Morphological Stylistics 1 Stylistic potential

Morphological Stylistics • • • 1. Stylistic potential of nounal categories. 2. Stylistic functions of the article. 3. The pronoun as a factor of style. 4. The stylistic use of adjectives. 5. Stylistic potential of verbal categories. 6. Stylistic functions of adverbs.

1. Stylistic potential of nounal categories. • The Genitive case. The stylistic potential of the genitive case forms is based on two most common facts: • the genitive case form is an indicator of personification and • a word in the genitive case form is given more prominence as an attribute.

• ’s is used with the nouns which are regarded as presenting special interest for man’s activity: the mind’s general development, my life’s aim, duty’s call, etc. • ‘group genitive’ The function of such attributes, as a rule, is to create a humorous effect, • e. g. , She is the boy I used to go with’s mother. It’s the young fellow in the back room’s car. • two meanings of the Genitive may be realized simultaneously. The title of a story “The murder of my aunt” may be interpreted in two ways, which results in a stylistic effect.

Number. The indicator of number can create a certain stylistic effect when used • with the nouns normally not used in the plural form (proper names, abstract and material nouns). E. g. , Well, they are my bloody in-laws, Kit. Don’t work out your own hatreds on them. (M. Binchy) • when the idea of plurality is assigned to the words containing it: lots of people, numbers of children. • Alongside with the group genitive a similar phenomenon can be registered with the plural number, e. g. , One I-am-sorry-for-you is worth twenty I-told-you-so’s.

Stylistic Functions of the Article • -belonging • the indefinite article can express different meanings: to a famous family, e. g. , Elisabeth was a Tudor. • -meaning “some, certain”: e. g. , A Mr. Williams left a message asking you to ring him, Mrs. Grey. (M. Binchy) • -metonymic use of the indefinite article to name the works of art: e. g. , He has a Levitan in his collection • -evaluating characteristic, both positive and negative, e. g. , I don’t claim to be a Carreras. He is a real human being – not a Pendleton at all. (J. Webster).

The definite article before a surname may also be expressive: • -it may indicate all members of the family, e. g. , I’m driving to the Corners this morning to get some oil cloth for the entry… (J. Webster) • -it may point to the fact that the given person is a celebrity, e. g. , Do you know my painter? Old Robinson. Yes, the Robinson. ‘The famous Mrs. Grey’, she said, looking Lena up and down. (M. Binchy) • -it may point to a certain characteristic feature or state of a thing or person, e. g. , And she didn’t know whether the Damien downstairs was the Damien she knew once. (O’Flanagan)

• Absence of the article before a common noun in the singular is a violation of the norm. But when used like that, it conveys a maximum degree of abstraction and generalization so the image created in such a way looses its concrete character, e. g. , “Old Man on the Bridge”.

The Pronoun as a Factor of Style • Personal pronouns In lyrics ‘I’ is usually the main and only character of a poem. In prose, which is the first person narration, the use of ‘I’ conveys self-assurance of the speaker. • Substitution of ‘I’ for ‘one’ or ‘you’ creates a closer contact between the speakers and sounds more modest and respectable. E. g. , She had read that you should do some physical work like cleaning silver. (Binchy) • “If one knew”, he wandered, ”the facts, would one have to feel pity even for the planets? " If one reached what they called the heart of the matter? ”(Greene)

• Using the third person singular in reference to himself, the speaker as if looks at himself from aside, e. g. , I do not want to write; I want to live. What does she mean by that? It’s hard to say. (Mansfield) • The use of thou – thee, thy – thine, thyself has a strong stylistic connotation: • In poetry and in addressing God these pronouns create an elevated atmosphere. • Besides ‘thou’, ‘ye’. can convey historical or geographical local colouring (it still exists in some dialects). It is important for speech characteristics of personages.

We INCLUSIVE (the speaker together with another person) In doctor’s speech when addressing their patients ‘we’ is used to replace ‘you’, e. g. , How are we feeling today? EXCLUSIVE (the only referent is the speaker ) Pluralis Majestatis monarchs’ manifestos, orders, Pluralis Modestiae scientific and publicistic articles

Demonstrative pronouns • may acquire emotive power and convey different feelings (irritation, anger, mockery, and even cheerfulness). • e. g. Myrtle raised her eyebrows in despair at the shiftlessness of the lower orders. “These people! You have to keep them all the time”. (F. S. Fitzgerald) • Oh, don’t be so innocent, Ruth. This house! This room! This hideous, God-awful room!

The Stylistic Use of Adjectives • The use of degrees of comparison with the adjectives, which normally do not have them, e. g. , You’re truer than any other friend I ever had. (Binchy) You cannot be deader than dead. (Hemingway) • when a synthetic way of forming degrees of comparison is used with polysyllabic words, e. g. , Curiouser and curiouser! cried Alice. (Carrol) • Violation of the rules of word-building and formbuilding, e. g. , I want a Christmassy Christmas’, Caroline explained. ’old fashioned’ (O’Flanagan). • in advertising, e. g. , The orangemostest drink in the world!

Stylistic Potential of Verbal Categories • The category of tense. The use of the present tense forms in narrations about past or future events was called by O. Jesperson the Historic or Dramatic present • It is used to create the effect of the readers’ presence in the situations described, to make their description more vivid. • A similar effect is achieved by the use of Continuous forms if compared to non-Continuous as they are more emotionally coloured.

• The grammatical forms of spoken colloquial English: I/he/we ain’t, I says (for past events), the use of ‘has, is, was’ with the subject in Plural, etc. , add to local or historical colouring of characters’ speech. • Archaic verbal forms used in fiction create either the atmosphere of a historical epoch or refer to dialects in which the forms survived: • 2 nd person sing. , present –dost, knowest, livest, hast • 3 rd person sing. , present - doth, knoweth, liveth • Past – hadst, didst

Stylistic Functions of Adverbs • The use of the adverb ‘now’: • when used in fiction it means ‘at present’, • while in scientific literature it has other meanings, similar to ‘further, so, in the given paper, etc. ’