Stylistic Aspect of Phraseology

Not all phraseological units bear imagery:

clichés / stock phrases (see you later, take it easy, joking apart etc.);

some proverbs (better late than never);

some euphonic units:

- rhyme (out and about);

- alliteration (forgive and forget, now or never, safe and sound);

- repetition (little by little, inch by inch);

- with archaic words (to buy a pig in a poke).

 

 

14. Colloquial styles.

Functions
- provides information
- communicates

 

Forms
- primarily spoken

 

Substyles
- slang; dialect; jargon
- professionalisms; vulgarisms

 

General Characteristics
- informal, familiar, conversational
- paralinguistic context, non-verbal communication

 

Phonetic Features
- careless pronunciation /‘feller’ for ‘fellow’; ‘dunno’ for ‘don’t know’; ‘attaboy’ for ‘that’s a boy’/
- reduction, elision
- faster speech pace
- various noises (cough, rasp, chuck)

 

Morphological Features
- contractions /also ‘wanna; dunno; cuppa’/

 

Syntactical Features
- specific structures
- active rather than passive structures
- frequent conjunction ‘and’
- ellipsis, dropping of pronominal subject /‘Wanna tea?’/

 

Lexical Features
- specific vocabulary
- short and simple words
- words of Germanic origin rather than of Latin origin
- word with emotional meaning: familiar forms of address, vulgarisms, evaluating adjectives
- discourse markers = fillers /‘kind of, sort of, like, actually, you know, well’/
- parenthetical elements /‘indeed; sure; no doubt; obviously; perhaps; maybe’/
- idiosyncratic expressions characteristic of a particular speaker
- onomatopoeic words /‘drip drop; bow wow; splash’/
- nonce words = colloquial coinages: spontaneous attributing of new meanings to already existing words; elusive and readily disappearing from the language again
- interjections /‘oh my, gee, yeah’/
- phraseology, idioms

 

Special Nomenclature
- fashion terminology: a streetwise head-turner; fleeting flashbulb moments; a red-carpet goddess
- idioms: an armchair critic; a back-seat driver; an empty nester; too many chiefs and not enough Indians; keep a dog and bark yourself; give someone the hairy eyeball; chalk and talk; fit to be tied

 

15. Represented speech.

There are three ways of reproducing actual speech: a)repetition of exact utterance as it was spoken (direct speech), b)conversation of exact utterance into the relater’s mode of expression (indirect speech) and c)representation of the actual utterance by a second person, usually the author, as if it had been spoken, whereas it has not really been spoken but is only represented in the author’s words (represented speech)

To distinguish between the two varieties of represented speech we call the representation of the actual utterance through the author’s language uttered represented speech, and the representation of the thoughts and feelings of the character from the author’s word. Actually, direct speech is a quotation. Therefore it is always introduced by a verb like say, utter, declare, reply, exclaim, shout, cry, yell, gasp, babble, chuckle, murmur, sigh, call, beg, implore, comfort, assure, protest, object, command, admit and others. All these words help to indicate the intonation with which the sentence was actually uttered. Direct speech is always marked by inverted commas, as any quotation is. Here is an example:

“You want your money back,I suppose,” said George with a sneer.

“Of course I do - I always did, didn’t I?” says Dobbin.

(Thackeray)

Direct speech is sometimes used in the publicistic style of language as a quotation. The introductory words in this case are usually the following: as... has it, according to... and the like.

In the belles-lettres style direct speech is used to depict a character through his speech.

Direct speech can be viewed as a stylistic device only its setting in the midst of the author addresses the reader, we cannot classify the utterance as a direct speech. Direct speech is only the speech of a character in a piece of emotive prose.

We have indirect speech when the actual words of a character, as it were, pass though the author’s mouth in the course of his narrative and in this process undergo certain changes. The intonation of indirect speech is even and does not differ from the rest of the author’s narrative. The graphical substitues for the intonation give way to lexical unit which describe the intonation pattern. Sometimes indirect speech takes the form of a precise in which only the main points of the actual utterance are given. Thus, for instance, in the following passage:

“Marshalasked the crowd to disperse and urged responsible diggers to prevent any disturbance which would prolong the tragic force of the rush for which the publication of inaccurate was chiefly responsible.”(Katherine Prichard) Represented speech exist in two varieties: 1)uttered represented speech and 2)unuttered represented speech.

 

16. Rhythm. Alliteration

Rhythm is a recurring stress pattern in poetry. It is an even alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Lines in verses are built with poetic feet. A foot is a combination of one stressed and one or two unstressed syllables. The most popular poetic feet are trochaic foot, iambus, dactyl, amphibrach, and anapest. Rhythm is the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables, more or less regular. As a SD rhythm is a combination of the ideal metrical scheme and its variations governed by the standard.

It exists in all spheres of human activity and assumes multifarious forms. It stirs up emotions whatever its nature or origin, whether it is musical, mechanical or symmetrical as in architecture.

It’s not only a regular pattern of sounds or movements; it’s also any regular pattern in nature or in life. Rhythm can be perceived only provided that there is some kind of experience in catching regularity of alternating patterns.

Rhythm has a great importance not only for music and poetry, but also for prose. In prose rhythm is closely connected with the metre, i.e. different metrical patterns. The rhythm of prose is based on the succession of images, themes and other big elements of the text; repetition, parallel constructions, chiasmus- перекрестный/ реверсированный повтор, similar syntactical patterns. The unit of measure here is not a syllable but a structure, a word-combination, a sequence of phrases, sentences and supra-phrasal units.

Rhythm intensifies the emotions. It contributes to the general sense, helps to get the flow of thoughts and humour of the author. In poetry it conveys the mood, emotions and feelings, sharpens the thought of the author and his characters. Rhythm adds specific importance to some ideas and feelings, it helps to create reality in text. It has expressive, symbolic and graphic functions. It can imitate movement, behaviour and even setting. It foregrounds some particular words, thoughts, ideas, feelings, and vice versa obscures others, thus adding a per’spective to the text.

Alliteration and assonance

Alliteration is a phonetic stylistic device which aims at imparting a melodic effect to the utterance. The essence of this device lies in the repetition of similar sounds, in particular consonant sounds, in close succession, particularly at the beginning of successive words: " The po ss essive in s tinct never s tands s till (J. Galsworthy) or, " D eep into the d arkness peering, long I stoo d there won d ering, fearing, d oubting, d reaming d reams no mortals ever d ared to d ream before" (E. A. Poe). Alliteration is also used to name the repetition of first letters: A pt A lliteration’s a rtful a id.(Charles Churchill).

Alliteration has a long tradition in English poetry as Germanic and Anglo-Saxon poems were organized with its help. (Beowulf)

 

17. Allegory. Onomatopoeia.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is a combination of speech sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc. – splash, bubble, rustle, whistle) by things (machines or tools, etc. - buzz) by people (singing, laughter, yawning, roar, giggle) and animals (moo, bleat, croak - frog). Therefore the relation between onomatopoeia and the phenomenon it is supposed to represent is one of metonymy: that is it can be used in transferred meaning – tintinnabulation-the sound of bells

There are two varieties of onomatopoeia: direct and indirect.

Direct onomatopoeia is contained in words that imitate natural sounds, as thud, bowwow, ding-dong, buzz, bang, ‘cuckoo. These words have different degrees of ‘imitative quality. Some of them immediately bring to mind whatever it is that produces the sound. Others require some imagination to decipher it.

e.g. And now there came the chop-chop of wooden hammers.

Indirect onomatopoeia is a combination of sounds the aim of which is to make the sound of the utterance an echo of its sense. It is sometimes called "echo writing". Indirect onomatopoeia demands some mention of what makes the sound, as rustling of curtains in the following line. And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain. An example is: And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain" (E. A. Poe), where the repetition of the sound [s] actually produces the sound of the rustling of the curtain.

Indirect onomatopoeia is sometimes effectively used by repeating words which themselves are not onomatopoetic but they contribute to the general impact of the utterance: in the poem Boots by R. Kipling soldiers’ tread is shown -

We’re foot-slog-slog-slog-sloggin’ over Africa –

Foot-foot-foot-foot –sloggin’ over Africa.

(Boots – boots – boots – boots – moovi’ up and down again!)

Onomatopoeia helps to create the vivid portrayal of the situation described, and the phonemic structure of the word is important for the creation of expressive and emotive connotations.

Allegory is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas and principles are described in terms of characters, figures and events.

It can be employed in prose and poetry to tell a story with a purpose of teaching an idea and a principle or explaining an idea or a principle. The objective of its use is to preach some kind of a moral lesson

 

18. Stylistic use of foreign words and archaisms

This group, which may be called archaic proper, are words which are no longer recognizable in modern English, words that were in use in Old English and which have either dropped out of the language entirely or have changed in their appearance so much that they have become unrecognizable, e. g. troth (=faith); a losel (=a worthless, lazy fellow).

Both archaic and poetic words overlap and extend beyond the large circle "special literary vocabulary". This indicates that some of the words in these layers do not belong to the present-day English vocabulary.

The border lines between the groups are not distinct. In fact they interpenetrate. It is specially difficult to distinguish between obsolete and obsolescent words.

Another class of words here is historical words, denoting historical phenomena which are no more in use (such as "yeoman", "vassal", falconet"). They never disappear from the language. They have no synonyms, whereas archaic words have been replaced by modern synonyms.

Archaic words are used to create a realistic background to historical novels. They carry a special volume of information adding to the logical aspect of communication. They also appear in the poetic style as special terms and in the style of official documents to maintain the exactness of expression: hereby, aforesaid, therewith. The low predictability of an archaism when it appears in ordinary speech produces the necessary satiricaleffect.

Archaic words, word-forms and word-combinations are also used to create an elevated effect. Language is specially moulded to suit a solemn occasion: all kinds of stylistic devices are used, and among them is the

use of archaisms.

Stylistic functions of archaic words are based on the temporal perception of events described. Even when used in the terminological aspect, as for instance in law, archaic words will mark the utterance as being connected with something remote and the reader gets the impression that. he is faced with a time-honoured tradition.

 

19. Metaphor vs Metonymy

Metaphor and metonymy are similar in various aspects but the major difference is that if a metaphor substitutes a concept with another, a metonymy selects a related term. So, if metaphor is for substitution, metonymy is for association. For example, the sentence ‘he is a tiger in class’ is a metaphor. Here the word tiger is used in substitution for displaying an attribute of character of the person. The sentence ‘the tiger called his students to the meeting room’ is a metonymy. Here there is no substitution; instead the person is associated with a tiger for his nature.

So metonymy is a figure of speech. It is used in rhetoric where a thing is not referred by its name but with the associated word. A metaphor is an expression. This expression shows the similarity between two things on some aspects. In metonymy, the association of the word is based on contiguity, while in a metaphor; the substitution is based on similarity. If metaphor can be used to define the transference of relation between set of things to another, metonymy is used to define a word. Metonymy uses a single characteristic for the identification of a complex entity.

Another difference between metaphor and metonymy is that a metaphor acts by suppressing an idea while metonymy acts by combining ideas. But both metaphor and metonymy are used to express ideas which are greatly different from the original meaning in the psychic realm. When a person uses a metonymy, the qualities are not transferred from the original word to the metonymy. But in metaphor, when there is a comparison, the comparison is based on the qualities and some qualities are transferred from the original to the metaphor, in the process.

Metaphor is an extension to a word’s meaning on the account of similarity and metonymy is a way of extending the meaning of a word based on its association to another. Metaphor can be used to refer to a word in an object category to make it in the abstract semantic category. Metonymy can be used in informal or insulting situations as well. For example, the association of brain to a person means he is intelligent, and asshole is a metonymy for an idiotic person in an insulting manner.

So we can say that if metaphor is used for substitution and condensation, a metonymy is used for combination and displacement.

Summary:

1.Metaphor is used for substitution, while metonymy is used for association.
2.Metaphor can mean condensation and metonymy can mean displacement.
3.A metonymy acts by combining ideas while metaphor acts by suppressing ideas.
4.In a metaphor, the comparison is based on the similarities, while in metonymy the comparison is based on contiguity.

 

20. Semantic structure of English words. Connotations.

Firstly, every word combines lexical and grammatical meanings. E.g.: Father is a personal noun.

 

Secondly, many words not only refer to some object but have an aura of associations expressing the attitude of the speaker. They have not only denotative but connotative meaning as well.

 

E. g.: Daddy is a colloquial term of endearment.

 

Thirdly, the denotational meaning is segmented into semantic components or semes.

 

E.g.: Father is a male parent.

 

Fourthly, a word may be polysemantic, that is it may have several meanings, all interconnected and forming its semantic structure.

 

E. g.: Father may mean: ‘male parent’, ‘an ancestor’, ‘a founder or leader’, ‘a priest’.

 

It will be useful to remind the reader that the grammatical meaning is defined as an expression in speech of relationships between words based on contrastive features of arrangements in which they occur. The grammatical meaning is more abstract and more generalised than the lexical meaning, it unites words into big groups such as parts of speech or lexico-grammatical classes. It is recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words. E. g. parents, books, intentions, whose common element is the grammatical meaning of plurality. The interrelation of lexics and grammar has already been touched upon in § 1.3. This being a book on lexicology and not on grammar, it is permissible not to go into more details though some words on lexico-grammatical meanings are necessary.

 

The lexiсo-grammatical meaning is the common denominator of all the meanings of words belonging to a lexico-grammatical class of words, it is the feature according to which they are grouped together. Words in which abstraction and generalisation are so great that they can be lexical representatives of lexico-grammatical meanings and substitute any word of their class are called generic terms. For example the word matter is a generic term for material nouns, the word group — for collective nouns, the word person — for personal nouns.

 

21.

Simile. Metonymy.

Simile - а figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by like or as.

Simile and Metaphor differ only in degree of stylistic refinement. The Simile, in which a comparison is made directly between two objects, belongs to an earlier stage of literary expression: it is the deliberate elaboration of a correspondence, often pursued for its own sake. But a Metaphor is the swift illumination of an equivalence. Two images, or an idea and an image, stand equal and opposite; clash together and respond significantly, surprising the reader with a sudden light."

Metonymies are frequently used in literature and in everyday speech. Ametonymy is a word or phrase that is used to stand in for another word. Sometimes a metonymy is chosen because it is a well-known characteristic of the word.

One famous example of metonymy is the saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword," which originally came from Edward Bulwer Lytton's play Richelieu. This sentence has two examples of metonymy:

§ The "pen" stands in for "the written word"

§ The "sword" stands in for "military aggression and force"

Metonymy is also the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it, as in describing someone's clothing to characterize the individual

 

Repetition (all types).

Repetition as a stylistic device is a direct successor of repetition as an expressive language means, which serves to emphasize certain statements of the speaker, and so possesses considerable emotive force.

As to the position occupied by the repeated unit in the sentence or utterance, we shall mention four main types, most frequently occurring in English literature:

1) anaphora – the repetition of the first word of several succeeding sentences or clauses (a …, a …, a …);

2) epiphora – the repetition of the final word (… a, … a, … a);

3) anadiplosis or catch repetition – the repetition of the same unit (word or phrase) at the end of the preceding and at the beginning of the sentence (…a, a …); The combination of several catch repetitions produces a chain repetition.

4) framing or ring repetition – the repetition of the same unit at the beginning and at the end of the same sentence (a …, … a). Repetition emphasizes the most important part of the utterance, rendering the emotions of the speaker or showing his emotive attitude towards the object described.

I would like to say about anaphora and give some examples:

Anaphora (an-NAF-ruh): Figure of repetition that occurs when the first word or set of words in one sentence, clause, or phrase is/are repeated at or very near the beginning of successive sentences, clauses, or phrases; repetition of the initial word(s) over successive phrases or clauses.

Examples:

"That my heart has been troubled, that I have not sought this nomination, that I could not seek it in good conscience, that I would not seek it in honest self-appraisal, is not to say that I value it the less. Rather, it is that I revere the office of the Presidency of the United States."

-- Adlai Stevenson, 1952 DNC Presidential Nomination Acceptance Address

 

23. Parallelism. Chiasmus.

In grammar, parallelism, also known as parallel structure or parallel construction, is a balance within one or more sentences of similar phrases or clauses that have the same grammatical structure. The application of parallelism improves writing style and readability, and is thought to make sentences easier to process. Parallelism is often achieved using antithesis, anaphora, asyndeton, climax, epistrophe, and symploce.

Lacking parallelism: "The dog ran across the yard, jumped over the fence, and down the alley sprinted."

Parallel: "The dog ran across the yard, jumped over the fence, and sprinted down the alley."

Chiasmus comes from a Greek word meaning “crossed,” and it refers to a grammatical structure that inverts a previous phrase. That is, you say one thing, and then you say something very similar, but flipped on its head.

Chiasmus usually occurs on the sentence level, but can also be found in much broader structures – that is, you might have a paragraph that talks about a town, a state, a country, and the world, then goes back down in reverse order at the end. However, these structures are much harder to see (and their rhetorical value is pretty debatable).

Chiasmus is also called chiasm or chiasmic structure.

Example:

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” (John F. Kennedy, 1961)

 

 

24. Ellipsis. One-member sentences. Aposiopesis. Apokoinu.

Ellipsis (plural ellipses; from the Ancient Greek: ἔλλειψις, élleipsis, "omission" or "falling short") is a series of dots (typically three, such as "…") that usually indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning.

Depending on their context and placement in a sentence, ellipses can indicate an unfinished thought, a leading statement, a slight pause, an echoing voice, or a nervous or awkward silence. Aposiopesis is the use of an ellipsis to trail off into silence—for example: "But I thought he was..." When placed at the beginning or end of a sentence, the ellipsis can also inspire a feeling of melancholy or longing.

Aposiopesis (breaking-in-the-narrative)is a figure of speech wherein a sentence is deliberately broken off and left unfinished, the ending to be supplied by the imagination, giving an impression of unwillingness or inability to continue. An example would be the threat "Get out, or else—!"More exaples:

“Well, I say if I get a hold of you I'll—.”

"Unless I had believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living …"

In linguistics, an apokoinu construction is a blend of two clauses through a lexical word which has two syntactical functions, one in each of the blended clauses. The clauses are connected asyndentically.

Usually the word common for both sentences is a predicative or an object in the first sentence and subject in the second one. As such constructions are not part of standard modern English, they serve a stylistic function of characterizing a character through his speech as uneducated.Examples:

"There was no breeze came through the door". (E. Hemingway)

"There was a door led into the kitchen". (E. Hemingway)

"This is the sword killed him." (Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics)