Lecture 3.

STYLISTIC USE OF PHRASEOLOGY

By phraseological units we mean all blocks larger than 1 word, but functioning as one.
The main features of PU: 1) the meaning of the PU is not equal to the sum of its components'
meaning but is a result of their interaction; 2) stability and ready-made nature.
Like the vocabulary, phraseology can be stylistically marked, thus it can possess stylistic
connotation. Some of them are elevated.
It has an emotional quality, it is emphatic and imaginative. Most of such expressions are rhythmical,
alliterated, sometimes even rhymed. They may include similes, repetitions, synonyms and antonyms.
E.g. as like as two peas, as оld as the hills and older than the hills (simile); from beginning to end,
for love or money, more or less, sooner or later (contrast); a lame duck, a pack of lies, arms race, to
swallow the pill, in a nutshell (metaphor); by leaps and bounds, proud and haughty (synonymy). as
good as gold, as pleased as Punch, as fit as a fiddle (alliteration, simile); now or never, to kill or
cure (alliteration and contrast). More rarely there is an intentional pun: as cross as two sticks means
'very angry'.
Phraseology includes set expressions, clichés, proverbs, sayings, familiar quotations, epigrams. A
“saying” is often used as a generic term for all these.
A saying is a short, clever expression that usually contains advice or expresses some obvious truth.
The origin of a saying is, in most cases, unknown. Many English sayings have come from other
languages, and vice versa.
Most sayings are effective thanks to their shortness and directness. They use simple, vivid language,
often based on everyday domestic situations, making them easy to understand and remember.
Sayings may be classified under a number of different terms, of which proverb is probably the best
known. Other types of saying are a maxim, a motto and some others, though the distinction between
them is often vague:
proverb: an old and popular saying, a piece of common-sense wisdom, a truth or a moral lesson in a
concise and imaginative way ("A stitch in time saves nine" Slow and steady wins the race")
proverbs often form the basis of set expressions.
E. g. the last straw breaks the camel's back: :the last straw; a drowning man will clutch at a
straw::clutch at a straw; it is useless, to lock the stable door when the steed is stolen: :lock the
stable door.
maxim: a general rule of behaviour drawn from practical experience ("Neither a borrower nor a
lender be")
motto: a maxim adopted as a principal of conduct ("Honesty is the best policy")
familiar quotations are different from proverbs in their origin. They come from literature but by
and by they become part of the language, so that many people using them do not even know that
they are quoting, and very few could accurately name the play or passage on which they are drawing
even when they are aware of using a quotation from W. Shakespeare.
The Shakespearian quotations have become and remain extremely numerous — they have
contributed enormously to the store of the language. Very many come from "Hamlet":
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark;
Brevity is the soul of wit;
The rest is silence;
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio …

A cliché is a saying, expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the
point of losing its original meaning or effect. It is likely to be used pejoratively. “I thank you from
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the bottom of my heart”
rosy dreams of youth, to grow by leaps and bounds,
the patter of rain, to withstand the test of time, the acid test, ample opportunities,
astronomical figures, the arms of Morpheus, to break the ice, the irony of fate, etc.etc.
Being constantly and mechanically repeated they have lost their original expressiveness. A sign of a
lazy thinker. But in the publicist style clichés are normal.
In fiction – speech characterization, humorous effect, true-to life atmosphere of legal, business or
official environment.
An epigram is a witty expression, often paradoxical or satirical and neatly or brilliantly phrased: In
his epigram Samuel Johnson called remarriage a "triumph of hope over experience."
An aphorism, denoting a concise expression of a truth or principle, implies depth of content and
stylistic distinction

The Stylistic Functions of Phraseology

1. To intensify the meaning.
2. For speech characterization.
3. As titles and epigraphs.
The use of phraseology for titles helps to disclose the message and gives the key to the
understanding of the novel/story. A specific feature in the use of phraseology is the deliberate
change, decomposition of it for different stylistic aims.
The Main Types of Decomposition of PU:
1. Substitution of 1 word for another, often antonymous to the first,
e.g. While there is death, there is hope. (O. Wilde)
2. Extension (prolongation).e.g. Poverty is not a sin, but a great deal worse.
3. Reduction (a part of a PU is used). E.g. When in Rome…
3. Cumulation (сращение). E.g. У Вас еще лапша на ушах не обсохла.
4. Splitting of a phraseologism and the introduction of some other elements - double
actualization. The effect is achieved by the realization of the literal meaning of the
components set against the background of the phraseological meaning.
Decomposed PU provide basis for creating paradoxes - statements which though appear to be self-
contradictory nevertheless involve truth or at least an element of it. Very often decomposed PUs
create humorous effect.
PHONETIC EXPRESSIVE MEANS
Phonetic expressive means serve to provoke a certain acoustic effect; they give prominence
to the utterance and arouse emotions in the reader. The phonemic structure of the word proves to be
important for the creation of expressive and emotive connotations. The acoustic form of the words
foregrounds them, inevitably emphasizing their meaning too.
Traditionally, phonetic devices are divided into sound instrumenting and prosody (rules of
versification).
Instrumenting:
1) Onomatopoeia - a combination of speech sounds which imitate the sounds of nature, man,
inanimate objects, such as "hiss", "bowwow", "murmur", "bump", "grumble", "sizzle" and many
more.
A message, containing an onomatopoeic word is not limited to transmitting the logical information
only, but also supplies the vivid portrayal of the situation described.
Direct and indirect:
E.g. Summer-summer-summer! The soundless footsteps on the grass!
Some leading, some accompanying, some following.
The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free;
We were the first that ever burst
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 Into the silent sea (Coleridge)
2) Euphony - the coordination between the meaning and the sound to produce an artistic effect,
when the sound imagery corresponds to the general mood of the utterance. It is based on the
prevalence of vowels (esp. diphthongs and long vowels), on sonorous sounds, on voiced
consonants. Thus we see that not only separate sounds, but classes of sounds may be repeated
producing a certain stylistic effect. Euphony as a sense of ease and comfort in pronouncing or
hearing is opposed to cacophony - a sense of strain and discomfort in pronouncing or hearing.
As an example of the first may serve the famous lines of E.A. Poe:
...silken sad uncertain
rustling of each purple curtain...
An example of the second is provided by the unspeakable combination of sounds found in
R. Browning: Nor soul helps flesh now more than flesh helps soul.
We should not forget the unilateral nature of a phoneme: this language unit helps to
differentiate meaningful lexemes but has no meaning of its own. Cf.: while unable to speak about
the semantics of [ou], [ju:], we acknowledge their sense-differentiating significance in "sew" [sou]
шить and "sew" [sju:] спускать воду; or [au], [ou] in "bow" бант, поклон etc.
Still, devoid of denotational or connotational meaning, a phoneme, according to recent
studies, has a strong associative and sound-instrumenting power.
3) The main patterns of sound repetition (all of them can produce an onomatopoeic or euphonic
effect, or both):
a) Alliteration - recurrence of the initial consonant in two or more words in close succession.
It's a typically English feature because ancient English poetry was based more on alliteration
than on rhyme (e.g. Beowulf). We find a vestige of this once all-embracing literary device in
proverbs and sayings that came down to us. E. g. Now or never, Last but not least, As good
as gold.
With time its function broadened into prose and other types of texts. It became very popular
in titles, headlines and slogans, in names of fictional characters and in pseudonyms:
E. g. Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility (Austin), Posthumous papers of the
Pickwick Club (Dickens) , the Last Leaf (o.Henry); Leacock’s collections of stories; Mark
Steyn America Alone, Demography vs. delusion; personality plus power produces positive
people.
Workers of the world, unite! Work or wages!
b) Assonance is the recurrence of stressed vowels. E.g. ...Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if
within the distant Aiden; I shall clasp a sainted maiden, whom the angels name Lenore.
(Poe)
c) Consonance is the recurrence of the consonant in two or more words in close succession.
d) Paronomasia is co-occurrence of paronyms, using words similar in sound but different in
meaning. Phonetic similarity and positional proximity makes the reader search for semantic
connection of the paronyms which results in imagery E. g. poultry and politics in the inner
monologue of Mont (Galsworthy); And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
(Poe) Mixing paronyms results in pun, malapropisms, create humorous effect.

Versification
Prosody:Broad understanding in modern linguistics: general suprasegmental characteristics of
speech – rhythm, tonality, length, force, tempo. Not only in poetry!
1. Rhythm is a deliberate arrangement of speech into regularly repeating units. It's a regular
recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables that can make a poetic text. Prose can be
rhythmically arranged too (parallelism, repetition, asynteton, polysyndeton). In verse
various combinations of stressed and unstressed syllables determine the meter - a form of
periodicity in verse.
The minimal group of syllables with one stressed and some unstressed is a foot (the number
of feet in a line E.g. tetrameter, pentameter)
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 a) Trochee ‘-
Would you ask me whence these stories
Whence these legends and traditions (Longfellow)
Men of England, wherefore plough
For the lords who lay ye low?
Wherefore weave with toil and care
The rich robes your tyrants wear? (Shelley)
b) Iambus –‘
There went three kings into the east,
Three kings both great and high,
And they had sworn a solemn oath:
John Barleycorn should die (Burns)
c) Dactyl ‘- -
Cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them.
Take her up tenderly,
Lift her with care,
Fashion'd so slenderly
Young and so fair. (Hood)
d) Amphibrach –‘--
'Twas the night before Christmas
When all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads (Browning)
e) Anapaest - -‘
Would you ask what the birds say? The sparrow, the dove

Even strictly classical meters admit of certain variations in stress. Free verse.
2) Rhyme is another feature that distinguishes verse from prose and consists in the acoustic
coincidence of stressed syllables at the end of verse lines.
Types of rhyme:
a) male / masculine, single. Lines end with a stressed syllable dreams-streams, hand-understand,
obey-away.
b) female / feminine/ double. End with unstressed syllables duty-beauty, berry-merry
c) triple. Stressed plus two unstressed tenderly-slenderly, battery-flattery.
According to the position of the rhyming lines:
a) Adjacent aabb
b) Crossing abab
c) Ring abba
Blank verse.
GRAPHICAL EXPRESSIVE MEANS
To create additional information in a prose discourse sound-instrumenting is seldom used. In
contemporary advertising, mass media and, above all, imaginative prose sound is foregrounded
mainly through the change of its accepted graphical representation. This intentional violation of the
graphical shape of a word (or word combination) used to reflect its authentic pronunciation is called
graphon.
Graphons, indicating irregularities or carelessness of pronunciation were occasionally
introduced into English novels and journalism as early as the beginning of the 18 th century and since
then have acquired an ever growing frequency of usage, popularity among writers, journalists and
advertisers.
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 Graphon proved to be an extremely concise but effective means of supplying information
about the speaker's origin (foreign accent, dialect), social and educational background (uneducated
speech, careless colloquial speech, baby talk), physical or emotional condition (lisping, stammer,
intoxication, excitement, fear), etc.
So, when the famous Thackeray's character - butler Yellowplush - impresses his listeners
with the learned words pronouncing them as "sellybrated" (celebrated), "bennyviolent"
(benevolent), "illygitmit" (illegitimate), "jewinile" (juvenile), or when the no less famous S. Lewis'
Mr. Babbitt uses "peerading" (parading), "Eytalians" (Italians), "peepul" (people) - the reader
obtains not only the vivid image and the social, cultural, educational characteristics of the
personages, but also the authors’ sarcastic attitude to them.
On the other hand, "The b-b-b-b-bas-tud - he seen me c-c-c-c-coming" in R. P. Warren's
Sugar Boy's speech or "You don't mean to thay that thith ith your firth time" show the physical
defects of the speakers - the stuttering of one and the lisping of the other.
The functions of graphons:
 individualizing the character's speech, adding to his/her plausibility, vividness, memorability;
 conveying the author’s attitude to the character;
 conveying the atmosphere of authentic live communication, of the informality of the speech act.
Some amalgamated forms, which are the result of strong assimilation, became clichés in
contemporary prose dialogue:
"gimme" (give me), "lemme" (let me), "gonna" (going to), "gotta" (got to), "coupla" (couple of),
"mighta" (might have), "willya" (will you), etc.
This flavour of informality and authenticity brought graphon popularity with advertizers.
Big and small eating places invite customers to attend their " Donut (doughnut) Place", or the "Rite
Bread Shop", or the "Wok-in Fast Food Restaurant", etc.
The same is true about display and TV advertizing: "Sooper Class Model" cars, "Knee-hi"
socks, "Rite Aid" medicines. A recently published book on Cockney was entitled by the authors
"The Muwer Tongue"; on the back flaps of big freight-cars one can read "Folio me", etc.
Graphical changes may reflect not only the peculiarities of pronunciation, but are also used
to convey the intensity of the stress, emphasizing and thus foregrounding the stressed words. To
such purely graphical means, not involving the violations, we should refer the following:
1) Italics occupies the first place among graphical means of foregrounding according to
the frequency of usage and variability of functions. Shows the emphatic stress, indicates foreign
words, signals the change of narrator etc. Besides italicizing words, to add to their logical or
emotive significance, separate syllables and morphemes may also be emphasized by italics (which
is highly characteristic of D. Salinger or T. Capote).
2) Bold type may also serve these functions, but much more seldom.
3) Capitalization shows intensity of speech, imitates a loud voice E.g. in the desperate
appeal in A. Huxley's Brave New World - "Help. Help. HELP."
4) Multiplication also shows intensity of speech (often in commands) as in Babbitt's
shriek "Alllll aboarrrrrd"!
5) Hyphenation suggests the rhymed or clipped manner in which a word or phrase is
uttered as in the humiliating comment from Fl. O'Connor's story - "grinning like a chim-pan-zee".
Sometimes it implies that a word was spelt: He misses our father very much. He was s-l-a-i-n in
North Africa.
6) Spacing of graphemes and lines. The former was widely exercised in Russian poetry
by V. Mayakovsky, famous for his "steps" in verse lines, or A. Voznesensky. In English the most
often referred to "graphical imagist" was E. E. Cummings.
7) The unusual arrangement of the text. (E.g. vertical, diagonal, a shape of something)
8) Handwriting