Шпаргалка по стилистике

 

Epigrams, paradox, allusion.

An epigram is a stylistic device akin to a proverb, the only difference between them is that epigram is created by people whose names are well known. They have a bookish air about them which differs them from proverbs. They can be fixed in dictionaries. ▲ Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. (J. Milton) A paradox is a statement which is contrary to generally accepted opinion, but which expresses some kind of truth. ▲ Men marry because they are tired, women – because they are curious. Both are disappointed. An allusion is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary, mythological, biblical fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing. ▲ It’s no use pretending that we are Romeo and Juliet. In this sentence reference to “R and J” achieved by the repetition of names.

 

Spans of utterance larger than a sentence (supra-phrasal unit, paragraph).

It is important to single out certain elements which constitute any text. Phonemes are the smallest language units which function within morphemes and depend on them; morphemes function within words, words – within sentences. Sentences function in larger structural elements – supra-phrasal units. They consist of a number of sentences which are independent structurally and semantically. Often a supra-phrasal unit coincides with a paragraph – a graphical term used to name a group of sentences marked off by indentation at the beginning and sometimes a break in the line at the end. A supra-phrasal unit and a paragraph have much in common: they both have a topic sentence which shows their main idea. It may be placed at the beginning, end, and middle. Paragraph may contain several SPU…

 

Stylistic inversion, detachment.

Inversion is certain changes in the word order of an utterance. It can by grammatical and stylistic. The first one involves the structure of the utterance. It’s a norm in interrogative constructions. ▲ He is leaving for London tomorrow morning. – Is he leaving for London tomorrow? In this example no emphases is added, so it’s a grammatical inversion. Stylistic inversion doesn’t change the structural meaning of an utterance it aims at attaching logical stress or additional emotional coloring to the meaning of the utterance. ▲ In shabby shubra lived another people: to them, and them only he felt related. Detachment is a variety of stylistic inversion. It takes place when some secondary parts of the utterance are placed. So that they seem formally independent of words they logically refer to. ▲ You weren’t-ever-going to get out of this… not ever. Detachment of ever wit…

 

Parallel constructions, chiasmus.

A parallel construction is the stylistic device which represents identical or similar syntactical structures in two or more sentences or parts of a sentence. Pure parallelism depends on the repetition of syntactical arrangement of the sentence. ▲ He was not comfortable. He was not happy. These 2 sentences have identical structure. Parallel construction may be complete (maintains the principle of identical structures in the corresponding sentence) and partial (based on the repetition of some parts of successive sentences). ▲ I was growing up, he was growing old. Parallelism may carry the role of semantic equality of the parts, emotive, uniting functions. Chiasmus (reversed parallel construction) is a stylistic device based on the repetition of a syntactical pattern but with a cross order of word or phrases. ▲ Better a witty fool than I foolish wit. In this saying chiasmus is realized through different parts of speech with the same roots. It’s a syntactical not lexical stylistic device as…

 

Repetition (all cases).

Repetition aims at logical emphasis in order to fix the reader’s attention on the key-words of the utterance. There are: 1) Anaphora – when the repeated unit comes at the beginning. ▲ Your cheek, your gluttony, your obstinacy impose respect on me. 2) Epiphora – the repeated units is at the end of a sentence. ▲ To get into the best society one has either to feed people, amuse people. 3) Framing repetition – the initial word is repeated at the end of the unit. ▲ Please don’t tie me down, please. 4) Linking repetition – the last word of one part is repeated at the beginning of the following one. ▲ If you have nothing to say, say it. 5) Chain repetition – a group of linking repetition used in the same utterance. ▲ Now he understood. He understood many things. 6) Synonymic repetition – repetition of the same idea with the help of synonyms. 7) Pleonasm – the use of more words than are necessary. Usually the fault of style. 8) Tautology – repetition of the same statement. Usually in other words the fault of style.

 

Enumeration, suspense.

Enumeration is a stylistic device by which separate things are named one by one. So that they produce a chain, the links of which, being syntactically in the same position, are forced to display some kinds of semantic homogeneity. It’s frequently used to depict the scenery through a tourist’s eyes. It units both homogeneous and heterogeneous objects. If the united objects are homogeneous, enumeration is not a stylistic device. Example of simple enumeration: ▲ Kings, emperors, conquerors, pontiffs and all the other idols are swept away sooner or later. Suspense is a compositional stylistic device which consists in arranging the matter of communication in such a way that the less important, descriptive, subordinate parts are amassed at the beginning, and the main idea is withheld till the end of the sentence. ▲ Swinging his cane (which he found to short) in his left hand (which he should have cut off long ago since it was constantly offending him), he began walking slowly down the avenue. Suspense aim at helping the reader in uncertainty and expectation, at creating constant emotional tension.

 

Climax, anticlimax, antithesis.

Climax (gradation) is a stylistic device representing a gradual increase in significance, importance or emotional tension in the utterance. Logical climax – is based on the relative importance of the component parts looked at from the point of view of the concepts embodied in them. ▲ You’re a pig and a beast and a Bolshevik. Logical climax here implies political view of the character. Emotional climax is based on the relative emotional tension produced by words with emotive meaning. Quantitative climax is an evident increase in the volume of the corresponding concepts or simple numerical increase. Anticlimax: is a sudden drop from the different or important in thought or expression to the commonplace or trivial, sometimes for humorous effect. Anticlimax is represented by an unexpected turn of the thought which ends in complete semantic reversal of the emphasized idea. It results in defeated expectancy of the reader. Antithesis: is based on relative opposition which arises out of the context trough the expansion of contrasting pairs. ▲ Every white has its black, and every sweet its …

 

Asyndeton, polysyndeton, the gap-sentence link.

Asyndeton is connection between parts of a sentence or between sentences without any formal sign. It becomes a stylistic if there is a deliberate omission of the connective where it is generally expected to be according to the norms of the literary language. ▲ The boys all hated him, he was so good. In this sentence the conjunction “because” is omitted. Polysyndeton is connection between parts of a sentence or between sentences by using connectives (mostly conjunctions and prepositions) before each component part. ▲ She stirred the fire, and shut the door, and sat as near to it as she could, quite on the edge of her chair. Another function of this type is disintegrating. Gap-sentence link is a way of connecting two sentences seemingly unconnected and leaving it to the reader’s imagination to grasp the idea implied. ▲ She says nothing but it’s clear that she is harping on this engagement, and …

 

Ellipsis, break-in-the narrative.

Ellipsis is deliberate omission of at least one member of the sentence. It is typical in conversation, but in direct intercourse it’s not a stylistic device, but a norm of the spoken language. Ellipsis is the basis of the telegraphic style, which presupposes omission of connectives and redundant words. A kind of ellipsis, a construction in which the subject of one sentence is at the same time the subject of the second, is called apokoinu construction. ▲ Everyone found him attractive. It was his temper let him down. The noun “temper”, being the subject of the first sentence, is also the subject of second one. Break-in-the narrative is a stylistic device based on a sudden breaking off in the midst of a sentence as if from inability for private communication. ▲ – Martin didn’t shoot himself. – Martin didn’t - . – Of course, he didn’t. I shoot him. Expresses the surprise of the character.

 

Peculiar use of colloquial constructions (uttered represented speech).

Emotional syntactical structures typical of the spoken language are often very effectively used by authors to depict the emotional state of the character. They are also used in the narrative of the author. Represented speech is that form of utterance which conveys the actual words of the speaker through the mouth of the writer but which retains the peculiarities of the speaker’s mode of expression. Uttered represented speech demands that the tense should be switched from present to past and that the personal pronouns should be changed from the 1^st and 2^nd person to 3^rd person as in indirect speech, but the syntactical structure of the utterance isn’t changed. ▲ Why was she nervous? What was there about a toy to make her grow pale? Why should she be so nervous? uttered represented speech is shown in the Past Indefinite…

 

 

Peculiar use of colloquial constructions (unuttered represented speech).

Emotional syntactical structures typical of the spoken language are often very effectively used by authors to depict the emotional state of the character. They are also used in the narrative of the author. Represented speech is that form of utterance which conveys the actual words of the speaker through the mouth of the writer but which retains the peculiarities of the speaker’s mode of expression. Unuttered represented speech is the thoughts and feelings going on in one’s mind and reflecting some previous experience. It has no communicative function and is very fragmentary, incoherent, isolated and consists of separate units which hint at the content of the utterance but do not word it explicitly. This type of represented speech is often introduced by verbs of mental perception, as think, feel, wonder, occur, ask, tell oneself, understand…

 

Transferred use of structural meaning (rhetorical question, litotes).

Every syntactical structure has a definite function, which is also called its structural meaning. Sometimes syntactical structures are used in meanings which differ from their usual ones. In this case a structure assumes a new meaning which is very much alike a lexical transferred meaning. Rhetorical question may be defined as an utterance in the form of a the question which pronounces judgments and also expresses different kinds of modal shades of meaning (irony, doubt). ▲ And yet, where was the Jane Eyre yesterday? Where was her life? Where were her prospects? Litotes is a stylistic device which consists of a peculiar use of negative construction. It’s negation which includes affirmation. ▲ It is not bad; she is not unkind. The function of it: weaken the effect of the utterance. There is double negative…

 

The main peculiarities of belles-lettres style.

Aim: to give possible interpretation of the phenomena of life. Words in more than one dictionary meaning genuine imagery, stylistic devices, individual selection of phonetic, lexical and syntactical means by writer, colloquial language. The main peculiarities of belles-lettres style. Belles-lettres style (the style of fiction) em-braces:1)poetry; 2)drama; 3)emotive prose. B-l style or the style of imaginative literature may be called the richest register of communication: besides its own language means which are not used in any other sphere of communication, b-l st. makes ample use of other styles too, for it numerous works of literary art we find elements of scientific, official and other functional types of speech. Besides informative and persuasive functions, also found in other functional styles, the b-l style has a unique task to impress the reader aesthetically. The form becomes meaningful and carries additional info. Boundless possibilities of expressing one's thoughts and feelings make the b-l style a highly attractive field of research for a linguist. The belles-lettres style, in each of its concrete representations, fulfils the aesthetic function, which fact singles this style out of others and gives grounds to recognize its systematic uniqueness, i.e. charges it with the status if an autonomous functional style.

 

The main peculiarities of publicistic style.

Publicistic style. (oratory, speeches, essays, articles)  the style is a perfect ex. Of historical change-ability of stylistic differentiation of discourses. In Greece it was practiced in oral form which was named P. in accordance with the name of its corresponding genre. PS is famous for its explicit pragmatic function of persuasion directed at influencing the reader & shaping his views in accordance with the argumentation of the author. We find in PS a blend of the rigor-ous logical reasoning, reflecting the objective state of things & a strong subjectivity reflecting the authors personal feelings and emotions towards the discussed subject. Substyles: The oratory essays, journalistic articles, radio and TV commentary. Oratory. It makes use of a great humbler of expressive means to arouse and keep the public's interest: repetition, gradation, antithesis, rhetorical questions, emotive words, elements of colloquial speech. Radio and TV commentary is less impersonal and more expressive and emotional. The essay is very subjective and the most colloquial of the all substyles of the publicistic style. It makes use of expressive means and tropes. The journalistic articles are impersonal.

 

The main peculiarities of newspaper style.

Newspaper style includes informative materials: news in brief, headlines, ads, additional articles. But not everything published in the paper can be included in N.S. we mean publicist essays, feature articles, scient. Reviews are not N.S. to attract the readers attention special means are used by British & am. Papers ex: specific headlines, space ordering. We find here a large proportion of dates, personal names of countries, institutions, individuals. To achieve an effect of objectivity in rendering some fact or event most of  info is published anonymously, without the name of newsman who supplied it, with little or no subjective modality. But the position of the paper becomes clear from the choice  not only of subj. matter  but also of words denoting international or domestic issues. Substyles. To understand the language peculiarities of English newspaper style it will be sufficient to analyze the following basic newspaper features:1) brief news items;2) advertisements and announcements;3) headlines; Brief items: its function is to inform the reader. It states only facts without giving comments. The vocabulary used is neutral and common literary. Specific features are: a) special political and economic terms; b) non-term political vocabulary; c) newspaper clichés; d) abbreviations; e) neologisms.

 

The main peculiarities of scientific and official style.

The Style of Official Documents

1) Language of business letters; 2) Language of legal documents; 3) Language of diplomacy; 4) Language of military documents; The aim: 1. to reach agreement between two contracting parties; 2. to state the conditions binding two parties in an understanding. Each of substyles of official documents makes use of special terms. Legal documents: military documents, diplomatic documents. The documents use set expressions inherited from early Victorian period. This vocabulary is conservative. Legal documents contain a large proportion of formal and archaic words used in their dictionary meaning. In diplomatic and legal documents many words have Latin and French origin. There are a lot of abbreviations and conventional symbols. The most noticeable feature of grammar is the compositional pattern. Every document has its own stereotyped form. The form itself is informative and tells you with what kind of letter we deal with. Business letters contain: heading, addressing, salutation, the opening, the body, the closing, complimentary clause, the signature. Syntactical features of business letters are - the predominance of extended simple and complex sentences, wide use of participial constructions, homogeneous members. Morphological peculiarities are passive constructions, they make the letters impersonal. There is a tendency to avoid pronoun reference. Its typical feature is to frame equally important factors and to divide them by members in order to avoid ambiguity of the wrong interpretation.

Scientific Prose Style

The style of scientific prose has 3 subdivisions:1) the style of humanitarian sciences; 2) the style of "exact" sciences; 3) the style of popular scientific prose. Its function is to work out and ground theoretically objective knowledge about reality. The aim of communication is to create new concepts, disclose the international laws of existence. The peculiarities are: objectiveness; logical coherence, impersonality, unemotional character, exactness. The scientific prose style consists mostly of ordinary words which tend to be used in their primary logical meaning. Emotiveness depends on the subject of investigation but mostly scientific prose style is unemotional. Grammar: The logical presentation and cohesion of thought manifests itself in a developed feature of scientific syntax is the use of established patterns. - postulatory; - formulative; - argumentative; The impersonal and objective character of scientific prose style is revealed in the frequent use of passive constructions, impersonal sentences. Personal sentences are more frequently used in exact sciences. In humanities we may come across constructions but few. Some features of the style in the text are: - use of quotations and references; - use of foot-notes helps to preserve the logical coherence of ideas. Scientific popular style has the following peculiarities: emotive words, elements of colloquial style.