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стилистики английского языка.

1. The subject of stylistics. Its definition, its connection with other branches of linguistics.
2. Expressive means and stylistic devices.
3. Meaning from stylistic point of view.
4. Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices (onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance).
5. Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices (euphony, rhyme, rhythm).
6. Graphical expressive means and stylistic devices (marks of punctuation, kinds of type).
7. Graphical expressive means and stylistic devices (graphon, its stylistic function).
8. Metaphor (trite, genuine, prolonged), personification.
9. Metonymy (trite, genuine), irony.
10. Epithets (semantic and structural classification).
11. Interjection of logical and emotive meanings (interjections and exclamatory words).
12. Stylistic devices based on polysemantic effect (zeugma, pun).
13. Oxymoron, antonomasia.
14. Intensification of a certain feature of phenomenon (simile, hyperbole, understatement).
15. Intensification of a certain feature of phenomenon (periphrasis, euphemism).
16. Proverbs and sayings.
17. Epigrams, paradox, allusion.
18. Spans of utterance larger than a sentence (supra-phrasal unit, paragraph).
19. Stylistic inversion, detachment.
20. Parallel constructions, chiasmus.
21. Repetition (all cases).
22. Enumeration, suspense.
23. Climax, anticlimax, antithesis.
24. Asyndeton, polysyndeton, the gap-sentence link.
25. Ellipsis, break-in-the narrative.
26. Peculiar use of colloquial constructions (uttered represented speech).
27. Peculiar use of colloquial constructions (unuttered represented speech).
28. Transferred use of structural meaning (rhetorical question, litotes).
29. The main peculiarities of belles-lettres style.
30. The main peculiarities of publicistic style.
31. The main peculiarities of newspaper style.
32. The main peculiarities of scientific and official style.
The subject of stylistics. Its connection with gradation, antithesis, rhetorical questions, emotive
other disciplines. words, elements of colloquial speech. Radio and TV
Stylistics - branch of general linguistics. It has mainly commentary is less impersonal and more expressive
with two tasks: St-s – is regarded as a lang-ge and emotional. The essay is very subjective and the
science which deals with the results of the act of most colloquial of the all substyles of the publicistic
communication. There are 2 basic objects of st-s: - style. It makes use of expressive means and tropes.
stylistic devices and figures of speech; - functional The journalistic articles are impersonal.
styles. Branches of st-s: - Lexical st-s – studies
The main peculiarities of belles-lettres style.
functions of direct and figurative meanings, also the
Belles-lettres style (the style of fiction)
way contextual meaning of a word is realized in the
embraces:1)poetry; 2)drama; 3)emotive prose. B-l
text. L.S. deals with various types of connotations –
style or the style of imaginative literature may be
expressive, evaluative, emotive; neologisms, dialectal
called the richest register of communication: besides
words and their behavior in the text. - Grammatical
its own lan-ge means which are not used in any other
st-s – is subdivided into morphological and
sphere of communication, b-l st. makes ample use of
syntactical. Morph-l s. views stylistic potential of
other styles too, for in numerous works of literary art
gram-l categories of dif-t parts of speech. Potential of
we find elements of scientific, official and other
the number, pronouns…- Syntactical s. studies
functional types of speech. Besides informative and
syntactic, expressive means, word order and word
persuasive functions, also found in other functional
combinations, dif-t types of sentences and types of
styles, the b-l style has a unique task to impress the
syntactic connections. Also deals with origin of the
reader aesthetically. The form becomes meaningful
text, its division on the paragraphs, dialogs, direct
and carries additional info. Boundless possibilities of
and indirect speech, the connection of the sentences,
expressing one's thoughts and feelings make the b-l
types of sentences. - Phonostylistics – phonetical
style a highly attractive field of research for a linguist.
organization of prose and poetic texts. Here are
The belles-lettres style, in each of its concrete
included rhythm, rhythmical structure, rhyme,
representations, fulfils the aesthetic function, which
alliteration, assonance and correlation of the sound
fact singles this style out of others and gives grounds
form and meaning. Also studies deviation in
to recognize its systematic uniqueness, i.e. charges it
normative pronunciation. - Functional S (s. of
with the status if an autonomous functional style.
decoding) – deals with all subdivisions of the
language and its possible use (newspaper, colloquial The Style of Official Documents
style). Its object - correlation of the message and 1) Language of business letters; 2) Language of legal
communicative situation. documents; 3) Language of diplomacy; 4) Language
of military documents; The aim: 1. to reach
Expressive means and stylistic devices
agreement between two contracting parties; 2. to
Stylistics studies the special media of language which
state the conditions binding two parties in an
are called stylistic devices and expressive means.
understanding. Each of substyles of official
Expressive means and stylistic devices form three
documents makes use of special terms. Legal
large groups of phonetic, lexical, syntactical means
documents: military documents, diplomatic
and devices. Each group is further subdivided
documents. The documents use set expressions
according to the principle, purpose and function of a
inherited from early Victorian period. This vocabulary
mean or a device in an utterance. Stylistics studies
is conservative. Legal documents contain a large
the types of texts which are distinguished by the
proportion of formal and archaic words used in their
pragmatic aspect of the communication and are called
dictionary meaning. In diplomatic and legal
functional styles of language. Expressive means
documents many words have Latin and French origin.
of a language are those phonetic, morphological,
There are a lot of abbreviations and conventional
word-building, lexical, phraseological and syntactical
symbols. The most noticeable feature of grammar is
forms which exist in language-as-a-system for the
the compositional pattern. Every document has its
purpose of logical and/or emotional intensification of
own stereotyped form. The form itself is informative
the utterance. These intensifying forms have special
and tells you with what kind of letter we deal with.
functions in making the utterances emphatic. A
Business letters contain: heading, addressing,
stylistic device is a conscious and intentional
salutation, the opening, the body, the closing,
intensification of some typical structural and/or
complimentary clause, the signature. Syntactical
semantic property of a language unit (neutral or
features of business letters are - the predominance of
expressive) promoted to a generalized status and
extended simple and complex sentences, wide use of
thus becoming a generative model. A stylistic device
participial constructions, homogeneous members.
is an abstract pattern, a mould into which any
Morphological peculiarities are passive constructions,
content can be poured.
they make the letters impersonal. There is a
tendency to avoid pronoun reference. Its typical
Newspaper style includes informative materials: news feature is to frame equally important factors and to
in brief, headlines, ads, additional articles. But not divide them by members in order to avoid ambiguity
everything published in the paper can be included in of the wrong interpretation.
N.S. we mean publicist essays, feature articles, Scientific Prose Style
scient. Reviews are not N.S. to attract the readers The style of scientific prose has 3 subdivisions:1) the
attention special means are used by british & am. style of humanitarian sciences; 2) the style of "exact"
Papers ex: specific headlines, space ordering. We find sciences; 3) the style of popular scientific prose. Its
here a large proportion of dates, personal names of function is to work out and ground theoretically
countries, institutions, individuals. To achieve an objective knowledge about reality. The aim of
effect of objectivity in rendering some fact or event communication is to create new concepts, disclose
most of info is published anonymously, without the the international laws of existence. The peculiarities
name of newsman who supplied it, with little or no are: objectiveness; logical coherence, impersonality,
subjective modality. But the position of the paper unemotional character, exactness. The scientific
becomes clear from the choice not only of subj. prose style consists mostly of ordinary words which
matter but also of words denoting international or tend to be used in their primary logical meaning.
domestic issues. Substyles. To understand the Emotiveness depends on the subject of investigation
language peculiarities of English newspaper style it but mostly scientific prose style is unemotional.
will be sufficient to analyze the following basic Grammar: The logical presentation and cohesion of
newspaper features:1) brief news items;2) thought manifests itself in a developed feature of
advertisements and announcements;3) headlines; scientific syntax is the use of established patterns. -
Brief items: its function is to inform the reader. It postulatory; - formulative; - argumentative; The
states only facts without giving comments. The impersonal and objective character of scientific prose
vocabulary used is neutral and common literary. style is revealed in the frequent use of passive
Specific features are: a) special political and constructions, impersonal sentences. Personal
economic terms; b) non-term political vocabulary; c) sentences are more frequently used in exact sciences.
newspaper clichés; d) abbreviations; e) neologisms. In humanities we may come across constructions but
few. Some features of the style in the text are: - use
Publicistic style. (oratory, speeches, essays, of quotations and references; - use of foot-notes
articles) the style is a perfect ex. Of historical helps to preserve the logical coherence of ideas.
changeability of stylistic differentiation of discourses. Scientific popular style has the following peculiarities:
In Greece it was practiced in oral form which was emotive words, elements of colloquial style.
named P. in accordance with the name of its
corresponding genre. PS is famous for its explicit
pragmatic function of persuasion directed at
influencing the reader & shaping his views in
accordance with the argumentation of the author. We
find in PS a blend of the rigorous logical reasoning,
reflecting the objective state of things & a strong
subjectivity reflecting the authors personal feelings
and emotions towards the discussed subject.
Substyles: The oratory essays, journalistic
articles, radio and TV commentary. Oratory. It
makes use of a great hummber of expressive means
to arouse and keep the public's interest: repetition,
The subject of stylistics. Its definition, its
connection with other branches of linguistics.
Stylistics deals with styles. The word style is derived
from the Greek word “stylos”, which means a short
and sharp stick people used to write on wax-covered
tablets. Style is a system of interrelated language
means which serves a definite aim in communication
(Galperin). Style is a selection of non-distinctive
features of language (Bloomfield). Arnold defines
stylistics as a branch of linguistics, investigating the
principles and effect of choice and usage of phonetic,
lexical, grammatical and other language means with
the purpose of transmitting thoughts and emotions in
different circumstances of communication. Stylistics
defined as a branch of general linguistics, which
touches upon expressive means, stylistic devices of
the language, their relations to the idea expressed;
the classification of the existing styles of speech.
They are independent and are studied by definite
branches of stylistics. Thus, the branch that deals
with expressive means and stylistic devices of the
language is called linguo-stylistics. Functional styles
are investigated in functional stylistics.
Expressive means and stylistic devices.
There are 3 main styles of speech: neutral, colloquial,
literary. They possess certain layers of the voc. Un
the act of communication people may employ them to
express their thoughts: ▲ Neutral – My father went
away. Colloquial – My dad go out. Literary – My
beloved parent retired. In linguistics different terms
used to denote particular means of foregrounding of
utterances were accepted: expressive of stylistic
means, stylistic devices, stylistic markers, tropes,
figures of speech. All of them are set against neutral
once, because they carry some additional
information. Purpose: logical and emotional
intensification of the utterance (emotional coloring).
Phonetic expressive means refer pitch of the voice,
stress, melody, intonation, and manner of speech
(most powerful as the human voice can indicate a lot
of nuances). Morphological: derogatory (-er) and
diminutive (-y) suffixes. ▲ Gangster. Syntactical:
inversion, broken sentences, elliptical. Lexical: slang,
vulgarisms, poetic words.
Meaning from stylistic point of view.
In stylistics a word is treated as a phenomenon which
has a potentiality of acquiring new meanings. 3 types
of lexical meanings play a very important part in
different stylistic devices: logical, emotive, nominal.
Logical (1) meaning is a naming of an object or
phenomenon by which we recognize the whole of the
concept. Primary logical meaning is the one most
frequently used, it begins the dictionary article of a
word. Secondary logical meaning is the one derived
from primary. ▲ He is the man of moderate opinions.
“moderate” is realized in its secondary logical
meaning derived from primary one. A word used in
speech acquires an accidental meaning which should
be included into semantic structure of the word it
denotes – contextual (2) meaning. Difference
between (1) and (2) the first one is materialized in
the context, the second is born in the context.
Emotive: has reference to the emotions of the
speaker towards things defined. 2 types of emotive >
permanent, occasional. Nominal meaning denotes
proper and geographical…
Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices
(onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance).
A phoneme has a strong associative and sound-
instrumenting power. Due to its articulatory and
acoustic properties certain ideas, feelings, images are
awaken. It’s vivid in poetry. Onomatopoeia (sound
imitation) is a combination of speech sounds which
imitate sounds produced in nature (wind) by things
(tools), by people (laughing), by animals (barking).
▲ plink, plink, fizz.
Direct onomatopoeia : words which imitate natural
sounds. ▲ buzz. Indirect: combination of sounds
which makes the sound of the utterance an echo of
its sense. ▲ Камыши шуршат в тиши. Alliteration:
repetition of similar consonant sounds in close
succession. ▲ Functional, fashionable, formidable.
Assonance: repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually
in stressed syllables. ▲ Grace, space,pace.
Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices
(euphony, rhyme, rhythm).
A phoneme has a strong associative and sound-
instrumenting power. Due to its articulatory and
acoustic properties certain ideas, feelings, images are
awaken. It’s vivid in poetry. Euphony: produced by
alliteration or assonance. Sense of ease and comfort
in producing or hearing. ▲ Favors unused are favors
abused. Euphony is created by the assonance of the
vowels [ei, u:] and alliteration [zd] frequent in
proverbs. Rhyme: repetition of identical or similar
terminal sounds or sound combinations in words. ▲
One, two, three, four, five. I caught a fish alive.
Assonance of vowel [ai]. Rhythm: complex unit
defined as a regular recurrence of stressed and
unstressed syllables (strong and weak elements)
which determine the meter in poetry or the measured
flow of words in prose.
▲ One, two, three, four. Mary at the cottage door.
Graphical expressive means and stylistic
devices (marks of punctuation, kinds of type).
They include the use of punctuation, graphical
arrangement of phrases, violation of type and
spelling. Marks of punctuation: hyphen, dash,
comma, period (full-stop), colon, semicolon,
exclamation, interrogation, series of dots. They are
used not only for the division of speech into its logical
parts, but also for emphatic purposes which suggest a
definite semantic interpretation of the utterance. ▲
Казнить, нельзя, помиловать. Another group of
graphical means is based on the violation of type:
italics, bold type, capitalization. Not only words but
separate syllables, morphemes may be emphasized
by italics (курсив). Spaced type is also included into
this group of graphical means though it is not so
frequent as italics. ▲ N o w! spaced letters are used
for…
Graphical expressive means and stylistic
devices (graphon, its stylistic function).
Graphical expressive means include the use of
punctuation, graphical arrangement of phrases,
violation of type and spelling. Graphon: the
intentional violation of the generally accepted spelling
used to reflect peculiarities of pronunciation or
emotional state of the speaker. Types of graphon:
multiplication, hyphenation, capitalization,
apostrophe. Functions: - to give the reader an idea
about smth (level of education, emotional state,
origin). – to attract attention. – to make smb
memorize it. – to show smth, explain. Graphical
means are popular with advertisers. They
individualize speech of the character or advertising
slogan. ▲ A better stain getter.▲ How do you spell
relief? R-O-L-I-P-S – to make reader / listener to
remember it.
Metaphor (trite, genuine, prolonged),
personification.
Metaphor is used to denote the transference of
meaning from one word to another, and to designate
the process in which a word acquires a derivative
meaning. Two phenomena of life are brought to mind
by the imposition of some (or all) the properties of
one object on the other, deprived of them. Trite
(fixed) – predictable, fixed in dictionaries. ▲ legs of
the table; winter comes. Genuine: (fresh) unique,
unexpectable. ▲ The house was a white elephant but
he couldn’t conceive of his father in a smaller place. -
describes the size and enigma of the house.
Prolonged: if a sentence contains a group of
metaphors; consists of principal and contributory
images. Metaphors may be prolonged through a
group of other lexical stylistic devices.
Personification: attribution of personal nature or
character to inanimate objects or abstract notions. A
thing is presented as a human being. ▲ I’m the
Daughter of Earth and Water.
Metonymy (trite, genuine), irony.
Metonymy is based on some kind of association
connecting the two concept which the dictionary and
contextual meaning represent. Trite (fixed)
metonymy represents derivative logical meaning of a
word and is fixed in dictionaries. ▲ Nothing comes
between me and my Calvins (Calvin Klein Jeans).
Contextual m. – unexpected substitution of one word
to another. ▲ She married into conversation > very
talkative man. Synecdoche – m. based on the relation
between the part and the whole. ▲ He had five
months to feed. Irony: based on simultaneous
relation of primary dictionary and contextual logical
meanings of a words which stay in opposition to each
other. ▲ It must be delightful to find oneself in a
foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket. It
isn’t logical but evaluative meaning is foreground. It
isn’t humor – not always make humorous effect but
negative.
Epithets (semantic and structural
classification).
Epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of
emotive and logical meanings in an attributive word,
emotionally colored attitude of the speaker to the
object he describes. Semantic class: 1) associated
with the noun it refers and 2) unassociated with it. 1
– refer the mind to the concept due to some quality
of the object it is attached to. ▲ careful attention. 2 –
attributes used to characterize the object by adding a
feature unexpected in it. ▲ heart-burning smile.
Structurally:
Composition
1) simple 2) compound 3) phrase 4) sentence
ordinary adj. are built like is shown is shown by
▲rosy dreams. comp. adj. by phrase. sentence.
▲blue eyed girl ▲ The cat had don’t-
-you-touch-me-or-I’ll-kill
-you expression of his face.
Another structural variety of epithet is called reversed
– two nouns liked in an of-phrase. The evaluating,
emotional element is in the noun described. ▲ A doll
of the baby.
Interaction of logical and emotive meanings
(interjections and exclamatory words).
There are words with the function of arousing
emotions in the reader. In such words emotiveness
prevails over intellectuality. There are also words in
which logical meanings is almost entirely lost. These
words express feelings which have passed trough out
mind. Emotiveness is a category of our minds,
feelings are expressed indirectly. That’s why it is
natural that some emotive words have become
symbols of emotions. Interjections are words which
we use to express our feelings strongly and which
exist in language in the form of conventional symbols
of human emotions. Derivative interjections retain
some degree of logical meaning suppressed by
emotive one. ▲ Hush! Alas! Gosh! These interjections
had once their logical meanings and the shades of
them are presented. Primary interjections. They don’t
have logical meaning. ▲ Oh! Ah! Wow! There are
neutral interjections (bah, oh) and colloquial ones
(well). Exclamatory words – words that don’t lose
their logical meaning and thus function as
interjections. ▲ Heavens! Look out!
Stylistic devices based on polysemantic effect
(zeugma, pun).
The word is the most changeable of all language
units. In the result of the gradual development of the
meaning of the word new meanings appear alongside
the primary one – derivative meanings. All of them
are interconnected with the primary one and create a
network – polysemantic effect. Zeugma is the use of
a word in the same grammatical but different
semantic relations to two adjacent words in the
context, the semantic relations being literal and
transferred. Zeugma always creates a humorous
effect. ▲ Have a Coke and a smile! “Have” is realized
in two different meanings: in the word combination
“have a Coke” it’s direct (literal), in “have a smile” it’s
transferred. Pun – it has a humorous effect which
may be based on misinterpretation of the speaker’s
utterance by the other or by the result of the
speaker’s intended violation of the listener’s
expectation. ▲ When are true words – sweet words?
When they are candid. Pun is also a play on words of
the same sound, it may be based on homonymy,
polysemy.
Oxymoron, antonomasia.
Oxymoron is a combination of 2 words in which the
meanings of the 2 clash, being opposite in sense. ▲
terribly beautiful. One of the two members of
oxymoron illuminates the feature observed while the
other one offers a purely subjective individual
perception of the object. In it the primary logical
meaning of the adj. or adverb is capable of resisting
the power of semantic change which words undergo
in combination. It can be realized in several models:
adj. + noun, adverb + adj. Antonomasia is a stylistic
device based on the interplay between the logical and
nominal meanings of a word realized simultaneously.
It has the purpose of pointing but the leading, most characteristic
or important trait of the person or event, inning it as a proper name
of this person or event. Antonomasia categorizes the person and
indicates both the general and the particular. It gives us information
about the bearer of the name. ▲ Mr. Snake. Antonomasia is
mostly created by nouns, seldom by attributive
combinations or phrases.
Intensification of a certain feature of
phenomenon (simile, hyperbole,
understatement).
The feature of the object which is picked out seems
unimportant and frequently transitory. But for a
special reason it’s elevated to the greatest
importance and made into a telling feature. Simile:
imaginative comparison of two unlike objects which
belong to different classes. It excludes all the
properties of the compared objects except one which
is made common to them. ▲ The girl is like a bird.
Trite simile points out the analogy between the
human being and the animals which have stereotyped
traits of character, states. ▲ As wet as a fish.
Hyperbole: is a deliberate overstatement or
exaggeration of a feature of a thing or phenomenon.
If it is used frequently it may become trite hyperbole.
▲ I’ve told you thousand times! Understatement:
when the quality or quantity is underrated. It is
deliberate underrating of a feature or property of an
object. ▲ Мальчик-с-пальчик. It’s used in Britain in
every-day speech as it symbolizes politeness.
Intensification of a certain feature of
phenomenon (periphrasis, euphemism).
The feature of the object which is picked out seems
unimportant and frequently transitory. But for a
special reason it’s elevated to the greatest
importance and made into a telling feature.
Periphrases: is a process which realizes the power of
language to coin new names for objects by disclosing
some quality of the object. Periphrases is the
renaming of an object by a phrase that brings out
some particular feature of this object. ▲ The ship of
the desert – camel. Language periphrases are trite as
it is seen: ▲ He spoke as the father of the nation.
Speech periphrases is understandable in a particular
context, it is genuine. Euphemism: a word or phrase
used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by
a more acceptable one. ▲ golden-ager – an elderly
person. Dysphemism is quite opposite to
euphemism. ▲ nipper – a young child. Euphemisms
groups: 1) religious 2) moral 3) medical 4)
parliamentary.
Proverbs and sayings.
They are brief statements which show in condensed
form the accumulated life experience of the
community and serving as symbols for abstract ideas.
They are facts of language collected in dictionaries.
There are some features typical for proverbs and
sayings: rhythm, rhyme and /or alliteration/
assonance. ▲ Wealth is nothing without health. In
this proverb the effect of euphony is achieved
through assonance and alliteration, which create
rhyme and rhythm. ▲ It is enough to make a cat
laugh. No pains, no gains. Proverbs and sayings will
never lose their freshness and vigour because they
are revived in their modifications which will be
commented later on.
Epigrams, paradox, allusion.
An epigram is a stylistic device akin to a proverb, the
only difference between them is that epigram is
created by people whose names are well known. They
have a bookish air about them which differs them
from proverbs. They can be fixed in dictionaries. ▲
Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. (J.
Milton) A paradox is a statement which is contrary to
generally accepted opinion, but which expresses
some kind of truth. ▲ Men marry because they are
tired, women – because they are curious. Both are
disappointed. An allusion is an indirect reference, by
word or phrase, to a historical, literary, mythological,
biblical fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the
course of speaking or writing. ▲ It’s no use
pretending that we are Romeo and Juliet. In this
sentence reference to “R and J” achieved by the
repetition of names.
Spans of utterance larger than a sentence
(supra-phrasal unit, paragraph).
It is important to single out certain elements which
constitute any text. Phonemes are the smallest
language units which function within morphemes and
depend on them; morphemes function within words,
words – within sentences. Sentences function in
larger structural elements – supra-phrasal units. They
consist of a number of sentences which are
independent structurally and semantically. Often a
supra-phrasal unit coincides with a paragraph – a
graphical term used to name a group of sentences
marked off by indentation at the beginning and
sometimes a break in the line at the end. A supra-
phrasal unit and a paragraph have much in common:
they both have a topic sentence which shows their
main idea. It may be placed at the beginning, end,
and middle. Paragraph may contain several SPU…
Stylistic inversion, detachment.
Inversion is certain changes in the word order of an
utterance. It can by grammatical and stylistic. The
first one involves the structure of the utterance. It’s a
norm in interrogative constructions. ▲ He is leaving
for London tomorrow morning. – Is he leaving for
London tomorrow? In this example no emphases is
added, so it’s a grammatical inversion. Stylistic
inversion doesn’t change the structural meaning of an
utterance it aims at attaching logical stress or
additional emotional coloring to the meaning of the
utterance. ▲ In shabby shubra lived another people:
to them, and them only he felt related. Detachment is
a variety of stylistic inversion. It takes place when
some secondary parts of the utterance are placed. So
that they seem formally independent of words they
logically refer to. ▲ You weren’t-ever-going to get
out of this… not ever. Detachment of ever wit…
Parallel constructions, chiasmus.
A parallel construction is the stylistic device which
represents identical or similar syntactical structures in
two or more sentences or parts of a sentence. Pure
parallelism depends on the repetition of syntactical
arrangement of the sentence. ▲ He was not
comfortable. He was not happy. These 2 sentences
have identical structure. Parallel construction may be
complete (maintains the principle of identical
structures in the corresponding sentence) and partial
(based on the repetition of some parts of successive
sentences). ▲ I was growing up, he was growing old.
Parallelism may carry the role of semantic equality of
the parts, emotive, uniting functions. Chiasmus
(reversed parallel construction) is a stylistic device
based on the repetition of a syntactical pattern but
with a cross order of word or phrases. ▲ Better a
witty fool than I foolish wit. In this saying chiasmus is
realized through different parts of speech with the
same roots. It’s a syntactical not lexical stylistic
device as…
Repetition (all cases).
Repetition aims at logical emphasis in order to fix the
reader’s attention on the key-words of the utterance.
There are: 1) Anaphora – when the repeated unit
comes at the beginning. ▲ Your cheek, your
gluttony, your obstinacy impose respect on me. 2)
Epiphora – the repeated units is at the end of a
sentence. ▲ To get into the best society one has
either to feed people, amuse people. 3) Framing
repetition – the initial word is repeated at the end of
the unit. ▲ Please don’t tie me down, please. 4)
Linking repetition – the last word of one part is
repeated at the beginning of the following one. ▲ If
you have nothing to say, say it. 5) Chain repetition –
a group of linking repetition used in the same
utterance. ▲ Now he understood. He understood
many things. 6) Synonymic repetition – repetition of
the same idea with the help of synonyms. 7)
Pleonasm – the use of more words than are
necessary. Usually the fault of style. 8) Tautology –
repetition of the same statement. Usually in other
words the fault of style.
Enumeration, suspense.
Enumeration is a stylistic device by which separate
things are named one by one. So that they produce a
chain, the links of which, being syntactically in the
same position, are forced to display some kinds of
semantic homogeneity. It’s frequently used to depict
the scenery through a tourist’s eyes. It units both
homogeneous and heterogeneous objects. If the
united objects are homogeneous, enumeration is not
a stylistic device. Example of simple enumeration: ▲
Kings, emperors, conquerors, pontiffs and all the
other idols are swept away sooner or later. Suspense
is a compositional stylistic device which consists in
arranging the matter of communication in such a way
that the less important, descriptive, subordinate parts
are amassed at the beginning, and the main idea is
withheld till the end of the sentence. ▲ Swinging his
cane (which he found to short) in his left hand (which
he should have cut off long ago since it was
constantly offending him), he began walking slowly
down the avenue. Suspense aim at helping the reader
in uncertainty and expectation, at creating constant
emotional tension.
Climax, anticlimax, antithesis.
Climax (gradation) is a stylistic device representing a
gradual increase in significance, importance or
emotional tension in the utterance. Logical climax – is
based on the relative importance of the component
parts looked at from the point of view of the concepts
embodied in them. ▲ You’re a pig and a beast and a
Bolshevik. Logical climax here implies political view of
the character. Emotional climax is based on the
relative emotional tension produced by words with
emotive meaning. Quantitative climax is an evident
increase in the volume of the corresponding concepts
or simple numerical increase. Anticlimax: is a sudden
drop from the different or important in thought or
expression to the commonplace or trivial, sometimes
for humorous effect. Anticlimax is represented by an
unexpected turn of the thought which ends in
complete semantic reversal of the emphasized idea.
It results in defeated expectancy of the reader.
Antithesis: is based on relative opposition which
arises out of the context trough the expansion of
contrasting pairs. ▲ Every white has its black, and
every sweet its …
Asyndeton, polysyndeton, the gap-sentence
link.
Asyndeton is connection between parts of a sentence
or between sentences without any formal sign. It
becomes a stylistic if there is a deliberate omission of
the connective where it is generally expected to be
according to the norms of the literary language. ▲
The boys all hated him, he was so good. In this
sentence the conjunction “because” is omitted.
Polysyndeton is connection between parts of a
sentence or between sentences by using connectives
(mostly conjunctions and prepositions) before each
component part. ▲ She stirred the fire, and shut the
door, and sat as near to it as she could, quite on the
edge of her chair. Another function of this type is
disintegrating. Gap-sentence link is a way of
connecting two sentences seemingly unconnected
and leaving it to the reader’s imagination to grasp the
idea implied. ▲ She says nothing but it’s clear that
she is harping on this engagement, and …
Ellipsis, break-in-the narrative.
Ellipsis is deliberate omission of at least one member
of the sentence. It is typical in conversation, but in
direct intercourse it’s not a stylistic device, but a
norm of the spoken language. Ellipsis is the basis of
the telegraphic style, which presupposes omission of
connectives and redundant words. A kind of ellipsis, a
construction in which the subject of one sentence is
at the same time the subject of the second, is called
apokoinu construction. ▲ Everyone found him
attractive. It was his temper let him down. The noun
“temper”, being the subject of the first sentence, is
also the subject of second one. Break-in-the narrative
is a stylistic device based on a sudden breaking off in
the midst of a sentence as if from inability for private
communication. ▲ – Martin didn’t shoot himself. –
Martin didn’t - . – Of course, he didn’t. I shoot him.
Expresses the surprise of the character.
Peculiar use of colloquial constructions (uttered
represented speech).
Emotional syntactical structures typical of the spoken
language are often very effectively used by authors to
depict the emotional state of the character. They are
also used in the narrative of the author. Represented
speech is that form of utterance which conveys the
actual words of the speaker through the mouth of the
writer but which retains the peculiarities of the
speaker’s mode of expression. Uttered represented
speech demands that the tense should be switched
from present to past and that the personal pronouns
should be changed from the 1st and 2nd person to 3rd
person as in indirect speech, but the syntactical
structure of the utterance isn’t changed. ▲ Why was
she nervous? What was there about a toy to make
her grow pale? Why should she be so nervous?
uttered represented speech is shown in the Past
Indefinite…
Peculiar use of colloquial constructions
(unuttered represented speech).
Emotional syntactical structures typical of the spoken
language are often very effectively used by authors to
depict the emotional state of the character. They are
also used in the narrative of the author. Represented
speech is that form of utterance which conveys the
actual words of the speaker through the mouth of the
writer but which retains the peculiarities of the
speaker’s mode of expression. Unuttered represented
speech is the thoughts and feelings going on in one’s
mind and reflecting some previous experience. It has
no communicative function and is very fragmentary,
incoherent, isolated and consists of separate units
which hint at the content of the utterance but do not
word it explicitly. This type of represented speech is
often introduced by verbs of mental perception, as
think, feel, wonder, occur, ask, tell oneself,
understand…
Transferred use of structural meaning
(rhetorical question, litotes).
Every syntactical structure has a definite function,
which is also called its structural meaning.
Sometimes syntactical structures are used in
meanings which differ from their usual ones. In this
case a structure assumes a new meaning which is
very much alike a lexical transferred meaning.
Rhetorical question may be defined as an utterance in
the form of a the question which pronounces
judgments and also expresses different kinds of
modal shades of meaning (irony, doubt). ▲ And yet,
where was the Jane Eyre yesterday? Where was her
life? Where were her prospects? Litotes is a stylistic
device which consists of a peculiar use of negative
construction. It’s negation which includes affirmation.
▲ It is not bad; she is not unkind. The function of it:
weaken the effect of the utterance. There is double
negative…
The main peculiarities of belles-lettres style.
Aim: to give possible interpretation of the phenomena
of life. Words in more than one dictionary meaning
genuine imagery, stylistic devices, individual selection
of phonetic, lexical and syntactical means by writer,
colloquial language. The main peculiarities of belles-
lettres style. Belles-lettres style (the style of fiction)
em-braces:1)poetry; 2)drama; 3)emotive prose. B-l
style or the style of imaginative literature may be
called the richest register of communication: besides
its own language means which are not used in any
other sphere of communication, b-l st. makes ample
use of other styles too, for it numerous works of
literary art we find elements of scientific, official and
other functional types of speech. Besides informative
and persuasive functions, also found in other
functional styles, the b-l style has a unique task to
impress the reader aesthetically. The form becomes
meaningful and carries additional info. Boundless
possibilities of expressing one's thoughts and feelings
make the b-l style a highly attractive field of research
for a linguist. The belles-lettres style, in each of its
concrete representations, fulfils the aesthetic
function, which fact singles this style out of others
and gives grounds to recognize its systematic tend to be used in their primary logical meaning.
uniqueness, i.e. charges it with the status if an Emotiveness depends on the subject of investigation
autonomous functional style. but mostly scientific prose style is unemotional.
Grammar: The logical presentation and cohesion of
The main peculiarities of publicistic style. thought manifests itself in a developed feature of
Publicistic style. (oratory, speeches, essays, articles) scientific syntax is the use of established patterns. -
the style is a perfect ex. Of historical change-ability of postulatory; - formulative; - argumentative; The
stylistic differentiation of discourses. In Greece it was impersonal and objective character of scientific prose
practiced in oral form which was named P. in style is revealed in the frequent use of passive
accordance with the name of its corresponding genre. constructions, impersonal sentences. Personal
PS is famous for its explicit pragmatic function of sentences are more frequently used in exact sciences.
persuasion directed at influencing the reader & In humanities we may come across constructions but
shaping his views in accordance with the few. Some features of the style in the text are: - use
argumentation of the author. We find in PS a blend of of quotations and references; - use of foot-notes
the rigor-ous logical reasoning, reflecting the helps to preserve the logical coherence of ideas.
objective state of things & a strong subjectivity Scientific popular style has the following peculiarities:
reflecting the authors personal feelings and emotions emotive words, elements of colloquial style.
towards the discussed subject. Substyles: The oratory
essays, journalistic articles, radio and TV
commentary. Oratory. It makes use of a great
humbler of expressive means to arouse and keep the
public's interest: repetition, gradation, antithesis,
rhetorical questions, emotive words, elements of
colloquial speech. Radio and TV commentary is less
impersonal and more expressive and emotional. The
essay is very subjective and the most colloquial of the
all substyles of the publicistic style. It makes use of
expressive means and tropes. The journalistic articles
are impersonal.

The main peculiarities of newspaper style.

Newspaper style includes informative materials: news
in brief, headlines, ads, additional articles. But not
everything published in the paper can be included in
N.S. we mean publicist essays, feature articles,
scient. Reviews are not N.S. to attract the readers
attention special means are used by British & am.
Papers ex: specific headlines, space ordering. We find
here a large proportion of dates, personal names of
countries, institutions, individuals. To achieve an
effect of objectivity in rendering some fact or event
most of info is published anonymously, without the
name of newsman who supplied it, with little or no
subjective modality. But the position of the paper
becomes clear from the choice not only of subj.
matter but also of words denoting international or
domestic issues. Substyles. To understand the
language peculiarities of English newspaper style it
will be sufficient to analyze the following basic
newspaper features:1) brief news items;2)
advertisements and announcements;3) headlines;
Brief items: its function is to inform the reader. It
states only facts without giving comments. The
vocabulary used is neutral and common literary.
Specific features are: a) special political and
economic terms; b) non-term political vocabulary; c)
newspaper clichés; d) abbreviations; e) neologisms.

The main peculiarities of scientific and official

style.
The Style of Official Documents
1) Language of business letters; 2) Language of legal
documents; 3) Language of diplomacy; 4) Language
of military documents; The aim: 1. to reach
agreement between two contracting parties; 2. to
state the conditions binding two parties in an
understanding. Each of substyles of official
documents makes use of special terms. Legal
documents: military documents, diplomatic
documents. The documents use set expressions
inherited from early Victorian period. This vocabulary
is conservative. Legal documents contain a large
proportion of formal and archaic words used in their
dictionary meaning. In diplomatic and legal
documents many words have Latin and French origin.
There are a lot of abbreviations and conventional
symbols. The most noticeable feature of grammar is
the compositional pattern. Every document has its
own stereotyped form. The form itself is informative
and tells you with what kind of letter we deal with.
Business letters contain: heading, addressing,
salutation, the opening, the body, the closing,
complimentary clause, the signature. Syntactical
features of business letters are - the predominance of
extended simple and complex sentences, wide use of
participial constructions, homogeneous members.
Morphological peculiarities are passive constructions,
they make the letters impersonal. There is a
tendency to avoid pronoun reference. Its typical
feature is to frame equally important factors and to
divide them by members in order to avoid ambiguity
of the wrong interpretation.
Scientific Prose Style
The style of scientific prose has 3 subdivisions:1) the
style of humanitarian sciences; 2) the style of "exact"
sciences; 3) the style of popular scientific prose. Its
function is to work out and ground theoretically
objective knowledge about reality. The aim of
communication is to create new concepts, disclose
the international laws of existence. The peculiarities
are: objectiveness; logical coherence, impersonality,
unemotional character, exactness. The scientific
prose style consists mostly of ordinary words which