LECTURE 3 EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES PHONETIC

LECTURE 3 EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES. PHONETIC AND LEXICAL EM AND SD.

Expressive means of a language are those linguistic forms and properties that have the potential to make the utterance emphatic or expressive. These can be found on all levels – phonetic, graphical, morphological, lexical or syntactical. Expressive means and stylistic devices have a lot in common but they aren’t completely synonymous.

All SDs belong to expressive means but not all expressive means are SDs. Phonetic phenomena such as vocal pitch (высота), pauses, logical stress and drawling (протяжное произношение) or staccato (стаккато, отрывистое) pronunciation are all expressive without being stylistic devices

The classification of SD suggested by professor I. R. Galperin is simply organized and very detailed. His manual “Stylistics” published in 1971 includes the following subdivision of EMs and SDs based on the level-oriented approach: Phonetic Lexical Syntactical

Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices The stylistic approach to the utterance is not confined (не ограничивается) to its structure and sense (смыслом). The way a word, a phrase or a sentence sounds is also vitally important. Separately a sound has no or little aesthetic value. It is in combination with other words that the word produces a desired phonetic effect.

ONOMATOPOEIA Onomatopoeia – a combination of speech sounds which aims at imitating sound produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder etc. ), by things (machines or tools), by people (sighing, laughter), by animals. For example: buzz (жужжать), purr (мурлыкать), giggle (хихикать), whistle (свистеть)

TYPES OF ONOMATOPOEIA Ø Direct onomatopoeia occurs in words that imitate natural sounds (ding- dong, buzz, cuckoo, roar). Some resemble the word strongly, others require a lot of imagination to understand the source (cock-a-doodledoo). Ø Indirect onomatopoeia is a combination of sounds the aim of which is to make a sound of the utterance an echo of its sense: Ex. : “Tiger, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night”.

ALLITERATION Ø It aims at imparting a melodic effect to the utterance. Usually it is a repetition of the initial sound of a word in one or more closely following words: Ex. : safe and sound, as fit as a fiddle (to be completely healthy: an idiom). Ø Alliteration is generally regarded as a musical accompaniment of the author’s idea, supporting it with some vague (смутный, неясный) emotional atmosphere which each reader interprets for himself. Alliteration like most phonetic expressive means, does not bear any lexical or other meaning unless we agree that a sound meaning exists as such (a sound has a meaning of its own). Ø It is frequently used in emotive prose, newspaper headlines, titles of books, proverbs and sayings. (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, The School for Scandal).

ASSONANCE OR VOCALIC ALLITERATION It is a repetition of similar vowel sounds in words that are close together. Like alliteration, assonance can create musical and rhythmic effects and makes the lines of a verse especially memorable. For example: All day the wind breathes low, mellow tone. In this line the repetition of long “O” sound is onomatopoeic.

RHYME Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sounds or combinations of words. Generally they are placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are situated at the end of the rhymed lines. Full rhymes are characterised by identity of both the final vowel and the subsequent (последующего) consonants: meat-beat. Incomplete rhymes – by identity of either vowels or consonants: fresh-press, worth-forth. In eye rhymes letters not the sounds are identical: love-prove, flood-brood. It follows therefore that whereas compound rhyme is perceived in reading aloud, eyerhyme can only be perceived in the written verse.

According to the way the rhymes are arranged within the stanza (строфа) certain models have crystallized, `for instance: Ø couplets – when the last words of two successive lines are rhymed. This is commonly marked aa Ø triple rhymes – aaa Ø cross rhymes – abab Ø framing or ring rhymes – abba There is still another variety of rhyme which is called internal rhyme. The rhyming words are placed not at the ends of the lines but within the line, as in: “I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers. ”

LEXICAL EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES Lexical SDs reveal the following patterns: 1) Interplay of different types of lexical meaning 2) Intensification of characteristic traits of the phenomenon described 3) Contamination (an intentional mixing of words of different stylistic aspects)

Lexical EMs and SDs based on interaction of different types of lexical meaning I. In the first subdivision the principle of classification is the interaction of different types of a word’s meanings: v. Dictionary and contextual logical meaning v. Logical and emotive meaning v. Primary and derivative logical meaning v. Logical and nominal meaning

v Interaction of dictionary and contextual logical meaning METAPHOR is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinary designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in “a sea of troubles” or “all the world is a stage” and one thing is conceived as representing another. The metaphor brings to the surface an important feature of the object in question thus permitting the reader to have a new fresh look at the subject.

Metaphors like all SDs can be classified according to their degree of unexpectedness. Thus metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, i. e. are quite unpredictable, are called genuine metaphors. Those which are commonly used in speech and therefore are sometimes even fixed in dictionaries as expressive means of language are trite metaphors or dead metaphors. Their predictability therefore is apparent. Ø Trite metaphors: love is blind, a shadow of a smile Ø Genuine metaphor: two wives ago The constant use of a metaphor gradually leads to the breaking up of the primary meaning. The metaphoric use of the word begins to affect the dictionary meaning, adding to it fresh connotations or shades of meaning. But this influence, however strong it may be, will never reach the degree where the dictionary meaning entirely disappears. If it did, we should have no stylistic device.

METONYMY is based on a different type of relation between the dictionary and contextual meanings, a relation based not on identification, , but on some kind of association connecting the two concepts which these meanings represent. Thus, the word “crown” may stand for “king or queen”, “woolsack” for “the Chancellor of the Exchequer”. Metonymy used in language-in-action, i. e. contextual metonymy is genuine metonymy and reveals a quite unexpected substitution of one word for another, on the ground of some strong impression produced by a chance feature of the thing, for example: “Then they came in. Two of them, a man with long fair moustaches and a silent dark man… Definitely, the moustache and I had nothing in common. ” (Doris Lessing, “Retreat to Innocence”)

METONYMY METAPHOR Metonymy and metaphor differ in the way they are deciphered. In the process of disclosing the meaning implied in a metaphor, ONE IMAGE EXCLUDES THE OTHER, that is the metaphor “lamp” in the “the sky lamp of the night”, when deciphered, means the moon, and though there is a definite interplay of meanings, we perceive only one object, the moon. This is not the case with metonymy. Metonymy, while presenting one object to our mind, doesn’t exclude the other. In the example given above THE MOUSTACHE and THE MAN ITSELF are both perceived by the mind.

IRONY is a stylistic device also based on the simultaneous realization of two logical meanings – dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings stand in opposition to each other. For example: It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket. Irony must not be confused with humour, although they have very much in common. Humour always causes laughter. But the function of irony is not confined to producing a humorous effect. In a sentence “How clever of you!” where due to the intonation pattern, the word “clever” conveys a sense opposite to its literal signification, the irony doesn’t cause a ludicrous (смехотворный) effect. It rather expresses a feeling of irritation, displeasure, pity or regret.

v Interaction of logical and emotive meaning THE EPITHET is a peculiar use of a word or a phrase in an attributive function which directly reveals the writer’s emotional attitude to the object described. Epithets may be classified from different standpoints: semantic and structural. Semantically we distinguish between original and trite epithets. Structurally epithets may be simple and complex phrases. Ex. : heartburning smile, the yellow moon of the face, a killing news, a-never-tell-me-about-it smile

OXYMORON is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash (сталкиваются), being opposite in sense, for example: sweet sorrow, pleasantly ugly face, horribly beautiful, an ugly beauty, awfully nice, terribly sorry

v Interaction of primary and derivative logical meaning ZEUGMA is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to two adjacent (смежных) words in the context, the semantic relations being, on the one hand, literal, and on the other, transferred. Example: “Dora, plunging (бросаться, нырять, погружаться) at once into privileged intimacy and into the middle of the room” “to plunge”(into the middle of the room)materializes the meaning “to rush into” or “enter impetuously (стремительно)”. Here it is used in its concrete, primary, literal meaning; in “to plunge into privileged intimacy” the word “plunge” is used in its derivative meaning.

PUN THE PUN is another SD based on the interaction of two well-known meanings of a word or a phrase. It is difficult to draw a hard and fast distinction between ZEUGMA and PUN. The only reliable distinguishing feature is a structural one: zeugma is the realization of two meanings with the help of a verb which is made to refer to different subjects or objects (direct or indirect). The pun is more independent. It can be realized in a larger context and the word that is used in two meanings may be repeated: Ex. : Did you hit a woman with a child? No, Sir, I hit her with a stick Puns are often used in riddles and jokes, for example, in this riddle (загадка): What is the difference between a schoolmaster and an engine-driver (машинистом)? One trains the mind and the other minds the train.

v Interaction of logical and nominal meaning ANTONOMASIA is the use of a common noun as a proper name. The main function of this type of antonomasia is to characterize a person simultaneously with naming him/her. In this function antonomasia can be likened to epithets aimed at pointing out a most characteristic feature of a person. When employed in this function it is sometimes called a “tell-tale” or a “speaking name”. Ex. : Miss. Simplicity, Mr. Know All, Коробочка, Собакевич, Молчалин, Вральман, Плюшкин

Lexical EMs and SDs based on intensification of characteristic traits of the phenomenon described SIMILY Ordinary comparison and simile must not be confused. Comparison means weighing two objects belonging to one class of things with the purpose of establishing the degree of their sameness or difference. To use a simile is to characterize one object by bringing it into contact with another object belonging to an entirely different class of things. Example: 1) The boy seems to be as clever as his mother. – ordinary comparison. “Boy” and” mother” belong to the same class of objects – human beings. 2) “Maidens, like moths (мотыльки) are ever caught by glare”. (Byron)

In the English language there is a long list of hackneyed (избитых) similes pointing out the analogy between the various qualities, states or actions of a human being and the animal supposed to be the bearers of the given quality For example: treacherous as a snake (предательский), sly as a fox, busy as a bee, industrious as an ant, faithful as a dog, to work like a horse, hungry as a bear, thirsty as a camel.

PERIPHRASIS is a device, which consists in renaming an object or phenomenon by a phrase or a sentence with the aim of bringing out and intensifying some feature or quality of that object or phenomenon. Stylistic periphrasis can also be divided into logical and figurative. Periphrasis may viewed as both trite (my better half meaning a husband or a wife) and as fresh (shouter = singer, to tie the knot = to marry). It is often used for the sake of humor, irony, satire or parody

EUPHEMISM There is a variety of periphrasis which we shall call euphemistic. Euphemism is a roundabout naming of a thing considered too fearful or too blunt to be named directly. It is a word or a phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a more acceptable one For example, the word “to die” has bred the following euphemisms: to pass away, to depart, to be no more, to be gone, to join the majority; correctional institution = prison Political euphemisms are to be found in abundance in newspaper language and their true nature should be born in mind when translating phrases like: free of job=unemployed, depression=for crisis, peace mission = military actions

HYPERBOLE is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration which means to be understood as exaggeration with the aim to intensify one of the features of an object to such an extent that will show its absurdity as in: He was so tall that I wasn’t sure he had a face, . He’s so dumb he doesn’t know he is alive, . When I was born I was so surprised that I couldn’t talk for a year and a half.

Lexical EMs and SDs based on contamination as an intentional mixing of words of different stylistic aspects CLICHÉ is generally defined as an expression that has become hackneyed (избитый) and trite (банальный). Example: “rosy dreams of youth”, “the whip and carrot policy” PROVERBS AND SAYINGS are facts of language. They are collected in dictionaries. There are special dictionaries of proverbs and sayings. Proverbs and sayings, if used appropriately, will never lose their freshness and vigor. Example: Out of sight, out of mind

EPIGRAMS is a stylistic device akin (сродни) to a proverb, the only difference being that epigrams are coined by individuals whose names we know, while proverbs are the coinage of the people. When using an epigram we usually make a reference to its author. Example: “A God that can be understand is no God” (Somerset Maugham)

QUATATION S is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech and the like used by way of authority, illustration, proof or as a basis for further speculation on the matter in hand. The stylistic value of a quotation lies mainly in the fact that it comprises two meanings: the primary meaning, the one which it has in its original surroundings, and the applicative meaning, i. e. the one which it acquires in the new context. Quotations, unlike epigrams, need not necessarily be short. A whole paragraph or a long passage may be quoted if it suits the purpose.