Linguistic Stylistics - Gabriela Missikova part2

Colloquial lexis

is represented by several groups of words, mainly familiarisms, some loan words, metaphorical verbs (e.g. to ape, to stone, to whitewash, to milk, to blackmail, etc.) and various kinds of expressive/ figurative lexis (to gun a car = to start or make it go faster by pressing on accelerator pedal, far into the long grass = to delay solutions, he was frog-marched to the nearest cashpoint = he was sent, etc.). Many of the multiword expressions used in colloquial language are semantically opaque and formally fixed and thus classified as idioms (to bite the dust = to die, she is falling for him head over heels = she is in love with him, up the creek or up shit creek without a paddle = face difficulties, at the eleventh hour = at the very last moment, etc.).

Typical representatives of colloquial lexis are also various greetings, taboo words, dialectisms, slang, argot and jargon words, idiolectisms, ocassionalisms and others.

Colloquial speech typically exhibits a tendency towards brevity, many short or shortened expressions are used as a result of univerbalism (final exams > finals, high school > high, oral exams > orals, etc.), clipping (comfortable > comfy, spectacles > specs, pyjamas > jams, etc.) and acronyms (e.g. I’ve got a new CD. Send me an SMS. She’s a WASP. Let me know ASAP.).

6.2Stylistic Value of Particular Parts of Words

Particular parts of words, that is prefixes, suffixes and infixes, can exhibit various stylistic values. For example, the prefix ex- often brings about expressiveness (consider ex-wife, ex-boss, ex-president, her ex-), similarly the use of infixes (compare absobloominglutely). Diminutive suffixes indicate expressiveness too (compare neutral words Catherine and familiar Cathy, neutral kitchen and diminutive kitchenette, neutral rose and diminutive rosette).

6.3Synonymy and Polysemy

Lexical relations of synonymy and polysemy are studied with respect to the genre and style characteristics. At the same time, they provide information on the authorial style.

Tautology

Seemingly similar to synonymy, but in fact very different, is tautology (from tautos = the same, logos = word). Examples are: once upon a time. An elephant is an animal. Facts are facts. Stylistic devices like antithesis and oxymoron are based on the relationship of antonymy.

Paronymy

The relationship between one word and another belonging to a different syntactic category and production from the first one by some process of derivation is called paronymy. According to this linguistic definition paronyms are simply words with the same roots, for instance, act/ actor, cook/ cooker, deep/ deepen, fertilise/ fertiliser,

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race/ racy, wide/ widen, etc.

Intentional grouping of words with the same roots but different morphological categories is known as figura etymologica or paronomasia. It is either an impressive word-play or an effective poetic figure, the play with phonetic effects, etc. The most typical is the combination of a verb and related noun: fight the fighter, hammer the hammer, or, in Slovak: dobojovať boj, blýskať sa bleskom, spať spánkom. Less frequently the combinations of an adjective and noun occur: actor‘s act, wimping wimp, Sk. najnovšia novina, etc. (Based on Encyklopédia jazykovedy, 1993, p. 132).

In stylistics often the more general understanding of this notion is accepted, whereby paronyms are all those words which exhibit strong similarity in pronunciation and grammatical structure while expressing different meanings. In this sense, paronyms are sometimes described as “related words with shifted semantics” (ibid., p. 132). In spontaneous rapid speech these words are often unconsciously mistaken and confused, for instance, slips/ lips, or, in Slovak, exkavátor/eskalátor, dištancia/inštancia, etc.

Intentional grouping of paronyms (i.e. words similar in their pronunciation and form) is a powerful stylistic device called paronomasia. It is actually a word play and many puns involving words that sound similar originated this way. Examples are jokes or graffiti:

Nuclear food here – fission chips.

The strongest stylistic effects are achieved when the used items clash semantically: for example, Hamlet cynically to Claudius, who addresses him as his son and cousin:

A little more than kin and less than kind!

Another kind of play with words is palindrome, that is an expression which also makes sense (the same or different) when read backwards,

e.g.

AVE EVA, RADAR, EVE, MURDER / REDROOM

Repetition

of lexical units plays an important role in a text. It differs from style to style and has specific functions in individual genres. Considering the style of scientific prose, we can often find repetition of synonyms in order to provide as precise and clear an explanation as possible. Similarly, we can study the role and stylistic value of repetition in the language of newspapers and reporting, in legal documents, or rhetoric where quite many figures are based on repetition (Crystal, Davy, 1969). In fluent speech the speaker usually repeats what he thinks is important, some repetitions mean hesitation and/or a lack of concentration too. Lexical repetitions in literature, that is poetry and prose, can take various forms (Verdonk, 1995). The term pleonasm is used when the author intentionally uses more words than necessary, creating aesthetic values. Clearly aesthetic functions have also enumerations, exclamations and stereotyped constructions which serve artistic purposes too (See also Mistrík, ibid.).

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relationships between implied author or narrator and reader, and the broad issue of point of view in fiction.

It can be argued that fiction operates in the non-alethic modal system (alethic modality, from Gk ‘dealing with the truth of proposition’), since no fictional utterance is true or factual, except in the fictional world created. What is at issue is what might or could happen if ... Moreover, utterances in fiction are always told from the point of view of someone...a subjectivity is inevitable. Marked qualification of the statement is characteristic of first-person narratives, marked modality is also characteristic of the representation of the characters' thought process in free direct and indirect thought, or interior monologue. Moreover, plots themselves, whether in drama, epic or a novel, are frequently structured on conflicting modalities: on dreams and reality, obligations and desires, beliefs and dogmas.

7.1.3 Types of Sentences according to the Types of Modality

Sentences expressing a/an 1. announcement, 2. statement (declarative is a basic sentence type from which others are derived, also negative: You’re not washing the dishes. In speech-act theory it is classifiesd as rather a conventional kind, often uttered within some particular social context by a person or authority, for instance, a judge: “I hereby sentence you to two years' imprisonment”.), 3. question, for example, question tag, wh-question, investigating, semantic types of questions

(structures or contact expressions which resemble questions with a form like "Do you know what? Let’s do it..., How are you? How do you do? and others.), rhetorical question (does not expect an answer: “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” which implies Spring can’t be far behind, from P. B. Shelley.), 4. exclamation, 5. request, 6. wish (“I wish I were you.” subjunctive).

Generally, the sentences expressing anouncements are stylistically neutral, unlike other types of sentences which are usually stylistically marked, expressive.

7.2Expressiveness in Syntax

Expressiveness of syntactic constructions, or, in other words, ‘markedness’ of particular sentence patterns, is based on two main aspects: that they are deviant and anomalous, and that they are rare. The following definitions of syntactic stylistic devices are based mainly on I. R. Galperin’s Stylistics (1977) and K. Wales’s A Dictionary of Stylistics (1990).

7.2.1 Expressive Syntactic Constructions

Aposiopesis

Aposiopesis is the sudden breaking off of an utterance before it is completed, usually

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in moments of emotions: “What the...”. In the normal flow of literary discourse it is rare, but when it appears it is marked. I. R. Galperin (ibid.) defines aposiopesis as a device which is a stopping short for rhetorical effect. In the spoken variety of the language it is usually caused by unwillingness to proceed, or by the supposition that what remains to be said can be understood by the implication embodied in what was said, or by uncertainty as to what should be said. In the written variety an aposiopesis is always a stylistic device used for some stylistic effect. In conversation the implication can be conveyed by an adequate gesture, in writing it is the context, which suggests the adequate intonation, that is the only key to decoding the aposiopesis. The implication of the following aposiopesis is ‘a warning’:

“If you continue your intemperate way of living, in six month time...”

The second example implies ‘a threat’:

“You must come home or I´ll ...”

Prosiopesis

Sometimes the term prosiopesis is used to indicate that it is the initial part which is left out, for example, see you/ later < I´ll see you/ later, sorry < I’m sorry (Sl.

...skávam, ...brý deň, ...sa máte).

Anacoluthon

Anacoluthon (from Gk. ‘inconsistent’) is a typical defect sentence structure. It is used in rhetoric and grammar to refer to a grammatical sequence which begins in one way, and finishes in another, e.g.:

“She was responsible for - had to interview me.”

“I was at my window – just luck, that was.”

It is often marked as above by a pause (or hyphen in writing), but changes in structure are not always immediately obvious. They are part of the habitual nonfluency of casual speech, arising from unclear formulation, heightened emotion, etc.; or, in longer and more complex sentences, from a failure perhaps to keep the whole intended construction in mind. (K.Wales, 1989, p. 21.)

Ellipsis

Ellipsis (from Gk. ‚leaving out‘) is a typical phenomenon in conversation, arising out of a situation; for instance, in a restaurant we can say “Two glasses [of wine] please”. P. Kvetko (1996) points out that there are also regular or institutionalized examples of elliptical expressions, such as weekly [magazine]. Elliptical constructions are closely connected with the situatedness of the spoken utterance. The following examples of short conversations recorded by Dušková are typical (2000, p. 44):

“______Coffee?”

“If it isn’t too much trouble________.” “______No trouble at all.”

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Embedding

Some grammars term this subordination because one sentence is included in another, for example:

‘Strether’s first question, [when he reached the hotel], was about his friend, yet on his learning [that Waymarsh was apparently not to arrive till evening] he was not wholly disconcerted.’

(H. James: The Ambassadors)

Cleft constructions

The elements of the predication are split between two structures, as in the sentences (K. Wales, ibid.):

Bill cooked it.

It was Bill who cooked it.

It was the sparrow who killed Cock Robin. (focus on logical subject) It was Cock Robin whom the sparrow killed. (focus on object)

The following examples of cleft and pseudocleft sentences are quoted from Dušková (ibid., p. 59):

Was it Rousseau who said that the primary function of early education was to expand in children the faculty of wonder?

She ran into the corridor, announcing her intention to slash her wrists. “She does have a razor blade to sharpen her pencils with.” – “It’s blood she doesn’t have.”

I am expecting you to do something as a lawyer. – It’s as a lawyer. I’m speaking, not as an emotional father.

Fronting

Fronting is syntactic shifting of elements, usually for highlighting or emphasis, from their normal post-verbal position to the beginning of the sentence or clause. The following examples come from various sources and are all marked constructions:

And read it she did. (informal)

Angry as she was, the idea of revenge blurred her vision.

Aware as he was of her huge popularity, Mike was unable to understand...

In came the fiddler, and tuned like fifty stomach-aches. No motion has she now, no force.

Not a word more could I draw from him.

Never had I seen such a change in that short time. That man I detest.

Yet one door you must not open.

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• The Adverbial Modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence, as in:

(Ch. Dickens)

• Both Modifier and Predicate stand before the subject, as in:

These five models classified by I. R. Galperin comprise the most common and recognised models of inversion. No other form of inversion can be a basis for a model, though occasionally a word order appears which is in violation of the recognised norms of the English sentence.

7.2.3 Detached Constructions

Sometimes one of the secondary parts of the sentence is placed so that it seems formally independent of the word it logically refers to. Such parts of structures are called detached. They seem to dangle in the sentence as isolated parts. The detached part, being torn away from its referent, assumes a greater degree of significance and is given prominence by intonation. There are some structural patterns of detached constructions which seem to occur repeatedly. The following is the selection of the most noticeable patterns as stated by I. R. Galperin (ibid., 205-7):

• Specific position of an attribute or an adverbial modifier.

An attribute or an adverbial modifier is placed not in immediate proximity to its referent, but in some other position. The following examples (also listed by I. R. Galperin) were used by W. M. Thackeary:

‘Steyne rose up, grinding his teeth, pale, and with fury in his eyes.’

‘Sir Pitt came in first, very much flushed, and rather unsteady in his gait.’

•A nominal phrase thrown into the sentence forming a syntactic unit with the rest of the sentence, as in:

‘And he walked slowly past again, along the river - an evening of clear, quiet beauty, all harmony and comfort, except within his heart.’

(J. Galsworthy)

Detached constructions in their common forms bring the written variety of

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language closer to the spoken variety where the relationship between the sentence elements is efficiently indicated by intonation. Detached constructions have become a peculiar device bridging the norms of written and spoken language. As for its functions, a detached construction as a stylistic device which resembles inversion. In fact, inversion and detached constructions produce the same effects but the latter is much stronger. I. R. Galperin (ibid.) also suggests that detached constructions often represent the most significant parts of the utterance from the author’s point of view. He offers an example from J. Galsworthy‘s novel:

‘I want to go,’ he said, miserable.

Detached construction sometimes causes the simultaneous realisation of two grammatical meanings of a word. (e.g. the word miserable could be understood as an adverbial modifier to the word ‘said’ if not for the comma, though grammatically ‘miserably’ would be expected. The pause indicated by the comma implies that miserable is an adjective used absolutely and referring to the pronoun he. In the example below, a detached construction is indicated by a colon:

‘Easy to see the many trees as survivors of that wood: unlikely, but not impossible.’

(D. Lessing)

Parenthesis

is a variant of a detached construction. It is a qualifying, explanatory or appositive word, phrase, clause, sentence, or other sequence which interrupts a syntactic construction without otherwise affecting it, often having a characteristic intonation and indicated in writing by commas, brackets or dashes. The following examples are from the short stories written by D. Lessing (1993):

‘It is French, like the ‘Boucherie’ next to it – a very British butcher – like the ‘Brasserie’ opposite, and it is run by two Greeks.’

‘They stood there a long time, long at least for an observer, perhaps a minute or more, looking at each other, entranced.’

‘Because he could not, apparently, embrace the mother, he leaned over the pram with a gallant air...’

Parallel Construction

A device, common in rhetoric, which depends on the principle of equivalence, or on the repetition of the same structural pattern. For instance, the repetition of the prepositional phrase as in the proverb Out of sight, out of mind, or the repetition of the clause in He came, he saw, he conquered (Wales, ibid., p. 335). Parallel construction

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