Лекція 4. Syntactical stylistic devices

Plan

1. Ellipses.
2. Asyndeton.
3. Nominative sentences.
4. Break (aposiopesis).
5. Repetition.
6. Polysyndeton.
7. Stylistic inversion.
8. Detachment.
9. Parenthetic sentences.
10. Parallel constructions.
11. Parcellation.
12. Rhetorical question.

1. Ellipses. This is a deliberate omission of at least one member of the sentence. It is characteristic of oral speech and is not considered a stylistic device in oral communication. But it assumes a new quality in the written language. It becomes a stylistic device because in this case it supplies additional information. Consider the following example: "I'll go, Doll! I'll go!" This from Bead, large eyes larger than usual behind the horn-rimmed glasses. (J.) The reader feels very acutely the absence of the predicate here and realizes that it is not accidental. In this way the writer shows us the excitement and eagerness of the character. If used in the direct speech of a character, its function is to achieve the authenticity and plausibility of fictitious dialogue.

The extensive use of ellipsis results in the so-called telegraphic style, in which connective elements and redundant words are left out. This can be illustrated by the gradual clipping of the warning phrase in the drivers' directions. At first it was used in the following form: "Please drive slowly", then the first word was left out, and after that the second, so now the warning is used in the form "Slowly". Telegraphic style is sometimes observed in the speech of literary characters, where it produces the impression of hurriedness, abruptness, unexpectedness.

Ellipsis leads to the emergence of the so-called apokoinu construction in which the omission of the pronominal (adverbial) connective creates a blend of the main and the subordinate clauses. E.g. There was a door led into the kitchen. (Sh. A.) / bring him news will raise his drooping spirits. (Jespersen) It is used in oral speech mostly, but in emotive prose the construction produces the general impression of clumsiness of speech and is used as a means of speech characteristics in dialogue, in reported speech and in entrusted narrative when the author entrusts the telling of the story to an imaginary narrator who is either an observer or a participant of the events described.

2. Asyndeton. This stylistic device is also based on the deliberate omission of some parts of the sentence structure, namely, the conjunctions and connective elements. If the reader feels that there is such an omission, he interprets it as a stylistic device. Consider the following example:

Soames turned away; he had an utter disinclination for talk, watching a coffin slowly lowered. (G.) As we can see, the intentional omission of the subordinative conjunction because or for makes the sentence "he had an utter..." almost entirely independent. It might be perceived as a characteristic feature of Soames in general, if it were not for the comparison beginning with like, which shows that Soames's mood was temporary.

It is maintained that asyndeton has a strong rhythmic effect. By cutting off connective words, it helps to create the effect of terse, energetic, active prose.

3. Nominative sentences. These are one-member sentences consisting only of a nominal group, which is semantically and communicatively self-sufficient. As for isolated words, they cannot be considered one-member sentences because they always rely on the context for the semantic fulfilment and are thus heavily ellipticized sentences. They are often used in emotive prose in descriptions of nature, interior, appearance, etc. to produce an effect of a detailed but laconic picture foregrounding its main components, and as the background of dialogue, mentioning the emotions, attitudes, moods of the characters. E.g. Malay Camp. A row of streets crossing another row of streets. Mostly narrow streets. Mostly dirty streets. Mostly dark streets. (P. A.) The cluster of nominative sentences introduces the reader to the locality in which the action will be laid, thus unfolding to him both the essential features of the place and his personal attitude to the camp.

The ellipticizing of sentences may lead to the disappearance of all sentence parts and leaving behind only one word which acquires a strong emotional impact. The word may belong to practically any part of speech, even a preposition or conjunction, e.g. They could keep the Minden Street shop going until they got the notice to quit; which might not be for two years. Or they could wait and see what kind of alternative promises were offered. If the site was good. - If. Or. And, quite inevitably, borrowing money. (J.Br.) Here the synsemantic conjunctions receiving the status of sentences are obviously promoted in their semantic and expressive value.

4. Break (aposiopesis). The smooth flow of speech may suddenly be interrupted and the sentence is left unfinished, hanging in the air. This device is called break-in-the-narrative, and is defined as stopping short for rhetorical effect. In oral speech it is marked by a pause, and in emotive prose dashes and dots are used. A person may stop speaking for different reasons, so an attentive reader must look behind the real causes of the break and try to decipher its reasons.

Here are the most common implications of break:

1. It reflects the emotional and psychological state of the speaker and shows that he is so excited that he is unable to finish the sentence, e.g. " Well, they '11 get a chance now to show " - (Hastily): "I don't mean — But let's forget that. "(O.N.)

2. Break may indicate a warning or a threat, e.g. You must come home or I'll... From the meaningful pause after the sentence the reader understands that the speaker will take strict measures if he disobeys him.

3. Break may be caused by the speaker's reluctance to continue the conversation due to different reasons, e.g. And it was unlikely that anyone would trouble to look there - until - until - well. (Dr.)

4. Sometimes break is caused by euphemistic considerations -j\. unwillingness to name a thing on the ground of its being offensive to << the ear, e.g. "Then, Mama, I hardly like to let the words cross my lips, but they have wicked, wicked attractions out there - like dancing girls that - that charm snakes and dance without - Miss Moir, with downcast eyes, broke off significantly. (A.C.)

When break is used, the interrelation between what is given and what is new and, consequently, unsaid, becomes more significant and the reader's task is to decipher the implication which is thus created.

Break is a stylistic device in which intonation plays a very important role. The pause after the break is charged with meaning and intonation helps to decipher the communicative significance of the utterance.

5. Repetition. It is common knowledge that repetition is widely used in oral speech, its aim being to make a direct emotional impact on the listener. Thus, in the following example from Galsworthy the excited state of mind of the speaker is shown:

"Stop!" she cried, "Don't tell me! I don't want to hear; I don't want to hear what you 've come for. I don't want to hear".

When it is used by writers as a stylistic device, its function is different. In this case it aims at logical emphasis, an emphasis necessary to fix the attention of the reader on the key-word of the utterance. Repetition is a recurrence of the same word, word-combination, phrase or a sentence two or more times. According to the place which the repeated unit occupies in a sentence the following varieties of repetition can be singled out:

1. Anaphora - the repeated unit comes at the beginning of two or more consecutive sentences, clauses or phrases. E.g. / might as well face fads: good-bye, Susan, good-bye a big car, good-bye a big house, good-bye the silly handsome dreams. (J.Br.)

2. Epiphora - the end of successive sentences (clauses) is repeated. E.g. / wake up and I'm alone and I walk round Warley and I'm alone; and I talk with people and I'm alone. (J.Br.) The main stylistic function of both anaphora and epiphora is to create the background for the non-repeated unit, which, through its novelty, becomes foregrounded. J. Framing - the initial parts of a syntactical unit, in most cases of a, paragraph, are repeated at the end of it. Framing makes the whole utterance more compact and more complete. E.g. Obviously - this is a streptococcal infection. Obviously. (W.D.) Its function is to clear up the notion mentioned at the beginning of the utterance. Between two appearances of the repeated unit stands the middle part of the utterance which explains and clarifies what was introduced at the beginning.

4. Catch repetition - the end of one clause or sentence is repeated at the beginning of the following one. Specification of the semantics occurs here, too, but on a more modest level. E.g. And a great desire for peace, peace of no matter what kind, swept through her. (A.B.)

5. Chain repetition is a combination of several successive catch repetitions. E.g. To think better of it, "returned the gallant Blandois", "would be to slight a lady, to slight a lady would be deficient in chivalry towards the sex, and chivalry towards the sex is a part of my character" (D.).

6. Ordinaiy repetition has no fixed place in the sentence, its function is to emphasize both the logical and the emotional meanings of the repeated unit. E.g. / really don't see anything romantic in proposing, ft is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. (O.W.)

7. Successive repetition is a string of repeated units closely following each other. This variety of repetition is the most emphatic, because it shows the peak of emotions of the speaker. E.g. / wanted to knock over the table and hit him until my arm had no more strength in it, then give him the boot, give him the boot, give him the boot — / drew in a deep breath. (J.Br.)

Repetition requires the reader to stop and rethink the significance of the reiterated unit So it is widely used in emotive prose to convey different feelings and emotions, such as meditation, sadness, reminiscence and other psychological states.

There is a kind of repetition called tautology, which is the repetition of the same statement, word or phrase in the immediate context and which is considered a fault of style. But there is another side of this phenomenon: any seemingly unnecessary repetition of words or of ideas expressed in different words may be justified by the aesthetic aims of the communication. From this point of view the sentence The daylight is fading, the sun is setting, and the night is coming on may be quite justified as an artistic example picturing the approach of night.

7. Polysyndeton. This is a special way of connecting words, phrases or sentences by means of conjunctions and prepositions before each component part. E.g. Bella soaped his face and rubbed his face, and soaped his hands and rubbed his hands, and splashed him, and rinsed him, and towelled him until he was as red as beetroot. (D.) As we can see, the repetition of conjunctions makes the utterance more rhythmical, so that prose may look like verse.

Besides, polysyndeton has a disintegrating function. Unlike enumeration, it causes each member of a string of facts to stand out conspicuously. It also has the function of expressing sequence, especially in the sentences where the conjunction and can be easily replaced by the conjunction then. When polysyndeton is used, it strengthens the idea of equal logical or emotive importance of connected syntactical units.

8. Stylistic inversion. This is a stylistic device in which the traditional direct order of the English sentence S-P-O is changed either completely so that the predicate (predicative) precedes the subject fully or partially or the object precedes the subject. So we distinguish complete and partial inversion. Unlike grammatical inversion, stylistic inversion does not change the structural meaning of the sentence. Its purpose is to attach logical stress or additional emotional colouring to the surface meaning of the sentence. That is why inversion is accompanied by a specific intonation pattern.

The types of inversion predominantly used in Modem English are as follows:

1. The object stands at the beginning of the sentence, e.g. Talent Mr. Micawber has; capital Mr. Micawber has not. {L)

2. The attribute expressed by an adjective stands in post-position to the noun it modifies, e.g. But it's a letter congratulatory. (A.C.).

3. The predicative expressed by a noun or a pronoun precedes the subject, e.g. Insolent, wilful and singularly pretty was her aspect. (Ch.B.)

4. The adverbial modifier, usually standing at the end of the sentence, is placed at the beginning, e.g. Eagerly I wished the morrow. (E.Poe) When the reader notices that the traditional word order is violated, he should be aware of the author's intention to attach special importance to the inverted part of the sentence and look for some additional information lying behind it. In Modern English we often come across questions which are presented as affirmative sentences, the only indication, of their interrogative nature being the question mark at the end. E.g. Then he said: "You think so? She was mixed up in this lousy business? (J.Br.) The inverted question presupposes the answer with more certainty than the normative one. It is the assuredness of the speaker of the positive answer that constitutes additional information which is brought into the question by the inverted word order.

9. Detachment. This device is used by writers to make the reader pay special attention to some parts of the sentence which are placed in such a position that formally they seem independent of the words they refer to, but their semantic connection with such words is clearly perceived by the reader. Detached parts of the sentence may be different in length - from a single word to an extended group of words. E.g. Daylight was dying, the moon rising, gold behind the poplars.(G.) The italicized phrase in bold type seems to be isolated, but still the connection with the primary members of the sentence is clearly perceived, so gold behind the poplars may be interpreted as a simile or a metaphor.

The stylistic function of detachment lies in emphasizing the meaning of the detached part, attaching special significance to it. E.g. She was lovely: all of her - delightful. (Dr.) In this sentence the punctuation mark plays an important role. The dash standing before the word makes it conspicuous and, being isolated, it becomes the culminating point of the climax - lovely... - delightful, i.e. the peak of the whole utterance. The phrase all of her is also isolated. The general impression, suggested by the implied intonation, is a strong feeling of admiration.

10. Parenthetic sentences. This stylistic device is a variant of the detached construction. These are syntactical structures which interrupt the main sentence without affecting it and create various stylistic effects. They are marked phonetically and are relatively independent of the sentence they are inserted in. The syntactic isolation is shown in writing by graphical means - brackets, dashes or commas.

Here are the main functions of parenthetic sentences:

1. They specify and characterize the details of the statement, give it a lively and palpable colouring, e.g. And sometimes with the sensation a cat must feel when it purrs, he would become conscious that Megan's eyes -those dew-gray eyes - were fixed on him with a sort of lingering soft look. (G.)

2. They may intensify the fact contained in a message, e.g. They had not seen - no one could see - her distress, not even her grandfather. (J.G.)

3. They may have an evaluative meaning, e.g. That phrase represented, I think, his deepest research into the meaning of life. (Gr.Gr.)

4. They may convey some additional information specifying the utterance, e.g. By 4 o 'clock the article was finished and Hadley - plump, timidly smiling, running as usual about his business - came in with the photographs that were to go with it. (A.Cr.)

Parenthetic sentences belong to a different plane, conveying the inner speech of the character. So the most important stylistic function of this device is to create two parallel layers of narration - one of them belonging to the writer, the other to the literary character who is also the author of the story.

11. Parallel constructions. This is the reiteration of the structure of several successive sentences or clauses which are identical or similar in their structure. Parallel constructions may be partial or complete. Partial parallelism is the repetition of some parts of successive sentences or clauses, e.g. If we are Frenchmen we adore our mother; if Englishmen, we love dogs and virtue. (J.J.) Complete parallelism maintains the principle of identical structures throughout the corresponding sentences, e.g. / told him you were sick, I told him you were asleep. (W.Sh.)

Parallelism is often combined with other stylistic devices and is used to back them up, such as lexical repetition, alliteration, antithesis. It is widely used in the belles-lettres style, in publicistic and scientific prose with different functions.

1. In emotive prose the main function is to intensify the communicative and expressive significance of the utterance, e.g. It was not a day to be without a job or cigarettes or lunch. It was not a day in which he had no interest in it. (I.Shaw)

2. Syntactic parallelism may unite semantically different elements into complex syntactic unities, creating a true-to-life description of the event, e.g. Shelling the peas, smelling the onions cooking, watching the deft movements of her perfectly manicured hands, hearing the gay murmur of her voice, he felt the depression of the last weeks lift. (D.C.)

3. In oratory and publicistic style the main function of parallel constructions is to stress the main idea of the utterance, to convince the reader or the listener, to cause him to accept the author's point of view, e.g. But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal - there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller... (H. Lee). In the attorney's speech parallelism creates the effect of gravity and authority.

4. When used in scientific prose parallelism elucidates the scientific phenomenon and helps to impose upon the reader the author's point of view, e.g. In some cases, a chronological or logical sequence can in English be changed in presentational order (e.g. told backwards); when this is done, the referential structure of the tale is unaffected, but the grammatical structure of the telling is radically altered. Grammatical order is necessarily linear, but referential order is at least potentially simultaneous. (K.Pk.)

A variety of parallelism is called chiasmus. Here the repeated parts of the sentence come in the reversed order. Its main function is to attach a new additional content to the utterance, fixing the addressee's attention on the fact, thus making it prominent, e.g. A court is only as sound as its jury, and the jury is only as sound as the men who make it up. (H.Lee)

12. Parcellation. This is a specific device of expressive syntax consisting in the deliberate breaking of a single syntactic structure into two or more intentionally isolated parts separated from each other by a pause (or a full stop in writing). This device emerges because of the influence of colloquial speech on literary language. It is common knowledge that when we speak we don't think of what we are going to say in advance, so oral speech abounds in grammatical deviations from the norm, deletions, gaps, associative additions of new facts and thoughts. When they penetrate into literary speech, such constructions are employed by writers for creating different effects, reflecting the spontaneity and ease of colloquial speech.

Here are the typical functions of parcellation in emotive prose:

1. It may specify the context of the basic part of the utterance, e.g. There was a moment of queer, not entirely amiable silence. Of waiting to see. (C.A.)

2. It is used for characterizing the psychological state of the literary personage, e.g. They stood around him. Talking. Poles, he reasoned, with what was left of his mind. (D.Wh.)

3. It may perform a descriptive function, depicting the environment, conditions or details of the events described, e.g. My hubby has hung himself. In the bathroom. With the cord. (D.Wh.)

4. The parcellation of homogeneous simple predicates with the conjunction and which makes the utterance rhythmical, conveys dynamism of the action, e.g. With that perhaps in mind, he broke away briefly, and ran into the plating shop. And returned with a rope, or coil of little cord. (D.Wh.)

It is obvious that parcellation gives a special rhythmical effect to prose. The reader feels involved in the described events and is emotionally moved.

13. Rhetorical question. This is a specific interrogative construction which is a question in form, but remains a statement semantically. The rhetorical question does not demand any information because the answer to it is in the question itself. Rhetorical questions make an indispensable part of oratoric speech because they successfully emphasize the orator's ideas. E.g. But who bothers to sort out the conflicting economic, social and other motives here and to mitigate accordingly? (Th.D.) The rhetorical question reinforces the meaning of the interrogative sentence and conveys a stronger shade of emotive meaning.

In emotive prose rhetorical questions are used to pronounce judgements and they also express various kinds of modal shades of meaning, such as doubt, scorn, challenge, irony and so on. This is backed up by intonation which differs considerably from the intonation of ordinary questions. E.g., in the following example the reader can't but feel a touch ofbitterness:

Have I not have to wrestle with my lot? Have I not suffered things to be forgiven? (B.)

Rhetorical questions in the form of negative-interrogative sentences are always charged with emotive meaning and modality, and imply doubt, sometimes assertion, sometimes suggestion. They are used in author's narration and represented speech as a means of reproducing the meditations of the author or of the character, e.g. The naivete with which she pursued such activities was part of her nature, he had his own peculiarities, why should he not indulge hers? (A.C.)

Literature:

1. Арнольд И.В. Стилистика современного английского языка. – М., 1990.
2. Єфімов Л.П., Ясінецька О.А. Стилістика англійської мови і дискурсивний аналіз. Учбово-методичний посібник. – Вінниця, 2004.
3. Мороховский А.Н., Воробьев О.П. и др. Стилистика английского языка. – К., 1991.
4. Трибуханчик А.М. Курс стилістики англійської мови (для денного відділення). – Ніжин,2006.
5. Galperin I.R. Stylistics. – М, 1981.
6. Kukharenko V.A. A Book of Practice in Stylistics: A manual. – Vinnytsia, 2003.

Questions for Control:

1. What parts of the sentence can be ellipticized? When are telegraphic style and apokoinu construction used?
2. Account for the additional shades of meaning conveyed by break.
3. Is there any difference between a syndetic and an asyndetic sentence? Explain it.
4. What are the main functions of nominative sentences?
5. Why is repetition often used in emotive prose? How does it change the semantic aspect of the message? Enumerate the varieties of repetition.
6. Is inversion a powerful device of emphasis? How is it achieved?
7. What extralinguistic information is contained in parenthetic sentences?
8. Why are parallel constructions so often used in various functional styles?
9. How does panellation change the meaning of the sentence?
10. What type of question is called a rhetorical question? What is the emotional charge of the negative-interrogative rhetorical questions?