Tasks: Comment on the following examples. 1. Into a singularly restricted and indifferent environment Ida Zobel was born (T

1. Into a singularly restricted and indifferent environment Ida Zobel was born (T. Dreiser).

2. What – a daughter of his grow up like this! Be permitted to join in this prancing rout of perdition! Never! (T. Dreiser).

3. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor power, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8: 38 – 39).

4. A lot of prisoners sat and thought why they were there. And Cook did (From ‘The Man who Escaped’).

5. Ночь. Улица. Фонарь. Аптека (А.А. Блок).

6. You heard what the guy said: get out or else (Gardner).

7. The crock is crowing,

The stream is flowing,

The small birds twitter,

The lake doth glitter (Wordsworth).

10. Being extremely talented, Mr. Micawber has no capital (Ch. Dickens).

11. «Very unpleasant it’s been», she went on (A. Christie).

12. He was struck by the though (what evil hint of it?) – supposing that he and Roberta – no say he and Sondra (no, Sondra could swim very well) – he and Roberta were in a small boat somewhere… (T. Dreiser).

13. I love my Love and my Love loves me (Coleridge).

14. I went to Oxford as one goes into exile; she to London (Wells).

15. A dark gentleman… A very bad manner. In the last degree constrained, reserved, diffident, troubled (Dickens).

Literature

1. Арнольд И.В. Стилистика современного английского языка. Стилистика декодирования. М., 1990. С. 160 – 208.

2. Скребнев Ю.М. Очерк теории стилистики. С. 140 – 145.

3. Ivashkin M.P., Sdobnikov V.B., Seliaaev A.V. A Manual of English Stylistics. Практикум по стилистике английского языка. Н.Новгород: НГЛУ им. Н.А. Добролюбова, 2002. Р. 37 – 53.

Additional Literature

1. Солганик Г.Я. Стилистика текста. М.: Наука, 1997.

2. Freeborn D. Style. Bristol, GB, 1996. Р. 51 – 56.

3. Toolan M. Language, Text and Context. Routledge, GB, 1992.

Practical Training № 8. Fundamentals of Stylistic Analysis

Plan

Patterns for Stylistic Analysis

The text under the analysis …

a) … creates a certain rhythmic effect / serves for rhythmic organization of the text / creates the inner rhythm of the author’s discourse / of the narration.

b) … creates an atmosphere of tension / dynamic activities / monotony, etc.

c) … serves as an appending stylistic device, increasing the stylistic effect of …

d) … conveys the emotional state of the character / the fragmentary character of his thoughts / introduces the elements of suspense.

The text, which is a specimen of colloquial speech abounds in elliptical sentences, such as …

a) … is used to imply emotional tension to the text.

Implied question / request / negation, etc are disguised as …

a) … serves for emphatic negation / assertion, etc.

b) … convey emphasis and expressiveness to the text / description / narration / assertion, etc.

The stylistic effect is created by deliberate deviation from the generally accepted arrangement of sentence elements…

a) … is detached from the head word and place in a prominent position.

b) … gives special prominence to../ introduces some new information / a plane of secondary predication.

The sentences / clauses / phrases are built after (follow) the same syntactic pattern.

The stylistic effect of parallelism … etc. is increased by anaphora / epiphora / etc.

a) … adds to the emphatic overtone of the text.

Samples of Stylistic Analysis

It is not possible to describe coherently what happened next: but I, for one, am not ashamed to confess that, though the fair blue sky was above me, and the green spring woods beneath me, and the kindest friends around me, yet I became terribly frightened, more frightened that I ever wish to become again, frightened in a way I never have known either before or after. E. M. Foster.

The syntax of this sentence paragraph shows several groups of parallel constructions, combined with epiphora – ‘above me’, ‘beneath me’, ‘around me’; polysyndeton – ‘and… and…’; and anaphora – ‘frightened… frightened’. These stylistic devices used in convergence to create a definitely perceived rhythm, which helps to render the atmosphere of overwhelming inexplicable horror dominating the passage. The stylistic effect is reinforced by the masterful use of climax creating gradual intensification of the meaning.

General Description of the Text

1. The text under analysis is an extract of imaginative prose.

2. It is a homogeneous whole a) the author’s discourse; b) the personage’s discourse; c) the personage’s represented speech.

3. It is not homogeneous whole a) the author’s discourse followed by … (the personage’s discourse); b) represented speech interspersed with …; c) mostly the personage’s discourse with instances of …

4. The text / the author’s discourse, etc. represents bookish type of speech which is marked by the use of length sentences of complicated structure / super-natural vocabulary, etc.

5. The personage’s discourse … is a specimen of colloquial type of speech. It is remarkable for / characterized by the use of elliptical / one-member / short two-member sentences, contracted forms, colloquial / vulgar, etc. words.

6. The text / the represented speech is on fixed character. It represents both bookish and colloquial type of speech, such as …

7. At the level of a) phonetic description; b) lexicology; c) morphological analysis; d) stylistic semasiology; e) syntax.

8. Conclusion.