Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Spring 2013
Syllabus
Topic 1. Style and Stylistics
Meanings of style. Definition of linguistic style. Stylistics as a branch of linguistics.
A stylistician, a stylist. The stylistics of language. The stylistics of speech. Literary stylistics.
Poetics. Linguistic stylistics. Why is stylistics a very special science? Connection of stylistics
with phonetics, morphology (spoke spake; word-structure), syntax, lexicology (synonymic
pairs, different wording, unusual word-combinations).
Topic 2. A Short History of Stylistic Studies
Ancient Greece and Rome. The 18th century (individualistic-psychological view), Buffons
dictum. The late 19th and early 20th century (utilitarian approach Lucas, Vallins; the study
of form divorced from thought). Foreign linguists: French, German, Russian. The 1950s-60s.
Present-day studies.
Topic 3. Colouring of a Word
Denotation and connotation. Types of connotation (expressive, emotional;
evaluative;
Verbs. Tenses. The Historical Present. Continuous tenses. Ungrammatical forms: I, he, we +
aint; I says; times has changed; he done me harm. Archaic verbal forms: thou knowest, he
entereth, she didst.
Adverbs. Intensifiers (often oxymoron). Violating degrees of comparison.
Numerals. Used in exaggeration (hyperbole). Standing for a person.
Topic 5. Expressiveness on the Level of Word-Building
Affixation. The suffix ish. Noun-forming suffixes with negative evaluation. Negative affixes:
unbending, unerring, unmask vs. rigid, accurate, reveal. Fatherless, motherless vs.
orphan. Diminutive suffixes.
Composition. Unexpected models of compound words. Words formed by compression applied
to people. Compression resulting in nonce-words. Compounds based on repetition and rhyme.
The expressiveness of distorted words. Unusual shortenings.
Conversion. Nouns converted from phrasal verbs.
Topic 6. Phonetic Stylistic Devices
Onomatopoeia (sound imitation). Traditional and original onomatopoeia.
Alliteration. The function of alliteration. Using alliteration in poetry, titles of books,
advertisements, phraseological units.
Assonance (vocalic alliteration). The function of assonance.
Rhyme. Peculiar English rhymes: compound rhyme, eye-rhyme, inner rhyme, head rhyme.
Topic 7. Lexical Stylistic Devices
1. SD based on the interaction of primary and contextual meaning
Metaphor (hidden comparison). Dead m. Trite vs. original m. Simple vs. sustained m.
Metaphor and parts of speech. The function of m.
Metonymy (association of contiguity). Trite metonymy. Original metonymy. Synecdoche (a
part for a whole or a whole for a part; the Singular for the Plural or vice versa. The function of
metonymy.
Antonomasia. A name for a general idea. A name for the work. A word or phrase for a proper
name. Meaningful names.
Irony.
2. SD based on the interaction of denotational and emotional meaning
Epithet. Adjectives, adverbs, and nouns used as epithets. The logical attribute. Division of
epithets (structure): simple, compound, two-step, syntactic, phrase, and sentence epithets.
Division of epithets (meaning): metaphorical and transferred epithets.
Oxymoron.
Hyperbole.
Understatement. Deliberate lessening of sth. Affirming sth. through denying its contrary.
3. SD based on the interaction of primary and secondary meanings
Zeugma.
Pun (play on words).
Semantically false chain.
4. SD based on circumlocution
Periphrasis. Traditional and original p.
Simile (direct comparison). Compaing two different things. Forms in which similes may
appear: negative forms, the degree of comparison), with certain verbs. Similes that have
become set expressions.
Euphemism.
Personification.
Allegory.
5. Other cases
Bathos. Colloquial words to describe a famous person. Formal vs. informal words side by
side. Elevated words applied to trivial objects and events. A down-to-earth object mentioned
side by side with a romantic one.
Allusion.
Quotation.
Epigram.
Proverbs and idioms. Ways of distorting the original unit.
Synonymic repetition.
Lexical repetition.
Topic 8. Syntactic Stylistic Devices
1. SD based on the absence of logically required elements of the sentence
Ellipsis (elliptical sentence). Ellipsis in the authors narrative and in the dialogue.
Aposiopesis (break in the narrative). Unfinished sentences.
Nominative sentences. Nouns or noun phrases.
The division of words into three styles. Literary words: common literary vocabulary and
special literary vocabulary (terms, foreign words and barbarisms, archaic words, poetic
diction). Colloquial words: common colloquial vocabulary (coll. synonyms of neutral words,
interjections, neutral words used figuratively, diminutive forms, special forms of address,
abbreviations, compound words based on repetition and rhyme, intensifiers, words with a
wide range of application, phrasal verbs, nouns converted from phrasal verbs, phraseological
units, time-fillers). Special colloquial vocabulary (slanggeneral slang, synonyms in slang;
special slang/jargonstudents slang, military slang; cant; vulgarismslexical and stylistic
vulgarisms, curses; professional lexis; dialectal words).