Министерство образования и науки Российской Федерации

Федеральное государственное бюджетное образовательное учреждение высшего профессионального образования

Поволжская государственная социально-гуманитарная академия

Е.Б. Борисова, М.А. Кулинич

Стилистика современного английского языка: от теории к практике

Учебное пособие для студентов старших курсов институтов и факультетов иностранных языков

Самара 2011

УДК 811.111(075.8) ББК 81.2 Б 82

Печатается по решению редакционно-издательского совета Поволжской государственной социально-гуманитарной академии

Рецензенты:

заведующий кафедрой германских языков Международного института рынка

доктор филологических наук, профессор Т.Е. Водоватова;

заведующий кафедрой иностранных языков Самарского государственного экономического университета доктор педагогических наук, кандидат филологических наук,

профессор Г.В. Глухов

Б 82	Борисова Е.Б., Кулинич М.А. Стилистика современного английского языка: от теории к практике : учебное пособие для студентов старших курсов институтов и факультетов иностранных языков / Е.Б. Борисова, М.А. Кулинич. – Самара : ПГСГА, 2011. – 92 с.

ISBN 978-5-8428-0868-7

Пособие предназначено для аудиторной и самостоятельной работы, содержит теоретический материал по стилистике современного английского языка, планы семинарских занятий, перечень вопросов для обсуждения, список рекомендуемой литературы, практические задания к семинарам, а также образцы стилистического анализа текста, вопросы и тренировочные тесты для подготовки к экзамену. Клише для стилистического анализа призваны, помочь выработать навыки анализа стилистических явлений на различных уровнях описания (фонетическом, морфологическом, лексическом и синтаксическом).

ISBN 978-5-8428-0868-7

В авторской редакции

УДК 811.111(075.8) ББК 81.2

© ПГСГА, 2011

©Борисова Е.Б., Кулинич М.А., 2011

The metalanguage of linguostylistics

Style in painting is the same as in writing, a power over materials, whether words or colours, by which conceptions or sentiments are conveyed.

Sir Joshua Reynolds

The deeper you go into the text, the more sophisticated you are, the greater the number of levels of understanding, the deeper the penetration into different dimensions.

O.S. Akhmanova

In the European philological tradition there have always existed phenomena regarded as linguostylistic concepts proper. They are: tropes which are based on the transfer of meaning, when a word (or a combination of words) is used to denote an object which is not normally correlated with this word, and figures of speech whose stylistic effect is achieved due to the unusual arrangement of linguistic units, unusual construction or extension of utterance.

There is a considerable number of terms which can serve to denote different tropes and figures of speech. Most of these terms go back to ancient rhetoric where all the stylistic devices were thoroughly investigated and provided with names and definitions. In the course of time some terms used in Greek and Roman philology have disappeared whereas new ones were introduced. The meanings of some terms have changed. Thus, the Greek “metaphora” was used by Aristotle in a very broad sense, close to the modern meaning of the term “trope”, that is, it embraced metonymy, synechdoche, hyperbole and simile.

Theoretically speaking, the division into tropes and figures, which can be traced back to classical philology, is characteristic not only of Russian but also of English and American philological traditions. A Russian anglicist, however, is bound to be faced with certain metalinguistic difficulties. The fact is that the English term “figure of speech” is often indiscriminately used to denote any stylistic device, including metaphor (this is how “metaphor” is defined, for instance, in one of the dictionaries of literary terms published in the U.S.A.: “a metaphor is a figure of speech in which one object is likened to another by speaking of it as if it were that other” (Standard College Dictionary. N.-Y., 1963). The term “trope”, which was widely employed in the XVIII century in almost the same meaning as the Russian «троп», has practically fallen out of use.

Nevertheless we are convinced that the distinction between tropes and figures is not only a question of metalanguage. It concerns the ontology of linguostylistic phenomena, their essential features. We regard tropes and figures of speech as basic linguostylistic categories whose study should be based on their numerous realisations in speech.

Figurative Language is used to express a particular feeling or encourage imagination by a well-developed means of creating images, its purpose being to improve the effectiveness, clarity, and enjoyment of both written and oral communication. Figurative language has developed alongside rhetoric, both rooted as far back in history as the times of such classical rhetoricians as Aristotle, Quintillion, and Cicero.

Rhetoricis usually defined as the art of persuasion. Aristotle and Quintillion developed a system of methods and tools of persuasion claiming that a rhetorical discourse should consist of:

– “invention” (developing arguments);

– “disposition” (organizing one's subject);

– “style” (the means of persuasion).

In the modern era “style” and “disposition” (as well as “invention”, though) are still very important form-making categories. They are known as stylistic language means.

Expressive means of a language are those forms and properties that have the potential to make the utterance emphatic or expressive. They don’t change the semantic structure. They only add some degree of emotive force to the utterance structure. These can be found on all the levels – phonetic, phonographical, morphological, lexical or syntactical.

The table to follow gives a few examples of expressive means, which are grouped in accordance with the levels of language.

Levels of Language	Expressive Means
Phonetics	• pitch • melody • stress • pausation	• drawling • drawling out certain syllables • whispering • a sing-song manner of speech
Morphology	• grammar means (e.g. shifts in tenses, the usage of obsolete forms as in He hath brethren)	• word-building means (e.g. the usage of diminutive suffixes to add some emotional colouring to words as -y (i.e.) in birdie, and -let in streamlet, piglet)
Vocabulary	• words with emotive meaning only, like interjections • words with both referential and emotive meaning, like some of the qualitative adjectives	• words with twofold meaning, denotative and connotative • words belonging to different strata of English • set expressions, idioms, proverbs and sayings
Syntax	• constructions containing emphatic elements of different kinds (e.g. constructions of dummy subjects)

A stylistic deviceis a literary model in which semantic and structural features are blended so that it represents a generalized pattern.

All stylistic devices belong to expressive means, but not all expressive means are stylistic devices. Thus, phonetic phenomena, such as pitch, stress, pausation, tempo are all expressive means without being stylistic devices: I do know you. I’m really angry with that dog of yours (Intensifiers). According to I.R. Galperin a stylistic device is such a generative model which through frequent use in language is transformed into a stylistic device (e.g. metaphor). It’s like an algorithm used for an expressive purpose. This arbitrary division of stylistic means into expressive means and stylistic devices does not necessarily mean that these groups cannot overlap. On the contrary, the striking effect of many a stylistic device is based on the logical or emotional emphasis contained in the corresponding expressive means and vice versa: a formerly genuine stylistic device can become an expressive means (idioms at large).

The classification suggested by I.R. Galperin is simply and logically organized. His classification based on the level-oriented approach includes the following subdivision of expressive means and stylistic devices:

1. Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices.

2. Lexical expressive means and stylistic devices.

3. Syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices.

A convergence of expressive means and stylistic devicesis the accumulation of several expressive means and stylistic devices of the same or different levels of language, promoting the same idea or emotion in the same context. Stylistic function is not the property and purpose of expressive means of the language as such. Any type of expressive means will make sense stylistically when treated as a part of a bigger unit, the context, or the whole text. It means that there is no immediate dependence between a certain stylistic device and a definite stylistic function.

A stylistic device is not strictly attached to promote this or that stylistic effect. Thus, hyperbole (deliberate exaggeration of a quality or quantity), for instance, may provide any of the following effects: tragic, comical, pathetic or grotesque. Stylistic inversion may give the narration a highly elevated tone or a tone of an ironic mock.

This “chameleon” quality of expressive means and stylistic devices enables the author to apply different means and devices for the same purpose. The use of more than one type of expressive means in close succession is a powerful technique to support the idea that carries paramount importance in the author’s view. Such redundancy ensures the delivery of the message to the reader.