Stylistics ü ü Stylistic Phonetics Phonostylistics Stylistic Semasiology

Stylistics ü ü Stylistic Phonetics (Phonostylistics) Stylistic Semasiology Stylistic Syntax Stylistic Lexicology

I. Stylistic phonetics (phonostylistics) l Onomatopoeia (sound imitation) l Alliteration l Assonance (vowel alliteration) ‘Listen to the bee buzz by. ’ The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free. (Coleridge) - In behint you auld fail dyke, I wot there lies a new-slain Knight. Rhyme l Rhythm l

l Graphical stylistic means a. punctuation marks ü ü ü exclamation and interrogation marks a full-stop inverted commas a dash a comma b. typographic techniques: ü ü ü Italics (has) spacing out (h a s) Hyphenation (h-a-s) printing in capital letters multiplication of letters (Wwwill you tttell me…) bold type (has) c. graphon: ü ü interior: girl → gal, reading → readin’ contact: hell of a → helluva, let me → lemmi

II. Stylistic semasiology Figures of replacement: l Figures of quantity a. hyperbole ‘I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum. ’ (Shakespeare) b. understatement Exorbitant rents must be paid for tiny flats which even country hens would disdain to live in. c. litotes He was not unfamiliar with the works of Dickens.

● Figures of quality 1. Metonymical group (transfer by contiguity): a. metonymy ü ü ü And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross. (= ‘the Christian religion’) Lend me your ears ! (= ‘listen’) The White House (= ‘state authorities’) He is thrilled at his new buy: a classic Ford. (= ‘a car’) She is coming, my life, my fate. (= ‘a girl who inspires passion’) b. synecdoche We need some new faces around here. We don’t hire longhairs. c. periphrasis A decidedly indelicate young gentleman, in a pair of wings and nothing else, was depicted. (= ‘Cupid’) (Dickens) ‘She Who Must Be Obeyed’ (= ‘wife’) d. euphemism (or doublespeak): adult film (= ‘pornographic movie’), restroom (= ‘toilet room')

2. Metaphorical group (transfer by similarity): a. metaphor Eugene is a regular peacock. b. personification The Moon held a finger to her lips. . . c. epithet a blue morning (compare: a blue dress), wild joy (compare: wild animals) Structurally divided into: ü ü ü simple (dusty answer, animal panic); compound (pure-eyed Faith, dark-skirted wilderness); two-step epithets (theatrically heroic words); phrase epithets (to produce facts in a Would-you-believe-it kind of way); reversed epithets (a hook of a nose = the nose is like a hook, a dwarf of a fellow = the fellow is short as a dwarf). Semantically divided into: ü ü emotive proper epithets (magnificent, childish, terrifying); figurative epithets (silvery glittering of the ocean, smiling sun).

d. allusion Mr. Ralph Spencer, the phoenix that arose from Jimmy Valentine’s ashes – ashes left by the flame of a sudden and alterative attack of love – remained in Elmore, and prospered. (O. Henry) e. antonomasia a proper name as a common noun: Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest. (= ‘poet’) ü a common noun as a proper name: Mr. Know-All, Miss Fix-It ü speaking names: Dr. Dolittle, Becky Sharp ü 3. Irony (transfer by contrast): Don’t eat Jessica’s cooking. It’s as wholesome as radioactive waste. ü Do you keep the receipts for the friends that you buy? ü

Figures of co-occurrence: l Figures of identity a. simile The day we passed together for a while Seemed a bright fire on a winter’s night. (Maurice Sceve) b. synonymic repetition synonyms of precision: ‘Joe was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish fellow. ’ (Dickens) ü synonymic variations: ‘He brought home numberless prizes. He told his mother countless stories every night about his school companions. ’ (Thackeray) ü

● Figures of inequality a. climax (gradation) ‘And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. ’ (Corinthians) b. anti-climax (bathos) ‘The woman who could face the very devil himself – or a mouse – loses her grip and goes all to pieces in front of a flash of lightning. ’ (Twain) ● Figures of contrast a. antithesis: ‘Too black for heaven, and yet too white for hell. ’ (Dryden) b. oxymoron: ‘And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true. ’ (Tennyson) c. paradox: ‘There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. ’ (Wilde) d. pun (play on words): ‘Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. ’ (Shakespeare)

III. Stylistic syntax l Expressive means based upon absence of syntactical elements a. ellipsis ü The average person thinks he isn’t. ü You feel all right? Anything wrong, or what? b. unfinished sentences (aposiopesis) ü And yet – his whole alibi depends on her word. But in that case… ü Juliet: Sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my love? Nurse: Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, and, I warrant, a virtuous – Where is your mother? Juliet: Where is my mother? Why, she is within. (Shakespeare)

c. nominative sentences London. Fog everywhere. Implacable November weather. (Dreiser) d. asyndeton You are my wife; you are dearer to me than anyone in the world. e. zeugma Rend your heart, and not your garments. (Joel) ü She dropped her tear and her pocket handkerchief. (Dickens) ü

Expressive means based upon excess of syntactical elements a. repetition l Wherever you look it’s people, people. b. framing Adieu, adieu – I fly, adieu, I vanish in the heaven’s blue, Adieu, adieu ! (Byron) c. anadiplosis (chain repetition) She felt guilty, but guilty in the way one feels guilty when about to discommode some clinging slug that has managed to attach itself to one’s arm or leg.

d. prolepsis Bolivar, he’ s plenty tired, and he can’t carry double. (O’Henry) e. polysyndeton Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of an unclean cattle; or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty. (The Bible) f. enumeration She wasn’t sure of anything any more, of him, herself, their friends, her work, their future.

Expressive means based upon order of speech elements l stylistic inversion Shameless and fascinating the advertisements were. ü Came frightful days of snow and rain. (London) ü

Expressive means based upon interaction of syntactical structures l a. parallelism Singing a song / or writing a poem is joyous. ü Ask not what your country can do for you; / ask what you can do for your country. (J. Kennedy) ü b. chiasmus By day the frolic, and the dance by night. (S. Johnson) ü I love too much and too little hate. ü c. anaphora Now it’s the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. (Martin Luther King) d. epiphora You win a few, you lose a few.

Stylistic value of syntactical categories l The connection between parts of a sentence a. detachment He looked round, expectant. b. parenthetic elements I know, (if only I could forget it) that you killed her. ü It was indeed, to Forsyte eyes, an odd house. (Galsworthy) ü c. gap-sentence link I think if we wanted to do an adoption, this is an ideal opportunity, but nothing says we have to do it now. Or later. d. suspense (retardation) Two women who were hastening home to scramble their husbands’ dinners together – it was five minutes to four – stopped to look at her. e. question-in-the-narrative But if you can’t help yourself, who can? I suppose nobody.

l Revaluation of syntactical categories rhetorical question “Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? ” “You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambitious? ” (Shakespeare) l Represented speech ü uttered: Then Barley himself was distracted while he tried in ü unuttered: Unhappily, Andrew began to compound an his passable French to explain to a tall Palestinian that no, he was afraid he was NOT a member of the Peace group, old boy, and alas NOT the manager of the hotel either. antipyretic mixture. Spirits of nitre, salicylate of sodium – where the dickens was the soda sal? oh! There it was!

III. Stylistic lexicology l Super-neutral words l Sub-neutral words l Dialect words a. “solemn words” b. “poetic words” c. archaisms d. bookish words e. foreign words a. colloquial words b. jargon words (professional and social jargonisms) c. cant d. slang e. nonce-words f. vulgar words