Stylistics of the English Language

Fundamentals of the Course

Допущено Министерством образования Российской Федерации в качестве учебного пособия для студентов высших учебных заведений, обучающихся по специальности 030500 - Профессиональное обучение (по отраслям)

Издание второе, исправленное

Москва • 2004

ББК 81.2Англ-5я73

Знаменская Татьяна Анатольевна

Стилистика английского языка. Основы курса: Учебное пособие. Изд. 2-е, испр. - М.: Едиториал УРСС, 2004. - 208 с.

ISBN 5-354-00659-7

Пособие освещает ключевые проблемы стилистики английского языка и включает главы: предмет и задачи курса, выразительные средства языка, грамматическая стилистика, теория функциональных стилей, основы стилистики декодирования, глоссарий стилистических терминов. В каждой главе актуализация теоретических

положений опирается на систему практических заданий, которые могут быть использованы как на семинарских занятиях, так и для самостоятельной работы.

Учебное пособие предназначено для студентов факультетов иностранных языков, а также всех, кто изучает дисциплину "Стилистика английского языка".

Рецензенты:

кандидат филологических наук, доцент В. А. Першикова (Нижегородский государственный лингвистический университет); кандидат филологических наук, доцент Г. В. Андреева (Шадринский педагогический институт); С. Скляр, преподаватель колледжа Шаймер (г. Чикаго, США)

Издательство "Едиториал УРСС". 117312, г. Москва, rrp-т 60-летия Октября, 9. Лицензия ИД №05175 от 25.06.2001 г. Подписано к печати 20.01.2004 г. Формат 60x90I16. Тираж 1000 экз. Печ. л. 13. Зак. № 2-1229I427.

Отпечатано в типографии ООО "РОХОС".117312, г. Москва, пр-т 60-летия Октября, 9.

ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО НАУЧНОЙ И УЧЕБНОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ E-mail: URSS@URSS.ru Каталог изданий в Internet: http://URSS.ru Тел.Iфакс: 7 (095) 135-42-16 Тел.Iфакс: 7 (095) 135-42-46

УРСС I SBN 5-354-00659-7

© Едиториал УРСС, 2004

Contents

Preface................................... 7

Chapter 1. The Object of Stylistics................. 9

1.1. Problems of stylistic research............. 9

1.2. Stylistics of language and speech........... 15

1.3. Types of stylistic research and branches

of stylistics......................... 16

1.4. Stylistics and other linguistic disciplines....... 19

1.5. Stylistic neutrality and stylistic colouring...... 21

1.6. Stylistic function notion................ 24

Practice Section......................... 28

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language........ 33

2.1. Expressive means and stylistic devices........ 34

2.2. Different classifications of expressive means.... 37

2.2.1. Hellenistic Roman rhetoric system...... 39

2.2.2. Stylistic theory and classification

of expresssive means by G. Leech...... 45

2.2.3. I. R. Galperin's classification of expressive means and stylistic devices........... 50

2.2.4. Classification of expressive means

and stylistic devices by Y. M. Skrebnev... 57

Practice Section......................... 76

Chapter 3. Stylistic Grammar.................... 87

3.1. The theory of grammatical gradation.

Marked, semi-marked and unmarked structures.. 87

3.2. Grammatical metaphor and types

of grammatical transposition.............. 89

3.3. Morphological stylistics. Stylistic potential

of the parts of speech.................. 92

3.3.1. The noun and its stylistic potential..... 92

3.3.2. The article and its stylistic potential..... 95

3.3.3. The stylistic power of the pronoun...... 97

3.3.4. The adjective and its stylistic functions... 101

3.3.5. The verb and its stylistic properties..... 103

3.3.6. Affixation and its expressiveness....... 107

3.4. Stylistic syntax...................... 110

Practice Section......................... 116

Chapter 4. The Theory of Functional Styles............ 122

4.1. The notion of style in functional stylistics..... 122

4.2. Correlation of style, norm and function

in the language...................... 124

4.3. Language varieties: regional, social, occupational. 127

4.4. An overview of functional style systems....... 131

4.5. Distinctive linguistic features of the major functional styles of English............... 142

4.5.1. Literary colloquial style............. 143

4.5.2. Familiar colloquial style............ 145

4.5.3. Publicist (media) style............. 148

4.5.4. The style of official documents........ 150

4.5.5. ScientificIacademic style............ 153

Practice Section......................... 156

Chapter 5. Decoding stylistics and Its Fundamental Notions. 160

5.1. Stylistics of the author and of the reader.

The notions of encoding and decoding....... 161

5.2. Essential concepts of decoding stylistic analysis

and types of foregrounding............... 164

5.2.1. Convergence................... 167

5.2.2. Defeated expectancy.............. 169

5.2.3. Coupling...................... 171

5.2.4. Semantic field.................. 174

5.2.5. Semi-marked structures............ 177

Practice Section......................... 179

Glossary for the Course of Stylistics................. 188

Sources................................... 201

Dictionaries................................ 203

List of Authors and Publications Quoted.............. 204

Preface

The book suggests the fundamentals of stylistic theory that outline such basic areas of research as expressive resources of the language, stylistic differentiation of vocabulary, varieties of the national language and sociolinguistic and pragmatic factors that determine functional styles.

The second chapter will take a student of English to the beginnings of stylistics in Greek and Roman schools of rhetoric and show how

much modern terminology and classifications of expressive means

owe to rhetoric.

An important part of the book is devoted to the new tendencies and schools of stylistics that assimilated advancements in the linguistic science in such trends of the 20^th century as functional, decoding

and grammatical stylistics.

The material on the wealth of expressive means of EngUsh will help a student of philology, a would-be teacher and a reader of literature not only to receive orientation in how to fully decode the message of the work of art and therefore enjoy it all the more but also to improve their own style of expression.

The chapter on functional styles highlights the importance of «time and place» in language usage. It tells how the same language differs when used for different purposes on different occasions in communi-cation with different people. It explains why we adopt different uses of

language as we go through our day. A selection of distinctive features of each functional style will help to identify and use it correctly whether you deal with producing or analysing a text of a certain functional type.

Chapters on grammar stylistics and decoding stylistics are intended to introduce the student to the secrets of how a stylistic device works. Modern linguistics may help to identify the nature and algorithm of stylistic effect by showing what kind of semantic change, grammatical transposition or lexical deviation results in various stylistic outcomes.

This book combines theoretical study and practice. Each chapter is supplied with a special section that enables the student and the teacher to revise and process the theoretical part by drawing conclusions and parallels, doing comparison and critical analysis. Another type of practice

involves creative tasks on stylistic analysis and interpretation, such as identifying devices in literary texts, explaining their function and the principle of performance, decoding the implications they create.

The knowledge of the theoretical background of stylistic research and the experience of integrating it into one's analytical reading skills will enhance the competence and proficiency of a future teacher of English. Working with literary texts on this level also helps to develop one's cultural scope and aesthetic taste. It will also enrich the student's linguistic and stylistic thesaurus.

The author owes acknowledgements for the kindly assistance in reading and stylistic editing of this work to a colleague from the Shimer College of Chicago, a lecturer in English and American literature S. Sklar.

Chapter 1

The Object of Stylistics

Problems of stylistic research. Stylistics of language and speech. Types of stylistic research and branches of stylistics. Stylistics and other linguistic disciplines. Stylistic neutrality and stylistic coloring. Stylistic function notion.