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