Андрєєва Катерина Миколаївна

студентка 451 групи

факультету української й іноземної

філології та журналістики

Херсонського державного університету

Спеціальності 014.02 Середня освіта

(англійська мова і література)

Спеціалізація: польська мова.

Доповідь зі стилістики англійської мови

Graphic means of stylistics and their usage in English poetry

As most of literature is presented in written form, there are many

possibilities to use graphic means for stylistic purposes. Most graphic facilities
both in poetry and prose arise from how the reader might read the text aloud.
Usually graphic stylistic means are employed to bring out or strengthen some
word, word combination or utterance in order to make it more prominent. Graphic
stylistic facilities include spacing of graphemes (hyphenation, multiplication) and
of lines, all changes of the type (italics, bold type, capitalization or absence of
capital letters), unusual use of punctuation.
Graphical Stylistic Means include:
 emphatic use of punctuation, change of type, spelling changes (graphons);
 serve to convey in the written form the emotions which in the oral speech
are expressed, by means of intonation, stress and pauses.
Hyphenation of a word or words in a sentence suggeststhe rhymed or clipped
manner in which it is pronounced. Itmay also indicate slow, hesitating manner of
speech.
For example: Ode to nightingale (by John Keats)
“One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
‘Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness, —
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
O, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool’d a long age in the deep-delved earth…
And purple-stained mouth;
That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,
And leaden-eyed despairs …”
Doubling or multiplication is used to intensify agrapheme or render the
prolonged pronunciation.
For example: Chapter Headings. «The Camel’s Hump Is an Ugly Lump...»
The Camel’s hump is an ugly lump
Which well you may see at the Zoo;
But uglier yet is the hump we get
From having too little to do.

Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo,

If we haven’t enough to do-oo-oo,
We get the hump —
Cameelious hump —
The hump that is black and blue!

Italics, bold type, underlining and capitalization are used to add more logical or
emotive significance to a word or a sentence.
The trouble with the kitten is
THAT
Eventually it becomes a
CAT (Nash)

According to the rules of grammar the first word of thetext, the first word after a
dot, suspension marks, interrogativeor exclamatory marks finishing the sentence
and differentkinds of proper names are capitalised. Common names arecapitalised
when they are given a special prominence in thetext or in a case of personification.
To start each line with a capital letter is a distinctivegraphological device of poetry.
But some modern poets do notfollow this tradition. For example, cummings
refuses to usecapital letters in his poetry and English writing in general, evenin
writing his name:
since feeling is first
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;…
…
we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis.

Among graphic stylistic means an especially importantplace is occupied by

punctuation. When we speak we express our emotions and attitude through our
tone of voice and intonation. Writers do not have a speaking voice, that‘s why

they create tone by means of punctuation. Apart from dividing the sentence into
clauses, splitting the text into sentences and pointing out the communicative type
of a sentence(interrogative, exclamatory or declarative) punctuation is very
important in emotionally-expressive aspect. It reveals the author‘s attitude to the
utterance and reflects the rhythmico-melodious structure of the speech. Special
attention should be paid to exclamation and interrogative marks. The function of
these marks in sentences is well-known. Interrogative marks may convey surprise,
insecurity or disbelief.
Spacing of lines

Graphic means convey in language those emotions which in oral speech are
rendered by the intonation. To them belong: spacing, capitalization, italics, bold
type, letter multiplication, dots, graphon.

In contemporary advertising, mass media and, above all, imaginative prose

sound is foregrounded mainly through the change of its accepted graphical
representation. This intentional violation of the graphical shape of a word (or word
combination) used to reflect its authentic pronunciation is called graphon.

Graphons, indicating irregularities or carelessness of pronunciation were

occasionally introduced into English novels and journalism as early as the
beginning of the eighteenth century and since then have acquired an ever growing
frequency of usage, popularity among writers, journalists, advertizers, and a
continuously widening scope of functions.

Graphon proved to be an extremely concise but effective means of supplying

information about the speaker’s origin, social and educational background,
physical or emotional condition, etc.

Graphon, thus individualizing the character’s speech, adds to his plausibility,

vividness, memorability. At the same time, graphon is very good at conveying the
atmosphere of authentic live communication, of the informality of the speech act.
Some amalgamated forms, which are the result of strong assimilation, became
cliches in contemporary prose dialogue: “gimme” (give me), “lemme” (let me),
“gonna” (going to), “gotta” (got to), “coupla” (couple of), “mighta” (might have),
“willya” (will you), etc.

Graphical changes may reflect not only the peculiarities of, pronunciation, but
are also used to convey the intensity of the stress, emphasizing and thus
foregrounding the stressed words. To such purely graphical means, not involving
the violations, we should refer all changes of the type (italics, capitalization),
spacing of graphemes (hyphenation, multiplication) and of lines.

According to the frequency of usage, variability of functions, the first place

among graphical means of foregrounding is occupied by italics. Besides italicizing
words, to add to their logical or emotive significance, separate syllables and
morphemes may also be emphasized by italics (which is highly characteristic of D.
Salinger or T. Capote). Intensity of speech (often in commands) is transmitted
through the multiplication of a grapheme or capitalization of the word.

 Graphons convey authentic pronunciation, some peculiarity in

pronouncing words or phrases emphatically.

‘Thquire! Your thervant! Thith ith a bad pieth of buithnith…’ (i.e. ‘Squire! Your
servant! This is a bad piece of business’.
 Most graphons show features of territorial or social dialect of the speaker.

‘Is that my wife? …I see it is, from your fyce…What gyme ‘as she been plying’?
You gotta tell me ‘(London cockney dialect)
As for American English, here is an example of the Missouri Negro dialect from
‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’:
‘You know dat one-leigged nigger dat b’longs to old Misto Brandish? Well he sot
up a bank, en say anybody dat put in a dollar would git fo’ dollars mo’ at en ‘er de
year…