Phonetic Level of Stylistics

The basic unit of a phonological level of a language is a phoneme. It has a

unilateral nature: this language unit helps to differentiate meaningful lexemes but
has no meaning of its own. As a rule, phonemes in English are not stylistically
marked but on the phonetic level we can observe certain combinations of sounds
which contribute to various stylistic effects. A phoneme has a strong associative
and sound-instrumenting power.
Sound symbolism – attributing symbolic meaning to phonemes.
Subjective sound symbolism – the relations between the sound and the meaning
as they exist in the individual’s mind.
Objective sound symbolism – the relations between the sound and the meaning
reflected in the language objectively.
Phonetic intensifiers – certain phoneme combinations linked up with special
national areas.
E.g. flickers, flame, flare, flash
Glow, glare, glaze
slide, slime, sleek, sleet, slither, slop, sludge
Слизький, слимак, слина
Exceptions: gleam, glitter
Euphony – sounds compound to sound sweet.
All euphony examples share the following features:
 Euphony involves the use of long vowel sounds, which are more melodious
than consonants.
 Euphony involves the use of harmonious consonants, such as l, m, n, r, and
soft f and v sounds.
 Euphony uses soft consonants or semi-vowels, including w, s, y, and th or
wh, extensively to create more pleasant sounds.
E.A. Poe:
...silken sad uncertain
rustling of each purple curtain...

«Утоплена», Т. Г. Шевченко:
...вітер з осокою
шепче: хто се, хто се
сидить сумно над водою,
чеше довгі коси.
Cacophony – sounds compound to sound harsh.
Cacophony, on the other hand, uses consonants in combinations that require
explosive delivery (e.g., p, b, d, g, k, ch-, sh- etc.).
R. Browning: Nor soul helps flesh now more than flesh helps soul.
Klarissa Klein drives an old, grumbling Cadillac which has a crumpled bumper
and screaming, honking horn.
Onomatopoeia – combination of sounds which aim at imitating sounds produced
by nature, things, people, and animals.
 Direct – natural sounds (hiss, rattle, bang, snap, scratch)
 Indirect – utterance the echo of its sound.
"water plops into pond
splish-splash downhill
warbling magpies in tree
trilling, melodic thrill
whoosh, passing breeze
flags flutter and flap
frog croaks, bird whistles
babbling bubbles from tap"
The example from “The Raven” by Edgar Poe.
          And the silken sad, uncertain
         rustling of each window curtain …
         where the repetition of the sound [s] aims at producing the sound of
the   curtain rustling. Indirect onomatopoeia demands some mentioning in the
text     (utterance) of the object which makes the sounds. It is sometimes very
effectively used by repeating the words which themselves are not
onomatopoeia. Many  stanzas in Poe’s poem “The Raven” end with the word
“Nevermore”, as in:
Qnoth the Raven, “Nevermore”…
Then the bird said, “Nevermore”…, which is not onomatopoeic but is used to
resemble the sounds of the crow.

Дзюрить, дзичить, дзюрчить, дзирчить вода,

Мелодії грає на кам’яній флейті.
(Б.-І.Антонич)

Alliteration – the repetition of similar sounds, in particular in the beginning of

successive words.
Alliteration in the English language is deeply rooted in the traditions of English
folklore. The laws of phonetic arrangement in Anglo-Saxon poetry differed greatly
from those of present-day English poetry. In Old English poetry alliteration was
one of the basic principles of verse and considered, along with rhythm, to be its
main characteristic. Each stressed meaningful word in a line had to begin with the
same sound or combination of sounds. Alliteration is therefore sometimes called
initial rhyme.
as busy as a bee; as cool as a cucumber; as red as a rose; as bright as a button
Samuel Taylor Coleridge uses alliteration in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”:
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
Into that silent sea.
Alliteration is often seen in advertising and business names for easy memorization
and recognition.
 American Apparel
 American Airlines
 Best Buy
 Coca-Cola
 Dunkin’ Donuts
 Krispy Kreme
Assonance – the repetition of the same or similar vowels within the passage.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary (“The Raven”
Edgar Allan Poe)

Nutter Butter (American cookie brand)

Впали роси на покоси,

Засвітилися навколо.
Там дівча ходило босе,
Білу ніжку прокололо.
(Д. Павличко)
Consonance – the repetition of a pattern of consonants with changes in intervening
vowels (consonants are the same, vowels change).
The literary device of consonance is inherently different from assonance, which
involves the repetition of similar vowel sounds within a word, sentence, or phrase.
Another distinction to be appreciated is that between consonance and rhyme. In the
case of rhyme, consonant sounds can be present at the beginning, middle, or end of
several successive words, rather than merely at the ends of words. Further, the
device of consonance needs to be distinguished from alliteration. In contrast to
alliteration, consonance involves repetition of consonant sounds only.
She ate seven sandwiches on a sunny Sunday last year.
Zealots (By Fugees)
Rap rejects my tape deck, ejects projectile
Whether Jew or gentile, I rank top percentile
Many styles, more powerful than gamma rays
My grammar pays, like Carlos Santana plays.
Paronomasia – a similar sounding of contextually bound words (words with
similar or the same spelling or sounding but different meaning used in one
context).
Richard III (By William Shakespeare)
Launce: “It is no matter if the tied were lost; for it is the unkindest tied that ever
any man tied.”
Richard: “Now is the winter of our discontent … made glorious summer by this
Son of York.”

"Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends."
(credited to Tom Waits)

"Your children need your presence more than your presents."

(Jesse Jackson)