Branches of Stylistics

According to Galperin: Stylisitics is a branch of general linguistics, which deals with the
following two interdependent tasks:

a) studies the totality of special linguistic means ( stylistic devices and expressive means ) which
secure the desirable effect of the utterance;

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

1. Unguo-stylistics;

2. Literary Stylistics;

3. Stylistics of decoding;

1. Linguo - Stylistics is the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation. The
Unguistics is concerned with the language codes themselves and particular messages of interest
and so far as to exemplify how the codes are constructed.

2. Literary Stylistics: is to explicate the message to interprete and evaluate literary writings as the
works of art.

3. Stylistics of decoding can be presented in the following way: sender - message - receiver
speaker - book - reader.

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

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

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

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

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

What is then a stylistic device? It is a conscious and intentional, literary use of some of the facts
of the language (excluding expressive means ) in which the most essential features (both
structural and semantic ) of the language forms are raised to a generalized level and thereby
present a generative model.
As the subject of stylistic analysis is the language in the process of its use, it is quite natural that
the analysis touches upon all aspects of language i.e. its phonetics, vocabulary and grammar
system. Accordingly it falls into:

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69

Lexical stylistics with two subgroups: a) lexicological stylistics and b) semasiological stylisics.

a) Lexical stylistics studies different components of contextual meanings of words in particular

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

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

b) Semasiological styLstics studies functions of the transferred meanings of words and

wordcombinations (metaphor, simile, metonymy etc.)

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

a) Morphological stylistics studies stylistic possibilities within different grammatical categories

adherent to this or that part of speech.

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

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

Phono-stylistics studies peculiarities of the sound oiganization of speech: rhythm, alliteration,

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

Functional styles is a part of linguistics which studies functional styles, i.e. systems of means of
expression depending on different spheres and situations of communication.

1. Lexicological Stylistics
Lexicological stylistics deals with the principles of stylistic description of lexical and
phraseological units in abstraction from the context in which they function. It studies possibilities
of words belonging to different functional emotional groups of words (e.g. archaisms,
neologisms, jargons).

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

In accordance with the division of language into literal and colloquial we may represent the
whole vocabulary of the English language as being divided into three main layers: the literary
layer, the neutral layer and the colloquial layer.
The literary layer is marked by a bookish character; the colloquial layer by its lively, spoken
character. The neutral layer has a universal character and can be used in all spheres of human
activities.

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

neutral

child

father

fellow

go away

continue

colloquial kid daddy chap / guy get out goon

literary

infant

parent

associate

retire

proceed
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

boy / girl teenager youth / maiden

Special Lexical Vocabulary

Now we shall examine, in a very general manner, word-groups singled out by traditional
lexicology and their stylisties functions.

Poetic words form a rather insignificant layer of literary vocabulary. Their main function is to
sustain the special elevated atmosphere of poetry, e.g. Whilomen ( at some past time ) in Albion’s
isle (the oldest name of Britain) there dwell a youth.,..

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

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

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

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

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

”Perfect love casteth off fear”.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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BRANCHES OF STYUSTICS

71

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

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

Literary Coinages. The coining of new words is dictated by the need to indicate new concepts as a
result of the development of science. It may also be the result of a search for a more economical,
brief form of utterance for expressiveness.

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

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

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

-ee interrodatee, enrollee, amputee etc.

-ship showmanship, supermanship

-ese translatese, Johnsonese

There is still another means of word-building in English - blending of two words into one. e.g.
avigation (aviation + navigation)

brunch (breakfast +lunch )

Usually newly coined words are heavily stylistically loaded, their major stylistic function being
the creation c’ the effect of laconism, terseness and implication of witty humour and satire.
Special - jiloquial Vocabulary
The colloquial layer of words as qualified in most English and American dictionaries is not
infrequently limited to a definite language community or confined to a special locality when it
circulates. It falls into the following groups:

1. common colloquial words;

2. slang;

3. jargonisms;

4. professionalisms;

5. dialect words;

6. vulgar words;

7. colloquial coinages. They all have a tinge of informality or familiarity about them. There is
nothing ethically improper in their stylistic colouring, except that they cannot be used in formal
speech.

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

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

also use an informal language.

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

FOOD: chuck, chow, grub, hash;

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

Various figures of speech participate in slang formation.

UPPER STOREY for ’head1 - metonymy

KILLING for ’astonishing’ - hyperbole

SOME for ’excellent’ or ’bad’ - understatement

CLEAR AS MUD - irony

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

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

Jargonisms. Jargon words appear in professional or social groups as informal, often humorous
replacers of words already existing in neutral or superneutral vocabulary. The use of jargon
implies defiance, a kind of naughtiness in lingual behavior.

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

The other group is made up of terms of the professional objects, phenomena, and processes Thus
we may say that jargon words are either non-terminological, unofficial substitutes for
professional terms (sometimes called ’professionalisms’), or official terms misused deliberately,
to express disrespect.

Examples of the first group: in soldiers’ jargon picture show is battle; sewing machine means
machine-gun; put in a bag-killed in action.
Examples of the second group are: - big gun means an important person, CI -Government Issue;
dug-out - a retired soldier returned to active service.

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

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

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

Professionalisms. Professionalisms are words used in a definite trade, profession or calling by>,
people connected by common interests both at work and at home. They are close to terms.
BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

73

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

Professionalisms are used in emotive prose to depict the natural speech of characters. The skillful
use of a professional word will show not only the vocation of the chaiacter, but also his
education, breeding, environment and sometimes even his psychology.

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

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

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

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

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

Vulgar words or vulgarisms. This stylistically lowest group consists of words which are
considered too offensive for polite usage. Objectionable words may be divided into two groups:
lexical vulgarisms and stylistic vulgarisms.

To the first group belong words expressing ideas considered unmentionable in civilized society.
Among lexical vulgarisms are various oaths. Quite unmentionable are the so called ’fourletter
words’ (practically every word denoting the most intimate spheres of human anatomy physiology
consists of four letters).
The ousting of objectionable words by norms of ethics is inevitably followed by the creation of
all soi^s of substitutes. The word bloody is replaced by words beginning with the same sound
combination: blooming, blasted, blessed, blamed, etc.

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

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

English vocabulary. Their function is that of interjections, to express strong emotions, mainly, annoyance,
anger, vexation and the like.

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

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

b) phonetic variants of neutral words: gaffer (’grandfather’), baccy (’tobacco’), feller (’fellow’); a special
place is taken by phonetic contractions of auxiliary and modal verbs: shan’t, won’t, don’t, ’ve, ’d, 11, etc.

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

Phraseology and its stylistic use

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

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

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

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

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

75

merchandise thus: ’Our Love is Btinds’.Ail similar cases of using phraseology, which disclose the
inner form of speech cliches, render the speech vividness and expressiveness.
2. Semaseological Stylistics

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

Here belong 3 groups: metaphoric group, metonymic group, and mixed group. They all give
qualitative characteristics of the object of speech.

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

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

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

e.g. ’He reminded James, as he said afterwards, of a hungry cat.’ (Galsworthy) ’She had a
strange resemblance to a captive owl’. (G.) Possible are structural variations of simile:

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

weathercock’. (O.W.)

2. The character of resemblance is only meant, e.g. My heart is like a singing bird.

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

3. The image suggested by the simile is not quite clear and the author gives an explanation.
E.g. ’He had a face like a choir-boy’s - but a choir-boy suddenly overwhelmed by middle age;
chubby, pretty doll-like, but withered’.

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

In the English language as in any other there is a long list of traditional similes which must be
regarded as phraseological units. In them the names of animals, plants, natural phenomena are
often used.
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLIST!CS

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

as bold as brass as good as gold

as dead as a door nail to swim like a duck

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

2. Metaphor. The stylistic device based on the principle of identification of two objects is called
metaphor. It is the interaction between the logical and contextual-logical meanings of a word
which is based on a likeness between objects and implies analogy and comparison between them.

Metaphor can be embodied in all meaningful parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs.
E.g. n. The machine sitting at the desk was no longer a man; it was a busy New York broker.
(O.H.) v. In the slanting beams that streamed through the open window, the dust danced and was
golden. (O. W.)

adv. The leaves fell sorrowfully.

adj. The pillow remained sleepless.

Metaphors expressed by adverbs and adjectives are called metaphoric epithets and will be dealt
with later on.

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

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

The metaphors ’flashed’ and ’melt’ are connected with the main image, expressed by the word
’fire’. This prolonged image helps the author to achieve exaggeration and to give a touch of
humour to the description of Mr. Pickwick’s indignation.

The stylistic function is twofold: by evoking images and suggesting analogies it makes the
author’s thought more concrete, definite and clear and at the same it reveals the author’s
emotional attitude towards what is said.
3. Epithet. Epithet is a stylistic device showing the purely individual emotional attitude of the
writer or the speaker towards the object mentioned, e.g. Shining serenely as some immeasurable
mirror beneath the smiling face of the heaven, the solitary ocean lay in unrippled silence. (Fr.
Bullen). Epithets can be classified from the point of view of their compositional structure. They
may be divided into simple, compound, and phrase epithets. Simple epithets are ordinary
adjectives or adverbs.

Compound epithets are built like compound adjectives, e.g. heart-burning sight, cloud-shapen
giant. The tendency to cram into one language unit as much information as possible has led to
new compositional models for epithets which are called phrase epithets.

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

e.g. ’ There is something about evening service in a country church that makes a fellow feel
BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

77

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

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

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

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

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

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

Personification is often effected by direct address. The object addressed is thus treated as if it could rsally
perceive the author’s appeal: O stretch thy reign, fair Peace! From shore to shore Till conquest cease, and
slavery be nor more. (Pope)

Another formal device of personification is capitalization of the word which expresses a personified notion:

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

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

Metonymic Group
The metonymic group includes such figures of speech in which the transfer of the name from one object to
another is based on definite relations between them (the object implied and the object named). To this
group belong metonymy and synecdoche.

Metonymy. If instead directly naming an object of speech we use the name of some other object which is
closely connected with it as a condition of its existence, or as its constant belonging, or as a result
characteristic of it, the notion has a vivid expression. And this is the essence of metonymy as a stylistic
device. In metonymy relations between the object named and the object implied are various and numerous:

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

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

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

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

Mixed Group
To this group belong figures having double nature. Metaphoric as well as metonymic transfer is
in their basis. They are Allegory and antonomasia.

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

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

The above mentioned proverb is metaphoric allegory as it is based on similarity of abstract and
generalized notions to concrete things and phenomena. In metonymic allegory the name of some
object which is a traditional material sign of some idea, i.e. its symbol, is used instead of its direct
expression.

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

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

Metonymic antonomasia is observed in cases when a personal name stands for something
BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

79

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

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

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

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

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

Such synonyms as lord and master, really and truly turned into cliches. Most often one of them is native the
other - foreign by origin.

Synonymic variations. Often within one narrative we find two or more synonyms expressing analogous or
identical thought. Such variations help to avoid monotony of speech. We shall call them replacers .e.g. He
brought home numberless prizes. He told his mother countless stories every night about his school
companions. (Thackeray)

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

She whispered ii to the flowers.

She breathed’it to the birds. (Leacock)

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

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

Periphrasis may be logical and figurative. Logical periphrases are based on logical notions: a
certain feature of an object is taken to denote the whole object, or a wider notion is substituted for
the concrete notion, e.g. Mr. Snodgrass bore under his arm the instrument of the destruction.
(Dickens)

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

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

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

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

Euphemisms exist in the language as synonyms for words regarded as rude or indecent.’In
contrast to euphemisms euphemistic periphrasis is a stylistic device. It is used for various stylistic
purposes, usually to achieve a humorous or satirical effect.

Relations of contrast
1. Antithesis is such an arrangement of ideas or terms as emphasizes a contrast. It denotes any
active confrontation. The two opposed notions may refer to the same object of thought or to
different objects. We may distinguish three varieties of antithesis.
a. Within one speech unit (a word-combination, a sentence, or extended narrative) two, contrary
as to their meaning words characterize one and the same object of speech. The purpose of this
device is to show complex and contradictory nature of the object of speech, as in the following
example:

’It was the best of times , it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the era of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it
was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of Hope, it was the winter of Despair; we had
everything before us , we had nothing before us on the right and in front and behind...’ (Dickens)

b. Two different objects of speech opposed to each other receive opposite characteristics. The
T
BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

81

I device serves to underline their incompatibility: ’Large houses are still occupied while
weavers’ cottages stand empty.’ (Gaskell)

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

c. Two contrasting objects of speech receive their peculiar characteristics as to quality, action

etc.

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

Stylistic antithesis is not only an effective stylistic devise, but as all expressive means it is an
pression of inner, elevated contents of speech.

2. Oxymoron is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb with I
adjective) in which the meaning of the two clashes, being opposite in sense:

’His honour rooted in dishonour stood

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

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

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

3. Irony. (Greek eironeia - taockery concealed1)

It denotes a trope / figure based on direct opposition of the meaning to the sense. It is the use of
words, word-combinations and sentences in the meanings opposite to those directly expressed by
them (i.e. opposite to their logical meaning) for purpose of ridicule. Thus in the sentence: ’It must
be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket.’ The word
”delightful’ acquires a meaning quite the opposite to its primary dictionary meaning, that is
’unpleasant’, ’not delightful’.
Irony is generally used to convey a negative meaning. The effect of irony largely depends on the
unexpectedness and seeming lack of logic of a word used by the author in an incompatible
context. The reader is fully aware of the contrast between what is logically expected and what is
said. This contrast of meanings very often produces a humorous effect.

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

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

A peculiar variety is observed in those cases when a negative structure undergoes intensification: ’No tree,
no shrub, no blade of grass ... that was not owned’. (Galsworthy) ’Be careful’, said Mr. Jingle - not a look,
not a wink, ’said Mr. Tupman. ’Not a syllable - not a whisper’ (Dickens)

As we sea every consecutive part of the climax is expressed by a word presenting a less significant concept,
so that instead of an increase there is a certain decrease of logical importance and emotion:

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

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

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

3. Hyperbole is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration, the aim of which is to intensify one of the
features of the object in question to such a degree as will show its utter absurdity: ’God, cried buckets. I
saw it ten times.’

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

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

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

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

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

Compare: ’It was not unnatural if Gilbert felt a certain embarrassment.’(Maugham) and ’It was natural if...’
and you will see that the peculiar structure of litotes interferes into the semantic field and influences it,
supplying an additional emotive shade to the idea expressed.

The structure of litotes is rather rigid: its first element is always the negative particle ’not’ (or ’no’) and its
second component is, too, always negative in meaning if not in form: not without doubt; He is no fool.

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

83

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

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

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

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

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

Possessive case of nouns is another formal sign of personification which is also marked by expressiveness.
Even the use of the names of countries, cities in the possessive case renders them some elevation.

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

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

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

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

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

a flush of heat - a hot flush

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

The substantivised adjective proves to be more abstract and bookish than the derived rioun.

The plural number. Funny sounds the use of the plural number when -s is added to the whole ntence. e.g.
One I-am-sorry-for -you is worth twenty I-told-you-so’s.

Genitive also serves as a contextual indicator of personification: ’Holly Wood’s Studio Empty’
’HollyWood Studio Empty’. These are titles.

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

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

The appearance of the second article is unexpected and drawing the attention to the following
word, underlines its importance and creates the impression of the appearance of a new word
combination.

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

In low colloquial style or in popular speech possible is the intensification by means of that. Shi is
that foolish. In literary colloquial style emotional evaluative component is introduced will
evaluative words in pairs: nice and warm, good and strong.

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

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

Sometimes the continuous form, due to its emotiveness, proves to be milder and more pohti than
simple present, e.g. The kind Mrs. Eliot puts mildly: ’I’d better show you the way. He isflA
feeling so good to day.’ |

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

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

In accordance with syntactical stylistic expressive means can be classified as follows:

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

two possible varieties of deviations-a. the absence of elements which are obligatory in a neutral
construction; b. excess of non-essential elements/redundancy of syntactical elements.

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

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

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

Absence of Elements which are Obligatory in a neutral Construction.

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

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

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

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

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

’It would have been a good idea to bring along one of Doc’s new capsules. Could have gone into
a drug store and asked for a glass of water and taken one.’ (D. Carter).

Nominative sentences/One-member sentences. The communicative function of a nominative

sentence is a mere statement of the existence of an object, a phenomenon: ’London. Fog
everywhere. Implacable November weather.’

Though syntactically different from elliptical sentences, nominative sentences (which comprise
only one principal part expressed by a noun or a noun equivalent) resemble the former because of
their brevity. Nominative sentences are especially (important) suitable for preliminary
descriptions introducing the reader to the situation. They are often used to present the background
of the action as in the example:
’Men, palms, red plush seats, white marble tables, waiters in aprons. Miss Moss walked through
them all.’ (Mansfield)

One-member sentences may be used to heighten the emotional tension of the narrative or to
single out the character or the author’s attitude towards what is happening. Absence of auxiliary
elements.

Auxiliary verbs, articles, prepositions, conjunctions as well as the link verb be are very often
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A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

dropped in informal oral communication.

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

’ You feel like telling mel’ (Salinger)

’She still writing: poetry?’ (Miller)

’Thatbe enough? (Markus)

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

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

’Post here yefi’ (Amis)

1Chair comfortable?’ (Pinter)

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

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

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

’ Where was he born?

’London.’ (Kanin)

’ What time did you get inV (Amis)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

e.g.

(Chase) i (Dickens)

The

imparts a emphasis unprepari

Synt

form of th The noun comes to 1

e.g.

redundant took me A

Somi in the fora

e.g..

Para!

sentences identity o Parallelisn sentences, two sentei rhythmical

More

Anapl adjacent s< element tin

e.g. F. Farev

The a line.
Epiph elements cc

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

Framii lyntactlcal \
’Moat,

tverytbJnffi
BRANCHES OF STYUSTICS

87

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

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

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

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

Sometimes prolepsis occurs in quite an opposite form: the recurrence of the personal pronoun in
the form of the noun subject.

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

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

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

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

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

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

e.g. The white washed room was pure white as of old, the methodical book-keeping was in
peaceful progress as of old, and some distant howler was hanging against a cell door as of old.
Epiphora, to a still greater extent than anaphora, regulates the rhythm and makes prose resemble
poetry.
Framing. This term is used to denote the recurrence of the initial segment at the
very end of a lyntactical unit (sentence, paragraph, stanza):

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

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

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

88

Anadiplosis (from the Greek ’doubling’): the final element or elements of a sentence paragraph,
stanza, etc. recurs at the very beginning of the next sentence, paragraph, stanza.

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

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

Polysyndeton. The term, as opposed to ’syndeton,’ means excessive use (repetition) ol

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

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

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

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

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

Unusual distribution of Elements/ Components of Speech. Change of Word Ordeij

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

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

Occasionally, the first place is occupied by a simple verbal predicate. Here are two exampls from
Jack London:

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

89

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

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

An adverbial modifier may not infrequently come to the foreground.

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

Communicative Aims of sentences

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

Quasi-affirmative sentences. They are negative in form but the implication of such sentences is
affirmative: ’Isn’tit too bad?’equals ’That’s too bad.’It is a certain variety of rhetorical question
(namely those with a negative predicate).

’Don’tlremember/’implies I do remember.

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

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

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

Negative implication is also typical of special questions.

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

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

beginning with as if and containing a predicate in the affirmative form:

’As if I ever stopped thinking about the girl, and her confounded vowels and consonants.’ (Shaw)

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

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

Quasi-imperative sentences are those which express inducement (order or request) without
imperative form of the verb. Some of them do not name the action, but only mention the object or
qualification of a self-evident action.

’Tea. For two. Out here.’ (Shaw)

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

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

A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

Stylistically relevant are changes in the type of connection.

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

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

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

E.g. Here is a long passage - what an enormous prospective I make of it! - leading from
Peggoty’s kitchen to the front door. (Dickens) The parenthetic form of the statement makes it
more conspicuous, more important than it would be if it had been the subordinate clause.

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

When the clock struck twelve, he came <- subordination

The clock struck twelve, and he came -coordination

The clock struck twelve, he came - asyndetic connection

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

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

Reported, or Represented Speech

The description of thoughts and feelings of characters by conveying them through

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

succeedi
- these s the whol If he con

The

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

4. Phone
Phon

acoustic e

This part i

prosody di

and espec

prosodic v

sounds, of

same vowe

which eithe

prose - mo

phrases: ’Pi

Prejudice1 (

not least,
sound... Alii

For instana

the alliterat

unemployed

Once upon

combination

laughter, pa

indirect. Dir

cuckoo, tint

transferred i

noisy; strem

Indirect ono

utterance ar

curtain.. .(Po(

the curtain.
BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

91

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

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

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

A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYUSTICS

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

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

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

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

The selections of sounds is aimed not as much at the precise reproduction of real sounding of the
described movements and phenomena as at arousing a certain emotional state in the listener,
analogous, to some extent, to that impression which may be associated in the speaker’s mind to
the sounds and sound combinations.

Phonetic peculiarities of speech may be reproduced in writing when writers resort to ’graphons’,
i.e. unusual, non-standard spelling of words, showing either deviation from Standard English or
some peculiarity in pronouncing words or phrases emphatically.

Purely individual pronunciation of certain sounds is observed in the graphon th which stands for
the letter 5, as does a personage of ’Hard Times’by Dickens: ’Thquirel... Your thervanl Thithitb a
badpieth ofbithnith, thith ith...’

In many cases, they show deviations from Standard English typical for whole groups of English
speakers. Typical in this respect the reproduction of cockney. For instance, ’the dropping of H-s1
Enry Iggens; the substitution of the diphthong [ai] for the diphthong [ei]. In writing it is usually/
instead of a, ai, or ay. E.g. ’Is that my wife?... I see it is, from your fyce... I want the truth -Imustf
’aye it!... If that’s ’er fyce there, then that’s ’er body in the gallery - ...(Galsworthy). Variants of
pronunciation are also of importance for stylistics. A speaker may strengthen, emphasize, make
more prominent the word when he, for instance, intensifies its initial consonants, which is shown
in the graphon as doubling the letter: ’N-nof sounds more decisive more emphatic than a mere
’No! Another way of intensifying a word or a phrase is uttering each syllable or, generally, part of
a word as a phonetically independent unit in retarded tempo. Graphically this graphon is
hyphenated: ’Impos-sible!’ Sometimes part of the utterance is specially modulated by the speaker
(changing volume and pitch: rise-fall in monosyllabic and disyllabic words and, possibly, rise-
fall-rise in polysyllables) The corresponding graphons in print are italics or capitalization:
She was simply beautiful. I’LL NEVER see him again.

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

Functional Styles Used in Stylistics

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

93

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

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

This estimation comprises several aspects.

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

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

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

scientific explanation, speaker’s emotional attitude towards the object of speech, official
agreement etc. At last the very mechanism of communication may be different, it may be either in
written or oral form.

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

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

literary-Bookish Style

It falls into:

1. Publicistic style (newspaper style, oratorical style)

2. $cientific-prose style

3. The style of official documents

4. Poetic style (being of special interest if dealing with works of past epochs, not existing now)

The main feature of these styles is strict conformity of all the forms of speech (the use of words,
syntactical structures, phonetic side of speech) to the norm of standard English, striving to a
precise expression of thought, removal of lowered words.

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

Scientific-prose style. Its purpose is to inform some knowledge, pertaining to a certain branch of
science that accounts for abundance of scientific terminology. As *o grammar peculiarities it is
syntactical precision, that is why no ellipsis is found (as a rule), participial, gerundial
constructions
94

A HANDBOOK OF STYLE AND STYLISTICS

and infinitives as attributes are in abundance and passive voice as well in branches of physics’
math, history, natural sciences and technique. In some philosophic, pedagogical, linguistic works
scientific prose style is used side by side with publicistic style.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The colour of the remarks is purposely literal, no contracted forms (do not could not) but i there is
a colloquial element (well).
2. Low-colloquial Style.
All numerous peculiarities of this style are deviations from the literary norm. In lexis the
important of them are: wide usage of lowered words and slang, a tendency to constant substitute
of neutral or bookish words with post-position elements.

to land = to put down

BRANCHES OF STYLISTICS

95

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

to proceed, to continue = to go on

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

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

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

Such are, in general and in short, features of ’Functional Styles’ in Modern English

University Questions

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

2. What are the various lexical and terminological tools required to stylistically analyse a text?

3. Discuss various branches of stylistics in detail.

4. • Discuss various phonetic and morphological devices for stylistic analysis.
10

Stylistics and Other Fields of Study

Or