Reflection of the concept "memory" in literature

As a rule, metonymy is expressed by nouns (less frequently - by substantivized numerals) and is used in syntactical functions characteristic of nouns (subject, object, predicative).

Pun, zeugma, semantically false chains and nonsense of non-sequence Pun, zeugma, semantically false chains and nonsense of non-sequence are united into a small group as they have much in common both in the mechanism of their formation and in their function.

In the stylistic tradition of the English-speaking countries only the first two (pun and zeugma) are widely discussed. The latter may be viewed as slight variations of the first ones. The foursome perform the same stylistic function in speech and operate on the same linguistic mechanism. Namely, one word-form is deliberately used in two meanings. The effect of these lexical stylistic devices is humorous. Contextual conditions leading to the simultaneous realization of two meanings.

The formation of pun may vary. One speaker's utterance may be wrong interpreted by the other due to the existence of different meaning of the misinterpreted word or its homonym. For example, “Have you been seeing any spirits?” “Or taking any?” The first “spirits” refers to supernatural forces, the second one - to strong drinks. Punning may be also the result of the speaker's intended violation of the listener's expectation. We deal with zeugma when polysemantic verbs that can be combined with nouns of most varying semantic groups are deliberately used with two or more homogeneous members which are not connected semantically, as in such example: “He took his hat and his leave”. Zeugma is highly characteristic of English prose of previous centuries.

When the number of homogeneous members, semantically disconnected but attached to the same verb increases we deal with semantically false chains, which are thus a variation of zeugma. As a rule, it is the last member of the chain that falls out of the semantic group, producing humorous effect. The following case may serve an example: “A Governess wanted. Must possess knowledge of Rumanian, Italian, Spanish, German, Music and Mining Engineering”. In most examples of zeugma the verb loses some of its semantic independence and strength being considered as member of phraseological unit or cliche. Nonsense of non-sequence results in joining two semantically disconnected clauses into one sentence, as in: “Emperor Nero played the fiddle, so they burnt Rome”. Two disconnected statements are forcibly linked together. In all previously discussed lexical stylistic devices we dealt with various transformations of the denotational meaning of words, which participated in the creation of metaphors, metonymies, puns, zeugmas, etc.

Each of these lexical stylistic devices added expressiveness and originality to the nomination of the object. Their subjectivity relies on the new and fresh look at the object mentioned and shows the object from a new and unexpected side.

Irony In irony subjectivity lies in the evaluation of the phenomenon. The essence of irony consists in the foregrounding not of the logical but of the evaluative meaning. Irony thus is a stylistic device in which the contextual evaluative meaning of a word is directly opposite to its dictionary meaning. The context is arranged so that the qualifying word in irony reverses the direction of the evaluation and a positive meaning is understood as a negative one and (much-much rare) vice versa. “She turned with the sweet smile of an alligator”. The word ”sweet” reverse their positive meaning into the negative one due to the context. So, like all other lexical stylistic devices irony does not exist outside the context.

There are two types of irony: verbal irony and sustained irony. In the stylistic devise of verbal irony it is always possible to indicate the exact word whose contextual meaning diametrically opposes its dictionary meaning. And we deal with sustained irony when it is not possible to indicate such exact word and the effect of irony is created by number of statements by the whole text. This type of irony is formed by the contradiction of the speaker's (writer's) considerations and the generally accepted moral and ethical codes.

Antonomasia

Antonomasia is a lexical stylistic device in which a proper name is used instead of a common noun or vice versa. Logical meaning serves to denote concepts and thus to classify individual objects into groups (classes). The nominal meaning of a proper name is suppressed by its logical meaning and acquires the new - nominal - component. Nominal meaning has no classifying power for it applies to one single individual object with the aim not of classifying it constituting a definite group, but, on the contrary with the aim of singling it out of the group of similar objects, of individualizing one particular object. The word “Mary” does not indicate if the denoted object refers to the class of women, girls, boats, cats, etc. But in example: “He took little satisfaction in telling each Mary, something…” the attribute “each”, used with the name, turns it into a common noun denoting any woman. Here we deal with a case of antonomasia of the first type.

Another type of antonomasia we meet when a common noun is still clearly perceived as a proper name. So, no speaker of English today has it in his mind that such popular English surnames as Mr. Smith or Mr. Brown used to mean occupation and the color. While such names as Mr. Snake or Mr.Backbite immediately raise associations with certain human qualities due to the denotational meaning of the words “snake” and “backbite”.[5,79]

Antonomasia is created mainly by nouns, more seldom by attributive combinations (as in “Dr. Fresh Air”) or phrases (as in “Mr.What's-his-name').

Epithet

Epithet is a lexical stylistic device that relies on the foregrounding of the emotive meaning. The emotive meaning of the word is foregrounded to suppress the denotational meaning of the latter. The characteristic attached to the object to qualify it is always chosen by the speaker himself. Epithet gives opportunities of qualifying every object from subjective viewpoint, which is indispensable in creative prose, publicist style and everyday speech. Like metaphor, metonymy and simile epithets are also based on similarity between two objects, on nearness of the qualified objects and on their comparison. Through long and repeated use epithets become fixed. Many fixed epithets are closely connected with folklore. First fixed epithets were found in Homer's poetry (e.g. “swift-footed Achilles”).

Semantically, there should be differentiated two main groups. The biggest one is affective epithets. These epithets serve to convey the emotional evaluation of the object by the speaker. Most of qualifying words found in the dictionary can be and are used as affective epithets. The second group - figurative epithets. The group is formed of metaphors, metonymies and similes and expressed predominantly by adjectives (e.g. “the smiling sun”, “the frowning cloud”), qualitative adverbs (e.g. “his triumphant look”), or rarely by nouns in exclamatory sentences (e.g. “You, ostrich!”) and postpositive attributes (e.g. “Richard of the Lion Heart”).

Two-step epithets are so called because the process of qualifying passes two stages: the qualification of the object and the qualification of the qualification itself, as in “an unnaturally mild day”. Two-step epithets have a fixed structure of Adv+Adj model.

Phrase-epithets always produce an original impression (e.g. “shutters-coming-off-the-shops early morning”). Their originality proceeds from rare repetitions. Phrase-epithet is semantically self-sufficient word combination or even a whole sentence which loses some of its independence and self-sufficiency, becoming a member of another sentence.

Oxymoron

Oxymoron is lexical stylistic device the syntactic and semantic structures of which come to clashes (e.g. “cold fire”, “brawling love”). The most widely known structure of oxymoron is attributive. But there are also others, in which verbs are employed. Such verbal structures as “to shout mutely” or “to cry silently” are used to strengthen the idea. Oxymoron may be considered as a specific type of epithet. Originality and specificity of oxymoron becomes especially evident in non-attributive structures which also (not infrequently) are used to express semantic contradiction as in “the street was damaged by improvements”, “silence was louder than thunder”.

Oxymorons rarely become trite, for their components, linked forcibly, repulse each other and oppose repeated use. There are few colloquial oxymorons, all of them show a high degree of the speaker's emotional involvement in the situation, as in “awfully pretty”.[8,93]

PHONETIC EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES

The stylistic approach to the utterance is not confined to its struc­ture and sense. There is another thing to be taken into account which, in a certain type of communication, viz. belles-lettres, plays an impor­tant role. This is the way a word, a phrase or a sentence sounds* The sound of most words taken separately will have little or no aesthetic value. It is in combination with other words that a word may acquire a desired phonetic effect. The way a separate word sounds may produce a certain euphonic impression, but this is a matter of individual per­ception and feeling and therefore subjective.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is a combination of speech-sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc), by things (machines or taols, etc), by people (sighing, laughter, patter of feet, etc) and by animals. Combinations of speech sounds of this type will inevitably be associated with whatever produces the natural sound. Therefore the relation between onomatopoeia and the phenomenon it is supposed to represent is one of metonymy.

There are two varieties of onomatopoeia: direct and indirect

Others require the exercise of a certain amount of imagination to de­cipher it.

Onomatopoetic words can be used in a transferred meaning, as for instance, ding-dong, which represents the sound of bells rung continu­ously, may mean 1) noisy, 2) strenuously contested. Examples are: a ding-dong struggle, a ding-dong go at something. In the following newspaper headline:

DING-DONG ROW OPENS ON BILL, both meanings are implied.

'And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple cur­tain' (E. A. Poe),

where the repetition of the sound [s] actually produces the sound of the rustling of the curtain.

Indirect onomatopoeia, unlike alliteration, demands some mention of what makes the sound, as rustling (of curtains) in the line above. The same can be said of the sound [w] if it aims at reproducing, let us say, the sound of wind. "Whenever the moon and stars are set, Whenever the wind is high, All night long" in the dark and wet A man goes riding by."

Indirect onomatopoeia is sometimes very effectively used by re­peating words which themselves are not onomatopoetic, as in Poe's poem "The Bells" where the words tinkle and bells are distributed in the following manner:

"Silver bells... how they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle" and further

"To the tintinabulation that so musically wells

From the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells --

From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells."

Alongside obviously onomatopoetic words as tinkle, tintinabulation and jingling the word bells is drawn into the general music of the poem and begins to display onomatopoetic properties through the repetition.

Alliteration

Alliteration is a phonetic stylistic device which aims at im­parting a melodic effect to the utterance. The essence of this device lies in the repetition of similar sounds, in particular consonant sounds, in close succession, particularly at the beginning of successive words:

"The possessive instinct never stands still. Through florescence and feud, frosts and fires it follows the laws of progression."

(Galsworthy)

or:

"Deep into the darkness peering, long 1 stood there wondering, fearing, . "Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before." (E. A. Poe)

Alliteration, like most phonetic expressive means, does not bear any lexical or other meaning unless we agree that a sound meaning exists as such. But even so we may not* be able to specify clearly the character of this meaning, and the" term will merely suggest that a certain amount of information is contained in the repetition of sounds, as is the case with the repetition of lexical units.

However, certain sounds, if repeated, may produce an effect that can be specified.

For example, the sound [m] is frequently used by Tennyson in the poem "The Lotus Eaters" to give a somnolent effect.

"How sweet it were,...

To lend our hearts and spirits wholly

To the music of mild-minded melancholy;

To muse and brood and live again in memory*"

Therefore alliteration is generally regarded as a musical accompa­niment of the author's idea, supporting it with some vague emotional atmosphere which each reader interprets for himself. Thus the repeti­tion of the sound [d] in the lines quoted from Poe's poem "The Raven" prompts the feeling of anxiety, fear, horror, anguish or all these feelings simultaneously.

When the choice of words depends primarily on the principle of alli­teration, exactitude of expression, and even sense may suffer. But when used sparingly and with at least some slight inner connection with the sense of the utterance, alliteration heightens the general aesthetic effect.

Alliteration in the English language is deeply rooted in the traditions of English folklore. The laws of phonetic arrangement in Anglo-Saxon poetry differed greatly from those of present-day English poetry. In Old English poetry alliteration was one of the basic principles of verse and considered, along with rhythm, to be its main characteristic. Each stressed meaningful word in a line had to begin with the same sound or combination of sounds. Thus, in Beowulf:

The repetition of the initial sounds of the stressed words in the line, as it were, integrates the utterance into a compositional unit. Unlike rhyme in modern English verse, the semantic function of which is to chain one line to another, alliteration in Old English verse was used to consolidate the sense within the line, leaving the relation between the lines rather loose. But there really is an essential resemblance structural­ly between alliteration and rhyme (by the repetition of the same sound) and also functionally (by communicating a consolidating effect). Alli­teration is therefore sometimes called initial rhyme.

Rhyme

Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combinations of words.

Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.

Identity and particularly similarity of sound combinations may be relative. For instance, we distinguish between full rhymes and incomplete rhymes. The full rhyme presupposes identity of the vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in a stressed syllable, as in might, right; needless, heedless. When there is identity of the stressed syllable, including the initial consonant of the second syllable (in polysyllabic words), we have exact or identical rhymes.

Incomplete rhymes present a greater variety. They can be divided into two main groups: vowel 'rhymes and consonant rhymes. In vowel rhymes the vowels of the syllables in corresponding words are identical, but the consonants may be different, as in flesh-- fresh--press. Consonant rhymes, on the contrary, show concordance in consonants and disparity in vowels, as in worth--forth; tale--tool-- Treble--trouble; flung--long.

Compound rhyme may be set against what is called e ó e-r h ó ò e, where the letters and not the sounds are identical, as in love--prove, flood-- brood, have--grave. It follows therefore compound rhyme is perceived in reading aloud, eye-rhyme can only perceived in the written verse'

Many eye-rhymes æå the result of historical changes in the vowel sounds in certain positions. The continuity of English verse manifests itself also in retention of some pairs of what were once rhyming words. But on the analogy of these pairs, new eye-rhymes have been coined and the model now functions alongside ear-rhymes.

Rhythm

Rhythm exists in all spheres of human activity and assumes multifarious forms. It is a mighty weapon in stirring up emotions what­ever its nature or origin, whether it is musical,- mechanical, or symmetri­cal, as in architecture.,

The most general definition of rhythm may be expressed as follows:

"Rhythm is a flow, movement, procedure, etc., characterized by basically regular recurrence of elements or features, as beat, or accent, in alternation with opposite or different elements or features" (Webster's New World Dictionary).

Rhythm can be perceived only provided that there is some kind of experience in catching the opposite elements or features in their cor­relation, and, what is of paramount importance, experience in catching the regularity of alternating patterns. Rhythm is primarily perio­dicity, which requires specification as to the type of periodicity. According to some investigations, rhythmical periodicity in verse "re­quires intervals of about three quarters of a second between successive peaks of periods." * It is a deliberate arrangement of speech into regularly recurring units intended to be grasped as a definite periodicity which makes rhythm a stylistic device.

Rhythm, therefore, is the main factor which brings order into the utterance. The influence of the rhythm on the semantic aspect of the

utterance is now being carefully investigated and it becomes apparent that orderly phonetic arrangement of the utterance calls forth orderly syntactical structures which, in their turn, suggest an orderly segment­ing of the sense-groups. The conscious perception of rhythms must be j acquired by training, as must the perception of any stylistic device. Some people are said to. be completely deaf to rhythm and whatever efforts are exerted to develop this sense in them inevitably fail. But this is not true. A person may not be able to produce a flow of rhythmi­cal units, but he can certainly acquire a feeling for rhythm if he trains his ear.

Rhythm in language necessarily demands oppositions that alter­nate: long, short; stressed, unstressed; high, low; and other contrasting segments of speech. Some theoreticians maintain that rhythm can only be perceived if there are occasional deviations from the regularity of alternations. In this connection De Groot writes:

"It is very strange indeed that deviations from the theme (i.e. the accepted kind of periodicity, I. G.) in separate lines (called irregularities of the line) have been looked upon as de­ficiencies of the poem by such eminent scholars as Jespersen and Heusseler. On the contrary, they are indispensable, and have both a formal and expressive function. Harmony is not only a matter of similarity, but also of dissimilarity, and in good poetry, irregularities of lines are among the most important features of the poem both in their formal and their expressive functions. Actually, the beauty of a poem is less dependent upon the regularities than upon the irregularities of the poem." x

Verse did not become entirely divorced from music when it began to live as an independent form of art. As is known, verse has its origin in song; but still the musical element has never been lost; it has'assumed a new form of existence--rhythm.

It follows then that rhythm is not a mere addition to verse or emo­tive prose, which also has its rhythm, and it must not be regarded as possessing "phonetic autonomy amounting to an 'irrelevant texture', but has a meaning."4 This point of view is now gaining ground. Many attempts have been made to ascribe meaning to rhythm and even to specify different meanings to different types of metre. This is impor­tant, inasmuch as it contributes to the now-prevailing idea that any form must make some contribution to the general sense. Rhythm in­tensifies the emotions. It also specifies emotions. Some students of rhythm go so far as to declare that "...one obvious agency for the expression of his (a poet's) attitude is surely metre" l and that "...the poet's attitude toward his reader is reflected in his manipulation--sometimes his dis­regard--of metre."

Rhythm reveals itself most conspicuously in music, dance and verse. We have so far dealt with verse because the properties of rhythm in language are most observable in this mode of communication.. We shall now proceed to the analysis of rhythm in prose, bearing in mind that the essential properties of prose rhythm are governed by the same general rules, though not so apparent, perhaps, as in verse, and falling under different parameters of analysis.

SYNTACTICAL STYLISTIC DEVICES

The structural syntactical aspect is sometimes regarded as the crucial issue in stylistic analysis, although the peculiarities of syntactical ar­rangement are not so conspicuous as the lexical and phraseological properties of the utterance. Syntax is figuratively called the "sinews of style".

When viewing the stylistic functions of different syntactical designs we must first of all take into consideration two aspects:

1. The juxtaposition of different parts of the utterance.

2. The way the parts are connected with each other. In addition to these two large groups of EMs.and SDs two other groups may be distinguished:

3. Those based on the peculiar use of colloquial constructions.

4. Those based on the stylistic use of-structural meaning.

Stylistic Inversion

Wîrd-order is a crucial syntactical problem in many languages. In English it has peculiarities which have been caused by the concrete and specific way the language has developed. O. Jespersen states that the English language "...has developed a tolerably fired word-order which in the great majority of cases shows without fail what is the Sub­ject of the sentence." This predominance of S--P--Î word-order makes conspicuous any change in the structure of the sentence and inevitably calls forth a mod­ification in the intonation design.

Hence the clash between semantically insignificant elements of the sentence when they are placed in structurally significant position and the intonation which follows the recognized pattern.

Thus in Dickens' much quoted sentence:

"Talent Mr. Micawber has; capital Mr. Micawber has not."

English predicate-object groups are so bound together that when tear the object away from its predicate. In the inverted word-order not 'only the objects talent and capital become conspicuous but also the predicates has and has not.

Stylistic inversion in Modern English should not be regarded as a violation of the norms of standard English. It is only the practical realization of what is potential in the language itself. However, in modern English and American poetry, as has been shown elsewhere, there appears a definite tendency to experiment with the word-order to the extent which may even render the message unintelligi­ble, In this case there may be an almost unlimited number of rearrange­ments of the members of the sentence.

Inverted word-order, or inversion, is one of the forms of what are known as emphatic constructions. Emphatic constructions have so far been regarded as non-typical structures and therefore are considered as violations of the regular word-order in the sentence. But in practice these structures are as common as the fixed or traditional word-order structures.

Detached Construction a sentence by some specific consideration of the writer is placed so that it seems formally independent of some parts of structures are called lie t ached. They seem in the sentence as isolated parts. The detached part, being torn away from its referent, assumes a greater of significance and is given prominence by intonation. The structural patterns of detached constructions have not yet been classified, but the most noticeable cases are those in which; attribute is placed not in immediate proximity to its referent.

1) "Steyne rose up, grinding his teeth, pale, and with fury in

his eyes." (Thackeray)

2) "Sir Pitt came in first, very much flushed, and rather un­steady in his gait." (Thackeray)

Sometimes a nominal phrase is thrown into the sentence forming a syntactical 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." (Galsworthy)

The essential quality of detached construction lies in the fact that the isolated parts represent a kind of independent whole thrust into The sentence or placed in a position which will make the phrase (or word) seem independent. But a detached phrase cannot rise to the rank of a primary member of the sentence--it always remains secondary from the semantic point of view, although structurally it possesses all the fea­tures of a primary member. This clash of the structural and semantic aspects of detached constructions produces the desired effect--forcing the reader to interpret the logical connections between the component parts of the sentence. Logical ties between them always exist in spite of the absence of syntactical indicators.

The italicized phrases and words in these sentences seem to be isolat­ed, but still the connection with the primary members of the correspond­ing sentences is clearly implied. Thus 'gold behind the poplars' may be

interpreted as a simile or a metaphor: the moon like gold was rising behind the poplars, or the moon rising, it was gold...

Detached construction sometimes causes the simultaneous realization of two grammatical meanings of a word. In the "sentence" × want to go,' He said, miserable", the last word might possibly have been 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.

The same can be said about Dreiser's sentence with the word de­lightful. Here again the mark of punctuation plays an important role. The dash standing before the word makes the word conspicuous and, being isolated, it becomes the culminating point of the climax-- lovely... --delightful, i. e. the peak of the whole utterance. The phrase all of her is also somehow isolated. The general impression suggested by the implied intonation, is a strong feeling of admiration; and, as is usually the case, strong feelings reject coherent and logical syntax.

In the English language detached constructions are generally used in the belles-lettres prose style and mainly with words that have some explanatory function, for example:

"June stood in front, fending off this idle curiosity -- a little bit of a thing, as somebody said, 'all hair and spirit'..."

(Galsworthy)

A variant of detached construction is parenthesis, "Parenthesis is a qualifying, explanatory or appositive word phrase, clause, sentence, or other sequence which interrupts syntactic construc­tion without otherwise affecting it.In fact, parenthesis sometimes embodies a considerable volume of predicativeness, thus giving the utterance.an. additional nuance of mean­ing or a tinge of emotional coloring.

Parallel Construction

Parallel construction is a device which may be encoun­tered not so much in the sentence as in the macro-structures dealt with earlier, viz. the SPU and the paragraph. The necessary condition in parallel construction is identical, or similar, syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of a sentence in close succession, as in:

"There were, ..., real silver spoons to stir the tea with, and real china cups to drink it out of, and plates of the same to hold the cakes and toast in." (Dickens)

Parallel constructions are often backed up by repetition of words (lexical repetition) and conjunctions and prepositions (polysyndeton). Pure parallel construction, however, does not depend on any other kind of repetition but the repetition of the syntactical design of the sentence. Parallel constructions may be partial or complete. Partial parallel arrangement is the repetition of some parts of successive sentences or clauses, as in:

"It is the mob that labour in your fields and serve in your houses--that man your navy and recruit your army,--that have enabled you to defy all the world, and can also defy you when neglect and calamity have driven them to despair." (Byron)

The attributive clauses here all begin with the subordinate con­junction that which is followed by a verb in the same form, except the last (have enabled). The verbs, however, are followed either by adverbial modifiers of place (in your fields, in your houses] or by di­rect objects (your navy, your army). The third attributive clause is not built on the pattern of the first two, although it preserves the parallel structure in general (that+verb-predicate+object), while the fourth has broken away entirely.

Complete parallel arrangement, also called balance, maintains the principle of identical structures throughout the corresponding sen­tences, as in:

"The seeds ye sow -- another reaps, The robes ye weave--another wears, forge -- another bears." (P. B. Shelley)

Parallel construction is most frequently used in enumeration, anti­thesis and in climax, thus consolidating the general effect achieved by these stylistic devices.

Parallel construction is used in different styles of writing with slightly different functions. When used in the matter-of-fact styles, it carries, in the main, the idea of semantic equality of the parts, as in scientific prose, where the logical principle of arranging ideas predomi­nates. In the belles-lettres style parallel construction carries an emotive function. That is why it is mainly used as a technical means in building up other stylistic devices, thus securing their unity

In the following example parallelism backs up repetition, allitera­tion and antithesis, making the whole sentence almost epigrammatic. "And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe, And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot." (Shakespeare)

In the example below, parallel construction backs up the rhetorical address and rhetorical questions. The emotional aspect is also enforced by the interjection 'Heaven!'

"Hear me, my mother Earth! behold it, Heaven! -- *

Have I not had to wrestle with my lot?

Have I not suffered things to be forgiven?

Have I not had my brain seared, my heart riven,

Hopes sapped, name blighted, Life's life lied away?'* (Byron)

In some cases parallelism emphasizes the similarity and equates the significance of the parts, as, for example:

"Our senses perceive no extremes. Too much sound deafens us; too much light dazzles us; too great distance or proximity hinders our view."

In other cases parallel construction emphasizes diversity and con­trast of ideas. (See the example on p. 223 from the "Tale of Two Cities" by Dickens).

As a final remark it must be stated that the device of parallelism al­ways generates rhythm, inasmuch as similar syntactical structures repeat in close succession. Hence it is natural that parallel construction should very frequently be used in poetical structures. Alternation of similar units being the basic principle of verse, similarity in longer units -- i. e. in the stanza, is to be expected.

Chiasmus (Reversed Parallel Construction)

This device is effective in that it helps to lay stress on the second part of the utterance, which is opposite in structure, as 'in our dejection'; 'Scrooge signed it*. This is due to the sudden change in the structure which by its very unexpectedness linguistically requires a slight pause before it.

As is seen from the examples above, chiasmus can appear only when there are two successive sentences or coordinate parts of a sentence. So distribution, here close succession, is the factor which predetermines the birth of the device.

There are different variants of the structural design of chiasmus. The first example given shows chiasmus appearing in a complex sentence where the second part has an opposite arrangement. The second example demonstrates chiasmus in a sentence expressing semantically the rela­tion of cause and effect. Structurally, however, the two parts are pre­sented as independent sentences, and it is the chiasmatic structure which supports the idea of subordination. The third example is composed of two independent sentences and the chiasmus serves to increase the effect of climax. Here is another example of chiasmus where two paral­lel constructions are followed by a reversed parallel construction linked to the former by the conjunction and:

"The night winds sigh, the breakers roar, And shrieks the wild sea-mew." (Byron)

Note the difference in meaning of the repeated words on which the epigrammatic effect rests: 'strange--strange;' 'no more--no more', 'jokes--jokes.'

Syntactical chiasmus is sometimes used to break the monotony of parallel constructions. But whatever the purpose of chiasmus, it will always bring in some new shade of meaning or additional emphasis on some portion of the second part.

The stylistic effect of this construction has been so far little inves­tigated. But even casual observation will show that chiasmus should be perceived as a complete unit. One cannot help noticing that the first part in chiasmus is somewhat incomplete, it calls for continuation, and the anticipation is rewarded by the second part of the construction, which is, as it were, the completion of the idea.

Like parallel construction, chiasmus contributes to the rhythmical quality of the utterance, and the pause caused by the change in the syn­tactical pattern may be likened to a caesura in prosody.

As can be seen from this short analysis of chiasmus, it has developed, like all stylistic devices, within the framework of the literary form of the language. However, its prototype may be found in the norms of expressions of the spoken language, as in the emphatic: 'He was a brave man, was John.'

Repetition

Repetition is also one of the devices, having its-origin in the emotive language. Repetition when applied to the logical language becomes simply an origin is to be seen in the expression of a feeling being brought to its highest tension. The stylistic device of repetition aims at logical emphasis, an emphasis necessary to fix the "attention of the reader on the key-word of the utterance. For example:

"For that was it! Ignorant of the long and stealthy march of passion, and of the state to which it had reduced Fleur; igno­rant of how Soames had watched her, ignorant of Fleur's reckless desperation... -- ignorant of all this, everybody felt aggrieved." (Galsworthy)

"I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that. I am above the rest of mankind, in such a case as that. I can act with philosophy in such a case as that.(Dickens)

This compositional pattern of repetition is called framing. The semantic nuances of different compositional structures of repeti­tion have been little looked into. But even a superficial examination will show that framing.

Any repetition of a unit of language will inevitably cause some slight modification of meaning, a modification suggested by a noticeable change in the intonation with which the repeated word is pronounced.

"Those evening bells! Those evening bells!"

Meditation, sadness, reminiscence and other psychological and emotional states of mind are suggested by the repetition of the phrase with the intensifier 'those'.

The distributional model of repetition, th? aim of which isjnten-sification, is simple: it is immediate succession of the parts repeated/ Repetition may also stress monotony of action, it may- suggest fa­tigue, or despair, or hopelessness, or doom, as in:

"What has my life been? Fag and grind, fag and grind. Turn the wheel, turn the wheel" (Dickens)

Here the rhythm of the repeated parts makes the monotony and hopelessness of the speaker's life still more keenly felt.

This function of repetition is to be observed in Thomas Hood's po­em "The Song of the Shirt" where different forms of repetition are em­ployed.

"Work--work--work!

Till the brain begins to swim! Work--work--work

Till the eyes are heavy and dim! Seam, and gusset, and band,

Band, and gusset and seam,-- Till over the buttons I fall asleep, And sew them on in a dream." Of course, the main idea, that of long and exhausting work, is ex­pressed by lexical means: work 'till the brain begins to swim' and 4he eyes are heavy and dim7, till, finally, 'I fall asleep.' But the repetition here strongly enforces this idea and, moreover, brings in additional nu­ances of meaning.

Background repetition, which we have already pointed out, is some­times used to stress the ordinarily unstressed elements of the utterance. Here is a good example:

"I am attached to you. But / can't consent and won't consent and I never did consent and / never will consent to be lost in you." (Dickens)

The emphatic element in this utterance is not the repeated word 'consent' but the modal words 'can't', 'won't', 'will', and also the em­phatic 'did'. Thus the repetition here loses its main function and only serves as a means by which other elements are made to stand out clear is worthy of note that in this sentence very strong stress falls-on the modal verbs and 'did' but not on the repeated 'consent* as is usually the case with the stylistic device.

Like many stylistic devices, repetition is polyfunctional. The func­tions enumerated do not cover all its varieties. One of those already mentioned, the rhythmical function, must not be under-estimated when studying the effects produced by repetition. Most of the examples given above give rhythm to the utterance. In fact, any repetition enhances the rhythmical aspect of the utterance.

Enumeration

Enumeration is a stylistic device by which separate things, objects, phenomena, properties, actions are named one by one so that they produce a chain, the links of which, being syntactically in the same position (homogeneous parts of speech), are forced to display some kind of semantic homogeneity, remote though it may seem.

Most of our notions are associated with other notions due to some kind of relation between them: dependence, cause and result, likeness, dissimilarity, sequence, experience (personal and/or social), proximity, etc.

In fact, it is the associations plus social experience that have result­ed in the formation of what is known as "semantic fields." Enumeration, as an SD, may be conventionally called a sporadic semantic field, inas­much as many cases of enumeration have no continuous existence in their manifestation as semantic fields do. The grouping of sometimes absolutely heterogeneous notions occurs only in isolated instances to meet some peculiar purport of the writer.

Let us examine the following cases of enumeration:

"There Harold gazes on a work divine,

A blending of all beauties; streams and dells,

Fruit, foliage, crag, wood, cornfield, mountain, vine

And chiefless castles breathing stern farewells

From grey but leafy walls, where Ruin greenly dwells." (Byron)

There is hardly anything in this enumeration that could be regarded as making some extra impact on the reader. Each word is closely associ­ated semantically with the following and preceding words in the enumer­ation, and the effect is what the reader associates with natural scenery. The utterance is perfectly coherent and there is no halt in the natural flow of the communication. In other words, there is nothing specially to arrest the reader's attention; no effort is required to decipher the mes­sage: it yields itself easily to immediate perception.

That is not the case in the following passage:

"Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole 216 assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend and his sole mourner." (Dickens)

The enumeration here is heterogeneous; the legal terms placed in a string with such words as 'friend' and 'mourner' result in a kind of clash, a thing typical of any stylistic device. Here there is a clash between terminological vocabulary and common neutral words. In addi­tion there is a clash of concepts: 'friend' and 'mourner' by force of enu­meration are equal in significance to the business office of 'executor', 4administrator', etc. and also to that of 'legatee'.

Enumeration is frequently used as a device to depict scenery through a tourist's eyes, as in Galsworthy's "To Let":

"Fleur's wisdom in refusing to write to him was profound, for he reached each new place entirely without hope or fever, and could concentrate immediate attention on the donkeys and tumbling bells, the priests, patios, beggars, children, crowing cocks, sombreros, cactus-hedges, old high white villages, goats, olive-trees, greening plains, singing birds in tiny cages, watersellers, sunsets, melons, mules, great churches, pictures, and swimming grey-brown mountains of a fascinating land."

The enumeration here is worth analysing. The various elements of this enumeration can be approximately grouped in semantic fields:

1) donkeys, mules, crowing cocks, goats, singing birds;

2) priests, beggars; children, watersellers;

3) villages, patios, cactus-hedges, churches, tumbling bells, sombre­ros, pictures;

4) sunsets, swimming grey-brown mountains, greening plains, olive-trees, melons.

This heterogeneous enumeration gives one an insight into the mind of the observer, into his love of the exotic, into the great variety of miscella­neous objects which caught his eye, it gives an idea of the progress of his travels and the most striking features of the land of Spain as seen by one who is in love with the country. The parts of the enumeration may be likened to the strokes of a painter's brush who by an inimitable choice of colours presents to our eyes an unforgettable image of the life and scenery of Spain. The passage itself can be likened to a picture drawn for you while you wait.

Here is a good example of the piling up of details so as to create a state of suspense in the listeners:

"But suppose it * passed; suppose one of these men, as I have seen them,-- meagre with famine, sullen with despair, careless of a life which your Lordships are perhaps about to value at some­thing less than the price of a stocking-frame: -- suppose this man surrounded by the children for whom he is unable to procure bread at the hazard of his existence, about to be torn for ever from a fam­ily which he lately supported in peaceful industry, and which it is not his fault that he can no longer so support; -- suppose this man, and there are ten thousand such from whom you may select your victims, dragged into court, to be tried for this new offence, by this new law; still there are two things wanting to convict and condemn him; and these are, in my opinion,-- twelve butchers for a jury, and a Jeffreys for a judge!" (Byron)

The device of suspense is especially favoured by orators. This is appar­ently due to the strong influence of intonation, which helps to create the desired atmosphere.

It must be noted that suspense, due to its partly psychological nature (it arouses a feeling of3.xpectation), is framed in sentence. Separate sentences would violate the principle of constant emotional tension which is char­acteristic of this device.

Climax (Gradation)

Climax is an arrangement of sentences (or of the homogeneous parts of one sentence) which secures a gradual increase in significance, importance, or emotional tension in the utterance, as in:

"It was a lovely city, a beautiful city, a fair city, a veritable gem of a city"

"Ne horrid crags, nor mountains dark and tall Rise like the rocks that part Hispania's land from Gaul." (Byron)

Gradual increase in emotional evaluation in the first illustration and in significance in the second is realized by the distribution of the corresponding lexical items. Each successive unit is perceived as stronger than the preceding one. Of course, there are no objective linguistic criteria to estimate the degree of importance or significance of each constituent. It is only the formal homogeneity of these component parts and the test of synonymy in the words 'lovely', 'beautiful', 'fair,' 'veritable gem' in the first example and the relative inaccessibility of the barriers 'wall', 'river', 'crags', 'mountains' together with the epithets 'deep and wide', 'horrid', 'dark and tall' that make us feel the increase in importance of each.

A gradual increase in significance may be maintained in three ways: logical, emotional and quantitative.

The order of the statements shows what the author considers the cul­mination of the climax. The passage by Dickens should be considered "subjective", because there is no general recognition of the relative signif­icance of the statements in the paragraph. The climax in the lines from Byron's "Ne barrier..." may be considered "objective" because such things as 'wall', 'river', 'crags', 'mountains' are objectively ranked according to their accessibility.

Of course, emotional climax based on synonymous strings of words with emotive meaning will inevitably cause certain semantic differences

in these words -- such is the linguistic nature of stylistic synonyms--, but emotive meaning will be the prevailing one.

Emotional climax is mainly found in sentences, more rarely in longer syntactical units. This is natural. Emotional charge cannot hold long. As becomes obvious from the analysis of the above examples of cli­matic order, the arrangement of the component parts calls for parallel construction which, being a kind of syntactical repetition, is frequently accompanied by lexical repetition.

Finally, we come to quantitative climax. This is an evi­dent increase in the volume of the corresponding concepts, as in:

"They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of stairs; they inspected innumerable kitchens." (Maugham)

Here the climax is achieved by simple numerical increase. In the following example climax is materialized by setting side by side concepts of measure and time:

"Little by little, bit by bit, and day by day, and 'year by year the baron got the worst of some disputed question." (Dickens)

What then are the indispensable constituents of climax? They are:

a) the distributional constituent: close proximity of the component parts arranged in increasing order of importance or significance;

b) the syntactical pattern: parallel constructions with possible lexical

repetition;

c) the connotative constituent: the explanatory context which helps the reader to grasp the gradation, as no... ever once in all his life*, nobody ever, nobody, No beggars (Dickens); deep and wide, horrid, dark and tall (Byron); veritable (gem of a city).

Climax, like many other stylistic devices, is a means by which the author discloses his world, outlook, his evaluation of objective facts and phenomena. The concrete stylistic function of this device is to show the relative importance of things as seen by the author (especially in emotional climax), or to impress upon the reader the significance of the things described by suggested comparison, or to depict phenomena dy­namically.1

1 Note: There is a device which is called anticlimax. The ideas expressed may be arranged in ascending order of significance, or they may be poetical or elevated, but the final one, which the reader expects to be the culminating one, as in climax, is trifling or farcical. There is a sudden drop from the lofty or serious to the ridiculous. A typical example is Aesop's fable "The Mountain in Labour."

Antithesis

In order to characterize a thing or phenomenon from a specific point of view, it may be necessary not to find points of resemblance or associa­tion between it and some other thing or phenomenon, but to find points of sharp contrast, that is, to set one against the other, for example: "A saint abroad, and a devil at home" (Bunyan) "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." (Milton)

A line of demarcation must be drawn between logical opposition and stylistic opposition. Any opposition will be based on the contrast­ing features of two objects. These contrasting features are represented in pairs of words which we call antonyms, provided that all the prop­erties of the two objects in question may be set one against another, as 'saint' --'devil', 'reign'--'serve', 'hell'--'heaven'.

Many word-combinations are built up by means of contrasting pairs, as up and down, inside and out, from top to bottom and the like.

Stylistic opposition, which is given a special name, the term a n-t i t h e s i s, is of a different linguistic nature: it is based on relative opposition which arises out of the context through the expansion of objectively contrasting pairs, as in:

"Youth is lovely, age is lonely,

Youth is fiery, age is frosty;" (Longfellow)

Here the objectively contrasted pair is 'youth' and 'age'. 'Lovely' and 'lonely' cannot be regarded as objectively opposite concepts, but being drawn into the scheme contrasting 'youth' and 'age', they display certain features which may be counted as antonymical. This is strength­ened also by the next line where not only 'youth' and 'age' but also 'fiery' and 'frosty' are objective antonyms.

It is not only the semantic aspect which explains the linguistic nature of antithesis, the structural pattern also plays an important role. Antith­esis is generally moulded in parallel construction. The antagonistic features of the two objects or phenomena are more easily perceived when they stand out in similar structures. This is particularly advantageous when the antagonistic features are not inherent in the objects in question but imposed on them. The structural design of antithesis is so important it would produce. Here we have deliberate anticlimax, which is a recognized form of humour. Anti­climax is frequently used by humorists Mark Twain and Jerome K- Jerome.

In "Three Men in a Boat", for example, a poetical passage is invariably followed by ludicrous scene. For example, the author expands on the beauties of the sunset on the river and concludes:

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