Lectures 5 -6 Stylistic semasiology 1 Expressive means

Lectures 5 -6. Stylistic semasiology 1. Expressive means (EM) and stylistic devices (SD), their different classifications. 2. Tropes and figures of speech. 3. Lexical SD. 4. Syntactical SD. 5. Lexico-syntactical SD.

Semasiology n (from Greek: "indicate, signify") is a linguistic discipline which studies the meaning of words regardless of their phonetic expression. n Semasiology departs from a word or lexical expression and asks for its meaning, its different senses, i. e. polysemy. The opposite approach is known as onomasiology.

n EM (tropes) and SD are based on the interrelation of 2 meanings. n When we perceive two meanings of the word simultaneously, we are confronted with a stylistic device in which the two meanings interact. Ex. : She is the heart of society (trope). She is as beautiful as a rose (figure of speech).

Tropes and figures of speech According to professor I. V. Arnold and professor Y. M. Skrebnev tropes are subdivided into: n Figures of quantity n Figures of quality

EM and SD (Y. Skrebnev, I. Arnold) Figures of Quantity n Hyperbole n Meiosis -understatement -litotes Figures of Quality n Metaphor -periphrasis -allusion -personification -allegory n Metonymy -synecdoche -antonomasia n Irony

Lexical Stylistic Devices (I. R. Galperin) Interrelation of two logical meanings Interrelation of Logical & Emotive Logical & meanings Nominal Phraseological meanings (dictionary and contextual) n. Metaphorical Epithet group Oxymoron n. Metonymical Hyperbole group Understatement n. Irony Antonomasia n. Pun n. Zeugma n. Semantically false chain n. Violation of phraseological units

a) The metaphorical group (metaphor, personification, allegory, allusion). Metaphor is a trope in which words denoting one object are transferred to others to indicate a resemblance between them. Resemblance or similarity of: n Shape: His eyes were two profound and menacing gun barrels. n Function: He is a fox. n Position: He smelt the ever-beautiful smell of coffee imprisoned in the can. (J. St. )

Metaphors can be expressed by n Verbs: Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, some few to be chewed and digested /F. Bacon/. n Nouns: I am the new year. I am an unspoiled page in your book of time /T. Howard/. n Adjectives: dying flowers; blue dream.

Metaphors can be n simple n sustained (prolonged, extended): E. g. : Wisdom has reference only to the past. The future remains forever an infinite field for mistakes. You can't know beforehand. /D. H. Lawrence/ (simple) E. g. : I had a stable of promises and I believed those promises. I rode those promises, hard, once to a bad fall /H. Stephens/. (sustained)

The Structure of the Metaphor The components of a metaphor; n tenor (смысл), n vehicle (средство передачи) n tertium comparationis (the third part of the comparison). E. g. : “My love (tenor) is a rose (vehicle). Tertium comparationis is beauty

George Lakoff and Mark Johnson n Target domain: the conceptual domain that we try to understand (e. g. , love is a journey). n Source domain: the conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical expressions (e. g. , love is a journey). n Mapping is the systematic set of correspondences that exist between constituent elements of the source and the target domain. Target Source

Personification If a metaphor involves likeness between inanimate and animate objects, we deal with personification n E. g. : The bare old elm trees wrung their many hands in the bleak wintry air…

Allusion n a figure of speech that makes a reference to a place, event, literary work, myth, or work of art, either directly or by implication. Examples: n the Scrooge Syndrome (allusion to the rich, greedy and mean Ebeneezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens’s “Christmas Carol”) n Plan ahead. It was not raining when Noah built the Ark. (Richard Cushing) (allusion to the biblical Ark of Noah) n to meet one’s Waterloo (allusion to Napoleon’s defeat in the Battle of Waterloo) n to wash one’s hands of it. (allusion to Pontius Pilatus, who sentenced Jesus to death, but washed his hands afterwards to demonstrate that he was not to blame for it. )

b) The metonymical group (metonymy, synecdoche) is based on contiguity (really existing relations) between 2 objects. The relations can be The relations of the container and … contained: “the hall applauded”, The relations of the instrument and the action: “Give every man thy ear, and few thy voice. ” /W. Shakespeare/.

Subject and its property: “He made his way through the perfume and conversation. ” The material instead of the thing meant: “Your satin will be wrinkled”

A concrete thing instead of the abstract notion “Nancy broke with Rome the day her baby died” The relation of proximity: “The round game table was boisterous and happy”

Synecdoche n Synecdoche is a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole, or the whole for a part, or an individual for a class or the singular for the plural. n E. g. : Through the silent sunlit solitude of the square this bonnet and this dress floated northwards in search of romance /A. Bennett/.

c) Irony is an opposition of what is said to what is meant. Irony is based on n the interrelation of 2 logical meanings (Galperin) n On the interrelation of 2 opposite evaluative connotations (Arnold) E. g. : With all the expressiveness of a stone Welsh stared at him another twenty seconds apparently hoping to see him gag. (R. Chandler)

Antonomasia n Antonomasia is a lexical SD in which a proper noun is used instead of a common noun or vice versa, i. e. a SD, in which the nominal meaning of a proper name is suppressed by its logical meaning or the logical meaning acquires the nominal component. n E. g. : I won’t marry a Malone or a Sykes /Ch. Bronte/ n Mr. What's-his name, Mr Know-it-all n Lady Teazle, Mr. Surface, Mr. Credulous (R. Sheridan) (speaking names)

Pun (paronomasia, or play on words ) n Pun: the humorous use of a word in more than one sense. E. g. : "Have you been seeing any spirits? " "Or taking any? " - added Bob Alien. n “The Importance of Being Earnest” n - There isn’t a single man in the hotel that is halfalive. - But I am not a single man. - Oh I don’t mean that. Anyway I hate single men. They always propose marriage.

Zeugma n Zeugma: is the use of a word in the same grammatical relation to two adjacent words in the context, one figurative and the other literal in sense. E. g. : “And the boys took their places and their books” (Dickens). n My mother was wearing her best grey dress and a faint pink flush under each cheek bone.

Semantically false chain n Semantically false chain (a variation of zeugma) presents a number of homogeneous parts, semantically disconnected, but attached to the same verb. n As a rule, the last member of the chain falls out of thematic group, defeating the reader’s expectancy and producing a humorous effect. n E. g. : "A Governess wanted. Must possess knowledge of Romanian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, German, Music and Mining Engineering. "

Occasional Phraseological Units n Prolongation: “He was born with a silver spoon in the mouth which was rather curly and large. ” n Insertion: “They stood shifting from foot to unaccustomed foot. n Substitution: “to talk pig (shop).

n Prolongation and substitution They spoilt their rods, spared their children and anticipated the results in enthusiasm.

Epithet is a word (a group of words) carrying an expressive (emotive) characterization of an object described: “Full many a glorious morning have I seen. . . "

Epithets n Affective (or emotive proper) epithets convey the emotional evaluation of the object by the speaker E. g. : "gorgeous", "nasty", "magnificent", "atrocious” n Figurative, or transferred, epithets are formed of metaphors, metonymies and similes expressed by adjectives. E. g. "the smiling sun", ''the tobacco-stained smile", "a ghost-like face", "a dreamlike experience".

Epithets are expressed by n Adjectives or adverbs of manner (e. g. "his triumphant look" = he looked triumphantly) n Nouns which are used either as exclamatory sentences or as postpositive attributes E. g. : "You, ostrich!" "Richard of the Lion Heart"

Epithets are used n singly (prodigious hills) n in pairs (wonderful and incomparable beauty) n in chains (He's a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-nosed peacock) (Dickens) n in two-step structures (a pompously majestic female) (Dickens) n in inverted constructions (this devil of a woman) (W. Thackeray) n phrase-attributes (a move-if-you-dare expression)

Oxymoron is a combination of seemingly contradictory notions. In Shakespearian definitions of love, taken from Romeo and Juliet attributive combinations present a strong semantic discrepancy between their members. E. g. : "O brawling love! О loving hate! О heavy lightness! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!“ “And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true” (A. Tennison).

Hyperbole n Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement not meant to be taken literally to express a highly emotional attitude towards the thing described: n E. g. : My vegetable love should grow faster than empires. /A. Marvell "To His Coy Mistress“/ n God, I cried buckets. I saw this film ten times.

Understatement n Understatement is a SD when the size, shape, dimensions, characteristic features of the object are intentionally underrated. n E. g. : "I am rather annoyed" instead of "I'm infuriated", "The wind is rather strong" instead of "There's a gale blowing outside“ n She was a sparrow of a woman.

Stylistic functions of tropes: 1. To bring out the message of the work 2. 3. 4. 5. of art; To serve as a kind of symbol; To express philosophical concepts; To express the emotive and evaluative attitude of the writer towards the object described; To describe characters.

Syntactical Stylistic Devices (SSD) Economy Redundancy Inversion 1. Ellipsis 1. Reiteration a) Ordinary rep-n b) Anaphora c) Epiphora d) Framing e) Anadiplosis f) Chain rep-n 2. Parallelism 3. Polysyndeton 4. Chiasmus 1. Inversion a) Partial b) Complete c) Secondary 2. Rhetorical question 3. Detachment 4. Attachment 5. Suspense 2. Aposiopesis 3. Asyndeton 4. Apokoinu construction

Economy of language means n Ellipsis: an intentional omission of one or more words: “Poor boy: no father, no mother, no anyone. . . ” n I'm a horse doctor, animal man. Do some farming, too. Near Tulip, Texas. (T. C. ) n Aposiopesis: a sudden intentional break in the narrative, dialogue: n “Well, I never …” "Good intentions, but", "It depends“, “Or else – ” (cast iron structures)

n Asyndeton: a deliberate avoidance of connectives between homogenious clauses: E. g. “People sang, people fought, people loved. ” n Apokoinu construction: omission of the pronominal (adverbial) connective, which creates a blend of the main and the subordinate clauses so that the predicative or the object of the first one is simultaneously used as the subject of the second one. E. g. "There was a door led into the kitchen. " (Sh. A. )

Redundancy of language means Repetition: n Ordinary: no regular pattern n Anaphora: a…; a…; n Epiphora: …a; …a; n Anadiplosis: a…b; b…c; n Chain repetition: a…b; b…c; c…d … n Successive repetition: a…b, b, b, b n Framing: a…………. . a

Examples I love your hills, I love your walls, I love your flocks and bleating /Keats/ (anaphora) I wake up and I'm alone and I walk round Warley and I'm alone; and I talk with people and I'm alone and I look at his face when I'm home and it's dead (J. Braine) (epiphora)

Living is the art of loving Loving is the art of caring Caring is the art of sharing Sharing is the art of living /W. H. Davis/ (chain repetition, frame) n So we have come to cash this check – a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice (Martin Luther King, Jr. ). (anadiplosis)

n She tore his letter in many, many pieces over and over again. n He ran away from the battle. He was an ordinary human being that didn't want to kill or be killed. So he ran away from the battle. (St. H. )

Redundancy of language means (contd) n Parallelism: a syntactic stylistic device; specific similarity of constructions of adjacent word groups, equivalent, complimentary, or antithetic in sense, esp. for rhetorical effect or rhythm E. g. : And everywhere were people. People going into gates and coming out of gates. People staggering and falling. People fighting and cursing. (P. A. )

n Polysyndeton: an insistent repetition of a connective between words, phrases, clauses to strengthen the idea of equal logical (emotive) importance of connected sentences. E. g. They were from Milan and one of them was to be a lawyer, and one was to be a painter, and one had intended to be a soldier (E. Hemingway)

n Chiasmus: reversed parallelism. The second part of a chiasmus is inversion of the first construction. If the first sentence (clause) has a direct word order - SPO, the second one will have it inverted - OPS. E. g. : I looked at the gun and the gun looked at me (R. Chandler). I know the world and the world knows me.

Replacement of lg. elements n Inversion: change in the word order Complete inversion: the predicate (predicative) precedes the subject. (Out came the chase - in went the horses) Partial inversion: the object/adverbial modifier precedes the subject-predicate pair. (Away he went) Secondary inversion / two-step inversion: interrogative constructions with the direct word order (direct w/o --- grammatical inversion — direct w/o). E. g. : "Your mother is at home? "

Rhetorical question n The rhetorical question does not demand any information but serves to express the emotions of the speaker and also to call the attention of listeners. n Rhetorical questions make an indispensable part of public speeches for they very successfully emphasize the speaker's ideas. The speaker knows the answer himself and gives it immediately after the question is asked.

Detachment n Detachment: a stylistic device based on singling out a secondary member of the sentence with the help of punctuation (intonation). The word-order here is not violated, but secondary members obtain their own stress and intonation because they are detached from the rest of the sentence by commas, dashes or even a full stop. n E. g. : “She was crazy about you. In the beginning” (R. P. Warren).

Attachment n Attachment: the second part of the utterance is separated by a full stop from the first as if in afterthought. The second part is often connected with the beginning of the utterance with the help of a conjunction, which brings the latter into the foregrounded opening position. n E. g. : “A lot of mills. And a chemical factory. And a Grammar school. And a war memorial…”

Suspense n Suspense: a deliberate postponement of the completion of the sentence. n The term "suspense" is also used in literary criticism to denote an expectant uncertainty about the outcome of the plot. The new information is withheld, creating the tension of expectation.

n Suspense is organized with the help of embedded clauses (or homogeneous parts) separating theme from the rheme. E. g. I have been accused of bad taste. This has disturbed me not so much for my own sake (since I am used to the slights and arrows of outrageous fortune) as for the sake of criticism in general. (S. Maugham. )

5. Lexico-syntactical stylistic devices Analogy and recurrence Contrast and recurrence 1. Simile 1. Anticlimax 2. Periphrasis 2. Litotes 3. Climax 3. Antithesis

Simile: a figure of speech based on similarity of objects belonging to different semantic groups. The tenor and the vehicle are connected by one of the following link words "like", "as though", "as like", "such as", "as. . . as", etc. Simile should not be confused with simple (logical, ordinary) comparison. E. g. : A style without metaphor and simile is to me like a day without the sun, or a woodland without birds (Lucas).

Periphrasis n Periphrasis is a stylistic device which basically consists of using a roundabout form of expression instead of a simpler one, i. e. of using a more or less complicated syntactical structure instead of a word. n Depending on the mechanism of this substitution, periphrases are classified into figurative (metonymic and metaphoric), logical and euphemistic.

n Logical periphrasis: Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation proclamation (M. L. King). n Figurative periphrasis: "The hospital was crowded with the surgically interesting products of the fighting in Africa" (I. Shaw) n Euphemistic periphrasis: Jean nodded without turning and slid between two vermilioncoloured buses so that two drivers simultaneously used the same qualitative word. (J. Galsworthy)

Climax / gradation n Climax: semantically complicated parallelism, in which each next word-combination (clause, sentence) is logically more important or emotionally stronger and more explicit. E. g. : "Better to borrow, better to beg, better to die!" (D. ) n In climax synonyms can be arranged in the ascending or in the descending order. E. g. : "Be careful, " said Mr. Jingle. "Not a look. " "Not a wink, " said Mr. Tupman. "Not a syllable. Not a whisper. " (D. ) (descending order).

Anticlimax n Climax, suddenly interrupted by an unexpected turn of the thought which defeats expectations of the reader (listener) and ends in complete semantic reversal of the emphasized idea, is called anticlimax. E. g. : Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything - except the obvious. (O. W. )

Litotes: a trope in which the affirmative is expressed by the negative or vice versa: E. g. : “It was not without a certain wild pleasure I ran before the wind (C. Bronte “Jane Eyre”). Not + a word with a negative meaning n The stylistic function of litotes is to convey the doubts of the speaker concerning the characteristics of the object in question.

Antithesis n Antithesis: an opposition or contrast of ideas arranged structurally as parallel constructions E. g. : “Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care…” "Some people have much to live on, and little to live for" (O. Wilde)

Questions n When does a SD appear? n Give Galperin’s classification of lexical SD n Give examples of each SD included into the classification. n Give the structure of metaphor n Enumerate types of epithets n Enumerate types of violation of phraseological units

Questions 1. Give classifications of syntactical SD and lexico 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. syntactical SD What are typical examples of aposiopesis? Enumerate types of repetitions. What is the difference between asyndeton and polysyndeton? What is the difference between detachment and attachment? What are the main types of inversion? What is the difference between litotes and understatement? What do antithesis and chiasmus have in common? What is climax and in what order can it be arranged?

Practical assignments (syntactical SD and lexicosyntactical SD) n А-М odd numbers n Н-Я even numbers