Text Interpretation (Lingo-Stylistic analysis of fiction)

Lesson 1

Introductory lecture
The Belles-Lettres Style
Lingo-Stylistic Analysis of Fiction
Goals of Text Interpretation, Critical Thinking

Style

The word ‘style’ is derived from the Latin word ‘stilus’ which meant a short stick sharp at
one end and flat at the other used by Romans for writing on wax. Now the word ‘style’ is
used in so many senses that it has become a breeding ground for ambiguity. The word
applied to the teaching of how to write a composition; it is also used to reveal the
correspondence between thought and expression; it frequently denotes an individual
manner of making use of language; it sometimes refers to more general, abstract notions, as,
for example, “Style is the man himself” (Buffon); “Style is depth” (Darbyshire); Style is
deviation” (Enkvist); “Style is choice”, and the like.

The word ‘style’ and the subject of linguistic stylistics is confined to the study of the effect of the
message i.e. its impact on the reader.

Individual style is a unique combination of language units, expressive means and stylistic
devices peculiar to a given writer, which makes that writer’s works or even utterances
easily recognizable. Individual style allows certain justifiable deviations from the norm.
Norm presupposes a recognized or received standard.

Lesson 2

Stylistic Classification of the English Vocabulary

The whole word-stock of the English language is divided into three main layers: the literary
layer, the neutral layer and the colloquial layer.
The neutral layer can be employed in all styles of language and in all spheres of human activity.
It is this that makes the layer the most stable of all. The literary layer of words consists of groups
accepted as legitimate members of the English vocabulary. They have no local or dialectal
character. The colloquial layer of words as qualified in most English or American dictionaries is
limited to a definite language community or confined to a special locality where it circulates.

The following synonyms illustrate the relations that exist between neutral, literary and colloquial
words in the English language.
Colloquial Neutral Literary
Kid child infant
Daddy father parent
Teenager boy (girl) youth (maiden)
Go ahead begin, start commence

The literary vocabulary consists of the following groups of words:

1. Common literary (literature, poetry, drama, etc.);
2. Terms and learned words (language of science);
3. Poetic words (produce an elevated effect; welkin=sky; to proceed =to go; devouring
element =fire);
4. Archaic words (a. obsolescent words-gradually passing out of general use: thee, thine,
maketh; b. obsolete words – have already gone out of use but still recognizable by the
English-speaking community: methinks=it seems to me, nay=no; c. archaic proper – are
no longer used and recognized in modern English (troth=faith, a losel=a worthless, lazy
fellow).
5. Barbarisms and foreignisms (words or foreign origin);
6. Literary coinages=neologisms (including nonce-words and blends): anti-hero, to be
wived; Unesco.
The colloquial vocabulary falls into the following groups:
1. Common colloquial (daddy, teenager, etc.);
2. Slang - very informal words and expressions that are more common in spoken language,
especially used by a particular group of people, for example, children, criminals, soldiers,
etc. (bread-basket=stomach);
3. Jargonisms (aim at preserving secrecy: grease=money; loaf=head)
4. Professionalism – used by a group of people with the same profession (piper=decorates
pastry; block-buster-a bomb designed to destroy buildings);
5. Dialectal words (phonetic peculiarities: volk=folk;
6. Vulgar words (swear words: damn, bloody, to hell)

Lesson 3

Literary Text as Poetic Structure

Verbal and Supraverbal Layers of the Literary Text.

While reading a literary text one gradually moves from the first word of it on to the last. The
words one reads combine into phrases, phrases into sentences, sentences into paragraphs,
paragraphs making larger passages: chapters, sections, and parts. All these represent the verbal
layer of the literary text
At the same time when one reads a text of imaginative literature one cannot but see another layer
gradually emerging out of these verbal sequences. Plot, theme, composition, genre, style, image
and the like make the supraverbal layer which in entirely revealed in verbal sequences. The
supraverbal and verbal layers of the text are thus inseparable from each other.

Lesson 4
 Components of Poetic Structure
Macro-Components of Poetic Structure

Poetic structure of the literary work involves such entities as image, theme, idea, composition,
plot, genre and style. As components of poetic structure they are essentially inseparable from
each other, but as basic categories of the theory of literature they may be treated in isolation.
The Image (symbolic representations)
The term image refers not only to the whole of the literary work or to such of its main elements
as characters or personages but to any of its meaningful units such as detail, phrase, etc. All
images in the literary work constitute a hierarchical interrelation. The top of the hierarchy is the
macro-image, the literary work itself, understood as an image of life visioned and depicted by the
author. At the bottom of the hierarchy there is the word-image, or a micro-image: simile, epithet,
metaphor, etc.
The theme.
The theme of a literary work is the represented aspect of life. The theme can be easily
understood from the plot of the work; it allows of schematic formulation, such, for instance, as:
the basic theme of “The Forsyte Saga” may be defined as the life of the English upper-middle
class at the end of and after the Victorian epoch.
A literary work may have major and minor themes. Thus by-themes in the above-mentioned
“The Forsyte Saga” are numerous: the 1st world war, the 1 st Labor government, the post-war
generation, the general strike, the arts and artists etc. There are a few central themes in W.
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: romantic love, conflict between individual desires and social
institutions, violence, death, the inevitability of fate, marriage, revenge etc.
The idea
The idea of a literary work are the underlying thought and emotional attitude transmitted to the
reader by the whole poetic structure of the literary text. Poetic structure being a multi-layered
entity, all of its layers pertain to the expression of the idea. We will take E. Caldwell’s story
“Wild flowers” as an example: the plot of the story is very simple: somewhere in the south of the
USA a young tenant and his wife (an expectant mother) are ordered to leave the delipidated
house they live in. The two set out on a long and exhaustive tramp across the lonely country of
sand and pines in search of a shelter. The woman’s labor pains start and the husband runs for
help which is not very easy to find in that country of a few isolated homesteads. When he returns
he finds his wife dead. She had died in child birth alone in a beautiful but indifferent nature. The
idea of the story can be formulated as the frailty of the protagonists’ existence, their insecurity in
the face of a cruel and indifferent world.
Composition:
The subject matter of a literary work (the sequence of events, character collisions, etc.) may be
represented in a variety of ways. Intuitively or not, an author chooses his technique according to
his meaning. The narration may be done in the first person, the third person or it may be entirely
anonymous. The narration, whatever it is: first person, third-person, anonymous, rests upon such
forms as:
Interior monologue. The narrator as his own protagonist or the character he narrates about speaks
to himself.
Dramatic monologue: The narrator (as his own protagonist) or a character speaks alone, but there
are those he addresses himself to.
Dialogue: The speech of two or more characters addressed to each other.
Narration: The presentation of events in their development;
Description: the presentation of the atmosphere, the scenery and the like of the literary work.
All these forms of presentation, as a rule, interrelate in a literary text, with one or another of
them standing out more prominent. The arrangement and disposition of all the forms of the
subject matter make up the composition of the literary text.
Plot is a sequence of events in which the characters are involved. Events are made up of
episodes, episodes, in their turn, of smaller action details. Each and every event that represents a
conflict (the gust of the plot) has a beginning, a development and an end. The plot, accordingly,
consists of exposition, story, climax and denouement.
In the exposition the necessary preliminaries to the action are laid out, such as the time, the place
and the subject of the action.
Story is that part of the plot which represents the beginning of the collision and the collision
itself.
Climax is the highest point of the action.
Denouement is the event or events that bring the action to an end.
Genre. The word genre which comes from French, where its primary meaning is a “kind”,
denotes in the history of literature a historically formed type of literary work. The main types of
genre are the following: epic, lyric and dramatic genres.

Lesson 5

Types of Short Stories

There is no uniformity as far as the elements of the plot and their sequence in the text are
concerned. Thus, among short stories, there are such which begin straight with the action (the
conflict) without any exposition, while others have no denouement (most of E. Hemingway’s
may serve as an example).
A work of narrative prose that has all the elements of the plot (exposition, story, climax,
denouement) as clearly discernable parts, is said to have a closed plot structure. This type of
writing was most consistently cultivated by such American short story writers as W. Irving, E.A.
Poe, N. Hawthorn, Bret Hart, Henry James, O. Henry and others.
A literary work in which the action is represented without an obvious culmination, which
does not contain all the elements of the plot, is said to have an open plot structure.

There are known two types of short stories.

First: a plot (action) short story – as a rule, this type of short story has a closed
structure, its plot being built upon one collision. The action dramatically develops only to
explode at the very end; the sequence of events thus forms an ascending line from the exposition
on to the climax and down to the denouement.
Second: a psychological (character) short story – it generally shows the drama of a
character’s inner world. The structure in such a story is open. The traditional components of the
plot are not clearly discernable and the action is less dynamic as compared to that of the plot
short story.
 Speaking about the two types of short stories (the plot short story and the character short
story), it should be emphasized that they do not represent the only type. The more usual is so-
called mixed type, which includes a great variety of stories, ranging from psychological plot
short stories to short story-essays in each of which the specific content conditions its own form
of representation, i.e. its own type of composition and plot-structure. It is doubtless, that the
content always bears within itself the nucleus of the form.

The following features are considered to be the essential peculiarities of the short story:
A single character, a single event; a single emotion; a single situation; something always
happens; unity of impression (Br. Mathews).
A single predominant character; a single predominant incident; a brief imaginative
narrative; plot; compression; organization (J. Esenwein).
A single protagonist; symbolic representation (M. Rohrbegar).
One theme – one focus; a limited area of experience; one single peak of interest; it works
toward a single resolution – hence its effect of limitation (J. Leibowitz).
A single impression; it covers lesser unity (H. Canby).
Character, not plot; brevity of the short story / detached incident / produces the
impression of a complexity and a continuity (H. James).
It reveals the character (Eud. Welty). Much in little (V.S. Pritchet).
The most disciplinary form of all writing (Tr. Capote).
The significance of the small event (El. Bowen).
It possesses all the merits of a long one, and others of its own besides (Fr. Perkins).
Nearest thing to lyric poetry (Fr. O’Connor). It is like an iceberg (D. Parker).
It portrays man as he is, neither ape nor angel – but man (D, Parker).

Lesson 6

Micro-Component of Poetic Structure

In linguistics there are different terms to denote particular means by which utterances are
foreground, i.e. made more conspicuous, more effective and therefore imparting some additional
information. They are called expressive means, stylistic means, stylistic markers, stylistic
devices, tropes, figures of speech and other names. What is the difference between expressive
means and stylistic devices?
The expressive means (EM) of a language are those phonetic, morphological, lexical,
phraseological and syntactical forms which exist in language-as-a system for the purpose of
logical and/or emotional intensification of the utterance. Some of them are normalized and good
dictionaries label them as “intensifiers”. Compare, for example, the following pairs: He shall do
it! = I shall make him do it. Isn’t she cute! = She is very nice, isn’t she?
A stylistic device is an intentional intensification of some typical structure and/or semantic
property of language unit promoted to a generalized model. It follows then that a SD is an
abstract pattern, a mould into which any content can be poured. IN some SDs two meanings are
realized simultaneously: metaphors are based on the interaction of the dictionary and contextual
meanings, as in the following example: The night has swallowed him up. In this sentence the
word “swallow” has two meanings: a) dictionary (referential) and contextual (to make disappear,
to make vanish).

Lesson 7

Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

A. Interaction of Different Types of Lexical Meaning

1. Interaction of Primary Dictionary and Contextually imposed meanings

The interaction or interplay between the primary dictionary meaning and a meaning which is
imposed on the word by a micro-context may be maintained along different lines. One line is
when the author identifies two objects (metaphor). Another line is when the author substitutes
one object for another (metonymy) and, a third line is when the SD is based on the contrary
concepts (irony).
Metaphor is the power of realizing two lexical meanings simultaneously, e.g. “through the
open window the dust danced and was golden” (O. Wilde). In this example the movement of
dust particles seem to the eye of the writer to be regular and orderly like the movements in
dancing. What happens practically is that our mind runs in two parallel lines: the abstract and the
concrete, i.e. movement (of any kind) and dancing (a definite kind).
A Metaphor can also be embodied in an adverb: “the leaves fell sorrowfully”, where the
movement of falling leaves is identified with the movement of a human being experiencing some
kind of distress – people swing their bodies or heads to and fro when in this state of mind.
Metaphors can be classified according to the degree of unexpectedness. Thus metaphors which
are absolutely unexpected, i.e. quite unpredictable are called genuine metaphors. The examples
given above may serve as illustrations of genuine metaphors.
Those metaphors which are commonly used in speech and therefore are sometimes fixed in
dictionaries as EMs of language are trite or dead metaphors. Such metaphors are time-worn and
well rubbed into the language. Here are some trite metaphors: “A ray of hope”, “floods of tears”,
“a storm of indignation”, “a flight of fancy”, “a shadow of a smile” and the like. Dead or trite
metaphor does not call forth any vivid associations, its function is rather that of an intensifier,
e.g. “time flies” (time passes very quickly), “He was flooded with happiness” (he was very
happy).
Genuine metaphors are mostly found in poetry and emotive prose. Trite metaphors are
generally used as EM in newspaper articles, in oratorical style and even in scientific language.
The use of trite metaphors should not be regarded as a drawback of style as they help the writer
to enliven his work and make the meaning more concrete.
Trite metaphors are sometimes injected with new vigor. This is done by supplying the
central image created by the metaphor (principal metaphor) with additional words (contributory
images) bearing some reference to the main words. Such metaphors are called sustained or
prolonged. Here is an example: “Mr. Dombey’s cup of satisfaction was so full at this moment,
however, that he could afford a drop or two of its contents, even to sprinkle on the dust in the by-
path of his little daughter (Dickens “Dombey and Son”).
In the given example the word cup (of satisfaction) being a trite metaphor is revived by
the following contributory images: full, drop, contents, sprinkle.
Metonymy is based on a different type of relation between the dictionary and contextual
meanings, a relation based not on identification, but on some kind of association connecting the
two concepts which these meanings represent. Thus, the word crown may stand for “king or
queen”, cup or glass for “the drink it contains”, woolsack for “Chancellor of the Exchequer who
sits on it”. The bench is a generic term for “magistrates and justices”, a hand – for “a worker”,
the grave – for “death”.
Irony is a stylistic device also based on the simultaneous realization of two logical
meanings – dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings stand in opposition to each other.
For example: “It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s
pocket”.

Lesson 8

2. Interaction of Logical and Emotive Meanings

The epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an
attributive word/phrase or even sentence used to characterize an object, giving an individual
perception and evaluation of its features or properties. The logical attribute is also an attributive
word, but it is purely objective and descriptive. It is descriptive and indicates an inherent or
prominent feature of the thing or phenomenon in question (green meadows, white snow, round
table, blue skies, pale complexion, lofty mountains and the like). The epithet is markedly
subjective and evaluative (wild wind, loud ocean, heart-burning smile, destructive charms,
encouraging smile, sweet smile, voiceless sands, etc.).
The tendency to cram into one language unit as much information as possible has led to
new compositional models for epithets which we shall call phrase epithets. Here are some
examples of phrase epithets:
“There is a sort of 'Oh-what-a-wicked-world-this-is-and-how-I-wish-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 old ladies and gentlemen” (Jerome K. Jerome,” Three Men in a
Boat”).
Another structural variety of the epithet is a reversed epithet that is composed of two
nouns linked in an of-phrase, evaluating, emotional element realized in the first noun: “a flower
of a woman” (ყვავილივით ქალი), “her brute of a brother” (მისი მხეცი ძმა), “the shadow
of a smile” (მკრთალი ღიმილი).
Oxymoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb
with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense, for example:
‘low skyscraper’, ‘sweet sorrow’, ‘nice rascal’, ‘pleasantly ugly face’, ‘horribly
beautiful’, a deafening silence’. Another example taken from O. Henry’s story “The duel” in
which one of the heroes describes his attitude towards New York: “I despise its very vastness
and power. It has the poorest millionaires, the littlest great men, the haughtiest beggars, the
plainest beauties, the lowest skyscrapers, the dolefulest pleasures of any town I ever saw”.
 Lesson 9

3. Interaction of Primary and Derivative Logical meanings

(Stylistic Devices Based on Polysemantic Effect)

Zeugma is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to two
adjacent words in the context, the semantic relations being, on the one hand, literal, and, on the
other, transferred.
“Dora, plunging at once into privileged intimacy and in the middle of the room” (B. Shaw).
“… and May’s mother always stood on her gentility; and Dot’s mother never stood on anything
but her active little feet” (Dickens).

4. Interaction of Logical and Nominal Meanings

Antonomasia is intended to point out the leading, most characteristic features of a person or
event, at the same time pinning this leading trait as a proper name to the person or event
concerned. In fact, Antonomasia is a revival of the initial stage of naming individuals: Smith,
Miss Blue-Eyes, Scrooge, Mr. Zero, მცირეშვილი, მკლავაძე.
The use of antonomasia is now not confined to the belles-lettres style. It is often found in
publicistic style, that is, in magazine and newspaper articles, in essays, and in military language.
The following are examples: “I say this to our American friends. Mr. Facing-Both-Ways does not
get very far in this world”. (The Times). “I suspect that the Noes and Don’t Knows would far
outnumber the Yesses”. (The Spectator)

Lesson 10

B. Intensification of a Certain Feature of a Thing or Phenomenon

Simile is the intensification of some one feature of the object. Ordinary comparison and simile
must not be confused. Comparison means weighing two objects belonging to one class of things
with the purpose of establishing the degree of their sameness or difference: ‘The boy seems to be
as clever as his mother’. ‘Boy’ and ‘mother’ belong to the same class of objects – human beings
– so this is ordinary comparison.
But in the sentence “Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare” (=are easily lured. Byron),
we have a simile. ‘Maidens’ and ‘moths’ belong to heterogeneous classes of objects.
In the English language there is a long list of hackneyed similes pointing out the analogy
between the various qualities, states or actions of a human being and the animals supposed to be
the bearers of the given quality, etc., for example: treacherous as a snake, sly as a fox, busy as a
bee, industrious as an ant, faithful as a dog, to work like a horse, to fly like a bird, to swim like a
duck, stubborn as a mule, hungry as a bear, thirsty as a camel and many others of the same type.

Periphrases is a device which denotes the use of longer phrasing in place of possible shorter and
plainer form of expression. (Do not confuse it with ‘paraphrase’). It is a new, genuine
nomination of an object, a process, disclosing some quality of the object. Here are some
examples of well-known dictionary periphrases (periphrastic synonyms): the cap and gown
(student body); a gentlemen of the long robe (a lawyer), the fair sex (women); my better half (my
wife).
Periphrasis always presupposes a word-combination which is the reason for the division between
the metaphor (or metonymy) and periphrasis.

Lesson 11

Euphemism is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a more

acceptable one, for example, the word ‘to die’ has bred the following euphemisms: to pass away,
to expire, to be no more, to depart, to join the majority, to be gone, to go to meet one’s maker, to
kick the bucket, to go west, etc.
Hyperbole can be defined as a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature essential to
the object or phenomenon. In its extreme form this exaggeration is carried to an illogical degree,
sometimes ad absurdum. For example: “He was so tall that I was not sure he had a face”. (O.
Henry)
Like many SDs, hyperbole may lose its quality as a SD through frequent repetition and become a
unit of the language-as-a-system: ‘a thousand pardons’; ‘I’d give the world to see him’; ‘I’ve told
you fifty times’.

Lesson 12

C. Peculiar Use of Set Expressions

A cliché is generally defined as an expression that has become hackneyed and trite by long over-
use. Examples of real clichés are 'rosy dreams of youth', 'the patter of little feet', 'deceptively
simple', ‘to live to a ripe old age’, ‘to grow by leaps and bounds’, to let bygones be bygones’, ‘to
be unable to see the wood for the trees’. But the words ‘stereotyped’, ‘hackneyed’, ‘trite’
indicate that the phrase is in common use. Is this a demerit? Not at all. On the contrary:
something common, habitual, devoid of novelty is the only admissible expression in some types
of communication. The phrase ‘Jack-of-all-trades’ suggests that it should be “one who can turn
his hand to any (or to many kinds of) work.” This phrase has long ceased to be vivid or original
but its substitute is fourteen words instead of four. “Determine to avoid clichés at all costs and
you are almost certain to be led into gobbledygook” (the article “Great Cliché Debate”. In: New
York Times Magazine).

Proverbs and sayings are brief

Lesson 13
 Quotations
A quotation is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech and the like used by
way of authority, illustration, proof or as a basis for further speculation on the subject. A
quotation is the exact reproduction of an actual utterance made by a certain author and is marked
off in the text by inverted commas (“ ”), dashes (- ), italics or other graphical means. Here are
some examples:
“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of
ourselves doesn’t disturb us” (Herman Hesse).
“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn’t go away (Philip K. Dick).
“If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all” (John Keats)
“The strongest of all warriors are these two – time and patience” (Leo Tolstoy).
The stylistic value of a quotation lies mainly in the fact, that it comprises two meanings: the
primary meaning, the one which it has in its original surroundings, and the applicative meaning
i.e. the one which it acquires in the new context. Used as a stylistic device quotation aims at
expanding the meaning of the sentence quoted and sets two meanings one against the other, thus
modifying the original meaning.
If repeated frequently, a quotation may be recognized as an epigram. Quotations, unlike
epigrams, need not necessarily be short.

An allusion is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary, mythological,

biblical fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing. Allusions are
based on the accumulated experience and the knowledge of the writer who presupposes a similar
experience and knowledge of the reader.
Allusions are used in different styles, but their function is everywhere the same. The deciphering
of an allusion is not always easy. In newspaper headlines allusions may be decoded at first
glance, as for instance: “Pie in the sky for Railmen” (Daily Worker, Feb. 1, 1962).
Most people in the USA and Britain know the refrain of the workers’ song: “You’ll get the pie in
the sky when you die.” The use of the part of the sentence-refrain implies that the reader had
been given many promises but nothing at the present moment. Linguistically the allusion ‘pie in
the sky’ assumes a new meaning, viz. nothing but promises.

Decomposition of set phrases consists in reviving the independent meanings which make up the
component parts of the fusion. In other words, it makes each word of the combination acquire its
literary meaning which in many cases leads to the realization of an absurdity.
In the sentence “It was raining cats and dogs, and two kittens and a puppy landed on my
window-sill” (Shesterton) the fusion ‘to rain cats and dogs’ is refreshed by the introduction of
“kittens and a puppy”, which changes the unmotivated combination into a metaphor which in its
turn is sustained.