Шпаргалка по "Стилистике"

15. Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices.

Paradigmatic lexicology subdivides English vocabulary into stylistic layers. In most works on this problem (cf. books by Galperin, Arnold, Vinogradov) all words of the national language are usually described in terms of neutral, literary and colloquial with further subdivision into poetic, archaic, foreign, jargonisms, slang, etc.

Skrebnev uses different terms for practically the same purposes. His terminology includes correspondingly neutral, positive (elevated) and negative (degraded) layers.

Subdivision inside these categories is much the same with the exclusion of such groups as bookish and archaic words and special terms that Galperin, for example, includes into the special literary vocabulary (described as positive in Skrebnev's system) while Skrebnev claims that they may have both a positive and negative styUstic function depending on the purpose of the utterance and the context. The same consideration concerns the so-called barbarisms or foreign

words whose stylistic value (elevated or degraded) depends on the kind of text in which they are used. To illustrate his point Skrebnev gives two examples of barbarisms used by people of different social class and age. Used by an upper-class character from John Galsworthy the word chic has a tinge of elegance showing the character's knowledge of French. He maintains that Itahan words ciao and bambino current among Russian youngsters at one time were also considered stylistically 'higher' than their Russian equivalents. At the same time it's hard to say whether they should ah be classified as positive just because they are of foreign origin. Each instance of use should be considered individually.

Stylistic differentiation suggested by Skrebnev includes the following stratification

PositiveIelevated

poetic;

official;

professional.

Bookish and archaic words occupy a peculiar place among the other positive words due to the fact that they can be found in any other group (poetic, official or professional).

Neutral

NegativeIdegraded

colloquial; neologisms;

jargon; slang;

nonce-words; vulgar words.

Special mention is made of terms. The author maintains that the stylistic function of terms varies in different types of speech. In non-professional spheres, such as literary prose, newspaper texts, everyday speech special terms are associated with socially presti¬gious occupations and therefore are marked as elevated. On the other hand the use of non-popular terms, unknown to the average speaker, shows a pretentious manner of speech, lack of taste or tact.

Syntagmatic lexicology studies the "word-and-context" juxtaposition that presents a number of stylistic problems - especially those connected with co-occurrence of words of various stylistic colourings.

Each of these cases must be considered individually because each literary text is unique in its choice and combination of words. Such phenomena as various instances of intentional and unintentional lexical mixtures as well as varieties of lexical recurrence fall in with this approach.

Some new more modern stylistic terms appear in this connection-stylistic irradiation, heterostylistic texts, etc. We can observe this sort of stylistic mixture in a passage from O'Henry provided by Skrebnev:

Jeff, says Andy after a long time, quite unseldom I have seen Jit to impugn your molars when you have been chewing the rag with me about your conscientious way of doing business.... 
Lexical expressive means

1. Metaphor - the application of a word or phrase to an object or concept it does not literally denote, in order to suggest comparison with another object or concept

sustained/extended a chain of metaphors containing the central image and some contributory images

Respectively there is metaphor based on the principle of affinity, metonymy based on proximity and irony based on opposition.

The evolution of a stylistic device such as metaphor could be seen from four examples that demonstrate this linguistic mechanism (interplay of dictionary and contextual meaning based on the principle of affinity):

1. My new dress is as pink as this flower: comparison (ground for comparison - the colour of the flower).

2. Her cheeks were as red as a tulip: simile (ground for simile - colour/beauty/health/freshness)

3. She is a real flower: metaphor (ground for metaphor - frail/ fragrant/tender/beautiful/helpless...).

My love is a red, red rose: metaphor (ground for metaphor - passionateIbeautifulIstrong...).

4. Ruby lips, hair of gold, snow-white skin: trite metaphors so frequently employed that they hardly have any stylistic power left because metaphor dies of overuse. Such metaphors are also called hackneyed or even dead.

2. Metonymy - transfer of name of one object onto another to which it is related or of which it is a part

Crown for sovereign; Homer for Homer's poems; wealth for rich people.

The camp, the pulpit and the law For rich man's sons are free.

Figures of quality comprise 3 types of renaming:

• transfer based on a real connection between the object of nomination and the object whose name it's given.

This is called metonymy in its two forms: synecdoche and periphrasis. E. g. I'm all ears; Hands wanted.

Periphrasis and its varieties euphemism and anti-euphemism.

E. g. Ladies and the worser halves; I never call a spade a spade, 1 call it a bloody shovel.

" transfer based on affinity (similarity, not real connection): metaphor.

3. Irony - a stylistic device in which the words express a meaning that is often the direct opposite of the intended meaning

It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one's pocket.

Skrebnev distinguishes 2 kinds of ironic utterances:

- obviously explicit ironical, which no one would take at their face value due to the situation, tune and structure.

E. g. A fine friend you are! That's a pretty kettle of fish!

-  and implicit, when the ironical message is communicated against a wider context like in Oscar Wilde's tale "The Devoted Friend" where the real meaning of the title only becomes obvious after you read the story. On the whole irony is used with the aim of critical evaluation and the general scheme is praise stands for blame and extremely rarely in the reverse order. However when it does happen the term in the latter case is astheism.

E. g. Clever bastard! Lucky devil!

4. Polysemy - primary and derivative meanings:

Massachusetts was hostile to the American flag, and she would not allow it to be hoisted on her State Bouse;

5. Zeugma - (combination of unequal, or incompatible words based on the economy of syntactical units).

E. g. She dropped a tear and her pocket handkerchief. (Dickens)

6. Pun - (play upon words based on polysemy or homonymy).

E. g. What steps would you take if an empty tank were coming toward you ? - Long ones.

zeugma and pun: May's mother always stood on her gentility; and Dot's mother never stood on anything but her active little feet. (Dickens)

7. interjections and exclamatory words:

All present life is but an interjection

An 'Oh' or 'Ah' of joy or misery,

Or a 'Ha! ha!' or 'Bah!'-a yawn or 'Pooh!'

Of which perhaps the latter is most true.

colloquial interjections: boy, wow, hey, there, ahoy.

8. the Epithet - an adjective or descriptive phrase used to characterize a person or object with the aim to give them subjective evaluation

a word or phrase used to describe someone or something with a purpose to praise or blame.

E. g. It was a lovely, summery evening.

a well-matched, fairly-balanced give-and-take couple. (Dickens)

9. Oxymoron - a figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas are combined

peopled desert, populous solitude, proud humility. (Byron)

His honour rooted in dishonour stood, And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true. (Tennyson)

10. Simile - a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared by the use of like, as, resemble, etc.

treacherous as a snake, faithful as a dog, slow as a tortoise.

(an explicit statement of partial identity: affinity, likeness, similarity of 2 objects).

E. g. My heart is like a singing bird. (Rosetti)

11. Periphrases - renaming of an object by a phrase that emphasises some particular feature of the object

a gentleman of the long robe (a lawyer); the fair sex. (women)

12. Hyperbole - exaggeration for effect not meant to be taken literally

A 1000 apologies; to wait an eternity; he is stronger than a lion.

The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in and the sun and the moon were made to give them light. (Dickens)

13. Proverbs and sayings - Come! he said, milk's spilt. (Galsworthy)

Now or never; Last but not least; As good as gold. Marriages are made in Heaven

14. Epigrams - a short poem with a witty or satirical point 2. any terse, witty, pointed statement, often with a clever twist in thought.

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever. (Keats)