Stilistika_angliyskogo_yazyka
.pdfand couldn't they dine together and go to some place' to dance. She thought it very sweet of him to take pity on her solitariness and accepted with pleasure, They spent a delightful evening." (Maugham)
This manner of inserting uttered represented speech within the author's narrative is not common. It is peculiar to the style of a number of modern English and American writers. The more usual structural model is one where there is either an indication of the shift by some introductory word (smiled, said, asked, etc.) or by a formal break like a full stop at the end of the sentence, as in:
"In consequence he Was quick to suggest a walk... Didn't Clyde want to go?" (Dreiser)
Uttered represented speech has a long history. As far back as the 18th century it was already widely used by men-of-letters, evidently because it was a means by which what was considered vulgar might be excluded from literature, i.e. expletives, vivid colloquial words, expressions and syntactical structures typical of the lively colloquial speech of the period. Indeed, when direct speech is represented by the writer, he can change the actual utterance into any mode of expression he considers appropriate.
In Fielding's "History of Tom Jones the Foundling" we find various ways of introducing uttered represented speech. Here are some interesting examples:
"When dinner was over, and the servants departed, Mr. Al-worthy began to harangue. He set forth, in a long speech, the
many iniquities of which Jones had been guilty, particularly those which this day had brought to light; and concluded by telling him, 'That unless he could clear himself of the charge, he was resolved to banish him from his sight for ever."'
In this passage there is practically no represented speech, inasmuch as the words marked off by inverted commas are indirect-speech, i.e. the author's speech with no elements of the character's speech, and the only signs'of the change in the form of the utterance are the inverted commas and the capital letter of 'That'. The following paragraph is built on the same pattern.
"Hislieart was, besides, almost broken already; and his spirits were so sunk, that he could say nothing for himself but acknowledge the whole, and, like a criminal in despair, threw himself upon mercy; concluding, 'that though he must own himself guilty of many follies and inadvertencies, he hoped he had done nothing to deserve what would be to him the greatest punishment in the world.'"
Here again the introductory 'concluding' does not bring forth direct speech but is a natural continuation of the author's narrative. The only indication of the change are the inverted commas.
Mr. Alworthy's answer is also built on the same pattern, the only modification being the direct speech at the end.
"—Alworthy answered, "That he had forgiven him too often already, in compassion to his youth, and in hopes of his amendment: that he now found he was an abandoned reprobate, and such as it would be criminal in any one to support and
encourage," 'Nay,' said Mr. Alworthy to him, 'your audacious attempt to steal away the young lady, calls upon me to justify my own character in punishing you.—'"
Then follows^a long speech by Mr. Alworthy not differing from indirect speech (the author's speech) either in structural design or in the choice of words. A critical analysis will show that the direct speech of the characters in the novel must have undergone considerable polishing up in order to force it to conform to the literary norms of the period. Colloquial speech, emotional, inconsistent and spontaneous, with its vivid intonation suggested by elliptical sentences, breaks in the narrative, fragmenta-riness and lack of connectives, was banned from literary usage and replaced by the passionless substitute of indirect speech.
Almost in any work of 18th century literary art one will find that the spoken language is adapted to conform to the norms of the written language of the period. It was only at the beginning of the 19th century that the elements of colloquial English, began to elbow their way into the sacred precincts of the English literary language. The more the process became apparent, the more the conditions that this created became favourable for the introduction of uttered represented speech as a literary device.
In the modern belles-lettres prose style, the speech of the characters is modelled on natural colloquial patterns. The device of uttered represented speech enables the writer to reshape the utterance according to the normal polite literary usage.
Nowadays, this device is used not only in the belles-lettres style. It is also efficiently used in newspaper style. Here is an example:
"Mr. Silverman, his Parliamentary language scarcely concealing his bitter disappointment, accused the government of breaking its pledge and of violating constitutional proprieties.
Was the government basing its policy not on the considered judgement of the House of Commons, but on the considered judgement of the House of Lords?
Would it not be a grave breach of constitutional duty, not to give the House a reasonable opportunity of exercising its rights under the Parliament Act?"
'Wait for the terms of the Bill,' was Eden's reply."
s Uttered represented speech in newspaper communications is somewhat different from that in the belles-lettres style. In the former, it is generally used to quote the words of speakers in Parliament or at public meetings.
b) Unuttered or Inner Represented Speech
As has often been pointed out, language has two functions: the communicative and the expressive. The communicative function serves to convey one's thoughts, volitions, emotions and orders to the mind of a second person. The expressive function serves to shape one's thoughts and emotions into language forms. This second function is believed to be the only way of materializing thoughts and emotions. Without language forms thought is not yet thought but only something being shaped as thought.
: PRESSI ( HERSON )
The thoughts and feelings going on in one's miad and reflecting some previous experience are called inner speech.
"4 Inasmuch as inner speech has no communicative function, it is very fragmentary,- incoherent, isolated, and consists of separate units which only hint at the content of the utterance but do not word it explicitly.
Inner speech is a psychological phenomenon. But when it is wrought into full utterance, it ceases to be inner speech, acquires a communicative function and becomes a phenomenon of language. The expressive function of language is suppressed by its communicative function, and the reader is presented with a complete language unit capable of carrying information. This device is called inner represented speech.
However, the language forms of inner represented speech bear a resemblance to the psychological phenomenon of inner speech. Inner represented speech retains the most characteristic features of inner speech. It is also fragmentary, but only to an extent which will not hinder the understanding of the communication.
Inner represented speech, unlike uttered represented speech, expresses feelings and thoughts of the character which were not material
ized in spoken or written language by the character. That is why it abounds in exclamatory words and phrases, elliptical constructions, breaks, and other means of conveying feelings and psychological states. When a person is alone with his thoughts and feelings, he can give vent to those strong emotions.which he usually keeps hidden. Here is an example from Galsworthy's "Man of Property":
"His nervousness about this disclosure irritated him profoundly; she had no business to make him feel like that—a wife and a husband being one person. She had not looked at him once since they sat down, and he wondered what on earth she had been thinking about all the time. It was hard, when a man worked hard as he did, making money for her—yes and with an ache in his heart— that she should sit there, looking—looking as if she saw the walls of the room closing in. It was enough to make a man get up and leave the table."
The inner speech of Soames Forsyte is here introduced by two words describing his state of mind—irritated' and 'wondered'. The colloquial aspect of the language in which Soames's thoughts and feelings are expressed is obvious. He uses colloquial collocations: 'she had no business', 'what on earth', 'like that' and colloquial constructions: 'yes and with...' 'looking—looking as if ...', and the words used are common colloquial.
Unutteredor inner represented speech follows the same morphological pattern as uttered represented speech, byiJhe^XQlactical pattern shows variations which can be accounted forfiy the fact fHatItis'ffiner speech, not uttered speech. ~THe tense forms are shifted to the past; the third person personal pronouns replace the first and second. The interrogative word-order is maintained as in direct speech. The fragmentary character of the utterance manifests itself in unfinished sentences, exclamations and in one-member sentences.
Here is another example:
"An idea had occurred to Soames. His cousin Jolyon was Irene's trustee, the first step would be to go down and see him at Robin Hill. Robin Hill! The odd—the very odd feeling those words brought back. Robin Hill—the house Bosinney had built for him and Irene—the house they had never lived in—the fatal house! And Jolyon lived there .now! H'm!" (Galsworthy)
This device is undoubtedly an excellent one to depict a character. It gives the writer an opportunity to show the inner springs which guide his character's actions and utterances. Being a combination of the au-.thor's speech and that of the character, inner represented speech, on the one hand, fully discloses the feelings and thoughts of the character, his world outlook, and, on the other hand, through efficient and sometimes hardly perceptible interpolations by the author himself, makes the desired impact on the reader.
In English and American literature this device has gained vogue in the works of the writers of the last two centuries — Jane Austen, Thackeray, Dickens, Charlotte and Ernily Bronte, Jack London, Gals-242
worthy, Dreiser, Somerset Maugham and others. Every writer has his own way of using represented speech. Careful linguistic analysis of individual peculiarities in using it will show its wide range of function and will expand the hitherto limited notions of its use.
Inner represented speech, unlike uttered represented speech, is usually introduced by verbs of mental perception, as think, meditate, feel, occur (an idea occurred to...), wonder, ask, tell oneself, understand and the like. For example:
"Over and over he was asking himself: would she receive him? would she recognize him? what should he say to her?"
"Why weren't things going well between them? he wondered."
Very frequently, however, inner represented speech thrusts itself into the narrative of the author without any introductory words and the shift from the author's speech to inner represented speech is more or less imperceptible. Sometimes the one glidesjnto the other, sometimes there is a sudden clear-cut change in the mode of expression. Here are examples:
"Butler was sorry that he had called his youngest a baggage; but these children— God bless his soul—were a great annoyance. Why, in the name of all the saints, wasn't this house good enough for them?" (Dreiser)
The only indication of the transfer from the author's speech to inner represented speech is the semicolon which suggests a longish pause. The emotional tension of the inner represented speech is enhanced by the emphatic these (in 'these children'), by the exclamatory sentences 'God bless his soul' and 'in the name of all the saints'. This emotional charge gives an additional shade of meaning to the 'was sorry' in the author's statement, viz. Butler was sorry, but he was also trying to justify himself for calling his daughter names.
And here is an example of a practically imperceptible shift:
: PRESSI ( HERSON )
"Then, too, in old Jolyon's mind was always the secret ache that the son of James—of James, whom he had always thought such a poor thing, should be pursuing the paths of success, while his own son—!" (Galsworthy)
In this passage there are hardly any signs of J;he shift except, perhaps, the repetition of the words 'of James'. Then comes what is half the author's narrative, half the thoughts of the character, the inner speech coming to the surface in 'poor thing' (a colloquialism) and the sudden break after 'his own son' and the mark of exclamation.
Inner represented speech remains the monopoly of the belles-lettres .style, and especially of emotive prose, a variety of it. There is hardly any likelihood of this device being used in other styles, due to its specific function, which is to penetrate into the inner life of the personages of an imaginary world, which is the exclusive domain of belles-lettres.
F. STYLISTIC USE OF STRUCTURAL MEANING
On analogy with transference of lexical meaning,, in which are used other than in their primary logical sense, syntactical structures may also be used in meanings other than their primary ones. Every syntactical structure hasjts definite function, which is sometimes called its sir uc tar 1^5 ^ used in some"other fuhc-""" tion it may be said to assume a new meaning which is similar to lexical transferred meaning.
Among syntactical stylistic devices there are two in which this trans-i ference of structural meaning is to be seen. They are rhetorical questions! and litotes.
Rhetorical Questions
The rhetorical q e^s t i n Is a special syntactical stylistic j device the essence of which consists in reshaping the grammatical mean-j ing of the interrogative sentence. In other words, the question is no" longer a question but a statement expressed in the form of an interrogative sentence. Thus there is an interplay of two structural meanings: 1) that of the question and 2) that of the statement (either affirmative or negative). Both are materialized simultaneously. For example:
"Are these the remedies for a starving and desperate populace?" "Is there not blood enough upon your penal code, that jnore
must be poured forth to ascend to Heaven and testify against you?" (Byron)
One can agree with Prof. Popov who states: "...the rhetorical question is equal to a categorical pronouncement plus an exclamation." x Indeed, if we compare a pronouncement expressed as a statement with the same pronouncement expressed as a rhetorical question by means of transformational analysis, we wilFfind ourselves compelled to assert that the interrogative form makes the pronouncement still more categorical, in that it excludes any interpretation beyond that contained in the rhetorical question.
From the examples given above, we can see that rhetorical questions are generally structurally embodied in complex sentences with the subordinate clause containing
the pronouncement. Here is another example: "...Shall the sons-^of Chimary I
Who never forgive the fault of a friend .1 Bid an enemy live?..." (Byron) .]
^Without the attributive clause the rhetorical question would lose-| its specific quality and might be regarded as an ordinary question. Thei subordinate clause, as it were, signalizes the rhetorical question. The meaning of the above utterance can hardly fail to be understood: i. e. The sons of Chimary will never bid an enemy live.
There is another structural pattern of rhetorical questions, which is based on negation. In this case the question may be a simple sentence, as in:
"Did not the Italian Mosico Cazzani
Sing at my heart six months at least in vain?" (Byron) "Have I not had to wrestle with my lot?
Have I. not suffered things to be forgiven?" (Byron)
Negative-interrogative sentences generally have a peculiar nature. There is always an additional shade of meaning implied in them: sometimes doubt, sometimes assertion, sometimes suggestion. In other words, they are full of emotive meaning and modality.
We have already stated that rhetorical questions may be looked upon as a transference of grammatical meaning. But just as in the case of the transference of lexical meaning, the stylistic effect of the transference of grammatical meaning can only be achieved if there is a simultaneous realization of the two meanings: direct and transferred. So it is with rhetorical questions. Both the question-meaning and the statement-meaning are materialized with an emotional charge, the weight of which can be judged by the intonation of the speaker.
The intonation of rhetorical questions, according to the most recent investigations, differs materially from the intonation of ordinary questions. This is also an additional indirect proof of the double nature of this stylistic device. In the question-sentence
"Is the poor privilege to turn the key Upon the captive, freedom?" (Byron) instead of a categorical pronouncement one can detect irony.
A more detailed analysis of the semantic aspect of different question-sentences leads to the conclusion that these structural models have various functions. Not only ordinary questions, not only categorical pronouncements are expressed in question form. In fact there are various nuances of emotive meaning embodied in questionsentences. We have already given an example of one of these meanings, viz. irony. In Shakespeare's
"Who is here so vile that will not love his country?" there is a meaning of challenge openly and unequivocally declared. It is impossible to regard it as a rhetorical question making a categorical pronouncement. In the rhetorical question from Byron's maiden speech given above ('Is there not blood... ) there is a clear implication of scorn and contempt for Parliament and the laws it passes.
So rhetorical questions may also be defined as utterances in the form of questions
: PRESSI ( HERSON )
which pronounce judgements and also express various kinds of modal shades of meaning, as doubt, challenge, scorn, irony and so on.
It has been stated elsewhere that questions are more emotional than statements. When a question is repeated, as in these lines from Poe's "The Raven":
"—Is there—is there balm in Gilead?! Tell me-— ' tell me—I implore!—"
the degree of emotiveness increases and the particular shade of meaning (in this case, despair) becomes more apparent.
The rhetorical question re-enforces this essential quality of interrogative sentences and uses it to convey a stronger shade of emotive meaning. Rhetorical questions, due to their power of expressing a variety of modal shades of meaning, are most often used in publicistic style and particularly in oratory, where the rousing of emotions is the effect generally aimed at.
Litotes
Litotes is a stylistic device consisting of a peculiar use of negative constructions. The negation plus noun or adjective serves to establish a positive feature in a person or thing. This positive feature, however, is somewhat diminished in quality as compared with a synonymous expression making a straightforward assertion of the positive feature. Let us compare the following two pairs of sentences:
1.It's not a bod thing.—It's a good thing.
2.He is no coward.—He is a brave man.
Not bad is not equal to good although the two constructions are synonymous. The same can be said about the second pair, no coward and a brave man. In both cases the negative construction is weaker than ,the affirmative one. Still we cannot say that the two negative constructions produce a lesser effect than the corresponding affirmative ones. Moreover, it should be noted that the negative constructions here have a stronger impact on the reader than the affirmative ones. The latter have no additional connotation; the former have. That is why such constructions are regarded as stylistic devices. Litotes is a deliberate understatement used to produce a stylistic effect. It is not a pure negation, but a negation that includes affirmation. Therefore here, as in the case of rhetorical questions, we may speak of transference of meaning, i. e. a device with the help of which twp meanings are materialized simultaneously: the direct (negative) and transferred (affirmative).
So the negation in litotes must not be regarded as a mere denial of the quality mentioned. The structural aspect of the negative combination backs up the semantic aspect: the negatives no and not are more emphatically pronounced than in ordinary negative sentences, thus bringing'to mind the corresponding antonym.
The stylistic effeciT of litotes depends mainly on intonation. If we compare two intonation patterns, one which suggests a mere denial (It is not bad as a contrary to It is-bad) with the other which suggests the assertion of a positive quality of the object (It is not bad=it is good), the difference will become apparent. The degree to which litotes carries the positive quality in itself can be estimated by analysing the semantic
structure of the word which is negated.
Let us examine the following sentences in which litotes is used:
1."Whatever defects the tale possessed—and they were not a few—it had, as delivered by her, the one merit of seeming like truth."
2."He was not without taste..."
3."It troubled him not a little..:'
4."He found that this was no easy task."
5."He was no gentle lamb, and the part of second fiddle would never do for the high-pitched dominance of his nature." (Jack London)
6."She was wearing a fur coat... Carr, the enthusiastic appreciator of smart women and as good a judge of dress as any man to be met in a Pall Mall club, saw that she was no country cousin. She had style, or 'devil', as he preferred to call it."
Even a superfluous analysis of the litotes in the above sentences clearly shows that the negation does not merely indicate the absence of the quality mentioned but suggests the presence of the opposite quality. Charles Bally, a well-known Swiss linguist, states that negative sentences are used with the purpose of "refusing to affirm".
In sentences 5 and 6 where it is explained by the context, litotes reveals its true function. The idea of 'no gentle lamb' is further strengthened by the 'high-pitched dominance of his nature'; the function and meaning of 'no country cousin' is made clear by 'as good a fudge of dress...', 'she had style...'. Thus, like other stylistic devices, litotes displays a simultaneous materialization of two meanings: one negative, the other affirmative. This interplay of two grammatical meanings is keenly felt, so much so indeed, that the affirmation suppresses the negation, the latter . being only the form in which the real pronouncement is moulded. According to the science of logic, negation as a category can hardly express a pronouncement. Only an assertion can do so. That is why we may say that any negation only suggests an assertion. Litotes is a means by which this natural logical and linguistic property of negation can be strengthened. The two senses of the litotic expression, negative and positive, serve a definite stylistic purpose.
A variant of litotes is a construction with two negations, as in not unlike, not unpromising, not displeased and the like. Here, according to general logical and mathematical principles, two negatives make a positive. Thus in the sentence— "Soames, with his lips and his squared chin was not unlike a bull dog" (Galsworthy), the litotes may be interpreted as somewhat resembling. In spite of the fact that such constructions make the assertion more logically apparent, they lack precision. They may truly be regarded as deliberate understatements, whereas the pattern structures of litotes, i. e. those that have only one negative are much more categorical in stating the positive quality* of a person or thing.
An interesting jest at the expense'of an English statesman who overused the device of double negation was published in the Spectator, May 23, 1958. Here it is:
: PRESSI ( HERSON )
"Anyway, as the pre-Whitsun dog-days- barked themselves into silence, a good deal of pleasure could be obtained by a connoisseur who knew where to seek it. On Monday, for instance, from Mr. Selwyn Lloyd. His trick of seizing upon a phrase that has struck him (erroneously, as a rule) as a happy one, and doggedly
sticking to it thereafter is one typical of a speaker who lacks all confidence. On Monday it was 'not unpromising'; three times he declared that various aspects of the Summit preparations were 'not unpromising', and I was moved in the end to conclude that Mr. Lloyd is a not unpoor Foreign Secretary, and that if he should not unshortly leave that office the not unbetter it would be for all of us, not unhim included."
Litotes is used in different styles of speech, excluding those which may be called the matter-of-fact styles, like official style and scientific prose. In poetry it is sometimes used to suggest that language fails to adequately convey the poet's feelings and therefore he uses negations to express the inexpressible. Shakespeare's Sonnet No. 130 is to some extent illustrative in this respect. Here all the hackneyed phrases used by the poet to depict his beloved are negated with the purpose of showing the superiority of the earthly qualities of "My mistress." The first line of this sonnet 'My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun' is a clear-cut litotes although the object to which the eyes are compared is generally perceived as having only positive qualities.
PART VI FUNCTIONAL STYLES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
We have already mentioned the problem of what is known as / n c-tional styles (FS) of language (see p. 32—35), but only to show that FSs should be distinguished from varieties of language. The main difference, be it remembered, is that the written and oral varieties of language are merely forms of communication which depend on the situation in which the communication is maintained, i.e. on the presence or absence of an interlocutor, whereas FSs are patterns of the written variety of language calculated to secure the desired purport of the communication. Each functional style of the literary'language makes use of language means the interrelation of which is peculiar to the given FS. It is the coordination of language media and SDs which shapes the distinctive features of each style, and not the separate language media or the SDs themselves. Each FS, however, can be recognized by one or more leading, especially conspicuousfeatures. For instance, the use of special terminology is a lexical characteristic of the FS of scientific prose, and one by which it can easily be recognized. The address "Dear sirs" will be a signal to refer the message to the FS of official documents.
However, since any FS presents a system in which various features are interwoven in a particular manner, one group of language means, a leading feature though it may be, will not suffice to determine the FS.
Now we are in a position to give a more exact definition of a functional style than
the one given on p. 32—33.
An FS is a patterned variety of literary text characterized by the greater or lesser typification of its constituents, supra-phrasal units (SPU), in which the choice and arrangement of interdependent and interwoven language media are calculated to secure the purport of the communication.
Each FS is a relatively stable system at the given stage in the development of the literary language, but it changes, and sometimes considerably, from one period to another. Therefore functional style of language is a historical category. There are many instances to prove this. Thus, the FS of emotive prose actually began to function as an independent style after the second half of the 16th century; the newspaper style budded off from the publicistic style; the oratorical style has undergone considerable fundamental changes, and so with other FSs,
The development of each style is predetermined by the changes in the norms of standard English.
It is also greatly influenced by changing social conditions, the progress of science and the development of cultural life in the country. For instance, the emotive elements of language were abundantly used in scientific prose in the 18th century. This is explained by the fact that scientists in many fields used the emotional language instead of one more logically precise and convincing, because they lacked the scientific data obtainable only by deep, prolonged research. With the development of science and the accumulation of scientific data, emotive elements gave way to convincing arguments and "stubborn" facts.
The English literary language has evolved a number of FSs easily distinguishable one from another. They are not homogeneous and fall into several variants all having some central point of resemblance, or better to say, all integrated by the invariant— i.e. the abstract ideal system.
We shall now consider each of the FSs in its ,most characteristic features.
A. THE BELLES-LETTRES STYLE
We have already pointed out that the belles-lettres style is a generic term for three substyles in which the main principles and the most general properties of the style are materialized. These three sub-styles are: '
1.The language of poetry, or simply verse.
2.Emotive p s e, or the language of fiction.
3.'he language of the dr a ma.
Each of these substyles has certain common features, typical of the general belleslettres style, which make up the foundation of the style, by which the particular style is made recognizable and can therefore be singted out. Each of them also enjoys some individuality. This is revealed in definite features typical only of one or another substyle. This correlation of the general and the particular in each variant of the belles-lettres styie had manifested itself differently at different stages in its historical development.
: PRESSI ( HERSON )