The Notion of Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

(1 academic hour)

 

1.The notion of expressive means: Morphological Expressive Means, Word-Building Expressive Means, Lexical Expressive Means, Syntactical Expressive Means

In linguistics there are different terms to denote those particular means by which a writer obtains his effect. Expressive means, stylistic means, stylistic devices and other terms are all used indiscriminately. For our purposes it is necessary to make a distinction between expressive means and stylistic devices.

All stylistic means of a language can be divided into expressive means (EM), which are used in some specific way, and special devices called stylistic devices (SD).

The 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.

The most powerful expressive means of any language are phonetic. The human voice can indicate subtle nuances of meaning that no other means can attain. Pitch, melody, stress, pausation, drawling, drawling out certain syllables, whispering, a sing-song manner of speech and other ways of using the voice are more effective than any other means in intensifying the utterance emotionally or logically.

Among the morphological expressive means the use of the Present Indefinite instead of the Past Indefinite must be mentioned first. This has already been acknowledged as a special means and is named the Historical Present. In describing some past event the author uses the present tense, thus achieving a more vivid picturisation of what was going on.

The use of shall in the second and third person may also be regarded as an expressive means.

He shall do it (= I shall make him do it). He has to do it (=' It is necessary for him to do it).

Diminutive suffixes may also have an expressive effect: girlie, Freddie, doggy, piggie.

Among word-building expressive means we find a great many forms which serve to make the utterance more expressive and fresh or to intensify it. The diminutive suffixes as -y(ie), -let, e. g. dear, dearie, stream, streamlet, add some emotional colouring to the words.

Certain affixes have gained such a power of expressiveness that they begin functioning as separate words, absorbing all of the generalizing meaning they usually attach to different roots, as for example: 'isms and ologies'.

At the lexical level there are a great many words which due to their inner expressiveness, constitute a special layer. There are words with emotive meaning only, like interjections, words which have both referential and emotive meaning, like some of the qualitative adjectives; words which still retain a twofold meaning; denotative and connotative; or words belonging to special groups of literary English or of non-standard English (poetic, archaic, slang, vulgar, etc.) and some other groups. The expressive power of these words cannot be doubted, especially when they are compared with the neutral vocabulary, for example: house - neutral; dome (величественное здание, устар.), abode (жилище, обиталище)- bookish; cot (хижина, лачуга) - poetic; crib (хата, квартира)- jargonism; hutch (каморка, хибарка), hovel (шалаш, хибара) - colloquial; den (берлога, логово, нора, укрытие)- positive; hole (притон, захолустье, дыра, убежище) - negative.

The same can be said of the set expressions of the language. Proverbs and sayings as well as catch-words form a considerable number of language units which serve to make speech more emphatic, mainly from the emotional point of view. Some of these proverbs and sayings are so well-known that their use in the process of communication passes almost unobserved; others are rare and therefore catch the attention of the reader or the listener.

In every-day speech you often hear such phrases as "Well, it will only add fuel to the fire", and the like, which can easily be replaced by synonymous neutral expressions, like "It will only make the situa­tion worse."

Finally at the syntactical level there are many constructions which, being set against synonymous ones, will reveal a certain degree of logical or emotional emphasis.

Let us compare the following pairs of structures:

"I have never seen such a film." "Never have I seen such a film."

"Mr. Smith came in first." "It was Mr. Smith who came in first."

«I know you». «I do know you».

The second structure in each pair contains emphatic elements. They cause intensification of the utterance: in the first case emotional in character, in the second, logical.

In the English language there are many syntactical patterns which serve to intensify emotional quality. Examples of these emotional constructions are:

He is a brute of a man, is John. That you should deceive me! If only I could help you! Isn't she cute! Fool that he was!

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

 

2. The Notion of a Stylistic Device

A stylistic device (SD) is a literary model in which semantic and structural features are blended so that it represents a generalised pattern.

According to Professor I. R. Galperin a stylistic device (SD) is a conscious and intentional literary use of some of the facts of the language (including expressive means), it is a conscious and intentional intensification of some typical structural or semantic property of a language unit, promoted to a generalized status and thus becoming a generative model.

Not every stylistic use of a language fact will come under the term SD. For a language fact to become a SD there is one indispensable (обязательный) requirement, that it should be so much used in one and the same function that it has become generalized in its functions.

3. Classifications of expressive means (EM) and stylistic devices (SD)

The classification suggested by Prof. Galperin is simply organised and very detailed. His subdivision of expressive means and stylistic devices is based on the level-oriented approach:

1. Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices.

2. Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices.

3. Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices.

4. Expressive means (EM) and stylistic devices (SD) in Detail

In linguistics there are different terms to denote particular means by which utterances are foregrounded, i.e. made more conspicuous, more effective and therefore imparting some additional information. They are called expressive means, stylistic means, stylistic markers, stylistic devices, tropes, figures of speech and other names.

The expressive means of a language are those phonetic, morphological, word-building, lexical, phraseological and syntactical forms which exist in language-as-a-system for the purpose of logical and/or emotional intensification of the utterance. These intensifying forms have been singled out in grammars, courses in phonetics and dictionaries as having special functions in making the utterances emphatic. In most cases they have corresponding neutral synonymous forms. Compare, for example, the following pairs:

Isn't she cute! = She is very nice, isn't she?

The most powerful expressive means of any language are phonetic. The human voice can indicate subtle nuances of meaning that no other means can attain. Pitch, melody, stress, pausation, drawling out certain syllables, whispering, a sing-song manner and other ways of using the voice are much more effective than any other means in intensifying an utterance emotionally or logically. Among the word - building means we find the diminutive suffixes -y (-ie), -let, e.g. 'dearie', 'sonny', 'auntie', 'streamlet’, add some

emotional colouring to the words. We may also refer to what are called neologisms and nonce-words formed with non-productive suffixes.

At the lexical level there are a great many words which due to their inner expressiveness constitute a special layer. There are words with emotive meaning only (interjections), words which have both referential and emotive meaning (epithets), words which still retain a twofold meaning: denotative and connotative (love, hate, sympathy), words belonging to the layers of slang and vulgar words, or to poetic or archaic layers. The expressive power of these words cannot be doubted, especially when they are compared with the neutral vocabulary.

All kinds of set phrases (phraseological units) generally possess the property of expressiveness. Set phrases, catch words, proverbs, sayings comprise a considerable number of language units which serve to make speech emphatic, mainly from the emotional point of view.

It must be noted here that due to the generally emotional character of colloquial language, all kinds of set expressions are natural in everyday speech. They are, as it were, part and parcel of this form of human intercourse. But when they appear in written texts their expressiveness comes to the fore. The set expression is more sparingly used in written texts. In everyday speech one can often hear such phrases as: "Well, it will only add fuel to the fire" and the like, which in fact is synonymous to the neutral: "It will only make the situation worse."

Finally, at the syntactical level there are many constructions which, when set against synonymous neutral ones, will reveal a certain degree of logical or emotional emphasis.

In order to be able to distinguish between expressive means and stylistic devices, it is necessary to bear in mind that expressive means are concrete facts of language. They are studied in the respective language manuals.

Stylistics studies the expressive means of language, but from a special angle. It takes into account the modifications of meanings which various expressive means undergo when they are used in different functional styles. Expressive means have a kind of radiating effect. They noticeably colour the whole of the utterance no matter whether they are logical or emotional.

Stylistic device is a conscious and intentional intensification of some typical structural and/or semantic property of a language unit (neutral or expressive) promoted to a generalized status and thus becoming a generative model. They are spontaneous things done every time for the definite situation. Having been born in the Language-in-action, they belong to the Language-as-a-system.

SDs function in texts as marked units. They always carry some kind of additional information, either emotive or logical.

Most SDs display an application of two meanings: the ordinary one, in other words, the meaning (lexical or structural) which has already been established in the language-as-a-system, and special meaning which is superimposed on the unit by the text, i.e. a meaning which appears in the language-in-action.

The contrast which the author of the passage quoted points to, cannot always be clearly observed. In some SDs it can be grasped immediately in others it requires a keen eye and sufficient training to detect it.

EMs have a greater degree of predictability than stylistic devices. The latter may appear in an environment which may seem alien and therefore be only slightly or not at all predictable. Expressive means, on the contrary, follow the natural course of thought, intensifying it by means commonly used in language. It follows that SDs carry a greater amount of information and therefore require a certain effort to decode their meaning and purport. SDs must be regarded as a special code which has to be well known to the reader in order to be deciphered easily.

SDs are abundantly used in poetry and especially so in some trends of poetical tradition, consequently retarding mental absorption of the content. Therefore it is necessary to distinguish between a stylistic use of a language unit, which acquires what we call a stylistic meaning, and a stylistic device, which is the realization of an already well-known abstract scheme designed to achieve a particular artistic effect. Thus many facts of English grammar are said to be used with stylistic meaning. But most of them have not yet been raised to the level of SDs because they remain unsystematized and so far perceived as nonce uses. They are still wandering in the vicinity of the realm of SDs without being admitted into it. This can indirectly be proved by the fact that they have no special name in the English language system of SDs.

Works of fiction and other texts are the examples of individual speech, given in direct observation. For describing and revealing the peculiarities of the text by comparison with other texts of the given language, it’s necessary to establish some terms for comparison. These terms are the system of the given language in general and its norm. Norm is not only neutral literary standard, but also FS and dialects. The system of the language and its norm are not given to us in direct observation and are revealed by the way of abstraction. We can describe the system of a language as an abstract model, the norm – as a static model and individual speech as an empirically observable material, which for stylistics is presented in a work of speech – text. It should be borne in mind that at the norm level a word gets a stylistic colouring and at the level of individual speech it gets and does some stylistic function.

 

THEME 3