- •A guide to stylistics
- •Contents
- •Foreword
- •Section 1 Stylistics: Introduction into the Field. Cognitive Style. Functional Styles.
- •Chubby tots don’t always shed that baby fat
- •250 Charing cross road london wci
- •10. Define the genre, the functional style and its specific characteristics in the following extracts.
- •11. Use the intensifier with each of the adjectives. The first two have been done as an example:
- •12. Complete the sentences using the adverbs below and a suitable adjective.
- •13. In spoken English, it's possible to emphasize certain parts of a sentence simply by using stress. Which words would you stress in the following sentences to emphasize the information in brackets?
- •Section 2 The Language of Literature as an Object of Stylistics.
- •1. Compare the neutral and the colloquial (or literary) modes of expression:
- •2. Link together the suitable pairs of words making a stylistic opposition:
- •3. A. Which of the following phrases would you use while commenting on someone's features to express a) respect b) amusement c) contempt?
- •4. Analyse the semantic structure of the following words:
- •5. State what connotative component(s) of lexical meaning the following words represent.
- •Section 3 Lexical Means of Expressiveness
- •1. Do a jigsaw task identifying examples of metonymy in the columns. Choose at least 5 cases of metonymy and explain why the original use of a word has turned into a metonymical one.
- •9. Analyse cases of metaphor into the components of its structure.
- •10. A. Identify the trope and its type in the following sentences:
- •11. Indicate the metonymy and the type of metonymical relations.
- •12. State the type and structure of the epithets.
- •13. What trope is used in the following examples?
- •14. A. Concentrate on cases of hyperbole and understatement.
- •15. Before analysing cases of irony look at this definition from a Dictionary of Literary Terms by g.A. Cuddon:
- •Agony Calories
- •16. Define the device used:
- •17. Discriminate between metaphor, simile and personification in the following examples:
- •18. Define the stylistic device and explain what the effect produced by it is based on.
- •19. Identify the tropes in the following Russian examples:
- •Section 4 Stylistic Phraseology. Stylistic Morphology.
- •1. Read the sentences and discuss different ways in which j. Galsworthy refreshes proverbs and sayings by violating phraseological units. What effect is gained by this?
- •2. Analyse various cases of play on words, indicate how it is created and what effect it adds to the utterance.
- •3. Analyse the structure and purpose of creating the author's neologisms:
- •4. Find out and explain the morphological and phraseological devices:
- •Section 5 Stylistic Syntax.
- •1. Specify on the ssm based on Compression.
- •2. Identify the ssm based on Recurrence.
- •3. Keep the conversation going using False Anadiplosis and the counterarguments to make the utterance complete.
- •4. Read the sentences in which the ssm grouped under Inversion are used. Define the type of the inversions.
- •5. Identify the ssm based on Transposition. Analyse the stylistic effect created by them.
- •6. Analyse the syntactic stylistic devices used in the following sentences:
- •Identify the lexical and syntactic stylistic means in the following examples. Specify the function performed by them.
- •8. Specify on all the stylistic devices employed by the authors in the following examples. Identify and analyse the stylistic effect of the devices used.
- •Section 6 Stylistic Phonetics.
- •1. Identify the phonetic stylistic means in the following examples and specify the function performed by them:
- •Section 7 Extracts for Comprehensive Stylistic Analysis.
- •More you can do Do the independent stylistic analysis of the following texts.
- •Exam issues
- •Reading matters in stylistics
Section 6 Stylistic Phonetics.
♦ Topics for Reports and Discussion
1. Onomatopoeia (sound imitation).
2. Alliteration.
3. Rhyme.
♦ Lecture Digest
Sound (especially in clusters) may be imbued with meaning.
Sound imitation (onomatopoeia) may be direct: “a hard rit-rat on the hobbit’s beautiful green door”. In the direct onomatopoeia we come across words imitating natural sounds. In the indirect onomatopoeia the effect of orchestration is created by the combination of sounds in the text. As a result the sound of the utterance acquires its sense bringing to mind the needed associations. E.A. Poe’s “The Raven” is a classical example of the author’s efficient exploiting the phonetic qualities of words: … “And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain” – the repetition of the [s] sound in a number of words definitely contributes to the idea of “rustling”.
While interacting in sentences, speech sounds give rise to such stylistic means as: 1) alliteration, 2) assonance, 3) paronomasia, 4) rhyme, which imply 1) recurrence of an initial consonant or consonants in a number of words (“lassies lilting before dawn of day”. C.D. Lewis); 2) the recurrence of stressed vowels (“vocalic alliteration”) as in E. Poe’s poem mentioned above (Aiden, laden, maiden); 3) the phonetic similarity of the alliteration type but deeper in “rooting” in such cases as “poultry – politics” (also termed as paronymic attraction); 4) almost “a complete coincidence of acoustic impressions produced by stressed syllables” (Y. Skrevnev) occurring at the end of verse lines (dreams – streams).
Sound symbolism or semantics of the sound dates back to ancient times. Nowadays poets, writers, advertisers and translators – people who have a sensitive ear for the form of a word try to explicit the power of sound to express emotion and support the meaning.
♦ Extension
Alliteration is generally regarded as a musical accompaniment of the author's idea, supporting it with some vague emotional atmosphere which each reader interprets for himself. Thus the repetition of the sound Id] in the lines quoted from Poe's poem "The Raven" prompts the feeling of anxiety, fear, horror, anguish or all these feelings simultaneously.
Alliteration in the English language is deeply rooted in the traditions of English folklore. The laws of phonetic arrangement in Anglo-Saxon poetry differed greatly from those of present-day English poetry. In Old English poetry alliteration was one of the basic principles of verse and considered, along with rhythm, to be its main characteristic. Each stressed meaningful word in a line had to begin with the same sound or combination of sounds. The traditions of folklore are exceptionally stable and alliteration as a structural device of Old English poems and songs has shown remarkable continuity. It is frequently used as a well-tested means not only in verse but in emotive prose, in newspaper headlines, in the titles of books, in proverbs-and sayings, as, for example, in the following: Tit for tat; blind as a bat, betwixt and between; It is neck or nothing; to rob Peter to pay Paul.
♦ List of Works Recommended
Арнольд И.В. Стилистика. Современный английский язык. М., 2006. С. 191-214: гл. V. Фонетическая стилистика.
Skrebnev Y.M. Fundamentals of English Stylistics. M., 1994. PP. 133-145. Ch. I. Phonetics of Sequences (Syntagmatic Phonetics).
♦ Exercises