Stylistics of the English language

She was an honest little thing, but perhaps her honesty was too rational. (Lawrence)

So they were, this queer couple, the tiny, finely formed little Jewess with

her big, resentful, reproachful eyes, and her mop of carefully-barbed black, curly hair, an elegant little thing in her way; and the big, pale-eyed young man, powerful and wintry, the remnant, surely of some old uncanny Danish stock... (Lawrence)

3. How do the notions of expressive means and stylistic devices 
correlate? Provide examples to illustrate your point.

4. Compare the principles of classifications given in chapter 2. 
Which of them seem most logical to you? Sustain your view.

 

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language 

Practice Section

 

 

 

Draw parallels between Leech's paradigmatic and syntagmatic deviations and Skrebnev's classification. Apply these criteria to the analysis of the use of brethren and married in the following examples. Consider the grammatical category of number in A and the nature of semantic transfer in B. Supply the kind of tables suggested by Leech to describe the normal and deviant features of similar character.

Comment on the kind of deviation in the nonce-word sistern in A and the effect it produces.

A. Praise God and not the Devil, shouted one of the Maker's male shills 
from the other side of the room.

The criminal lowered his eyes and muttered at his shoes:

Ah cut anybody who bruise me with Latin, goddammit.

Listen to him take the Mighty name in vain, brethren and sistern/ said

Reinhart. (Berger)

B. My father was still feisty in 1940—he was thirty years old and 
restless, maybe a little wild beneath the yoke of my mother's family. He 
truly had married not only my mother but my grandmother as well, and 
also the mule and the two elderly horses and the cows and chickens and 
the two perilous-looking barns and the whole rocky hundred acres of 
Carolina mountain farm. (Chappel)

5. What kind of syntagmatic deviation (according to Leech) is observed in the following instance? What is the term for this device in rhetoric and other stylistic classifications? Where does it belong according to Galperin and Skrebnev?

And in the manner of the Anglo-Saxon poetry that was its inspiration, he ended his sermon resoundingly: 

High on the hill in sight of heaven,

Our Lord was led and lifted up.

That willing warrior came while the world wept,

And a terrible shadow shaded the sun

For us He was broken and gave His blood

King of all creation Christ on the Rood.

(Rutherfurd)

6. What types of phonographic expressive means are used in the sentences given below? How do different classifications name and place them?

Стоп, now. I'm not bringing this up with the idea of throwing anything back in your teeth—my God. (Salinger)

Little Dicky strains and yaps back from the safety of Mary's arms. (Erdrich)

Why shouldn't we all go over to the Metropole at Cwmpryddygfor dinner one night?" (Waugh)

I hear Lionel's supposeta be runnin away. (Salinger) Who's that dear, dim, drunk little man? (Waugh) No chitchat please. (O'Hara)

/ prayed for the city to be cleared of people, for the gift of being alone—a-l-o-n-e: which is the one New York prayer... (Salinger)

* Here Cwmpryddyg is an invented Welsh town, an allusion to the difficult Welsh language.

 

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language 

Practice Section

 

 

 

Sense of sin is sense of waste. (Waugh)

Colonel Logan is in the army, and presumably «the Major» was a soldier at the time Dennis was born. (Follett)

7. Comment on the types of transfer used in such tropes as metaphor, metonymy, allegory, simile, allusion, personification, antonomasia. Compare their place in Galperin's and Skrebnev's systems. Read up on the nature of transfer in a poetic image in terms of tenor, vehicle and ground: И. В. Арнольд Стилистика современного английского языка. М., 1990. С. 74-82. Name and explain the kind of semantic transfer observed in the following passages.

The first time my father met Johnson Gibbs they fought like tomcats. (Chappel)

/ love plants. I don't like cut flowers. Only the ones that grow in the ground. And these water lilies... Each white petal is a great tear of milk. Each slender stalk is a green life rope. (Erdrich)

/ think we should drink a toast to Fortune, a much-maligned lady. (Waugh)

...the first sigh of the instruments seemed to free some hilarious and potent spirit within him; something that struggled there like the Genius in the bottle found by the Arab fisherman. (Cather)

But he, too, knew the necessity of keeping as clear as possible from that poisonous many-headed serpent, the tongue of the people. (Lawrence) 

lily had started to ask me about Eunice. «Really, Gentle Heart», she said, «what in the world did you do to my poor little sister to make her skulk away like a thief in the night?» (Shaw)

The green tumour of hate burst inside her. (Lawrence)

She adjusted herself however quite rapidly to her new conception of people. She had to live. It is useless to quarrel with your bread and butter. (Lawrence)

...then the Tudors and the dissolution of the Church, then Lloyd George, the temperance movement, Non-conformity and lust stalking hand in hand through the country, wasting and ravaging. (Waugh)

When the stars threw down their spears, And water'd heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see?

(Blake)

As distinct from the above devices based on some sort of affinity, real or imaginary, there are a number of expressive means based on contrast or incompatibility (oxymoron, antithesis, zeugma, pun, malapropism, mixture of words from different stylistic strata of vocabulary), Their stylistic effect depends on the message and intent of the author and varies in emphasis and colouring. It maybe dramatic, pathetic, elevated, etc. Sometimes the ultimate stylistic effect is irony. Ironic, humorous or satiric effect is always built on contrast although devices that help to achieve it may not necessarily be based on contrast (e. g. they may be hyperbole, litotes, allusion, periphrasis, metaphor, etc.)

 

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

Some of the basic techniques to achieve verbal irony are:

• praise by blame (or sham praise) which means implying the opposite of what is said;
• minimizing the good qualities and magnifying the bad ones;
• contrast between manner and matter, i. e. inserting irrelev; matter in presumably serious statements;
• interpolating comic interludes in tragic narration;
• mixing formal language and slang;
• making isolated instances seem typical;
• quoting authorities to fit immediate purpose;
• allusive irony: specific allusions to people, ideas, situations, etc. that clash discordantly with the object of irony;
• connotative ambivalence: the simultaneous presence of incompatible but relevant connotations.

Bearing this in mind comment on the humorous or ironic impact of the following examples.

Explain where possible what stylistic devices effect the techniques of verbal irony.

—Have you at any time been detained in a mental home or similar

institution? If so, give particulars.

I was at Scone College, Oxford, for two years, said Paul.

The doctor looked up for the first time.—Don't you dare to make jokes

here, my man, he said, or I'll have you in the strait-jacket in less than

no time. (Waugh)

I like that. Me trying to be funny. (Waugh) 

Practice Section

I drew a dozen or more samples of what I thought were typical examples of American commercial art. ...I drew people in evening clothes stepping out of limousines on opening nights—lean, erect, super-chic couples who had obviously never in their lives inflicted suffering as a result of underarm carelessness—couples, in fact, who perhaps didn't have any underarms. ...I drew laughing, high-breasted girls aquaplaning without a care in the world, as a result of being amply protected against such national evils as bleeding gums, facial blemishes, unsightly hairs, and faulty or inadequate life insurance. I drew housewives who, until they reached for the right soap flakes, laid themselves wide open to straggly hair, poor posture, unruly children, disaffected husbands, rough (but slender) hands, untidy (but enormous) kitchens. (Salinger)

I made a Jell-0 salad.—Oh, she says, what kind?— The kind full of nuts and bolts, I say, plus washers of all types. I raided Russel's toolbox for the special ingredients. (Erdrich)

Was that the woman like Napoleon the Great? (Waugh)

They always say that she poisoned her husband... there was a great deal of talk about it at the time. Perhaps you remember the case?—No, said Paul—Powdered glass, said Flossie shrilly,—in his coffee.—Turkish coffee, said Dingy. (Waugh)

You folks all think the coloured man hasn't got a soul. Anythin's good enough for the poor coloured man. Beat him, put him in chains; load him with burdens... Here Paul observed a responsive glitter in Lady Circumference's eye. (Waugh)

In the south they also drink a good deal of tequila, which is a spirit "lade from the juice of the cactus. It has to be taken with a pinch of salt. (Atkinson)

 

 

 

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language 

Practice Section

 

 

 

«They could have killed you too, he said, his teeth chattering. If you had arrived two minutes earlier. Forgive me. Forgive all of us. Dolce Italia. Paradise for tourists.» He laughed eerily. (Shaw)

He was talking very excitedly to me, said the Vicar... He seems deeply interested in Church matters. Are you quite sure he is right in the head? I have noticed again and again since I have been in the Church that lay interest in ecclesiastical matters is often a prelude to insanity. (Waugh)

So you're the Doctor's hired assassin, eh? Well, I hope you keep a firm hand on my toad of a son. (Waugh)

9. Explain why the following sentences fall into the category of quasi-questions, quasi-statements or quasi-negatives in Skreb-nev's classification. What's their actual meaning?

—/ wish I could go back to school all over again.—Don't we all, he said. (Shaw)

Are all women different? Oh, are they! (O'Hara)

/ don't think no worse of you for it, no, darned if I do. (Lawrence)

If it isn't diamonds all over his fingers! (Caldwell)

Devil if I know what to make of these people down here. (Christie)

Contact my father again and I'll strangle you. (Donleavy)

Don't you ever talk to Rose?

Rose? Not about Mildred. Rose misses Mildred as much as I do. We

don't even want to see each other. (O'Hara) 

10. Why are instances of repetition in the sentences given below 
called disguised tautology? How does it differ from regular 
tautology? What does this sort of repetition imply?

Life is life.

There are doctors and doctors.

A small town's a small town, wherever it is, I said. (Shute)

I got nothing against Joe Chapin, but he's not me. I'm me, and another man is still another man. (O'Hara)

Well, if it can't be helped, it can't be helped, I said manfully. (Shaw)

Milan is a city, which cannot be summed up in a few words. For Dalian speakers, the old Milanese dialect expression «Milan I'e Milam- (Milan is just Milan) is probably the best description one can give. iPeroni)

Beer was beer, too, in those days—not the gassy staff in bottles. (Dickens)

11. Does the term anti-climax (back-gradation) imply the opposite 
of climax (gradation)? What effect does each of these devices 
provide? How is it achieved in the following cases:

—Philbrick, there must be champagne-cup, and will you help the men putting up the marquee? And Flags, Diana!... No expense should be spared... And there must be flowers, Diana, banks officers, said the Doctor with an expensive gesture. The prizes shall stand among the banks of flowers-Flowers, youth, wisdom, the glitter of jewels, music, said ihe Doctor. I here must be a band.

 

Chapter 2. Expressive Resources of the Language

 

—I never heard of such a thing, said Dingy. A band indeed/ You'll be having fireworks next.

—Andfireworks, said the Doctor, and do you think it would be a good thing to buy Mr. Prendergast a new tie? (Waugh)

We needed a kind rain, a blessing rain, that lasted a week. We needed wafer. (Erdrich)

At first there were going to be forty guests but the invitation list grew larger and the party plans more elaborate, until Arthur said that with so many people they ought to hire an orchestra, and with an orchestra there would be dancing, and with dancing there ought to be a good sized orchestra. The original small dinner became a dinner dance at the Lantenengo Country Club. Invitations were sent to more than three hundred persons... (O'Hara)

Even the most hardened criminal there—he was serving his third sentence for blackmail—remarked how the whole carriage seemed to be flooded with the detectable savour of Champs-Elysee in early June. (Waugh)

Hullo, Prendy, old wine-skin! How are things with you?

Admirable, said Mr. Prendergast. I never have known them better. I

have just caned twenty-three boys. (Waugh) 

Chapter 3

Stylistic Grammar

The theory of grammatical gradation. Marked, semi-marked and unmarked structures. Grammatical metaphor. Types of grammatical transposition. Morphological stylistlcs. Stylistic potential of the parts of speech. Stylistic syntax.

3.1. The theory of grammatical gradation.

Marked, semi-marked and unmarked structures

One of the least investigated areas of stylistic research is the stylistic potential of the morphology of the English language. There is quite a lot of research in the field of syntagmatic stylistics connected with syntactical structures but very little has been written about the stylistic Properties of the parts of speech and such grammatical categories as gender, number or person. So it seems logical to throw some light on these problems.

An essentially different approach of modern scholars to stylistic research is explained by a different concept that lies at the root of this approach. If ancient rhetoric mostly dealt in registering, classifying

 

Chapter 3. Stylistic Grammar 

3.2. Grammatical metaphor and types of grammatical transposition

 

 

 

and describing stylistic expressive means, modern stylistics proceeds from the nature of the stylistic effect and studies the mechanism ₀f the stylistic function. The major principle of the stylistic effect is the opposition between the norm and deviation from the norm on whatever level of the language. Roman Jacobson gave it the most generalized definition of defeated expectancy; he claimed that it is¹ the secret of any stylistic effect because the recipient is ready and willing for anything but what he actually sees. Skrebnev describes it as the opposition between the traditional meaning and situational meaning, Arnold maintains that the very essence of poetic language is the violation of the norm. These deviations may occur on any level of the language—phonetic, graphical, morphological, lexical or syntactical. It should be noted though that not every deviation from the norm results in expressiveness. There are deviations that will only create absurdity or linguistic nonsense. For example, you can't normally use the article with an adverb or adjective.

Noam Chomsky, an American scholar and founder of the generative linguistic school, formulated this rule in grammar that he called grammatical gradation (27). He constructed a scale with two poles—j grammatically correct structures at one extreme point of this scale and grammatically incorrect structures at the other. The first he called grammatically marked structures, the second—unmarked structures.

The latter ones cannot be generated by the linguistic laws of the given language, therefore they cannot exist in it. If we take the Russian sentence that completely agrees with the grammatical laws of this language Решил он меня обмануть and make a word for word translation into English we'll get a grammatically incorrect structure 'Decided

* In Chomsky's theory grammatically incorrect (unmarked) structures are labeled with an asterisk. 

ne me to deceive. A native speaker cannot produce such a sentence because it disagrees with the basic rule of word order arrangement in English. It will have to be placed at the extreme point of the pole that opposes correct or marked structures. This sentence belongs to what Chomsky calls unmarked structures.

Between these two poles there is space for the so-called semi-marked structures. These are structures marked by the deviation from lexical or grammatical valency. This means that words and grammar forms carry an unusual grammatical or referential meaning. In other terms this is called «transposition», a phenomenon that destroys customary (normal, regular, standard) valences and thus creates expressiveness of the utterance.

3.2. Grammatical metaphor and types of grammatical transposition

Some scholars (e. g. Prof. E. I. Shendels) use the term grammatical metaphor for this kind of phenomena (30, 31). We know that lexical metaphor is based on the transfer of the name of one object on to another due to some common ground. The same mechanism works in the formation of a grammatical metaphor.

Linguistic units, such as words, possess not only lexical meanings but also grammatical ones that are correlated with extra-linguistic reality. Such grammatical categories as plurality and singularity reflect the distinction between a multitude and oneness in the real world. Such classifying grammatical meanings as the noun, the verb or the adjective represent objects, actions and qualities that exist in this world. However this extra-linguistic reality may be represented in different languages

 

 

 

Chapter 3. Stylistic Grammar 

3.2. Grammatical metaphor and types of grammatical transposition

 

 

 

in a different way. The notion of definiteness or indefiniteness is grammatically expressed in English by a special class of words—the article. In Russian it's expressed differently. Gender exists as a grammatical category of the noun in Russian but not in English and so on.

A grammatical form, as well as a lexical unit possesses a denotative and a connotative meaning. There are at least three types of denotative grammatical meanings. Two of these have some kind of reference with the extra-linguistic reality and one has zero denotation, i. e. there is no reference between the grammatical meaning and outside world.

1. The first type of grammatical denotation reflects relations o| objects in outside reality such as singularity and plurality.
2. The second type denotes the relation of the speaker to the first type of denotation. It shows how objective relations are perceived by reactions to the outside world. This type of denotative meaning is expressed by such categories as modality, voice, definiteness and indefiniteness.
3. The third type of denotative meaning has no reference to the extra-linguistic reality. This is an intralinguistc denotation, conveying relations among linguistic units proper, e. g. the formation of past tense forms of regular and irregular verbs.

Denotative meanings show what this or that grammatical form designates but they do not show how they express the same relation. However a grammatical form may carry additional expressive information, it can evoke associations, emotions and impressions. It may connote as well as denote. Connotations aroused by a grammatical form are adherent subjective components, such as expressive or intensified meaning, emotive or evaluative colouring. The new connotative meaning of grammatical forms appears when we observe a certain clash between 

form and meaning or deviation in the norm of use of some forms. The stylistic effect produced is often called grammatical metaphor.

According to Shendels we may speak of grammatical metaphor when there is a transposition (transfer) of a grammatical form from one type of grammatical relation to another. In such cases we deal with a redistribution of grammatical and lexical meanings that create new connotations.

Types of grammatical transposition

Generally speaking we may distinguish 3 types of grammatical transposition.

1. The first deals with the transposition of a certain grammar form 
into a new syntactical distribution with the resulting effect of 
contrast. The so-called 'historical present' is a good illustration 
of this type: a verb in the Present Indefinite form is used against 
the background of the Past Indefinite narration. The effect of 
vividness, an illusion of «presence», a lapse in time into the 
reality of the reader is achieved.

Everything went as easy as drinking, Jimmy said. There was a garage just round the corner behind Belgrave Square where he used to go every morning to watch them messing about with the cars. Crazy about cars the kid was. Jimmy comes in one day with his motorbike and side-car and asks for some petrol. He comes up and looks at it in the way he had. (Waugh)