Stylistic analycis

                                              Plan

1. Audio side of poetic speech (  phono-graphical level: rhythm, rhyme , euphony ).
2. Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices.
3. Metaphor. Metonymy. Irony.
4. Use of expressive possibilities of morphology (morphological level: grammatical archaisms, verb forms, articles ).
5. Use of expressive possibilities of syntax ( syntactical level: expressive means, stylistic devices ).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio side of poetic speech. Phono-graphical level: graphon, rhythm, rhyme , euphony

Dealing with various cases of phonemic and graphemic foregrounding we should not forget the unilateral nature of a phoneme: this language unit helps to differentiate meaningful lexemes but has no meaning of its own. Cf.: while unable to speak about the semantics of [ou], [ju:], we acknowledge their sense-differentiating significance in "sew" [sou] шить and "sew" [sju:] спускать воду; or [au], [ou] in "bow" бант, поклон etc.

Still, devoid of denotational or connotational meaning, a phoneme, according to recent studies, has a strong associative and sound-instrumenting power. Well-known are numerous cases of onomatopoeia - the use of words whose sounds imitate those of the signified object or action, such as "hiss", "bowwow", "murmur", "bump", "grumble", "sizzle" etc.

        Imitating the sounds of nature, man, , the acoustic form of the word foregrounds the latter, inevitably emphasizing its meaning too. Thus the phonemic structure of the word proves to be important for the creation of expressive and emotive connotations. A message, containing an onomatopoeic word is not limited to transmitting the logical information only, but also supplies the vivid portrayal of the situation described.

       Poetry abounds in some specific types of sound-instrumenting, the leading role belonging to alliteration - the repetition of consonants, usually-in the beginning of words, and assonance - the repetition of similar vowels, usually in stressed syllables. They both may produce the effect of euphony (a sense of ease and comfort in pronouncing or hearing) or cacophony (a sense of strain and discomfort in pronouncing or hearing). As an example of the first may serve the famous lines of E.A. Poe: ...silken sad uncertain

rustling of each purple curtain...

An example of the second is provided by the unspeakable combination of sounds found in R. Browning: Nor soul helps flesh now more than flesh helps soul.

To create additional information in a prose discourse sound-instrumenting is seldom used. In contemporary advertising, mass media and, above all, imaginative prose sound is foregrounded mainly through the change of its accepted graphical representation. This intentional violation of the graphical shape of a word (or word combination) used to reflect its authentic pronunciation is called graphon.

Graphons, indicating irregularities or carelessness of pronunciation were occasionally introduced into English novels and journalism as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century and since then have acquired an ever growing frequency of usage, popularity among writers, journalists, advertizers, and a continuously widening scope of functions.

Graphon proved to be an extremely concise but effective means of supplying information about the speaker's origin, social and educational background, physical or emotional condition, etc. So, when the famous Thackeray's character - butler Yellowplush - impresses his listeners with the learned words pronouncing them as "sellybrated" (celebrated), "bennyviolent" (benevolent), "illygitmit" (illegitimate), "jewinile" (juvenile), or when the no less famous Mr. Babbitt uses "peerading" (parading), "Eytalians" (Italians), "peepul" (people) - the reader obtains not only the vivid image and the social, cultural, educational characteristics of the personages, but also both Thackeray's and S. Lewis' sarcastic attitude to them.

On the other hand, "The b-b-b-b-bas-tud - he seen me c--c-c-c-coming" in R. P. Warren's Sugar Boy's speech or "You don't mean to thay that thith ith your firth time" (B.C.) show the physical defects of the speakers - the stuttering of one and the lisping of the other.

Graphon, thus individualizing the character's speech, adds to his plausibility, vividness, memorability. At the same time, graphon is very good at conveying the atmosphere of authentic live communication, of the informality of the speech act. Some amalgamated forms, which are the result of strong assimilation, became cliches in contemporary prose dialogue: "gimme" (give me), "lemme" (let me), "gonna" (going to), "gotta" (got to), "coupla" (couple of), "mighta" (might have), "willya" (will you), etc.

Summing up the informational options of the graphical arrangement of a word (a line, a discourse), one sees their varied application for recreating the individual and social peculiarities of the speaker, the atmosphere of the communication act - all aimed at revealing and emphasizing the author's viewpoint.

Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combination of words. Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.

Identity and similarity of sound combinations may be relative. For instance, we distinguish between full rhymes and incomplete rhymes. The full rhyme presupposes identity of the vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in a stressed syllable, including the initial consonant of the second syllable (in polysyllabic words), we have exact or identical rhymes.

Incomplete rhymes present a greater variety They can be divided into two main groups: vowel rhymes and consonant rhymes. In vowel-rhymes the vowels of the syllables in corresponding words are identical, but the consonants may be different as in flesh - fresh -press. Consonant rhymes, on the contrary, show concordance in consonants and disparity in vowels, as in worth - forth, tale - tool -treble - trouble; flung - long.

Modifications in rhyming sometimes go so far as to make one word rhyme with a combination of words; or two or even three words rhyme with a corresponding two or three words, as in "upon her honour - won her", "bottom –forgot them- shot him". Such rhymes are called compound or broken. The peculiarity of rhymes of this type is that the combination of words is made to sound like one word - a device which inevitably gives a colloquial and sometimes a humorous touch to the utterance. Compound rhyme may be set against what is called eye - rhyme, where the letters and not the sounds are identical, as in love - prove, flood - brood, have - grave. It follows that compound rhyme is perceived in reading aloud, eye - rhyme can only be perceived in the written verse.

      Rhythm exists in all spheres of human activity and assumes multifarious forms. It is a mighty weapon in stirring up emotions whatever its nature or origin, whether it is musical, mechanical or symmetrical as in architecture. The most general definition of rhythm may be expressed as follows: "rhythm is a flow, movement, procedure, etc. characterized by basically regular recurrence of elements or features, as beat, or accent, in alternation with opposite or different elements of features" (Webster's New World Dictionary).

Rhythm can be perceived only provided that there is some kind of experience in catching the opposite elements or features in their correlation, and, what is of paramount importance, experience in catching regularity of alternating patterns. Rhythm is a periodicity, which requires specification as to the type of periodicity. Inverse rhythm is regular succession of weak and strong stress. A rhythm in language necessarily demands oppositions that alternate: long, short; stressed, unstressed; high, low and other contrasting segments of speech.

Academician V.M. Zhirmunsky suggests that the concept of rhythm should be distinguished from that of a metre. Metre is any form of periodicity in verse, its kind being determined by the character and number of syllables of which it consists. The metre is a strict regularity, consistency and unchangeability. Rhythm is flexible and sometimes an effort is required to perceive it. In classical verse it is perceived at the background of the metre. In accented verse - by the number of stresses in a line. In prose - by the alternation of similar syntactical patterns. Rhythm in verse as a S. D. is defined as a combination of the ideal metrical scheme and the variations of it, variations which are governed by the standard. There are the following rhythmic patterns of verse: iambus, dactul, umphibrach, anapaest.

Rhythm is not a mere addition to verse or emotive prose, which also has its rhythm. Rhythm intensifies the emotions. It contributes to the general sense. Much has been said and writhen about rhythm in prose. Some investigators, in attempting to find rhythmical patterns of prose, superimpose metrical measures on prose. But the parametres of the rhythm in verse and in prose are entirely different.

    Lexical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

        Words in a context may acquire additional lexical meanings not fixed in the dictionaries, what we have called contextual meanings. The latter may sometimes deviate from the dictionary meaning to such a degree that the new meaning even becomes the opposite of the primary meaning. What is known in linguistics as transferred meaning is practically the interrelation between two types of lexical meaning: dictionary and contextual.

The transferred meaning of a word may be fixeв in dictionaries as a result of long and frequent use of the word other than in its primary meaning. In this case we register a derivative meaning of the word. Hence the term transferred should be used signifying th£ development of the semantic structure of the word. In this case we do not perceive two meanings. When we perceive two meanings of the word simultaneously, we are confronted with a stylistic device in which the two meanings interact.

Imagery. In philosophy "image" denotes the result of reflection of the object of reality in man's consciousness. On the sensible level our senses, ideas might be regarded as images. On a higher level of thinking images take the form of concepts, judgements, conclusions. Depending on the level of reflecting the objective reality ( sensual and conceptual) there are 2 types of images:

1. Art - reflects the objective reality in human life. While informing us of a phenomenon of life it simultaneously expresses our attitude towards it.

2. Literature - deals with a specific type of artistic images, verbal - is a pen - picture of a thing, person or idea expressed in a figurative way in their contextual meaning in music - sounds. The overwhelming majority of Iinguists agree that a word is the smallest unit being able to create images because it conveys the artistic reality and image. On this level the creation of images is the result of the interaction of two meanings: direct (denotation) and indirect (figurative). Lexical expressive meanings in which a word or word combination is used figuratively are called tropes. The verbal meaning has the following structure:

1. Tenor (direct thought) subjective; 2. Vehicle (figurative thought) objective; 3. Ground is the common feature of T and V; 4. The relation between T and V; 5. The technique of identification (The type of trope);

e. g. She is sly like a fox (simile). Images may be individual, general.

a) deal with concrete thing or idea e.g. Thirsty wind.

b) embrace the whole book e. g. War and Peace.

c) visual

e. g. the cloudy lifeage of the sky

d) oral - created by sound imitations

Classification of Lexical Stylistic Devices. There are 3 groups.

1. The interaction of different types of lexical meaning.

a) dictionary and contextual (metaphor, metonymy, irony);

b) primary and derivative (zeugma and pun);

c) logical and emotive (epithet, oxymoron);

d) logical and nominative (autonomasia);

2. Intensification of a feature (simile, hyperbole, periphrasis).

3.Peculiar use of set expressions (cliches, proverbs, epigram, quotations).

 

                                 Metaphor. Metonymy. Irony

The relation between dictionary and contextual meanings may be maintained along different lines: on the principle of affinity, on that of proximity, or symbol - referent relations, or on opposition. Thus the stylistic device based on the first principle is metaphor, on the second, metonymy and on the third, irony.

A metaphor is a relation between the dictionary and contextual logical meanings based on the affinity or similarity of certain properties or features of the two corresponding concepts. Metaphor can be embodied in all the meaningful parts of speech, in nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and sometimes even in the auxiliary parts of speech , as in prepositions. Metaphor as any stylistic devices can be classified according to their degree of unexpectedness. Thus metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, are quite unpredictable, are called genuine metaphors. e. g. Through the open window the dust danced and was golden. Those which are commonly used in speech and are sometimes fixed in the dictionaries as expressive means of language are trite metaphors or dead metaphors e. g. a flight of fancy, floods of tears.

Trite metaphors are sometimes injected with new vigour, their primary meaning is re- established alongside the new derivative meaning. This is done by supplying the central image created by the metaphor with additional words bearing some reference to the main word. e. g. Mr. Pickwick bottled up his vengeance and corked it down.

The verb " to bottle up " is explained as " to keep in check", to conceal, to restrain, repress. So the metaphor can be hardly felt. But it is revived by the direct meaning of the verb "to cork down". Such metaphors are called sustained or prolonged. Stylistic function of a metaphor is to make the description concrete, to express the individual attitude.

Metonymy is based on a different type of relation between the dictionary and contextual meanings, a relation based not on affinity, but on some kind of association connecting the two concepts which these meanings represent on a proximity.

The proximity may be revealed:

1) between the symbol and the thing it denotes;

2) in the relations between the instrument and the action performed with this instrument; e.g. His pen is rather sharp.

3) in the relation between the container and the thing it contains; e.g. He drank one more cup.

4) the concrete is put for the abstract; e. g. It was a representative gathering (science, politics).

5) a part is put for the whole; e.g. the crown - king, a hand - worker.

       Metonymy represents the events of reality in its subjective attitude. Metonymy in many cases is trite.

e.g.:" to earn one's bread", "to keep one's mouth shut".

Irony is a stylistic device also based on the simultaneous realization of two logical meanings - dictionary and contextual, but the two meanings are in opposition to each other. The literal meaning is the opposite of the intended meaning. One thing is said and the other opposite is implied.

e.g. Nice weather, isn't it? (on a rainy day). 

 

 

Use of expressive possibilities of morphology (morphological level: grammatical archaisms, verb forms, articles ).