Lecture 4 Stylistic Syntax Lecture Plan 1

Lecture 4 Stylistic Syntax

Lecture Plan 1. Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices. Classification of stylistic syntactical patterns 2. Inversion 3. Ellipsis 4. Parallel constructions 5. Chiasmus (reversed parallel construction) 6. Rhetorical questions

Lecture Plan 7. Repetitions 8. Litotes 9. Climax, anticlimax 10. Antithesis 11. Asyndeton, polysyndeton 12. Represented speech

Key Words • inversion • ellipsis • parallel construction • chiasmus • rhetorical question • repetition • anaphora • • epiphora litotes climax antithesis asyndeton polysyndeton represented speech

1 Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices. Classification of stylistic syntactical patterns

Stylistics takes as the object of its analysis EMs and SDs of the language which are based on some significant structural point of the utterance, whether it consists of one sentence or a string of sentences.

2 Inversion

Inversion is very often used as an independent SD in which the direct word order is changed either completely so that the predicate (predicative) precedes the subject; or partially so that the object precedes the subject-predicate pair

3 Ellipsis

Ellipsis is a typical phenomenon in conversation, arising out of the situation. Ellipsis is the omission of a word necessary for the complete syntactical construction of a sentence, but not necessary for understanding.

4 Parallel constructions

Parallel construction is a device which may be encountered not so much in the sentence as in the macro-structures dealt with the syntactical whole 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

5 Chiasmus

Chiasmus is based on repetition of syntactical patterns, but it has a reversed (cross) order in one of the utterances as compared with that of the other

6 Rhetorical questions

The rhetorical question is a special syntactical stylistic device the essence of which consists in reshaping the grammatical meaning of the interrogative sentence. In other words, the question is no longer the question but a statement expressed in the form of an interrogative sentence

Thus there is an interplay of two structural meanings: 1) that of the question and 2) that of the statement (either affirmative or negative). Both are materialized simultaneously

7 Repetitions

Repetition is an EM of the language used when the speaker is under the stress of strong emotion. It shows the state of mind of the speaker

Repetition is classified according to compositional patterns. It the repeated word (or phrase) comes at the beginning of two or more consecutive sentences, clauses or phrases, it is called anaphora, as in the example above. If the repeated unit id placed at the end of the consecutive sentences, this type is called epiphora

8 Litotes

Litotes is a twocomponent structure in which two negations are joined to give a positive evaluation

9 Climax (gradation), anticlimax (bathos)

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

Anticlimax is a sudden deception of the recipient. It consists in adding one weaker element to one or several strong ones, mentioned before

10 Antithesis

Antithesis is a semantically complicated parallel construction, the two parts of which are semantically opposite to each other. It is to stress the heterogenity of the described phenomenon, to show that the latter is a dialectical unity of two (or more) opposing features

Antithesis has the following basic functions: rhythmforming (because of the parallel arrangement on which it is founded); copulative; dissevering; comparative

11 Asyndeton, polysyndeton

Asyndeton is a deliberate avoidance of conjunctions in constructions in which they would normally used

Polysyndeton is an identical repetition of conjunctions: used to emphasize simultaneousness of described actions, to disclose the authors subjective attitude towards the characters, to create the rhythmical effect

12 Represented speech

Represented speech is a device which coveys to the reader the unuttered or inner speech of the character, his thoughts and feelings