, xymmb
ceimanoK Mojiomonxu (V) nTHUb (C) (JI.KocTemco) (T - twitter
ing/singing of birds)
The web (V) of our life (T) is of a mingled yam, good and ill
together. (W. Shakespeare) this type of metaphor is termed
by other scholars as simile-metaphor. One more example of this
type:
Dorothea by this time had looked deep into the ungauged reservoir
(V) of M r Casaubon's mind (T) (G.Eliot)
(Compare in Ukrainian: Iuiob Honeu (T) noeinbHHH Kapaean (V);
Ha KonsepmuKU (V) xam (T) jiiTO KJiem. BiKOHua, hk MapKH;
3aTynH CBoi' oni donoHHMu (V) cni3 (T). (JI.KocTemco); FnaflHcy
pyKOK) co6onuHy tuepcmb xuMenie (M.KoujoGhhcbkhh))
The human tide (V) was rolling westward. (Ch. Dickens)
(T - people, crowds of people).

(Compare in Ukrainian: IIpHSiH Konocucmozo Mops

(V ) iwe nepe3 MeHe KyaHCb y 6e3BicTb (M.Komo6HHCbKHH)
( T - a field of wheat); Grom. HW HaMH BcecBiT y 3opm iu KOJibuysi
(JI. Koctchko))
Cloudy leafage (V ) of the skv. (W.B. Yeats) (T - clouds)
(Compare in Ukrainian: IeH kujium, eumKanuu 13 nmutfb (V),
jieTHTb Has nojieM (JI.Koctbhko) ( T - a flock of birds)).
Ch. Brooke-Rose states that there are various other formulas of
metaphor besides those singled out as most wide-spread types. For
example, she writes about one more type of metaphor where the
tenor is replaced altogether by the vehicle without being mentioned at
all. The tenor is assumed to be clear from the context or the readers
intelligence.
In non-noun (adjective, verb and adverb) metaphors the ve
hicle is not usually expressed, but its properties or actions are denoted
by adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. These properties are ascribed to
the explicit tenor, e.g.
Some books (T) are to be tasted, others swallowed. and some
few to be chewed and digested. (F. Bacon). (The vehicle (food) is
obvious from these verb-metaphors.)
Her cutting laughter (T) gashed my heart sharply. (I. Murdoch)
(V - a sharp weapon)
Money (T) burns a hole in my pocket. (T. Capote) (V - anything
that can bum a hole, like smouldering charcoal).
(Compare in Ukrainian: Tlonad 6 epezoM CT'^MoxHamwu cochu (T2)
nonaJiu dpiMamu nid nicui chozo JJninpa (JI.I.EopoBHKOBCbKHH)
According to the structure of metaphors they are divided into two
large groups: simple and sustained. In a simple metaphor there is one
vehicle, while in a sustained metaphor the main, central vehicle is
supported by a number of other, contributing vehicles, which might
be subordinated to (a) or coordinated with (b) the central image (in
the latter case scholars speak about coordinate metaphors):
(a)

V'
X
T V - V ' - V "

(b)

V'
I
V 2 < T V J

Sustained metaphors possess a group of contributory images,

yg each supplying another feature to the described phenomenon (tenor).

If a sustained metaphor is based on reviving some trite, dead image,

we deal with the so-called prolongation, or prolonged metaphors:
here the process of refreshing the almost dead metaphor and giving
it a second life takes place. Consider the examples:
A net (V) of happiness (T) entangled (V ') him so tight (V ), that
he didnt want to unravel ( V " ) it. (I. Murdoch) In this example
the central image (V - a net) is supported by contributory im
ages expressed by verb and adverb metaphors (entangled; tight;
unravel).

(Compare in Ukrainian: Cbdkhmh pamcaMH a nepmHH 6ydue

Kojih nopoacHe Binpo miecicajiocb flemjeM 06
iiep yd u , BOHayxana ryHHO cnpocotiw 1y rnH6HHi h n'muso BJiHBanacb
y Hboro. (M.Komo6HHCbKHH))

The war (T1) was a sort of bookmark (V 1) which divided the

pages (C) of history (T2). (M. Roberts) (V2 - a book - is cor
related with V 1)

The past (T1) is aforeign country (V1): they do things differently

there (V1'). (L.P. Hartley)
Life (T1) is a public performance on the violin (V') in
which you must learn the instrument as you go along (V2)
(E.M. Forster)
I f you lve dropped a stitch (V1') somewhere in thejumper (V1)
of life (T1), you have to pick it up again (V1'') or your pattern
(V2) will come out lopsided (V2'). (J. Winterson)
He had prepared himself with meticulous care, fill ing his mind
(T1) with distilled knowledge (T2) drop by drop, until on the eve
o f the first paper it was almost brimming over. Each morning for
the next ten days he bore this precious vessel (V1) to the exami
nation halls and poured a measured quantity of the contents on
to pages of ruled quarto. Day by day the level fell, until on the
tenth day the vessel was empty, the cup (V 1/2) was drained, the
cupboard (V1/3) was bare. (D.Lodge) (V2 - some kind of liquid
- is implied by a number of noun and verb metaphors). The final
sentence is also a bright example of coordinate metaphors with
the single tenor (expressed by the word mind ).
(Compare in Ukrainian: M 01 KoxaHi, MHJii Boporn! 51 Myrny
BaM OCBiflHHTHCb B CHM naTil. / . . . / B u - M i u modeHHUU, 38UVHUU M iu
m p e n a o K , Mo'izanm eni, mypn'iKU i tu m am u.

(JI.KocTemco))

CTUAicTuka

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

co rn y m e eody Kpunuifi.

cKQponiHQ SJlomovpKa

Mr Pickwick bottled up his vengeance (T) and corked it down.

(Ch.Dickens) (V - any substance that can be stored in a bottle,
but in the context it is, most probably, either something fizzy or
poisonous). This is an example of a prolonged metaphor. The
idiomatic expression to bottle up is explained in dictionaries
as to conceal, to restrain, to repress . By supplying this dead
metaphor with the continuation - to cork it down - the author
revives the direct, almost lost meaning of the word bottle , thus
making the image-bearing phrase sound fresh and unusual. As
a result, it produces a somewhat humorous effect.

According to the degree of unexpectedness metaphors are classi

fied into genuine (also called stylistic, fresh, original, poetic, imagi
native, or speech) metaphors and trite (dead, stale, hackneyed, or lan
guage) metaphors. Trite, or dead, metaphors are word-combinations,
once metaphorically fresh, which have long lost their expressiveness
and become ordinary entries in dictionaries, (e.g.: the leg of a table,
the head of a cabbage; the path winds: the time flies. The first two in
the given list of examples are usually termed nominational/nominative: the third and forth ones - cognitive metaphorsV Nominational
metaphor is really dead since it conveys no stylistic information.
Being a device of nominating a new object/notion by an old word,
it is a source of lexical homonymy. Cognitive metaphors originated
from genuine ones (based on transference of a quality typical of one
object to another one) but through frequent use lost their expressive
ness. They serve a source of lexical polvsemv.
Genuine metaphors are coined by the writers fancy and are
always fresh and striking. The stylisticfunction of genuine metaphor
is twofold: 1) it evokes images and suggests analogies/associations;
2)
it reveals the authors emotional attitude towards what he de
scribes. Thus, for example, the conceptual metaphor mind is a
container (where thoughts are stored) manifests itself in numerous
trite metaphoric phrases (fixed in the system of the language), such
as Afew doubts remained at the back ofmv mind". The idea never
entered his head". "His mind is closed to any new idea . A variety
of this traditional conceptual image is originally exploited by Oscar
Wilde in the following metaphor: Memory is the diarv we carry
about with us . Another example deals with the conceptualizing sadness and lack of hope as darkness or dark colours, and happiness as

bright light o r colours

(e.g.:

to be in a black mood: dark thoughts;

shining eyes; a beaming smile; the light at the end o f the tunnel

etc.) This image is developed, refreshed, and made more tangible

and thus strikingly expressive in the imaginative metaphor from
F.S. Fitzgerald: In the real dark night o f the soul it is always three
o clock in the morning .

There are also special types of metaphors which are treated

sometimes as separate tropes or SDs. Still they are metaphors in
their essence, since the image-creation is based on metaphoric sub
stitution.
Personification. It is also called personal metaphor. It is a meta

dijineoeo dun i HopHHeoi

hohi ,

eenip-Mynam nidiumoe do nopoaa.

CTUAicTuka

with persons (V), i.e. are given human characteristics. Personifica

tion can bef u ll or p artial. Depending upon the functions it fulfils in
literary texts, we can speak about various types of personification [48,
p. 403-404]: 1) personification as a SD connected with the human
personifying instinct and rhetorical tradition, e.g.: my heart tells
m e...; the day smiles ; 2) personification used in folklore and poetry
as a metaphor close in its function to psychological parallelism: the
life of nature and the surrounding world is shown as a participant
in a characters inner, mental life. Nature is often endowed with hu
man, anthropomorphic qualities in lyrical poetry; 3. personification
as a symbol which is directly connected with the central idea of an
artistic text and which is based on a system of subsidiary personi
fied images.
Consider the examples:
There are details which even the most tender memory w ill mis
lay. The shutter-softened houses (T) with their high foreheads.
(I. Murdoch) (V - a person)

The coming day (T) had thrust a long arm into the night. (I.
Murdoch)

I have no relative but the universal mother Nature: I w ill seek

her breast and ask repose. (Ch.Bronte)
In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called
pneumonia (T), stalked about the colony, touching one here and
one there with his icv fingers. (O. Henry)
(Compare in Ukrainian: a) flK i iqacmwi oui y Ka30K\ 6) Cun

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

p h o r in which abstract ideas o r inanimate objects (T) are identified

b) Cmaeumb ocinb Ha 3eMJUo ceoto 3onomy jtcupandojib.

I xoemafouu
cjib 03 u, odm iuu na njieni cyKMany, nepeMomye Jiimo Ha nopni
KomyiuKU monojib, uiue 20jium yiojirm necKimeny copoHKy 3 myMauy.

cKapofliHa SlomovpKa

(JI.Koctchko))
Personification is often used in poetry. In modem prose it is
used to convey an elevated or humorous attitude to the phenomenon
described, or add some dramatic power to nature or other descrip
tions:
Night s (T) heart is full of pitv for us: she cannot ease our aching.
(J.K. Jerome) (mind the use of the personal pronoun she).

The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within

them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.
(J.Joyce)
(Compare in Ukrainian: (a) XonoflHi ocinni myManu KJiy6onaTb
yropi i cnycrcatomb Ha 3eMJiio MOKpi kocu. (6) B minHHi noMm
ropaMH JieTiB b aojiHHy nomix i mpnc no KaMimuix cueoro 6 opodoto.
(b) Cmape3ni Mypu mpeMminu 3 Jtcaxy ycm a 3MopuiKaMU cmin. I
minbKU nepeoni moku ... eimanu zocmeu cMixoM. (r) 3 eMJin UBijia i
KeimaMu ceomu CMifuiacn do nboao (M. Kouio6hhci>khh); Hin ide!
HenopymnuMU onuMa duejinmbcn eejiemni aopu.. .(H Xotkcbhh))
Personification is an extremely powerful stylistic device. Mans
consciousness is organized in such a way that anything that concerns
him appears to be the most important for him. So when the human
properties, peoples typical qualities and actions are transferred onto
inanimate objects, the latter begin to assume utmost importance.
Sometimes personification takes the form of apostrophe
[a'postrafi], which is a direct address to something non-human or
to absent persons. Being an old rhetorical poetic tradition, it is con
sidered to be a special, separate SD by some scholars; or at least a
limited form of personification:
Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, rolll (G.G. Byron)
Milton! Thou shouldst be living at this hour. (W. Wordsworth)
Science! True daughter of Old Time thou art! (E.A. Poe)
(Compare in Ukrainian: Xo,zumo>k, dojienbKOMOH! (T. LLIeBHeHKo);
0 anma3ie\ Th chjio napiBHa, mo 36yayBana cBiT b nopoacHboiviy
npocTopi (JI.yKpaiHKa); HaBMH MeHe, 6 omaniKo, pocH 3 nejHOCTOK
M piii Ha 3eMjno He TpycHTH ( r .H y 6 aH)).

When capitalized abstractions or natural phenomena, being

7 6 treated as friendly or hostile to mankind, are used excessively in

second-rate poems, this may degenerate into what John Ruskin called
disapprovingly the pathetic fa lla c y (fallacy = false reasoning )
of unimaginative personification:
Life! We've been long together,
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather. (A.L. Barbauld)
Animalification, or animal metaphor, or animism. It is a device
in which abstract ideas or inanimate objects (T) are identified with
beasts (V), or are described as though they were living, without at
tributing human traits to them:
...the phrases (T) that insistently barked inside his brain. (J.Wain)

(V - a dog)
Thefog (T) comes
On little cat feet.
It sits looking

Over harbor and city

On silent haunches

And then moves on. (C. Sandburg) (V - a cat)

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes.
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the comers of the evening, ...(T.S. Eliot)

(Compare in Ukrainian: a) 3aKJiauae xojioa iKJiaMu SypyjibOK.

6) ... MenyTbca XBHjii rop6 aTi, zocmpnmb 06 naJiyGy xizmi.

Allegory [ aeligari]. In Greek it means description of one thing

under the name of another . Allegory is usually a complete literary
work of symbolic nature that can be treated as an elaborate and con
tinuous metaphor. The meaning of such literary works is expanded
by having the characters, and sometimes the setting and events,
represent certain abstract ideas, qualities, or concepts - usually Y t

CTUAicTuka

Besides, if metaphoric images involve likeness between ideas/

inanimate objects and plants, we deal with plantification; when
abstract notions are described as if they were concrete, we have the
case of reification (cf.: Ukr. ynpeflMeTHeHHa); if God-like features
are attributed to things, ideas, etc., this type of metaphor is termed
deification.

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

b) BeJiocnneA Honye Ha 6anK0Hi, Hacmaeue poeu Ha TyMaHHe ckjio.

(JI.Koctchko)).

moral, religious, or political in nature. [183, p. 62], Unlike symbol

ism, which sometimes might be quite complex, the abstractions of

allegory are fixed and definite and tend to take the form of simple
ideas that can be easily understood. In their purest form, works of
allegory operate at two levels of meaning simultaneously: at the level
of plot and character, i.e. inside the work; and at the level of the par
ticular ideas and qualities to which these internal elements point. So
we read the work as a simple story but at the same time we are aware
of the ideas that lie beyond the concrete representations. Fables are
examples of simplified variants of allegory, in which birds, beasts
are made to think, speak and act like men, thus representing some
typical human types, character traits, moral qualities, etc. Works of
pure sustained prose allegory in English literature are John Bunyans
The Pilgrim s Progress (1678, 1684) (which is a moral and religious
allegory of the Christian soul in search of salvation) and Edmund
Spensers The Faerie Queene (1591) (an allegory representing the
court of Queen Elizabeth, an interweaving of Greek myths and
English legends). However very many other works make extended
use of allegory (J.Swifts Gullivers Travels, N.Hawthomes The
Scarlet Letter, W.Goldings The Lord of the Flies, and G.Orwells
Animal Farm).

A good example of allegory is a well-known poem by Walt Whit

man O Captain! My Captain!, in which the poet mourns the death
of Abraham Lincoln, president of the USA from 1861 till 1865, who
held office during the Civil War between the Northern and Southern
States. The North defeated the South, slavery was abolished but the
victory was marred by the assassination of Lincoln. So in the poem
the North is identified with a ship, and Lincoln - with her captain:
O Captain! My Captain!
O Captain! My Captain! Our fearfu l trip is done,
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
With follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops o f red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead. /.../
(W.Whitman) [quoted from 179].

Since the systems of symbols used in allegories often tend to

wards didacticism and overt moral instruction, allegory is no longer a
popular literary mode. Besides, in allegories the ideas and ideals the
characters embody are presented as something given, constant. Mod
em writers prefer to build characters and to develop and reveal their
personalities gradually, in stages, throughout the course of their work.
Still allegory remains a universal element of fictional narration [ 183,
p. 634]: a literary presentation of characters invariably prompts the
reader to inquire, What does it mean? What is the authors point?
especially if the story seems to be making a general comment about
humanity, thus to some extent suggesting allegorical possibilities. If
the characters are highly original and suggest no universal traits, it
would be unwise to try to identify them as allegorical types.
QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:
1. W hat is a metaphor? Why is it such a widespread linguo-cognitive
phenomenon?
2. Give a detailed description of the device basing on the classification suggested by
Ch. Brooke-Rose.
3. W hat is a sustained metaphor? Specify the difference between coordinate and
prolonged metaphors.
4. Give examples of different types of trite (dead) metaphors.
5. W hat are the stylisticfunctions of genuine metaphors?
6. Dwell upon the special types of metaphors.
7. W hat is an allegory?

LECTURE 7
METONYMY

Types o f metonymy. Synecdoche

Semi-marked structures
Hypallage (metonymical epithet)

cKapomHa UlomoupKa

Metonymy [mi 'tonimi] (Greek metonymia = change of name)

is a SD in which the namefor an object or idea is applied to another
object with which it is closely associated or of which it is a part. So
in metonymy one object is implied and the other, contiguous, associ
ated one is named. I f we compare metaphor and metonymy, we can
say that metaphor is a shift in meaning while metonymy is a shift in
reference. The interaction between Tenor and Vehicle in metaphor
is based on resemblance (even if imaginary); metonymy reflects the
actually existing relations between T and V, whose interaction is
based on their contiguity (nearness in reality): e.g. I was ready for
mv knife and fork (V) (Ch.Dickens) (the word-combination my knife
andfork here stands for dinner (T)).
Metonymical words and phrases might be quite traditional, trite
and passed unnoticed. For example, when we say the kettle is boil
ing , we do not actually mean that the kettle as a vessel is boiling,
but we mean the water inside it. Thus the thought is concretized and
its expression is shortened (instead of the longer phrase the water
in the kettle is boiling"). (Compare in Ukrainian: Becb Kuie npo ife
eoeopumb. Here Kyiv stands for people living in it.)
A lot of metonymical expressions are found in slang: a redneck'
is a working man whose neck has been toughened by years in the
wind and sun; an old man means an experienced workman; the
heavy" in an American movie is a villain whose enormous size and
aggressive behaviour have become conventional. Such expressions
are dealt with in lexicology.
Since there are very many different types of interrelations begf) tween T and V, there exist different cases/types of metonymy.

The simplest kind of metonymy is called synecdoche [si 'nekdoki],

which is often treated by scholars as a separate device or a special
type of metonymy In synecdoche, a part of something is used to sug
gest the whole thing, (e.g.: He had no roof over his head (<a roof (V)
- a place to live, one house (T)). A typical (stereotyped) synecdoche
is the word hands used to mean workers (Hands wanted!) or
sailors (All hands on deck!). Some more familiar examples with
the tenor man , person :
Two heads are better than one.
The hat went away.
Such an old moustache is not a match for a young girl.
(Compare in Ukrainian: BiH i He noMiTHB, hk vopnuu nuauf
3HHK 3 a nOBOpOTOM .)

Another variety of synecdoche is the use of the singular (the

so-called generis singular) to suggest theplural (or the whole class),
e.g.:
There was a sharp gleam of enjoyment in his eve. (I. Mur
doch) ( eyes are meant).
When the name of the species (in the singular) is used instead
of the name of the genus we deal with the so-called narrowing
(or specializing) synecdoche [48, p. 387], e.g.: to earn an honest

CTUAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

The opposite type of synecdoche ( the wholefor a part) occurs

when the name of the genus is used in place of the name of the species
(the so-called broadening , generalizing synecdoche), as in Stop
torturing the poor animal'! (instead of the poor dog ); or when the
plural of disapprobation is resorted to: Reading books when I am
talking to you! (instead of a book ) (see alsoYu. Skrebnev).
Numerous other types of metonymy-forming interrelations of
two objects have no special names. The most widely used of them
are as follows:
1) names of tools (instruments) are used instead of names of
actions/agents: Give thy thoughts no tongue (V) (W. Shakespeare).
(T - verbal expression)
The pen (V1) is mightier than the sword (V2) (E.G. BulwerLytton) (T 1 - a written word, T2 - a war; or more generally, T 1 words, ideas; T2 - fighting)
2) the symbol - for the person/thing symbolized. Consider some
familiar cases:

mobu

penny.

81

Sceptre and crown (T - king/kings)

Scythe and spade (T - peasants)
From the cradle (V 1) to the grave (V2) (from birth (T1) to death

(T2))
3) the result (effect) is used for the cause:
Thefish desperately takes the death (V). (T - the hook)
4. the cause for the effect:
He lives by his pen (V). (T -writing and selling books)
O
for a beakerfull of the warm south (V)/ (J.Keats) (T - wine;
here it takes three steps/stages to decode the tenor: wine is described
by the warm south , that is the warm sun of the South, which ripens
the grape from which wine is produced)
5. the container for the thing contained. Here are some familiar
cases of this type:
He drank the cup (T - the contents of the cup)
He is toofond of the bottle (T - the liquor in the bottle)
The wood sings (T - birds in the wood)
The last example can be treated as a metaphor if, for example,
the author means the wind singing in the wood, or if the wood is
personified in some fairy-tale, then "sings " might be interpreted as
a verb-metaphor.
6 . the maker for the thing made:
They have several Van Dvcks and a Velasquez, (instead of pic
tures by Van Dyck and Velasquez) This is a case of metonymic an-

cKapomHa UlomoupKCL

tonomasia.

7. the concrete for the abstract:

The camp (V1), the pulpit (V2) and the law (V3)
for rich men's sons are free. (P.B. Shelley) (T 1 - military ser
vice; T2 - religion as a professional occupation, or probably, more
generally - knowledge, education; TJ-justice)
8 . the abstract for the concrete (also, some human quality/feature for the person/bearer):
It was not only writers; it was a thoroughly representative gath
ering - science, politics, business, art. the world fW.S. Maugham)

(instead of scientists, politicians, businessmen , etc)

9. the material for the thing mad'e of it:
She was wearing an expensive black silk (V) with a string of
pearls (N. Mailer) (T - a dress made of silk)

The enumeration could be continued. E.N. Zaretskaya gives

the following table of possible metonymical parallels ( denotational
pairs) [48, p. 385]:
Person - a place of work
- a place of living
- an epoch
- people he/she is surrounded with/by
- his/her race/nationality
Abstract notion - science
- an author
Object - its use (purpose for which it is used)
- appearance/look
- impression
- colour
Animal - its habitat
- impression
- behaviour
- interaction with man
Action - aim
- result
- agent/doer
- place
- time
- method/way/means/instrument

CTUAicTuka

aHrAiucbkoi

mobu

In fact, there are cases of metonymy that are not so easy to clas
sify. Yu.M.Skrebnev quotes such an example from Clifford: ...he
didnt realize it, but he was about a sentence away from needing
plastic surgery [93, p. 110]. Its remote implication is the follow
ing: if he had gone on talking, if he had uttered another sentence,
he would have been beaten up, and his face disfigured so as to need
plastic surgery. Skrebnev terms it a consequence metonymy. Actu
ally, these cases are not so rare since this is a typical example of the
violation of lexical combinability which results in so called "semi
m a rk e d (N.Chomskys term) structures (the same is also true of
oxymoron).
G.
Leech analyses the popular example a g rie f ago , explaining
that the normal paradigm for the structure would be:

a minute 1
an hour >
a year J

ago

Though at the level of parts of speech (i.e. syntactically) such a

combination - a grief ago - is quite possible (so it is not unmarked),
it is not so at the semantic level, because the word grief does not
contain the temporal seme as do the other words in the normal para
digm (it is thus considered to be semi-marked). The reader adds the
seme of time and interprets the phrase as referring to some tragic
period in the characters life. This is metonymical transference since
it is based on the contiguous associations [see 3, p.96]. Consider
one more vivid example of metonymy which is realized in a semi
marked structure:
Mrs. Tukesbury invited them to sit down and offered them the
plate of cucumber sandwiches./.../ The vicar returned three cucumber
sandwiches later. (J.Archer)
As a rule, metonymy is expressed by nouns. However, there
exists one more special type of adjectival metonymy often treated
separately and having a special name. It is a metonymical (or trans
ferred) epithet termed hypallage [hi'paetad3i]. Like metonymy it is
based on contiguity and consists in the transference of an adjective
from the noun to which it properly belongs to another noun which
is closely associated with theformer noun, for example when some
human quality is transferred to something inanimate associated with
this person:
Melissa shook her doubtful curls (A. Tennyson) (i.e. Doubt

!
I

fully/In doubt Melissa shook her curls)

I lit a rather pleased cigarette (P.G. Wodehouse) (i.e. I was
pleased, not my cigarette, which I lit being in a pleasant mood)
A lackey presented an obsequious cup of coffee (T. Carlyle)
(i.e. The lackey did it too respectfully, too obediently)
She wept with waking eves (G.Meredith) (Obviously the
woman is awake, not just her eyes)
Familiar (trite) cases of hypallage are numerous but they are no
- longer felt as tropes:

Coi

84

a happy time; a criminal court; the Foreign Office; a cheap

market; a wearyjourney (the examples are taken from [ 179, p. 120]).
(Compare in Ukrainian: padicnuu denb)

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

W hat is a metonymy? W hat is the difference between metonymy
synecdoche?
W hat types of metonymy doyou know?
Explain the notion of "semi-marked structures.
W hat is a hypallage? Give examples of trite metonymical epithets.

LECTURE

mon

mi

The essence o f irony. Verbal irony

Sustained (or structural) irony: various types
Irony and humour as forms o f the comical. Sarcasm

Irony ['aironi] (from the Greek eironeia = hidden mockery)

is a device based on the interaction o f dictionary and contextual
meanings standing in opposition. So if metaphor is transference by
similarity, metonymy - by contiguity, irony is transference by con
trast. It expresses either an attitude or a situation in which words or

actions depicted in the context mean the opposite of their ordinary

meanings or implications.
The status of irony and its mechanism are still not fully worked
out, though it was Aristotle who gave the first definition of irony,
and since then a great many works have been published dedicated to
this complex linguistic phenomenon that is treated by most scholars
in its narrow sense (verbal irony) and in its broad sense (sustained,
or structural irony). According to V.A.Kukharenko, the essence of
verbal irony is in the foregrounding of the contextual evaluative (but
not logical) meaning of the word, when a positively charged word
is understood as a negative qualification. So the general scheme for
irony is: praise stands for blame (and very rarely - vice versa: see
. . . [ 9 3 ] ) :
|j;
A fine frie n d you are! ( to a friend who has let you down)
|
She turned with the sweet smile o f an alligator (J.Steinbeck)
^ j ; (the alligators smile - if such exists - would definitely be character52 ; ized as awful, toothy and bloodthirsty).
Irony may be expressed in the form of innuendo (= a hint):
#

There are no robbers in the country now, they have a ll be

come hotel-keepers.

The p rin cip a l difference between a cat and a lie is that a ca

fig has only nine lives. (M.Twain)

There is never a good champagne year, unless there is a good

(H.Palmerston)
Sustained, structural irony occupies the whole utterance, pas
sage, text and may turn into a text category realized on various levels
- lexical, syntactical and semantic; or it can be based on stylistic
opposition (when the wrong, unsuitable register is used to create an
ironic effect). As a rule, sustained irony does not have any definite
syntactic structure or lexical markers. Sometimes it is impossible to
trace the exact word(s) responsible for the ironic sounding but we
feel the contradiction, discrepancy between what is safd and what
is meant. So the opposition in both verbal and structural types of
irony is between meaning and sense (i.e. between the said and the
implied). Thus, there are cases when irony or the general ironic
tone are formed and perceived in the macrocontext of a literary
work (cf.: the beginning of E.Hemingways F a irw e ll to Arms: We
had a fin e life . ). There are also plenty of examples of ironic titles:
irony in this case is realized on the level of the whole text -readers
fully perceive it only after they have read it to the end: O.WildesAn
Id e a l Husband, A Devoted Friend; G.Greenes The Quiet American;
K.Amiss Lucky Jim.
Some scholars differentiate between irony o f language (ver
bal) (when words are used in their opposite meanings) and irony o f
situation (when the relationship between characters or the outcome
of the events seem to be the reverse of what would normally be
expected). In literature the latter, sustained, type (called also liter
ary irony ) involves the use of a naive or deluded hero or unreliable
narrator whose views of the world differ from true circumstances
recognized by the author and readers. A similar case is the so-called
dram atic irony. Here the readers know more about the situation than
the character, thus ascribing a sharply different sense to some of the
characters statements.
The term cosmic irony [122, p. 114] is sometimes used to denote
a view of people as the dupes of a cruelly mocking fate, as in the
novels by Thomas Hardy.
The term Socratic irony is used in rhetoric to denote an ora
torical method when a persons argument is exaggerated to such an
extent that its weakness is revealed.
The notion of so-called romantic irony , used in literary criti
cism, was introduced by German romanticists and philosophers g f

CruAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

mobu

apple crop in Normandy.

cXapojiiHQ UlomoupKa

(F. Schlegel). In English literature of the period this philosophical

principle of universal romantic irony, as an absolute expression of
freedom ( to doubt or deny everything ), found its practical real
ization in the works of G.G. Byron. It was actually based on the
discrepancy between the romantic dream (ideal) and the harsh
reality of life.
In view of all this, the status of irony as a clear-cut trope seems
dubious, since the ironic effect is often produced in the text by lexi
cal, syntactic SDs (e.g. periphrasis, metaphor, hyperbole, oxymoron,
zeugma, pun, wit, gradation, syllepsis, antithesis, litotes, etc.) and
logical-semantic means (e.g. paradox, contrast, breach of expec
tancy, clash of styles, etc.). Different authors express their ironic at
titude by resorting to grotesque (J. Swift), paradox (B.Show), parody
(L.Stem), etc. [167; 46]. Irony may also be qualified as a general
artistic principle and as such it is most conspicuous in the works of
Oscar Wilde and Bernard Show (late XIX - early XX centuries). It
also plays an important role in the creative work of many modem
authors. As almost all novels are essentially about the passage from
innocence to experience, about discovering the reality that underlies
appearances, it is not suprising that stylistic and dramatic irony are
all-pervasive in this form of literature [175, p. 179].
Another difficulty lies in the fact that irony is considered to be a
form of the comical, since obviously it might have some humorous
implication. However humour and irony as forms of the comical are
quite different, and they should not be confused. Irony can be based
on something funny, but it is usually disguised as serious and the
negative attitude prevails. In humour - vice versa: often something
serious is disguised as funny, and the positive attitude to what is
described predominates. Humour is intended to improve slight im
perfections and aims at producing, awakening laughter when a funny
incident or an odd feature of human character is exposed quite goodnaturedly [see 179]. Irony is veiled as a rule, humour is direct:
Advice is always given and never taken. (The humorous
implication prevails)
The trouble with modem education is that you never know
how ignorant people are. (E.Waugh) (this is a case of innuendo - the
implication is negative and definitely ironic)

When irony aims at exposing some grave vices, especially in

social spheres, it may achieve an effect of bitter mockery and turn into
sarcasm. V.A. Maltzev differentiates between irony and sarcasm by
stating that in sarcasm a man does not, as in irony, say the opposite
to what he means or resort to innuendo. He says what he means, but
says it in a way that implies mockery, or contempt. Sarcasm is harsh
and often crude [179, p. 16-18]:
What a fine musician you turned out to be! (irony)
You couldnt play this piece correctly even i f you had two
assistants, (sarcasm)

Sarcasm does not have a hidden meaning: it is always cutting

and never gentle. Taunting irony and sarcasm are applied in s a tiri
cal works for censuring purposes, to expose social vices (see, for
example, the works of Evelyn Waugh, one of the most famous rep
resentatives of British satirical prose).
QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:
1. W hat is verbal irony?
2. W hat types of sustained irony doyou know?
3. Why is irony often viewed by scholars as an artistic principle and as a much more
complicated notion than a simple stylistic device?
4. Explain the difference between humour, irony and sarcasm.

LETilFE 9
M A JO R

STYLISTIC HYBRIDS

Epithet: types andfunctions

Antonomasia
Periphrasis. Euphemism.
Hyperbole. Understatement

Being something partly syntactic and partly semantic, epithet

[ epi09t] (in Greek addition ) does not match any of various clas
sifications. Some scholars (for example, T.N. Onoprienko [81]) be
lieve that epithet may be defined as a generating centre of the whole
system of tropes since any trope can be transformed into an epithet,
e.g. the sea was smiling (metaphor) the smiling sea (metaphori
cal epithet); his chest is like a barrel (simile) >his barrel chest (an
epithet based on a simile); his fin g e r accused us (metonymy)
his accusing fin g e r (metonymical epithet), etc. What is an epithet?
Since it may be metaphorical, metonymic, ironical, or based on a
simile, epithet is not a pure trope, and is often treated as a stylistic
mixture, a hybrid. It is a SD based on the interaction o f logical
and emotive mean ings o f the word ' which expresses the individual,
evaluative, emotionally coloured attitude o f the author towards the
object/person described by emphasizing a certain property o r fe a
ture. It is possible to say that in epithet the emotive meaning of the

55
.8

90

word is foregrounded to suppress the denotational meaning of the

latter [166, p. 53]. Epithet usually fulfils the syntactic function of
attribute (or predicative) in a sentence, thus being expressed mostly
by adjectives, sometimes adverbs, and very rarely by nouns (ofphrases). The choice of epithets is supposed to be one of the primary
characteristics of a writers style, but here we deal with the so-called
speech epithets. There are many other - language epithets - that are
stable combinations fixed in the system of the language. One more
problem is of great importance in this respect. Should we treat all
attributes used in a text as epithets? The majority of scholars believe
that not all attributes are epithets since they are non-evaluative and

quite objective: e.g. a golden ring (a ring made of gold) - a logical

attribute; golden h a ir-a metaphorical epithet. So doubtless epithets
are metaphorical and metonymic epithets (hypallage) since they are
tropes based on name-transference.
There exist various classifications and systematizations of epi
thets. Among the first semantic classifications there is one suggested
by A.N.Veselovsky (1838 - 1906) [see 19]. He differentiated be
tween
tautological epithets ( the blue sky ; i.e. the skys inherent
feature is being blue)
descriptive/characterizing epithets ( a grand style)
metaphorical epithets (the weeping skv)
synaesthetic (in Veselovskys terminology syncretic ) epi
thets (warm colours). The essence of synaesthesia is the linking
together of sensory perceptions out of two or more senses, most com
monly hearing and sight, such as speaking of how a colour sounds,
or how a smell looks (see also [202, p. 83]): e.g. We saw the sun
rising over the water, and the light got louder and louder until we
were shouting to make ourselves heard. (J.Winterson).

I.R. Galperin classifies epithets into two main semantic types:

the ghost-like face).

Structurally, depending on their composition, epithets fall

into:
1.
2.

simple (e.g. silvery laugh)

compound (e.g. an apple-faced woman)

CTUAicTuka

to a feature which is essential to the object, inherent in its concept:

e.g. a dark forest: close attention. Unassociated epithets add a feature
not inherent in the concept; they may be so unexpected as to strike the
reader by its novelty: e.g. a heart-burning smile: voiceless sands.
V.A.Kukharenko also differentiates between two main groups of
epithets but her classification has a slightly different semantic accent,
and the types of epithets are more precisely specified. So according
to that scholar, epithets might be divided into affective (or emotive
proper) andfigurative (or transferred). Affective epithets convey the
speakers emotional evaluation of the object described: e.g. an ex
traordinary talent, a magnificent day. Figurative epithets arc tropes,
they are formed of metaphors (e.g. the smiling sun), metonymies
(e.g. the sleepless pillow) and similes, expressed by adjectives (e.g.

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

associated and unassociated. Associated epithets are those pointing

3. hyphenated (also called phrase, or sentence epithets) (e.g.

the sunshine-in-the-room smell). This type of epithet is mostly used
with such words as expression, air, attitude, look, etc. (e.g. She gave
Mrs. Silburn a vou-know-how-men-are look. (J.Salinger))
4. two-step (e.g. an unnaturally mild afternoon): here the pro

cess of qualifying passes two stages; first the noun is qualified (a

mild afternoon), then the epithet itself (unnaturally mild).
There exists one more structural type of epithet which is rather
unusual and often treated separately. It is termed differently by dif
ferent scholars: either reversed (Galperin I.R.) or inverted (V.A.
Kukharenko). Inverted epithets, as well as phrase epithets, are espe
cially peculiar to the English language. Inverted epithets are based on
the contradiction between the logical and the syntactical: e.g. the toy
of a girl (= a small, toy-like girl); the devil of a woman (= a devilish
woman). Here the logically defining (toy-like, devilish) becomes the
syntactically defined (due to the structure - the of-phrase that follows
the epithet expressed by a noun). A ll reversed/inverted epithets can
be easily transformed into conventionally structured epithets: e.g.
the giant of a man * a gigantic man. However sometimes it is not
so easy to differentiate between the inverted epithet and the noun
metaphor of the same structure. Transformation and translation into
your mother tongue might be helpful; in other cases the interpreter
usually has recourse to the macrocontext. Consider the examples:
The possible transformation of the inverted epithet "the toy (V)
of a girl (T) is a girl like a toy/a toy-like girl (but never "a girl s
toy" - mind here the difference in translation!). One more example of
an inverted epithet: the shadow of a smile. Possible transformation:
the smile like a shadow but not the smile s shadow.
The example of a noun-metaphor is the steps of the sun (see
above) (Tenor is implied - minutes or hours; Vehicle - the steps of
<aj I the sun). Possible transformation: the sun s steps (the possessive case
|>! S points to the personified qualities of the object described), but never
| j I the sun like steps . In some difficult cases, where neither translation
5) j nor transformation might be very helpful, the use of the indefinite
I IJ article may assist while discriminating between the two structures:
J e.g. the velvet of the night (the nights velvet; the night which is soft,
^ j dark and warm like velvet) and the velvet of a night (the velvet-like
night). Structurally, the former example is a noun-metaphor, while
the latter is obviously an inverted epithet, though both the cases are
$ 2 exploiting the metaphoric transference.

From the point of view of their distribution epithets may be used

in pairs and in chains. Consider the examples:
a masked and muffled man (the pair epithets are often al
literated, i.e. the initial consonants are repeated for purely stylistic
purposes)
In the cold, gray, street-washing, milk-delivering early morn
ing /.../.
English folklore abounds in traditional epithets (also called
fixed, conventional, standing). They are usually grouped into
1) tautological (e.g. a soft pillow: a green wood)
2) evaluative (e.g. the merry month of May; true love)
3) descriptive (e.g. a dark forest: a fair maid).
Thus the basic characteristic of epithet is its emotiveness and
subjectivity.
Antonomasia [aentano'meizia] (Greek naming instead ) is a SD
based on the simultaneous realization of two lexical meanings - the
logical and nominal ones. It is used for brevity and picturesqueness.
There are various types of antonomasia.
The first type occurs when a proper name (name of an indi

CruAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

inventors:
e.g.: diesel (an internal-combustion engine thus named after
the German engineer R. Diesel); mackintosh (thus called after the
Scottish chemist Ch. Mackintosh who invented the fabric); sandwich
(after Lord Sandwich)
Former geographic names that serve as common nouns to
denote things originated from them:
e.g.: china, Champagne, Chester, Bordeaux.
They are studied by lexicology and have hardly any stylistic
significance. This cannot be said about metaphorical and metonymic
varieties o f antonomasia, which are based on the similar mecha
nisms of name-transference.
1) metaphorical antonomasia is (a) the use of the name of a
historical, literary, mythological, biblical personage applied to a
person whose features resemble those of a well-known original, or

mobu

vidual person, place, etc.) is turned (semantically) into a common

noun. Among familiar examples there are so-called historical cases
of antonomasia:
There are numerous things that got their names after their

93

(b) the geographic name connected with some historical event, which
is used for its essence [93, p. 117]:
e.g.: (a) He is a regular Sherlock Holmes. (C. Doyle) (= an ob
servant and shrewd person)
He is that Napoleon of crime, Professor Moriarty. (C.Doyle) (=
the genius of a criminal)
Poskitt, the d'Artagnan of the golf-links /.../. (P.G.Wodehouse)
(= a courageous and adventurous person)
He is a real Don Juan. (= a ladies man)
(b)
It was his Waterloo (= his defeat) (cf.: the idiom /o meet
one's Waterloo" = to lose a decisive contest)
2.
metonvmic antonomasia is observed when a personal name
stands for something connected with the bearer of that name who
once really existed. Here are some typical examples:
e.g.: This is my real Goya. (J. Galsworthy) (= a picture painted
by F. Goya)
I am fond of Dickens. (= Dickenss books)
The second type of antonomasia is based on a reversed pro
cess of using a common noun as an individualizingproper name (we
observe capitalization in this case):
e.g.: We call him Mr. Know-All even to his face and he took it

cKapojiiHa UlomoupKa

as a compliment. (W.S. Maugham)

The next speaker was a tall gloomy man, Sir Something Some
body. (J.B.Ptiestley)
There are three doctors: Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet and Dr. Fresh Air.

84

A specific variety of this type is the case when common nouns

are used in their nominalfunction to characterize the bearer of this
name. They are termed speaking, or telling or telltale", or
token names. In 18-19 centuries it was customary to provide

literary personages with speaking names that explicitly charac

terize their personalities (usually negatively). In reality the nominal
meaning of a proper name is not intended to give any information
about the person since it serves the purpose of identification, and
nothing else. J.Hawthom writes: In everyday life we sometimes
meet a person with an unusually appropriate name: the very tall
person called Long, for example. In a novel it is different. The pe
culiar appropriateness of a name such as Heathcliff is surely hardly
ever met with in real life [160, p. 89]. In some types of speaking

names the pragmatic potential is also realized by means of their

onomatopoeic effect (i.e. sounding): LordBrabason Vavasour Vere de
Vere (from J.Fowles). Thus antonomasia ( speaking names) revives
the initial, etymological, stage in naming individuals. It is intended
to point out the most characteristic feature of a personage or event,
at the same time pinning this leading trait as a proper name to the
person or event concerned [154, p. 165]. So it can be likened to
epithet in essence if not inform. Consider the examples - the names
of the characters from Richard Sheridans (1751-1816) famous The
Schoolfor Scandal:
Lady Sneerwell ( to sneer - to mock )
Sir Peter Teazle (to tease - to make fun of somebody in a

playful or unkind way)

Sir Benjamin Backbite (backbiting - slander )
Captain Boastall (to boast - to talk about ones achieve
ments with too much pride )
One more author who was very fond of this device was Charles
Dickens (in choosing names for his characters he was very obvious:

roundabout way so that his individual perception of the described

object is conveyed and emphasized. The origin of periphrasis can
be traced in kenning, a conventional poetic phrase used in AngloSaxon poetry for the usual name of a person or thing: e.g. a boat - a
wave traveller:; a king - a ring- giver:; the sea - a swan s bath; a ship
- a water-horse.

a H r A iu c b k o i

Periphrasis [pa'rifrasis] (Greek to speak all round) is afigure

of speech when a longer phrase with descriptive epithets, abstract
general terms, etc, is used instead of a possible shorter and plainer
form of expression. It aims at representing the authors idea in a

C r u A ic T u k a

Such names are extremely difficult to translate since without

translation they lose their qualifying power. V.F.Kukharenko gives
some examples of successful translation of speaking names in her
bookn HHTepnpeTauHH TeKCTa (Lord Chaterrino - Jlopd Eajiadono; Mr Snake - Mp rad) [62, p. 104]. Antonomasia of this type is
falling out o f use in modem prose with the exception of satirical,
humorous, and publicist works. There also persists a very strong
tendency in show business to change names and apply more striking,
characteristic or just melodious stage names or pseudonyms.

m o b u

Murdstone, Scrooge, Grandgrind, Esther Summerson).

Periphrases are divided into two main groups. The first group
comprises various types of so-called logical periphrases which are
based on some inherent feature of the object that is implied (e.g.
guardians of public order" = policemen). The second group includes
two varieties of figurative periphrastic phrases that are based either
on (a) metaphorical transference (e.g. the root of all eviF' = money;
to tie the knot = to get married) or (b) metonymic transference (e.g.
ones own flesh and blood' = ones relatives). The given phrases
may also serve as examples of trite periphrases, i.e. those expressions
that have become well known through frequent use and entered the
system of the language asperiphrastic synonyms (e.g. one s better
half' = ones wife).
Periphrasis is a subtle and effective way of creating imagery; it
can be pathetic, accusatory, humorous, ironic, etc., for example: Delia

CKapOMHQ UlomoupKa

was studying under Rosenstock - you know his repute as a disturber

of the piano kevs. (O. Henry) (= a pianist/composer).

Some periphrastic phrases become hackneyed, lose their force

and freshness, and are recorded in dictionaries. They may even turn
into cliches - roundabout ways of saying something that could be
better said more economically. When used inappropriately, they
can produce a humorous effect or create an effect of a pompous,
artificially lofty or scientific style. Such periphractic cliches are
called circumlocution (e.g. apart from thefact that'' = except; in
less than no time" = quickly; irrespective of the fact that = al
though). Circumlocution is a common fault in official, commercial
and scholarly writing.
When the roundabout description sounds more polite or used
as a substitution for something thought to be improper to mention,
we deal with euphemistic periphrases that may also convey various
emotive-evaluative connotations (e.g. to answer Nature s call' = to
go to the toilet; surfing in Nebraska = to be mentally ill (AE)).
Thus, euphemism [ ju:fi,miz(3)m] (Greek 1speak politely ) is
a mild or vague substitutionfor a harsh or blunt expression. Unlike
periphrasis, euphemism can be expressed by a single word, which
describes some unpleasant or offensive notion in an indirect, polite
or conventional way (e.g. ...we had visited most of these tiny, dark,
smoky bars and watched thefemale 'hostesses at their age-old work.
(G.Durrell): hostesses = prostitutes). The second euphemism in

should also add that though euphemisms can be used legitimately for
politeness and tact, they are considered dishonest when used to avoid
facing unpleasant activities or to conci al and deceive. S.Greenbaum
and J.Whitcut give the following examples of such dishonest uses
frequent in political and military language: police action for war,
armed reconnaissance for bombing [ 156, p.254|.
fff

a H r A iu c b k o i m o b u

old - mature/elderly; garbage man - sanitation worker; bum/bag

lady - homeless person; broken home - single-parentfamily, etc. Wc

C T U A ic n ik a

this example ( age-old worit ) is a variant of periphrasis since it is

expressed by a word-combination.
In many languages there are words that are considered to be
too blunt and direct or painful and offensive to be used in some
definite communicative situations. They are usually substituted by
euphemistic expressions that are known to all speakers (e.g. to
depart, to expire, to decease" = to die; "to put (animals) to sleep "
= to k ill; to perspire = to sweat; dentures = false teeth).
Euphemisms are particularly common for the processes of repro
duction and excretion and for activities, people, and bodily parts
involved in those processes. A euphemism may eventually acquire
unpleasant associations and give way to later euphemisms: toilet and
lavatory, themselves euphemisms, are frequently replaced by other
euphemisms, such as cloakroom" [156, p. 254], The direct names
of some human phenomena that are painful to talk about often have
a string of slang synonyms apart from euphemistic ones. People use
them, as it were, to defend themselves against the pain (e.g. dead
person - departed (euph) - croaker/goner/stiff (slang)).
There are some other words that are forbidden to be pronounced
on m oral o r religious grounds. In some cultures such taboo words are
conventionally avoided and/or substituted by euphemistic words and
expressions. The Puritans in England in the 16,h century prohibited
very many words and introduced a lot of substitutes, e.g. Heaven ,
Jove , L o rd ' were used instead of G od'. Thus, according to the
sphere of application, euphemisms can be divided into religious,
moral, medical, parliamentary, etc.
In the past twenty years hundreds of English words have been la
beled p olitically incorrect. Speakers and writers now arc encouraged
to use new, p olitically correct, terms. Whether many of them w ill last
is another question. Among the well-known examples we can men
tion the following pairs of politically incorrect and politically correct
words: retarded-learning disabled; fa ilin g student - underachiever;

Hyperbole [hai'paibali] (Greek excess ) is a stylistic device

of most evident and intentional exaggerationfor emphasis or comic
effect. It is not meant to be literally understood. There are very many

familiar, colloquial expressions that are based on hyperbolic over

statement, for example: to be scared to death; haven \t seen you for
ages; so hungry that he/she could eat a horse; a person of no brains;
to have all the time in the world, etc. They do not have great stylistic

value and belong to the system of the language. Stylistic, or genuine,

hyperbole is a powerful device used in various types of text and in
everyday conversation: .. .she came back with a wardrobe the size of
the Eiffel tower. Their stylistic functions are numerous. Below only
major ones are illustrated. Hyperbole is used
to intensify some idea and produce a more striking effect: e.g.
Herfamily is one aunt about a thousandyears old. (F. S. Fitzgerald)
to enhance emotionality: e.g. We shall obey, were she ten
times our mother. (W. Shakespeare)
to create an ironic effect: e.g. The earth was madefor Dombey
and Son to trade in, and the sun and moon were made to give them
light. (Ch. Dickens)

to produce a comic effect. It is very often used in humorous

literature: e.g. She had bright, bulging eyes and a lot ofyellow hair, and
when she spoke she showed about 57front teeth. (P.G. Wodehouse).
A special type of hyperbole that aims at intensification of small
ness (actually by exaggerating this quality) is sometimes called un
derstatement, e.g.: (a) I havent slept one wink, (b) She wore a pink
hat, the size of a button, (c) The little woman, for she was ofpocket
size. (J. Galsworthy).

| l
55 J
j I
_#
*

$8

Hyperbole can be qualified as a stylistic hybrid since it is often

based on various types of transference and combined with other
tropes and figures in writing and speech. The hyperbolic effect may
be achieved by such stylistic syncretism . However it happens
only when both - quantitative and qualitative - types of deviation
from normal characterization of reality occur in one and the same
context. Hyperbolic metaphors or metaphoric hyperboles are not
rare. A created image is often exaggerated to absurdity in a sustained
metaphor or in a chain of metaphors. Nevertheless, it is the utter
disproportion of the evaluation that might be the main distinctive
feature of hyperbole and a clue to its discrimination from metaphor.
For example: The sun was laughing is a metaphor (personification)

but The sun shook with laughter and almost fell down to earth
is a hyperbolic metaphor. Some more examples: / had so much
homework, I needed a pickup truck to carry all my books home! is a
hyperbole, whereas My dog is so ugly, fleas won't even live on him!
is a metaphoric hyperbole since it contains a personified image. The
similar case we find in: "It was so cold that even the polar bears
were wearingjackets. Furthermore, hyperbole is often realized by
means of simile (imaginative comparison), which may be combined
with and complicated by metaphor (personification) and irony, as
in the following example from P.G.Wodehouse: She has about as
much brain as a retarded billiards ball

In fact, some structurally simple (at first sight) cases of hyperbole

may turn out to be tropeic hybrids on close examination: e.g. I was
violently sympathetic, as usual (the hyperbolic effect is achieved
here with the help of oxymoron (see below)). Consider the next
example: Our aunt is so fat, when she walks by the TV, we miss
three showsl. The words 'fat , walk by contain the seme "space ,
whereas the final lines we miss three shows realize the temporal
semantic component of the lexical units. The listener/reader interprets
this hyperbolic phrase by combining both the semes: The aunt is

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

1. W hat is controversial about the concept of epithet? Why is it sometimes called a
stylistic hybrid?
2. W hat types of epithets doyou know?
3. Comment on the structuralpeculiarities of inverted epithets. How wouldyou
differentiate between noun-metaphors andphrases with inverted epithets?
4. W hat is antonomasia? Exemplify its two main types.
5. W hat is the stylistic role of speaking names?
6. Say some words aboutperiphrasis and euphemism.
7. Define and give examples of various kinds of hyperbole.

CTUAicTuka

here with a type of hyperbole based on metonymy.

The opposite of hyperbole is meiosis. This device, though being
classed by some scholars as a trope, w ill be more logical and justifi
able to analyse separately from both tropes and tropeic hybrids ,
since it possesses some definite syntactic characteristics that may be
called essential in view of the process of image-generating.

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

sofat that it takes her far too much time to move her gigantic body
in space So the words " three shows stand for the time needed
to watch them , which is transference by contiguity, hence we deal

LECTLIKE 10
LEXICAL-SYNTACTIC SDS

Meiosis. IJtotes
Oxymoron
Simile

cXapomHQ SlomoupKQ

Meiosis [mai'ousis] (Greek making smaller ) consists in the

downtoning, lessening, weakening of some idea. It is actually a

syntactic stylistic device. In some classifications the term is used

interchangeably with the term understatement . The confusion is
explained by the fact that meiosis can be defined as a deliberate un
derstatement of some idea, which is expressed as less important than
it actually is. Besides, meiosis is often confused with litotes, which
is, in fact, a type of meiosis, or may even be treated as a separate
device. They have completely different structural characteristics.
Understatement in meiosis can be expressed by means of various
lexical-syntactic models, e.g.:
He is rather a decent fellow.
I think we might do worse, (which means neither we did
badly nor we did w eir)
Understatement (often ironical) in litotes ['laitauti:z] is ex
pressed by afixed syntactic model: through giving an affirmation
by denying the opposite. e.g.:
The smell was not unpleasant.
This is not unexciting.
He is not half bad when you know him.
So the general scheme for litotes is (-) + (-) = (+), but this (+)
connotes some doubt, a feeling of uncertainty about the qualities of
the object thus described.
Oxymoron [ (oksi'mo:ron] is a lexical-syntactic stylistic device
presenting a combination of two contrasting ideas. In fact, the word

<jQ{) oxymoron is an oxymoron itself because its two Greek roots are

opposite in meaning - oxys = sharp + moros = foolish. The tenor

and vehicle in oxymoron are antonymous. Among familiar oxymoronic phrases there are various formal and colloquial expressions,
such as speaking silence , deafening silence , dumb confession ,
civilwar, oldnews, awfully well, mightysmall. (Compare
in Ukrainian: cyxe euno; otcueuu nopmpem; dopocni dimu; d3eiHKa
muuia). As we can see, in such phases as awfully nice the first word
has lost completely its logical (denotative) meaning and is used as
an intensifier (instead of the word very ).
Original oxymoronic collocations disclose the complexity, contradictoriness and paradoxical nature of the world, e.g.pleasingpain,
loving hate. These combinations of two semantically contradictory
notions help to emphasize contradictory qualities as a dialectal unity
simultaneously existing in the described phenomenon. As a rule, one
of the two members of oxymoron illuminates the feature which is
universally observed and acknowledged while the other one offers
a purely subjective individual perception of the object [166, p.60],
e.g.: O heavy lightness! (W.Shakespeare)
The most widely used structural type of oxymoron is attribu
tive, i.e. a combination of an adjective and a noun. The attribute in

CruAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

mobu

such a phrase is akin to an emotively-charged epithet in its stylis

tic function: e.g. sweet sorrow. Still there are also other structural
types of oxymoron: noun-noun; adjective-adjective; adverb-adverb;
adverb-verb/verb-adverb; adverb-adjective and free syntactic pat
terns, e.g.:
A neon sign reads Welcome to Reno - the biggest little town
in the world'. (A. Miller)
The bitter-sweet union did not last long. (A. Cronin)
. . . a face benignly severe. (A. Byatt)
The garage was full of nothing. (R.Chandler)
Oxymoron is related to antithesis and paradox since all three
employ some type of a contradiction. Yet they are different devices,
and should be differentiated. Structurally, oxymoron is a word-combination, whereas antithesis is based on syntactic parallelism, i.e.
it consists of two parallel phrases/constructions. Semantically, in
antithesis two contrasting ideas are opposed, while in oxymoron
they are brought together. In fact, the contradictoriness of ideas is
justified and synthesized by oxymoron which embodies the socalled dialectal triangle [48, p. 430]:
HJ1

Thesis

Antithesis

Oxymoron is also close to logical-semantic paradoxes (see be

low), i.e. seemingly self-contradictory statements. being, as it were,
a contracted paradox . The following oxymoronic phrase from
O.Henry might be treated as a sort of paradox (with an ironic tinge)
used to emphasize the contradiction m6 st vividly: " the street dam
aged by improvements (the example is taken from [166, p. 60]).
Simile ['sim ili] (Latin similes = alike) is an imaginative com
parison (also called literary comparison). It consists in an explicit
likening of one object (the tenor) to another object (the vehicle)
on the basis of some common feature/characteristic (the ground).
The common scheme is A is like B (cf.: the general metaphoric

scheme is A is B ). Similes should not be confused with ordinary

logical comparisons, such as He works as hard as a miner. Objects
compared in similes belong to two entirely different classes, and

apojiiHa UlomoupKQ

there is no direct, simple or obvious similarity or likeness between

them. For example, we deal with a simile when a human being is

compared to an animal or a physical object (here the semantic ten

sion between the nouns denoting man and artifact is greater): (a) He
works like a horse; (b) He works like a machine. Comparing a man
to a horse/machine we attribute to him some features typical of those
two: working hard, obediently, effectively, powerfully, tirelessly.
This is the foundation of these similes (called also the ground, or
tertium comparationis).
The ground is either mentioned explicitly (e.g. She is as pretty
as a doll), or left for the recipient to guess. In the latter case, a simile
is richer in associations that may arise, e.g. in the simile She is like
a doir the image of a doll makes it possible to think of various
qualities and features depending on the context, such as pretty,
beautiful, tiny, artificial, or even lifeless, dull and stupid . I f the
foundation of a simile is not quite clear from the context, the author
supplies it with a key, making it extended, e.g. The conversations

jjgg she began behaved like green logs: they fumed but would not fire.

(T.Capote) [quoted from 166, p.89]. When explicit, the ground can
be expressed by almost any p a rt o f speech , conveying some quality,
action, relation, analogy, etc.:
H is nose curved like a switchback, (expressed by a verb)
H e looked at him with the devotion o f an old dog. (a noun)

Jim stopped as immovable as a setter at the scent o f a quail.

(an adjective)
Each o f the lines stands sturdily like a tree, (an adverb)
(Compare in Ukrainian: Bimep eue, hk ananuu nec. (B.Cre(j)aHHK);
(a) CmpymyembCH cad, hk napacojibKa. (6) H a ruieui cmpu6ne cnaea,
hk

nanmepa. (JT.K octchko))

There is one more important point to remember. The linkage

between the tenor and the vehicle in a simile is explicit , that is, T

and V are compared and brought together by a special connective.

The connective affirms that the relationship between T and V is an
imaginary one, an appearance, a resemblance, rather than reality. The
connectives may be expressed by

1. the link words as, like, as .. as, not so... as (like

being the most frequent one):

M y heart was striking my side like a desperate anim al.

(I.Murdoch) (T - my heart, the connective - like, V - a des

perate animal)

Blow, blow, thou winter w ind

Thou a rt not so unkind

As m ans ingratitude (W.Shakespeare)

... tiny red berries, some clutched in spiders'webs likeforgot

ten rubies. (J.Winterson)

A t night the sky looked as black and soft as a moleskin cov

ered with a delicate dew o f stars . the new moon flo atin g in it like a
silver feather. (G.Durrell) (similes in this example are supported by

mobu

The words were delivered like bullets fro m a machine-gun.

CruAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

(P.Maley)

a metaphor, which is underlined)

2. various comparative constructions, including comparative
clauses (with as i f , as though, etc.), compound words, conjunction-like phrases (e.g. ...(in) the way, .. .a form of, etc.):
I f e lt as i f I was in a monstrous spider s web. (H.G. Wells)

There is no more mercy in him than there is m ilk in a male

tiger. (W. Shakespeare) (this simile might be called hyperbolic)
Kftl

 Mrs Spragg herself wore as complete an air o f detachment

as i f she had been a waxfigure in a shop-window (E.Warton)
... behind the wheel sat a short, barrel-bodied individual,
with ham-like hands and a great, leathery, scowlingface.(G. Durrell)
(in fact, similes are expressed by adjectives here, and structurally
may be qualified as figurative epithets (see above))
A little after midnight Dolores Lane came in and stood hold
ing a microphone the way a drowning man hangs on to a lifebelt.
(J.H. Chase)
Mr. Witte s method o f paying off debts would be a form o f
feeding a dog with bits o f its own tail. (J.C. Nesfield)
Brandon liked me as much as Hiroshima liked the atomic
bomb. (E. McBain) (this simile is combined with irony) (the last
three examples are quoted from 93, pp. 148-149]).
3.
lexical means - the verbs to resemble, to remind one
o f, to suggest, to seem, to look and some verbal phrases (to
bear a resemblance to, to have a look o f, etc.). Such similes are
sometimes called ''disguised"'.
He reminded Julia o f an old dog lying in the sun.
(S. Maugham)
She had a strange resemblance to a captive owl.
(J.Galsworthy)
As you can see from some of the examples given above, simile is
often accompanied by or supports other figures and tropes, thus pro
ducing various stylistic effects and/or creating a complex image:
...has put an end to the future as a place we already

cKapojuHa tJlomoupKa

know. Now the future is wild and waits for us as a beast in a lair.

(J.Winterson) (the metaphor here is supported by a simile)

Youth like summer mom, age like winter weather. (W. Shake
speare) (similes are combined with antithesis)
(Compare in Ukrainian: Cmoimb Had homu Bceceim v
3opHHiu

KOJibHV3 i. i noeeH Micfiub cxodumb Had h o m u . Hi6u mum.

(Jl.KocTemco))
Simile is probably the oldest figure and category of stylistics.
This fact can be explained by the predominance of analogy in the de
velopment of human culture and mental experience. D. Lucas called
it an immemorial human impulse. People tend to compare everything
with everything since it is a simple, though not very deep, type of
104 cognition and an effective way of description. When it is difficult to

shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true
beauty is revealed only if there is a lightfrom within. (E.Ktibler-Ross)

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

describe some object, we compare it with something familiar, thus

showing the positive and negative qualities of the object described
or emphasizing some of its definite features. The stylisticJunction of
imaginative comparison consists in this valuable property: it enriches
the artistic impression by bringing together quite different objects,
thus helping to reveal in the object of comparison, besides its main
qualities, a number of additional ones, often quite unexpected. The
greater the semantic distance between the tenor and the vehicle is
in a simile, the more striking the effect is. Thus an original simile is
one of the most powerful image-creating devices:
Her mouth without a cigarette was like a yacht; one pre
sumed disaster. (J.Fowles)
(Compare in Ukrainian: (a) Muzminu dm, hk n 'nmu Mapatpompi.
(6) Cyxa, nopenana dopoza noese, h k cnpaznuu K p o K o du n.
(JI.KocreHKo))
Like tropes, simile may be simple:
My heart is like a singing bird. (Ch.Rossetti)
July had been blown out like a candle by a biting wind.
(G.Durrell)
or sustained (called also developed, "extended, "prolonged",
"epic or "Homeric "). In the second case simile is elaborated/devel
oped into a vivid micro-image and may be combined with metaphor
and other stylistic devices. Consider the examples:
Thefuture lies ahead like a glittering city, but like the cities
o f the desert disappears when approached. (J.Winterson)
Theflowers are just like people. Put too many together and
they get on each other s nerves and start to wilt. (G.Durrell)
People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and

CTUAicTuka

(the simile is developed into a bright metaphorical image)

The silence was terrible then, as tense as a bridge about to
break, a tower tofall. (J.Fowles) (in this example we can single out
two coordinate vehicles related to one tenor )
(Compare in Ukrainian: H e nio6oei-HK e eMizpayii'. Bidnycmu
Mene e pidnuu xpau. (JI.KocTemco)
Because of long use, a lot of similes have lost their expressive
ness and become trite (or hackneyed). They are usually used in lit
erature to characterize the personages speech. Among such idiomatic IQg

similes, known as idioms o f comparison, are the following popular

phrases: as bold as a lion; as deaf as a post; to behave like a bull in
a china shop; to smoke like a chimney; to jump about like a cat on
hot bricks; as easy as falling off a log; as easy as ABC; as plain as
the nose on your face, etc. Their structure is not complete for they

contain only two elements of the comparative paradigm (... like

B or
TC like B, where TC is tertium comparationis, or the
comparative ground). The tenor A, the first member, is to be sup
plied by the language user. Very many comparative idioms contain
alliteration, i.e. the repetition of initial consonants: as busy as a bee;
as cool as a cucumber; as red as a rose; as bright as a button, etc.
Sometimes, according to Skrebnev, alliteration seems to dictate the
choice of the members and may even conceal the true sense of phrases
[93, p. 146-147]. Thus the words bright in as bright as a button
and coo/ in as cool as a cucumber are used in their figurative
meanings (clever and calm, collected' correspondingly); and the
choice of the third member (the words button and cucumber)
seems to be accounted for only by their being alliterated with the
words denoting the TC of the phrases.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

1. W hat is meiosis? W hat is unusual about the structure of litotes?
2. W hat doyou know about oxymoron?
3. Define and exemplify various kinds of a simile.
4. W hat is a sustained simile?
5. Give examples of comparative idioms. W hat are their main peculiarities?

LTDF 17
STYLISTIC USE OF PHRASEOLOGICAL
UNITS AND SET EXPRESSIONS. ALLUSION

Sayings andproverbs
Stylistic transformations of phraseological units
Allusion

Adages, or traditional sayings and proverbs, seem to belong to

the oldest phrase and sentence patterns in English (as in other lan
guages). I.V. Arnold defines theproverb as a shortfamiliar epigram
matic saying expressing popular wisdom, a truth or a moral lesson
in a concise and imaginative way" [121, p. 205]. While a proverb
is characterized by the completeness of thought, a saying is not so
completely expressed, being elliptical in structure [167, p. 30], e.g.
wise after the event. According to Yu. M.Skrebnev, a proverb is
usually metaphoric (and often allegoric) - the proverb Make hay
while the sun shines implies a piece of advice that has nothing

CruAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

mobu

in common with haymaking or sunshine: Make use of a favour

able situation; do not miss an opportunity; do not waste time [93,
p. 117]. The scholar also differentiates between proverbs and max
ims, which are non-metaphorical. They are understood literally:
Better late than never. Proverbs, sayings and maxims are typical of
conversational English but they do not actually add anything new
to the argument, rather summing it up in a concise way. In fiction
they are usually found in characters speech. Sometimes only the
beginning of a proverb is given, which is enough for the interlocutor
since the rest is well-known to him, e.g.:

"What John can see in that horrid man, I cant think. Birds
o f afeather... perhaps? Perhaps. I f he s not careful it 11be a case
o f fo o la n d his money..., I m afraid, [quoted from 179, p. 198],
(The proverbs implied here are Birds of a feather flock together
and A fool and his money are soon parted.)
Unlike proverbs, originated far back in the past and having no
author but the people of this land, epigrams are, as a rule, created by jfff

men of letters. They are defined as terse witty pointed statements,

often satirical, ingeniously expressed' [167, p.30]. They may later
convert into proverbs by frequent use, e.g. Something is rotten in
the state o f Denmark (W.Shakespeare). English classical poetry is
rich in epigrammatic sayings. S.T.Coleridges definition of epigram
is wittily presented in the form of an epigram:
What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole:
Its body brevity, and wit its soul, [quoted from 179, p. 16].
Finally, proverbs and saying in English are often alliterated,
rhythmically organized, and may be rhymed: An apple a day keeps
a doctor away.

The stylistic function of proverbs and sayings is adding an

expressive element to speech. To this group of expressive means
employed in an artistic text, scholars usually refer numerous other
set phrases and idioms. However their stylistic potential is usually
realized not so much by being used in the text in their fixed form, but
through their decomposition, i.e. breaking them up, or violating
their traditional structure. How does it happen? As is known, the
components of a phraseological unit have no independent meaning,
but make up the meaning of the whole combination. So for stylistic
purposes writers may either (1) revive the original independent
meaning of a word/words in a phrase, which gives that phrase a
fresh understanding or significance (this often results in SDs called
zeugma and pun - see below); or (2) attach a continuation to some
element of a phraseological unit by means of qualifying it (the socalled prolongation). The effect created is either originally fresh,
or humorous, or sometimes ridiculous, since the writer, as it were,
pretends to understand the phrase literally (i.e. words are used in their
primary sense). These are two popular types of intentional violation
of set expressions. Consider the examples:
1. - H e took his leave and hat, (to take one's leave say
goodbye vs to take ones hat = to get it with ones hands: the
figurative and literal meanings of the verb to take are realized
simultaneously)
- A life of falling in love and off horses. (C. Boyle)
2. - He was reported to have hisfinger in all the backstairs pies
that went on in the Balkans. (A. Christie) [quoted from 167]. (The
108 idiom to Jiave a finger in every pie (to be involved in everything

is sure to have an end and may have some bright sides/good re

sult); (3) A rolling stone gathers no moss (if a person constantly
changes his place of living/jobs, he is unlikely to succeed/accu
mulate a fortune)).
Allusion is one more type of words, phrases and sentences that
are common currency and may be used by speakers, according to

CTUAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

in no position to talk about beauty, i t s only skin deep after all,

and before you go throwing stones you should lookfo r the beam
in your eye," said Margo triumphantly. Larry looked puzzled.
"Is that a proverb or a quotation from the Builders Gazette? " he
inquired. "I think she means that it's an ill-wind that gathers no
moss ", said Leslie. "You make me sick, said Marge, with digni
fied scorn. (G.Durrell) (The mixture of proverbs: (1) Those who
live in a glass house shouldnt throw stones (attack the others
characters since yours is faulty); (2) It s an ill-wind that blows
nobody good (an unpleasant situation/event, a period of distress

mobu

that is happening) is split by the attribute all the backstairs and

then prolonged and turned into a metaphor.)
- Little Jon was bom with a silver spoon in his mouth which
was rather curlv and large. (J.Galsworthv)
- He had been standing there nearly two hours, shiftingfromfoot
to unaccustomed foot. (J.Galsworthy) [quoted from 93].
One more case of violation of set phrases is a deliberate mixingup or transformation of different sayings, proverbs, fixed idiomatic
expressions and/or making up so called false phraseological coin
ages. The aim is to play upon words and achieve a humorous effect.
Here are some illustrations:
Too True To Be Good (the title of B. Shaws play is a transforma
tion of the traditional saying too good to be true )
"Well, anyway," said Larry as we moved down the veranda to
the table, "That boy's a menace ... he s eot beasts in his belfrv .
(G.Durrell) (Bats in the belfry = eccentric, with queer ideas)
He who laughs - lasts, (cf: He who laughs last laughs lon
gest)
Early to rise and early to bed makes a male healthy, wealthy and
dead. (J. Thurber) (cf: Early to bed and early to rise makes a man
healthy, wealthy and wise)
" I think you re being very nasty about her, and, anyway, you re

V.A. Maltzev, without fear of being misunderstood and without

having to go into lengthy explanations about them [179, p. 198].
Allusion [a'lu.zn] (from Latin to mention indirectly) is a hint, an
indirect reference to something presumably known to the listener/
reader, usually from literature, mythology, history, the Bible. Allu

sion is realized in the text by means of nomination (the word level)

and quotation/citation (the phrase/sentence level). It is considered
to be a special variety of metaphor (Yu. Skrebnev). The speaker just
mentions some detail of what he thinks analogous in fiction/history to
the topic discussed, without having to expand on it. We should, nev
ertheless, add that the educational level of the listener/ reader must
be sufficient to recognize the allusion and decode its meaning:
Therese the prodigal would return wanting everything.
(M.Roberts) (the allusion is to the Biblical prodigal son)
But surely they wouldnt have done anything to Nina?" Thats

the sad thing, said Calvin. O f course they wouldnt. After all,
it's England. I t s like the Duchess in Alice. No one really gets
beheaded. (I. Murdoch) (the allusion is to L. Carrolls book)
I t s not the action that counts, i t s the brainwork behind it, the
quicknes o f wit, the ability to keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs. (G.Durrell) (This phrase is a literary allusion to
Kiplings poem If, which can also be qualified as a quotation.)

Allusions, especially quotations (i.e. words/phrases taken from

a book, play, etc. and used again by another author), are intertextual
elements, they are effective means of increasing the volume of in
formation in a literary work [179, p. 152]: they actuate the readers
thesaurus, cause him to recognize the source and correlate the original
message with that in the text he is reading at the moment.

|
.8

no

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

1. W hat is the difference between proverbs, sayings and maxims? W hat is their
function in speech and literary texts?
2. W hat is an epigram?
3. Speak on the two main types of violation of set expressions.
4. W hat is the aim / effect of usingfalse phraseological coinages?
5. W hat doyou know about allusion?

LECTURE T2
MAJOR FIGURES
OF INEQUALITY

Types of pun. Paronomasia

Zeugma
Semantical'lyfalse chains (syllepsis)
Paradox

It has already been stated that ambiguity is an important attribute

of language. According to G.G. Pocheptsov, in some uses of lan
guage, it is as essential and indispensable as w/iambiguity in others
[184, p. 45]. The context, as we know, usually neutralizes the lexical
polysemy/homonymy. When this does not happen (intentionally or
accidentally), ambiguity arises. The reason for this is the possibility
of various interpretations of the word meanings (primary or second
ary) in such types of context, i.e. speakers use the same words in their
different senses. Wordplay, or pun (Italian a fine point), is the type
of language use that aims at ambiguity resulting from the intentional
violation of referential connections of a word in the context.

money as a price; (2) to rush forward and attack smb)

The electric Company: We would be delighted i f you send in your
bill. However, i f you dont, vou will be. (meaning: you will be

CruAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

The contradiction between the form and the meaning realized in the
context underlies the stylistic effect of a pun, which is often an effect
of the so-called breach of expectancy (or defeated expectancy)
- the readers/listeners expectations are not met:
Notice in afield: Thefarmer allows walkers to cross the field for
free, but the bull charges, (to charge - (1) to ask an amount o f

mobu

Pun is one ofmajor means o f creating a humorous effect, which

is actually its main stylisticfunction. In punning, or playing on words,
we usually deal with one word-iorm used in two or more meanings.

de-lighted, i.e. electricity will be cut off)

Puns can be formed by the intentional misinterpretation of one
speakers words by the other: it happens when the first speaker uses
a word/phrase in one meaning and his interlocutor pretends that f f j

he understands it differently, thus intentionally misinterpreting this

word. Here we often deal with the use of homonyms in one and the
same context:
Professor- "You missed my class yesterday, didnt you?
Student - "Not in the least, sir, not in the least.
Teacher - "What is the meaning o f the word matrimony ?
Pupil - "Father says it isn't a word, i t s a sentence.

We observe one more typical variety of puns when two contigu

ous utterances similar in form, their constituents having essentially
different meanings are used in one context [93, p. 157]. Structurally,
they are usually parallel phrases (the so- called lexical chiasmus) with
the inverted order of words used in their different meanings:
It is not my principle to pay the interest, and it is not my interest
to pay the principal, [quoted from 93, p. 158]
He checked his cash, cashed in his checks.
She resembled one o f those sons o f toils buried beneath tons of
soils. (P.G. Wodehouse) (the last example can be qualified as a bon
mot coined by means of reversion - see G.G. Pocheptsov [184,
p. 43]).
Most frequently wordplay is based on the use of polysemantic
words, but in fact punning can be realized on all the levels of language
hierarchy - phonographical, morphological, lexical, phraseological,
syntactic, textual, intertextual and even interlingual [ 166, p. 44; see
also 101, p. 658]. The homophonic and/or homographic pun is usu
ally called paronomasia: words with similar or the same spelling
and/or sounding but different meanings are used in one context to
create a comic or satirical effect:
Propaganda: a gentlemanly goose, (a homophonic pun: a proper

gander)
Malice in Blunderland (cf: Alice in Wonderland)
Some folks are wise, and some are otherwise. (T.Smollett)
A young man married is a man thats marred. (W.Shakespeare)
(to mar = to spoil)
.8

Yesterday we mistakenly reported that a talk was given by a battleI

JH *
scared hero. We apologize for the error. We meant a bottle-scarred
*
hero.
When a polysemantic verb controls two or more objects that
f g have different syntactic and semantic relations to it, we deal with

one more figure of inequality called zeugma. Unlike in a pun, this

verb is not repeated in the sentence.
Zeugma ['zju:gma] (Greek to connect) is a device that is
based on grammatical analogy and semantic incompatibility, i.e.
a polysemantic word refers in the context to two or more adjacent
words in different semantic relations, thus belonging simultaneously
to different word-combinations and realizing different meanings: one
meaning is usually literal and the other-figurative. Hence zeugma

is often based on the violation of phraseological units:

Time and her aunt moved slowly (J. Austen) (to move - (1) to pass,
elapse;
(2) to go)
He got out of bed and humour. (O.Henry)
She dropped a tear and her pocket handkerchief (Ch.Dickens)
... .forsaking in a moment o f panic his black hat and self-possession. (E.Waugh)
(Compare in Ukrainian: (1) C m api dy6u, cnacu6i eaM 3a ocinb,
3a eidjiimanHH padocmi i nmuub. (2) A ye yotce eiKu. Hixmoyotce u He
3na e rnvMaHHocmnx dvuii hu . MODtce. AndpoMedu. (JI.KocTemco))
When the number of homogeneous members, semantically
disconnected, but attached to the same verb, increases, we deal with
semantically false chains , which are thus a variation of zeugma. As
a rule, the last member of the chain falls out of the thematic group,
defeating our expectance and producing a humorous effect. [166,
p. 43], e.g.: ...she came with such impressive ideas indicative o f her

CruAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

This device is also called syllepsis, or syntactic convergence (see

I.Arnold [121])!
He drove into New York with cleaners, milkmen, newsboys, and
the morning sun. (J.Archer)
Flambeau...received him in a rococo artistic den behind his of

mobu

profound study o f de G aulle , the Common M arket and slimming.

fice, o f which the ornaments were sabers, harquebuses, Eastern

curiosities, flasks o f Italian wine, savage cooking-pots, a plumy
Persian cat, and a small, dusty-looking Roman Catholic priest,
who looked particularly out ofplace . (G.Chesterton)
Very many witticisms, i.e. clever and humorous expression of
ideas, are based on wordplay. But there exists a special form of wit,
which is a paradox. Paradoxes are seemingly self-contradictory fjg

statements involving nevertheless an element o f truth [179, p. 15].

A paradox may also be defined as a daring statement which unites

seemingly contradictory words but which on closer examination
proves to have an unexpected meaning and truth:
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
(G.Orwell)
It is so difficult to understand people who speak the truth.
(E.Forster)
The more things a man is ashamed o f the more respectable he is.
(B.Shaw)
(Compare in Ukrainian:
Kojtcen panox 6ye niuuto.
(JI.K octchko ))

There are two renowned masters of paradoxes in English litera

ture - Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw. Here are a few of O. Wildes
famous paradoxes:
Experience is o f no value. It is merely the name men give to their
mistakes.
Every effect that one produces gives one an enemy. To be popular
one must be a mediocrity.
When we are happy we are always good\ but when we are good
we are not always happy.
When one is in love one begins by deceiving oneself. And one ends
by deceiving others.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

1.
2.
3.
4.

W hat doyou understand by wordplay?

W hat types of pun doyou know? Give an example of paronomasia.
W hat is \eugma ?
W hat is the essence of paradox? How is it related to oxymoron? (see also lecture

10)

55
.3

LECTURE 13
EXPRESSIVE SYNTAX
Sentence length and structure
Stylistic types of sentence
Suspense
The role of punctuation and graphical means

As is known, form and content in language are inseparable. We

have already learned that our feelings, attitudes and ideas are mani
fested most conspicuously through verbal imagery and by means of
form. Any change of form will inevitably cause a slight modification
of meaning and/or emotional colouring of an utterance. The main
conductor of emotions in a written text is its syntactic structure.
Among the powerful EMs of syntax we should first mention the
length and the structure o f a sentence as a primary unit of under
standing. As a matter of fact, sentences are not units of constant
length, nor do they have any constant structure. A sentence can be
shortened or extended; it can be complete or incomplete, simple,
compound, or complex. Its constituents, length, word order as well
as communicative type (assertion, negation, interrogation, exhorta
tion) are variable [93, p. 77]. Theoretically, it can be of any length,
the simplest and shortest being a one-word sentence. Such sentences
are most expressive, e.g.: I f only we could follow his advice. - If.
The upper limit for the length of a sentence is difficult to define.
V.A.Kukharenko gives quite interesting data as regards the length of
sentences used in some modem writers works (e.g. Norman Mailer
once used a sentence containing 631 words, and in J.Joyces Ulysses
we encounter a monster covering 45 pages which, of course, cannot
be perceived as one whole by a readers mind). Hence the informa
tion should be punctuated by pauses so that our brain can receive
and transmit it. The sentence length thus is an important factor in
communication. (We can mention here the so-called hypothesis of
syntactic depth proposed by the American scholar Victor Ingwe, who
formulated it on the basis of the data suggested by George Miller,

mobu

CTUAicnika aHrAiucbkoi

namely his magic number of human memory - 72.) Not only the
sentence length, but also abrupt changes from short to long sentences
and vice versa create a very strong effect of tension and suspense
for they serve to arrange a nervous, uneven, ragged rhythm of the
utterance [166, p. 67]
The expressiveness of a sentence also depends upon its be
ing simple or composite, two-member or extended. The position of
clauses, participial and other complexes in a sentence have a notice
able stylistic effect. Scholars usually differentiate between three basic
stylistic types of sentences: loose, periodic and balanced.
A loose sentence is the least emphatic. It opens with the main
clause which is followed by one or more dependent units:

We came to ourjourney s end at last, with no small difficulty;

after much fatigue, through deep roads and in bad weather [quoted
from 179, p. 156].
Such sentences, as we can see from the example, continue run
ning on when their grammatical completeness has been reached.
Loose sentences are typical of informal conversation and writing:
facts are stated by speakers as they occur to them, freely and art
lessly. To imitate such a style writers often resort to loose sentences
in auto- and pseudo-biographical genre forms.
A periodic sentence (called also a period) is one that keeps
the meaning in suspense and is not completed until the very end.
Periodic sentences can open with subordinate clauses or various
prepositional and participial constructions. They are most typical
of emotive prose:
At last, with no small difficulty, and after much fatigue, we came,

55

.8

through deep roads and in bad weather, to our journey s end.

Presently, feeling a bit less stiff, and as there was still enough light
left, I decided to have a walk round the forest. (G.Durrell)
In this respect, it would be logical to specify the notion of sus
pense (also called retardation) and analyse ways of its production.
Suspense [so'spens] (Latin suspensus = hung) is a deliber
ate postponing o f the completion o f the expressed thought until the
end o f the utterance. It aims at creating a state of uncertainty: the

reader awaits the completion of the utterance with an ever increasing

tension and anxiety. A suspense is achieved by a repeated occur
rence of phrases or clauses expressing condition, supposition, time
116 and the like, all of which hold back the conclusion of the utterance"

[195, p.61]. Among the most typical ways of creating suspense is (1)
putting adverbial or qualifying phrases before the word they qualify,
(2) putting subordinate clauses before the main one, (3) inserting
various parenthetical words or sentences within one large period so
that the culmination comes at the very end, (4) putting participial
constructions before the subject of the sentence. Such syntactic types
are sometimes called left-handed sentences [178, p. 45]. They
are used to avoid monotony and create variety in sentence patterns.
Compare the two alternative beginnings to a brief biographical entry
for Marilyn Monroe [quoted from 178, p. 45]:
1. Marilyn Monroe was born in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926.
She was the illegitimate daughter o f a depressive mother. Her early
life was passed in various foster homes.
2. Born in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926, the illegitimate daugh
ter o f a depressive mother, Marilyn Monroe s early life was passed
in various foster homes.

When treated generally, as a narrative technique, suspense is

indispensable in fiction, for works of fiction are narratives, and a nar
rative holds the interest of an audience by raising questions in their
minds, and delaying the answers. /.../ Suspense is an effect especially
associated with the adventure story, and with the hybrid of detective
story and adventure story known as the thriller [175, p. 14].

CruAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

What is this life i f fu ll o f care

We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams fu ll o f stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this is iffu ll o f care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

mobu

As a classical example of a skillful use of suspense

V.B.Soshalskaya qualifies R. Kiplings famous poem I f whose title
itself suggests suspense. Here is another example of suspense used
in W.H.Daviess poem Leisure:

The third stylistic type of sentences is a balanced sentence. It

consists of two or more successive segments of similar length and
structure containing similar or opposite thoughts as if balancing them
against each other [179, p.159]:
In peace, children bury their parents; in war, parents bury their
children.

Balanced sentences are often used in publicist style, being con

cise but rich in content. Simeon Porter thus characterizes the balanced
sentence: it satisfies a profound human desire for /.../ symmetry
and it has long been at home in English and other languages both
ancient and modem. It may express two similar thoughts in parallel
ism or two opposing ones in antithesis. Such proverbial sayings as
Like master like man, More haste less speed, First come first
served, Least said soonest mended probably represent a primitive
Indo-European sentence-structure which survives in many lands
[quoted from 179, p. 159],
There exists one more peculiar communicative type of a sentence
which is an old but still popular figure of rhetoric. It is the so-called
rhetorical question. It is a vivid emphatic statement in the form o f
a question. No answer is required. Scholars differentiate between
2 types of rhetorical questions: 1) the first leaves the reader/listener
to answer it for himself; 2) the second type is used in soliloque
[sa'libkwi], when a person puts a question for himself and gives
his own answer [ 179, p. 131 ], used especially in a play. Rhetorical
questions are also widely used in poetry:
O wind, i f winter comes,

cKapomHa UlomoupKQ

Can spring be fa r behind? (PB. Shelley)

Rhetorical questions are indispensable elements of the publicist

style. The audience is presented with the question at the beginning
of a speech as a form of introduction into the problem to be thought
over during its discussion/exposition by the speaker.

In any long passage of a written text sentences are grouped into

paragraphs-. A paragraph might comprise one sentence or several
sentences that all help to express one theme. The construction o f
a paragraph is analogous to that o f a sentence [179, p. 160]. The
topic-sentence may be placed at the beginning or at the end of the
US paragraph. So accordingly, we deal with either loose orperiodic para-

graphs. Sometimes the paragraph may consist of correlated themes

I am hereaaaaa.
I am c-c-c-c-cold.

CTUAicTuka

As we know, in oral communication various shades of mean

ing are conveyed by intonation and other means of prosody, such as
pauses, rhythm, tempo, logical stress and pitch features. Besides their
primary function of conveying the logical and emotional information
of an utterance, they serve to neutralize possible ambiguities, which
might arise due to such universal language phenomena as polysemy
and polyfunctionality. In writing we solve the aforementioned prob
lems by resorting (besides various syntactic sentence-models) to
punctuation and other graphical means. Sopunctuation (exclamation
marks, question-marks, dots, dashes, commas, semicolons) not only
serves to specify the communicative type of a sentence, but also to
emphasize and substantiate the lexical and syntactical meanings
of sentence-components [166, p. 68]. Pauses are shown by means
of commas, semicolons, dashes, full stops. Changes in the volume
of voice, its pitch or loudness, as well as some definite emotions,
intensity of speech or its peculiar manner are conveyed with the help
of various graphical means, such as changes of the type (italics, capi
talization), spacing of graphemes (hyphenation, multiplication) and
of lines (see also graphon, Lecture 4). Below are only few example
of the use of punctuation and typographical means in a written text
for various purposes:
Seen her. (a statement /an answer) :: Seen her? (a question) (In
speech the difference is conveyed by intonation)
Playing children? :: Playing, children?
We want to go there now. :: We want go there now.:: We want to
go there now.:: We want to go there now. :: We want to go there
now.
It was AWFUL.

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

(topics, thoughts) expressed in a succession of parallel sentences.

Such a type is called a balanced paragraph.

Hence we can state that graphical means add to the works visual
expressiveness and sounding alike, thus facilitating the process of
text interpretation. We should also add that unusual punctuation and
graphics are most widely used in poetry, where the outer form often
functions as a special code presenting and recording the aesthetic fj|

information. Poems, as is known, work at more than one level of in

terpretation. The graphical form of contemporary poetry has becomc
most intricate as if visually reflecting the ever-growing complexity
of modem reality, transformations occurring in mens both physical
and spiritual worlds. To reflect and, primarily, to interpret the world
changing at breakneck speed, poets need to catch up with contem
porary life, in which, according to K.Kuh, one is simultaneously
subjected to countless experiences that become fragmented, super
imposed, and finally rebuilt into new experiences [165, p. 39].
Typographic alterations, the type size and variety, grapheme mul
tiplication or even so-termed figure verse are not only ways of ex
perimenting with the form and code (see, for example, e.e.cummings
poems) but also means of conveying the poets message, his personal
views and emotions, his subtle or unpredictable reactions to some
thing he observes in life, his poignant or radiant feelings. Among
most typical typographical peculiarities traced frequently in some
samples of English poetic texts are violations of norms of grammar
and punctuation, morphological and lexical transpositions (includ
ing splitting of words and sentences), unusual capitalization or use
of lower case letters, non-standard use of inverted commas, italics,
round brackets, etc. The following two poems by Roger McGough
(a popular contemporary British poet) illustrate the discussed ten
dency:
1. Pantomime Poem

HES BEHIND YER!

Chorused the children
But the warning came too late.
The monster leaped forward
And fastening its teeth into his neck,
Tore off the head.
The body fell to the floor
MORE cried the children

MORE, MORE, MORE

MORE

120

2.

40 -

Love

middle
couple
ten
when
game
and

aged
playing
nis
the
ends
hey
home
go
net
the
will
still
be
be
tween
them
(for the interpretation of the poems - see [70, p. 92-96]).

To conclude, in modem poetic works and some genres of emo

tive prose (like L.Carrolls famous stories about Alice) graphics, or
typography, belongs to the arsenal of means of outer text organiza
tion that becomes informatively significant.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

CruAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

mobu

1. Comment on the main characteristics of a sentence.

2. W hat is the stylistic role of the sentence length and structure?
3. W hat types of sentences and paragraphs doyou know? Which of them lead to
generating suspense?
4. W hat is suspense, how is it created and what is itsfunction in a text?
5. W hat punctuation marks do you know? W hat is the stylistic potential of
punctuation and graphics in a written text (both prose andpoetic)?

LETilFE M
SYNTACTIC EMS AND SDS

Classification o f syntactic EMs and SDs

Incompleteness o f sentence structure. Ellipsis. Nominative
sentence.
Asyndeton. Apokoinu. Aposiopesis.
Parcellation
Arrangement o f sentence components. Inversion. Detachment.
Parenthesis

All types of syntactic EMs and SDs may be classified according

to the two main principles: 1) completeness of the sentence structure
and 2) arrangement of sentence components. The following diagram
shows the possible systematization of major syntactic devices and
grouping them according to the given principles:
Arrangement o f components

Completeness o f structure

Lack o f
components

Redundancy o f
components
and

their peculiar
combining

Abnormal placing
(Change o f word-order)

(Reduction of the (Extension of the

sentence model) sentence model)
REPETITION
(various types)
Ellipsis
Asyndeton
Apokoinu
Aposiopesis

Series
(binomials,
trinomials,
catalogues/
enumeration)
Polysyndeton
Prolepsis

Parallel patterns
(various structural
anci logical-semantic
types)

Inversion
Detachment
Parenthesis

As is seen from the table, repetition often presupposes not only

the extension of the sentence model, but also the peculiar arrange
ment and combination of the reiterated components. Being one of
the main artistic phenomena, repetition will be discussed in the next
lecture, separately. Now we shall describe the expressive means

clearly, sensibly, and modestly, and was never too long. Held the
House where men of higher abilities bored it. (W.Collins) [quoted

from 93, p.79].

Elliptical sentences may be used in one context together with
nominative sentences, usually in descriptions of various kinds to
convey vividness and emotional expressiveness. However we should
not confuse these two types of structurally incomplete sentences.
Unlike elliptical, nominative (one-member) sentences comprise

CruAicruka

The most important place in the first group is taken by ellipsis

[i'lipsis] (Greek elleipsis = a defect). It is a deliberate omission of
at least one member o f a sentence. In modem prose ellipsis is used
mainly in dialogues to reflect the natural omissions of oral colloquial
speech. Speaking to someone we leave out words because they may
be either mentally supplied from the preceding sentence or can be
easily dispensed with thanks to the extralinguistic context:
- See you tomorrow, Mabel.
- Right, George. Tomorrow.
- Same place, same time?
- Yes. D on '/ be late.
Ellipsis is important in providing cohesive discourse since re
dundancies such as complete statements in replies sound unnatural
and are inappropriate, e.g.:
- Finished your work, John?
- Almost. (Cf: Have youfinished your work, John? - Yes, Martin,
I havefinished my work. The complete structure might thus acquire
an additional stylistic colouring, such as, for instance, a tinge of irony,
irritation, or a tired tonality, etc.)
In prose, especially in the authors speech, in the 1st person
narrative, or in passages presenting the interior (inner) speech of
the personage, elliptical sentences can create the so-called effect
of immediate presence as well as imparting brevity, a quick tempo
and/or emotional tension to the narrative:
He became one o f the prominent men o f the House. Spoke

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

that are based on (1) the reduction of the sentence model and (2) the
change in the word-order of its members.

only one principal part (expressed by a noun, an extended nominal

group or a noun equivalent). According to Yu.M.Skrebnev, they

arouse in the mind of the hearer (reader) a more or less isolated image jgg

of the object, leaving in the background its interrelations with other

objects. Nominative sentences are especially suitable for preliminary
descriptions [93, p. 82]:
Implacable November weather. (Ch.Dickens)
Dusk - o f a summer night. (Th.Dreiser)
We have already mentioned asyndeton and asyndetic construc
tions (see Lecture 4) when speaking about the peculiarities of collo
quial English. Asyndeton [ae'sinditan] (Greek a = not + syndetos
= bound together) is a marked, deliberate avoidance o f conjunctions
(usually the conjunction 'and'):
Starlight twinkled on the empty highway where now there
was not a sound, no car, no person, nothing. (R.Bradbury)
In colloquial speech the most frequent are conditional and tem
poral asyndetic adverbial clauses (e.g.: You want this, you do it!).
Asyndetic connection in fiction often imparts dynamic force to the
text. Such constructions help to create the effect of terse, energetic,
active prose, e.g.:
With these hurried words M r Bob Sawyer pushed the postbo\
on one side, jerked hisfriend into the vehicle, slammed the door/.../

(Ch. Dickens)
In apokoinu [ aepo'koinu:] constructions the omitted member
is fixed. Consider the examples:
I never met so many people didn't own a watch. (A. Miller)
(people = the object of the first clause = the subject of the second
clause)
Theres a ferryboat crosses to the pier these days.
(W.Trevor)
As you see from the given apokoinu constructions, the omis

15
1

sion o f the pronominal (sometimes adverbial) connective creates a

blend o f the main and subordinate clauses so that the predicative
or object o f thefirst one is simultaneously used as the subject o f the
second one. (Compare the first example of apokoinu with the stan
dard structure: I never met so many people who didnt own a watch).

This device was widely used in Old English and Middle English. In
modem prose its stylistic function in the text is to produce the effect
o f a careless, clumsy, colloquial speech. As a speech characteristic
it is met in prose works in dialogues, reported speech or entrusted
<jgj| narrative (see below).

One more device based on the incompleteness of the sentence

structure is called aposiopesis [,aepousaiou'pi:sis] (Greek for to be
silent), or break-in-the-narrative. This intentional and sudden break
in the narration or dialogue is based on the aesthetic principle of in
complete representation [96, p. 67]. What is not finished is implied:
the reader is expected to find out for himself what is unexpressed.
Aposiopesis is mainly employed by writers in dialogues and rep
resented speech which imitate spontaneous oral conversation, and
reflects the emotional or psychological state of the speaker - the
speaker is either (1) reluctant or (2) unable to continue, (seemingly)
overpowered by emotions. The graphical indication of an aposiopesis
is usually a dash or dots:
And it was unlikely that anyone would trouble to look there
- until - until - until - well. (Th.Dreiser)
I just work here , he said softly. I f I didn't - he let the
rest hang in the air, and kept on smiling. (R. Chandler)
Well, theyll get a chance now to show - (Hastily): I
don't mean - But lets forget that. (E. O Neill) [quoted from 166].
Standing somewhat apart from this group of EMs is parcellation.

The most important place in the second group of EMs, namely

those based on the abnormal arrangement of sentence components,
is occupied by stylistic inversion (Latin for displacement). Stylis
tic inversion is any violation o f the traditional, fixed word-order in
English (subject-predicate-object, etc.) which does not change the
grammatical type and the meaning o f the sentence but adds a logical
stress and/or emotional colouring to the utterance. For example:

OruAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

p. 76].
The stylistic function of parcellation in writing is to reflect the
atmosphere of unofficial communication and spontaneity of con
versation, the speakers inner state of mind, his emotions (nervous
ness, embarrassment, etc.), to make the information sound more
concrete.

mobu

Parcellation (or parcelling) is intentional splitting o f sentences into

smaller parts separated byfu ll stops, e.g.:
I saw him. There. As usual. With Thomas and Barbara.
Sally found Dick Yesterday. In the pub. [quoted from 41,

 Out came the chase - in went the horses - on sprang the

boys - in got the travellers. (Ch.Dickens)
There are several patterns of stylistic inversion:
1. Predicative + (link verb) + Subject e.g.: Clever, clear and
concise was her answer.

2. Adverbial modifier + Subject + Predicate (partial inversion)

e.g.: Slowly I went out. (Cf: I went out slowly. The qualifier slowly
sounds stronger in the first sentence.)
3. Adverbial modifier + Predicate + Subject (complete inver
sion) e.g.: Directly in front o f them stood a great castle. Along the
road came a strange procession.

(The structure is most common in literary and descriptive writing

when a new indefinite object is being introduced [197, p. 289]).
4. Object - at the beginning of the sentence e.g.: Little change
did he make.

5. Attributes - after the modified noun e.g.: I saw the clouds

blue and white, (often found in poetry)

Inversion is used in imaginative prose either as (1) a special sty

listic device for emphasis or as (2) a natural outcome of the speakers
desire to mention something first, and to explain what he means af
terwards, being also resorted to by writers in dialogues [93, p. 90]:
Inexplicable was the astonishment o f the little party

cXapoMHQ SJlomoupKa

when they returned to find out that Mr. Pickwick had disappeared.

(Ch.Dickens) (1)
Very unpleasant its been," she went on. Having poor
aunt murdered and the police and all that... (A.Christie) (2)
Functionally, stylistic inversion employed in literature should
not be confused with all sorts of inversion found in colloquial speech,
where it is not so much a stylistic device as the result of spontaneity
of speech and informal character of the latter [93, p. 90].
A special type of inversion is a device called hyperbaton [hai 'po:
baton] (Greek for stepping over), or emphatic inversion. It is a
figure of syntactic dislocation where phrases or words that belong
together are separated. It gives liveliness and sometimes vigour to
the sentence:
I got, sofa r as the immediate moment was concerned, away.
(H. James)

Stylistic inversion comes very close in its pragmatics to one

more device which is based on singling out a secondary member o f
the sentence with the aim o f emphasizing it with the help o f intona
tion, and marked graphically by a comma, a fu ll stop, or a dash. It
is called detachment (French detacher = to separate). There is a

certain break between the detached member and the main parts of
the sentence. The word-order may or may not be violated. Any part
of speech may be detached:
For hours we must have crouched there, silent and shivery.
until our tired attention failed. (H.G. Wells) [quoted from 167]

She was seventeen then - a b eau tifu l voung creatu re.

(J.Galsworthy)
I wish you could have seen me presiding over the dinnertable o f a night. Suave, genial, beloved bv all. (P.G.Wodehouse)
Brave bov. he saved my life and shall not regret it. (M.Twain)
[quoted from 93]
Strange faces smiled at Leila - sweetly. vaguely.(
K.Mansfield)
As a result of such an unusual placement, the detached word ap
pears to be opposed to the rest of the sentence as something specially
important [93, p. 94].

corner), Marie produced an argument that she had obviously been

brooding upon fo r some considerable time. (G.Durrell)
By mid-morning the Presbyterian choir was in fu ll swing;
and the town kids (wearing horror masks, as at Halloween) were

aHrAiucbkoi

Parenthesis performs various stylistic functions, of which supplying

some additional information and making the inserted phrases more
conspicuous and thus more important are two most obvious:
Awake (not Greece -she is awake), awake my spirit!
(G.G.Byron)
Then, at our last council o f war (in the little cafe on the

CruAicTuka

planatory or qualifying word, phrase, or sentence which is inserted

in a longer passage usually without being grammatically connected
with it. It is marked off by brackets, dashes, or commas [78, p. 67].

mobu

One more device standing close to detachment syntactically

and functionally isparenthesis [pa'renGisis] (Greek for to insert),
or parenthetic words, phrases and sentences. Parenthesis is an ex

chasing one another round and round the square, kicking up an aw

fu l fuss. (T.Capote)
j
These memories, which are my life - fo r we possess nothing
certainly except the past - were always with me. (E. Waugh)

One of the most important potentialities of parentheses is the

creation of the second plane, or background, to the narrative, or a
mingling of voices of different (for example, the personages ut
tered and inner, unuttered) speech parties [see 93, p.96]:
He was a fast-stepping, brassy young fellow with a brutal
jaw and the bashful eyes o f a cardsharp; his name was Junius Candle
(can you believe it? The same Junius Candle who is a Senator
today!). (T.Capote)
I'm so glad when I look back to think that we have nothing
to reproach ourselves with. The bitterness o f life is not death, the
bitterness o f life is that love dies. (Shed heard something like that
said in a play.) (W.S.Maugham)

The next group of rhetorical figures to be analysed are those

based on the principle of the sentence extension. The redundancy of
the sentence components and their combination in various patterns
underlie a great number of EMs of all levels o f the language. Hence
we shall first speak about repetition as a major principle of rhetoric
and artistic mastery and then proceed with the description of devices
involving various types of reiteration.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

1.
2.
3.
4.

W hat are two main principles of classification of syntactic devices?

Characterise the E M s based on the reduction of the sentence model.
W hat are their stylisticfunctions in imaginative prose?
W hat is stylistic inversion? Comment on its variouspatterns andfunctions in the
text.
5. W hat doyou know about detachment and parenthesis? W hat is the difference
between them?

LECTURE T5
REPETITION
The role of repetition in art
Thefunctions of repetition in literary works
Classification of repetitions
Phonemic, morphemic and lexical repetitions

Repetition is considered to be one of the basic principles of

the art of literary composition and poetical rhetoric. V.A. Maltzev
points out that the Dictionary of World Literary Terms offers 34
terms naming various repetitive devices [179, p. 53]. According to
some linguists repetition constitutes the very essence of poetry and
literary works in general. Thus, R.Jakobson stated that on every
level o f language the essence ofpoetic artifice consists in recurrent

CruAicTuka

its role in art has long been an object of attention for aestheticians.
One of them, Y.A.Filipiev [107], claims that the aesthetic value of art
lies not only in its image-bearing power but also in its aesthetically
organizing power. What does it mean? It means that while perceiving
some artistic design (even a simple ornament or decoration) people
experience a specific kind of influence: an aesthetic feeling fills
their hearts. I f now we recall some common decorative designs we
come across every day, we shall see that they are nothing but certain
rhythmical repetitions of patterns. So some specific mental signals are
sent by these repeated patterns to our brain, and these signals produce
certain emotions. The same is true of the rhythms of music, dance
and poetry, verbal art in general. The Bible, for example, abounds in
all kinds of repetitions, hypnotizing, as it were, and mesmerizing the
readers, thus adding something subtle and mystical to the sounding
of the holy lines. (The same pragmatics is traced in the wide use of
repetitions in folklore, fairy-tales, as well as in modern TV com
mercials and the like.)
As a powerful EMs, repetition serves to convey and intensify
various psychological and emotional states of characters in literary

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

returns [quoted from 179, p. 53]. The problem of repetition and

works, their and the authors attitude towards the things described.
Repetition can often be funny and used in the text to produce a hu
morous effect, e.g.:

Lady Hermione had often heard o f secret societies where

plotters plotted plots together, but she wondered i f any plotter in any
secret society had ever had so much difficulty as she was having in
driving into the head o f another plotter what he, thefirst plotter, was
trying to plot. (RG. Wodehouse)

Analysing the role of repetition in imaginative literature,

D. Lodge writes in his book The Art o f Fiction : Needless to say,
repetition is not necessarily linked to a bleakly positivist, anti-meta
physical representation of life such as we find in Hemingway. It is
also a characteristic feature of religious and mystical writing, and is
used by novelists whose work tends in that direction - D.Lawrence,
for instance. /.../ Repetition is also a favourite device of orators and
preachers, roles that Charles Dickens often adopted in his authorial
persona. This, for instance, is the conclusion to his chapter describing
the death of Jo, the destitute crossing-sweeper, in Bleak House:

^KapomHa UlomoupKa

Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, men

and women, born with Heavenly compassion in your hearts. And
dying thus around us every day. [175, p. 92].

According to Galperin I.R., repetition may acquire the status

of a SD when it is used as a means of logical emphasis and when it
serves to foreground the main idea of the utterance, passage or the
whole text, drawing the readers attention to something very im
portant to the text message. Besides these functions, we should not
underestimate repetition as a primary means of adding rhythm to the
utterance and creating cohesion of the literary text as a whole. It is
immediately felt while we read poetry, because rhythm and rhyme
are also types of repetition and they add to the general emotive and
expressive aspects of the artistic work. Consider the example - an
extract from the well-known poem by T. Hood:
No warmth - no cheerfulness, no healful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member!
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds,
November!

The repetition of the asyndetic no at the beginning and inside

130 each line contributes to the general emotional atmosphere depicted in

the poem, and most originally and aptly conveys the poets feelings
in that dreary autumn month.

All round, both near andfar, there were grand trees, motionless
in the still sunshine, and, like all large motionless things, seeming
to add to the stillness. Here and there a leaf fluttered down; petals
fe ll in a silent shower; a heavy mothfloated by, and, when it settled,
seemed to fa ll wearily /.../.

(Compare in Ukrainian: Ocinniu denb, ocinmu denb, ociHhiu!

O cuniu denb, o cuniu dent, o cuniu! (Deanna oceni, o cyju! Ocanna!
Heeotce vie ocinb, ocinb, o! - ma caMa. (J I.K o c tc h k o ) Here the paro-

nymic effect is most conspicuous).

CruAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

Phonemic repetitions are most widely used in poetry and prose.

They are usually divided into a number of figures, the most popular of
which are alliteration, assonance and rhyme. Traditionally, rhyme will
be discussed in passages devoted to the issues of English versification
(see Lecture 19). Meanwhile, the following scheme presenting some
major figures based on phonemic repetition will suffice (the letter
C stands for a consonant; V - for a vowel):
Alliteration - Cvc (e.g. great /grow )
Assonance - cVc ( e.g. great / fail [ei])
Consonance - cvC (e.g. grea/ / hea/)
Reverse rhyme - CVc (e.g. great / grazed)
Paratfiyme
- CvC (e.g. great / groat)
Rhyme
- cVC (e.g. great / bait).
As is seen from the scheme, alliteration consists in the repetition
of initial consonant sounds in two or more nearby words: e.g. The
weary, way-worn wanderer... (E.A. Poe). Alliteration not only pro
duces a certain sound effect pleasing to the ear (the so-called euphony
[ ju:f9ni]), but it is often used for onomatopoeic [,on9um9t9u'pi:ik]
purposes, i.e. to imitate sounds of nature (see below). We can hear
the slight rustling of leaves in the following lines from G. Eliot:

mobu

Repetitions are usually classified according to the language units

they consist of. So they may be grouped into
Phonemic
Morphemic (morphological)
Lexical (word-repetition)
Syntactic.

Assonance consists in the repetition of similar or identical vowel

sounds in two or more nearby words, often in conjunction with dif
ferent consonants, e.g.:
H ow sad and bad and mad it was (R.Browning).
... with the smoking blueness o f Pluto s gloom ... (D.H. Law
rence)
Assonance may be combined with alliteration to produce a sense
of harmony and an exquisite acoustic effect:
...the rare and radiant maiden
Whom the angels name Lenore
Nameless here f o r evermore (E.A. Poe).
(Compare in Ukrainian: H a o6ojiohhx eep6u y 6ojiOHbx.x,
myMan, myMan - Heunouoei rnaufi. A kojio xamu nenexamuu cohhx..
(J l. K o c t c h k o ) )

Morphem ic (morphological) repetitions constitute the second

group of repetitions. They occur in a string of words. As morphemes
are divided into roots and affixes, so accordingly, the repeated mor
phemes in the text may be classified into root repetitions and affix,
or affixational, repetitions.
Root repetition (also called figura etimologica) is a variety of
polyptoton, a figure based on the repetition of two or more words of
the same stem (but belonging to different parts of speech or word
classes within the same part of speech), e.g.:
We are the dreamers o f dreams. (OShaughnessy)
[ . . . ] love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or
bends with the remover to remove. (W.Shakespeare, Sonnet 116)

cXapomHQ SJlomoupKa

The raw afternoon is rawest, and the dense fo g is densest,

and the muddy streets are muddiest near Temple Bar. (Ch. Dick

ens)
(Compare in Ukrainian: Hopna h/'v nopHina... (O. Ojiecb)Xonod
xonody. Tuiua mum. (J I.K o c t c h k o ) )
Root repetition is not used very often. A ffixational repetition is

more widely used. It is much more effective and vivid since affixes
(both prefixes and suffixes) have their own semantic component
which is foregrounded when the words containing them are repeated
on purpose. The logical meaning of the affix has acquired a strong
emotive and/or evaluative connotation: e.g. You are an unnatural,
182 ungrateful, unloveable person! The meaning absence of a quality

of the prefix un is emphasized through repetition in this string of

characterizing epithets.
One more stylistic function of morphemic repetitions is to add
to the rhythmical effect of the text. The use of participles, for ex
ample, with their reiterated -ing suffix contributes to the creation of
dynamic descriptions in the following passages from Ch. Dickens
and K. Mansfield:
In a sudden burst o f slipping, climbing, jingling, clinking
and talking, they arrived at the convent door
He was tossed away on a great wave o f music that came
flying over the gleamingfloor, breaking the groups up into couples,
scattering them, sending them spinning.

Sometimes writers resort to phonemic or morphemic repetitions

to convey some additional information which is important for the
creation of a certain stylistic effect. In this case neologisms or occa
sional words might be used to fulfil various functions in the context,
as in the following example:
Young Blight made a great show offetching from his desk a

(or juxtaposed) repetition, repetitions in strong positions, distant

repetition and distant repetition throughout the text.
Ordinary repetition has no definite place in the sentence and the

repeated unit occurs in various positions - .. .a,.. .a.. .,a.... Ordinary

repetition emphasizes both the logical and the emotional meaning of
the reiterated word (phrase) [166, p.73], e.g.:
Halfway along the righthand side o f the dark brown hall
was a dark brown door with a dark brown settee beside it. After I
had put my hat, my gloves, my muffler and my coat on the settee we
three went through the dark brown door into a darkness without any
brown in it. (W.Gilbert)

CruAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

The most important, if not the largest group, of repetitions com

prises lexical, or word repetitions, i.e. repetitions of the same word or
word-combination for two or more times in the same micro- and/or
macrocontext.
According to the place of their occurrence, lexical repetitions
are usually classified by scholars into ordinary repetition, successive

mobu

long thin manuscript volume with a brown paper cover, and running
his finger down the days appointments, murmuring: M r Aggs, M r
Baggs, M r Caggs, M r Daggs, M r Faggs, M r Gaggs, M r Boffin. Yes,
sir, quite right. You are a little before your time, s ir. (Ch.Dickens)

 I really dont see anything romantic in proposing. It is very

romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite
proposal. (O.Wilde)
Successive (or juxtaposed) repetition is a repetition of a word
or phrase two, three or more times in succession - . . .a, a, a... . Be
ing the most obvious and emphatic kind of recurrence, successivc
repetition has a great stylistic potential. It happens because with each
repetition the word acquires new connotations, grows in importance.
Being the same, the word becomes non-identical with its preceding
counterparts: A 1, A2, ... An, where A 1^ An. [ 179, p.61] The repeated
unit may convey the intensity of feeling, the peak of emotions of the
speaker, the painful progress, durability of some action or monotony
of time, etc., e.g.:
It was wretched weather; stormy and wet, stormy and wet,
mud, mud, mud, deep in a ll the streets. (Ch.Dickens) [quoted from
167, p.51]
Alone, alone, all, all, alone
Alone on a wide, wide sea. (S.Coleridge)
(Compare in Ukrainian: IminbKU eimep. eimep. eimep...! minbKu
coHue. come. coH...nad Hepo3zadanicmK> nimep ua CKeni dmiu, hk

cKapojiiHa SJlomoupKa

6i30H. (JI.Koctchko))

Considering the character of their structural organization, some

stylisticians (see, for example, N.I. Lihosherst [75]) differentiate
between (1) ordinary contact repetition (based mostly on the use of
binomials, or word pairs) (see Example No. 1 below) and (2) extended
repetition (when the unit is repeated combined with some additional
components of a specifying or expanding semantic quality). Consider
the examples:
The city had la id miles and miles o f streets and sewers
through the region. (R. Aldington) (1)
I don't think Art heard. Pain, even slight pain, tends to iso
late. Pain, such as he had to suffer, cuts the last links with society.

(S.Chaplin) (2) [quoted from 75, p. 143].

Repetitions in strong positions. As is known, words placed in
strong positions (beginnings and endings) are more emphatic, more
psychologically prominent than those in the middle of a line, stanza,
utterance, or paragraph. Words repeated in initial or final positions
produce an aesthetic effect, as if balancing against each other. The
U 4 following figures of rhetoric belong to this group of repetitions:

1. lexical anaphora
2. lexical epistrophe (or epiphora)
3. lexical anadiplosis (or catch repetition; termed also linking,
or lexical reduplication/reduplicatio)
4. chain-repetition
5. lexical framing (or ring-repetition)
6. symploce
Lexical anaphora [a'naefars] (Gr. carrying back) consists
in the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive
clauses, sentences or lines: a...,a...,a...
And everywhere were people. People going into gates and
coming out o f gates. People staggering andfalling. People fighting
and cursing. (Ch. Dickens)

(Compare in Ukrainian:
f l Ha e6o2iM cyMHiM nepeno3i
Eydy dumb Gapeucmi Keimu,
Eydy chimb KeimKu na Mopo3if
Eydy numb na hux cjib03u eipKi. (JI.YicpaiHKa))
Lexical epistrophe [s'pistroufi] (Gr. over + I address) con

sists in the repetition of words or phrases in successive clauses or

sentences at the end of relatively completed parallel fragments of
speech: ...a,...a,...a:
Do all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
At all the times you can
To all the people you can
As long as ever you can. (Wasley)
(Compare in Ukrainian: Ocinmu deHb 6epe3aMu nouaecb. /.../
Ane npo lie ne mpeda eoeopumu.
Tu npuudem 3Hoe. Mu 6ydeMO na eu . /.../
Ane npo u,e He mpeda zoeopumu.
Xau 6yde man, hk h co6i eejuo. /.../
Ajie npo i^e ne mpeda zoeopumu. (Jl. K o c t c h k o ) )
Lexical anadiplosis [,aen9di'plousis] (Gr. to be doubled back),
or catch-repetition. consists in the repetition of the last word(s) of

the preceding sentence, clause, or line at the beginning of the next

one: ...a,a... :

 ...mechanical figures that stood up on both sides like

tailors dummies. Like tailors dummies they were headless.

(G.Chesterton)
From the river came the warriors,
On the banks their clubs they buried,
Buried all their warlike weapons. (H. Longfellow)
(Compare in Ukrainian: LL(o e hoc 6yno? JIto6oe inimo. JIw6oe
i jtimo 6e3 mpueoz. (JI. KocTemco ) )
Chain-repetition is a figure of speech which consists in several

successive anadiploses: .. .a,a.. .b,b.. .c,c.. .d:

Living is the art o f loving,
Loving is the art o f caring,
Caring is the art o f sharing,
Sharing is the art o f living. (W.H. Davies)

The previous example illustrates also the type of repetition which

is termed lexical framing, or ring-repetition - the repetition of words
in both positions - initial and final: a...........a:
Jenny kissed me when we met.
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I'm weary, say I m sad,
Say that health and wealth have missed me.
Say I m growing old, but add,
Jenny kissed me. (L. Hunt)
(Compare in Ukrainian: 3Maeau, 3HeMoycenuu oKummH.u,
3HeM03iceHuu, 3Mazau. (B. CTyc))

cKaponiHa SJlomoupKa

When we find anaphora and epistrophe used simultaneously,

we deal with the figure of rhetoric called svmploce [ simptasi]
(Gr.intertwining): a.. .b,a.. .b:
We are the hollow men.
We are the stuffed men. (T. Eliot)
Distant repetition consists in the reiteration of words or phrases
which are separated from each other by syntactically heterogeneous
text segments o f varying length. On the one hand, it helps the reader
to remember the preceding text, thus promoting the logical and struc
tural cohesion of the text. On the other hand, it helps to penetrate
deeper into the authors message, since each section in between the
136 repeated words adds new semantic features to them so that they ac

CTUAicnika aHrAiucbkoi

... The noble Brutus

Hath told you Caesar was ambitious. [ ...]
He was my friendfaithful and just to me.
But Brutus says he was ambitious.
And Brutus is an honorable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffins fill;
D id this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;
Ambition should be made o f sterner s tu ff
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious:
And Brutus is an honorable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal*
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?

mobu

quire some additional senses, various connotations. The reiterated

lexical units of this type usually belong to what is known as "key
or thematic words, i.e. words whose meaning is essential for the
understanding of the main idea of the passage or the literary work
in general. One of the best illustrations of the pragmatic potential
of distant repetitions is presented in Maltzevs An Introduction to
Linguistic Poetics. The scholar analyses Antonys famous address to
the Romans in W. Shakespeares tragedy Julius Caesar. (Antonys
speech, by the way, has often attracted scholars as a brilliant sample
of oration rich in rhetorical figures of various kinds; see, for example,
the analysis presented by Sosnovskaya V.B. [96], based, in its turn,
on the analysis earlier conducted by R.Jakobson). The tragedy deals
with the events of the year 44 B.C., after Caesars returning to Rome
from a successful campaign in Spain. Distrust of Caesars inordinate
ambition as a dictator gives rise to a conspiracy against him among
senators headed by Brutus. Caesar is killed by the plotters. Antony,
Caesars close associate, is determined to become his successor and
stirs the people of Rome to anger and fury against Brutus and other
republicans by a skillful speech at Caesars funeral. With slight varia
tion Antony repeats the following words: Brutus says he (-Caesar)
was ambitious, and Brutus is an honourable man But the general
context of the speech is such that these words gradually lose their
literal meanings and acquire a strong sarcastic ring. The Romans
are made to believe that in point of fact Brutus is a willful murderer
while the allegation about Caesars ambition is a vicious lie. Here is
an extract from the speech:

cKapojiiHa SIomoupKQ

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious:

And sure he is an honorable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
* Roman festival

The words are never repeated exactly as they were said before,
but certain modifications are invariably introduced into the reitera
tion, which gradually makes the citizens of Rome realize that when
Antony repeats that Brutus is an honorable man, he is speaking
ironically, meaning the opposite [quoted from 179, pp.67-69].
Distant repetition throughout the text. Sometimes the key-word
may be repeated throughout the whole text, gradually absorbing a
lot of connotations from the context and even becoming a symbol,
a vehicle of the leading thought of the literary work in general. The
reiterated word(s) or phrase(s) have thus gained both the structural
and semantic importance and usually serve as a means of the text
coherence (i.e. integrity), a key to the understanding of the main idea
of the whole work, especially if they first appear in the title. (The
popular example is E. Hemingways famous story Cat in the Rain,
where the repetition of the key words cat and rain, accompanied
by very many associated images, have become symbols: the cat has
started to symbolize home and warmth and cosiness for which the
young heroine is longing; and the rain stands for the absence of all
these in the womans life, of the homelessness and unsettled state
of the American couple.)
To conclude, lexical repetition is a powerful means of emphasis
and serves to create a specific acoustic effect and emotional atmo
sphere of the passage, or the whole text. It adds rhythm and balance
to an utterance, a prose passage, or a poetic work. This function of
repetition in general is quite prominent and especially important in
various syntactic repetitions and in parallel constructions in par
ticular. Unlike lexical repetition, parallelism might be considered a
purely syntactic type o f repetition. Here we deal with the reiteration of
the structure of successive sentences, clauses, lines, and not only and
not so much with their lexical flesh (see V.A.Kukharenko [166]),

though, of course, parallel constructions include lexical repetitions

of various kinds. We now proceed with the discussion of syntactic
types of repetition.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

1. Why does repetition have art aesthetically organising power?
2. W hat types of repetition doyou know? Define and exemplify various kinds of
phonemic repetition.
3. Classify morphemic repetitions.
4. Exemplify the various types of lexical repetitions. Define the types of repetition
in strong positions.
5. W hat is parallelism ?

LECTURE 76
SYNTACTIC REPETITION
SYNTACTIC PARALLELISM
Series. Binomials, trinomials, catalogues (enumeration).
Polysyndeton.
Parallel patterns. Chiasmus

The logical-semantic types ofparallelism

Prolepsis (syntactic reduplication, or syntactic tautology).

Syntactic repetition may be realized in series, parallel patterns

and syntactic tautology. We deal with series when there are several
successive words o f the same part ofspeech in the identical syntac
tic function in the sentence. Series can be divided into three types:
binomials consisting of two members, trinomials consisting of three
members, and catalogues (also called enumeration) with four or
more members in a chain of homogeneous parts.
Binomials or word pairs go back to Old English and are a lin
guistic pattern favoured in many different periods and styles. Some of
them are quite familiar and are used without any rhetorical intention.
The order of words in such pairs is fixed (e.g. odds and ends; ins
and outs); sometimes the effect is supported by the use of alliteration
and assonance (e.g. forget andforgive; safe and sound; by hook or
by crook; bed and board). Writers often resort to binomials in the
titles of their works for specific stylistic purposes. They can use the
names of protagonists (e.g. Romeo and Juliet by W.Shakespeare;
Franny and Zooey by J.Salinger), or bring together some abstract
notions (e.g. Pride and Prejudice by J. Austen); or combine antonymous words (e.g. The First and the Last by J.Galsworthy); or create
unusual combinations of seemingly incompatible notions (e.g. The
Moon and Sixpence by S.Maugham), etc. One of the functions of
binomials in literary works is to intensify the rhythm of a prose
text, or to be used as a supportive device in rhymed types of verse,
e.g.: Strong and content I travel the open road. (W. Whitman)
Trinomials also go back to ancient times. As is stated by Maltzev
V.A., the magic triplex formula is not infrequent in English nursery
H Q rhymes:

 Spring is showery, flowerv. bowerv:

Summer: hoppv. croppy, poppy:
Autumn: wheezy, sneezv. freezv:
Winter: slippy, drippy, nippy, [quoted from 179, p. 76].
Trinomials sound very persuasive and are often used by both
poets and writers:
Should you ask me, whence these stories?
Whence these legends and traditions? /.../
From the mountains, moors and fenlands. ... (H.Longfellow)
Description through enumeration is also an old and common
rhetorical figure in English literature. Any part of the sentence can
be enumerated. So we can differentiate between catalogues of ho
mogeneous subjects, predicates, predicatives, objects, etc.:
The lights, the azaleas, the dresses. the pink faces, the velvet
chairs, all became one beautifulflying wheel. (K. Mansfield)
Surely ambition is behind dreams of glory, of wealth, of
love, o f distinction, o f accomplishment, o f pleasure, of goodness.

(J. Epstein)
The sense of nowhere to go. no space, no time, no movement.
was a part o f his utter and deep misery. (I.Murdoch)
The girls o f her class nearly fought to put their arms round

This marked repetition o f a conjunction before each parallel

word or phrase is termed polysyndeton [$o\\ smd\ten\ (Gr. many

CTUAicTuka

These examples contain catalogues of sentence members that are

not linked by conjunctions, or in other words, that are joined asvndeticallv (see Lecture 14). The omission of connectives in catalogues
emphasizes a profusion of detail, thus presenting the enumerated
items as one whole. But very often the members in catalogues are
linked by means of connectives (mostly the conjunction and). With
each enumerated unit the conjunction is repeated.

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

her, to walk awav with her, to beam flatteringly, to be her special

friend. (K.Mansfield)
(Compare in Ukrainian: 1 3noey muuia. Jluiu QnyKawmb nynu
Kpi3b deHb. Kpi3b Mumb. Kpi3b dviuv. Kpi3b eixu. (JI. Koctchko))

-I- connected). Unlike in asyndetic series, polysyndeton makes

each member of a catalogue stand out conspicuously - each item is
given weight:
...and away they bowled, past waltzing lamp-posts and
houses and fences and trees. (K.Mansfield)
141


College gets nicer and nicer. I like the girls and the teachers,
and the classes and the campus and the things to eat. (J.Webster)
(Compare in Ukrainian: TKummn - ye i ycMiuim, i cnb03u ifi
cojioHi, i Kpoe, i 6apuKadu, i My3um Ei3e! (JI. Koctchko))
It is impossible to write English without the repetition of gram
matical words, but if the number of ands becomes extraordinary
in a short paragraph, we, as D.Lodge remarks, cant fail to notice it.
This is a symptom of its very repetitive syntax [ 175, p. 90]. Stylisti
cally, polysyndeton is a heterogeneous phenomenon. It adds to the
rhythm of structures, both in poetry and fiction. It can also be used as
a means of expressing the simultaneity of actions or close connection
of some properties. It may be used as a means of creating an elevated
tonality (as in the Biblical texts); or it might be employed as a speech
characteristic of a personage whose excessive use of and betrays
his faulty, poor conversation and primitive syntax [93, p. 88].
Syntactic parallelism is an effective means of semantic cohe

sion and aesthetic arrangement, which has been popular in English

literature since ancient times. It consists in similarity o f the syntactic
structures o f successive phrases, clauses within a sentence, or sen
tences in a macrocontext. Consider the following example which

illustrates the artistic possibilities of parallelism:

When the lamp is shattered,
The light in the dust lies dead When the cloud is scattered
The rainbow s glory is shed.
When the lute is broken,
Sweet sounds are remembered not;
When the lips have spoken,
Loved accents are soon forgot. (P.B.Shelley)

.,

Syntactic parallelism, or parallel patterns can be analysed from

the structural viewpoint and (2) as regards the logical-semantic
arrangement o f the reiterated components (the latter - the semantically complicatedparallel patterns - are often treated by scholars as
belonging to the category of lexical-syntactical stylistic devices).
Structurally, parallelism can be complete and incomplete, or
partial. Complete parallelism. according to I.M. Astafyeva, should

(1)

| jI
!?) j I
.
gj j

satisfy the following three requirements:

1.
the members of repeated patterns should be equal
142
2. they should have identical syntactic functions

Depending on the position of the syntactically identical parts

in parallel patterns, incomplete parallel constructions can be cat
egorized into various figures, such as syntactic anaphora, syntactic
epistrophe. syntactic framing. They can be combined with lexical
repetition, as well as complicated by other SDs and tropeic images.
Consider the examples:
In Boston they ask, How much does he know? In New York
How much is he worth? In Philadelphia. Who were his parents?

(M.Twain) [quoted from 179, p. 82] (syntactic anaphora)

Some say the world will end in fire.
Some sav in ice. (R.Frost) (Syntactic epistrophe is combined here
with lexical anaphora. Mind also the ellipsis in the second line.)

CTUAicTuka

ousfo r the rich, soberfo r the godly, masterfulfo r the weak, mischie
vous fo r the widow, arch and saucy fo r the spinster. (R.Dahl)
I found a young hunter, but he was wrong. I found a very old
man, but he was no better. Then I found a hunter about fifty, and he
was right. (R.Bradbury)
The owl beat against the window panes, the raven croaked
from the old yew-tree, and the wind wandered moaning round the
house like a lost soul. (O. Wilde)

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

3.
there should be identical word order in the patterns that are
repeated [quoted from 179, p. 80].
Here is an example of complete parallelism:
.. .the beauty which now and then men create out of chaos.
The pictures they paint. the music they compose, the books they
write. and the lives they lead. O f all these the richest in beauty is the
beautiful life. (W.S.Maugham)
(Compare in Ukrainian: Conije 3axodumb, eopu Hopniiomb,
nmameHKa muxne, none niMic. (T. UleBHeHtfo))
Complete parallelism is not a very frequent case. Usually paral
lel constructions allow variance by either adding more or omitting
some member(s) in the repeated patterns (ellipsis), or by lacking
coincidence in word-order:
What we anticipate seldom occurs; (5 words)
What we least expect generally happens. (6 words) (B.Disraeli)
We make a living by what we get,
But we make a life by what we give. (W.Churchill)
He could become grave and charmingfo r the aged, obsequi

 But it is o f him that I am frightened. It is he who is all about

my path. It is he who has half driven me mad. (G.Chesterton) (the
combination of syntactic and lexical anaphora).
At twenty years o f age, the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and
atforty, thejudgement. (B.Franklin) (this incomplete (elliptical) ease
of parallelism might serve as an example of syntactic symploce - a
combination of anaphoric and epiphoric parallel phrases).
Strange winds blewfrom nowhere; they crept along the sur
face o f the grass, and the grass shivered; they breathed upon the
little pools o f rain in the hollow stones, and the pools rippled. (D.du

Maurier) (the similar case - the personal metaphor is realized in

parallel anaphoric and epiphoric patterns).
But there was no time, he had destroyed time. This was hell,
where there was no time. (I. Murdoch) ( syntactic framing with com
plete lexical repetition).
(Compare in Ukrainian: He mo ocimii eodu luvMinu. 3&ieaioHuy
t Jfynau, ne mo eimep 6uecn e 3ajioMax npoeaiuin. (M .K o u k >6hh cm ch h );
J He dvu. ne dvu. eimpe, nonad 6epezaMu. ne udu. ne udu. dome, Mion
! muMu eep6aMu. (M.KocTOMapoB) - mind the use of apostrophe in

* this syntactical parallel construction, an example of symploce)).

:;
Lack of coincidence in the word order in parallel constructions
J may take the form of inversion, when the order o f words in thefirst
I pattern is reversed in the second. Such a structure of two succesj sive sentences or parts of a sentence (with the second part being
j the reversed image of the first) is a typical example of the so-called
J reversed parallelism, or chiasmus. So chiasmus [kai'aezmss] (Gr.
J cross arrangement) consists in the repetition of a syntactical pattern
i * with a cross, or mirror-like, reversed order of words or phrases. If
I we draw lines between the corresponding members of the construcj tion, we shall have the Greek letter %(chi [hi]), a diagonal cross, for
| ; instance: Subject Predicate Object
Object Predicate -- Subject
Consider the examples:

 Swans sing before they die - twere no bad thing

D id certain persons die before they sing. (S.T. Coleridge, Epi
gram on a Volunteer Singer)
(Compare in Ukrainian: H a Jluciu eopi doeopne 6aeammH
HiuHe.
I nucmn ociHHc Ha Jluciu zopi dozopxe... (B.CTyc): here we can
observe an interesting combination of syntactic chiasmus supported
by lexical framing)
The stylistic effect of chiasmus is based on the possibility of
laying stress on the second part of the utterance, which is'opposite
in structure. Chiasmus often converges with other types of syntactic
and lexical repetition:
Her face was veiled with a veil o f gauze, but her feet were
naked.
Naked were her feet, and they moved over carpet like little
pigeons. (O.Wilde)

practice, the other half practice what they censure: the rest always
say and do as they ought. (B. Franklin)
'Tis strange. - but true: fo r truth is always strange.

CniAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

C (subject)
A (object)
Consider the examples:
And progress is like a lively horse.
Either one rides it. or it rides one. (J. Fowles)
Mankind are very odd creatures. One half censure what they

mobu

[quoted from 179, p.82]. (Here chiasmus is combined with lexi

cal anadiplosis. Besides, you can observe a simile and root repetition
in this example)
This fact makes it possible for some linguists (though few) dif
ferentiate between proper chiasmus, based on the grammatical
inversion, and lexical chiasmus (see Galperin I.R. [154]), in which
the mirror-like order of repeated words does not violate the normal
word-order of the sentence (subject -predicate-object):
A (subject)
C (object)

(G.G.Byron)
She was deep in the happiness ofsuch misery, or the misery
o f such happiness, instantly. (J.Austen)
The crowd seemed to have overflowedfrom the steps o f the
national eallerv. variously uniformed, uniformly various. (A.S.Bvatf) |4B

(the last two examples are unusual combinations of lexical chiasmus

with oxymoron)
As is seen from the given examples, the parallel patterns arc
usually correlated by way of contrast, resemblance, analogy, etc.
V.A. Kukharenko terms them semantically complicated types of
parallelism. So parallel constructions may be classified according
to the logical-semantic arrangement of parallel words and patterns
into the following types [179]:
1. analogy
2. antithesis
3. gradation
Analogy is a form of thought in which one thing is inferred to
be similar to another in a certain respect, both things being different
on the whole:
For as the sun is daily new and old
So is my love still telling what is told. (W.Shakespeare)
Syntactic parallelism is often based on analogy:
Follow a shadow, it still flies you;
Seem to fly it, it will pursue:
So court a mistress, she denies you;
Let her alone, she will court you. (Jonson) [quoted from 179,

p.83].
Antithesis [an'tiGisis] is an opposition or contrast of ideas usu
ally presented in parallel constructions (in phrases within one sen
tence, or in two or more clauses or sentences):
She was a great talker upon little matters. (J.Austen)
Lyme was a town o f sharp eves. and London was a city o f
the blind. No one turned and looked at him. (J.Fowles)
>:
| :

I t was a card-party, it was but a mixture o f those who had

l never met before, and those who met too often - a common-place busi
ness, too numerous for intimacy . too sm all for variety. (J. Austen)

(Compare in Ukrainian: (1) LL(o6 36epeemu amejibCbKuu

xapaxmep, nompiOuo duneonbCbKe mepninnH. (T. MajiiciH); (2) Bin
po6ue ece. U406 Hinoeo ne po6um u. (3) )Kumu JieeKo dyotce eap/cKo.
(FI.TapaHOB) (4) I denb. i hN, i Mumb. i eiumcmb. i muiua. i dee 'nmuu
ean (JI.Koctchko))

mobu

CruAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

The main stylistic function of antithesis is to stress the het

erogeneity of the described phenomenon, to show that the latter is
a dialectical unity of two (or more) opposing features [166, p.85].
The most popular example illustrating this function of antithesis is
the famous beginning of Ch. Dickenss novel A Tale o f Two Cities,
in which the author describes the French revolution:
It was the best o f times, it was the worst o f times, it was the
age o f wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch o f belief, it was the epoch o f incredulity, it was the season o f Light, it was
the season o f Darkness, it was the spring o f hope, it was the winter
of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the
other way - in short the period was so fa r like the present period,
that some o f its noisiest authorities insisted on its being receivedfor
good or fo r evil, in the superlative degree o f comparison only.
Both semantically and structurally, antithetical constructions are
often based on the patterns o f denial and confirmation:
Don *tpart with your illusions. When they are gone, you may
still exist. but vou have ceased to live. (M.Twain)
That was the tragedy. Not that one man had the courage to be
evil. But that millions had not the courage to be good. (J.Fowles)
As is seen from the examples given above, antithesis involves the
use of antonyms, but it is a device of stylistic opposition, i.e. a relative
opposition. So it can arise (1) out of context through the expansion
of objectively contrasting pairs [ 154, p.222] (e.g. Youth is lovely, age
is lonely, youth isfiery, age isfrosty (H.Longfellow), where lovely
and lonely start being perceived as contextual antonyms under the
influence of the objectively opposite concepts youth and age),
or (2) sometimes it can involve the use of synonyms and contextual
synonyms to emphasize the contrasting features of the phenomena
described in parallel clauses or sentences that oppose each other.
Combined with the patterning based on denial-confirmation, such
types of antithetical constructions may have great possibilities for
emphasis:
They are not beautiful: they are only decorated. They are not

clean: they are only shaved and starched. They are not dignified: they
are only fashionably dressed. They are not educated: they are only
college passmen. They are not religious: they are only pew renters:
they are not moral: they are only conventional... (B.Shaw)
|4 7

We can come across the combination of different logical-seman

tic types of parallelism in one construction, as well as constructions
combining various structural- syntactic and lexical types of repeti
tion, as in:
How fa r that little candle throws its beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world. (W. Shakespeare) (in
this example the second antithetical sentence is correlated with the
first one on the principle of analogy)
But we do not move through time. time moves through us.
(J.Winterson) (this is an interesting example of convergence: wc
can discern here the antithetical parallelism (modelled as denialconfirmation) combined with lexical chiasmus and anadiplosis).
Antithesis as a semantic opposition can be realized not only
on the lexical level, but also on the level of morphemes, when the
antonymous affixes create a powerful effect of contrast: e.g. Their
pre-monev wives did not go together with their post-monev daugh
ters." (E. Hemingway) [quoted from 166, p.85].
Gradation (Gr. ascent, climbing up) is an arrangement oj
parallel words and statements in an ascending or descending order
o f importance, intensity, etc. The first, ascending order is known as
climax ['klaimoks] (Gr. a ladder). Sometimes the term gradation

cKapowHa UlomoupKa

is used as synonymous with the term climax. Each successive unii

in climatic arrangements is perceived as stronger than the preceding
one (at least psychologically, if not linguistically). The function is to
give a vivid emotional-evaluative characteristic of the phenomenon
described. This gradual increase in significance may be maintained
in three ways: logical, emotional and quantitative [154, p.220].
In logical climax every succeeding concept is more important
(objectively and/or subjectively) than the previous one, with the last
element being the culmination:
Who would risk a throne, the world, the universe.
To be loved in her own way. (G.G.Byron)
/ don't want to be at the mercy o f my emotions. I want to use
them, to eniov them, to dominate them. (O.Wilde)
In emotional, or emotive, climax a row of synonyms, contextual
synonyms, or semantically related words are presented so as the
emotional tension increases gradually. The last unit in a climatic
construction may or may not be objectively stronger but is felt as
148 the strongest due to its final position:

 O f course, i t s important. Incredibly, urgently, desperately

important. (D.Sayers)
He, too, was old- / . . . / He was patriarchal./.../H e was time

floors on hands and knees; he was gratified, when she managed the
trick o f balancing herself on two legs; he was delighted when she
first said ta-ta ; and he was rejoiced when she recognized him and
smiled at him. (A.Paton) [quoted from 154, p. 221],
Quantitative climax is an increase in the volume, size, number

m o bu

less. (H.E.Bates)
She was a crashing, she was a stupendous, she was an ex
cruciating bore. (W.S.Maugham)
But fo r the late afternoon martinis he thirsted, and he hun
gered. and he lusted. (W.F.Buckley) (here the effect is enhanced by
the use of polysyndeton)
V.A.Kukharenko states that though the most widely spread mod
el of climax is a three-step construction (as is proved by the given
examples), in emotive climax a two-step model is often met, in which
the second part repeats the first one and is further strengthened by
an intensifier [166, p. 87]:
She felt better, immensely better. (W. Deeping)
I have been so unhappy here, so very very unhappy.
(Ch.Dickens)
Emotional climax is mainly found in sentences with parallel
homogeneous members. But sometimes authors resort to longer
syntactic constructions where syntactic parallelism is accompanied
by lexical repetition, for example anaphora, as in the following ex
ample:
He was pleased when the child began to adventure across

C T U A ic T u k a

a H r A iu c b k o i

of each succeeding concept:

They looked at hundreds o f houses, they climbed thousands
o f stairs, they inspected innumerable kitchens. (W.S.Maugham)
There exists a variety of climax which might be called re
versed or negative. Here the units are arranged in the order that
shows a decrease in the expressed quality or quantity [166, p.86],
and it is the absence of substance or quality that is intensified and
emphasized, e.g.:
Fledgeby hasnt heard o f anything. 'No, there s not a word of
news," says Lammle. Not a particle. adds Boots. "Not an atom ,
chimes in Brewer. (Ch.Dickens)
149

The opposite arrangement o f parallel units, by which the thought

"descends from higher to lower, is called anticlimax. The peculiar

ity of this device is that the ideas expressed may be arranged first
in an ascending order of significance, or they may be poetical and
elevated, but the final one completely defeats the readers expecta
tions: the reader expects this final element to be the culminating one,
as in climax, but it turns out to be something trifling, or farcical,
or ridiculous. When the descent is from the grand and lofty to the
ludicrous, such type of anticlimax is called bathos ['baiBos] (Gr.
depth). This unexpected change occurs usually in an abrupt man
ner, thus producing a humorous effect. The device is much favoured
by humorist writers:
A woman who couldface the very devil himself- or a mouse
- loses her grip and goes all to pieces infront o f aflash o f lightning.

(M.Twain)
So Juan stood bewilder 'd on the deck;
The wind sung, cordage strain'd, and sailors swore...
(G.G.Byron)
The explosion completely destroyed a church, two houses,
and a flowerpot, [quoted from 179, p. 85].
Anticlimax often serves as a basis for paradoxes:
I was obliged to call on dear Lady Harbury. I hadnt been
there since her poor husbands death. I never saw a woman so al
tered: she looks quite twenty years younger. (O. Wilde)
Early to rise and early to bed
Makes a male healthy, wealthy and dead. (J.Thurber)

cKapojiiHa SJlomoypKQ

Prolepsis, or syntactic reduplication9or syntactic tautology is

a figure of rhetoric consisting in the repetition of the noun-subject
in the form of a pronoun in the same sentence. We can come across
numerous cases of prolepsis in English folk ballads, nursery rhymes
(e.g. Little Johnny, he had a dog. Little Betty, she had a pig. Little
Miss Muffet, she sat on a tuffet). The stylistic function of prolep
sis is topicalization (communicative emphasis) of the theme [93,
p. 86]. The noun subject becomes detached and emphasized. In prose
tautological subject is used to characterize the emotional state of the
character, to imitate colloquial speech in dialogues, to reflect the
IgQ educational status of the personage:

 The widow Douglas, she took me fo r her son, and allowed

she would civilize me. (M.Twain)
To sum up, we should state that the wide range of stylistic,
aesthetic and psychological functions of repetition makes it an
indispensable component of various types of discourse, including
folklore, rhymes, poems, tales and stories for children. R. Kipling,
for example, displays great mastery in his Just So Stories using all
possible types of repetition (including parallelism and synonym rep
etition in trinomials comprising the authors neologisms):
Hear and attend and listen; fo r this befell and behappened

mud and mire too deep, to assort with the groping andfloundering
conditions which this High Court of Chancery, most pestilent of hoary
sinners, holds, this day, in the sight of heaven and earth.

This is the authors denunciation of the Law system of his times,

and it stands out against the metaphorically veiled picture presented
in the preceding paragraphs. We can observe here the use of parallel
classes with the inverted anaphoric never (as well as symploce),
the synonym repetition (see below) in the form of a binomial with
alliteration (mud and mire), emotionally coloured epithets (grop
ing and floundering) supported by morphemic repetition, the par
enthetical metaphoric description of the Court (most pestilent of
hoary sinners).This direct negative characteristic used against the

CruAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

And finally, a few words should be added about such a phenom

enon as convergence. This term was introduced by M. Riffaterre.
It denotes the accumulation of several EMs and SDs in short seg
ments of the text. Each device contributes to the expressiveness of
the whole so that the effect produced by all of them converge into
one striking emphasis [179, p. 15]. The following sentence from the
famous beginning of Charles Dickenss novel Bleak House presents
quite a remarkable stylistic convergence:
Never can there come fog too thick, never can there come

mobu

and became and was, O my Best Beloved, when the Tame animals
were wild. The Dog was wild' and the Horse was wild, and the Cow
was wild, and the Sheep was wild; and the Pig was w ild - as wild as
wild could be - and they walked in the Wet Wild Woods by their wild
lones. But the wildest o f all wild animals was the Cat. He walked by
himself, and all places were alike to him.

background of the ironically elevated ending of the sentence (in the

sight of heaven and earth) aims at causing a strongly negative reac
tion on the part of the reader: the authors censure and accusation of
the Court of Chancery are most obvious in this sentence (which can
be qualified as a typical example of English oratorical style).
(Compare in Ukrainian - the following example is a case of
convergence in a poetic text:
BidMUKdio ceimanoK cKpunuunuM KJitoueM.
Hopna Hin iHKpycmoeana nijtcHicrmo.

ropu3onm nidmMae daspnnuM ruieneM

denb - hk nomny cmopinKy eimocmi. (JI. Koctchko)).

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

W hat three main types of syntactic repetition doyou know?

W hat is a binomial? a trinomial?
Explain the term polysyndeton.
Specify the main requirementsfo r complete parallel constructions.
Explain thefollowing terms - syntactic anaphora, syntactic epiphora, syntactic
framing.
6. W hat is the difference between ulexical and syntactic chiasmus?
7. Dw ell upon three logical-semantic types of parallelpatterns.
8. W hat is the structural difference between antithesis and o>ymoron?
9. Exemplify types of gradation. W hat is bathos?
10. W hat doyou know of prolepsis?
11. W hat is stylistic convergence?

LECTURE 77
THEE TYPES IF RECTOEIEINieE

Synonym repetition
Pleonasm. Tautology.
Onomatopoeia - repetition o f sounds and structures
Rhythm

Apart from the types of repetition discussed above, scholars also

single out the so-called semantic repetitions, which fall into synonym
(or synonymic) repetition and semic repetition (for the description
of the latter see [179, p. 86]). To the former group of repetition some
scholars also refer such devices aspleonasm and tautology, the terms
being sometimes used interchangeably [154, p. 215].
As is known, synonyms are words or phrases which have the

a H r A iu c b k o i
C T U A ic T u k a

This series shows that each member of the row (except for the
neutral dominant to get) has a specific, additional nuance/ shade
of meaning and can be used in some definite situational speech con
text.
The problem of synonymy is a complex and controversial one.
Some linguists believe that only words with the same essential mean
ing can be called synonyms. Others argue that synonymy is an all
level language phenomenon and that all linguistic means which can
express one and the same piece of reality might be qualified as
having synonymic characteristics.
The existing classification system for synonyms was established
by Academician V. V. Vinogradov. He differentiated between 3 main
types of synonyms:

m o bu

same or nearly the same essential (denotative) meaning but differ

in additional (connotative) meanings and are suitable to different
contexts, e.g.:

To get - to acquire, gain, get hold of obtain, receive, buy,

come in possession, purchase, inherit, etc.

1. Absolute (coinciding in all shades of meaning and stylistic

characteristics):
To whiten - to make white; parents - mother and father.
2. Ideographic (conveying the same concept but differing in
shades of meaning)
Large - enormous - gigantic (the words differ in the degree of
quantity);
Lukewarm - warm - hot (the words differ in the degree of qual
ity).
3. Stylistic (differing in stylistic characteristics):
Toproduce - to create - tofabricate (emotional-evaluative con
notations are different);
Her eyes sparkle (with merriment) - her eyes glitter (with
rage);
To leave (neutral) - to clear out (CQ) - to take the air (si) - to
depart, to retire, to withdraw (formal).
The number of absolute synonyms in any language is limited.
But even if they are almost identical in their essential meanings and
general connotations (like, for example, the words mirror and
looking-glass), most often they may differ in frequency of their
usage (the word looking-glass is marked as dated in modern
English dictionaries), or they may have different combinability (for
example, or big business - a large fortune). Such words, thus,
may be treated as either stylistic or ideographic synonyms.
In English there arc seldom two words that are completely in
terchangeable. So-called synonyms may convey distinct nuances of
meaning, or belong to different contexts, or carry different signals
about the writer or intended reader and so on. They may differ in
the scope of meaning and stylistic colouring simultaneously (e.g. to
create - tofabricate). This quality of being the same yet different is
essential for synonyms. Their dual character helps them to perform
their functions in speech, to reveal different aspects, shades and
variations of the same phenomenon that is being described. Syn
onyms may even be used as contrasted and opposed to each other
as in the typical example: I like you but I dont love you! One more
picturesque example:

Think you can play Romeo? Romeo should smile, not grin ,
walk, not swagger; speak his lines, not mumble them.

In general, synonyms are used by writers and speakers fo r two

different reasons. Theirfirst function is to avoid monotonous repeti
tion of the same word in the context. Here we deal with synonym
variation (such words are called replacers or substitutes, many
of which are so-called contextual synonyms - see below). The sec
ondfunction is to make the description as detailed and exhaustive as
possible, to specify and/or intensify the speakers feelings/ emotions
or to convey the authors impression of the object described. Such
words are sometimes called synonyms-specifiers.
As one of the main principles of stylistics is that of choice, it
is interested in this property of synonyms, namely in their ability to
specify, i.e. to provide additional shades of the meaning intended.
The use of a carefully chosen word from a group of synonyms or
near-synonyms is most valuable for both literary works and speech.
As Mark Twain once remarked, the difference between the right word

The author/speaker has a great number of language synonyms

to choose from. However not only they can perform the function of
specifying. O f great stylistic importance are also so-called contex
tual (or speech/occasional) synonyms. Some words are perceived
as synonyms only in the given context, where they may be involved
in synonymic relations with other words of the context. Outside the
context these words do not form synonymic rows. In some definite
contexts they become so close in their semantic and stylistic con
notations that they may lose their logical dictionary meanings and
turn into contextual synonyms [see 167, p. 33].
To summarize thefunctions o f synonyms, we can state that both
language and contextual synonyms are used (1) to avoid repetition,
(2) to provide additional information, (3) to add to the preciseness
and expressiveness of the utterance, (4) to convey the authors sub
jective perception.

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

and just the right word is the difference between the lightning and
the lightning-bug (= a firefly).

CTUAicTuka

How is synonym repetition realized in a literary text? Synonyms

may or may not immediately follow each other in the text; and they
may be used in various combinations in a sentence or paragraph. So
synonym repetition is realized:

in pairs (or binomials): The company ran and ruled the

world. I am glad and gratified. He is distraught and despondent.

(mind alliteration in all the three examples)

1SB

 in trinomials: I closed, locked and bolted the door.

(H.G. Wells)
in catalogues (here we often meet periphrastic synonyms):
He should see her, be near to her, listen to her voice, be with her
always.
by way of synonym variation: I would lounge through the
morning, dawdle through the afternoon, and loa f through the eve
ning. (S.Maugham) (cf.: to lounge = sit or stand in a lazy way, rest;

to dawdle = be slow, waste time; to loaf = spend time idly).

Sometimes it is not synonyms that replace one another in the
text, but words (phrases) with essentially different meanings which,
however, can be regarded as situational synonyms, or co-referential units [93, p 152]. It means that we can refer to one and the
same person or object by using various nominations - words that
are not synonyms but they are used to signify one and the same
individual/ object, for example: John Smith may be referred to as
brother, neighbour, student, etc.
Repetition as a SD aiming at logical and emotional emphasis
should not be confused with types of synonym repetition called
pleonasm and tautology. Both pleonasm and tautology are often
understood as faults o f style, and their various definitions contain
negative evaluation. Compare:
Pleonasm is the use of more words than are necessary to express
the bare idea, either as a fault ofstyle or as a device purposely used
fo r special force or clearness [78, p.70]. Pleonasm is redundancy

of expression.
Tautology is the repetition (especially in the immediate context)
o f the same word or phrase or the same idea or statement in other
words; usually as a fault o f style [quoted from 154, p.215]. So the
difference is slight, if any in some cases. However, in tautology, it

seems, the redundancy, superfluity of expression is more palpable

- it is obvious because it is felt most tangibly:
55
a small dwarf
.S
He was the only survivor; no one else was saved, [quoted
from 154, p.215]
With malice toward none, with charity for all. (A. Lincoln)
In the last example, nevertheless, the repetition of the idea may
186 not be treated as a fault. It can be justifiable, since it is a typical

characteristic of persuasive oratorical style. It provides the rhythm

of the utterance and adds to the expressiveness and emotionally of
the speech delivered in front of an audience.
In pleonasm the redundancy of expression is mostly realized
through the use of two and more words and phrases that express
one, often quite simple, idea. It is characterized by excessiveness of
expression and often used by writers as a powerful means of speech
characteristic of a personage whose speech style is imperfect, or
who is overwhelmed with emotions, as is illustrated in the follow
ing example from B. Shaws Pygmalion (Mr. Doolittles famous
address):
I'll tell you. Governor, if you 7/ only let me get a word in. I'm
willing to tell you. I'm wanting to tell you. I'm waiting to tell you.

There is one more specific stylistic device which employs repeti

tion of sounds and structures. It is onomatopoeia [onoumaetou'pi:^]
(Greek word-making), or sound imitation. Onomatopoeia is the
reflection o f sounds o f the extralinguislic world (natural phenomena,
machines, people, and animals) by linguistic means fo r expressive
and pictorial purposes. In short, the acoustic form of words imitates

posed by writers and speakers for some particular purpose and con
text:
The pumps were tump-tumping, as they do, incessantly.
(G.Swift)
...now a Mississippi steamboat pushes up the night river
with a hoo-hoo-hoo-oo. (C.Sandburg)
(Compare in Ukrainian: 1). Wum 6iJibm meunijio, muM eimep,
3daeanocb, dyotcnae. /.. ./Hinoao ne 6yno nymu, minbm 6e3nepecmanne,
odnoMUHimne, einne uiv-uiv-iuv... uiv-ui v-iuv.... 2) A dojioM WepeMom
MHumb, otcene3e/ieny xpoeeip, uecnoKw.ny wuiyMJiuey... TpeMdima!...
Tvpv-pau-pa... mvpv-pau-pa... (M.KouhdGmhclkhh))
^

C r u A ic r u k a

rect and indirect.

Direct onomatopoeia is the use of words that directly imitate
natural sounds, such as "hiss, buzz", bang, 4crack, roar,
grunt , etc. These words can be registered in dictionaries or com

a H r A iu c b k o i mobu

the sounds produced by the object/action/living being they signify.

The onomatopoeic contexts transmit not only the logical information
but also the vivid portrayal of the situation described [166, p. 11].
I.R.Galperin differentiates between 2 varieties of onomatopoeia - di

Onomatopoeic words are sometimes called echo-words. There

are a lot of them in every language, one of the largest groups being
words imitating sounds produced by animals. J.C. Nesfield wrote:
We still for the most part recognize the imitative intent of such
words as the clucking of hens, cackling of geese, gobbling of turkeys,
quacking of ducks, croaking of frogs, cawing of rooks, cooing oi
doves, hooting of owls, chirping of sparrows, twittering of swal
lows, chattering of magpies or monkeys, neighing or whinnying
of horses, purring or mewing of cats, yelping, howling, snarling of
dogs, bellowing of bulls, lowing of oxen, bleating of sheep [quoted
from 179, p. 133]. For quite obvious reasons, direct onomatopoeia is
widely used in books for children:

He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in his fu r and

his tail, but quite like a weasel in his head and his habits./.../ and
his war cry, as he scuttled through the long grass, was: Rikk-tikktikki-tikki-tchk! (from R.Kiplings story Rikki-tikki-tavi).

cKapojiiHa UlomoupKa

Since ancient times (2ndcentury B.C.) attempts have been made

to establish certain parallels between words and what they denote.
Some scholars believe that the sounding of words (and even their
form), or at least phonemic clusters in words, are suggestive of their
meaning. The studies are known as theories o f sound imitation and
sound symbolism. For the English language, for example, the con
sonant eluster [kw] is supposed to render the feeling of trembling,
instability (e.g. quiver; quaver), [bl] - of quick/energetic motion/ac
tion {blow, blab, blubber ), [fl] - of clumsiness {flounder, flo p ). The
sound combination of a plosive plus a low-pitched vowel plus a nasal
sonorant is believed to be typical of lots of languages when they de
scribe the sound of a heavy blow with a low tone, for example sounds
produced by bells, cf.: ding-dong (English), 6om , 6yM (Slavonic lan
guages) (for more - see, for example, [75, p.530] and [131, p. 14]).
It is evident that sound imitation was once very productive and is
still productive in generating the language. Nevertheless, only a very
small part of the vocabulary of a language can be interpreted in these
terms. And besides, if we compare onomatopoeic words in different
languages, their direct imitative qualities do not prove absolute, or
universal. They are, in fact, largely conventional and depend on the
properties of some definite language and the perceptive peculiarities
of its speakers. Compare the sounds produced by cocks and dogs
Igg of different nationalities (as you will see, animals speaking in

closely related languages can much more easily understand each

other than those of distant national origins):
English
Bulgarian

cock-a doodle-do
KyKypiry

wow, bow-wow, woof

6ay-6ay (all the words be
low are given in the Ukrai
nian transcription)

Greek
Spanish
Italian
Lithuanian
German
Ukrainian
Russian
French
Estonian
Swedish
Japanese

KyKypiKO
KiKipiKi
KiKKepiKy
KaKa-peKy
KiKepiKi
KyKypiKy
KyKapeKy
KOKOpiKO
KyKyjieery
KyKejiiKy
KOKeKOKKO

ra B -ra B

ryay-ryay
6ay-6ay
ay-ay
Bay-Bay
ra B -ra B
r a B -r a B

ay-ay
ayxx
ByB-ByB
BaH-BaH

onomatopoeia may or may not be created by onomatopoeic words

proper. It is often produced by rhythm and various types o f syntactic
(parallelism), lexical (successive word repetition) and phonetic re
petitive figures (alliteration, assonance, rhyme, paronomasia, etc.).
The overall effect should be the reproduction o f the actual sound of
something that is being described in the text. The classical examples

a H r A iu c b k o i mobu

Indirect onomatopoeia is a combination of sounds the aim of

which is to make the sound o f the whole utterance an echo o f its
sense [154, p. 125]. It is sometimes called echo-writing1. Indirect

tain
Thrilled me -fille d me with fantastic terrors never fe lt before.

(Compare in Ukrainian: rom unm cMepeKu Had daHHMu 6yxie,

eapKaei epoMU Had Kpainojo Kpon (JI. K o c t c h k o ) )

C r u A ic r u k a

can be found in E.A. Poes poetry. Poe is a real master of sound

instrumenting. In the following lines from his famous poem Raven
the poet resorts to echo-writing by using the alliteration of t/s/f
sounds and the onomatopoeic word rustle, thus imitating the sound
produced by silk curtains when in motion:

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling o f each purple cur

Thus alliteration and assonance usually underlie the onomato

poeic effect. In the following example from modem prose we can find |gg

an interesting case of an apt combination of direct and indirect ono

matopoeia used to describe the impression produced by an unusual
name: Cousin Nwankechukukere just changed her name to Nwa
To me there was a delicious crunchiness in Nwan-ke-chu-ku-kere , a crunchiness redolent o f fried corn and groundnuts eaten with
coconut. It was a pity to lose all that, [quoted from 176, p. 6].
The difference between onomatopoeia and phonemic repetitions

is the following: while the purpose of alliteration, for example, is only

implied and should be deciphered, onomatopoeia usually suggests
it and is quite explicit. Besides, the effect in indirect onomatopoeia
is very often created by specific rhythmic patterns and by means
of using and repeating words (including conjunctions) that are not
onomatopoeic but that start being perceived as such in some definite
context:
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and he shouted, and called them by name:
Now, Dancer! Now, Dasher, now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top o f the porch! To the top o f the wall!
Now dash away, dash away, dash away a ll! (C.C.Moore)

The following short passages taken from E. Caldwells short

story Wild Flowers show quite clearly how different types of sound
organization of the paragraphs convey the changing morning atmo
sphere described by the author:
1. The mocking-bird that had perched on the rooftop all night,
filling the clear cool air with its music, had flown away when the
sun rose. There was silence as deep and mysterious as theflat sandy
country that extended mile after mile in every direction. Yesterday s
shadows on the white sand began to reassemble under the trees and
around the fence posts, spreading on the ground the lacy foliage oj
the branches and the fuzzy slabs o f the wooden fence.

55
.S
1

Here we observe a markedly rhythmical flow of words and a

noticeable, almost tangible interchange of repeated sound clusters
- sonants and fricative/plosives [fl, ml, In, fn, m, 1, n, st, bl, br, dn,
si, etc.].
2. The sun rose in leaps and bounds, jerking itself upward as
though it were in a great hurry to rise above the tops o f the pines so
it could shine upon theflat country from there to the Gulf

The second paragraph displays a change of rhythmical organiza

tion - the rhythm becomes uneven, jerky, there is no recurrence of
lexical morphemes, syntactic constructions; the sound/stress patterns
are also different [quoted from 97, p.62-64], The quiet of the night
gives way to the disquiet of the day.
To sum up, the sound organization, or instrumenting, of the
text can perform various functions: 1) it can be oriented at echowriting (3ByKonHc), one of the forms of which is imitation of
natural sounds; 2) it can have a more complex semantic task aim
ing at the creation of some inner sound imagery (here we -deal with
sound symbolism). But usually these two functions are intertwined
in the text. They are often overlapping in musical poetry and in socalled symbolic poetry: the sounding of words seems to be chosen
very carefully so that the effect produced is that of an echo, and
even sometimes (as in the works of the Russian poets A. Belyj, V.
Khlebnikov, M. Tsvetayeva) the sound image created is echoing the
visual one. Below are some examples from modem English poetry
employing sound instrumenting:
this is the garden:colours come and go,

C TU A icT uka

When we started analysing repetition as an expressive means

(see above), we considered it to be one of the basic principles of
art. It is really so for the obvious reason that all types of repetition
presuppose some certain periodicity of appearance of elements in
the given text. And periodicity is a general notion. We find it in all
spheres of life. When something occurs at regular intervals, we usu
ally term this type of periodicity rhythm. Rhythm is universal. We
observe it in nature, living beings physiology, working machinery,
most human activities, including music, dance, architecture (in the
form of symmetry), in art in general. When it is treated as a SD
(by syntagmatic stylistics), rhythm means a regular alternation o f

a H r A iu c b k o i mobu

fra il azures fluttering from night s outer wing

strong silent greens silently lingering,
absolute lights like baths o f golden snow (e.e.cummings)
Dawndrizzle ended
dampness steams from
Blotching brick and
blank plasterwaste
Faded housepatterns
hoary andfinicky
Infold stuttering
stick like a phonograph ... (Earle Birney)

similar or equal units o f speech, an interchange o f strong and weak flft

segments (stressed and unstressed elements) and it can be applied

to both prose and poetic texts. Rhythm seems to be a kind of frame

work of speech organization. It is realized in lexical, syntactic and

prosodic means and in their combinations. For example, sound and
word repetitions, syntactic parallelism, polysyndeton, enumeration,
catalogues of homogeneous parts are perceived as rhythmical on
the syntactic, lexical, phonetic levels and in terms of intonation [94,
p. 163], e.g.:

But the winter has chilled my veins, and thefrost has nipped
my buds, and the storm has broken my branches, and I shall have no
roses at all this year. (O.Wilde)

The difference between rhythm in prose and rhythm in poetry

is that in poetry it is more formally organised and usually termed
poetic metre". This aspect of poetic texts as well as rhyme, a type
of phonological repetition, will be discussed in detail in Lecture 19
dealing with the poetic substyle of the belles-lettres style.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

1. What do you understand ly synonym repetition? What is its role in a text?
2. What is a contextual synonym?
3. Give deftnitions of the notions "pleonasm" and 'tautology. Exemplify them.
4. Explain the term onomatopoeia. What is the difference between direct and
indirect onomatopoeia?
5. What type of repetition is rhythm?

LECTURE TS
FUNCTIONAL STYLES OF ENGLISH
The problems of classification

We have already stated (sec lectures 1 and 4 of this manual)

that modem literary English exists in two constantly interacting
functional varieties, usually termed by scholars as formal (book
ish) and informal (colloquial). They both can be found either in
oral or written forms. Speakers resort to this or that type of speech,
register, or style/substyle, depending upon the communicative
situation, i.e. the social or professional context in which they use
the language.
Within functional stylistics we can differentiate several speci
fied directions [166, p.8] concentrating on the study of various
speech types and styles. In fact, functional stylistics embraces all
possible varieties, or concrete representations of language in use,
including those used in literary communication which are called
functional styles. I.R.Galperin gives the following definition of a
functional style: it is a system o f interrelated language means serv
ing a definite aim in communication. [154, p.32]. Functional styles
employ the units of all language levels. They are historically change
able, i.e. they change and develop together with the development of
the language system.
How are they systematized? There is no agreement among schol
ars as to their nomenclature. As a result, there are debates as to the
number of styles and their classificatory principles, but in general,
theoreticians single out from 2 to 5 and more functional styles (also
employing the terms speech types, speech varieties, sublan
guages, etc.). Three of them - official, scientific and publicist styles
- arouse almost no controversy among scholars, whereas the status of
colloquial, belles-lettres and newspaper functional varieties causes

m o bu

a H r A iu c b k o i

The publicist style

The newspaper style
The official style
The scientific style

C T U A ic T u k a

cKapojiiHa SlomoupKQ

heated debates. The so-called confessional or religious, functional

style is also singled out by some scholars. The informal/colloquial
type of speech is often entered by linguists into the classification of
functional styles of the language (O.M. Morokhovsky, I.V. Arnold,
M.P. Brandes, and others) despite the fact that a style o f speech mani
fests a conscious, mindful effort in choosing and preferring certain
means o f expression for the given communicative circumstances,
while colloquial speech is shaped by the immediacy, spontaneity,
unpremeditativeness of the communicative situation [ 166, p. 7]. As
regards the belles-lettres and newspaper styles, the former is often
deprived of an independent status, while the latter is sometimes
included into the publicist style. It is explained by the fact that the
diversity of genres in both newspapers and imaginative literary works
is quite obvious. The biggest problem is the determining of the status
of literature, or belles-lettres (French for beautiful writings). The
British linguists C. Brumfit and R. Carter, like many other scholars
here and abroad, address themselves this controversial question: Is
there a language o f literature and what is it? They argue that, actu
ally, it cannot be recognized and isolated in the same way as, for
example, the language of newspaper headlines, or legal documents.
With the exception of what can be loosely identified as poeticisms
(e.g. to behold = to see; azure = the sky), there is no special lexis
that might unmistakably belong to an artistic text as, for instance, the
words anti-cyclone ", isobars belong to the register of weather
forecasting and similar professional texts of this scientific field. The
fact is that such technical words can be used not only in special
contexts, but also in an artistic text for some stylistic purposes. Any
deviation from norms of lexis and syntax, for example, in legal docu
ments would be inadmissible (cf.: This guy here was tipsy instead
of The defendant was inebriated'), but not in a prosaic or poetic
text. So literature is the context (or discourse) where different variet
ies o f language can be found, admitted and mixed. This peculiarity
of artistic texts is usually pointed out as a solid argument against
qualifying imaginative literature as a separate functional style. An
other argument is the fact that in artistic texts, especially in modem
ones, not only literary but also non-literary language means can be
found. As Guy Cook remarks, many literary works seem pointedly
to borrow the language of non-literary discourses. Furthermore, the
164 linguistic features which may seem distinctive (such as parallelism

high value is placed upon them, and a great pleasure is accorded to

fiction by very different readers. One of the reasons for this contra

diction is a particular effect produced by literature on the readers

mind, which, as G.Cook suggested, derives from an interaction of

a H r A iu c b k o i m o b u
C TU A icT uka

and creative deviation) are also found in supposedly non-literary dis

courses such as advertisements, journalism, songs, nursery rhymes,
political speeches, prayers, chants, and graffiti to make it convinc
ing [140, p.2]. Thus literature is either treated very narrowly (as is
understood from the above quotation) or it is not distinguished from
other types of discourse and/or considered to be one of them (termed
literary/artistic discourse) by quite a number of modern scholars
(M.L.Pratt, O.N.Morokhovsky et al), their main argument being the
fact that the borders between literature and non-literature have now
become vague and confused. Such an approach (so-called social)
does not distinguish the study of literature from the study of language
and communication in general.
However very many scholars are of a different opinion as
to the status and especially study of literature (V.V.Vinogradov,
R.A.Budagov, I.R.Galperin, K.A.Dolinin, E.G.Riesel, J.Mistrik and
others). Admitting that very many features of imaginative prose
are also constituents of other types of discourse, David Lodge, for
instance, advocates treating literature separately. One of his argu
ments is that artistic literary texts, unlike other types of discourse,
are purely fictitious, i.e. imagined, invented (even in those genres
where events depicted are based on real facts). Hence another term
for imaginative (also called emotive) prose is fiction: it is fiction
or it is treated as fictional, having an obviously expressed aesthetic
loading. Another argument is that an artistic text is self-centered,
i.e. it is created fo r its own sake. And the process o f perception
o f such a text is an aesthetic end in itself (the idea goes back to
V.B. Shklovskys works [see 114]). Besides, there exists an aspect
of literature which the social approach finds hard to explain. Guy
Cook thus characterizes this paradox: literary texts, in all kinds of
societies, often tell us at great length of worlds and people who do
not exist, of emotions and experiences which do not affect us. They
dwell at length on banal facts which we know already (death is sad,
nature is beautiful, love is joy, etc.), or they create patterns and play
with expectations for no apparent reason at all [140, p.4]; but de
spite this apparent uselessness of literary works the extraordinarily

textual form with the reader s pre-existing mental representations

o f the world, which may be refreshed or changed by the process of
readingfiction, [ibid., p.4] So literature not only exposes readers to

complex themes and fresh, unexpected uses of language, but it also

elicits from them a powerful emotional response. These may be only
some of many possible criteria for deciding about a special status of
a work of literature.
As regards the use of non-literary vocabulary in modem fiction,
scholars warn us against mixing up the terms literary language
and the language of literature. They also add that the relationships
between these two notions are much more complex than it may
seem. Literature may be called the workshop where the norms and
standards of literary language arc polished [55, p. 81]. And it is not
without reason that artistic texts often serve as the main source of
illustrations for grammars and dictionaries of literary language. No
matter how paradoxical it might appear, but the main peculiarity of
artistic texts (and the main counter-argument) - making ample use of
elements o f other styles - mayform a scientific basisfo r differentiat
ing itfrom all otherfunctional styles. Despite its seemingly multiplex
genre and stylistic structure, i.e. its multi-style nature, belles-lettres
texts employ only some elements of other styles. Besides, these ele
ments are used in imaginative literature in the aestheticfunction, and

cXapo/UHQ UlomoupKa

not in the functions they perform in contexts to which they properly

belong. So the imagery o f an artistic text is aesthetic, it is highly

original and individualized. One may argue that, for instance, a sci
entific text is not devoid of imagery either. True, but its function is
quite different, it is so called cognitive-popularizing. We can also add
that imagery in science (unlike in the belles-lettres) is characterized
by its being typified and generalized, being somewhat schematic
and abstracted [55, p.84]. In a novel or short story, by contrast,
the language is used by the writer in a highly self conscious way to
convey particular effects [134, p.89]. Furthermore, many linguists
point out that there are a number of linguistic features of literary lan
guage which tend to predominate in literary texts, such as metaphor,
simile, alliteration, all types of repetition, unusual syntactic patterns,
the double or multiple meaning of a word, poeticisms, mixing of
styles/registers, etc. Some of these features occur in other forms of
discourse, but in many literary texts they combine to form a highly

166 unified and consistent effect, which strongly reinforces the message

CTUAicTuka

system of functional styles. All these factors justify the possibility

for the belles-lettres to achieve an equally autonomous status among
other styles, which may prove to be even a more important status, for
as G.Cook claims and proves in his book Discourse and Literature,
literary discourse is not just one more genre or social institution
among others. It has a particular function in human life, especially
fo r the inner mental world o f the individual" [140, p.255].
Thus, we can speak about 5 main functional styles to be singled
out in modem English [166, p.6]. They are:
1. Belles-lettres style, embracing various genres of creative
writing
2. Publicist style, covering such genres as essays, feature ar
ticles, public speeches, etc.
3. Newspaper style, represented in brief news items, editorials,
advertisements, and other materials printed in newspapers
4. Official style, observed in various kinds of official papers,
such as business, legal, diplomatic, military documents
5. Scientific (prose) style, found in articles, brochures, mono
graphs and other academic publications.
All of them, as has already been emphasized, can be found
in two forms - written and oral (e.g. an essay and a public speech
- of the publicist style). Besides, some types of texts may combinc
the features of two or more functional styles, like, for example, nu
merous scientific-popular materials we can come across in various
magazines.We now proceed to characterize each of the styles enu
merated above, beginning with the publicist style. The descriptions
given below are mostly based on the works by well-known home
and foreign stylisticians.

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

ofthe text [ 130, p. 8]. Finally, if scholars single out styles on the basis
of the sphere of their social application/ functioning and their serv
ing the needs of certain spheres of human activity or certain typified
communicative situations, then the complex nature and heterogeneity
of the belles-lettres (which is termed by R.Fowler as a type o f social
discourse) should not be a valid reason for excluding it from the

The publicist style. Originated from the oratorical style of an

cient times, modem publicist style has preserved its mainfunctional
characteristic, namely that o f persuasion. Besides public speeches,
radio/TV commentaries (i.e. oral form), it usually manifests itself f g f

cKapofliHa UlomovpKa

in essays, journalistic articles, book reviews, pamphlets (i.e. written

form), dealing with the addressers/authors political, ideological,
ethical and social beliefs, sentiments and statements. The general
aim of the publicist style is to exert a constant and deep influence on
public opinion, to convince the reader or the listener that the interpre
tation given by the writer or the speaker is the only correct one and to
cause him to accept the point of view expressed in the speech, essay
or article not merely through logical argumentation but emotional
appeal as well [154, p. 287]. In fact, the publicist style is rather
syncretic, employing logical-structural and linguostylistic means that
are typical of both the scientific and emotive prose styles.
The degree of emotionality and individuality is greater in speech
es and essays, whereas in newspaper/magazine articles and literary
reviews the subject chosen and the character of the magazine may
noticeably influence the style/manner of presentation. Among the
commonest features of essavs belonging to that functional variety, wc
should mention, first of all, conciseness, brevity of expression; sec
ond, the use of emotive words and numerous stylistic devices aiming
at producing a highly emotional impact on the reader (such as similes,
metaphors, hyperboles, irony, etc.); and finally, logical argumenta
tion and a specifically organized syntactic structure (which includes
such features as the use of 1st person pronouns, various repetitions, a
developed system of connectives, etc.). The style of an essay, as well
as that of an article. depends greatly on the writers individuality:
it may be highly emotional and written with a touch of personality;
it may present witty epigrammatic comments on the matter, or may
be argumentative and resemble scientific prose [167, p.94].
In speeches and orations (i.e. formal speeches made on a pub
lic occasion, especially as part of a ceremony), the aforementioned
logical reasoning and argumentation are enhanced by vividness of
presentation achieved by prosodic and non-verbal means of com
munication, and due to the emotionally coloured and stylistically
marked language used by speakers, who frequently resort to epithets,
similes and metaphors, allusions and periphrases. Among the most
typical syntactic devices observed here we can mention various types
of repetition, rhetorical questions, exclamatory sentences, parallel
constructions, gradation, suspense and others, all aiming at influenc
ing the listener and shaping his views in accordance with the authors
<jgg argumentation [166, p. 109].

The newspaper style. We all know very well that newspapers

are printed publications, issued daily or weekly, with news, adver
tisements, feature articles on various subjects, literary and scientific
reviews, stock-exchange accounts, crossword puzzles, short stories
and even poems. A newspaper, thus, has a variety o f genres . Hence
not all of the materials published in a newspaper are considered to
be specimens of the newspaper style proper. Some materials belong
to the publicist style; others combine features typical of newspa
per, publicist and belles-lettres styles, as for example, the so-called
new journalism. Thus only informative materials characteristic o f
newspapers and notfound in other publications belong to the news
paper style as we understand it [166, p. 109], Its main function - to
impart information - is achieved by brief news items, press reports,
informative articles, advertisements and announcements [167, p.97].
Editorials are special articles in a newspaper. They give an opinion

b) non-term political vocabulary (e.g. nation, government)-,

c) newspaper idioms and cliches (e.g. vital issues, pillars of
society, a carrot-and-stick policy)',

d) abbreviations and clippings (e.g. Ph.D., MP, BBC, UFO,

NATO, UNESCO, lib (=liberal), rep (=business representative));
e) neologisms (e.g. nine-eleven syndrome, brainfingerprinting)

CTUAicTuka

tions)',

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

on some topical issues and are usually written by the editor. Editori
als may be qualified as belonging to both newspaper and publicist
styles. These and other materials are characterized by a number of
features typical o f that functional style. Among them we can men
tion the following:
1. the use of special graphical means, such as the changing of
types, space ordering, etc.;
2. a lot of dates and names (geographic, personal, names of
institutions);
3. specific vocabulary:
a) special political and economic terms (e.g. gross output, elec

(they are susceptible to changes);

f) vocabulary typical of this style only (e.g. go-ahead = ap
proval; poll =election/public opinion survey; plea = request; key =
essential; drive = campaign, effort; clash = dispute);
4. specific grammar and syntax:
a) complex sentences with a developed system of clauses;
|68l

b) verbal (infinitive, gerund, participle) and noun construc

tions;
c) attributive noun groups, used for the sake of brevity (i.e. a
noun is employed in the function of an attribute)
d) unusual word-order.
In fact, grammar violations, being regular, have become the
functional peculiarity of the newspaper style. As regards the order of
presentation of information, the traditional journalistic practice has
developed what is called the five-w-and-h-pattem rule (who-whatwhy-how-where-when), but it is also often violated nowadays.
Advertisements and announcements as subtypes/genres of the
newspaper style are almost as old as newspapers themselves [154,
p.301]. There are two basic types: classified and non-classified. The
latter has no fixed form or subject matter; while the former is ar
ranged in a number of stereotyped patterns regularly employed,
each being governed by the subject-matter (e.g. Births, Business
offers; Personal, etc.). They are usually elliptical in their structure,
being sometimes telegram-like in style. It is done for purely techni
cal reasons - to economize the space, which is expensive. To attract
potential customers attention adverts should be eye-catching, both
graphically and semantically. One of the ways of doing it is to employ
various types of wordplay. The following collection of captions to ads
dealing with tourism (visiting famous cities) illustrates the point:
PISA cake (cf. A piece of cakc (idiom/sl) = something very
easy)
CANNES do (can do)
TURIN Europe (tour in Europe)
ROME around Europe (roam around Europe)
TAKE votre Dame (cf. Notre Dame de Paris)
PARIS happy, so is Ma (Pa is happy, so is Ma)
As regards headlines (i.e. titles given to a news item or an ar
ticle), they are rather specific. Their primary aims are (1) to attract
readers attention, (2) to inform them briefly what the text that fol
<s
lows is about, and often (3) to express the authors attitude to the
I event described in the article. The function and noticeable language
peculiarities of headlines make it possible for some scholars to treat
headlines separately as a specific genre of journalism with its
peculiar language called headlinese [154, p.302]. Trying to catch
170 the readers eye by using as few words as possible, headline writers

have developed their own rules and methods of employing language

means, the choice of which is wide and unusual in a number of ways.
Among them we should mention the following:
1. grammatical peculiarities and/or violations, such as
articles and auxiliary verbs are often left out (e.g. Shop blaze
5 dead = Five people died in a fire in a shop; Early cut forecast in
interest rates))

a simple form of the verb is used (e.g. Queen opens hospital

today)

the infinitive is used to express the fact that something is

going to happen in the future (e.g. President to visit mine)
the use of phrases with verbals (e.g. Updating the obelisk;
Going out on top)

C r u A ic r u k a

a H r A iu c b k o i mobu

the use of full declarative sentences, including those with

direct speech (e.g. The man who wrote the yellow pages; Prince
Richard says: 7 was not in trouble ); interrogative sentences, often
elliptical, or questions in the form of statements (e.g. Do you speak
Bostonian?; Nobel prize fo r fiction? You like it?); nominative sen
tences (e.g. New tennis clash; The samba effect)
2. the use of emotionally coloured words that are usually shorter
and generally sound more dramatic than ordinary lexis. A lot of such
words can be used either as nouns or verbs [177, p. 184], e.g.:
blast = explosion;
axe = cut, remove;
boost = incentive, encourage;
boss/head = manager, director;
pledge/ vow = promise;
probe = investigation.
3. graphical peculiarities (e.g. the use of printing types of vari
ous styles and sizes)
4. the use of abbreviations (e.g. WHO = World Health Organi
zation)
5. the employment of peculiar SDs, such as:
various types of wordplay, including pun and paronomasia (
e.g. Torrential rain in most arias ( most areas^ - about L. Pavarottis
open air concert in London in rainy weather)
violation of set expressions, often based on allusions (e.g.
Cakes and bitter ale (cf. W.S.Maughams novel Cakes and Ale)
the use of full titles of some famous books (e.g. My family
and other animals - the title of G.Durrells popular book is em- 171

ployed to discuss the problems connected with pests living in peoples

homes)
alliteration (e.g. Channel champion; Minding the millen
nium)

idiomatic and stylistically marked vocabulary, newspaper

cliches (e.g. Take a short cut; The end is nigh (nigh = near (archaic
and poet))
The selection of material, its treatment and presentation to a great
extent depend on the audience the material is meant for and the type
of a newspaper, i.e. whether it is a tabloid (or a popular paper with
large circulations) or so-called quality press (like The Times).
The style of official documents. The official style is represented
by the 4 main substyles of
1.
2.
3.
4.

business documents
legal documents
military documents
documents o f diplomacy [154, p.312].
The communicative aim of official documents is to reach agree
ment between two contracting parties (e.g. the state and the citizen).

Predetermined by this function, each variety of official language has

its lexical and syntactic peculiarities, i.e. a special system of cliches,
terms, set expressions, abbreviations, conventional symbols and con
tractions (e.g. M .P .- Member o f Parliament; -pound; Ltd-limited,
etc.) Among the most conspicuous features of official documents arc
definite compositional and structural patterns which are to be strictly
followed. Being the most conservative of all functional styles, the
style of official documents preserves cast-iron forms of structuring
and uses syntactic constructions and words long known as archaic or
not observed anywhere else. Addressing documents and official let
ters, singing them, expressing the reasons and considerations leading
to the subject of the document (letter) - all this is strictly regulated
both lexically and syntactically. All emotiveness and subjective mo
dality are completely banned out o f this style [166, p. 109].

55

!
'

The scientific style. This functional style serves the needs of

modern science. As its aim being to prove some hypothesis or dis
close the internal laws of existence, its most conspicuous feature
is the abundance o f terms denoting objects, phenomena and pro

cesses characteristic of some particular field of science [ 166, p. 108].

Among other important peculiarities of scientific prose we should
mention the logical sequence o f utterances with clear indication of
their interrelations (i.e. logical cohesion), the use of some typical
sentence-patterns, discourse markers and cliches (such as before we
proceed , it may seem reasonable to suggest \ "in connection with ,
in terms o f \ etc.), the use of quotations, references andfootnotes of
a digressive character. Clarity of expression and impersonality are

also among the most typical features of scientific writings: the author
tries to present facts objectively and impartially. Emotionality and
figurativeness are usually excluded from scientific prose. I f imagery
is used in a scientific text, its function is cognitive-popularizing, and
not aesthetic. As we have already stated before, imagery is highly
typified and generalized in scientific prose texts. However, when a
scientific book, paper or a lecture is intended for a larger audience
(general public), the author strives to avoid special vocabulary or sup
ply the notions discussed with vivid illustrations and commentaries,
making his presentation sound more emotional and imaginative, and
thus more understandable and interesting even for non-specialists. In
this case we deal with the so-called popular-scientific prose whose
aim is to popularize science. The functional and language parameters
of popular-scientific articles make it possible to state that such texts
combine the features of scientific and belles-lettres styles.

a H r A iu c b k o i m o b u

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

C ru A ic T u k a

1. What is a functional style?

2. Comment on the problems of classification of functional styles.
3. Why is it possible to speak about imaginative literature as a separatefunctional
style? Give the arguments suggested by prominent scholars.
4. Enumerate thefunctional styles of contemporary English.
5. What are the main characteristics of the publicist style?
6. Discuss the peculiarities of the newspaper style and some of its main subtypes, or
genres.
7. Characterise the official style.
8. What are the main features of the scientificprose style?

LECTURE 19
THE BELLES-LETTRES STYLE

Thefunctions of imaginative literature.

Emotive prose.
Poetry. Poetic diction. Metre and rhyme.
English verseforms.
The style of drama.

The belles-lettres style, or the style of imaginative literature is

the richest register of communication [166, p. 110], being a multi
genre, heterogeneous system of functional types of speech. So what
is literature? It is a very difficult question. Ronald Carter gives the
following definition of literature: Literature is patterned, represen
tational, pleasurably interpersonal discourse fo r negotiated inter
pretation [135, p. 13]. Though short, it sounds sophisticated. Yet the

cX qpojuhq SlomoupKQ

main idea is precisely worded. What we can get from this definition
by paraphrasing and interpreting it is the understanding of literature
as imaginative texts that have their own linguistic features (includ
ing typical thematic and genre characteristics). These are texts that
are culturally-rooted, i.e. represent the writers culture and other
social-historical rcalia. Besides, we should understand that reading
literature presupposes a process of interpretation and pleasurable
interaction with its meanings [ibid., p. 12]. Competent readers have
well developed the ability to see beyond the printed pages.
The belles-lettres style is usually subdivided into three main
subtypes:
The style o f emotive prose (fiction)
The style o f poetry
The style o f drama.
Each subtype has its own peculiarities but all of them have com
mon features resulting from their common function. Thefunction of
the belles-lettres style is twofold: 1) it is informative - persuasive, i.e.
literature informs and communicates facts and ideas to the reader; and
2) it is aesthetic-emotive, i.e. it affects the reader emotionally. This
174 double function is called aesthetic-cognitive (aesthetic = concerned

C TU A icT uka

Emotive prose. Sometimes the synonymous term *'fiction

(from Latin fictio" - shaping, counterfeiting) is used to name all
those artistic works that are not entirely factual but at least partially
made up, imagined. It is true that in some genres of literature, such
as historical novels, the writer draws upon factual information in
presenting scenes, events, and characters. But the factual informa
tion in a historical novel, unlike in a history book (belonging to a
different functional variety, i.e. (popular-) scientific), is of secondary
importance. Fiction gives us not only facts or the facts may be not
entirely true, but a keen sense of actual life. As X. Kennedy says,
we do not expect from fiction to be a chronicle of how a few people
acted at some past time, we expect from fiction a seme of how people
act [see 173]. We read fiction not just for the story, but to enlarge

a H r A iu c b k o i m o b u

with the appreciation of beauty; cognitive = relating to the process

of acquiring knowledge).
The main linguistic features common to all three subtypes are:
1) the use of imagery, produced, as we know, by the interaction of
different meanings of a word in the context; 2) the use of emotional
language to enhance the expressiveness of the utterance (these might
be emotionally coloured words as well as different EMs and SDs of
various levels); 3) the use of elements o f other registers /styles o f
language (for example, the elements of the newspaper style, those
of official documents, etc.) and types o f speech (e.g. the use of col
loquial - both literary and non-literary - expressions in dialogues
in novels and stories). However each of the subtypes has individual
characteristics. Among them we can note the degree and type of
imagery and overall emotionality. They vary in prose, drama and
poetry. The degree of emotionality is usually higher in poetry: the
poet tends to reveal his feelings and emotions directly. In prose
the authors emotions and attitude towards the person/phenomenon
described can be veiled or only implied. The number of colloquial
elements (both lexical and syntactic), as a rule, is larger in drama
than in prose and poetry since in drama the oral type of language is
widely employed, the form of plays being that of a dialogue. Poetry
of previous centuries adhered to specific vocabulary and themes.
Contemporary poetic texts do not differ radically from prosaic works
in terms of lexis and the subjects they treat. Now we proceed to
characterize each subtype of the belles-lettres style in detail.

cKaponiHQ SlomoujbKQ

our knowledge and understanding of the world [175, p.10]. To use

F. Bacons words, reading makes a fu ll man, which means that with
the help of books and nothing else but our imagination, we can live
thousands of lives in any age and any country, with as much pleasure
and pain as we experience in our own lives. Besides, the purpose of
reading good fiction is not mere knowledge, but wisdom that comes
from knowledge. To read, understand, enjoy and learn - that is the
right approach to the art of emotive prose.
Being a record of the intellectual, moral and emotional experi
ence and imagination of mankind, literature in general can serve as a
social mirror [198, p.20]: books are written about every conceivable
subject, and in every conceivable form. Literature is a creation by
someone at some time in history, and it is intended to speak to other
human beings about some idea or issue that has human relevance
[157, p. 18]. Emotive prose implies principally books o f the imagi
native kinds, such as novels and short stories. As has already been
stated, emotive prose makes an ample use of elements from other
functional styles. We can come across whole sentences and even
paragraphs written in other styles though here these elements are
influenced by the surrounding context and undergo a kind of stylistic
modification. That is why such passages are not considered proper
constituents of fiction but treated as insertions. The writer can use
scientific terms and professional lexis in his/her novel for different
purposes, to achieve various stylistic effects. For example, it may
be an indirect speech characteristic of the personage or a means of
establishing the setting for the story (its local-temporal frame) that
will add credibility and an air of authenticity to the narration. I f we
deal, for instance, with science fiction, the scene in a story/ novel
may be set in some imaginary place, strange and unusual, such as a
distant planet. The lexis used in such a book will be characterized
by an abundance of exotisms, the authors neologisms, and words
describing geographic and natural phenomena. Detective stories, in
their turn, will be rich in vocabulary typical of legal documents, in
professional and criminal jargonisms. Hence, the choice of linguistic
structure as well as narrative composition and stylistic colouring to
a great extent depends on genre varieties of a pro* work, which
are numerous and rather syncretic in modern prose.
The novel, which is the youngest of the literary forms in English
f? 8 (with the exception of the short story), enjoys a wide freedom and

nowadays it cannot be said to be governed by any definable clear-cut

rules [198, pp.20-21]. It is not only free as regards its length, but
its story may be told in many ways. It gives a generous chance for
narrative, description, and conversation. This second freedom is best
realized by comparison with the drama, a literary form which is lim
ited to conversation and monologue. In a play the number of acts may
vary, but the action can be advanced only by means of conversation
between people. Here the author cannot intrude himself in person,
either to explain the characters remarks, or to express his private
opinion on their actions. But in a novel, he may do almost anything
he likes. (About types of narrative and narrative-compositional forms
- see Lecture 20).
Novels differ from one another not only in kind (genre, subject,
etc.), but in the individual methods and characteristics of their au
thors. And their style may be well defined as the impact of personal
ity upon the spirit of the age [198, p.9]. Let us quote the following
passage from the splendid guide to literature The English Language
-Its Beauty and Use, whose authors thus speak about the merits
of emotive prose and the art of reading: Those who read little are
not particular about the manner in which a book is written, so long
as they are interested in the matter. As we read more, we come to
demand, not only that what we read should interest us, but that it
should be written in the best possible way. This demand will lead
us invariably to the great masters. It is wise to read modem authors;
their troubles and joys and interests and language are closest to our
own. But, like a violinist and his instrument, or a golfer and his
clubs, as our familiarity increases, we demand better workmanship,
and we will find ourselves turning to those who have written best in
all ages [ibid., p. 15].
To conclude, the authors style is a sort of imprint of the authors
personality on his works, which reflects, among other things, his
individual usage of language means. Each talented writer is original
in selecting lexical-syntactic devices and vocabulary in general. As
we know, a special branch of functional stylistics, the stylistics of the
encoder, studies the authors idiostyle, the correlations between his/
her creative concepts and language. This helps to reveal the message
of the writers works, enjoy and perceive more profoundly his/her
ideas, appreciate the language and manner of presentation.

Poetry. The style of poetry is often regarded as a special func

tional variety. However nowadays, when poetry does not differ much
from prose in terms of vocabulary and aesthetic functions, as well
as the subjects it treats (it may cover practically all spheres of life
in contrast to the poems of the previous centuries), the majority o f
scholars quite justifiably consider poetry to be a certain subdivision
of the belles-lettres style, but not a separate poetic style [ 166, p. 110]
In contemporary English poetic texts the conventions of classical
English poetry long since ceased to be observed [135, p. 102], Alan
Maley thus dwells upon this and another misconception, namely the
belief that only certain topics or themes form the subject matter o f
poetry - Love, Beauty, Death, Nature: though this may once have
been the case (though in English poetry, even this is doubtful), it
certainly is the case no longer. Poems can be about anything at all.
/.../ it is the gift of the good poet to transmute the particular, however
seemingly trivial, into something of universal significance [ibid.,
p. 102]. The following examples will illustrate the point:
This Is Just To Say (by W.C. Williams)
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
fo r breakfast
Forgive me
They were delicious
So sweet
And so cold
The Shortest Poem (by W. S. Merwin)
Who should I show it to?

How did poetry come into being? Aristotle [see 1] states in his
Poetics that it seems to have sprung from 2 causes, each of them

lying deep in our nature. First, there is an imitation instinct. Next,

there is an instinct for harmony and rhythm. People started with their
natural gifts being developed gradually till their rude improvisations
gave birth to Poetry. So what is poetry? Samuel Coleridge believed
178 poetry to be the best words in the best order. Robert Frost evades

mobu

CruAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

the answer by remarking that it is the kind o f thing poets write.

Actually, the very nature of poetry eludes strict definitions. We can
try to define it as a rhythmical composition of words expressing an
attitude, designed to surprise and delight, and to arouse an emotional
response, but that will give us no clue as to the essence of poetry
and its charm. As X.J.Kennedy states, it is better to read it, hear it,
and still continue to wonder [see 173].
The main peculiarities of poetry, or poetic substyle within the
belles-lettres style, are special prosodic means and poetic diction, the
latter being mostly observed in pre -1920 poetry, or classical Eng
lish poetry of the previous centuries. First we are going to describe
poetic vocabulary and grammar before proceeding with the analysis
of versification, or prosody, as a science that treats the laws of poetic
metre and various compositional forms of rhyme.
Poetic diction. According to Y.M.Skrebnev, poetic vocabulary
displays the maximum degree of aesthetic value. To use I.R.Galperins
metaphor, poetic words are aristocrats in the language and do not
allow any mingling with the lower ranks. These words are usually
out-of-date and bookish. Being mostly archaic and high-flown, po
etic words aim at producing an elevated effect. Nevertheless, being
too hackneyed for that purpose, they may have a satirical function
if used intentionally in an ordinary lexical environment or in some
modem context. The poetic register is made up, thus, of archaisms,
such as the old word forms (e.g. thou, doth, ye, dieth, oft, a-blowing, spake, etc.), of poetic equivalents of everyday words (e.g.
sylvan!wooded; bliss! happiness; billows! waves; damsels! girls;
tarry! stay; verdure! greenery, vanquish / conquer; woe ! sorrow; vale!
valley; behold! see; etc.), and of other morphological and syntactic
peculiarities, such as various types of inversion (usually used to shift
a rhyme conveniently to the end of a line), absence of the adverbial
suffix - ly ( they praised him soft and low '); ellipsis and elision (the
contraction in pronunciation, e.g. twas = it was; e 'er = ever, etc.).
In contemporary English poetry however, poetic diction is almost
never used, and if anyone resorts to this way of expression, it is done
for some special, possibly comic or satirical, effect [135, p. 102].
Nevertheless, when we say that poets use the language that is not
necessarily part of a special register, this is not to say that they use
words in exactly the same way as they might in everyday contexts.
To quote Alan Maley once again, poets are constantly experimenting

with language, stretching it to test the limits of the meanings it can be

made to take on. They do this by creating striking new metaphors: His
legs were blistered sticks on which the black sap bubbled and burst...
(A. Hecht); by transforming the syntax in unconventional ways: he
sang his didn't he danced his did (e e cummings); by dramatically
extending the semantic range of common words: Hands have no
tears toflow (D.Thomas), and so on. Poets are linguistic risk-takers

<rKopomHQ UlomoupKa

and stunt-men. They are constantly pulling the language out of its
well-wom ruts. Yet, to change the metaphor, they are still using the
old warp and weft to weave the new cloth [135, p. 105].
As to rhyme and prosodic means, i.e. poetic metre, they remain
the two most distinguishable features of a poetic text since the main
factor that brings that special order into a poem is periodicity [sec
154]. Alan Maley singles out the primary aspect of poetry as disci
pline and control: The control is exercised in two main ways: over
form and over content. The writer has to decide on a form which will
best carry his content. Once chosen, he has to submit to the discipline
of it. The form may be highly constraining, as for example in the
sonnet, the villanelle or the haiku. But, even when working in socalled free verse, there are constraints of choice in the patterning
of rhythm, metre, internal rhyme, alliteration and assonance. The
poem has to sound right to the inward ear. It is a three-dimensional
web which, if touched at any one point, will vibrate all over [135,
p. 103-104],
As we have already stated (see Lecture 17), the only difference
between rhythm in prose and rhythm in poetry is that in poetry it is
more thoroughly, formally organized - there is regularity, some sta
ble recurrence o f stressed and unstressed segments. And this higher
(in comparison with prose) degree of formal organisation is called
metrical rhythm, or metre. Poetic rhythm is created by the meas
ured interchange o f stressed (accented) and unstressed (unaccented)
syllables in equal poetic lines. These lines form a verse. So, metre
(Greek measure) is a regular pattern o f stress in a verse. The

minimal rhythmic unit in a metre is a syllable. The smallest recur

rent segment of a poetic line, consisting of one stressed and one or
two unstressed syllables, is called a metrical foot. Since a foot can
have only two or three syllables, there are five possible combinations
of those syllables. Hence there are five major types of metrical feet

- two disyllabic and three trisyllabic. They can be presented in the

following table [61, p. 12] (the sign U stands for the unstressed
syllable, the sign stands for the stressed one):

[ai'aemb(as)]
/U -/

[trouki:]
/-U /

['daektil] ['aemfibraek]
/-U U /
/U -U /

['aenapi:st]
A J U -/

CTUAicriika aHrAiucbkoi

mobu

Sometimes the borderline between prosaic and poetic passages

(especially in modem samples of free verse with irregular rhythm)
is almost imperceptible. To feel the regularity of stress in a line, we
read it dividing into metrical feet, i.e. lay stress on each syllable that
is expected to be accented according to the pattern. This artificial
rhythmical reading is called scanning/scansion. Compare the two
possible readings (usual vs. scanning) of the following line from
O.Wildes poem:
1. 1 never saw a man who looked with such a wistful eye.
U - U U U - U - U U U U
2. I ne/ver saw/ a man/ who lookedI
U /U /U /U / (We have 4 iambic feet in a line, which
is called
an iambic tetrameter)
With such/ a wist/ful eye/
U U U (this line contains 3 iambic feet, so it is termed
a trimeter)
Poetic lines, as you can guess now, may consist of one or more
feet, usually up to eight. They are termed correspondingly:
Monometer (1 foot)
Dimeter (2 feet)
Trimeter (3 feet)
Tetrameter (4 feet)
Pentameter (5 feet)
Hexameter (6 feet)
Heptameter (7 feet)
Octameter (8 feet)
In English verse, however, there is a tendency towards so-called
(1) catalectic (hypometric) and (2) hypermetric lines, i.e. (1) a line 181

which has an incomplete foot (that has lost its final unstressed syl
lable) and (2) a line with an extra unstressed syllable, e.g.:
1. Try to re/member the/ kind o f Sep/tember (T. Jones)

U U/ U U/ U U / U (a dactylic tetrameter with an in

complete, catalectic, foot - one unstressed syllable in the final foot
instead of two)

cKapojiiHa SJlomoupKa

2. I f you/ can bear /to hear/ the truth /yo uve spo/ken

(R.Kipling)
U AJ AJ AJ AJ AJ (a hypermetric iambic pentameter
- a line with an extra unstressed syllable at the end)
Besides, for the purposes of emphasis or solemnity, two accented
syllables may be placed together. Such a foot is called a spondee
['spondi]:
I saw thee weep - the big bright tear (G .Byron) [quoted from
179, p.33]
U - A J - A J - / ----The so-called pyrrhic [ pirik] foot is a foot with two unstressed
syllables, which breaks the regular metric pattern for purely linguistic
reasons:
Stay, my /charmer, /can you /leave me? ( U/ U / U /
U/)
Cruel, /cruel /to de/ceive me! ( - U / - U / U U / - U)
Apart from these irregularities, there is also rhythmical inver
sion which occurs when a trochee intrudes into an iambic metre, or
vice versa:
I f you/can bear /to hear /the truth /youve spo/ken (an iambic
pentameter)
Twist/ed /by knaves / / to make/ a trap /for fools/ (R.Kipling) (
U: the first foot of the second line is a trochee)
In that example we can observe one more phenomenon, the
so-called caesura [siz juoro] (Latin division, stop). It is a point
where a pause naturally occurs in a line of verse (marked in the
example by two slashes (oblique strokes)).
Another typical violation of strict rhythmicality is called enjambment" (French striding over) [in'dyzmmont], or a run-on
line/verse. Here the end of the line does not coincide with the logical
pause, its thought or idea is carried over to the next line:
He who has mingled in the fray
O f duty that the brave endure
Must have made foes. (Ch.Mackay)

2. double rhyme (disyllabic, feminine or female)

3. treble rhyme (triple or tumbling, also called dactylic)
A single rhyme is a monosyllabic accented rhyme with the
schemes cVC and cvcFC(C) , where c/v stand for an unstressed
consonant/vowel sound; V - for a stressed rhyming vowel; C - a

consonant following the stressed vowel sound, for example: cage

-page; joy- toy; detect -respect. The single rhyme is considered to
be perfect if the following requirements are met: (a) the vowel sounds
must produce the same effect (whatever the spelling), e.g.: greatbait [grejt belt], but not great - bite; (b) the following consonant(s)

CruAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

The question arises: what helps the impression of rhythmicality

in poetry? The answer is obvious. It is rhyme. Rhyme (Old Ehglish
rim - number) is a repetition o f the same sounds, usually at the
end o f two or more lines. The effect is the greatest when the lines
succeed one another immediately or near enough for the resemblance
of sounds to strike the ear. Why do poets use rhyme? V.A. Maltzev
gives a lucid and concise explanation of the role of rhyme in poetry.
First, it is used to emphasize the shape of a verse, to mark line-ends.
Second, it sets up expectations that are met and at the same time
provides surprise, because the reader or hearer expects a recurrence
of sounds but he does not know which word exactly will provide
a rhyme. Third, being in the strong position at the end of the line,
the rhyming word attracts the readers attention and is, therefore, of
considerable semantic importance. Thanks to rhyme words which
have nothing in common outside the poetic context may bring forth
unexpected semantic effects [179, p.38].
Rhymes are usually divided into three main types:
1. single rhyme (also called masculine or male after a French
tradition)

mobu

There is also the so-called accented verse, where only the num
ber of syllables in lines is important, each line having various metri
cal feet. Besides, among modem poets there are a great number of
those who reject metrical patterns altogether - their art resembles
poetic prose.
To conclude, we can state that rhythmical irregularities vary
the rhythm of the verse and prevent it from sounding monotonous
and artificial; for the essence of verse, according to S. Johnson, is
regularity, while its ornament is variety.

must produce the same effect on the ear, e.g.: dance-glance [da:ns
-gla:ns], but not appeased - released [zd st]; (c) the consonant that
precedes the rhyme, to prevent monotony, must produce a different
effect on the ear, e.g.: fare - bare, but not fare - affair.
A double rhyme consists of 2 syllables - the first is stressed,
the last is unstressed. Its scheme could be cFCVC or ccFCV(C), for
example: treasure - pleasure; morning - scorning, etc.
In a treble rhyme the third syllable from the end of the word
is stressed, the final two syllables are unstressed (the scheme is
cFCVCV), for example: battery - flattery, utility - futility. Treble
rhyme was common in English comic verse, e.g.:
Epitaph on a Dentist
Stranger! Approach this spot with gravity!
John Brown isfilling his last cavitv. (W. Gilbert) [quoted from

179, p. 39]
In double and treble rhymes every syllable (except the first one)
must begin with the same consonant.
Rhyme is called broken if more than one word is needed to com
plete the rhyme, e.g.: estate - their gate. When words rhyme within
the same line (not at the end), we deal with the so-called internal (or
leonine) rhyme. S. Coleridge was fond of it:
The sun came up upon the left,
Out o f the sea came he.

Rhymes may be differently arranged in a poem. They are re

corded by means of letters. So if the last words in two successive lines
are rhymed, the rhyming scheme is aa" (called a couplet rhyme):
And yet , by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare (W. Shakespeare)
The other rhyming schemes are:
Triple rhyme: aaa
Q.
Cross rhyme: abab

Framing, or ring rhyme: abba

| I Consider the example:
55 i I
* I wandered lonely as a cloud
5:1
That floats on high o 'er vales and hills,
| II
When all at once I saw a crowd,

<jj||

A host, o f golden daffodils,

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. (W. Wordsworth)
The rhyming scheme here is ababcc.

We often ask ourselves: why is it so that a lot of English poetic

works are not rhymed? It happens for the following reasons: firstly,
rhyme, unlike metre, is not essential to verse. It is just an aid. And it
first appeared only in the Middle Ages. The predecessor of rhyme
in Old English verse was alliteration. Secondly, the difficulty of
rhyming in English is considerable, for very many English words
do not have a single rhyming word; some have only one, and others
- very few [see 179]. So certain licence (freedom) is allowed to poets
writing in English. First of all, there are incomplete rhymes. They
can be divided into two main groups: vowel rhymes and consonant
rhymes (see the table presented in Lecture 15, Section on phonctic
repetitions). Secondly, there is a printer s rhyme, or eye rhyme. The
words in such a poetic line rhyme only to the eye: love - move; farm
- warm; home - some. Thirdly, in identical rhyme the same syllable
or word rhymes with itself: part - i mpart: universe - this verse. To
conclude, we can quote J.Pickering and J.Hoeper who suggest an apt
metaphorical parallel: rhyme in poetry is like salt in cooking. It adds
almost nothing to nutrition, but it appeals to our taste. A poem that is
unseasoned by rhyme may be as dull as a saltless diet; whereas too
much rhyme, like too much salt, may spoil the dish [183, p.662].

There are three basic types of English verse forms:

Like a colossus, and we petty men

Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find themselves dishonourable graves (from Julius Caesar

by W. Shakespeare) (iambic pentameters)

Stanzaic poems use rhyme or a refrain. Stanza is a group of lines
with the identical metre and rhyme scheme; it is the largest repeated
unit in poetry and it expresses a complete thought, as a rule. Individual
stanzas must contain at least 2 lines and rarely exceed 9.
A couplet is formed of 2 rhymed lines. It was popular in the 18
century, e.g.:

CruAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

- is a variety of a free verse form).

Blank verse is mostly used in epic and dramatic poetry
(H.Howard, Ch.Marlowe, W. Shakespeare, J.Milton, W. Wordsworth,
P.B.Shelley):
Why, man he doth bestride the narrow world

mobu

2. unrhymed, or blank verse,

3. rhymed, or stanzaic verse,
4. free verse, or vers libre (an accented verse - see above

Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,

Much fruit o f sense beneath is rarely found. (A.Pope)
A three-line stanza is called a tercet. A triplet is a tercet in which
all three lines rhyme together (the scheme is aaa). Terza rima has
the sheme aba bcb cdc; it was popularized by Dante. Four-line
stanzas are called quatrains. Among the common examples of this
type of verse are the ballad stanza, the heroic quatrain, or elegiac
stanza (e.g.: T. Grays Elegy). A six-line stanza is called a sestet. A
seven-line stanza is known as a septet (G. Chaucer used it). The most
important eight-line stanza is called ottava rima. It was borrowed
from Italy in the 16 century. It was used by G.G.Byron in Don Juan,
his epic comedy. The rhyming scheme is strict: ab ab ab cc, each line
being an iambic pentameter. A nine-line stanza is called Spense
rian " after Edmund Spenser (1552-1599), who used it in his Fairie
Queene. (Later it was employed by J.Keats, G.Byron, P.B.Shelley).
The rhyme pattern is: abab bcb cc. A sonnet is a verse of 14 lines,

a kind of stanza used for a complete poem. It was invented in Italy

and used in England by W. Shakespeare, E. Spenser, Ph. Sidney.
(The Shakespearian and Spenserian sonnets differ in their rhyming
schemes.) Later it fell out of use but was revived by the Romantic
poets J. Keats, W. Wordsworth and others.
Free verse (vers libre) consists of unrhymed lines of varying
length, generally not arranged according to any definite scheme. Nor
do they have any definite rhythmical pattern. A typical example of
vers libre is the following extract (describing a telephone) from Craig
Raines poem A Martian Sends a Postcard Home:

1
55
|
1

In homes, a haunted apparatus sleeps

That snores when you pick it up.
I f the ghost cries, they carry it
To their lips and soothe it to sleep
with sounds. And yet, they wake it up,
Deliberately, by tickling with a finger.

Free verse was popularized by the American poet Walt Whit

man (1819-1892), who actually revolutionarized versification. In our
times word art blurs the boundaries between poetry and prose, on
the one hand, and poetry and visual art, on the other. New forms are
still being created in which, for example, the sound or the synergy of
the shape of letters and words (and their semantic properties) trigger
visual messages (so-called concrete or visual poetry). It is not an easy

task to interpret such representational works. The example sug

gested by Guy Cook may illustrate the point and the problem. The
phrase from Dylan Thomass Under Milk Wood - see-sawing like
the sea - can be interpreted in the following way: the morphemic
and tonal alternation of see and saw represents the alternating
motion of both a see-saw and the sea, aurally because see/sea[i:]
is higher than saw [o:], and in meaning, because when there are
waves, things appear and disappear: you see them, you saw them
[140, p. 155].
In conclusion we can add that enjoyment we experience while
reading a poem does not mean its conscious evaluation and appre
ciation, for sometimes it is difficult to explain why we like this or
that poem, what exactly in the poem gives us an aesthetic pleasure
- imagery, form or just its music. It happens because any poem
sets out to convey a great deal more than an idea and it is this that
distinguishes it from prose [94, p. 168]: not only its rhythmicality,
rhyme/sound organisation but also its highly individual, vivid and
unusual presentation of the world or human nature, perceived and
conveyed by the poet.

CruAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

mobu

The style o f drama. Unlike in the emotive prose and poetic texts,
in drama the form is entirely that of a dialogue, i.e. plays comprise
the characters speech, while the authors speech is represented only
by the playwrights remarks and stage directions. Hence the pre
dominant type of speech in plays is colloquial, but it is by no means
the exact reproduction of the norms and rules of conversational lan
guage. Often the speech type used in dramatic works is historically
stipulated, and the so-called stylized variants of the spoken English
of some definite period are presented. Nevertheless, the author may
intentionally resort to non-literary forms and expressions aiming at
creating a certain stylistic effect. One more thing worth mentioning
is the fact that plays are written for spectators, not just readers. And
while performing a play, stage directions vanish - just actors and
their audience take part in the action. The original meaning of the
word drama suggests it - its root means action or deed (from the
Greek dran = to perform). Thus a play is literature before it comes
alive in a theatre. Some plays, however, are destined to be read more
than they are acted. They are called closet drama (closet means 6jJf>

a small private room). Besides, most plays employ some conven

tions, customary methods of presentation, some usual and easily
recognized devices typical of drama, such as a soliloquy [sa'lilokwi],
a dramatic monologue, when the character utters aloud his inmost
thoughts addressing no one ( e.g. Hamlets famous soliloque on death
To be or not to be).

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Though classical drama approaches the level of poetry, it still

much closer to fiction: plays, like novels, always tell a story. Unlike
a story, however, a play has its own ways of handling point of view,
time and structure (e.g. a succession of scenes, acts). A short story
or a novel can present an action from many different points of view;
a play is obliged to present its story dramatically [183, p. 986]. The
major subgenres of drama are tragedy and comedy, but the debates
over their precise meaning have persisted through at least 100 gen
erations of philosophers and literary critics. Originally, tragedy dealt
with a conflict between Man and Superior forces, and comedy - with
celebration. In romantic comedies, based on complications of love,
the lovers should unite in the end. High comedy is a type of comedy
that appeals to the audiences intellect and has a serious purpose; it
employs mostly verbal humour, while low comedy is characterized
by a great deal of physical action and slapstick. To the first usually
belongs comedy ofmanners, i.e. a satirical portrayal of social life. To
the second type - farce, which is rich in crude jokes and buffoonery.
(By the way, comedy in fiction woulcjiappear to have two primary
sources, though they are intimately connected: situation and style
[175, p. 110]). In contemporary theatre the mixture of tragic and
comical planes has resulted in a great number of genre forms, often
of a hybrid nature. Flexibility and other modem theatrical trends have
freed playwrights from many of the old limitations of classical drama.
In this respect we can speak about dozens of modem drama forms,
such as domestic comedy, melodrama, naturalism, revenge tragedy,
etc., as well as the theatre o f the absurd, which is a type of modern
drama (often associated with Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Eugene
Ionesco, Harold Pinter) that attempts to convey the playwrights
vision of an absurd, frustrating, illogical, and essentially meaning
less human condition by ignoring and distorting the usual conven
tions o f plot, characterization, structure, setting, and dialogue [183,
p. 1541]. Thus G.G.Byrons jocose definition - A ll tragedies are
188 finished by a death; all comedies are ended by a marriage - might

well turn out to be misleading as regards contemporary drama. The

analysis of creating tragic and comic emotions makes the issue still
more complex and sometimes irresolvable. Besides, there is one
more point that needs to be emphasized. As drama combines the
use of language with arts involving scenery, costuming, the actors
physical appearance, some scholars do not consider it a purely literary
genre. Drama also makes use of vocal emphasis and the tone of voice,
along with such non-verbal forms of expression as physical gesture,
facial expression, and even music and dance. So the written text of a
play is only its skeletal frame, lacking flesh and blood, and>a life of its
own. But it is the only permanent part of a play. The rest is ephem
eral: it changes to some degree with each nights performance, and
to a considerable extent, with each new production. Moreover, the
cinema has invaded the dramatic field, and to compete it seems neces
sary for drama to seek other fields, to attempt the dramatic treatment
of an idea than the representation of a story or a simple fact [198,
p. 192]. Yet, being a form of literature, drama in general (as a literary
form) and some definite plays will survive through the time only if
their written form (the authors text) appeals to both readers and a
succession of producers and directors.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

a H r A iu c b k o i
C T U A ic T u k a

Why is the belles-lettres style the richest register of communication?

Wiry is itsfunction twofold?
What subtypes of the belles-lettres style do you know? What are their common
features?
4. Discuss the peculiarities of emotive prose.
5. What is the status of poetry? What are the main characteristics of classical and
modern poetic texts?
6. What is a metre? What metrical (poetic)feet do you know?
7. What is a rhyme? Exemplify its types.
8. Explain why many English poetic works are unrhymed.
9. What English verseforms doyou know?
10. Discuss the peculiarities of the style of drama.

m o bu

1.
2.
3.

189

LECTURE 20
W l P i S F M A IR IR A T D V IE o M & M R A *

TD1EC@1M1IF@SB?0@MAL F%MS

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The notion of 'point of view'.

Types of narrative. Types of auctorial narration.
Entrusted narrative. Impersonal andpersonified 1-narrator.
The narrative-compositionalforms. Narrative proper. Description. Argumenta
tion.
The character's discourse. Dialogue. Interior speech.
Represented speech.

Unlike a playwright or a film maker, a writer of fiction exercises

far greater control in focusing his readers attention. By selecting and
arranging language means, through the quality of the words them
selves, he manipulates the readers response. And in this respect the
most important notion to the art of fiction is a narrative voice, real
or implied, that presents the story to the reader. When we talk about
narrative voice, we are talking about point o f view, the method of
narration that determines the position, or angle of vision, from which
the story is told. /.../ So crucial is point of view that, once having been
chosen, it will colour and shape the way in which everything else is
presented and perceived, including plot, character, and setting. Alter
or change the point of view, and you alter and change the story [ 183,
p. 41]. The choice of the point of view fundamentally affects the
way readers will respond, emotionally and morally, to the fictional
charactcrs and their actions. /.../ Madame Bovary narrated mainly
from the point of view of Charles Bovary would be a very different
book from the one we know [175, p. 26]. Furthermore, the authors
and his personages points of view may be different: they may have
different angles of perception of the same object, thus an effect of
polyphony being organized [166, p. 100]. Hence, an artistic prosaic
text is never homogeneous in its narrative structure. It means that
the subject matter of a literary work can be presented by the author
in a variety of ways.
Scholars usually differentiate between either three orfour major

types o f narrative: the au th o rs narrative, the characters speech

(which may take the form o f either a dialogue or interior speech,
IgQ treated and studied separately) and the so-called represented (re

ported/half-reported) speech, which is a fusion o f thefirst two. [see

166; 167]. The unfolding of the plot is mainly concentrated in the
authors narrative because any story is a narration which must have

a narrator. Let us quote Maltzev who characterizes this plane of an

artistic text in the following way: Everything that is not intended
to disclose characters in their direct speech belongs to the discourse
o f the narrator, an imaginedperson who gives an account ofpeople,
events, etc., and behind whom stands the real personality o f the
author. The narrator always expresses, explicitly or implicitly, the

authors point of view, his attitude to the events described. With the
help of various linguistic means the narrator moulds imperceptibly
the readers attitude to what happens in the story [179, p. 154].
The author, as it were, hides behind the narrators figure, but above

CTUAicTuka

[166, p. 101].
We can differentiate between several types of the narrators
discourse. The first is termed auctorial (V.A.Maltzev), or authorial
(D. Lodge). It is the narration told in the third person, by an imper
sonal narrator. This type of narrator is often callcd omniscient,
i.e. all-knowing [183, p. 41]. With the omniscient point of view
(sometimes also referred to as panoramic), the narrator retains full
and complete control over the narrative. He does not take part in the
events described, being outside the world o f narration. The authors
point of view is expressed in this case in various comments, di
gressions, or it may be implicit in the selection and arrangement of
linguistic items [179, p. 155]. As a rule, the language of auctorial
discourse is the most refined literary types of Standard English of
the period. Omniscient narration was frequently used in 18th- and
19lh-century novels - H. Fieldings Tom Jones and W.M.Thackerays
Vanity Fair are good examples. In such novels the writer directs the
readers attention and controls the sources of information.
The novel/short story has been developing and moving in the
direction away from omniscient telling to the dramatic point of view
(where the narrator disappears completely, and telling is replaced
by showing), thus the channels through which information can be
transmitted to the reader have become restricted by the narrator. As a
result, the reader has started to be involved more and more directly in

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

the narrator s image there always stands the image of the author,
responsible fo r all the views and evaluations of the text, serving
the major and predominant force o f textual cohesion and unity

the task of interpretation [183, p.45]. The next type of the narrators
discourse is often termed limited omniscient. It is told in the third
person, too, but the narrator limits his ability to penetrate the minds
o f the characters by selecting a single character to act as the centre
o f revelation. What the reader knows or sees of events is always

restricted to what that character can know and see. The character
chosen as a narrative centre, and often referred to through the use of
a third-person pronoun as he or she, may be the protagonist (= the
main character) or may be some other major character [ibid., p. 44].
This form of the authors speech plane is also called entrusted. The
limited omniscient point o f view o f the entrusted narrative is often
carried out in the first person. The writer, as it were, entrusts his
central character with the task o f telling the story: here the narrators

image is intertwined with the image of the author, the true and actual
creator of it all [166, p. 100]. The limited omniscient point of view
is often used by writers to create and sustain irony, because it can
well show the disparity between what the central character thinks
or knows and the true state of affairs. Furthermore, the I st person
entrusted narrative might be either stylized or not [179, p. 154]. In
the former case the narrator tells the story from his own name using
his own manner of thinking, feeling and speaking (the popular ex
ample is J.D.Salingers The Catcher in the Rye). Let us dwell upon
the types of the first-person narrative in detail.
Unlike the auctorial omniscient narrator, the I-narrator is within
the world o f narration, but he may have different degrees o f per
sonification. First, he can be impersonal, or anonymous, having no

definite social or psychological characteristics and taking the role of

a correspondent, an observer or just a witness of the events described.
Still the nameless first-person narrator brings a personal touch into
the narration and serves as a vehicle of expressing the authors point
of view and as an intermediate link between the reader and the story.
Sofirst-person narratives are necessarily subjective: the narrator is
free to speculate but he is limited in his access to information. The
language of such a discourse is close to that of the auctorial narra_ . tive [179, p. 162]. This type of I-narrator is found, for example, in
*
very many stories by W.S.Maugham. Second, the I-narrator can be
personified, he thus combines two functions: that o f a character of
the story and that o f the narrator. This leads to a greater degree of

HI2 individualization and a greater illusion of reality, as well as a sense of

CTUAicTuka

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

immediacy and credibility. The personified narrator may take various

roles. He may be the protagonist of the story which in this case often
assumes the form of an autobiography or memoirs. It means that
he may narrate events as they take place, as in D.Defoes Robinson
Crusoe, or in retrospect, with the narrator looking backward over a
period of time on adventures that have already been concluded, as in
Ch.Brontes Jane Eyre. Sometimes the I-narrator can function as a
participant o f the adventures he is describing (as in R.L.Stevensons
Treasure Island) or as afriend o f the hero of the story conscientiously
recording the events in which the protagonist takes part. Such is the
case with Dr. Watson, the narrator of most of Sherlock Holmes stories
by A.C.Doyle. Watson performs the role of Holmes confidant and
assistant. The slow-witted Watson serves a foil for Holmes unusual
genius, i.e.Watson is a person that contrasts with, and so emphasizes,
the amazing mental qualities and eccentricities of his friend. Some
authors may resort to several personified narrators in the same work.
In W.Collinss The Moonstone, for example, the characters relate in
turn the events in which they were participants or witnesses. As a re
sult, not only their points of view, but also their speech parties differ,
thus contributing to the intricate, absorbing plot composition of the
novel [see 179; 183]. One of the noticeable characteristics of modem
prose is a great degree of speech individualization of the personified
I-narrator, its approximation to non-artistic casual discourse [179,
p. 165]. Western scholars employ the Russian term skaz for this
type of entrusted narrative, using it especially for designating a type
of first-person narration that has the characteristics of the spoken
rather than the written word [175, p. 18]. In such works the writer
seems to try to dissolve completely in his characters personality
and present everything from the viewpoint of that narrator, mainly
through imitating the characters speech (as it could sound). Such a
narrator is sometimes called a stylized teller, and the type o f discourse
- a stylized tale, good examples of which are some of O.Henrys
short stories [see 9, p. 325; also 62, p. 144-148].
One more popular technique in contemporary prose writing is
the use of the so-called dramatic point o f view. The author creates
the illusion that the reader is a direct and immediate witness to an
unfolding drama. In the dramatic, or objective, point of view, the
story is told, as it were, by no one. We find here only dialogues and
the showing of actions - the visible, tangible narrator seems to have 193

disappeared completely. The reader is left on his own: there is no way

of entering the minds of the characters; no evaluative comments are
offered; the reader is not told directly how to respond, either intel
lectually or emotionally, to the events or the characters [183, p.49].
The leading position among the writers who prefer that technique is
taken by Ernest Hemingway.
There is one more issue to be discussed in this respect. Apart
from the viewpoint that commands the overall text organization, the
semantics of the text can be analysed in terms of the traditional nar
rative-compositional forms studied in poetics and stylistics. Being
heterogeneous in its narrative-compositional structure, the authors
narrative falls out into at least three (or four, according to some
scholars, see [167]) subgroups. Thus it may take the form of narra
tion about events (or narrative proper [166, p. 103]), description
and argumentation; the last may be subdivided into the so-called
expository writing (or reasoning) and lyrical digressions. The nar
rative proper is dynamic, while description and argumentation are

cKapojiiHa UlomoupKQ

static compositional forms of the text. It is explained by the fact that

an orderly account of events in a story is given in the narrative proper,
special emphasis here being laid on predicates. The statements come
in consecutive order, one arising from the other thus forming the
chain of the plot. The correlation of tenses and time/place references
comes to the fore [ 179, p. 168]. Depending upon what is described
- a particular occasion at some single moment, or some events oc
curring over an extended period of time, a distinction is drawn in the
theory of literature between the scenic and panoramic narratives.
One more type, the so-called dynamic description is a blend of
narrative and description which depicts a simultaneous concourse
of action as well as the state of things [ibid., p. 175].
Description is a static narrative-compositional form. It supplies
the details o f the appearance ofpeople and things populating'' the
book, o f the place and time o f action [ 166, p. 103]. So description is
used to depict nature (landscape), premises (interior), appearance
(portrait), and urban scenery (townscape) [see 175]. The statements
come not in consecutive order but in a parallel manner, the predicates
being mostly of the compound nominal type. Emphasis is laid on
attributes, predicatives and other qualifying features [179, p. 171].
As descriptions are often elevated and lyrical, similes and meta
l s phors, including personification, are favourite tropes in this kind of

a H r A iu c b k o i mobu
C ru A ic r u k a

the narrators discourse. The functional potential of various kinds

of descriptions is very great. Landscapes, townscapes and descrip
tions o f dwellings play a considerable role in the interpretation of the
subject matter. They not only serve as a setting of the narrative and
a means of creating an appropriate atmosphere (which arouses the
readers expectations and establishes some certain state of mind for
events to come), but also as an indirect method of characterization
of the personages, a powerful means of revealing the character and
reinforcing or clarifying the themes of a novel or short story (like
for example, in the works of E.A.Poe, T.Hardy). Portrayal o f hu
man appearances is no less but sometimes even more powerful as a
means of characterization of the personage. It may be quite explicit,
with the reader being able to feel the authors attitude towards the
character described. Such descriptions are rich in epithets and simi
les. Details of dress and physical appearance given in portraits may
offer clues to the personages social and economic status, education,
emotional health and well-being. There are even some stereotyped
physical types of characters that have been exploited, by common
agreement, by authors in works of fiction over a long period of time.
For example, characters that are tall and thin are often associated with
intellectual and aesthetic types who are withdrawn and introspective
(like Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingsworth in The Scarlet
Letter by N. Hawthorne). Portly and fat characters, on the other
hand, suggest an opposite kind of personality, one characterized by
a degree of laziness, self-indulgence, and congeniality, as in the case
of Ch.Dickenss Tony Weller [183, p. 31].
Argumentation, or expository writing, is a narrative-compositional form which was normal and most popular in the English prose
of the 18-19 centuries. The author could appear on his own pages
as a commentator and moralist, revealing directly his own thoughts,
ideas, attitude to his characters and other matters he portrayed. In
such digressions, he might not only explain and speculate about the
characters behaviour, but give his own considerations about moral,
aesthetic, ethical, ideological and other issues. Such auctorial digres
sions may fall into (1) philosophical and publicist, and (2) lyrical
digressions, according to T.Plekhanova [quoted from 179, p. 141].
In argumentation of any kind, be it philosophical (expressing the

author s outlook), publicist (denouncing social vices and evils o f

modern life) or lyrical digressions (revealing the author s aesthetic 1{}

feelings and emotions), the writer, as it were, interrupts the narrative

to offer his comments, explanations or evaluations of what he depicts

at the moment. The main distinctive features o f auctorial digressions
of various kinds are: (1) the tense-shift (the use of the present tenses
against the background of the Past tenses of the narration); (2) the
shift from the third to the first person singular or plural; (3) the shift
from the Indicative Mood to the Imperative or Subjunctive Moods,
usually combined with direct addresses to the reader or the hero, or
some other prominent person, e.g. Oh, Shakespeare! Had I thy pen!
O, Hogarth! Had I thy pencil! Then would I draw the picture o f the
poor serving man... (H.Fielding) [quoted from 179, p. 140]. Vari

ous types of digression in English prose have gradually become less

popular and beginning with the end of the 19,hcentury and in modem
fiction they are only micro-digressions containing the authors most
condensed ideas on this or that issue and/or most concise character
ization of characters, as in, for example, many stories and novels by
S.W.Maugham. However, we should stress that all these narrativecompositional forms are seldom used in their pure, uninterrupted
way [ 166, p. 103]. As a rule, they intermingle even within the bound
aries of a paragraph. Finally, all the narrative-compositional forms
- narrative proper, description and argumentation - can be found in
all the types of narrative but with varying frequencies.

cKapojiiHa UlomoupKa

The second very important type o f narrative in a work of fic

tion is the character's discourse. The characters speech may be
monological, dialogical, or take the form o f a polylogue [167], It
is here, in the characters speech, that the various levels of their
consciousness are reflected. This may be realized through the use
of uttered speech (i.e. dialogue) or inner speech (in the form of the
so-called interior (inner) monologue and/or short in-sets o f interior
speech), the latter helping the author (and the reader) to peep into
the inner world of the character, to observe his views and ideas, to
penetrate his innermost thoughts [166, p. 101]. Striving to convey
all the subtlest nuances of the characters mental processes, some
contemporary writers resort to the so-called stream-of-consciousness
technique. In this case the writer tries to present the most accurate,
almost exact portrayal and reflection of the purely associative manner
of human thinking, which may result in completely incomprehen166 sible passages. Though going back to the 19th century (to William

rative with words, phrases, expressions which the reader associates

with the verbal habits o f a particular character [160, p. 85]. This ^

CTUAicTuka

As regards the so-called represented ((h alf) reported) speech,

it may be of two types - inner (imitating the characters thoughts
and conveying feelings) and uttered (representing insertions of the
characters fragments of speech) [61, p. 10]. In western stylistics
and literary criticism there exists a number of terms used to describe
various types of represented speech, e.g.: free indirect discourse/
speech, free indirect style, represented speech and thought, narrated
monologue, Uneigentliche erlebte Rede (German), style indirect
libre (French) or even coloured discourse, by which scholars un
derstand a piece o f (normally but not necessarily) thirdperson nar

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

Jamess Principles o f Psychology (1890)), the term was first used

pertaining to the analysis of J.Joyces Ulysses in 1922, and since then
has widely been employed by literary critics [ibid., p. 102; also 62,
p. 163]. It is the modernist novel that typically focuses far greater
attention onto the state and processes inside the consciousness of the
main charactcr(s) than onto public events in the outside world [ 160,
p. 60] (e.g.: the novels by J.Conrad, H.James, E.Forster, F.M.Ford,
D.Lawrence, D.Richardson, V.Woolf).
Dialogue in a work of prose is considered to be an essential
method o f indirect characterization by showing (not telling), which
has become predominant in modem fiction. It is a rare work whose
author does not employ dialogue in some way to reveal, establish
or reinforce his character. It accounts for the fact that the speech of
a person always expresses his individual experiences, his cultural,
professional and educational background, and his emotional and psy
chological traits. All this is revealed in and through the personages
idiolect, i.e. the language he uses. Linguistically, to reflect real con
versational English, writers resort to a number of traditional means
of depiction of speech peculiarities, such as typographical devices,
ellipsis, employment of various strata of vocabulary, idiomatic lan
guage and emotionally charged lexis used as a means of intensifica
tion in prosaic dialogues. The characters speech parties are usually
introduced into the text by the author s remarks containing indica
tion of the personage (his name or the name-substitute) and of the
act of speaking (thinking) expressed by such verbs as to say, to
think and their numerous synonyms [166, p. 102].

method goes back at least as far as Jane Austen, but was employed
with ever-increasing scope and virtuosity by modem novelists like
V. Woolf It renders thought in reported speech (in the third person,
past tense) but keeps to the kind of vocabulary that is appropriate
to the character, and deletes some of the tags, like she thought,
she wondered, she asked herself etc. /.../ This gives the illu
sion of intimate access to a characters mind, but without totally
surrendering authorial participation in the discourse [175, p. 43].
The difference between various kinds of represented speech is often
difficult to specify, it is not less easy to single them out in the text.
The contamination of the authors and characters speech parties
may result in a passage where the authors narrative prevails, with
the personages several or only one-two words being inserted in the
flow of the authors speech. The essence o f this type o f narrative is
in this peculiar blend o f the viewpoints and language spheres o f both
the author and the character. To sum up, let us quote the passage
from V.A.Kukharenkos manual where the scholar thus explains the
difference between two rather similar speech planes - the personages
interior speech and represented inner speech: the latter differs from
the former in form - // is rendered in the third person singular and
may have the author s qualitative words, i.e. it reflects the presence of
the authors viewpoint alongside that of the character, while interior
speech belongs to the personage completely, formally too, which

^KapomHa SlomoupKa

is materialized through the first-person pronouns and the language

idiosyncrasies of the character [166, p. 102-103]. Bearing this in
mind, consider the example of the use of inner represented speech in
the following extract from J.Conrads novel Almayers Folly:

-Kaspar! Makan!
The well-known shrill voice startled Almayer from his dream
o f splendid future into the unpleasant realities o f the present hours.
An unpleasant voice too. He had heard it fo r many years, and with
every year he liked it less. No matter, there would be an end to all
this soon.

To conclude, we may add a few words about a classic but

still useful distinction between two fundamental ways of creating (or
revealing) the character in a work of fiction. These are telling and
showing, which were first described in P.Lubbocks The Craft o f
Fiction in 1921 [160, p. 92]. Since the beginning of the 20thcentury
authors have generally preferred showing (i.e. indirect, dramatic

type of characterization - through dialogue and action) to telling

(based on direct auctorial portrayal, evaluation and commentary)
in revealing the character, but neither method is necessarily better;
and thus the majority of modem writers employ a combination of
the two.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-CONTROL:

CTUAicTuka

aHrAiucbkoi m o b u

1. How doyou understand the notion of point of view?

2. Enumerate major types of narrative. What is the authors narrative?
3. What types of the narrator do you know? Why is the third-person impersonal
auctorial narrator called omniscient? What is the limited omniscient point of
view of the entrusted narrative?
4. Speak on different degrees of personification of the 1-narrator. What is speech
individualisation?
5. Say some words about the use of dramatic point of view in modernfiction.
6. What narrative-compositionalforms of the author's narrative doyou know?
7. Discuss thepeculiarities of the narrative proper as compared with description and
argumentation. Which of them are static and why?
8. What types of description doyou know? Characterise them.
9. What types of auctorial digression doyou remember?
10. Dwell on the main forms of the character's speech.
11. W hat forms of interior speech do you know? W hat is stream of
consciousness?
12. Discuss the main features of dialogue in a prose text.
13. What is represented speech? Comment on the peculiarities of its types.
14. What is the difference between utelling and showing? Which way of revealing
characters prevails in contemporaryfiction?

199

Instead of an epilogue
The prominent modern British linguist Ronald Carter sees a ma
jo r advantage o f stylistics in its ability to help us teach ourselves the
confidence to make sense o f language input which isn't always neat,
clear and immediately comprehensible. The complexity o f a literary
work as an interrelation o f the objective and the subjective, the real
and the imagined, the direct and the implied makes the perception
o f it a creative act. He who penetrates into the subtleties o f the
literary work is sharing the author s aesthetic world. He becomes a
sort o f a co-creator, a fact which is alone makes reading an aesthetic
pleasure " [96, p. 8j. Yet to derive aesthetic pleasure from reading
books, to be able to appreciate a great work o f art and to respond to
its complex message, we need some special knowledge and experi
ence, a type o f knowledge and experience that may be gained only
through intelligent reading. As the great poet once remarked,
words are things, and a small drop o f ink,
falling like dew, upon a thought, produces,
that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
(G.G. Byron)

PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENTS
I. S TY LIS TIC D IF F E R E N T IA T IO N
O F VOCABULARY STRATA
Read the passages below and analyse various layers o f the
vocabulary usedfo r creating an appropriate stylistic colouring:

1.
Good morning, Gerry, Luna said, and then stopped short and exam
ined my bloodstained condition. His eyes widened, for 1was still bleeding
profusely from a number of minor scratches. Whats this? he asked. A
cat ....gato, I said irritably. Puma ... jaguar? he asked hopefully. No,
I said reluctantly, chico gato months. Chico gato months, he repeated
incredulously, do this?
(from The Whispering Land by G. Durrell)
2.

When he saw that we were all at ease he began to play. He played

Chopin. He played two waltzes that were familiar to me, a polonaise and
an tude. He played with a great deal of brio. I wish I knew music well
enough to give an exact description of his playing.
(from The Alien Corn by W.S. Maugham)
3.

CTUAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

mobu

The burning sun of Syria had not yet attained its highest point in the
horizon, when a knight of the Red Cross, who had left his distant northern
home, and joined the host of the crusaders in Palestine, was pacing along
the sandy deserts.
(from The Talisman by W. Scott)
4.

Your idle people that leave their native country, and go abroad for some
reason or reasons which may be derived from one of these general causes
- Infirmity of body, Imbecility of the mind, or Inevitable necessity.
The two first include all those who travel by land or by water, labour
ing with pride, curiosity, vanity, or spleen, subdivided and combined in
infinitum.
(from A Sentimental Journey by L. Sterne)

5.

Jones asked him what was the matter, and and whether he was afraid
of the warrior upon the stage. Why, who, cries Jones, dost thou take to
be such a coward here besides thyself?
(from Tom Jones by H.Fielding)
6.

... .1feel that India brought out all my very worst qualities. I dont mean
this India, though heaven helps me I sometimes dont see a great deal of
difference between theirs and the one in which I was a memsahib.
(from Staying On by P.Scott)
7.

Her hard knuckles thumped into his ribs. No, you leery swine. But
you can clear off now if you want to, because I can soon have the baby and
keep it myself without your elp. /.../ So I dont care how much trouble it
is, it aints that much of a force-put. I didnt want to marry you as early as
this, no more than yo did. I can alius live at home and stay at work.
(from Key to the Door by A. Sillitoe)

cXQpojima UlomoupKa

8.

202

So we went and sat round a table in the canteen, and the family gave
me the lowdown on the chief prosecution witness. The Chief Inspector
put that little grass Peanuts Molloy into Jims painting class at the remand
centre. Fred had no doubt about it.
Jim apparently poured out his soul to Peanuts. The evidence sounded,
to my old ears, completely convincing, and Bernard read us a snatch from
his file.
We planned to do the old blokes from the butchers and grab the
wages... .
Fred was outraged, and Vi, pursing her lips in a sour gesture of wound
ed respectability, added, His Dads always told his. Never say a word to
anyone youre banged up with - bound to be a grass.
(from by The Best of Rumpole J.Mortimer)
II. LE X IC A L EXPRESSIVE M EANS
A N D S TY LIS TIC DEVICES.
I.
Point out and name SDs in the following examples. De
termine the structural/semantic types o f metaphors, metonymies,
epithets and similes.

2.
Read carefully the extracts from poems given after the pas
sagesfrom prose works. Here, besides doing the tasks set above, try
to determine the type o f rhyme and record the rhyming scheme. Scan
the passages and describe the metres employed, determine the verse
form ( if possible). Find deviations in metre (if there are any).

1.
It is the official start of the hunting season, and every red-blood
ed Frenchman takes his gun, his dog, and his murderous inclinations
into the hills in search of sport.
(from A Year in Provence by P. Mayle)
2.

In the afternoon sun, with the wooden shutters half-closed like

sleepy eyelids, the house was irresistible.
(ibid.)
3.
It is well known that English kill their lamb twice: once when
they slaughter it, and once when they cook it.
(ibid.)
4.

So the Nightingale sang to the Oak-Tree, and her voice was like
water bubbling from a silver jar.
(from The Nightingale and the Rose by O.Wilde)

6.
Richard took up residence in the Red House, threw out all Wil
liamss cane furniture, /.../ and installed a wall-to-wall carpet in the
living-room, a dishwasher in the kitchen and, more than occasionally,
Miss Bigelow in the bedroom.
(from Kane and Abel by J.Archer)

C TU A icT uka

5.

a H r A iu c b k o i m o b u

A sudden hush falls, and a hundred faces tilt towards her - curi
ous, expectant, sullen, apathetic - like empty dishes waiting to be
filled.
(from Nice Work by D.Lodge)

203

7.
After all you are the centre and head of their set. Your husband
has not only run away from you but also from them. Its not too good
for them either. The fact is that Albert Forrester has made you all
look a lot damned fools.
All, said Clifford Boyleston. Were all in the same boat.
Hes quite right, Mrs. Forrester, The Philatelist must come back.
Et tu, Brute.
(from The Creative Impulse by W.S.Maugham)

8.
No man is rich enough to buy back his past.
(from The Ideal Husband by O. Wilde)
9.
There is a sort of Oh-what-a-wicked-world-this-is-and-how-Iwish-I-could-do-something-to-make-it-better-and-nobler expression
about Montmorency that has been known to bring the tears into the
eyes of pious ladies and gentlemen.
(from Three Men in a Boat by J.K. Jerome)
10.
But in his countenance I saw a change: that looked desperate
and brooding - that reminded me of some wronged and fettered wild
beast or bird, dangerous to approach in his sullen woe. The cagcd
eagle, whose gold-ringed eyes cruelty has extinguished, might look
as looked that sightless Samson.
(from Jane Eyre by Ch.Brontc)
11.

<o

I perceived, of course, the drift of my interlocutor. Jealousy had

I got hold of him: she stung him; but the sting was salutary: it gave him

| : * respite from the gnawing fang of melancholy. I would not, therefore,

j immediately charm the snake,
g:
(ibid.)
I;:
:

i2.
My heart was beating like an army on the march. I would never
do to enroll in a conspiracy.
(from Under the Net by I.Murdoch)

13.
There are details which even the most tender memory will mis
lay. The shutter-softened houses with their high foreheads.
(ibid.)
14.
He had a heavy reddish face and a powerful spread of a nose.
His hair was only slightly grey. He held his head well and the bottle
by the hand.
(ibid.)
15.
As the steel to the magnet I sped forward.
(ibid.)
16.
But my voice was caught up in the velvet of the night like a
knife-thrust caught in a cloak.
(ibid.)
17.
The silence was over me like a great bell, but the whole place
throbbed with a soundless vibration which it took me a moment to
recognize as the beating of my own heart.
(ibid.)

19.
....Lord Faudel, a most intelligent middle-aged mediocrity.
(from The Picture of Dorian Gray by O.Wilde)
20.

Certain things indeed I have learnt here: for instance, that my

happiness has a sad face, so sad that for years I took it for my unhap
piness and drove it away.
(ibid.)

CTiiAicruka aHrAiucbkoi

The contents of the room had a sort of strange cohesion and ho

mogeneity, and they seemed to adhere to the walls like the contents
of a half-empty jam jar. Yet here was every kind of thing. It was like
a vast toy shop that had been hit by a bomb.
(ibid.)

mobu

18.

21.

The snow squeaked and purred under your shoes, but apart from
this the silence was complete, the world was gagged with snow.
v (from How to Shoot an Amateur Naturalist by G.Durrell)
22 .

Yes, well, weve talked quite enough about animals, said

Mother hurriedly. I think lunch is ready, so shall we all sit down?
Well, anyway, said Larry as we moved down the veranda to the
table, that boys a menace... hes got beasts in his belfry.
(from My Family and Other Animals by G.Durrell)
23.

cKapomHa UlomoupKa

I remember a very dear friend of mine being molested by a large

gull, once, remarked Kralefsky reminiscently, sipping his soup. /.../
What he should have done, Theodore pointed out gravely, was to
point his umbrella at it and shout - Stand back or I ll fire.
Whatever for? inquired Kralefsky, very puzzled.
The gull would have believed him and flown away in terror,
explained Theodore blandly.
But I dont quite understand.... Began Kralefsky, frowning.
You see, theyre terribly gullible creatures, said Theodore in
triumph.
(ibid.)
24.
Look out! Look out! Theyre coming! screamed Margo. /.../
What on earths the matter with you all? Mother kept implor
ing, mopping her glasses.
Its that bloody boy... hell kill the lot of us. ... Look at the
table.... Knee-deep in scorpions.
By the time /.../ all the baby scorpions had hidden themselves
under various plates and bits of cutlery.
(ibid.)
25.

I think youre being very nasty about her, and, anyway, youre
in no position to talk about beauty, its only skin deep after all, and
before you go throwing stones you should look for the beam in your
eye, said Margo triumphantly,
gflg
Larry looked puzzled.

Is that a proverb or a quotation from the Builders Gazette?

he inquired.
I think she means that its an ill-wind that gathers no moss,
said Leslie.
You make me sick, said Margo, with dignified scorn.
(ibid.)
26.
To live a life half-dead, a living death...
(from Paradise Lost by J.Milton)
27.
After him, like the first breath of spring in the Champs-Elysees, came Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde - two lizard-skin feet, silk legs,
chinchilla body, a tight little black hat, pinned with platinum and
diamonds, and the high invariable voice that may be heard in any
Ritz Hotel from New York to Budapest.
(from Decline and Fall by E. Waugh)

CTUAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

What college were you at?

Scone.
Scone, were you? Ever come across a young nephew of my
wifes called Alastair Digby-Vane-Trumpington?
I just met him, said Paul.
/.../ Who else do you know at Oxford? Do you know Freddy
French-Wise?
No.
Or Tom Oblethwaite or that young Castleton boy?
No, I m afraid not. I had a great friend called Potts.
Potts! said lady Circumference, and left it at that.
(ibid.)
29.
He got up and broke off a spray from a crab-apple tree. Their
buds were like Megan [the girl] - shell-like, rose-pink, wild, and
fresh; and so, too, the opening flowers, white, and wild, and touching.
He put the spray into his coat. And all the rush of the spring within
him escaped in a triumphant sigh.
(from The Apple Tree by J.Galsworthy)

mobu

28.

m t

30.
I dont think I will go back there again, she said.
You w ill, said Oreily. Look at me, even I go back, and he has
long since finished with me, Master Misery.
Master Misery? Why do you call him that?
(from Master Misery by T. Capote)
31.
Somewhere near midnight the rain slackened, halted; wind bar
reled about wringing out the trees. Singly, like delayed guests arriv
ing at a dance, appearing stars pierced the sky. It was time to leave.
We took nothing with us; left the quilt to rot, spoons to rust; and the
tree-house, the woods we left to winter.
(from The Grass Harp by T.Capote)
32.
The couple moved to where they could see her face in profile:
and now her stare was aimed like a rifle at the farthest horizon.
(from The French Lieutenant s Woman by J.Fowles)
33.
But it was an unforgettable face, and a tragic face: its sorrow
welled out of it as purely, naturally and unstoppingly as water out
of a woodland spring.
(ibid.)
34.
Freddie was able to sing In your eyes that softly beam without
that set-your-teeth-on-edge feeling that he had sometimes experi
enced when changing gears unskillfully in his two-seater.
(from Lord Emsworth and Others by P.G.Wodehouse)
35.
Why do I live, when I desire to be
At once from life and lifes long labour free?
Like leaves in spring, the young are blown away,
Without the sorrows of a slow decay;
I, like you witherd leaf, remain behind,
Nipt by the frost and shivering in the wind,
There it abides till younger buds come on,
As I, now all my fellow swains are gone;

Then, from the rising generation thrust,

It falls, like me, unnoticed to the dust.
(from The Village by G.Crabbe)
36.
... And down the long and silent street,
The dawn, with silver-sandalled feet,
Crept like a frightened girl.
(from The Harlot's House by O.Wilde)
37.
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumns being, /.../
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and Preserver; hear, O hear!
(from Ode to the West Wind by P.B.Shelley)
38.
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
(from The Eagle: a Fragment by A.Tennyson)

C TU A icT uka

a H r A iu c b k o i m o b u

39.
Silver
Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon (=shoes);
This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees:
One by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep
O f doves in a silver-feathered sleep;
A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws and a silver eye;

And moveless fish in the water gleam,

By silver reeds in a silver stream.
(Walter de la Mare)
40.
Like a poem poorly written
We arc verses out of rhythm
Couplets out of rhyme
In syncopated time.
(from Dangling Conversations by P. Simon)
III.
SYNTACTIC EXPRESSIVE
MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES
1. Analyse the following examples. Point out various types of
syntactic and lexical-syntactic stylistic devices in them; dwell upon
their structural/logical-semantic peculiarities andfunctions.
2. Read carefully the extractsfrom poems given after the pas
sages from prose works. Here, besides doing the tasks set above,
try to determine the type o f rhyme and record the rhyming scheme.
Scan the passages and describe the metres employed, determine
the verseform (if possible). Find deviations in metre (if there are
any).
1.
He needed rest, tranquillity, reassurance, companionship, he got
uneasiness, anxiety, uncertainty, and loneliness.
(from Meditations on a German Grave by R. Aldington)
2.

An awful thing had happened. Quite suddenly, at the theatre last

night, when she and Jimmy were seated side by side in the dress>:
O circle, without a moments warning - in fact, she had just finished
| j j chocolate almond and passed the box to him again - she had fallen
in love with an actor. But - fallen - in love....
(from Taking the Veil by K. Mansfield)
o

# i:

3She has a speaking voice not unlike Annas, only with the husky
note made more metallic. Not chestnut husks but rusty iron.
210
(from Under the Net by I. Murdoch)

4.
It is a city which I never fail to approach with expectation and
leave with disappointment.
(ibid.)
5.
Why should I waste time transcribing his writings instead of
producing my own? I would never translate Nous Les Vainqueurs.
Never, never, never.
(ibid.)
6.

No use telling you much about that. Paths, paths, everywhere; a

stamped-in network of paths spreading over the empty land, through
long grass, through burnt grass, through thickets, down and up chilly
ravines, up and down stony hills ablaze with heat, and a solitude, a
solitude, nobody, not a hut.
(from Heart o f Darkness by J. Conrad)
7.
Flames glided in the river, small green flames, red flames, white
flames, pursuing, overtaking, joining, crossing each other - then
separating slowly or hastily.
(ibid.)

8.
So we hurried down the hillside until we reached the little bay,
empty, silent, asleep under the brilliant shower of sunlight.
(from My family and Other Animals by G.Durrell)
9.
There is nothing does irritate me more than seeing other people
sitting about doing nothing when I m working.
(from Three Men in a Boat by J.K. Jerome)
10.
We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip, a trip
takes us.
(from Travels with Charley in Search
o f America by J. Steinbeck)

11.

As a matter of fact, she loved parties. She liked sitting down to

supper in a noisy room, she liked dance music and gossip /.../, and
she liked drinks and having things brought to her by men in pink
evening coats.
(from Bella Fleace Gave a Party by E. Waugh)
12.
For Gods sake, tell me some more, I said.
More about Appleby?
More about anything. Tell me about all the chaps in the Wimpole. Tell me their names one by one and exactly what they look like.
Tell me your family history. Tell me the full details of every job you
have ever lost. Tell me all the funny stories you have ever heard. Tell
me my fortune. Dont you see, I want to be told?
(from Work Suspended by E. Waugh)
13.
Dombey was about eight-and-forty years of age. Son was about
eight-and-forty minutes. Dombey was rather bald, rather red, and
though a handsome, well-made man, too stem and pompous in ap
pearance, to be prepossessing. Son was very bald, and very red, and
though (of course) an undeniably fine infant, somewhat crushed and
spotty in his general effect, as yet.
(from Dombey and Son by Ch. Dickens)

CKapOJliHQ SlomoujbKa

14.
The speakers square forefinger emphasized his observations by
underscoring every sentence with a line on the schoolmasters sleeve.
The emphasis was helped by the speakers square wall of a forehead,
which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious
cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall. /.../ the speakers
obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs, square shoulders - nay, his
very neck cloth, trained to take him by the throat with an unaccommodat
ing grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was - all helped the emphasis.
(from Hard Times by Ch. Dickens)
15.
The possessive instinct never stands still. Through florescencc
and feud frosts and fires, it followed the laws of progression even

in the Forsyte family which had believed it fixed for ever. Nor can
it be dissociated from environment any more than the quality of
potato from the soil.
(from In Chancery by J. Galsworthy)
16.
But I was young and had my dreams, and something within
always told me that this would not, could not, should not last - I
should some day get into a better position.
(from How I Served My Apprenticeship by A- Carnegie)
17.
I sympathize with the rich mans boy and congratulate the poor
mans boy.
(ibid.)
18.
They were gay, they were hilarious, they were roaring with
laughter.
(from Babylon Revisited by F.S. Fitzgerald)

20.
It was cold in the street. There was a wind like ice. People
went flitting by, very fast; the men walked like scissors; the women
trod like cats. And nobody knew - nobody cared.
(from Life o f Ma Parker by K. Mansfield)
21.

Although it was so brilliantly fine - the blue sky powered with

gold and the great spots of light like white wine splashed over the
Jardins Publiques - Miss Brill was glad that she had decided on her
fur.
(from Miss Brill by K. Mansfield)

C TU A icT uka

You must come over and have dinner with us one evening
Love to. Thank you very much, sir. Good night.
Carteret walked down the road. Very touching, the sir business.
Very illuminating and nice. Very typical. It was touches like that
which counted.
(from Go, Lovely Rose by H.E. Bates)

a H r A iu c b k o i m o b u

19.

22.

On the rose-stems, encrusted with green flies, lady-birds moved

like newly painted toys; lady-birds pale red with large black spots;
lady-birds apple-red with brown spots; lady-birds orange with greyand-black freckles.
(from My Family and Other Animals by G. Durrell)
23.
He was always the first to enter the dining-room and the last
to leave; and in a vacant chair beside him he placed a little black
leather bag.
(from The Baron by K. Mansfield)
24.
So the thing to do now is to buck up, little chap, said Edward,
and to smile. And he tried himself an extraordinary trembling
apology for a smile. To forget all about it - to - eh? Little man....
Old boy....
(from Sixpence by K. Mansfield)
25.
The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls,
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
(H.W. Longfellow)
26.

55

Out of the bosom of the Air,

Out of the could-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken
Silent, and soft, and slow
Descends the snow.
(from Snow Flakes by H.W.Longfellow)
27.

214

Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve,

And hope without an object cannot live.
(from Work Without Hope by S.T. Coleridge)

28.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

O f the beautiful Annabel Lee,
And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes
O f the beautiful Annabel Lee.
(from Annabel Lee by E. A. Poe)
29.
And the maiden she lived with no other thought
Then to love and be loved by me.
/.../ But our love it was stronger by far than the love
O f those who were older than we.
(ibid.)
30.
....who can fear
Too many stars, though each in heaven shall roll,
Too many flowers, though each shall crown the year?
(from Sonnets from the Portuguese by E.B. Browning)
31.

CruAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

m obu

He was my North, my South, my East and West

He was my working day, my Sunday rest
He was my noon, my midnight, my talk, my song
I thought that love would last forever, I was wrong
The stars are not wanted now, put out every one
Pack up the moon, dismantle the sun
Pour out the oceans and sweep up the woods
For nothing now can ever come to any good
(from Stop All the Clocks by W.H. Auden)
32.
On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are
(from the song Fragile by Sting)

IV.SOUND INSTRUMENTATION. PHONETIC

EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES.
Analyse thefollowing examples. Comment on the cases o f al
literation, assonance and direct and indirect types of onomatopoeia.
What other EMs and SDs are used in the passages?
1.
But all the time he was listening... And still that unknown bird
went Pip-pip, Pip-pip, and there rose the busy chatter of the
little trout stream, whereon the moon was flinging glances through
the bars of her tree prison.
(from The Apple Tree by J.Galsworthy)
2.

It was in that heavenly moment that Fanny heard a twing-twingtootle-tootle; and a light strumming. Theres going to be music, she
thought, but the music didnt matter just then.
(from Honeymoon by K.Mansfield)
3.
All round, both near and far, there were grand trees, motionless
in the still sunshine, and, like all large motionless things, seeming
to add to the stillness. Here and there a leaf fluttered down; petals
fell in a silent shower; a heavy moth floated by, and, when it settled,
seemed to fall wearily; the tiny birds alighted on the walks, and
hopped about in perfect tranquillity; even a stray rabbit sat nibbling
a leaf that was to its liking, in the middle of a grassy space, with
an air that seemed quite impudent in so timid a creature. No sound
was to be heard louder that a sleepy hum, and the soft monotony of
running water...
(from Felix Holt, the Radical by G.Eliot)

1
.S

4.
From the comer of the divan of Persian saddlebags on which
he was lying /.../ Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of
the honey-sweet and honey-colored blossoms of a laburnum, whose
tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of beauty
so flame-like as theirs; and now the fantastic shadows of birds in
flight flitted across the long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched
in front of the huge window /.../.
(from The Picture o f Dorian Gray by O. Wilde)

5.
Behind the rotunda the slender trees with yellow leaves down
drooping, and through them just a line of sea, and beyond the blue
sky with gold-veined clouds.
Tum-tum-tum tiddle-um! tiddle-um! tiddle-um! turn tiddle-um
turn ta! Blew the band. Two young girls in red came by and two
young soldiers in blue met them, and they laughed and paired and
went off arm in arm.
(from Miss Brill by K.Mansfield)
6.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always

(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning
(from S.Smiths poem)

V.
TYPES O F NARRATIVE AND
NARRATIVE-COMPOSITIONAL FORMS
Read the following passages and say what types o f narrative
and compositionalforms are represented here. Discuss their basic
language peculiarities as well as those which mark the shiftfrom
one type to another. Say in what way the chosen narrative form
serves the aesthetic purposes, helps to create an appropriate atmo
sphere and to reveal the subject-matter o f the passage. Analyse the
passages in terms o f EMs and SDs employed there.

C TU A icT uka

We climb up the hill with much labour,

We puff and we pant and we blow.
But the runners are bright as a saber
And all the wide world is below!
One push and were off! Were flying!
Hold tight! How the stars stream away!
Oh, what can compare
with the rush through the air
As you dash down a hill in a sleigh!
(from Sledging by Starlight by A.Reid)

a H rA iu c b k o i m o b u

7.

i.
A man and woman walked towards the boulevard from a little
hotel in a side street.
The trees were still leafless, black, cold; but the fine twigs were
swelling towards spring, so that looking upward it was with an ex
pectation of the first glimmering greenness. Yet everything was calm,
and the sky was a calm, classic blue.
(from Wine by D. Lessing)
2.

I am writing this in a beach cottage on a Florida Key. The walls

of my room are of matched boarding, applied horizontally and painted
green. On the floor is a straw mat. Under the mat is a layer of sand that
has been tracked into the cottage and has sifted through the straw. I
have thought some of taking the mat up and sweeping the sand into
a pile and removing it, but have decided against it. This is the way
keys form, apparently, and I have no particular reason to interfere.
(from On a Florida Key by E.B. White)
3.
There was once a town in the heart of America where all life
seemed to live in harmony with the surroundings. The town lay in
the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with fields of grain
and hillsides of orchards where, in spring, white clouds of bloom
drifted above the green fields. In autumn, oak, and maple, and birch
set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a backdrop
of pines. Then foxes barked in the fields, half hidden in the mists of
the fall mornings.
(from The Silent Spring by R.L. Carson)
4.
<rKapojiina UlomoupKa

Well, I was in the saloon when who did I see in the comer but
Jimmy Drage-cove I used to know when I was working with Toby
Cruttwell. I never see a man look more discouraged.
Hullo, Jimmy! I says. We wont see each other as often as
we used. How are things with you? I say it cordial, but careful like,
because I didnt know what Jimmy was up to.
Pretty bad, said Jimmy. Just fooled a job.
What sort of job? I says. Nobbling, he says, meaning kid
napping.
218
(from Decline and Fall by E. Waugh)

5.
I did not know why Strickland had suddenly offered to show
them to me. I welcomed the opportunity. A mans work reveals him.
In social intercourse he gives you the surface that he wishes the
world to accept, and you can only gain a true knowledge of him by
inferences from little actions, of which he is unconscious, and from
fleeting expressions, which cross his face unknown to him. Some
times people carry to such perfection the mask they have assumed
that in due course they actually become the person they seem. But
in his book or his picture the real man delivers himself defenceless.
His pretentiousness will only expose his vacuity.
(from The Moon and Sixpence by W.S. Maugham)

7.
It was on account of the scar that I first noticed him, for it ran, broad
and red, in a great crescent from his temple to his chin. It must have
been due to a formidable wound and I wondered whether this had been
caused by a saber or by a fragment of shell. It was unexpected on that
round, fat, and good-humoured face. He had small and undistinguished
features, and his expression was artless. His face went oddly with his
corpulent body. He was a powerful man of more than common height.
I never saw him in anything but a very shabby grey suit, a khaki shirt,
and a battered sombrero. He was far from clean.
(from The Man with the Scar by W.S. Maugham) ^

C TU A icTuka

That same afternoon Aunt El went out to water her roses, only to
discover them gone. These were special roses, ones she had planned
to send to the flower show in Mobile, and so naturally she got a
little hysterical. She rang up the sheriff, and said, listen here, Sher
iff, You come over here right fast. I mean somebodys got off with
all my Lady Anns that I ve devoted myself-to heart and soul since
early spring. When the sheriffs car pulled up outside our house, all
the neighbours along the street came out on the porches, and Mrs.
Sawyer, layers of cold cream whitening her face, trotted across the
road. Oh shoot, she said, very disappointed to find no one had been
murdered, oh shoot, she said, nobodys stole them roses. Your Billy
Bob brought them roses over and left them for little Bobbit.
(from Children on their Birthdays by T. Capote)

a H r A iu c b k o i m o b u

6.

8.

There was a long silence before he spoke again.

But as to buy this house - you dont know what youre talking
about!
June said that she did. She knew that he could get it if he wanted.
He would only have to give what it cost.
What it cost! You know nothing about it. I wont go to Soames
- I ll have nothing more to do with that young man.
But you neednt; you can go to Uncle James. If you cant buy
the house, will you pay this law-suit claim? I know he is terribly hard
up - I ve seen it. You can stop it out of my money!
(from The Man o f Property by J. Galsworthy)
9.
Along this particular line no express had ever passed. All the
trains - the few that there were - stopped at all the stations. Denis
knew the names of those stations by heart. Bole, Triton, /.../ and,
finally, Camlet was where he always got out, leaving the train to
creep indolently onward, goodness only knew whither, into the green
heart of England.
(from Crome Yellow by A. Huxley)
10.

O f the three men at the table all dressed in black business suits,
two must have been stone drunk. Not Nash, the reproachful, of course
not. But Vibart the publisher (of late all too frequently); and then
Your Humble, Charlock, the thinking weed: on the run again. Felix
Charlock, at your service. Your humble, M aam.
(from Tunc by L. Durrell)
VI. FUNCTIONAL STYLES
Analyse thefollowing examples in terms of language peculiari
ties and indicate the basic style-forming characteristics o f each
text.
1.
(a commercial letter)

ggfl

23 Convent Street
Newcastle
March 21,1992

Mr. Slatty & Sons, Inc.

12 Park lane, London
Gentlemen,
We acknowledge receipt of your favour of 18. inst. By the pres
ent we beg to remit you two bills of 3410 together requesting you to
get them accepted. If the drawees, contrary to all probability, should
refuse acceptance, please return the bills without protest debiting us
for your expenses.
Awaiting your reply we are, Gentlemen,
Yours very truly
Johnson and Co. [quoted from 93, p. 187]

3.
(a formal letter of diplomacy:
Secretary-General to Minister for Foreign Affairs)
Sir,
I have the honour to refer to General Assembly resolution 38/120
of 16 December 19_. A copy of which is enclosed for ease of refer
ence, and, in accordance with paragraph 3 thereof, I wish to extend to
Your Government an invitation to participate, at the ministerial level,
in the Second International Conference on Assistance to Refugees in
Africa, which will be held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, from 9
to 11 July 19_ under the auspices of the United Nations.

C TU A icT uka

(an extract from a newspaper article)

After 30 years of civil war between leftist guerrillas and the
Colombian government, the dominant rebel group FARC is known
mainly for violence. Police, government officials, and rural villagers
have been murdered in the name of revolution, while drug traffickers
have been protected. But as the government and the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia inch toward a possible peace agreement,
the guerrillas are trying to polish their image. Supporters claim that
they have cracked down on thievery, drunkenness, and prostitution;
repaired roads and infrastructure; and been good stewards of their
jungle environment.
(taken from M.Satchells article Enviro-guerrillas?
published in U.S.News and World report
of January 25, 1999, p.41)

a H r A iu c b k o i m o b u

2.

The African refugee situation deserves the full understanding

and support of the international community. I therefore express the
hope that your Government will participate in the Conference and I
look forward to receiving your positive response at an early date.
Accept, Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.
Secretary-General
[quoted from 127, p. 186]
4.

^Kapomna

(an extract from a scientific article)

The energy band calculations for Si-Cr compounds were based
on the augmented-spherical-wave (ASW) procedure for the solution
of the one-electron equations. Exchange and correlation effects were
treated in the local-density approximation. Self-consistency was pur
sued until the calculated electronic charges were unchanged to within
0,001 electron within the Wigner-Seitz sphere. The calculations were
parameter-free, the atomic number and the crystal structure being the
only a priori inputs used, and correspond to theoretical equilibrium
since the atomic spacing was systematically varied until the total
energy was minimized.
[quoted from 14, p. 40]
5(Speech of Viscount Simon of the House of Lords
Defamation Bill)
3. 12 p.m.
The noble and learned Earl, Lord Jowitt, made a speech of much
persuasiveness on the second reading raising this point, and today as
is natural and proper, he has again presented with his usual skill, and I
am sure with the greatest sincerity, many of the same considerations.
I certainly do take the view that the argument in this matter is all on
the side. One could not possibly say that when one considers that
there is considerable academic opinion at the present time in favour
of this change and in view of the fact that there are other countries
under the British Flag where, I understand there was a change in
the law, to a greater or less degree, in the direction which the noble
and learned Earl so earnestly recommends to the House. But just as
I am very willing to accept the view that the case for resisting the
noble EarlsAmendment is not overwhelming, so I do not think it is
practically and considerably the other way. The real truth is that, in

framing statuary provisions about the law of defamation, we have

to choose the sensible way between two principles, each of which is
greatly to be admired but both of which run into some conflict.
[quoted from 166, p. 117]

7.

C TU A icT uka

(An extract from an essay)

There is a strong view that holds that success is a myth, and
ambition therefore a sham. Does this mean that success does not
really exist? That achievement is at bottom empty? That the efforts
of men and women are of no significance alongside the force of
movements and events? Now not all success, obviously, is worth
esteeming, or all ambition worth cultivating. Which are and which
are not is something one soon enough learns on ones own. But even
the most cynical secretly admit that success exists; that achievement
counts for a great deal; and that the true myth is that the actions of
men and women are useless. To belive otherwise is to take on a
point of view that is likely to be deranging. It is, in its implications,
to remove all motives for competence, interest in attainment, and
regard for posterity.
We do not choose to be bom. We do not choose our parents.
We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth or
the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. But within all this
realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live: coura
geously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or
in drift. We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We
decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what
we refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be
to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours
to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so
are our lives formed. In the end, forming our own destiny is what
ambition is about.
[180, pp. 18-19]

a H r A iu c b k o i m o b u

6.

(a classified advertisement)
Companies for Sale
POLLUTION CONTROL. Company located West Midlands.
Having own modem facility in pleasant rural area with easy access
to motorway network. Company formed in 1980. Current turnover 2 2 8

approx 750K. Profitable. Trading in UK and internationally. Designs,

supplies, installs water and wastewater treatment plant specializing
in industrial treatment schemes.
(The Daily Telegraph, March 2, 1998)
[quoted from 51, p. 72]

8.
(an extract from a short story)
For Vincent it was a holiday. No one had come by the gallery
all morning, which, considering the arctic weather, was not unusual.
He sat at his desk devouring tangerines, and enjoying immensely
a Thurber story in an old New Yorker. Laughing loudly, he did not
hear the girl enter, see her cross the dark carpet, notice her at all, in
fact, until the telephone rang. Garland Gallery, hello. She was odd,
most certainly, that indecent haircut, those depthless eyes - Oh,
Paul. Comme ci, comme ga, and you? - and dressed like a freak: no
coat, just a lumberjacks shirt, navy-blue slacks and - was it a joke?
- pink ankle socks, a pair of huaraches. The ballet? Whos dancing?
Oh, her! Under an arm she carried a flat parcel wrapped in sheets of
funny-paper - Look, Paul, what say I call back? Theres someone
here.. and, anchoring the receiver, assuming a commercial smile,
he stood up. Yes?
Her lips trembled with unrealized words as though she had pos
sibly a defect of speech, and her eyes rolled in their sockets like loose
marbles. It was the kind of disturbed shyness one associated with
children. I ve a picture, she said. You buy pictures?
At this, Vincents smile became fixed. We exhibit.
(from The Headless Hawk by T. Capote)
9.
(three poems)
A.

I.
224

Snow-Flakes

Out of the bosom of the Air,

Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent, and soft, and slow
Descends the snow.

Even as our cloudy fancies take

Suddenly shape in some divine expression,
Even as the troubled heart doth make
In the white countenance confession,
The troubled sky reveals
The grief it feels.
This is the poem of the air,
slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair
Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
Now whispered and revealed
To wood and field.
(H.W.Longfellow, 1863)

C.
In the High Rise
Alice Dreams o f Wonderland

She received a parcel through the post.

It had everything she wanted inside it.
Sometimes when she touched it
A planet-sized man would come to the door
And say exactly the right kind of thing.
The parcel kept her happy.

C TU A icT uka

Not Waving But Drowning

Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.
Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now hes dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.
Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead man lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.
(Stevie Smith, 1957)

a H r A iu c b k o i m o b u

B.

226

Provided all she needed.

Her children blossomed,
Grew fat and pink and healthy.
The high-rise in which she lived shrank,
Became a neat house A swing on the lawn, a driveway, etc.
A bill for the parcel arrived on Monday
On Tuesday came a reminder.
On Wednesday came a solicitors letter.
On Thursday came a court order.
On Friday the jury gave a verdict.
On Saturday the parcel was taken.
Most days
Alice can be seen in the high-rise,
Mouth twisted, weeping.
(Brian Patten, 1983)
10.

(an extract from a play)

Scene 10
Vienna and the Palace o f Schdnbrunn

[Mozart rises, still clutching his stomach.]

Salieri [To Mozart]. How do you fare today?
Mozart. Badly. I have no money, and no prospect of any.
Salieri. It would not be too hard, surely.
[Lights up on the Palace o f Schdnbrunn. The Emperor
stands in the Light Box, in his golden space.]

|
|

Joseph. We must find him a post.

Salieri. [To audience.] One danger! The Emperor. [Salieri goes
upstage to Joseph.]
Theres nothing available, Majesty.
Joseph. Theres Chamber Composer, now that Gluck is dead.
Salieri [Shocked]. Mozart to follow Gluck?
Joseph. I wont have him say I drove him away. You know what
a tongue he has.
Salieri. Then grant him Glucks post, Majesty, but not his salary.
That would be wrong.
Joseph. Gluck got two thousand florins a year. What should
Mozart get?

Salieri. Two hundred. Light payment, yes, but for light duties.
Joseph. Perfectly fair. I m obliged to you, Court Composer.
Salieri [Bowing). Majesty. [To audience] And so easily done.
Like many men obsessed with being thought generous, Joseph the
Second was quintessentially stingy.
(from P.Shaffers Amadeus, 1979)
VII. SAMPLES O F STYLISTIC ANALYSIS

Stylistic Analysis

a H rA iu c b k o i m o b u

Text 1
Her high heels, clacking across the marble foyer, made her think
of ice cubes rattling in a glass, and flowers, those autumn chrysan
themums in the urn at the entrance, if touched they would shatter,
splinter, she was sure, into frozen dust; yet the house was warm,
even somewhat overheated, but cold, and Sylvia shivered, but cold,
like the swollen wastes of the secretarys face: Miss Mozart, who
dressed all in white, as though she were a nurse. Perhaps she really
was; that, of course, could be the answer. Mr. Revercomb, you are
mad, and this is your nurse; she thought about it for a moment: well,
no. And now the butler brought her scarf. His beauty touched her:
slender, so gentle, a Negro with freckled skin and reddish, unreflect
ing eyes. As he opened the door, Miss Mozart appeared, her starched
uniform rustling dryly in the hall. We hope you will return, she
said, and handed Sylvia a sealed envelope. Mr. Revercomb was
most particularly pleased.
(from Master Misery by T.Capote)

C TU A icT uka

The possessive and objective personal pronouns her in the

first sentence of the passage indicate that we deal with a typical inmedias-res beginning of the story. The name of the main personage
(Sylvia) appears only five lines below; and though the narration is
told in the third person, it is full of in-sets of the inner and represented
inner speech of the character. The change of the types of narrative
is marked by the change of tenses (from Past to Present), the use
of the second-person pronouns (you/your) and the direct address
(Mr. Revercomb, you are mad, and this is your nurse). It is also
marked by repetition (but cold ...but cold), parenthetical phrases
and conversational words (somewhat, perhaps, well, no). Structur- ggy

55
.8

ally detached attributes (his beauty touched her: slender, so gentle,

a Negro...) are used as if in imitation of the process of Sylvias
making observations. The description of the marble foyer produces
an effect of a frozen, almost lifeless atmosphere of Mr. Revercombs
place. The effect is heightened by the use of the antithesis: the house
was warm, even somewhat overheated, but cold. The sound-denot
ing and sound-implying vocabulary add to the general impression:
the sound of the high heels, clacking across the marble foyer is
compared to ice cubes rattling in a glass; the flowers in the urn, if
touched, would shatter, splinter ...into frozen dust.
The metaphoric picture of this cold place is also created by the
use of the simile: the house was cold like the snowy swollen wastes
of the secretarys face. The semantics of the word wastes in this
metaphoric description contributes to the illusion of lifelessness. The
alliteration (s/w sounds) -traced also in the whole passage - and the
monotonously rhythmical structure of the phrase (plus the rhyming
elements of the assonance wastes - face, and later - nurse,
was, of course) convey an ominously frozen atmosphere of
the marble hall. The cold, unfriendly (despite Miss Mozart and the
butlers dutiful politeness), almost lethargic aura of the house is
enhanced by the deliberate domination of the white colour in the
description of the place and the secretary (ice, snowy, dressed all in
white). It is intensified by the implication of coldness and unfeeling
ness suggested by such lexis as marble foyer, her starched uni
form rustling dryly. This cold whiteness is foregrounded by being
contrasted with only two colourful and beautiful details: the bright
autumn flowers and the black butler. However they both, too, seem
to be lacking in warmth and life: the chrysanthemums are ready, if
touched, to shatter, splinter into frozen dust and the Negros reddish
eyes are unreflecting. The general symbolic, menacing atmosphere
of this strange place (where people come to sell their dreams) is em
phasized by the characters thoughts, guesses and doubts expressed
explicitly: Mr. Revercomb, you are mad, and this is your nurse; she
thought about it for a moment: well, no.
Text 2
London Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancel
lor sitting in Lincolns inn hall. Implacable November weather.
As much mud in the streets, as if the waters had but newly retired

CTUAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

m obu

from the face of the earth and it would not be wonderful to meet a
Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine
lizard up Holbom Hill. Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots,
making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as fullgrown snow-flakes gone into mourning, one might imagine for the
death of the sun. Dogs, undistinguishable in mire. Horses, scarcely
better, splashed to their very blinkers. Foot passengers, jostling one
anothers umbrellas, in a general infection of ill-temper, and losing
their foot-hold at street-comers, where tens of thousands of other
foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke
(if that day ever broke), adding new deposits to the crust upon crust
of mud, sticking at those points tenaciously to the pavement, and
accumulating at compound interest.
Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green
aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among
the tiers of shipping, and the waterside pollutions of a great (and
dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights.
Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the
yards and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on
the gunwales of barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats
of ancient Greenwich pensioners wheezing by the firesides of their
wards; fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful
skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly pinching the toes and
fingers of his shivering little prentice boy on deck. Chance people
on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog,
with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon, and hanging
in the misty clouds.
Gas looming through the fog in diverse places in the streets,
much as the sun may, from the spongy fields, be seen to loom by
husbandman and ploughboy. Most of the shops lighted two hours
before their time - as the gas seems to know, for it has a haggard
and unwilling look.
The raw afternoon is rawest, and the dense fog is densest, and
the muddy streets are muddiest, near that leaden-headed old obstruc
tion, appropriate ornament for the threshold of a leaden-headed old
corporation: Temple Bar. And hard by Temple Bar, in Lincolns Inn
Hall, at the very heart of the fog, sits the Lord Chancellor in his High
Court of Chancery.
22&

Never can there come fog too thick, never can there come mud
and mire too deep, to assort with the groping and floundering con
dition which this High Court of Chancery, most pestilent of hoary
sinners, holds, this day, in the sight of heaven and earth.
(from Bleak House by Ch.Dickens)

cXapojiiHa UlomoupKa

Stylistic Analysis
The passage presents the description of the foggy November
weather in the City of London: before 1879 Temple Bar was the
gateway that marked the westward limit of the City. This famous
beginning of Dickenss novel attracts the readers attention by its
unusual syntactic-structural composition. The author uses mostly
one-member sentences extended by means of various participial
constructions. One-member sentences also function as main clauses
in complex sentences, which are long and intricate, thus convey
ing the hustling and jostling atmosphere of the overcrowded streets
- muddy and slippery under the sooty drizzle.
To enhance the expressiveness of the description, to create an
appropriate setting and emotional atmosphere (which are quite im
portant in terms of the content-conceptual information of the novel)
Dickens resorts to various EMs and SDs used in convergence. The
paragraphs abound in different kinds of parallel constructions with
syntactic anaphoras and epistrophes, phonemic (alliteration), mor
phemic and word repetitions, cases of inversion, parenthetical con
structions, comparisons and similes, epithets and metaphors.
The unexpected comparative hyperbole used in the first para
graph (as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the
earth and it wouldnt be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty
feet long or so) is extended by one more comparison (waddling
like an elephantine lizard up Holbom H ill), the whole picture thus
acquiring a ring of irony. The ironic effect is then increased by the
following comparative-metaphoric description of flakes of soot: as
big as full-grown snow-flakes gone into mourning, one might imagine
for the death of the sun. (One can also notice that the presentation of
the City inhabitants begins with the description of dogs, horses and
only later - foot passengers, all of them being splashed with mud).
So,
the key word of the first paragraph is the word mud as
well as its synonyms and other thematic words containing the integral
seme of being unclean: mud, smoke, black drizzle, mire, crust

C T U A icT uka

a H r A iu c b k o i m o b u

upon crust of mud, dirty city. The image is supported by additional

metaphoric associations, brought up by the writers employing spe
cific lexis, connected with the spheres of commerce and financial
transactions (adding new deposits, accumulating at compound
interest).
The key word of the second paragraph is the word fog. It
is used in anaphoric parallel constructions to intensify the general
mood of the whole description of this almost suffocating smog in
the great (and dirty) city. The word fog is repeated 17 times in
11 sentences. The emotional intensity is created by means of the
morphological repetition in numerous participles used to characterize
the all-penetrating fog which appears to be personified by the author:
it is described as if it were some animate creature, mysterious and
ominous (creeping, lying, hovering, drooping, pinching). At the
end of the passage the two thematic lines - mud and fog - are
combined; and the emotional-evaluative climax is achieved in the
fourth paragraph through the use of the superlative degree of adjec
tives in parallel constructions complicated by root repetition and
polysyndeton (The raw afternoon is rawest, and the dense fog is
densest, and the muddy streets are muddiest, near ... Temple Bar.).
The thematic words mud and fog, as a result of foregrounding,
acquire symbolic sounding and become the key words of the whole
passage, symbolizing the bureaucratic and mercenary system of legal
proceedings in London in the times of Charles Dickens.
This long, detailed description culminates in a short sentence,
where we find inversion and the framing repetition of the theme of
the first sentence: And hard by Temple Bar, in Lincolns Inn Hall,
at the very heart of fog, sits the Lord High Chancellor in his High
Court of Chancery. The repetition of the word high and the use
of the possessive pronoun his produce an ironic effect: the pom
posity of the style and the folklore structure of the sentence present
a striking contrast.
The final sentence - the authors denunciation of the Law system
- stands out against the metaphorically veiled picture presented in
the preceding paragraphs. It produces a strongly publicist impact
on the reader: Never can there come fog too thick, never can there
come mud and mire too deep, to assort with the groping and floun
dering condition which this High Court of Chancery, most pestilent
of hoary sinners, holds, this day, in the sight of heaven and earth. gffij

The stylistic convergence is quite remarkable here. We can observe

the use of parallel clauses with the inverted anaphoric never and a
case of symploce, synonym repetition in the form of a binomial with
alliteration (mud and mire), emotionally coloured epithets (grop
ing and floundering), the parenthetical metaphoric description of
the Court (most pestilent of hoary sinners). This direct negative
characteristic used against the background of the ironically elevated
ending of the sentence (in the sight of heaven and earth) aims at
causing a strongly negative reaction on the part of the reader: the
authors censure and accusation of the Court of Chancery are most
obvious in this sentence, which can be qualified as a typical sample
of English oratorical style.
We should also pay attention to the title of this chapter of the novel
- In Chancery. The interesting link between the title and the theme of
the passage is based upon the play on words: the word Chancery here
means the Court of Lord Chancellor, but it is also one of the elements
of the idiom in chancery, which means in a desperate position. So
the pun implicitly conveys the true essence of the law system of those
times as it is depicted by Charles Dickens in his novel.
V III. EXTRACTS FOR COMPREHENSIVE
STYLISTIC ANALYSIS

cXapoMna SJlomoupKa

1.
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the au
tumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heav
ens, I had been passing along, on horseback, through a singularly
dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of
evening drew on, within view of the melancholic House of Usher. I
know not how it was - but, with the first glimpse of the building, a
sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable;
for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, be
cause poetic, sentiment with witch the mind usually receives even
the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible.
(from the Fall o f the House o f Usher by E. A.Poe)
Assignmentsfo r stylistic analysis:

1.
Speak on your first impression of the passage. Define t
type of narrative and narrator. What is the authors obvious intention?
2 3 2 what kind of emotional response is evoked by the passage?

2. Comment on the syntactic structure of the paragraph. What

kind of sentence is the first one (loose, periodic or balanced)? Is the
reader held in suspense until the very end? How is that effect pro
duced?
3. How does the writer intensify his visual details? Comment
on the use of adjectives and adverbs. Find cases of alliteration and
onomatopoeia and speak on their stylistic role and the pragmatic
effect.
4. Analyse the second and the third sentences of the paragraph
in terms of the narrators feelings and emotions. How does the nar
rators response to the scene influence the readers perception?
5. Find the emotionally charged lexemes that underlie the mood
dominating the passage.
2.

The Hospital was deserted, yet strangely alive. I could hear it

purring and murmuring like a sleeping beast, and even when at times
there came as it were a wave of silence I could still sense within it
its great heart beating.
(from Under the Net by I. Murdoch)

CTUAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

She was sitting on the veranda waiting for her husband to come
in for luncheon. The Malay boy had drawn the blinds when the
morning lost its freshness, but she had partly raised one of them so
that she could look at the river. Under the breathless sun of midday
it had the white pallor of death. A native was paddling along in a
dug-out so small that it hardly showed above the surface of the water.
The colours of the day were ashy and wan. They were but various
tones of the heat. (It was like an Eastern melody, in the minor key,
which exacerbates the nerves by its ambiguous monotony; and the
ear awaits impatiently a resolution, but waits in vain.) The cicadas
sang their grating song with a frenzied energy; it was as continual
and monotonous as the rustling of a brook over the stones; but on
a sudden it was drowned by the loud singing of a bird, mellifluous
and rich; and for an instant, with a catch at her heart, she thought of
the English blackbird.
(from The Force o f Circumstances by W.S. Maugham)

mobu

3.

4.
Wood is a pleasant thing to think about. It comes from a tree; and
trees grow, and we dont know how they grow. For years and years
they grow, without paying attention to us, in meadows, in forests, and
by the side of rivers - all things one likes to think about. The cows
swish their tails beneath them on hot afternoons; they paint rivers
so green that when moorhen dives one expects to see its feathers all
green when it comes up again. I like to think of the fish balanced
against the stream like flags blown out; and of water-beetles slowly
raising domes of mud upon the bed of the river. I like to think of the
tree itself: first of the close dry sensation of being wood; then the
grinding of the storm; then the slow, delicious ooze of sap; I like to
think of it, too, on winters nights standing in the empty field with
all leaves close-furled, nothing tender exposed to the iron bullets of
the moon, a naked mast upon an earth that goes tumbling, tumbling,
all night long.
(V. Woolf)

Subject Index

caesura 182
capitalization 119
catalectic (hypometric) line 181
catalogue 140

dactyl 181
defeated expectancy (breach of expec
tancy) 111
denotation 16
description 194
detachment 127
dialect 43, 55
dialectal words 55
dialogue 190, 196, 197
digression 195
dimeter 181
discourse 10, 164
distant word repetition 136
distant repetition throughout the text
138
double (feminine) rhyme 183
drama 174, 187
dramatic irony 87
dramatic point of view 193
dynamic description 194
elision 179
ellipsis 123
emotive meaning 39, 40

mobu

background knowledge 23
balanced paragraph 119
balanced sentence 118
ballad 186
barbarism 50
bathos 150
belles-lettres style 167, 174
binomial 140
blank (unrhymed) verse 185

chain repetition 136

characterization 197, 199
characters speech 190, 196
chiasmus 144
climax 64, 148
closet drama 187
code 23
cognitive metaphor 74
colloquial speech 45
colloquial words 47
comedy 188
comparative idiom 106
connotation 16
contact ordinary repetition 134
contextual meaning 39, 40
convergence 151
coordinate metaphor 72
couplet 185

CTUAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

addressee (decoder) 23
addresser (encoder) 23
affix(ational) repetition 132
allegory 77
alliteration 26, 131,185
allusion 110
ambiguity 111
amphibrach 181
anadiplosis (catch-repetition) 135
analogy 146
anapaest 181
anaphora 135,143
animalification 77
anticlimax 64, 150
antithesis 64, 101, 146
antonomasia 41, 82, 93
apokoinu construction 124
aposiopesis (break-in-the-narrative) 125
apostrophe 76
archaism 50
argumentation 195
assonance 26, 132
asyndeton 124
auctorial narration 191
authors narrative 190-194
authors neologisms 27, 56
authors individual style (idiostyle)
11,20

emotive prose 174, 175

enjambment (run-on line) 182
entrusted narrative 192
enumeration 140
epigram 107
epistrophe (epiphora) 135, 143
epithet 27,40,62, 90-93
euphemism 96
euphony 131
extended repetition 134
extralinguistic context 33
eye-rhyme 185

in-medias-res beginning 37
inner (interior) speech 190, 196
interior (inner) monologue 196
internal rhyme 184
innuendo 86
invariant 22
inversion (stylistic) 125
irony 63, 86
irony of situation 87
jargon 43, 53
jargonism 53
juxtaposed word repetition 134

fable 78
farce 188
feminine (female/double/disyllabic)
rhyme 183, 184
fiction 165, 175
figurative language 27
figures of quality 63
figures of quantity 63
figure of speech 26, 29
foregrounding 13, 24
foot (metrical) 180
foreignism 50
framing (ring repetition) 136, 143
free verse (vers libre) 185
functional style 11, 15, 163-167

kenning 95

genuine metaphor 74
gradation 64, 148
graphon 46

I
.S

heptameter 181
hexameter 181
historical words 50
humour 88
hypallage 39, 84
hyperbaton 126
hyperbole 63, 98
hypermetric line 181
hyphenated epithet 92
hyphenation 119
iambus 181
idiolect 21

limited omniscient point of view 192

linguistic context 32
literary words 47
litotes 100
logical meaning 39
loose paragraph 118
loose sentence 116
lyrical digression 195
masculine (single/monosyllabic)
rhyme 183
maxim 107
meiosis 63, 100
metaphor 63, 66-79
metonymy 63, 80
metonymical (transferred) epithet 39,84
metre 162, 180
monometer 181
morphological (morphemic) repeti
tion 132
multiplication 119, 120
narration 191, 194
narrator, types of 191
narrative proper 194
narrative-compositional forms 194
narrators discourse 191
neologism 56
newspaper style 167, 169
nominal meaning 39, 41
nominational/nominative metaphor 74

panoramic narrative 191, 194

paradigm 30
paradigmatic (figure) 30
parallelism 138, 142
paradox 102, 113
parallel pattern (construction) 142
parcellation 125
parenthesis 127
paronomasia 112
pathetic fallacy 77
pentameter 181
periodic paragraph 118
period (periodic sentence) 116
periphrasis 95
personification 75
personified narrator 192
phonemic repetition 131, 160
play on words 111
pleonasm 156
poetic diction 179
poetic licence 185
poetry 174, 178
poetic feet 180
point of view 190
polysyndeton 141
portrait 194
primum comparandum 58
professional words (professionalisms) 53
prolepsis 150
prolonged metaphor 74
prose 175, 190
prosody 26, 179
protagonist 193
proverb 27, 107
publiscist style 167

register 10
repetition 122-151
represented (reported) speech 190,
197
rhetorical image 58
rhetorical figure (scheme) 26
rhetorical question 118
rhythm 161, 180
rhyme 131, 183
rhyme-scheme 184
root repetition 132
run-on line 182
sarcasm 89
satire 89
scansion 181
scenic narrative 194
scientific style 167, 172
secundum comparatum 58
semantically false chains (syllepsis) 113
semi-marked structures 83
series 140
showing 191, 197, 198
simile 64, 102
single (masculine) rhyme 183
slang 51
soliloque 188
sonnet 186
speaking names 41, 94
spondee 182
stage directions 187
stanza 185
stanzaic verse 185
stream of consciousness technique
196
strong position 36
style 9
stylistic analysis 18
stylistic context 36
stylized tale/teller 193
suspense 37, 116

m obu

occasional (nonce) words 56

octometer 181
official style 167, 172
one-member sentence 123
onomatopoeia 26, 157
ottava rima 186
oxymoron 64, 100

pun 29, 64, 111

punctuation 119
pyrrhic 182
quatrain 186

CruAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

nominative sentence 123

norm (standard) 21, 22

sustained (structural) irony 87

sustained metaphor 72
syllepsis 113
symploce 136, 144
synecdoche 80
synonym repetition 153, 155
syntactic reduplication (syntactic tau
tology) 150
syntagmatic (figure) 30, 63
telling 191, 198
tenor 58
tertium comparationis (ground) 58
term 49
tragedy 188
trinomial 140
trite (metaphor) 28, 74, 105
transference 28, 63
transferred (metonymical) epithet 39,84
trimeter 183
triple (treble/trisyllabic) rhyme 184

trochee 181
trope 27, 28, 58-64
types of narrative 190-199
understatement 98, 100
vehicle 58
verbal irony 86
vernacular 43, 55
verse forms 185
versification 179, 180-187
vers libre (free verse) 185
violation of phraseological units 29,
108
vulgarism 54
wit 108, 113
wordplay 111
zeugma 64, 113

aHrAiucbkoi
CTUAicTuka

: . - 7- . - .: : , 2005. - 305 .
4. .. //
/ . . .. ... - .: ,
1990. - .5 - 32.
5. .. . - .:
, 2004. - 576 .
6. ..
: . . - ; , 2003. - 432 .
7. .
. - .: , 1955. - 363 .
8. . : . . - .:
, 1989. - 615 .
9. .. : . - .: , 1975. - 504 .
10. .. . - 3-
. - .: . , 1979. - 3 1 8 .
11. .. . - .:
, 1979. - 424 .
12. .. : . - : 2, 2005. - 176 .
13. ..
. - .: - , 1988. - 124 .
14. .. . - . - .: , , 1988. - 123 .
15. . . . - .: .
., 1983. -271 .
16. .. . .
- .: , 2004. - 4 1 6 .
17. .. .
- . : . ., 1967. - 376 .

mobu

1. / . . ., . .
. - .. - .: - . -, 1978. - 352 .
2. .., .., .. . - .: , 2000. - 288 .
. ..

219

cKapojiiHOi SlomoupKa

18. ..
// . - . 1. - , 2007. . 16-32.
19. .. //
. - .: . . 1989.-406 .
20. .. .
- ., 1959. - 654 .
21. .. . .
. - .: - , 1963. - 255 .
22. .. . - .:
. , 1971. - 316 .
23. .. : . - ., 1990.
24. .. . - .:
, 1991. - 345 .
25. .. . . .
- .: , 1996. - 284 .
26. .. . - .: . ., 1980. - 237 .
27. .. .
. - .: , , 1986. 143 .
28. ..
- .: ., 1993. - 200 .
29. .. . - : ,1982. - 244 .
30. .. . - .: ,
1986.-573 .
3 1. ..
- .: , 1981. - 139 .
32. .. //
. - . 14.-, 1978.- . 113-122.
33. .. . - .: . .
1998.-320 .
34. .., .. .
- .: . ., 1988. - 207 .
35. ..
2 4 0 . - .: , 1993. - 275 .

m o bu

aHrAiucbkoi
CTUAicTuka

36. .. // . . ./ . ..
- . 309. - 1988. - . 16-22.
37. ..
X X // X X . - .:
, 1995. - . 239 - 320.
38. .. . - .:
, 1978. - 343 .
39. .. .
- .: , 1985. - 288 .
40. .., . ., ..
. - .: ,
1986.-1 9 4 .
41. .. . - :
, 2004. - 240 .
42. : . - .: ,
1985.-127 .
43. :
/ . .. - .: .1989. - 299 .
44. .. . . .
- : , 1977. - 404 .
45. .. . - .: , 1981.
-1 6 0 .
46. ..
. - .: . . 1984. - 152 .
47. ..
//
. - . 2. - : , 2003. . 93-103.
48. .. . . - .: , 1999. - 480 .
49. .. :
// .
. - :
, 1999.- . 111. - . 218 - 224.
50. .., .. . . - .: .,
1991.- 144 .

241

51. .., .., ..

. - .: , - ,
2005.- 101 .
52. - / . .. . - ; : .,
1980.-1 6 7 .
53. .. . - .: .
., 1990.- 151 .
54. .. . - .: . - .: , 1979. - 308 .
55. .. . - .:
, 1993. - 225 .
56. .. . - : . . , 1991.
- 121 .
57. .. . - .: , 2005.
- 9 6 .
58. .. . - .: ,
1980.-148 .
59. ..
. - .: , 1984. - 175 .
60. .. : . .
/ . . . . - .: ., 2004. - 199 .
61. .., ..
(
) - : , 1989. - 1 6 .
62. .. . - .:
, 1988. - 192 .
63. .. . - :
, 2004. - 272 .
64. ..
. - : , 2003. - 160 .
65. ., . ,
. - .: , 2007. - 256 .
66. / . .
... - .: . , 1990. - 685 .
67. .. . - .:
, 1970. - 384 .

m o bu

CTUAicTuka aHrAiucbkoi

68. .. .
. - .: , 1972. - 272 .
69. .. . - : , 1996.-748 .
70. ..
// . . -. .
2001. - .9 .- . 9 2 -9 6 .
71. .. . . - .: - - 89,
1999.- 192 .
72. .. . - :
,2004. -256 .
73. / . . ... - .:
, 1988. - 176 .
74. . . -
. - : - , 1984. - 88 .
75. .., .., ..,
.. . - .: .
., 1984. -247 .
76. .. . - .: . .,
1981.-183 .
77. ..
. : .
. .2. - ., 2006. - 376 .
78. .., .., ..
. - :
, 1967. - 110 .
79. .. (
). - : , 2005. - 416 .
80. .. . - .: , 1980. 263 .
81. .. : (
) - : , 1997.
- 4 8 .
82. . .
. - .: , 1980. - 271 . *
83. ..
. - : - -, 1991. - 87 .

84. ..
. - .: . , 1986. - 446 .
85. .. . - .: ,
1985.-302 .
86. .. . - .: ,
2003. - 384 .
87. ..
. - .: , , 1989. - 128 .
88. .. -.: .
., 1989.- 182 .
89. .. .
- : , 1989. - 168 .
.
90. , .
: , 1974.- 3 0 0 .
91. ..

( ). - , 1999. - 148 .
92. .. :
. - : - ., 2006. -7 1 6 .
93. .. .
(Fundamentals of English Stylistics): - .
. . - 2- ., . - .: , ACT, 2000. - 224 .
94. .., .., .. .
. - .: . ., 1996.
- 352 .
95. .. . - .: .
., 1991.- 182 .
96. .. : .
- - . . - .: . ., 1974. - 184 .
97. ..
. - , 1977. - 121 .
98. . /
. .. , .. ..
- - . -, 1978. - 223 .
99. / . . .
- .: , 1981.
100. - : ,
1973.- 3 1 2 .
101.
/ . .. . - .:- ,2003 - 696 .

J
244

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102. / .
.. .. . - : -
, 1987. - 128 .
103. .. . - ,
2001.-576 .
104. .. . : .
. - . , 1999.
105. .. . - .: ,
1986. -1 2 7 .
106. .. . - .:
. , 1965. - 301 .
107. .. .
- .: , 1971.-111 .
108. .. :
. - : , 2003. - 136 .
109. ..
. - .: . , 1972. - 405 .
110. .. . - .: - ,
1982.- 189 .
111. .. . - . :
.- ,
1983.- . 40-43.
112. ..
. - : - -,
1984.-1 1 5 .
113. .. . .
- .: . , 1973. - 278 .
114. .. . - .: . ,
1983.-3 1 8 .
115. .. . - .:
, 1957. - 188 .
116. . . - .: : . - .: , 1975. - .193 - 230.
117. . . - .: , 1987.
-461 .
118. Akhmanova O.S. (ed.) Linguostylistics: Theory and Method.
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119. Akmanova O.S., Shishkina T.N. Registers and Rhythm.
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List of Authors Whose

Texts Were tlsed as Examples

C
Caldwell, E.
Capote, T.
Carlyle, T.
Carnegie, A.
Carson, R.L.
Chandler, R.
Chaplin, S.
Chase, J.H.
Chaucer, G.
Chesterton, G.K.
Chesterton, R.
Christie, A.
Churchill, W.
Clifford, I.
Coleridge, S.T.
Collins, W.
Conrad, J.

Dahl, R.
Davies, W.H.
Defoe, D.
Deeping, W.
Dickens, Ch.
Disraeli, B.
Doyle, A.C.
Dreiser, Th.
Durrell, G.
Durrell, L.
E
Eliot, G.
Eliot, T.S.

F
Fielding, H.
Fitzgerald, F.S.
Ford, E.M.
Forster, E.M.
Fowles, J.
Frost, R.
G
Galsworthy, J.
Gilbert, W.
Golding, W.
Gray, T.
Greene, G.

H
Hardy, T.
Hartley, L.R
Hawthorne, N.
Hemingway, E.
Henry/O. Henry
Hood, T.
Howard, H.

m o bu

Bacon, F.
Barbauld, A. L.
Bates, H. E.
Bimey, E.
Blake, W.
Boyle, C.
Bradbury, R.
Bronte, Ch.
Browning, E.B.
Browning, R.
Buckley, W.F.
Bulwer-Lytton, E. G.
Bunyan, J.
Byatt, A.S.
Byron, G.G.

a H r A iu c b k o i

Crabbe, G.
Cronin, A.
Cummings, E. E./e.e.cummings

C r u A ic T u k a

A
Aldington, R.
Amis, K.
Archer, J.
Auden, W.H.
Austen, J.

2B1

Hunt, L.
Huxley, A.

O Neill, E.
O Shaghnessy

James, H.
Jerome, J.K.
Johnson, S.
Jones, T.
Jonson, B.
Joyce, J.

Palmerston, H.
Paton, A.
Poe, E.A.
Pope, A.
Priestley, J.B.

Raine, C.
Reid, A.
Richardson, D.
Roberts, M.
Rossetti, Ch.

Keats, J.
Kipling, R.
Kiibler-Ross, E.

L
Lawrence, D.H.
Lessing, D.
Lincoln, A.
Lodge, D.
Longfellow, H.W.

cXapoMHa

Mackay, Ch.
Mailer, N.
Maley, P.
Mansfield, K.
Marlowe, Ch.
Maugham, W.S.
Maurier, D. du
McBain, E.
McGough, R.
Meredith, G.
Miller, A.
Milne, A.A.
Milton, J.
Moore, C.C.
Mortimer, J.
Murdoch, I.
N
Nash, O.
Nesfield, J.C.
Newmark, P

O
Orwell, G.

S
Salinger, J.
Sandburg, C.
Sayers, D.
Scott, P.
Scott, W.
Shakespeare, W.
Shelley, P. B.
Sheridan, R.
Show, B.
Sillitoe, A.
Simon, P.
Smith, S.
Smollett, T.
Spark, M.
Spenser, E.
Steinbeck, J.
Sterne, L.
Stevenson, R.L.
Swift, G.
Swift, J.

T
Tennyson, A.
Thackeray, W.W.
Thomas, D.
Thurber, J.
Trevor, W.
Twain, M.

Wain, J.
Warton, E.
Wasley, R.
Waugh, E.
Webster, J.
Wells, H.G.
White, E.B.
Whitman, W.
Wilde, O.
Winterson, J.
Wodehouse, P.G.
Wordsworth, W.
Woolf, V.
Yeats, W.B.

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