Stylistics

The term "stylistics" originated from the Greek "stylos", which means, "a pen"

There are different types of S.:

1. Lingua stylistics –a science of functional styles and expressive potential of a language.

2. Communicative or decoding stylistics – describes peculiarities of certain message

3. Coding stylistics or literal one – deals with individual styles of authors

4. Contrastive stylistics - it investigates stylistics systems of 2 or more langs. In comparison with different branches of linguistics: such as phonetics, grammar, and lexicology.

Semantic – a science that studies the meaning of the words.

Functional style units are capable of transmitting some additional info about the speaker and the objective reality in which communication takes place:

1. Feelings, emotions, mood;

2. Intensions;

3. Cultural and educational level of speaker

4. His inner state of mind

5. Info about his age

Phonetic, stylistics devices

The art to select and combine sounds in order to make utterances, expressive and melodic is called INSTRUMENTATION.

ALLITERATION – is a repetition of the same consonant, at the beginning of neighboring words or accented syllables.

Alliteration is often used: in children rhymes, in slogans, proverbs and sayings.

ASSONANCE - is agreement or similarity of vowels in conjunction with different consonant sounds.

ALLITERATION + ASSONANCE= EUPHONY and/or CACOPHONY

EUPHONY – a sense of eases and comfort in pronouncing or hearing

CACOPHONY – a sense of strength and discomfort

ONOMATOPOEIA - combination of sounds, which imitate natural sounds: sea murmuring, bursts of thunder, animal sounds, etc.

PARONOMASIA – is the opposite reflection of the sound in two neighboring words (raven|never)

Hyperbole – is a deliberate overstatement intended to intensify some idea, hyperbole is meant to produce a more striking effect then a plain statement.

Understatement – when the description is intentionally underrated.

Meiosis – the opposite to hyperbole - consists of down toning some idea, it is a deliberate dimension or diminution of a certain quality of an object or phenomenon.

Litotes – is a specific variant of meiosis, which has a peculiar syntactic structure. It is a combination of the negative particle NOT and a word with negative meaning or a negative prefix. It is an affirmation, which is expressed by denying its contrary. It extenuates positive qualities of objects, of phenomenon it makes statements and judgments sound delicate and diplomatic.

METAPHOR - transference of names based on the associated likeness between two objects, as in the "pancake", or "ball", or "volcano" for the "sun"; "silver dust", "sequins" for "stars"; "vault", "blanket", "veil" for the "sky".

Classification of metaphor:

1. According to the pragmatic effect produced:

a. Dead( trite - банальная, lexical) – fixed in dictionaries have no stylistic coloring, sound like clichés

b. Original, stylistics - not fixed in dictionaries, created in speech by speakers’ imagination.

2. According to the degree of their stylistic potential metaphor are classified into:

a. Nominational – don’t have any stylistic info, the name new objects or phenomena of the objective world (the arm of the chair, глазное яблоко)

b. Cognitive – when an object have qualities that are typical for another object

c. Imaginative – the most expressive their occasional and individual. They are bright, image-bearing picturesque and poetic. (the time was bleeding away)

3. Metaphors may be classified according to their structure:

a. Simple metaphor - consists of a single word or word combination.

b. Sustained- a long one

4. According to the part of the speech:

a. Noun metaphor; (a bucket of ashes)

b. Adjectives;

c. Adverbs;

d. Verb

e. Mixed – the use of 2 or more vehicles which are illogical when combined;

Personification - is the name given to a special kind of metaphor in which abstract ideas or inanimate (неодушевленный) object are identified with persons or human being, they are ascribed human characteristics or actions.

An object or phenomena can be FULLY or PARTIONALLY personified.

Prosopopoeia – when an inanimate object can speak).

APOSTROPHE – is a direct address to things or abstract notions thus endowing them with consciousness.

Animalification – когда каким-то предметам или феноменам, даются животные характеристики, или звуки.

(words , how they gallop….)

Epithets are such attributes which describe objects expressively.

Classification:

1. Semantic:

a. Effective associated - smth. That objectively exist but emotionally colored ( charming smile, кислая физиономия)

b. Figurative unassociated – ascribe such qualities to objects which are not inherit to them.

ü Metaphorical – wooden smile, .angry sky

ü Metonymy – thirsty deserts, the sleepless pillow

ü Simily -based – alligator like smile.

2. Structurally:

a. One-word epithets, simple – the ordinary adjectives (the wooden smile)

b. Compounds – expressed by compound adjectives ( hot-burning desire)

c. Pairs – are represented by 2 epithets joined by a conjunction or asyndetically (wonderful and incomparable beauty)

d. Chain epithets – from 3 up to 20 group of homogeneous attributes.

e. Two step epithets – qualification of an object and qualification of qualification itself.

f. Phrase epithets – (a-move-if-you-dare expression, head-to-toe beauty)

g. Sentence or clausal - expressed by sentences (I-don’t-want-to-do-it feeling)

h. Reversed epithets - the toy of a woman – женщина игрушка

Metonymy, another lexical SD, - like metaphor - on losing its originality also becomes instrumental in enriching the vocabulary of the language, though metonymy is created by a different semantic process and is based on contiguity (nearness) of objects or phenomena. Transference of names in metonymy does not involve a necessity for two different words to have a common component in their semantic structures, as is the case of metaphor, but proceeds from the fact that two objects (phenomena) have common grounds of existence in reality. Such words as "cup" and "tea" have no linguistic semantic nearness, but the first one may serve the container of the second, hence - the conversational cliche "Will you have another cup?", which is a case of metonymy, once original, but due to long use, no more accepted as a fresh SD.

Two main type of Metonymy.

1. Thing for idea of that thing (the Burglar was in Sally’s mind all day long)
2. People evolve entity for the people evolved. (The US meaning people leaves A country mean people leaders or population. An institution – members or leaders of this institution. A news paper – auditor or journalist. A fraction – members or leaders.)

Synecdoche – синекдоха (from Greek – gathering together) A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole, the whole for a part, the specific for general and wise verse, a material for a thing made from it. This variety of metonymy in 5 variants.

As a rule, metonymy is expressed by nouns (less frequently - by substantivized numerals) and is used in syntactical functions characteristic of nouns (subject, object, predicative).

Antonomasia – is a variety of metaphor based upon the principle of identification of human beings with things which surround them. PPL may be identified with other PPL, with animals , with inanimate objects and natural phenomena (speaking names)

There are 3 types of antonomasia:

1. 1^st type – john is a real Romeo; each Mary….

2. 2^nd type – Mr. Snake, Lord Chatterino…

3. 3^rd type – a common noun serves as a name – Dr. Rest, Dr. Diet, Dr. Fresh air.

Periphrasis is a very peculiar stylistic device which basically consists of using a roundabout form of expression instead of a simpler one, i.e. of using a more or less complicated syntactical structure instead of a word. Depending on the mechanism of this substitution, periphrases are classified into figurative (metonymic and metaphoric), and logical. The first group is made, in fact, of phrase-metonymies and phrase-metaphors, as you may well see from the following example: "The hospital was crowded with the surgically interesting products of the fighting in Africa" (I.Sh.) where the extended metonymy stands for "the wounded".

Logical periphrases are phrases synonymic with the words which were substituted by periphrases: "Mr. Du Pont was dressed in the conventional disguise with which Brooks Brothers cover the shame of American millionaires." (M.St.) "The conventional disguise" stands here for "the suit" and "the shame of American millionaires" — for "the paunch (the belly)". Because the direct nomination of the not too elegant feature of appearance was substituted by a roundabout description this periphrasis may be also considered euphemistic, as it offers a more polite qualification instead of a coarser one.

There are 4 types of euphemism:

1. Religious – (almighty – God)

2. Moral - (to be gone – to die)

3. Medical – (farm house – психушка)

4. Political – (tension – war time)

Dysphemism – is opposite to euphemism

(to kick the bucket – to die)

Irony

Irony – “mockery”

When good means bad, much – not much etc. (You are so clever)

Irony is generally used to convey a negative meaning or emotion – irritation, regret, dis…..(cutting of chickens heads! Such a fascinating process to watch)

1. Socratic irony – profession of ignorance (does A class drugs absolutely guarantees that they are better quality? )

2. Verbal irony – (she turned with a sweet smile of an alligator)

3. Situational irony - ( an anti-technology website ) то что противоречит само себе

4. Irony of fate/cosmic irony – (Mone was blind, Beethoven was deaf)

5. Historical irony - (a war to end all wars-1^st world war; )

6. Dramatic irony – a situation when reader or audience knows more about the immediate circumstances of future events (Othello and Desdemona)

7. Comic irony - IDK

Phonetics

Phonetics

Questions:

1. Word stress

2. Basic Intonation patterns

3. Assimilation

1. Word Stress

One or more syllable of a word, greater prominence, then the other syllables. Such syllables are called to be accented or stressed.

In English any or all of the 4 factors: loudness, pitch, sound quantity, sound quality they may render a syllable more prominent then the others.

Vowels of unstressed syllables are definitely not so long and tend to be reduced in the position.

There are 2 linguistic functions of the word stress:

· Constitutive;

· Distinctive.

Word stress arranges syllables in words, thus fulfilling the constitutive function. !!!!!

It’s distance function can be traced in the oppositions of word consisting of the same morphemes and the meaning which is differentiated by word stress.

E.g.: ‘object (n) ob’ject (v)

The degrees of word stress

IN English there are 3 degrees of word stress:

· Stressed syllables (primary stress)

· Half-stressed syllables (secondary stressed)

· Weak or unstressed syllables

A large group of simple words have both the primary and the secondary stresses.

E.g.: ,conver’sation ,organi’zation

There are several large groups of words in English with 2 equally strong stresses. These words consists of 2 morphemes. The use of the 2^nd strong stress is caused by the semantic significance of both equally stressed elements of the word.

E.g.: ‘re’write ‘four’ten (,four’teen)

There are 2 tendencies of the word stress:

1. The oldest of the them is known as the recessive tendency. According to which the root syllable is stressed. So the majority of words of Germanic origin have stressed on the 1^st root syllable.

E.g.: ‘clever ‘water

2. The 2^nd tendency is the result of the mutual influence of Germanic and French origin. It is called rhythmic tendency, which manifests itself on stressing the 3^rd syllable from the end.

E.g.: ‘situate ar’ticulate

According to both tendencies, words of 3 syllables generally have stress on the 1^st syllable. Words of 4 syllables may have either recessive or rhythmic stresses.

E.g.: a’rchitect ‘criticism ‘characterize

Rhythmic stress is especially common for verbs the suffixes: -ate, -fy, -ize.

E.g.: ‘realize ‘satisfy a’ppreciate

Words with primary and secondary stress

The secondary stress is used in words with the primary stress on the 3^rd or the 4^th syllable from the beginning.

E.g.: ,popu’larity res,ponsi’bility

In words with the primary stress on the 3^rd syllable the secondary stress usually falls on the 1^st syllable.

E.g.: ,deco’ration

If the primary stress falls on the 4^th or 5^th syllable the secondary stress is very commonly used on the 2^nd syllable.

E.g.: ex,perimen’tation

The position of the secondary stress is often that of the primary stress in the original word. That is in the word from which the derivative word is formed.

E.g.: ’possible ,possi’bility Words with 2 primary stresses

The following groups of words have 2 primary stresses. Syllables with separable prefixes have a distinct meaning of their own.

Negative prefixes:

un-,

dis-,

non-,

in-,

(ir-, il-, im)

E.g.: unknown, disappear, nonsmoker, intensive, irregular, illegal, impossible

Other prefixes:

re- (repetition) mis- (wrong) pre- (before) ex- (former) under-, sub-

inter- (among) anti- vice- ultra- out-

E.g.: Rewrite, misprint, prewar, ex-husband, undercharge, subtitle, interview…

Stress in compound words

Words composed of separable morphemes are called compounds. The spelling of compounds differs. They may be spelled as one word or as two separate words. Among compounds we find compound nouns, adjectives and verbs.

Words stress in compounds depends on the semantic weight of the elements. The 1^st element determines the 2^nd or introduces some contrast it is stressed, while the 2^nd element of the compound remains unstressed, though the stressed vowel of the 2^nd element retains its qualitative and quantitative significance.

This is the case with the majority of the compound nouns. They are usually stressed.

E.g.: ‘Reading-room, ‘writing-table, ‘apple-tree, ‘suitcase, ‘raincoat.

This type of word stress in compounded nouns differentiates compounds from word combinations in which every word – stressed.

E.g.: ‘Blackbird – ‘black ‘bird;

‘Blackboard – ‘black ‘board’

‘Goldfish – ‘gold ‘fish;

‘Strongbox – ‘strong ‘box.

Double stressed compound nouns are comparatively rare. In such compounds both elements are equally important.

E.g.: ‘Gas-‘stove, ‘ice-‘cream, ‘absent –‘mindedness.

Compounded adjectives have generally 2 stresses for both elements which are equally significant.

E.g.: ‘clean-‘shaven, ‘well-‘bred.

Compounded adjectives with only one stress on the 1^st element occur when the 2^nd element is semantically weak.

E.g.: ‘spring-like, ‘childlike.

2. Basic Intonation patterns

The information conveyed by a sentence is expressed not only by proper words and grammar structures but also by intonation.

Intonation is a combination of:

- variations of pitch;

- force of utterance;

- tempo ( speed rate ).

Variations of pitch are produced by significant moves of the voice up and down.

The force component of intonation is measured by the degree of loudness of syllables.

The tempo is determined by the rate of speech and length of pauses.

Intonation an alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables which bears a larger or smaller degree of prominence to syllables:

û constitutive function – it forms sentences

û distinctive function – helps to distinguish communicative types of sentences: statements, questions, negative...

Each sentence consists of one or more intonation groups.

And intonation group is a word or a group of words characterized by a certain intonation pattern.

It's meaning is always complete.

Those intonation patterns that contain a number of syllables, consists of that following parts:

1. pre-head;

2. head;

3. nucleus;

4. tail.

The pre-head includes unstressed and ½-stressed syllables preceding that head.

The head consists of the stressed and unstressed syllables beginning with the 1^st stressed syllable up to the last stressed syllable in the intonation pattern.

The nucleus is the most important part. On this syllable the voice melody changes, it goes up or down.

The tail includes the unstressed and ½-stressed syllables that follow the nucleus.

pre-head

head

nucleus

tail

E.G.: I shall go for a walk tomorrow.

It is generally known that voice pitch or speech melody and sentence stress or accent are two main components of intonation.

Pitch level. Each intonation group has its own pitch-and-stress pattern. Variations in voice or melody occur within the normal range of the speaking voice, i.e. within the interval between its lower and upper limits. Three pitch levels are generally distinguished: Low, Medium, High.

High Level

Mid Level

Low level

Pitch Range. Pitch range is the interval between 2 pitch levels or 2 differently pitched syllables or parts of syllable. The pitch range of a whole intonation pattern is the interval between the highest-pitched and the lowest- pitched syllables. Pitch ranges may be NORMAL, WIDE, and NARROW.

Pitch-and – Stress Sections. Pitch n’ Stress sections of an intonation Patters containing several stressed syllables are: pre-head, head, nucleus, tail.

E.g.: I didn’t know you’ve been to Lon don

pre-head head nucleus tail

The Head

The head in eng. Is an extremely flexible segment. It stretches from the 1^st stressed syllable up to the nuclear tone. Head patterns are classified into 2 major groups:

-descending;

-ascending;

-level.

The main criterion in each group is how the head begins from the point of view of pitch movement.

Descending Heads.

In it , the voice usually moves down from a mod or high pitch level to the low one.

Stressed syllables form descending sequence. The 1st stressed syllable of the head is the highest. The following stressed syllables carry the pitch lower.

1. The syllables can move down by the steps, then the heads is called STEPPING. In the stepping head unstressed syllables are pronounced on the same note as the proceeding step.

2. The head is called FALLING when the stressed syllables also move down by the steps but intervening unstressed syllables fall down continue the descending direction.

3. There are cases when unstressed or partially stressed syllables move up, they are pronounced higher than the stressed syllables. This type of descending head is called SCANDENT

4. If the voice moves down by slides within stressed syllables, the head is called SLIDING. Unstressed or partially stressed syllables between the slides usually continue to fall.

Ascending Heads.

They are the opposite of descending ones. The 1st stressed syllable is low in the pitch, each following stressed syllable is higher than the preceding, thus the stressed syllables form an ascending sequence.

1. If the voice moves up by steps and the intervening unstressed or partially stressed syllables continue the rise, the head is called RISING.

2. If the voice moves up by slides, the head is called CLIMBING. Everything is gliding.

Level Heads.

In them, all syllables are pronounced more or less the same note of a pitch level.

1. If they happen to be on high level the head is called THE HIGH LEVEL HEAD.

2. The most frequently used type of the high head is the head with one strongly stressed syllable and unstressed or partially stressed syllables, pronounced on the same high level.

3. If the head stressed or partially stressed syllables are pronounced on the mid pitch level. The head is called MID LEVEL

4. The head stressed syllable pronounced on the low pitch level constitute THE LOW PITCH LEVEL HEAD.

The tail.

Post nuclear stressed or partially stressed syllables are called THE TAIL .

There are 4 types o tail:

1. After a FALLING NUCLEUS, the tail also REMAINS LOW.

2. In case the tail occurs AFTER THE RISING NCLEUS the stressed syllable doesn’t rise in pitch and of the following unstressed syllables is a LITTLE BIT HIGHER than the previous one.

3. After the FALLING RISING TONE , THE RISE occurs on unstressed or partially stressed syllables.

4. After the MID-LEVEL NUCLEUS the tail STAYS ON THE SAME LEVEL.

Pre-Head

Unstressed or partially stressed syllables which precede the head are called the PRE-HEAD, In short intonation groups, where there is no head and these syllables precede the nucleus, they are called the PRE-NUCLEUS.

There are 2 types of pre-head or pre-nucleus:

1.LOW;-when unstressed or partially stressed syllables are pronounced lower than the 1at stressed syllable of the head, the pre-head is called LOW

2.HIGH.-when unstressed or partially stressed syllables are pronounced higher or on the same level as the 1^st stressed syllable of the head, the pre-head is called HIGH.

The Nucleus . Types of nucleus.

The last stressed syllable of the intonation pattern on which the pitch movement changes is called the NUCLEUS. The nucleus is usually of the highest importance.

There are 8 nuclear tones in Modern English:

1. The Low (Medium) Fall – the voice falls from the low (mid) pitch level to the bottom of the pitch.

2. The High Fall – the voice falls all the way down from a high to the bottom of the pitch.

3. The Rise Fall – the voice usually rises from a mid level to a high level and then quickly falls to the bottom of the pitch.

4. The Low Rise – the voice rises from a very low to a mid level or a little higher.

5. The High (Medium) Rise – the voice rises from a mid or high level anв moves up to the top of the voice.

6. The Fall Rise – the voice 1^st falls from a mid oк high level to a rather low pitch level then rises to a mid note.

7. The Rise-Fall-Rise – the voice rises from the very low level, moves up to the mid (or high) one, falls down, then quickly rises again.

8. The Mid-Level – the level maintains between high and low; the voice neither rises nor falls.

ASSIMILATION

Assimilation is a process of alteration of speech sounds as a result of which one of the sounds becomes fully or partially similar to the adjoining sound.

Types of assimilation can be distinguished according to:

1.Direction

2.Degree of completeness

3. Degree of stability

Assimilation can affect the place of obstruction and the active organs of speech , the work of the vocal cords, the position of the lips, the position of the soft palate and etc.

Direction of assimilation

The influence of the neighboring sounds in English can act in a progressive, regressive or reciprocal (double)

Progressive

When some articulatory features of the following sound are changed under the influence of the preceding sound, which remains unchanged . Assimilation is called progressive

(2nd sound changes under the influence of the 1st one)

After voiced consonants sound –s- ---[z]

After voiceless consonants sound –s---[s]

Regressive

When the following sound influences the articulation of the proceeding one, assimilation is called regressive.

Reciprocal

Reciprocal or double assimilation means complex mutual influence of the adjacent sounds.

Degree of completeness

According to it's degree assimilation can be complete and incomplete.

Complete

Is when two adjoining sounds become alike or merge into one.

It always takes place when the 2 sounds differ only in one articulatory feature.

Incomplete

Is when the likeness of the adjoining sounds is partial as the assimilated sound retains its major articulatory features. [w,l,r]----sonorant.

Sonorant sounds become partly devoiced after [p,t,k,s,f,Ǿ]

Degree of stability

Many assimilatory phenomena of older stages in the development of the language has become obligatory in modern eng. Such changes have taken place over a period of time are called HISTORICAL.

There are a lot of non obligatory assimilation's types.( 10 minutes)