Stylistics of the English Language

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?

С'топ, 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 Cwmpryddyg for 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)

I 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.

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)

I 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)

I 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)

8. 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 may be 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.)

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 irrelevant 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)

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- O 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 made from the juice of the cactus. It has to be taken with a pinch of salt. (Atkinson)

<>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 Skrebnev's classification. What's their actual meaning?

- I 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)

I 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 1 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 Italian speakers, the old Milanese dialect expression "Milan l'e Milan" (Milan is just Milan) is probably the best description one can give. (Peroni)

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 of flowers, 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 the Doctor. There must be a band.

- I never heard of such a thing, said Dingy. A band indeedI 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)

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 stylistics. 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 and describing stylistic expressive means, modern stylistics proceeds from the nature of the stylistic effect and studies the mechanism of 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 is 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 - 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.

He 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 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 of 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 indeflniteness.

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)

2. The second type of transposition involves both - the lexical and grammatical meanings. The use of the plural form with a noun whose lexical denotative meaning is incompatible with plurality (abstract nouns, proper names) may serve as an apt example.

The look on her face... was full of secret resentments, and longings, and fears. (Mitchell)

3. Transposition of classifying grammatical meanings, that brings together situationally incompatible forms - for instance, the use of a common noun as a proper one.

The effect is personification of inanimate objects or antonomasia (a person becomes a symbol of a quality or trait - Mr. Know-All, Mr. Truth, speaking names).

Lord and Lady Circumference, Mr. Parakeet, Prof. Silenus, Colonel MacAdder. (Waugh)

3.3 Morphological stylistics. Stylistic potential of the parts of speech

3.3.1 The noun and its stylistic potential

The stylistic power of a noun is closely linked to the grammatical categories this part of speech possesses. First of all these are the categories of number, person and case.

The use of a singular noun instead of an appropriate plural form creates a generalized, elevated effect often bordering on symbolization. The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes From leaf to flower and from flower to fruit And fruit and leaf are as gold and fire.

(Swinburn)

The contrary device - the use of plural instead of singular - as a rule makes the description more powerful and large-scale.

The clamour of waters, snows, winds, rains... (Hemingway)

The lone and level sands stretch far away. (Shelly)

The plural form of an abstract noun, whose lexical meaning is alien to the notion of number makes it not only more expressive, but brings about what Vinogradov called aesthetic semantic growth.

Heaven remained rigidly in its proper place on the other side of death, and on this side flourished the injustices, the cruelties, the meannesses, that elsewhere people so cleverly hushed up. (Green)

Thus one feeling is represented as a number of emotional states, each with a certain connotation of a new meaning. Emotions may signify concrete events, happenings, doings.

Proper names employed as plural lend the narration a unique generalizing effect:

If you forget to invite somebody's Aunt Millie, I want to be able to say I had nothing to do with it.

There were numerous Aunt Millies because of, and in spite of Arthur's and Edith's triple checking of the list. (O'Hara)

These examples represent the second type of grammatical metaphor formed by the transposition of the lexical and grammatical meanings.

The third type of transposition can be seen on the example of personification. This is a device in which grammatical metaphor appears due to the classifying transposition of a noun, because nouns are divided into animate and inanimate and only animate nouns have the category of person.

Personification transposes a common noun into the class of proper names by attributing to it thoughts or qualities of a human being. As a result the syntactical, morphological and lexical valency of this noun changes:

England's mastery of the seas, too, was growing even greater. Last year her trading rivals the Dutch had pushed out of several colonies... (Rutherford)

The category of case (possessive case) which is typical of the proper nouns, since it denotes possession becomes a mark of personification in cases like the following one:

Love's first snowdrop Virgin kiss!

(Burns)

Abstract nouns transposed into the class of personal nouns are charged with various emotional connotations, as in the following examples where personification appears due to the unexpected lexico-gramrnatical valency:

The woebegone fragment of womanhood in the corner looked a little less terrified when she saw the wine. (Waugh)

The chubby little eccentricity, (a child)

The old oddity (an odd old person). (Arnold)

The emotive connotations in such cases may range from affection to irony or distaste.

So, although the English noun has fewer grammatical categories than the Russian one, its stylistic potential in producing grammatical metaphor is high enough.

3.3.2 The article and its stylistic potential

The article may be a very expressive element of narration especially when used with proper names.

For example, the indefinite article may convey evaluative connotations when used with a proper name:

I'm a Marlow by birth, and we are a hot-blooded family. (Follett)

It may be charged with a negative evaluative connotation and diminish the importance of someone's personality, make it sound insignificant.

Besides Rain, Nan and Mrs. Prewett, there was a Mrs. Kingsley, the wife of one of the Governors. (Dolgopolova)

A Forsyte is not an uncommon animal. (Galsworthy)

The definite article used with a proper name may become a powerful expressive means to emphasize the person's good or bad qualities.

Well, she was married to him. And what was more she loved him. Not the Stanley whom everyone saw, not the everyday one; but a timid, sensitive, innocent Stanley who knelt down every night to say his prayers... (Dolgopolova)

You are not the Andrew Manson I married. (Cronin)

In the first case the use of two different articles in relation to one person throws into relief the contradictory features of his character.

The second example implies that this article embodies all the good qualities that Andrew Manson used to have and lost in the eyes of his wife.

The definite article in the following example serves as an intensifier of the epithet used in the character's description:

My good fellow, I said suavely, what brings me here is this: I want to see the evening sun go down over the snow-tipped Siena Nevada. Within the hour he had spread this all over the town and I was pointed out for the rest of my visit as the mad Englishman. (Atkinson)

The definite article may contribute to the devices of gradation or help create the rhythm of the narration as in the following examples:

But then he would lose Sondra, his connections here, and his uncle - this world! The loss! The loss! The loss! (Dreiser)

No article, or the omission of article before a common noun conveys a maximum level of abstraction, generalization.

The postmaster and postmistress, husband and wife, ...looked carefully at every piece of mail... (Erdrich)

How infuriating it was! Land which looked like baked sand became the Garden of Eden if only you could get water. You could draw a line with a pencil: on one side, a waterless barren; on the other, an irrigated luxuriance. (Michener)

Not sound, not quiver as if horse and man had turned to metal. (Dolgopolova)

They went as though car and driver were one indivisible whole. (Dolgopolova)

3.3.3 The stylistic power of the pronoun

The stylistic functions of the pronoun also depend on the disparity between the traditional and contextual (situational) meanings. This is the grammatical metaphor of the first type based on the transposition of the form, when one pronoun is transposed into the action sphere of another pronoun.

So personal pronouns We, You, They and others can be employed in the meaning different from their dictionary meaning.

The pronoun We that means "speaking together or on behalf of other people" can be used with reference to a single person, the speaker, and is called the plural of majesty (Pluralis Majestatis). It is used in Royal speech, decrees of King, etc.

And for that offence immediately do we exile him hence. (Shakespeare)

The plural of modesty or the author's we is used with the purpose to identify oneself with the audience or society at large. Employing the plural of modesty the author involves the reader into the action making him a participant of the events and imparting the emotions prevailing in the narration to the reader.

My poor dear child, cried Miss Crawly, ...is our passion unrequited then ?

Are we pining in secret? Tell me all, and let me console you. (Thackeray)

The pronoun you is often used as an intensifier in an expressive address or imperative:

Just you go in and win. (Waugh)

Get out of my house, you fool, you idiot, you stupid old Briggs. (Thackeray)

In the following sentence the personal pronoun they has a purely expressive function because it does not substitute any real characters but has a generalising meaning and indicates some abstract entity. The implication is meant to oppose the speaker and his interlocutor to this indefinite collective group of people.

All the people like us are we, and everyone else is they. (Kipling)

Such pronouns as One, You, We have two major connotations: that of 'identification' of the speaker and the audience and 'generalization' (contrary to the individual meaning).

Note should be made of the fact that such pronouns as We, One, You that are often used in a generalized meaning of 'a human being' may have a different stylistic value for different authors.

Speaking of such English writers as Aldus Huxley, Bertrand Russel and D. H. Lawrence, J. Miles writes in her book "Style and Proportion": The power of Huxley's general ONE is closer to Russel's WE than to Lawrence's YOU though all are talking about human nature.

She points out that scientists like Charles Darwin, Adam Smith and many others write using ONE much in the same way as Huxley does.

She maintains that it is not merely the subject of writing but the attitude, purpose and sense of verbal tradition that establish these distinctions in expression (41).

Employed by the author as a means of speech characterisation the overuse of the I pronoun testifies to the speaker's complacency and egomania while you or one used in reference to oneself characterise the speaker as a reserved, self-controlled person. At the same time the speaker creates a closer rapport with his interlocutor and achieves empathy.

- You can always build another image for yourself to fall in love with. - No, you can't. That's the trouble, you lose the capacity for building. You run short of the stuff that creates beautiful illusions. (Priestly)

When the speaker uses the third person pronoun instead of I or we he or she sort of looks at oneself from a distance, which produces the effect of estrangement and generalization. Here is an example from Katherine Mansfield's diary provided in Arnold's book Стилистика английского языка (4, С. 187).

I do not want to write; I want to live. What does she mean by that? It's hard to say.

Possessive pronouns may be loaded with evaluative connotations and devoid of any grammatical meaning of possession.

Watch what you're about, my man! (Cronin)

Your precious Charles or Frank or your stupid Ashley! (Mitchell)

The same function is fulfilled by the absolute possessive form in structures like Well, you tell that Herman of yours to mind his own business. (London)

The range of feelings they express may include irony, sarcasm, anger, contempt, resentment, irritation, etc.

Demonstrative pronouns may greatly enhance the expressive colouring of the utterance.

That -wonderful girl! That beauty! That world of wealth and social position she lived in! (London)

These lawyers! Don't you know they don't eat often? (Dreiser)

In these examples the demonstrative pronouns do not point at anything but the excitement of the speaker.

Pronouns are a powerful means to convey the atmosphere of informal or familiar communication or an attempt to achieve it.

It was Robert Ackly, this guy, that roomed right next to me. (Salinger)

Claws in, you cat. (Shaw)

Through the figurative use of the personal pronouns the author may achieve metaphorical images and even create sustained compositional metaphors.

Thus using the personal pronoun she instead of the word "sea" in one of his best works The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway imparts to this word the category of feminine gender that enables him to bring the feeling of the old man to the sea to a different, more dramatic and more human level.

He always thought of the sea as 'la mar' which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things about her but they are always said as though she were a woman. (Hemingway) 'n the same book he calls a huge and strong fish a he:

He is a great fish and I must convince him, he thought. I must never let him vam his strength. (Hemingway)

Such recurrent use of these pronouns throughout the novel is charged with the message of the old man's animating the elemental forces of the sea and its inhabitants and the vision of himself as a part of nature. In this case the use of the pronouns becomes a compositional device.

All in all we can see that pronouns possess a strong stylistic potential that is realized due to the violation of the normal links with their object of reference.

3.3.4 The adjective and its stylistic functions

The only grammatical category of the Enghsh adjective today is that of comparison. Comparison is only the property of qualitative and quantitative adjectives, but not of the relative ones.

When adjectives that are not normally used in a comparative degree are used with this category they are charged with a strong expressive power.

Mrs. Thompson, Old Man Fellow's housekeeper had found him deader than a doornail... (Mangum)

This is a vivid example of a grammatical transposition of the second type built on the incongruity of the lexical and grammatical meanings.

In the following example the unexpected superlative adjective degree forms lend the sentence a certain rhythm and make it even more expressive:

...fifteen millions of workers, understood to be the strangest, the cun-ningest, the willingest our Earth ever had. (Skrebnev)

The commercial functional style makes a wide use of the violation of grammatical norms to captivate the reader's attention:

The orangemostest drink in the world.

The transposition of other parts of speech into the adjective creates stylistically marked pieces of description as in the following sentence:

A camouflage of general suffuse and dirty-jeaned drabness covers everybody and we merge into the background. (Marshall)

The use of comparative or superlative forms with other parts of speech may also convey a humorous colouring:

He was the most married man I've ever met. (Arnold)

Another stylistic aspect of the adjective comes to the fore when an adjective gets substantivized and acquires the qualities of a noun such as "solid, firm, tangible, hard," etc.

All Europe was in arms, and England would join. The impossible had happened. (Aldington)

The stylistic function of the adjective is achieved through the deviant use of the degrees of comparison that results mostly in grammatical metaphors of the second type (lexical and grammatical incongruity).

The same effect is also caused by the substantivized use of the adjectives.

3.3.5 The verb and its stylistic properties

The verb is one of the oldest parts of speech and has a very developed grammatical paradigm. It possesses more grammatical categories that any other part of speech. All deviant usages of its tense, voice and aspect forms have strong stylistic connotations and play an important role in creating a metaphorical meaning. A vivid example of the grammatical metaphor of the first type (form transposition) is the use of 'historical present' that makes the description very pictorial, almost visible.

The letter was received by a person of the royal family. While reading it she was interrupted, had no time to hide it and was obliged to put it open on the table. At this enters the Minister D... He sees the letter and guesses her secret. He first talks to her on business, then takes out a letter from his pocket, reads it, puts it down on the table near the other letter, talks for some more minutes, then, when taking leave, takes the royal lady's letter from the table instead of his own. The owner of the letter saw it, was afraid to say anything for there were other people in the room. (Рое)

The use of 'historical present' pursues the aim of joining different time systems - that of the characters, of the author and of the reader all of whom may belong to different epochs. This can be done by making a reader into an on-looker or a witness whose timeframe is synchronous with the narration. The outcome is an effect of empathy ensured by the correlation of different time and tense systems.

The combination and unification of different time layers may also be achieved due to the universal character of the phenomenon described, a phenomenon that is typical of any society at any time and thus make the reader a part of the events described.

Various shades of modality impart stylistically coloured expressiveness to the utterance. The Imperative form and the Present Indefinite referred to the future render determination, as in the following example:

Edward, let there be an end of this. I go home. (Dickens)

The use of shall with the second or third person will denote the speaker's emotions, intention or determination:

If there's a disputed decision, he said genially, they shall race again. (Waugh)

The prizes shall stand among the bank of flowers. (Waugh)

Similar connotations are evoked by the emphatic use of will with the first person pronoun:

- Adam. Are you tight again?

- Look out of the window and see if you can see a Daimler waiting. - Adam, what have you been doing? I will be told. (Waugh)

Likewise continuous forms do not always express continuity of the action and are frequently used to convey the emotional state of the speaker. Actually ah 'exceptions to the rule' are not really exceptions. They should be considered as the forms in the domain of stylistic studies because they are used to proclaim the speaker's state of mind, his mood, his intentions or feelings.

So continuous forms may express:

conviction, determination, persistence:

Well, she's never coming here again, I tell you that straight; (Maugham)

impatience, irritation:

- I didn't mean to hurt you.

- You did. You're doing nothing else; (Shaw)

surprise, indignation, disapproval:

Women kill me. They are always leaving their goddam bags out in the middle of the aisle. (Salinger)

Present Continuous may be used instead of the Present Indefinite form to characterize the current emotional state or behaviour:

- How is Carol?

- Blooming, Charley said. She is being so brave. (Shaw)

You are being very absurd, Laura, he said coldly. (Mansfield)

Verbs of physical and mental perception do not regularly have continuous forms. When they do, however, we observe a semi-marked structure that is highly emphatic due to the incompatible combination of lexical meaning and grammatical form.

Why, you must be the famous Captain Butler we have been hearing so much about - the blockade runner. (Mitchell)

I must say you're disappointing me, my dear fellow. (Berger)

The use of non-finite forms of the verb such as the infinitive and participle I in place of the personal forms communicates certain stylistic connotations to the utterance.

Consider the following examples containing non-finite verb forms: Expect Leo to propose to her! (Lawrence)

The real meaning of the sentence is It's hard to believe that Leo would propose to her!

Death! To decide about death! (Galsworthy)

The implication of this sentence reads He couldn't decide about death!

To take steps! How? Winifred's affair was bad enough! To have a double dose of publicity in the family! (Galsworthy)

The meaning of this sentence could be rendered as He must take some steps to avoid a double dose of publicity in the family!

Far be it from him to ask after Reinhart's unprecedented getup and environs. (Berger)

Such use of the verb be is a means of character sketching: He was not the kind of person to ask such questions.

Since the sentences containing the infinitive have no explicit doer of the action these sentences acquire a generalized universal character. The world of the personage and the reader blend into one whole as if the question is asked of the reader (what to do, how to act). This creates empathy. The same happens when participle I is used impersonally:

The whole thing is preposterous - preposterous! Slinging accusations like this! (Christie)

But I tell you there must be some mistake. Splendor taking dope! It's ridiculous. He is a nonchemical physician, among other things. (Berger)

The passive voice of the verb when viewed from a stylistic angle may demonstrate such functions as extreme generalisation and deperson-alisation because an utterance is devoid of the doer of an action and the action itself loses direction.

...he is a long-time citizen and to be trusted... (Michener)

Little Mexico, the area was called contemptuously, as sad and filthy a collection of dwellings as had ever been allowed to exist in the west. (Michener)

The use of the auxiliary do in affirmative sentences is a notable emphatic device:

I don't want to look at Sita. I sip my coffee as long as possible. Then I do look at her and see that all the colour has left her face, she is fearfully pale. (Erdrich)

So the stylistic potential of the verb is high enough. The major mechanism of creating additional connotations is the transposition of verb forms that brings about the appearance of metaphors of the first and second types.

3.3.6 Affixation and its expressiveness

Unlike Russian the English language does not possess a great variety of word-forming resources.

In Russian we have a very developed system of affixes, with evaluative and expressive meanings: diminutive, derogatory, endearing, exaggerating, etc.

Consider such a variety of adjectives малый - маленький - махонький - малюсенький; большой - большеватый - большущий, преог-ромнейший; плохой - плоховатенький - плохонький. There are no morphological equivalents for these in English.

We can find some evaluative affixes as a remnant of the former morphological system or as a result of borrowing from other languages, such as: weakling, piglet, rivulet, girlie, lambkin, kitchenette.

Diminutive suffixes make up words denoting small dimensions, but also giving them a caressing, jocular or pejorative ring.

These suffixes enable the speaker to communicate his positive or negative evaluation of a person or thing.

The suffix -ianI-ean means 'like someone or something, especially connected with a particular thing, place or person', e. g. the pre-Tolstoyan novel. It also denotes someone skilled in or studying a particular subject: a historian.

The connotations this suffix may convey are positive and it is frequently used with proper names, especially famous in art, literature, music, etc. Such adjectives as Mozartean, Skakespearean, Wagnerian mean like Mozart, Shakespeare, Wagner or in that style.

However some of these adjectives may possess connotations connected with common associations with the work and life of famous people that may have either positive or negative colouring. For instance The Longman Dictionary of the English Language and Culture gives such

definitions of the adjective Dickensian: suggesting Charles Dickens or his writing, e. g. a the old-fashioned, unpleasant dirtiness of Victorian England: Most deputies work two to an office in a space of Dickensian grimness. b the cheerfulness of Victorian amusements and customs: a real Dickensian Christmas.

The suffix -ish is not merely a neutral morpheme meaning a small degree of quality like blue - bluish, but it serves to create 'delicate or tactful' occasional evaluative adjectives - baldish, dullish, biggish. Another meaning is 'belonging or having characteristics of somebody or something'.

Most dictionaries also point out that -ish may show disapproval (selfish, snobbish, raffish) and often has a derogatory meaning indicating the bad qualities of something or quahties which are not suitable to what it describes (e.g. mannish in relation to a woman).

Another suffix used similarly is-esque, indicating style, manner, or distinctive character: arabesque, Romanesque. When used with the names of famous people it means 'in the manner or style of this particular person'. Due to its French origin it is considered bookish and associated with exquisite elevated style. Such connotations are implied in adjectives like Dantesque, Turneresque, Kafkaesque.

Most frequently used suffixes of the negative evaluation are: -ard, -ster, -aster, -eer or half-affix -monger, drunkard, scandal-monger, black-marketeer, mobster.

Considering the problem of expressive affixes differentiation should be made between negative affixes such as in-, un-, ir-, поп-, etc. (unbending, irregular, non-profit) and evaluative derogatory affixes. Evaluative affixes with derogatory connotations demonstrate the

speaker's attitude to the phenomenon while negative affixes normally represent objects and phenomena that are either devoid of some quality or do not exist at all (e. g. a non-profit organization has mostly positive connotations).

All these examples show that stylistic potentials of grammatical forms are great enough. Stylistic analysis of a work of art among other things should include the analysis of the grammatical level that enables a student to capture the subtle shades of mood or rhythmical arrangement or the dynamics of the composition.

3.4 Stylistic syntax

Syntactical categories have long been the object of stylistic research. There are different syntactical means and different classifications. The classifications discussed earlier in this book demonstrate different categorization of expressive means connected with syntax. However there are a few general principles on which most of the syntactical expressive means are built. The purpose of this paragraph is to consider the basic techniques that create styUstic function on the syntactical level common for most styUstic figures of this type and illustrate them with separate devices.

The major principles at work on the sentence level are

I. The omission or absence of one or more parts of the sentence. II. Reiteration (repetition) of some parts.

III. The inverted word order.

IV. The interaction of adjacent sentences.

I, The omission of the obligatory parts of a sentence results in ellipsis of various types. An elUptical sentence is a sentence with one or more of the parts left out. As a rule the omitted part can be reconstructed from the context. In this case ellipsis brings into relief typical features of colloquial English casual talk.

The laconic compressed character of elliptical sentences lends a flavour of liveliness to colloquial English. In fiction elliptical sentences have a manifold stylistic function. First of all they help create a sense of immediacy and local colour. Besides they may add to the character's make up, they lead to a better understanding of a mood of a personage.

Wish I was young enough to wear that kind of thing. Older I get the more I like colour. We're both pretty long in the tooth, eh? (Waugh)

Often elliptical sentences are used in represented speech because syntactically it resembles direct speech. The use of elliptical sentences in fiction is not limited to conversation. They are sometimes used in the author's narration and in the exposition (description which opens a chapter or a book).

I remember now, that Sita's braid did not hurt. It was only soft and heavy, smelling of Castile soap, but still I yelled as though something terrible was happening. Stop! Get off! Let go! Because I couldn't stand how strong she was. (Erdrich)

A variety of ellipsis in English are one-member nominal sentences. They have no separate subject and predicate but one main part instead. One-member sentences call attention to the subject named, to its existence and even more to its interrelations with other objects. Nominal sentences are often used in descriptive narration and in

exposition. The economy of the construction gives a dynamic rhythm to the passage. One-member sentences are also common in stage remarks and represented speech.

Matchbooks. Coaster trays. Hotel towels and washcloths. He was sending her the samples of whatever he was selling at the time. Fuller brushes. Radio antennas. Cans of hair spray or special wonder-working floor cleaners. (Erdrich)

Break-in-the narrative is a device that consists in the emotional halt in the middle or towards the end of an utterance. Arnold distinguishes two kinds: suppression and aposiopesis. Suppression leaves the sentence unfinished as a result of the speaker's deliberation to do so. The use of suppression can be accounted for by a desire not to mention something that could be reconstructed from the context or the situation. It is just the part that is not mentioned that attracts the reader's attention. It's a peculiar use of emphasis that lends the narration a certain psychological tension.

If everyone at twenty realized that half his life was to be lived after forty... (Waugh)

Aposiopesis means an involuntary halt in speech because the speaker is too excited or overwhelmed to continue.

But Mr. Meredith, Esther Silversleeves said at last, these people are heathens! Esther was the most religious of the family. - Surly you cannot wish... her voice trailed off. (Rutherfurd)

Decomposition is also built on omission, splitting the sentences into separate snatches. They are the result of detachment of parts of sentences. This device helps to throw in the effect of relief or express a highly dynamic pace of narration. Decomposition may be combined with ellipsis.

Him, of all things! Him! Never! (Lawrence)

II. Reiteration is never a mechanical repetition of a word or structure. It is always accompanied by new connotations. The repetition stresses not the denotative but the connotative meaning.

The usage area of reiteration is casual and non-casual speech, prose and poetry.

Different types of reiteration may be classified on the compositional principle:

Anaphora is the repetition of the same element at the beginning of two or more successive clauses, sentences or verses.

They were poor in space, poor in light, poor in quiet, poor in repose, and poor in the atmosphere of privacy - poor in everything that makes a man's home his castle. (Cheever)

Framing is an arrangement of repeated elements at the beginning and at the end of one or more sentences that creates a kind of structural encasement.

He had been good for me when I was a callow and an ignorant youth; he was good for me now. (Shute)

Anadiplosis is such a figure in which a word or group of wqrds completing a sentence is repeated at the beginning of a succeeding sentence. It often shows the interaction of different parts of a paragraph or text.

My wife has brown hair, dark eyes, and a gentle disposition. Because of her gentle disposition, I sometimes think that she spoils the children. (Cheever)

Epiphora consists in the repetition of certain elements at the end of two or more successive clauses, sentences or paragraphs.

Trouble is, I don't know if I want a business or not. Or even if I can pay for it, if I did want it. (Shute)

III. Inversion is upsetting of the normal order of words, which is an important feature of English.

By changing the logical order this device helps to convey new shades of meaning. The denotative meaning is the same but the emotive colouring is different.

Galperin describes five types of inversion that are connected with the fixed syntactical position of the sentence members. Each type of inversion produces a specific stylistic effect: it may render an elevated tone to the narration:

Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,

Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

(Keats)

I will make my kitchen, and you will keep your room, Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom.

(Stevenson)

- or make it quick-paced and dynamic: In he got and away they went. (Waugh)

Bang went Philbrick's revolver. Off trotted the boys on another race. (Waugh)

Sometimes inversion may contribute to the humorous effect of the description or speech characterisation:

To march about you would not like us? suggested the stationmaster, (Waugh)

IV. Interaction of adjacent sentences is a compositional syntactical technique.

One of the major emphatic means is the use of parallel constructions. They are similarly built and used in close succession. It is a variety of repetition on the level of a syntactical model. Parallel constructions more than anything else create a certain rhythmical arrangement of speech. The sameness of the structure stresses the difference or the similarity of the meaning. Sometimes parallel constructions assume a peculiar form and the word order of the first phrase is inverted in the second. The resulting device is called chiasmus. It is often accompanied by a lexical repetition:

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